New to On Demand & DVD Archives - Page 80 of 90

VOD Spotlight: “Answers to Nothing” gets simultaneous VOD and theatrical release

December 2, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

The indie film Answers to Nothing, directed by Matthew Leutwyler, who co-wrote the screenplay with Gillian Vigman, will be released in theaters nationwide Dec. 2, but will also be available on Video On Demand if it is not available theatrically in your area. The dramatic mystery film features a notable cast, including Dane Cook, Elizabeth Mitchell, Julie Benz, Zach Gilford and Barbara Hershey. The film screened this fall at the Woodstock Film Festival, and the Hollywood Film Festival. In the film, intertwining stories explore the bad in the best of us, and the good in the worst of us. Against […]

VOD Spotlight: Can Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake capture Hepburn and Tracy magic in “Friends With Benefits”?

December 2, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

Dylan (Justin Timberlake) and Jamie (Mila Kunis) certainly aren’t in a settling-down frame of mind. When New York-based executive recruiter Jamie trains her headhunting skills on luring hotshot LA-based art director Dylan to take a dream job in the Big Apple, they quickly realize what kindred spirits they are. They’ve each been through so many failed relationships that they’re both ready to give up on love and focus on having fun. So when Dylan relocates to New York and the pair start hanging out regularly, they share plenty of laughs over a twin belief that love is a myth propagated […]

VOD Spotlight: “30 Minutes or Less” leaps from the “Black List” to the screen

November 29, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

In the action-comedy 30 Minutes or Less, Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) is a small-town pizza delivery guy whose mundane life collides with the big plans of two wannabe criminal masterminds (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson). The volatile duo kidnaps Nick and forces him to rob a bank. With mere hours to pull off the impossible task, Nick enlists the help of his ex-best friend, Chet (Aziz Ansari). As the clock ticks, the two must deal with the police, hired assassins, flamethrowers and their own tumultuous relationship. For the film, star Eisenberg reunited with his Zombieland director, Ruben Fleischer. For his part, […]

VOD Spotlight: Twenty years, two people, one bittersweet love story in “One Day”

November 29, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

Directed by Lone Scherfig (An Education, Academy Award-nominated for Best Picture), the romantic drama One Day is adapted for the screen by David Nicholls from his bestselling novel of the same name. After one day together – July 15th, 1988, their college graduation – Emma Morley (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter Mayhew (Jim Sturgess, Across the Universe) begin a friendship that will last a lifetime. She is a working-class girl of principle and ambition who dreams of making the world a better place. He is a wealthy charmer who dreams that the world will be his playground. For the next two […]

VOD Spotlight: The latest incarnation of “Conan the Barbarian” keeps the pulp

November 22, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

Ever since being created by Robert E. Howard in a series of fantasy stories published in Weird Tales magazine starting in 1932, Conan the Barbarian has been a fixture in popular culture, and arguably ushered in the beginning of sword-and-sorcery/heroic fantasy fiction, which would spawn everything from The Lord of the Rings to Dungeons & Dragons. Outside of books and magazines, Conan has found himself and his adventures featured in comic books, video games, collectible card games, animated TV series and, probably naturally, in role-playing games. But the majority of audiences are probably familiar with him from his 1980s exploits […]

VOD Spotlight: “Super 8” occupies a welcome space in Spielburbia

November 22, 2011 StayTuned Staff

By Stacey Harrison Follow @ChannelGuideSRH A cinematic valentine of the highest order, Super 8 pays sincere tribute to Steven Spielberg’s lens-flared opuses of the late 1970s and early ’80s while telling a slam-bang story that hits all the right notes. Director J.J. Abrams perfectly captures the somewhat idealized vision of small-town life that made Spielberg movies like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial so resonant, painting a picture of a tight-knit community where the kids live their own lives independent of the adults. In this instance, the group of young teenagers we follow in 1979 Ohio […]

VOD Spotlight: Dominic Cooper with a challenging, multi-role performance in “The Devil’s Double”

November 18, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

The Devil’s Double began as an astonishing autobiographical tale of the same name, written by Latif Yahia, who was ripped from his family and forced to become the fiday (which roughly translates to “bullet catcher”) for Saddam Hussein’s lunatic son Uday. The book was a glimpse into the deeply depraved web of fast cars, endless money, easy women, pure corruption and wanton violence in which Yahia was captive for years. Once producers secured the rights to the book, enlisted screenwriter Michael Thomas (Scandal, Backbeat) to translate the story to film and found a director in Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors), […]

VOD Spotlight: Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts team in “Larry Crowne”

November 15, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

The best films connect with audiences on a visceral level, and the romantic comedy Larry Crowne is no exception. Directed, co-written and starring Tom Hanks, it’s the story of Larry Crowne, a divorced blue-collar worker who is unexpectedly let go from his position at a big box store because he has no college education. He does what anyone with ambition and a bit of courage might do — heads back to school. At his community college, he meets a public speaking professor (Julia Roberts) whose own ambitions have not panned out. He also sheds his gas-guzzling SUV for a scooter […]

VOD Spotlight: Matthew Lewis talks “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2”

November 11, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

By Karl J. Paloucek Follow @ChannelGuideK The Harry Potter gang has truly grown up. It’s been a long and dark road full of magic, peril and more than a little growth — both personal and physical — for the young wizards at Hogwarts. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 presents the final showdown with Voldemort, and — for the unimaginable few reading this who haven’t read the books or seen the film yet — at what can only be described as the most crucial scene in the story, that paragon of not-being-so-sure-of-himself, Neville Longbottom, played by Matthew Lewis […]

VOD Spotlight: A “Change-Up” for Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman

November 8, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

It’s a premise as old as film itself — call it the body switch. And though usually played for laughs, the switch often leads to some interesting revelations. In The Change-Up, two friends — married-with-children lawyer Dave (Jason Bateman) and free-spirited bachelor Mitch (Ryan Reynolds) —spend a night on the town and wake the next morning in each other’s bodies. Each has envied his friend’s life and, as happens in films with this premise, each is in for a rude awakening. The film, written by The Hangover creators Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, does not hold back on crude humor, […]