SCREENS

Halloween II: Collector’s Edition

Halloween III: Season of the Witch 30^th Anniversary Special Collector’s Edition

After the success of 1978′s Halloween, which pretty much jump-started the whole slasher-pic craze in the U.S., it was only a matter of time before some of the original’s cast and crew got back together for a sequel. John Carpenter co-wrote the 1981 followup; Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasance, the only two stars left alive after Michael Myers’ rampage in the first movie, return. By 1982′s dismal but kinda interesting Halloween III: Season of the Witch, no one cared enough to do it again. These two new DVDs – out this week as part of a new horror and sci-fi series from Shout! Factory – pile on the extras, including commentary by the filmmakers, documentaries about the making of the movies, and various trailers. Best of all, Halloween II features the deleted scenes and alternate ending that showed up on some television prints. Lock the doors and settle in.

The Master

Director Paul Thomas Anderson (the son of Ghoulardi, which, as Clevelanders, we’re required to point out) has explored the cult of personality before, most prominently with Tom Cruise’s misogynist motivational speaker in Magnolia. In his latest movie, he takes on Scientology. We have a strong feeling this one will be showing up on our Top 10 list at the end of the year. It opens at the Cedar Lee and Capitol theatres on Friday.

The Cabin in the Woods

You weren’t expecting a typical horror film from writer Joss Whedon and director Drew Goddard, were you? The geek team (individually tied to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lost, The Avengers, and Cloverfield) reinvent the slasher pic in this mind-blowing movie, out on home video this week, about a group of kids whose weekend at a remote cabin turns deadly. Trust us, you have no idea where this one is heading.

Nobody Else But You

In this French comedy/murder mystery, a popular crime novelist looks into the death of a young model/cheese spokeswoman who thought she was the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe. Fans of the Coen Brothers and David Lynch’s twisted narratives will spot some familiar devices at play here. The movie makes its Cleveland premiere at the Cinematheque at 8:45 p.m. on Thursday and at 7:15 p.m. on Saturday.

Haven

Syfy’s spooky TV show, which is based on a Stephen King story, returns for its third season at 10 p.m. on Friday. And while it never tops the programs it borrows from (The X-Files is the most obvious, but fans of supernatural series will notice others), there’s still plenty of mystery and malice brewing in a troubled small town that isn’t what it appears to be. The season premiere jumps right in where things left off last year.

 

Trouble With the Curve

Fresh from his costarring appearance with an empty chair at the Republican National Convention last month, Clint Eastwood returns to the big screen for the first time in four years as a grizzled (duh) baseball scout who doesn’t see so good these days. The good news: His estranged daughter, played by Amy Adams, comes to the rescue. The bad news: Justin Timberlake plays a rival scout. The movie opens on Friday.

 

Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures

Is it too early to make up your holiday wish list? This terrific box includes the Blu-ray debuts of the first three Indiana Jones movies – including 1981′s Raiders of the Lost Ark and the almost-as-awesome 1989 outing Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade – as well as 2008′s Crystal Skull and two full discs of bonus features, like new documentaries. And yes, the remastered movies – especially the original Raiders – look great in HD.

SCREENS

Spirited Away: Seven Films by Hayao Miyazaki

The Cinematheque is launching a two-month film festival this weekend that you’ll want to clear your calendar for. The seven films on the schedule by director/animator Hayao Miyazaki rank among the all-time best animated movies ever made (hell, we’d put them right up there with live-action movies too). Miyazaki is sorta like a Japanese Walt Disney, but more poetic and less cloying. The original Japanese-language films (not the crappy dubs) include his 1984 breakthroughNausicaä of the Valley of the Wind up to 2001′s Spirited Away, his best film. Castle in the Sky, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, and Princess Mononoke are also on the schedule. It all kicks off this weekend with My Neighbor Totoro, which shows at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, 9:40 p.m. on Saturday, and 6:30 p.m. on Sunday. Miyazaki films run through the end of October at the Cinematheque.

Snow White and the Huntsman

Forget all the recent breaking news about the extracurricular stuff that happened between this movie’s director and star. The real reason to see this update of the Snow White story – which comes out on home video this week – is for Charlize Theron’s performance as a mad, screaming queen. She tears through every scene she’s in with equal blasts of castle-high camp and what-the-fuck viciousness. Kristen Stewart’s warrior princess is no match.

The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Third Season

We hear ya: It’s tough keeping all these vampire shows straight. This is the one starring the dude who was in Lost for one season and is more teen-oriented than, say, True Blood. And since it’s based on a book series, it plays around with more Twilight-like scope than some of its peers. All 22 episodes of season three come to home video this week along with a primer on all the vampires, witches, and werewolves stalking around.

Finding Nemo 3D

You could say it’s a pretty dead week for new films when the biggest thing to get excited about is a re-release of a movie that originally came out in 2003. But Finding Nemo is no ordinary movie – it’s one of Pixar’s best and most timeless CGI hits. We’re not all that into the whole 3D-reissue thing, but any chance to see this classic on the big screen again is OK with us. It returns Friday at a multiplex near you.

Your Sister’s Sister

This indie hit, which comes out on home video this week, isn’t the best of the 377 movies Mark Duplass stars in this year. But it is one of his most charming. He plays a downbeat dude still broken over the death of his brother. So he retreats to a gal pal’s cabin for a weekend, where he drunkenly hooks up with her sister. Wouldn’t be so bad if he hasn’t crushed on his friend for, like, ever. Talky, funny, and deeper than you think.

The Evil Dead

Cleveland Cinemas’ Late Shift mix of cult classics (The Big Lebowski), comfort faves (Home Alone), and horror films is the perfect midnight snack. They’re gearing up for next month’s 12 Hours of Terror marathon with a screening this weekend of Sam Raimi’s 1981 classic about a group of friends, a cabin in the woods, and a whole bunch of unleashed hell. It shows at midnight Saturday at the Plaza Cinemas at Chapel Hill in Cuyahoga Falls.

Airport

The 100^th-anniversary Blu-rays Universal has been rolling out this year have been stuffed with classics both ancient (All Quiet on the Western Front) and kinda new (Sixteen Candles). And then there’s this star-packed 1970 disaster-movie pioneer about a massive snowstorm troubling a Chicago airport and the skies above it. Dean Martin plays a pilot; Airplane! made fun of it. And it’s now available on HD home video.

SCREENS

The Office: Season Eight

This long-running NBC show (well, long-running for NBC at least) took some hits last season, most crucially Steve Carell’s departure. The office-manager musical chairs – mostly occupied by the always reliable Ed Helms, but James Spader’s run as a corporate suit was nutso inspired – filled many of the eighth season’s plots. But there was still plenty to like in the two dozen episodes out on home video this week, especially the interplay among the ensemble, one of TV’s best when they’re given the opportunity. Too bad too many of the episodes seemed recycled. Enjoy it while you can: The upcoming ninth season doesn’t offer much hope. The five DVD and Blu-ray discs come with a bunch of extras, including deleted and extended scenes, as well the weekly webisodes, which sometimes are way funnier than the programs they’re supposedly supporting.

Searching for Sugar Man

Obscure singer-songwriter Sixto Rodriguez disappeared after releasing a pair of little-heard albums in the early 1970s. About a decade ago, some South Africans rediscovered his music, and before long the Detroit native had become modern-day hipsters’ favorite lost cult hero. This documentary takes a look at Rodriguez’s winding story, which is as inspiring as it is frustrating. It opens Friday at the Cedar Lee Theatre.

Celine and Julie Go Boating

Fans of David Lynch’s colossal mindfuck Mulholland Dr. will find lots to love in this 1974 French film, which the Cinematheque is showing this week in a new 35mm print. Two women swap personalities and then slip into another sort of reality that’s long on heightened melodrama. The movie clocks in at more than three hours, so settle in. It’s showing at the Cinematheque at 6:45 p.m. on Thursday and at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.

Safe

British badass Jason Statham plays an ex-cop who used to be an MMA cage wrestler before he pissed off the Russian mob. After they kill his family, he’s on the run and out for vengeance. Oh yeah, he’s also protecting a 12-year-old girl marked by the Chinese mob. Confused yet? At least there are some amazing action scenes to clear your head of all the questions you’ll have. The movie comes to home video this week.

The Words

Now that the summer blockbuster season is officially over, we’re looking at a couple months of mostly meh multiplex movies before Oscar hopefuls are trotted out. This one is a bit more ambitious than most. Bradley Cooper plays a writer who finds an abandoned manuscript, passes it off as his own work, and then faces a shit storm of consequences. Olivia Wilde, Zoe Saldana, and Dennis Quaid co-star. It opens Friday.

Mad Monster Party

Did you know that Rankin/Bass, the animation studio behind the holiday classics Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town, made a feature-length movie in 1967 with Frankenstein, Dracula, and a werewolf that starred the Frankenstein monster himself, Boris Karloff? The stop-motion sleeper makes its Blu-ray debut this week in a combo pack that includes behind-the-scenes extras.

Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein

Universal’s great year-long 100^th anniversary celebration continues with the Blu-ray debut of the venerable comedy team’s best movie, a 1948 hit that pairs the duo with the studio’s even more popular monsters. The Wolf Man, Dracula, and Frankenstein’s monster all show up; best of all, Lon Chaney Jr. and Bela Lugosi reprise their most famous roles. Extras include a look at Abbott & Costello’s run-in with other monsters over the years.

SCREENS

The Imposter

How’s this for a slice of messed-up real life? Thirteen-year-old Nicholas Barclay disappeared from his Texas home in 1994. Three years later, in Spain, 23-year-old Frenchman Frederic Bourdin claimed he was the missing kid. And a lotta people – including everyone in Nicholas’ family – believed him. This gripping documentary – which pulls together new interviews, reenactments, and archival footage – poses some disturbing questions, like: Why was the Barclay family so willing to believe this guy was their son, when others – including an FBI agent and private investigator – had their doubts? What did they know about Nicholas’ disappearance, and what were they hiding? But this is Bourdin’s story too, and he tells it with a disarming straightforwardness. He says he just wanted a second chance at life. Mesmerizing. It opens Friday at the Capitol Theatre.

 

The Walking Dead: The Complete Second Season

Don’t think for a minute that you know where this great show is heading. Even fans of the comic book were knocked out by the second season of this zombie series, which picked up the pace and shoved aside expectations. Here’s your chance to catch up: Thirteen more episodes come to home video this week, and they pile on the dread. The behind-the-scenes extras add little — read the comics if you want more insight.

Harvey

What is it with big-ass bunnies in the movies? A menacing man-size rabbit advises Donnie Darko‘s time-traveling protagonist. And what about the gun-toting one in the gangster pic Sexy Beast? This 1950 classic – starring James Stewart as a man whose best friend is an imaginary six-foot rabbit – is the grandaddy of big-bunny movies. It makes its Blu-ray debut this week as part of Universal’s great 100^th anniversary deluxe sets.

Sophie’s Choice

The Cinematheque wraps up its excellent “Universal Pictures at 100” series with the 1982 heartbreaker that earned Meryl Streep her first Best Actress Oscar. The film is framed by a love story between Streep’s concentration-camp survivor and her Holocaust-obsessed lover. But the heart of this movie is the flashback scenes. Sophie’s “choice” still stings. It shows at 8:45 p.m. Saturday and 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the Cinematheque.

Quadrophenia

The Who’s 1973 rock opera makes a better album than movie. But this 1979 film (out on Blu-ray this week from Criterion) manages to stretch out the narrative of Pete Townshend’s story about a teen coming of age in 1960s London. The Who’s music provides much of the soundtrack, but other ’60s classics also show up. Extras include a bunch of behind-the-scenes photos and footage, and commentary by the director.

Battleship

They said a big-budget action movie based on a popular board game would never work. They said it was a stupid idea. They said, “What’s next? Yahtzee?” And yes, the big-screen version of Battleship (which is out on home video this week) is a loud, obnoxious mess. But so were two of the Transformers movies. At least the military-vs.-space-aliens story provides some ass-rattling special effects for pyrotechnics fans.

Boardwalk Empire: The Complete Second Season

The second season of HBO’s New Jersey-set Prohibition series starring Steve Buscemi doesn’t pack as many thrills as the first, but it’s still one of TV’s most gripping hours. All 12 episodes come to home video this week, with helpful extras like character profiles, story recaps, and a look back at the era that inspired the show. Be sure you make it to the penultimate episode, one of the series’ best and most crucial.

SCREENS

A Separation

Last year’s best movie comes to home video this week – the perfect medium for Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s excellent divorce drama. But don’t let the words “divorce drama” deceive you; A Separation aims way bigger than they let on. Simin (Leila Hatami) wants to leave Iran so that her preteen daughter can live a less constricting life; Nader (Peyman Moadi) wants to stay to take care of his Alzheimer’s-stricken father. One thing leads to another, and soon Nader is accused of killing a hired help’s unborn baby. That’s just part of this winding tale told with multiple viewpoints and genuine suspense. Not much is resolved in the end, as lives are broken apart piece by piece. Farhadi – who frames the film more tightly than any other that came out in 2011 – doesn’t take sides: Everyone is right, and everyone is wrong. Movies don’t get any more real than that.

 

Celeste and Jesse Forever

Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg play childhood friends who married six years ago and are now about to get divorced. Only thing, they’re still the best of friends, laughing, joking, and getting along way better than most married couples do. So what’s up? The always-reliable Jones also co-wrote the script, which is way smarter than your usual romantic comedy. The movie opens Friday at the Cedar Lee Theatre.

The Hunger Games

One of the year’s biggest and best movies comes to home video this week, so if you’re wondering what the big deal is with this futuristic world where kid vs. kid in a survival death match, here’s your chance to find out. There are more than three hours’ worth of extras; the best of them explore the differences between the movie and the book, if you’re into that sorta thing. If not, sit back and lose yourself in the fantasy.

Turn Me On, Dammit!

A 15-year-old girl from Norway gets all horned up by practically everyone she meets. So she spends her days masturbating and thinking about getting it on with some dude in the church choir. It’s basically a coming-of-age story that plays out a lot lot like your typical hormone-fueled teenager’s average day. Norwegian wood, indeed. The Cinematheque is showing the movie at 9:15 p.m. on Friday and at 7:20 p.m. on Saturday.

Good Will Hunting: 15^th Anniversary Edition

Let’s count this movie’s achievements: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were crowned Hollywood’s Golden Boys after they wrote and starred in the 1997 Oscar winner. It’s the most accessible movie of director Gus Van Sant’s career. And even Robin Williams – who plays a psychologist guiding Damon’s troubled math genius through life – turns down the Robin Williams stuff. The new Blu-ray includes a recent get-together from cast and crew.

Bernie

Jack Black plays a small-town funeral director who cozies up to and then kills local bitch Shirley MacLaine in Richard Linklater’s latest movie, a dark comedy based on a true story. Black has rarely been this human onscreen, and it’s nice to have Linklater back focusing on narrative rather than style. Though having some of the real-life townsfolk comment on the action is an inspired touch. It’s out on home video this week.

The Adventures of Tintin Season Three

It’s a shame that this animated TV series from Canada never got much of a chance in the U.S. It certainly gets way closer to Hergé‘s original groundbreaking comics than the big-screen version Steven Spielberg directed last year. The third and final season of the ’90s show comes to home video this week, gathering 13 episodes, almost all of them two-part stories that build plot, characters, and a sense of danger around every corner.

SCREENS

Jaws

Universal’s 100^th anniversary celebration has been a boon for movie fans. The first half of the year delivered special-edition Blu-rays of classic movies like To Kill a Mockingbird, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Deer Hunter, and The Sting. This week, one of the studio’s all-time best – and the movie that kicked off the whole summer-blockbuster thing back in 1975 – finally comes to Blu-ray in a stunning package. The movie itself holds up on so many levels: a thriller, an action pic, a horror movie, and the sort of audience-pleasing filmmaking that Steven Spielberg launched here. The set comes with a bunch of extras (more than four hours, in fact), like deleted scenes, documentaries about the making of the movie and its legacy, and an archive of photos, posters, and trailers. Plus, the HD restoration brings the blood and guts to the surface.

The Expendables 2

The body count in the original Expendables, which came out two years ago, clocked in somewhere around 8,000 or so. Expect even more blood and limbless bodies in the sequel, which opens on Friday. Sylvester Stallone once again leads a pack of ’80s action heroes (including Jet Li and Dolph Lundgren) on a mission to kick some major ass. Jean-Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris join the party this time.

The Royal Tenenbaums

Wes Anderson’s 2001 film, the followup to his breakthrough Rushmore, remains his most Wes Anderson-like, and funniest, movie. Gene Hackman plays the estranged head of a messed-up family who returns to make some peace. The movie makes its Blu-ray debut this week in a terrific Criterion set loaded with extras like outtakes, commentary by Anderson, and interviews with stars Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Bill Murray.

Quill: The Life of a Guide Dog

This Japanese movie about a seeing-eye dog has been kicking around overseas since 2004, but it’s just now rolling out across the U.S. It’s basically the story of a cute little lab puppy who grows up to be a guide for a cranky blind dude who wants nothing to do with the dog. Do you think he’ll be won over in the end? Find out when the film plays at the Cinematheque at 5:30 p.m. on Friday and at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

Dexter: The Complete Sixth Season

The latest season of our favorite TV show about a not totally unlikable serial killer comes to home video this week. It’s not exactly the series’ best season, since the shock and rhythm have worn off a bit since its debut. The three-disc Blu-ray and four-disc DVD sets include all 12 episodes plus extras that pretty much amount to interviews with the show’s stars Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter, and Colin Hanks.

Sparkle

Whitney Houston completed her role in this musical drama, a remake of a 1976 movie, just a few weeks before she died. She plays the stage mother of three sisters who make it big in the ’60s as a Motown-style group. Jordin Sparks plays the diva hogging the spotlight. Cee Lo Green also stars. Director Salim Akil’s previous movie was the awful Jumping the Broom. At least the soundtrack should be better this time. It opens Friday.

The Raid: Redemption

This orgy of bullets, blood, and martial arts from Indonesia goes so over the top at times, it’s hard to tell if it’s a joke. But the crime thriller, which comes to home video this week, is the real deal: a heart-pumping action film that never lets up. A police team storms an apartment building to bring a ruthless drug lord to justice, but the tables are turned when the thugs trap the outnumbered and under-armed good guys. Killer stuff. 

SCREENS

Hope Springs

Steve Carell counsels Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones through their 30-year-old marriage, which predictably has hit a few bumps. Some small-town locals show up for support, but this is mostly the stars’ gripe and grope session. And there are plenty of problems to get through, starting with, but not limited to, the usual bedroom ones. Carell’s doc suggests solutions – some work (holding each other through the night proves easy enough), some don’t (Streep tries to goes down on Jones in a movie theater with disastrous results). Every summer, a movie like this is released to give grownups a reprieve from all of the superheroes and explosive 3D extravaganzas clogging the multiplex. At least this one has a terrific cast anchoring it, even if, like a 30-year-old marriage, it hits some predictable bumps. Your mom’s favorite new movie opens this week.

Full Metal Jacket: 25^th Anniversary Blu-ray Book

Stanley Kubrick’s look at the Vietnam War chronicles young recruits’ training before throwing them into the middle of a bloody battle. Which is more harrowing? The 25^th anniversary set out this week includes extras like commentary by stars Adam Baldwin, Vincent D’Onofrio, and R. Lee Ermey, plus a documentary about the director, who put his cast through another kind of hell as they were making this timeless classic.

The Bourne Legacy

Sadly, there’s no Matt Damon in the fourth Jason Bourne movie. But director Tony Gilroy wrote the others, and star Jeremy Renner earned his action-star medal in the terrific Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol and the even more terrific Avengers. So yeah, we’re excited to see what the shadowy CIA pricks who made life hell for Damon have in store for Renner. Here’s hoping it involves lots of explosions. It opens Friday.

The Lorax

One of Dr. Seuss’ most endearing stories isn’t the home run you hoped for in this CGI blockbuster featuring the voices of Danny DeVito, Ed Helms, and, um, Zac Efron. But it comes from the same people who made Despicable Me, so it’s not all cute-and-cuddly fluff either. There’s no escaping the green message at the center of the movie – which is out on home video this week – but that’s the point. It looks great too, so go for HD.

The Campaign

Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis star as sparring North Carolina presidential hopefuls in this new movie opening Friday. That’s the good news. Director Jay Roach is responsible for the Meet the Parents and Austin Powers movies. That’s the bad news. But we’d watch these two comedy heavyweights play ping-pong, so baby-kissing and shit-talking offer way more opportunities for them to mix things up.

Whores’ Glory

Austrian documentary filmmaker Michael Glowagger has already made movies about big-city living and the plight of the working class across the globe. The final chapter of his trilogy takes a look at prostitution in three different parts of the world. The focus may be on individual women, but their stories, not so surprisingly, are frighteningly similar. It shows at the Cinematheque at 7:25 p.m. on Friday and at 9:10 p.m. on Saturday.

Spaceballs: 25^th Anniversary Edition

Before Family Guy and Robot Chicken took on the Star Wars universe, this 1987 Mel Brooks-helmed parody was the best one out there. It makes its Blu-ray debut this week in an extras-stuffed set that includes commentary by the director, a bunch of outtakes, and a new feature on the making of the movie. Some of Brooks’ gags fall flat (he crams so many of them into every scene, it’s bound to happen), but Pizza the Hut is still hilarious.

SCREENS

Total Recall: Mind-Bending Edition

Just in time for the sorta-remake hitting theaters on Friday (see below), the original movie version of Philip K. Dick’s short story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” finally makes its Blu-ray debut. Director Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 followup to RoboCop stars Arnold Schwarzenegger in one of his best movies (only the first two Terminators and Predator are better) as a working-class dude whose virtual memories of Mars turn deadly when it turns out he may not be who he thinks he is. Even wife Sharon Stone turns on him. At times the movie plays like a standard ’90s action pic, but it’s brainier than most of the star’s blockbusters from the era. This new Mind-Bending Edition contains lots of behind-the-scenes extras, like an interview with Verhoeven, commentary by Schwarzenegger, and a look at the movie’s Oscar-winning special effects.

Neil Young Journeys

Jonathan Demme’s third Neil Young movie in six years once again juggles interviews and concert footage. This one comes from Young’s 2011 solo stop at Toronto’s Massey Hall, the hometown venue where the singer-songwriter honed his chops in the early days. It’s a laid-back set – more “I Believe in You” than “Cortez the Killer” – focusing on 2010′s Le Noise. It opens at the Cedar Lee Theatre on Friday.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: XXIV

The latest four-DVD box from the ’90s cult TV show comes out this week, and like most of the sets, it’s half good-bad and half bad-bad. The robots and their human pal skewer the crappy movies they (and we) watch with tons of smart-ass quips and pop culture references, at their best on the cheap fantasies The Sword and the Dragon and Samson vs. the Vampire Women. The Fugitive Alien movies aren’t as much fun.

La Grande Illusion

One of the greatest movies ever made comes to Blu-ray this week. And while Jean Renoir’s 1937 film shows its age at times, the story is timeless: A group of disparate French soldiers in a World War I prison camp plan their escape from a seemingly inescapable situation. Best bonus features are a pair of historical appreciations filled with insight, perception, and admiration. Basically, they tell you why it’s so damn good.

One Potato, Two Potato

Bronx-born director Larry Peerce — who later made Goodbye, Columbus and Two-Minute Warning – shot his first movie in Painesville with little money and less star power. But his 1964 drama about an interracial marriage was the first to seriously explore the subject and remains a daring effort of ’60s independent film. Peerce will field your questions after the movie’s 5:30 p.m. screening at the Cinematheque on Saturday.

Le Havre

Director Aki Kaurismäki’s latest movie comes to home video this week in a typically elegant Blu-ray set from Criterion. The 2011 movie plays like one of Charlie Chaplin’s silent classics, combining equal doses of comedy and sentimentality as an old shoe-shiner takes in a young African refugee stranded in a French harbor town. Extras include footage and interviews from last year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered.

Total Recall

Not a complete remake of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1990 sci-fi hit (see above), this new take on Philip K. Dick’s short story – which opens in multiplexes on Friday – stars Colin Farrell as a factory worker who learns that his memories may not be totally his own. Kate Beckinsale and Bryan Cranston costar in this future-shock political thriller directed by the guy who made all of those crappy Underworld movies you didn’t see.

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Pillow Talk

The Capitol Theatre’s monthly “Sunday Classics” series gets all cute and fluffy this week with the colorful 1959 romantic comedy starring Rock Hudson and Doris Day. Of course we now have 50-plus years of movie history and knowledge of Hudson’s personal life to set this downy piece of old-school Hollywood into a different perspective. But that doesn’t take away the timeless charm and funny set pieces, much of the latter supplied by costars Tony Randall and Thelma Ritter. Hudson plays a famous womanizer who hogs the phone line he shares with an interior decorator played by Day (yes, people used to share phone lines before technology made life tolerable). Needless to say, they don’t get along. Through a plot more twisted than one of those old telephone cords that so easily tangled, they end up together. It screens at 10 a.m. at the Capitol.

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season One

The first season of the second-best Star Trek series (we’ll always go with the original, so don’t even try to change our mind) finally comes to Blu-ray this week. In addition to the 26 episodes collected here, the six-disc box includes tons of extras, some of it brand-new, to help celebrate the show’s 25^th anniversary. Best are the behind-the-scenes features and production info that bring the space opera back to Earth.

Spec Ops: The Line

Remember that part in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 where you had to make a choice whether or not to gun down innocent people? This video game has a whole bunch of those kinda moments. In a way, it’s like a typical military shooter, but there are moral decisions for you to make along the way, so you can’t just spray-paint every room you walk into. Every move you make affects how your game will play. Smart story too.

The Watch

Talk about bad timing. This comedy – starring Jonah Hill, Ben Stiller, and Vince Vaughn – about a neighborhood vigilante group taking care of business is a hard sell in light of what happened in Miami with that trigger-happy dude and the kid in a hoodie … even if space aliens are involved. But director Akiva Schaffer is part of the Lonely Island crew, and they made Michael Bolton funny. So maybe it’s OK after all. It opens Friday.

Silent House

Elizabeth Olsen (Mary-Kate and Ashley’s little sister) follows her breakthrough role in Martha Marcy May Marlene with this thriller about a young woman who gets trapped in her family’s broken-down old lake house. It doesn’t take long for some scary shit to happen. The filmmakers were behind the 2003 slow-burning shark movie Open Water, so there are some genuine, if blurry, scares here. It’s out on home video this week.

The Good Shepherd

Robert De Niro’s second movie as director (following the more popular A Bronx Tale) screens as part of the Cinematheque’s “Universal Pictures at 100” series. The neglected 2006 epic – which stars De Niro, Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, and Alec Baldwin – takes a look at one man’s rise and fall within the CIA over three decades. Think of it as Damon’s prep work for Bourne. It screens at the Cinematheque at 6:45 p.m. Thursday.

Metropolitan

A pair of Whit Stillman movies (including The Last Days of Disco) make their Blu-ray debuts this week in royal Criterion sets. The writer-director’s 1990 debut remains his best work, a smart, sharp, and caustic look at upper-class snobs whose lives are shaken up by a guy who’s decidedly less uptight. Bonus features include commentary by Stillman and star Chris Eigeman, and outtakes featuring alternate cast members.

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Beasts of the Southern Wild

Six-year-old Hushpuppy (played by newcomer Quvenzhané Wallis) lives through a lot in this terrific indie fable from first-time director Benh Zeitlin: a hurricane, poverty, no mom, a drunken and occasionally abusive father, and massive prehistoric animals that roam the post-Katrina bayou that Hushpuppy, her dad, and a few of their friends call home. Beasts of the Southern Wild is Hushpuppy’s story, but it’s also the story of her environment. It’s a coming-of-age tale about a little girl growing up before she should have to. And, like The Tree of Life, it’s about how even the smallest pieces of the universe contribute to the whole. But most of all, it’s a vibrant piece of DIY filmmaking, a singular look at bayou life decorated in fantasy. In its own quiet way, it’s one of the year’s best films. It opens at the Cedar Lee Theatre on Friday.

Casa de Mi Padre

This one’s a real oddity: Will Ferrell plays a not-so-bright rancher working on his dad’s Mexican farm. Soon, he and his brother are fighting off drug cartels in a bloody showdown that may or may not be played for laughs. But here’s the thing: The movie is in Spanish. All of it. Even Ferrell speaks it throughout. And the jokes don’t slam into you like you’d expect. Still, the movie – out on home video this week — is a bizarre curio.

The Dark Knight Rises

The third and final movie in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy opens on Friday, and based on all the trailers we’ve seen, we’re just gonna go ahead and call it the best movie of the year. Tom Hardy plays new villain Bane, one of the biggest and baddest dudes the Caped Crusader has ever faced. If you read the comics, you know it doesn’t end well for our hero. Check around for midnight screenings, and read our review online Friday.

Down by Law

Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Roberto Benigni star as the world’s most incompatible convicts in Jim Jarmusch’s 1986 prison movie, his best, which makes its Blu-ray debut this week in a terrific Criterion package. The director, a Cuyahoga Falls native, fills his script with some of the sharpest and funny dialogue of his career. The bounty of extras includes a bunch of behind-the-scenes stuff, a Q&A with Jarmusch, and 16 deleted scenes.

Friends With Kids

Only in the movies would lifelong platonic pals have a kid together. It’s the cast that makes this romantic comedy click: Adam Scott, Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, and even a surprisingly good Megan Fox. It’s out on home video this week.

The Love God?

The Cinematheque’s Tim Harry claims that this forgotten 1969 comedy starring Don Knotts is the “funniest movie ever made.” Knotts plays the publisher of a sinking birdwatching magazine that’s taken over and transformed into a girlie mag. Soon, Barney Fife is getting all Hugh Hefner-smooth with the ladies. It screens at the Cinematheque at 7:45 p.m. Thursday and 5:30 p.m. Friday as part of the “Universal Pictures at 100” series.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Ewan McGregor plays a fisheries expert doing his damnedest to realize a filthy-rich sheik’s dream of fishing in the desert (it’s sort of a metaphor for East-West relations); Emily Blunt plays the sheik’s PR girl whom McGregor falls for. Terrible title aside, the movie (now available on home video) is an old-fashioned romantic comedy buoyed by the stars’ relaxed and glowing performances. Ease into this one for its quiet charms.