on DVD
New Releases
Go home with Hitman, The Water Horse or Dan in Real Life
By Marni Weisz
SPOTLIGHT
ENCHANTED
March 18
Like 1998’s Antz and A Bug’s Life, and Armageddon and Deep Impact that same year, in 2007 the Hollywood zeitgeist demanded two movies in which sweet and sheltered animated characters find themselves desperately out of place in New York City.
But where in Jerry Seinfeld’s Bee Movie honeybee Barry B. Benson quickly acclimates to the hectic metropolis, even taking on one of its toughest lawyers, Enchanted’s heroine takes a little longer to find her way.
Amy Adams plays Giselle, a traditional Disney-style sunshine and smiles animated princess. But Giselle’s fairy-tale existence dissolves when she’s banished to a live-action Big Apple by the evil Queen (Susan Sarandon) who doesn’t want Giselle marrying her son, Prince Edward (James Marsden).
Giselle, who’s shocked by the nature of most New Yorkers, is fortunate to be taken in by a kind divorce lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) who doesn’t really believe her story, but recognizes that she needs help.
When Edward shows up to rescue his beloved, Giselle is torn between her prince and this strange new man who came to her rescue.
The DVD is loaded with bonus features, including the brand-new animated short, “Pip’s Predicament: A Pop-Up Adventure,” three behind-the-scenes featurettes revealing the special-effects tricks and tools that brought the story to life, deleted scenes and bloopers.
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March 4
INTO THE WILD
Stars: Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden
Director: Sean Penn (The Pledge)
Story: Christopher McCandless was 20 when he said goodbye to his family and a nascent law career and headed to Alaska to live simply. Unfortunately, he was ill-prepared to survive such a romantic dream and quickly found himself in a heap of trouble. Based on the biography by Jon Krakauer.
DVD Extras: “Into the Wild: The Story, the Characters,” “Into the Wild: The Experience”
MR. MAGORIUM’S WONDER EMPORIUM
Stars: Natalie Portman, Dustin Hoffman
Director: Zack Helm (debut)
Story: When 243-year-old eccentric Mr. Edward Magorium (Hoffman) decides to retire he needs someone very special to take over his business. That’s because his business is a magical toy store where the toys routinely spring to life. He thinks his assistant Molly (Portman) has the right stuff, but she’s not so sure.
DVD Extras: ROM game: “Paper Airplane Tutor,” “Strangely Weird and Weirdly Strange: The Magical World of a Wonder Emporium”
THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE
Stars: Halle Berry, Benicio Del Toro
Director: Susanne Bier (After the Wedding)
Story: After her husband dies, a woman (Berry) invites his best friend (Del Toro), a down-and-out drug addict, to live with her young family.
DVD Extras: deleted scenes, commentary
March 11
AWAKE
Stars: Hayden Christensen, Jessica Alba
Director: Job Harold (debut)
Story: A very rich man (Christensen) with a bad heart puts his life in the hands of a suspect doctor (Terrence Howard) and pays dearly when he remains awake during open-heart surgery.
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Stars: Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (The Ladykillers)
Story: When down-and-out West Texan Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) comes across a suitcase with $2-million from a drug deal gone wrong, he takes it, having no idea that he’s making himself the target of psychopathic hitman Anton Chigurh (Bardem). Tommy Lee Jones plays the sheriff trying to figure out what happened and keep Moss alive.
DVD Extras: “Working with the Coens: Reflections of Cast and Crew,” “Diary of a Country Sheriff,” “The Making of No Country for Old Men”
BEE MOVIE
Voices: Jerry Seinfeld, Renée Zellwegger
Directors: Steve Hickner, Simon J. Smith
Story: An independent-minded bee named Barry (Seinfeld) escapes his controlling hive and goes to New York City where he befriends a florist (Zellweger) and discovers that humans have been stealing, and eating, bees’ honey. So he decides to sue.
DVD Extras: alternate endings, lost scenes, “The Animators’ Corner,” “Inside the Hive: The Cast of Bee Movie”
DAN IN REAL LIFE
Stars: Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche
Director: Peter Hedges (Pieces of April)
Story: Dan Burns (Carell), widowed father of three, finally meets a woman who makes him feel he can love again. Little does he know that Marie (Binoche) is his brother’s new girlfriend. She’s also one of the guests heading to the family’s home for a very awkward reunion weekend.
DVD Extras: deleted scenes, outtakes, “Handmade Music: Creating the Score”
HITMAN
Stars: Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott
Director: Xavier Gens (Frontier(s))
Story: Since birth, Agent 47 (Olyphant) has been raised to be an assassin, and he’s already killed more than 100 people. But when he’s assigned to murder the Russian president it becomes clear that Agent 47 is being double-crossed.
DVD Extras: deleted scenes, alternate ending
March 18
THE MIST
Stars: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden
Director: Frank Darabont (The Green Mile)
Story: When a thick mist envelops a small Maine village and knocks out power, David Drayton (Jane) and his son head into town to pick up supplies. But once inside the grocery store they realize there are some very foreboding creatures floating around in that mist.
THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
Stars: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck
Director: Andrew Dominik (Chopper)
Story: Robert Ford (Affleck) is a disturbed young man who joins the band of outlaws led by his idol, Jesse James. Jealous of James’ notoriety, Ford quickly becomes more of a danger than a boon to the notorious hold-up man.
April 1
THE WATER HORSE: LEGEND OF THE DEEP
Stars: Alex Etel, Ben Chaplin
Director: Jay Russell (Ladder 49)
Story: Twelve-year-old Angus finds a big egg on the beach — a really big egg. And when the egg hatches, out comes a creature that looks like a baby hippo. But that baby, which Angus names Crusoe, doubles in size nearly every day, and it’s soon clear that Angus has a water horse on his hands. So he moves Crusoe into the local lake, Loch Ness.
DVD Extras: deleted scenes, “Myths and Legends,” “Creating Crusoe,” “Virtual Crusoe Game”