Nick’s Picks 02/27/13

DVD REVIEWS

FREE DVD GIVEAWAY

We are doing a Free DVD Giveaway! If you are interested in a chance at winning a free copy of The Master, BBC Earth Africa, Storage Wars: Volume 4, Sinister, Escape Fire or Swamp People: Season 3, 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 MASTER – Anchor Bay

A striking portrait of drifters and seekers in post-World War II America, Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master unfolds the journey of a naval veteran (Joaquin Phoenix) who arrives home from war unsettled and uncertain of his future–until he is tantalized by The Cause and its charismatic leader (Philip Seymour Hoffman).

BBC EARTH AFRICA – BBC

Mike Gunton Executive Producer of Life brings his next landmark series to Blu-ray with Africa! This 6-part series will amaze and awe with stunning photography and truly moving stories of survival on the continent with the most diverse animal life anywhere on our planet. Premiering simultaneously in the UK U.S. and Australia it promises to be a worldwide phenomenon on a scale not seen since Planet Earth.

CHRONICLE OF A SUMMER- Criterion

Few films can claim to be as influential to the course of cinema history as Chronicle of a Summer. The fascinating result of a collaboration between filmmaker-anthropologist Jean Rouch (Moi, un noir) and sociologist Edgar Morin, this vanguard work of what Morin would term cinéma verité is a brilliantly conceived and realized sociopolitical diagnosis of the early sixties in France. By simply interviewing a group of Paris residents in the summer of 1960—beginning with the provocative and eternal question “Are you happy?” and expanding to political issues, including the ongoing Algerian War—Rouch and Morin reveal the hopes and dreams of a wide array of people, from artists to factory workers, from an Italian émigré to an African student. Chronicle of a Summer’s penetrative approach gives us a document of a time and place with extraordinary emotional depth.

STORAGE WARS: Volume Four – A&E

Join Darrell, Barry, Jared, Brandy and Dave as they continue their quest for everything interesting in Storage Wars, Volume Four. This program follows the exploits as teams of bidders seek out both seen and unseen value in abandoned or foreclosed on storage units. As the bidding intensifies, so too does the rivalries, the bent egos and the dollar values. This is an incredibly interesting and entertaining program that should not be missed!

SINISTER – Summit

Ten years ago, true crime writer Ellison Oswald made his reputation with a best-selling account of a notorious murder. Now, desperate to replicate success of his first book, he moves his family into a home where the previous occupants were brutally executed and a child disappeared, hoping to find inspiration in the crime scene. In the home, Ellison discovers a cache of terrifying home movies, unwittingly opening the door into a nightmarish mystery.

ESCAPE FIRE – Lionsgate

The award-winning Sundance hit documentary Escape Fire: The Fight to Save American Health Care tackles one of the most pressing issues of our time: how can we save our badly broken healthcare system? Co-directed by Matthew Heineman and Academy Award nominee Susan Froemke, this thought-provoking documentary exposes a U.S. healthcare system designed to profit from disease not health, reward quantity over quality, and promote high-tech over high-touch. Escape Fire interweaves dramatic personal stories with the efforts of leaders battling to transform healthcare at the highest levels of medicine, industry, government, and even the U.S. military.

SWAMP PEOPLE: Season Three – Lionsgate

The Gator Gold Rush is on in Season 3 of Swamp Peopler. With Delta waters and gator prices higher than ever Troy Landry Clint RJ and Jay Paul Junior Edwards his son Willy and many others stalk the Atchafalaya Swamp hunting for the biggest baddest beasts around. From Leo the Lion to Treebreaker to Big Foot monster alpha male gators are in their crosshairs as they battle everything from sweltering heat to outsiders setting lines and tornado-force storms that threaten to shut down gator season altogether. Will these crazed killers prove too much for the gator hunters or will Troy and company cash in big? Will lady swampers Liz and Kristi make their best catch all season or will they barely survive it? And will newcomers Austyn and Blake manage to escape Dead End Bayou? For generations the resilient Cajun people have transcended it all.but as the old Bayou saying goes A gator doesn’t get big by being stupid.

A SIMPLE LIFE – Well Go USA

Roger (Andy Lau) is a successful movie producer. Ah Tao (Deanie Ip) has worked for Roger’s family as a nanny and maid over the course of four generations. When Roger comes home to find Ah Tao’s suffered a severe stroke and is unable to care for herself, he agrees to help her relocate to a nursing home. He wants to help, but fears he’ll fail her. She needs his kindness, but doesn’t want to be a burden. As their roles reverse, he becomes her caregiver, and comes to understand how much she means to him.

CHICKEN WITH PLUMS – Sony

From the Oscar nominated filmmakers of Persepolis, Chicken With Plums is a captivating live-action fairytale. Since his beloved violin was broken, Nasser Ali Khan, one of the most renowned musicians of his day, has lost all taste for life. Finding no instrument worthy of replacing it, he decides to confine himself to bed to await death. As he hopes for its arrival, he plunges into deep reveries, with dreams as melancholic as they are joyous, taking him back to his youth and even to a conversation with Azra, the Angel of Death, who reveals the future of his children. As pieces of the puzzle gradually fit together, the poignant secret of his life comes to light: a wonderful story of love which inspired his genius and his music.

JOSHUA TREE – Shout Factory

It’s high-caliber action from start to finish when exotic car runner Wellman Santee (Dolph Lundgren) goes gunning for his money and running for his life after his partner is killed during a botched heist. Sensational stunts and spectacular special effects push the action into overdrive as he captures a beautiful hostage (Kristian Alfonso) and takes off across the desert in a high-speed chase. Six thousand square miles of sand and dozens of turbo-charged super cars set the stage for a bloody, bullet-riddled showdown with a ruthless killer.

THE SESSIONS – Fox

Paralyzed and confined to an iron lung since childhood, poet-journalist Mark O’Brien (Hawkes) has overcome adversity time and time again. But now, at age 38, he faces his toughest challenge yet: losing his virginity. With the help of a beautiful therapist (Hunt), a sympathetic priest (Macy), and his own unbridled sense of optimism and humor, Mark embarks on an extraordinary personal journey to discover the wondrous pleasures that make life worth living.

THE TERMINATOR – Fox

In this newly remastered film, Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as the most fierce and relentless killing machine ever to threaten the survival of mankind! An indestructible cyborg – a Terminator (Schwarzenegger) – is sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the woman whose unborn son will become humanity’s only hope in a future war against machines. This legendary sci-fi thriller from pioneering writer/director James Cameron, written with Gale Anne Hurd, fires an arsenal of action and heart-stopping suspense that never lets up!

THE LONELIEST PLANET – IFC

Alex (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Nica (Hani Furstenberg) are young, in love and engaged to be married. The summer before their wedding, while backpacking in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia, they hire a local guide to lead them on a camping trek. Venturing into the stunning wilderness, the trio’s peaceful adventure takes a dark turn as a subtle rift opens between Alex and Nica, quickly widening until it threatens to undo everything the couple believed about each other and themselves. Along with their ever-present guide, the young travelers find themselves journeying not only into a landscape that’s both overwhelmingly open and frighteningly closed, but also into the farthest depths of their own understanding. A unique examination of the parameters of love, The Loneliest Planet is a tale of betrayal, identity, failure, and the ambiguities of forgiveness.

JEDI JUNKIES – Cinedigm

Jedi Junkies is a one-of-a-kind feature film about the world’s most dedicated Star Wars fans. From lightsaber-wielding martial artists to a filmmaker who built the world s only life-size Millennium Falcon, the film offers viewers a rare glimpse into extreme fans personal and professional self-expression. Featuring the perspectives of celebrity insiders including Olivia Munn (Attack of the Show), Phantom Menace actor Ray Park (Darth Maul) and Blair Witch Project director Ed Sanchez, Jedi Junkies will change the way you look at fandom and Star Wars forever.

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Posted by FortBendStar on Feb 27 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.