Watchlist
Notable DVD releases for the week of October 15, 2013
By Max Braden
October 17, 2013
BoxOfficeProphets.com

If anybody says they want to play Strip Poker, I'm out of here.
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:

October 15th (click the movie title to see the trailer)

The Colony
Who: Kevin Zegers, Laurence Fishburne, Bill Paxton, Charlotte Sullivan
What: An action thriller set in a future where Earth exists in a constant winter and humans shelter in underground colonies. Fishburne plays the leader of a colony that receives a distress signal from another colony, so they set out on a rescue mission that turns into a mission of survival.
When: October 15th - DVD and online on demand
Why: A post-apocalyptic action thriller with Fishburne and Paxton sounds good enough. Fishburne starred in the TV series Hannibal last season, Paxton appeared in the movie 2 Guns this summer, and Zegers recently appeared in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.

The East
Who: Brit Marling, Ellen Page, Alexander Skarsgard, Patricia Clarkson, Toby Kebbell, Shiloh Fernandez, Aldis Hodge, Jason Ritter, Julia Ormond, Billy Magnussen
What: A political thriller. Marling plays a private intelligence investigator who is tasked with infiltrating an anti-corporate activist group called The East (headed by Page), which has announced plans to attack three corporations in the coming days.
When: October 15th - DVD and online on demand
Why: This is quite the cast. Page has had an interesting year, starring in the video game Beyond: Two Souls. I've really liked Marling in Another Earth, Arbitrage, and The Company You Keep. The subject matter, about an activist group set to take down corrupt and damaging corporations is still fairly timely even years after the effect of the Occupy movement, considering the lingering effects of the struggling economy.

Ingenious
Who: Jeremy Renner, Dallas Roberts, Ayelet Zurer
What: A comedy drama about the American Dream. Roberts plays an inventor, and Renner plays his salesman. Together, they have been hawking gimmicky infomercial-style products. But Roberts has come up with an idea that may just hit the jackpot.
When: October 15th - DVD and online on demand
Why: After The Town, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, The Avengers, and The Bourne Legacy, I'm used to seeing Jeremy Renner as an action hero, so it would be interested in seeing him in more of a comedic role. Fans of The Walking Dead and Unforgettable will be familiar with Roberts, who appeared in both in the last year.

Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain
Who: Kevin Hart
What: A night at Madison Square Garden from comedian Kevin Hart's stand-up comedy tour.
When: October 15th - DVD and online on demand
Why: I found Hart's last tour, Laugh at My Pain, to be pretty funny. He combines an Eddie Murphy delivery style with Billy Cosby-type personal anecdotes, and is generally positive and charming throughout. Let Me Explain became the fourth highest-grossing stand-up comedy movie, earning $32 million at the box office this year.

Maniac
Who: Elijah Wood, Nora Arnezeder
What: A crime horror remake of the 1980 film by the same name. Wood plays a man with a mannequin store who targets women and stabs them to death. Arnezeder plays an artist who unsuspectingly asks him for help with her upcoming exhibition.
When: October 15th - DVD
Why: A remake like this reminds me that the late 1970s and early 1980s were big on horror movies about psychotic killers. I guess crime rates made people more nervous back then and primed for "this could happen to you!" movies. I've never seen the original, but this remake seems to take a point-of-view camera angle as if you're seeing everything from Wood's eyes, in a very underground-filmmaker style.

What I'm watching for this week:
(note: Pacific Rim is available in some venues this week but I'm waiting to highlight it when Netflix releases it on November 12th). This week marks one of the few that is without a serious blockbuster release. My pick this week for the movie I want to see most is The East. Mostly I'm interested in seeing Brit Marling's developing career, but it also looks like a decent thriller. And it has an extensive cast list I'm familiar with. I'm also interested in adding another thriller to make it a double header with The Colony. I'm always interested in post-apocalyptic depictions with a decent budget. I don't expect anything special beyond the generic thriller, but I think it's worth a look and should at least be a passable choice for a weekend night. Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain may be something that eventually shows up on cable TV - I think that's where I saw Hart's previous tour, Laugh at My Pain - but Hart's comedy is worth watching now, and is probably a good choice for at date night in. Ingenious looks like a side project that Renner, who has been starring in big budget films took in the off season, but the combination of him and Dallas Roberts elevates it beyond a typical small budget comedy drama. Finally, there may be some old school horror fans and fans of Elijah Wood that would be interested in Maniac but it looks too indie and pointlessly sinister to interest me.

Coming next week:
Before Midnight, I Give It a Year, Just Like a Woman, Only God Forgives, Standing Up