Nick’s Picks 01/30/13

FREE DVD GIVEAWAY

We are doing a Free DVD Giveaway! If you are interested in a chance at winning a free copy of The Awakening, Arbitrage, Nancy Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime, 17 Girls, The Excellent Eighties, Walk Fit or HMS Pinafore, it is really easy! All you have to do is send me an email at HoustonMovieGuy@gmail.com. The subject line of the email should read DVD GIVEAWAY. In the body of the email, be sure to put your name, full mailing address and which DVD or Blu-ray you would like. Winners will be selected by random drawing. Best of luck!

THE AWAKENING – Universal

They say, the boy was scared to death. When the death of a child at a boarding school is blamed on a ghost, hoax exposer Florence Cathcart is certain that science and reason can explain it. But the truth she discovers is more terrifying than she could ever imagine, and soon the ghost hunter becomes the hunted. Starring Rebecca Hall (The Town), Dominic West (John Carter) and Imelda Staunton (Harry Potter), The Awakening is a terrifying mystery filled with haunting twists that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

ARBITRAGE – Lionsgate

Dynamic performances by Richard Gere and an all-star cast highlight this riveting, suspense-filled thriller about love, loyalty, and high finance. Robert Miller (Gere) is a New York hedge-fund magnate who appears to have it all – money, power, a loving wife (Susan Sarandon), and a devoted daughter (Brit Marling) working by his side. But behind the gilded walls of his mansion Miller is running on borrowed time, trying to unload his crippled trading company before his frauds are revealed. A deadly error throws Miller’s perfect life into a tailspin, raising the suspicions of a detective (Tim Roth) and threatening the future of his financial empire. As the line blurs bet ween what is right and wrong, legal and criminal, Miller is driven to desperate measures to protect the only thing more precious than his considerable fortune: his family.

NANCY REAGAN: The Role of a Lifetime – PBS

From her early days in Hollywood, to the California governor’s mansion, to the White House, Nancy Reagan was always by Ronald Reagan’s side, advising and protecting him.even during the long, lonely years when he battled and finally lost his fight with Alzheimer’s disease. His agenda was her agenda. Making sure that Reagan was healthy and successful was her number one concern. She balanced his optimism with reality and made sure that his aides translated his broad ideas into policy. While the public saw a traditional First Lady, dressed in designer clothes and redecorating the White House, behind the scenes she was much more involved with personnel and policy issues than the public realized.

17 GIRLS – Strand Releasing

This French film, based on real events that took place in Gloucester, Mass., in 2008, has been relocated to Lorient, a shabby port city on the Brittany coast and the hometown of the filmmakers, who are sisters. The movie takes you inside the dreamy collective mentality of bored, mildly rebellious girls who look with horror at the lives of their mostly working-class parents. A core group makes a pact to have babies simultaneously and bring up their children together. The inner circle widens, and in short order 17 girls are pregnant.

WALK FIT – Mill Creek

Walk Yourself Slim! Burn calories, tone muscles and lose fat! From beginners to advanced walkers, everyone can lose weight and look great with this 4 program collection. Renowned fitness experts David Snivley, Judi Brown, Tracey Staehle and Tamilee Webb (creator, Buns of Steel) will rev- up your heart rate, boost your metabolism and make you sweat with these easy to do, high-energy, cardiovascular workouts.

HMS PINAFORE – PBS

Gilbert and Sullivan’s first blockbuster is among the most crowd-pleasing comic musicals in history loved for its dynamite songs gleefully entertaining story and saucy satire. Filled with Sullivan’s memorable melodies – infused with fresh musical arrangements ranging from big band swing to classic pop – H.M.S. Pinafore is pure joy and sensational entertainment for everyone young or old!

CITADEL – Flatiron

Tommy Cowley is a young father afflicted with chronic agoraphobia since his wife was brutally attacked by a gang of a twisted feral children. Trapped in the dilapidated suburbia of Edenstown, he finds himself terrorized by the same gang, who now seem intent on taking his baby daughter. Torn between the help of an understanding nurse and a vigilante priest, Tommy sets out to learn the nightmarish truth surrounding these hooded children. He also discovers that to be free of his fears, he must finally face the demons of his past and enter the one place that he fears the most-the abandoned tower block known as the Citadel.

ROOTIN TOOTIN WILD WEST – Nickelodeon

Your child’s favorite characters from Bubble Guppies, Team Umizoomi, Dora the Explorer, The Fresh Beat Band, Go, Diego, Go! and The Wonder Pets are all jam-packed into this DVD, with all episodes based around the Wild West!

A HISTORY OF ISRAELI CINEMA – Kino Lorber

Raphael Nadjari s extraordinary two-part documentary weaves together clips from more than 70 years of Israeli film with commentary from filmmakers, scholars and critics including Amos Gitai, Joseph Cedar, Avi Mograbi, Yehuda Ne’eman, Menachem Golan, Moshe Ivgy, Ronit Elkabetz and Zeev Revach. Crafted for both insiders and outsiders, the film traces the evolution of the country s cinema alongside political and social history: part one spans the years 1933 to 1978, covering the overlap between the Zionist struggle to form a state and the propagandistic qualities of revolutionary cinema; part two, the shift to reality-based filmmaking in the late 70s, and the transition from the political films of the 80s to the more personal cinema of today. The most comprehensive and compelling record of the subject ever attempted, Nadjari s film reveals a cinematic national identity that is inextricably linked to the ever-changing emotional reality of the country.

DOWNTON ABBEY: Season Three – PBS

The Great War is over and a long-awaited engagement is on, but all is not tranquil at Downton Abbey as wrenching social changes, romantic intrigues, and personal crises grip the majestic English country estate for a third thrilling season. As other great houses are crippled psychologically and financially in the wake of World War I, Robert, Earl of Grantham, sticks to his duty to maintain Downton more firmly than ever. But in this changing landscape nothing is assured, and could it be that even the war-weary Crawleys must fight a new battle to safeguard their beloved Downton?

DRVING MISS DAISY – Warner

Hoke Colburn sits in the front seat with his hands on the steering wheel but the driver’s seat is behind him. That’s where Miss Daisy sits. She doesn’t want a chauffeur and she won’t give in. Neither will Hoke.Alfred Uhry’s moving Pulitzer Prize-winning play became 1989′s Academy Award-winning Best Picture. Driving Miss Daisy tells of genteel but strong-willed Atlanta matron Daisy (Best Actress Oscar-winner Jessica Tandy) and her patient but equally determined chauffeur Hoke (Morgan Freeman). For two so different they have a lot in common. And the bumpy road they travel leads to the friendship of a lifetime.

FIVE BROKEN CAMERAS – Kino Lorber

An extraordinary work of both cinematic and political activism, 5 Broken Cameras is a deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil’in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements. Shot almost entirely by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who bought his first camera in 2005 to record the birth of his youngest son, the footage was later turned into a galvanizing cinematic experience by co-directors Guy Davidi and Burnat. Structured around the violent destruction of a succession of Burnat’s video cameras, the filmmakers’ collaboration follows one family’s evolution over five years of village turmoil. Burnat watches from behind the lens as olive trees are bulldozed, protests intensify, and lives are lost.

GHOUL – Image

Something ghastly haunts Golgotha Cemetery – an entity of unspeakable evil…and insatiable hunger. It is the summer of 1984, a time that should be full of lazy, carefree days for 12-year-old Timmy (Modern Family’s Nolan Gould) and his two best friends, Doug and Barry. But when a teenaged couple goes missing among the gravestones of the local cemetery, the bloodcurdling legend of a horrific ghoul begins to seem more like reality than myth. As the body count rises, Timmy and his friends are forced to confront their worst fears when they unearth long-buried secrets and unleash not only their personal demons…but also the one lurking underground! Based on the novel by Brian Keene comes GHOUL, a tale of terror about the convergence of monstrous inhumanity and a ravenous, inhuman monster.

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Posted by FortBendStar on Jan 30 2013. Filed under Nick's Picks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.