New Quick Flicks for the Week of December 6, 2011

Cowboys and Aliens By Favreau, Jon 2011-12 - Universal Home Video 0025192074776 Check Our Catalog A stranger (Craig) with no memory of his past stumbles into the hardscrabble desert town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don't welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford). It's a town that lives in fear. But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these mysterious visitors challenge everything the residents have ever known.Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation. As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and what he's experienced, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force. With the help of the elusive traveler Ella (Olivia Wilde), he pulls together a posse comprised of former opponents; townsfolk, Dolarhyde and his boys, outlaws and Chiricahua Apache warriors all in danger of annihilation.Unlikely allies united against a common enemy, they will prepare for an epic showdown for survival. …More

The Debt By Madden, John 2011-12 - Universal Home Video 0025192113017 Check Our Catalog The story begins in 1997, as shocking news reaches retired Mossad secret agents Rachel (Mirren) and Stefan (Wilkinson) about their former colleague David (Hinds). All three have been venerated for decades by their country because of the mission that they undertook back in 1966, when the trio (Chastain, Csokas, Worthington) tracked down Nazi war criminal Vogel (Christensen) in East Berlin. At great risk, and at considerable personal cost, the teams mission was accomplished or was it? The suspense builds in and across two different time periods, with startling action and surprising revelations. …More

Finding a Family By 2011-11 - E1 0741952706892 Check Our Catalog …More

Friends with Benefits By Gluck, Will 2011-12 - Sony Pictures Home Ent 0043396387218 Check Our Catalog Dylan (Justin Timberlake) and Jamie (Mila Kunis) think it's going to be easy to add the simple act of sex to their friendship, despite what Hollywood romantic comedies would have them believe. They soon discover however that getting physical really does always lead to complications. …More

Griff the Invisible By Ford, Leon Kwanten Director Kwanten, Ryan 2011-11 - Uni Dist Corp (Music) 0883476060774 Check Our Catalog …More

Hangover Part 2 By Phillips, Todd 2011-12 - Warner Home Video 0883929140404 Check Our Catalog In the follow-up to the record-breaking hit comedy "The Hangover," Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), Alan (Zach Galifianakis) and Doug (Justin Bartha) travel to exotic Thailand for Stu's wedding. After the unforgettable bachelor party in Las Vegas, Stu is taking no chances and has opted for a safe, subdued pre-wedding brunch. However, things don't always go as planned. What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas, but what happens in Bangkok can't even be imagined. …More

The Help By Taylor, Tate 2011-12 - Buena Vista Home Entertainment 0786936814309 Check Our Catalog Based on one of the most talked about books in years and a #1 New York Times best-selling phenomenon, The Help stars Emma Stone (Easy A) as Skeeter, Academy Award-nominated Viola Davis (Doubt) as Aibileen and Octavia Spencer as Minny, three very different, extraordinary women in Mississippi during the 1960s, who build an unlikely friendship around a secret writing project that breaks societal rules and puts them all at risk. From their improbable alliance a remarkable sisterhood emerges, instilling all of them with the courage to transcend the lines that define them, and the realization that sometimes those lines are made to be crossed even if it means bringing everyone in town face-to-face with the changing times. Deeply moving, filled with poignancy, humor and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the ability to create change. …More

Mr Popper's Penguins By Waters, Mark 2011-12 - Twentieth Century-Fox 0024543737582 Check Our Catalog An adaptation of the beloved 1938 children's book, about Mr. Popper, a house painter whose dreams of Arctic exploration prompt him to write letters to real explorers. One of them sends him a penguin, which he keeps in the icebox. Before he knows it, the painter has a litter of 12 beaked birds. They eat voraciously, leading him to form Popper's Performing Penguins, a stage act that goes on tour and creates mayhem at every stop. …More

Seven Days in Utopia By Russell, Matthew Dean 2011-11 - Anderson Merchandisers, L 0796019824514 Check Our Catalog Luke Chisolm is a talented young golfer set on making the pro tour. When his first big shot turns out to be a very public disaster, Luke escapes the pressures of the game and finds himself unexpectedly stranded in Utopia, Texas, home to eccentric rancher Johnny Crawford. But Johnny is more than meets the eye, and his profound ways of looking at life force Luke to question not only his past choices, but his direction for the future. …More

The Smurfs By Gosnell, Raja 2011-12 - Sony Pictures Home Ent 0043396376977 Check Our Catalog When the evil wizard Gargamel chases the Smurfs out of their village, they're forced through a portal, out of their world and into ours, landing in the middle of New York's Central Park. Just three apples high and stuck in the Big Apple, the Smurfs must find a way to get back to their village before Gargamel tracks them down. …More

The Tree By Bertuccelli, Julie 2011-11 - Zeitgeist Films 0795975113830 Check Our Catalog The exquisite Charlotte Gainsbourg (Antichrist, Im Not There) stars in French filmmaker Julie Bertuccellis achingly beautiful follow-up to her sleeper hit Since Otar Left. The Closing Night Film at Cannes in 2010, The Tree is a mystical drama of loss and rebirth in the Australian countryside. Not since classic 1970s works Picnic at Hanging Rock and Walkabout has the harshly gorgeous outback landscape been such a lyrical yet foreboding metaphor for grief and coming of age. Blindsided with anguish after her husbands sudden death, Dawn (Gainsbourg)along with her four young children struggles to make sense of life without him. Eight-year-old Simone (unforgettable newcomer Morgana Davies) becomes convinced that her father is whispering to her through the leaves of the gargantuan fig tree that towers over their house. The family is initially comforted by its presence, but then the trees enormous roots slowly begin to encroach on the abode and threaten their fragile existence. …More

Bobby Fischer Against the World
Traces the rise and fall of chess master Bobby Fischer, from isolated child to chess prodigy, global superstar, angry recluse, and fugitive from the law, featuring archival footage and interviews with those closest to him.