New to On Demand & DVD Archives - Page 78 of 90

VOD Spotlight: John Cho, Kal Penn and “NPH” make for “A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas”

February 3, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

Put the kiddies to bed and sit down to a movie that skewers one of our most cherished holidays in every way possible. A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas is set six years after the title pair’s escape from Guantanamo Bay. The buds have gone their separate ways — Harold (John Cho) has moved on to marriage and success in a Wall Street firm while Kumar (Kal Penn) is nearly friendless and just getting by in their old apartment. When a package arrives for Harold at his old address, Kumar decides to deliver it in person, setting the stage for […]

VOD Spotlight: Ryan Gosling takes an action-packed “Drive”

January 31, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

It’s no exaggeration to say that Ryan Gosling has hit the A-list in Hollywood, not only among fans but with critics — earning a Golden Globe nomination for The Ides of March and dual nominations from the Broadcast Film Critics Association for Best Acting Ensemble (for Ides) and Best Actor (for Drive). With Drive, he was signed first and picked a director whose work he admired, Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn (Bronson), who has garnered a number of award nominations for his work on Drive. That an adrenaline-charged thriller like Drive, about a Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway […]

VOD Spotlight: “Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star”

January 17, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

Adam Sandler has played some wonderful losers in his career — Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison and Bobby Boucher (The Waterboy), just to name three — and also has a knack for finding others to do the same onscreen. In Bucky Larson, he puts Nick Swardson (Reno 911!), who has worked in a number of other films produced by Sandler’s company Happy Madison Productions, in the role of the dimwitted but likable grocery bagger Bucky Larson. When Larson discovers that his parents were porn stars years before, he heads to Hollywood to follow in their footsteps. “We wanted to make a […]

VOD Spotlight: Taylor Lautner in “Abduction”

January 17, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

The idea for the film Abduction was sparked by a chance comment in a meeting which included screenwriter Shawn Christensen — an idea about a film about a boy who sees himself as a child on a missing persons website. Two months later, Christensen submitted the script. This germ of an idea could have become any number of things, but Christensen had made it a thriller. John Singleton (Boyz n the Hood) signed on to direct, and Taylor Lautner, the brooding werewolf of the Twilight franchise, stars as a teen who learns his entire life was a lie. But when […]

VOD Spotlight: “Courageous” shows importance of fathers in children’s lives

January 17, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

Sherwood Pictures, the production company that created the indie film hits Facing the Giants, and Fireproof, examines the challenges fathers face in Courageous. In the film, four law enforcement officers who dedicate their lives to keeping the streets of their town free of crime are unprepared to deal with their own children who are beginning to drift away from the family. When tragedy strikes, they all must decide if they can become the fathers they strive to be. Courageous has been hailed as the Christian film company’s best movie to date — and one whose message is of utmost importance. […]

VOD Spotlight: Don’t beware George Clooney’s “The Ides of March”

January 17, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

“I don’t want to go show this to Washington. I don’t want them to be taking notes,” says George Clooney of his film The Ides of March. His film, indeed. Clooney cowrote, coproduced, directed and stars in a political thriller about the relationship between a seasoned presidential candidate, who is not above stooping to dirty tricks on the campaign trail, and his idealistic young press secretary (played by Ryan Gosling). Because he is a lifelong Democrat, Clooney chose to make his candidate a Democrat, so the candidate’s flaws would be those of a Democrat. “I suppose, if you’re a Democrat, […]

VOD Spotlight: In “Moneyball,” Brad Pitt takes on baseball economics

January 10, 2012 StayTuned Staff

I’ve never been a huge fan of baseball. I grew up in the era of free agency and the idea that pouring money on the field was the way to win, and that wasn’t particularly interesting to me. And from that perspective, I found the Brad Pitt-produced film Moneyball, adapted from Michael Lewis’ best-selling book, a welcome change from the more typical sentimental Hollywood treatment of the game. Pitt plays Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane. Tired of seeing the star players on his team lured away by ballclubs with bigger budgets, and hamstrung by the A’s own severely limited […]

VOD Spotlight: “Contagion” effectively plays on real-world fears of massive pandemic

January 3, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

As anyone who has been stuffed into those overcrowded sausage-like casings called airplanes can relate, someone coughing on a plane can be more than a bit disturbing, particularly to those heading off on vacation. But what if the infection being circulated was more than just the sniffles or light case of the flu? This is the idea behind the absorbing medical thriller Contagion. The travel required for the filming of director Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant! sparked the idea for this pandemic-themed film, also directed by Soderbergh. During a flight, Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns noted the vulnerability of airplane […]

VOD Spotlight: The lasting impact of “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” on Guillermo del Toro

January 3, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

In 1973, the made-for-TV film Don’t be Afraid of the Dark terrified filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. “For my generation it was the scariest TV movie we ever saw,” del Toro says of the film. “It creeped out my whole family and it stayed on my mind.” The future filmmaker and his siblings used to terrify each other by whispering lines from the movie. Memories of this childhood enthusiasm stayed with him, and one of the first things del Toro did when he arrived in America was to try to get rights to the film, a process that took four years […]

VOD Spotlight: “Final Destination 5” ramps up the tension and special effects in the franchise

December 27, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

Can you cheat Death? This is the question asked and answered in the Final Destination franchise, but the fifth installment offers a new answer and a delicious twist for fans: “Maybe.” In Final Destination 5, a man on the way to a corporate retreat has a premonition that the bridge their bus is crossing is going to collapse. At the first sign of danger, he gets everyone off the bus and to safety, not realizing that none of them are really safe. Producer Craig Perry, who has worked on the franchise since the first film, says of this latest offering, […]