Watchlist
Notable DVD releases for July 23rd
By Max Braden
July 25, 2013
BoxOfficeProphets.com

I bet they have the song Abracadabra going through their head.
Every week, I search through movie release schedules to find movie rentals that I would have otherwise missed for lack of TV advertising. I'll watch the big name releases along with everyone else, but I know from experience that sometimes the box office failures, critically panned, straight-to-DVD, and independently financed movies that nobody's heard of can offer some real hidden gems. As they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure. This column is dedicated to bringing awareness to those potential treasures. Listed alphabetically, each movie includes a list of notable cast members, a basic plot summary, its DVD and/or cloud release date (based on Netflix - other services may have the movie earlier), and the basic reason why the movie caught my attention. With any luck, one or more of these will catch your attention, too. My picks of the week are listed at the end of the column.

Here's my watchlist of DVD and cloud releases for the week of:

July 23rd (click the movie title to see the trailer)

Arcadia
Who: John Hawkes, Ryan Simpkins, Ty Simpkins, Kendall Toole
What: A coming-of-age and road trip family drama about a father (Hawkes) driving his three kids across country to a promised great life in a new home in California. Told largely from the viewpoint of the 12-year-old middle child, Greta (Ryan Simpkins), the kids first believe that their mother will be joining them at the end of the journey, but it becomes more clear that the ultimate reality of their trip is far different than the dream.
When: July 23rd - DVD
Why: Hawkes has received two Screen Actors Guild nominations in the past three years, for Winter's Bone (his first Oscar nomination) and The Sessions. With the main characters stuck together for the length of the movie, this looks like another good opportunity for him to deliver a strong performance in a understated manner.

Crazy Kind of Love
Who: Virginia Madsen, Graham Rogers, Amanda Crew, Sam Trammell, Zack Gilford, Anthony LaPaglia, Aly Michalka, Eva Longoria, Christopher Atkins
What: A get-back-on-your-feet drama/romance based on the 1995 novel Angel Angel by April Stevens. Madsen plays a wife and mother whose husband (LaPaglia) has left her for another woman (Longoria). As she wallows in her depression, the extroverted girlfriend of her son (Amanda Crew and Graham Rogers) has moved into their house, and a family acquaintance (Trammell) expresses a romantic interest. Gilford plays the other son in the family.
When: July 23rd - DVD and online on demand
Why: Although this is billed as Madsen's movie, the trailer makes it look like the energy of the movie is in the hands of Amanda Crew. I could imagine this movie being decent, but despite the good cast, is similar to the type of Lifetime Channel movie I would skip. True Blood fans will be familiar with Trammell, and Gilford of course played Matt Saracen in Friday Night Lights.

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
Who: Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi, Olivia Wilde, Jim Carrey, James Gandolfini, Alan Arkin
What: A comedy about Las Vegas magicians. Carell and Buscemi play life-long best friends and partners whose stage routine has gotten stale. Their friendship and stage success is threatened due to pressure from a casino owner played by Gandolfini and a wild, new era magician played by Carrey. Wilde plays an assistant who tries to keep the pair's relationship together, and Arkin plays an retired old school magician.
When: July 23rd - DVD and online on demand
Why: This is the significant wide release movie of the week, but not necessarily the best. I've seen it, and Carrell and Carrey are both doing their typical things. That's familiar territory, but in line with the movie's plot, a little stale. I did have some interest in the magic tricks they were going to show, as I was with Now You See Me. The key appeal for me was Olivia Wilde, who has a funny opening scene but unfortunately has mostly reaction shots later on. Arkin too seems like he could have been better used. For Gandolfini fans, this is one of his last performances on screen before he died too soon this year.

Ginger and Rosa
Who: Elle Fanning, Alice Englert, Alessandro Nivola, Annette Bening, Timothy Spall, Oliver Platt, Christina Hendricks
What: A coming-of-age drama set in London in the early 1960s. Fanning and Englert star as best friends whose relationship is strained by concern about the nuclear crisis of the Cold War, and Rosa's relationship with Ginger's father (Nivola). Hendricks plays the mother of Fanning and Bening plays the mother of Englert. Platt and Spall play a couple close to Bening.
When: July 23rd - DVD and online on demand
Why: I'm a big fan of Fanning; she was excellent in Super 8. I also really like Platt and Spall, so having them together in a movie is a big draw for me. Not so much the time period for me, but this looks like an interesting drama.

Hansel and Gretel Get Baked
Who: Molly C. Quinn, Lara Flynn Boyle, Michael Welch, Cary Elwes
What: A horror? adaptation of the Grimm tale but set in modern day Southern California, where Hansel and Gretel (Welch and Quinn) are just a couple of pot smoking teens who get seduced by a witch (Boyle) who grows their favorite weed (and apparently uses her victims as fertilizer).
When: July 23rd - DVD, online on demand, and Netflix streaming
Why: I came across this movie title because of Molly C. Quinn because I enjoy her supporting performance in the tv show Castle. Based on that, I'd expect some teen spoof from a title like this. But watching the trailer, it appears they actually tried to make a horror movie. Yet, there's Cary Elwes as a ridiculous, almost buffoonish supporting character. Maybe it's just a low budget horror not trying to take itself too seriously? It is after all about pot. Not Rated, so at least kids won't be breaking any rules by watching this.

Love and Honor
Who: Liam Hemsworth, Teresa Palmer, Austin Stowell, Aimee Teegarden
What: A wartime romance set in the era of the Vietnam War. Stowell plays a U.S. Army soldier who decides to leave the war zone in Vietnam to visit his girlfriend (Teegarden) in Michigan. His buddy Hemsworth decides to tag along to make sure they both return without being AWOL. But back in the U.S., Hemsworth meets a girl played by Palmer, and exposed to the anti-war sentiment, both soldiers face a moral struggle of whether to honor their military commitments or stay with the women they love.
When: July 23rd - DVD
Why: Watching the trailer for this movie made me first check to see if it was based on a Nicholas Sparks novel. It's not, but I'd think that fans of his movies would also be the audience for this movie as well. Fans of Friday Night Lights will be familiar with Teegarden, and Hemsworth plays Gale in the Hunger Games movie series. I liked Palmer in Take Me Home Tonight and Warm Bodies, and would watch this movie to see her performance.

Phantom
Who: Ed Harris, David Duchovny, William Fichtner, Lance Henriksen, Sean Patrick Flanery
What: A submarine thriller set in 1960. Harris and Fichtner play Captain and senior officer of a submarine in the Soviet Navy, who are ordered to deploy with a small additional crew, apparently KGB technicians, headed by David Duchovny. As their secret progresses, it becomes apparent that Duchovny and his men have gone rogue and may be attempting to launch a nuclear strike.
When: July 23rd - DVD and online on demand
Why: From the trailer, this looks similar to The Hunt For Red October, or maybe Crimson Tide. Unfortunately, the CGI in the trailer looks like the quality you might expect from a SyFy Channel movie, and it sounds like they make no effort at either an accent or Russian language cadence. That surprises me for a movie starring Ed Harris. For further reading, the plot of this movie is inspired by a theory about the real life sinking of the K-129, which was later partially recovered by the CIA's Glomar Explorer.

Vehicle 19
Who: Paul Walker
What: An action thriller starring Paul Walker as a former criminal trying to live a normal life while traveling overseas. And wouldn't you know it, he just happens to rent a car that contains a gun and an unsconcious woman in the trunk. From there it's a race from the police in order to make sure he clears his name and doesn't have to go back to prison.
When: July 23rd - DVD and online on demand
Why: Walker of course starred in the sixth installment of The Fast and the Furious series earlier this year, so it's both not surprising and a little strange that he'd appear in a knock off convict/car chase movie. The movie segment available at Vudu.com includes a bunch of repeat edits, and movie car chase tropes like a shopping cart full of homeless stuff, a ladder on a sidewalk, and a blind man crossing the street (outside the crosswalk? what??). So, it's Walker and car chases, but not F&F. Caveat emptor.

The big movie this week is of course The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, which I've seen. It's predictable, fairly safe comedy, which means it's not really that funny. The movie I most want to see this week is Welcome to the Punch, which is the slick British crime material I like. The face off between McAvoy and Strong looks good. The other movies don't appeal to me too much, but that doesn't mean they should be skipped. Dramatic performances by Elle Fanning in Ginger and Rosa and John Hawkes in Arcadia look strong. If you're looking for romance, I could imagine both teens and middle aged audiences getting something out of Crazy Kind of Love and Love and Honor. If you're interested in time period movies and the political events of the 1960s, we have three movies to cover that this week, in Phantom, Ginger and Rosa, and Love and Honor. For supernatural thrills, check out Wonderstone, Kiss of the Damned, and Hansel and Gretel Get Baked. Action thrillers are covered by Welcome to the Punch, Phantom, and Vehicle 19.

Coming next week:
Between Us, Black Rock, Filly Brown, G.I. Joe: Retaliation