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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:

August 20th (click the movie title to see the trailer)

Amour
Who: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert
What: A French language drama about aging and spousal devotion. Trinitgnant and Riva play an elderly married couple of retired music teachers named Georges and Anne. When Anne has a stroke, it falls on Georges more and more to take care of her despite her resistance to his help.
When: August 20th - DVD and online on demand
Why: I saw this movie in theaters, and I have to say it was of the most depressing movie experiences I've ever had. Not by any filmmaker's intent to ruin the day, but because this is one of the most honest depictions of aging and health issues you'll come across outside a documentary, and it's done with love and respect. That just makes it apparent that millions of elderly people go through this sort of thing on a daily basis and we just don't see it very often. Amour won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year, with nominations in Picture, Director, Actress, and Writing.

Rapture-Palooza
Who: Anna Kendrick, John Francis Daley, Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry, Ana Gasteyer, Ken Jeong, Tyler Labine
What: A sci-fi comedy about the end of the world: what would it be like if the Rapture actually happened, and you (Daley) and your girlfriend (Kendrick) were a couple of the few people left on Earth along with some residual zombies and talking insects? And *then* the Anti-Christ (Robinson) moves into your neighborhood and tries to steal your girlfriend from you with his fancy suits and cars? Ken Jeong plays God.
When: August 20th - DVD and online on demand
Why: The trailer for this movie immediately makes me think of The Devil and Daniel Webster, and Bedazzled. It's the kind of movie that doesn't take itself too seriously. That's why Robinson, who's played Darryl in The Office and appeared in Hot Tub Time Machine, is a great choice to play a playboy devil. Kendrick demonstrated in Pitch Perfect that she can hold her own in a comedy. This looks like a fun Friday night.

Scary Movie 5
Who: Ashley Tisdale, Simon Rex, Erica Ash, Darrell Hammond, Jerry O'Connell, Molly Shannon, Katrina Bowden, Heather Locklear, Jasmine Guy, Terry Crews, Kate Walsh, Usher, Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan, Snoop Dogg, Mike Tyson, Mac Miller
What: The fifth movie in the horror spoof franchise, this movie was produced by David Zucker without the Wayans brothers involvement or Anna Faris and Regina Hall, and takes a different plotline than the one loosely connected by the previous four films. This one spoofs Paranormal Activity and Mama, initiated by the death of Charlie Sheen.
When: August 20th - DVD and online on demand
Why: I remember, back in the day, when spoof comedies actually held their own. Movies like I'm Gonna Get You Sucka and The Naked Gun mocked their genres but also stood up as movies with plots that made sense and more importantly, really made you laugh. The Scary Movie series has pretty much turned into an exercise in name dropping and cultural reference, so the humor is nothing more than "I know that trashy celeb!" and "I know what they're referencing!" The Rotten Tomatoes score for this movie is a whopping 4% (yes, single digit).

Shadow Dancer
Who: Andrea Riseborough, Clive Owen, Gillian Anderson, Aidan Gillen
What: A drama and thriller set in Belfast centered around the struggle between the IRA and British prior to the mid-1990s ceasefire. Riseborough plays a member of the IRA who is arrested by MI-5 and turned with an offer to protect her son if she informs on the group. But when her handler (Owen) finds out that they are being played by his superiors in MI-5, his own allegiance is tested.
When: August 20th - DVD and online on demand
Why: Riseborough recently played wife and partner to Tom Cruise's character in Oblivion, and earned strong reviews for her performance in Brighton Rock. Owen perennially seems like a good candidate to play a British secret agent, so being cast as an MI-5 officer seems promising.

Trance
Who: James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel, Rosario Dawson, director Danny Boyle
What: A crime thriller set in the art world, where McAvoy plays an art auctioneer who has been caught up in a theft (by a colleague played by Cassel), but a head injury causes him to lose his memory so he seeks the help of a hypnotherapist (Dawson) in order to get the painting back. The issue of his memory is used for a heavy sense of altered reality in the movie's style.
When: August 20th - DVD and online on demand
Why: The more I see of McAvoy the more I notice he has a very intense air about him, so putting him in a psychological thriller seems like a good move. Danny Boyle's directed a very wide range of movie styles, but there were some visual elements of Trainspotting and Millions that give a hint of the style of this movie, which is much more twisted than the straightforward presentation of Slumdog Millionaire. I'm always up for a heist movie.

Twixt
Who: Val Kilmer, Bruce Dern, Elle Fanning, Ben Chaplin, Joanne Whalley, David Paymer, director Francis Ford Coppola
What: A murder mystery thriller starring Val Kilmer as a writer who is on a book signing tour and gets involved with the murder of a young girl in a small town after he is approached by her ghost. Fanning plays the girl, named V, and Dern plays the local sheriff.
When: August 20th - DVD and online on demand
Why: I find this fascinating - Francis Ford Coppola directed at least a few of the most respected movies in modern history, earning five Oscars in the process, and here he is as director of a movie I'd bet most people don't even know exists. I only came across this title from tracking Val Kilmer, who has barely been in any respected movies for the past decade or more. I'm hoping the once famous talent they both had can work together for something interesting. Fanning at the very least is a fantastic up and comer in her own right.

Vampire
Who: Kevin Zegers, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Kristen Kreuk, Rachael Leigh Cook
What: A horror flick with a twist: imagine if a vampire (Zegers) took a peaceful way of feeding his bloodlust by posing as a biology teacher, and using the iInternet to find suicidal girls who would give themselves to him willingly.
When: August 20th - DVD and online on demand
Why: That's a brilliant plot. I want to see how that is...executed. Zegers has been under the radar for a while, but did just appear in The Mortal Instruments. Castle-Hughes had a brief moment as an Oscar nominee for Whale Rider, but has only been in a handful of movies since then. Cook also made her name in the '90s with The Baby-Sitters Club and She's All That but has also since flown under the radar. I'm hoping this all adds up to a sleeper surprise.


What I'm watching this week:

I wouldn't say this week's releases excite me, but there are some interesting options. I first have to mention Amour, which I've seen, and which was a sad day at the movies - but that's kind of a good thing. If sincere and well-made foreign dramas are your thing, you can expect to have a real experience watching this Oscar-winning movie, you may just want a pick-me-up for afterward. Next we have two movies from directors with great Oscar resumes, both with a psychological bend: Francis Ford Coppola's murder mystery Twixt and Danny Boyle's art heist Trance. I would have put Twixt on my my list out of loyalty but low expectations for Val Kilmer, but the addition of Elle Fanning gives me confidence about it, and in addition to Boyle's interesting style the presence of James McAvoy and Vincent Cassel in a heist movie is appealing to me. I'm also hopeful for Vampire, which puts an interesting non-aggressive twist on the genre, although now that I think about it, the suicide angle could mean this is just an adult version of the teen angst in the Twilight series. Belfast dramas about the IRA aren't always my genre, but when you put Clive Owen in the lineup for a cop thriller, Shadow Dancer suddenly looks interesting to me. Finally, there's Scary Movie 5. These spoof movies have become lousy, and the bottom of the barrel reviews for this one attest to that, but...there are all these famous names in it. It's like a bad vice trying to lure you in. You know you shouldn't watch this, but...

Coming next week:

At Any Price, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, Pain & Gain, Pawn Shop Chronicles, Stranded, The Reluctant Fundamentalist