THE LIST: DVDs, CDs and books hitting stores week of June 29
DVDS
“Hot Tub Time Machine” (R): Three middle-age buddies who’ve had it with adulthood (John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson) discover their own personal wayback machine when a ski resort hot tub transports them back to their 1986 heyday, enabling them to settle old scores and mess with the timeline for personal profit.
Continuing the recent-release roundup, the endless search for a new “Harry Potter” continues with “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief” (PG), based on Rick Riordan’s five-book series about a teen (Logan Lerman) who discovers he’s the descendant of a Greek god. Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan, Rosario Dawson, Sean Bean, Kevin McKidd and Catherine Keener co-star. The horror remake parade continues with “The Crazies” (R), an update of George A. Romero’s 1973 chiller about small-town Iowans (including Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell) who ingest water, tainted with a mysterious toxin, that makes them go … well, you know. And in director Michael Hanecke’s award-winning “The White Ribbon” (R), the placid exterior life of a small farming village in pre-World War I Germany masks a world of hidden cruelty. Elsewhere on the art-house beat, the documentary “It Came From Kuchar” (not rated), which came to last year’s CineVegas film festival, explores the wild world of twin underground filmmakers George and Mike Kuchar. Speaking of strange, director Tom DiCillo’s “When You’re Strange: A Film About the Doors” (R) features never-before-seen archival footage of the legendary rock group and its doomed frontman, Jim Morrison.
Turning to titles that never made it to local theaters, the thriller “Don McKay” (R) stars Thomas Haden Church (who also produced) as a sad-sack janitor who returns to his hometown when he discovers his old flame (Elisabeth Shue) is terminally ill. Melissa Leo co-stars. Church’s “Sideways” traveling companion, Paul Giamatti, joins Billy Crudup and Kristen Wiig for the fact-based comedy “Pretty Bird” (R), about would-be entrepreneurs trying to invent a rocket belt. Real-life spouses Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly play Mr. and Mrs. Charles Darwin in the period drama “Creation” (PG-13). “Mad Men’s” Jon Hamm and Josh Lucas team up for the mystery “Stolen” (R), while in Irish playwright Conor McPherson’s “The Eclipse” (R), a literary festival brings together a haunted widower (Ciaran Hinds) and two authors (Aidan Quinn, Iben Hjejle). Jet Li headlines “The Warriors” (R), set in 1860s China, about a general whose bond with two rebels (Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro) is tested by political and romantic conflicts. And in “Everlasting Moments” (not rated), photography provides a refuge for an abused wife (Maria Heiskanen) in turn-of-the-century Sweden.
For movie buffs, the twisty 1940 cloak-and-dagger treat “Night Train to Munich” (not rated) follows a British undercover agent (Rex Harrison), a Czech scientist and his daughter (Margaret Lockwood) on the run from Nazi spies, while a young filmmaker (Donald Sutherland) goes in search of his next movie in director Paul Mazursky’s autobiographical 1970 “Alex in Wonderland” (not rated). And Broderick Crawford and Richard Conte headline the 1955 gangster drama “New York Confidential” (not rated). Topping today’s Blu-ray Disc debuts: Burt Lancaster in Italian master Luchino Visconti’s 1963 classic “The Leopard” (not rated), plus a new production of Shakespeare’s enchanting comedy “As You Like It” (not rated) recorded live at London’s Globe Theatre.
Tuning in to TV transfers (all unrated), several made-for-cable dramas debut, including Kim Basinger and Bruce Greenwood in “The Mermaid Chair” and Mariska Hargitay in “Plain Truth,” while the late Lee Remick stars in the award-winning 1974 miniseries “Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill.” Also arriving on DVD: “Warehouse 13: Season One,” “Eureka: Season 3.5,” “Mad About You: The Complete Fourth Season,” “The Real McCoys: The Complete Season Four,” “The Closer: The Complete Fifth Season,” “Leave It To Beaver: The Complete Series” and “The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo: The Complete Series.”
CDS
3OH!3, “Streets of Gold”: You know how a successful TV jingle works, right? It doesn’t matter how annoying it might be, the point is that it sticks in your head like sing-songy shrapnel.
And this seems to be the exact same approach that electro pop duo 3OH!3 is following with their latest single, the cloying, yet irresistibly catchy “First Kiss,” which gets under your skin like a tuneful tick.
Expect to hear the group’s latest disc, “Streets of Gold,” every time you step into a Top 40 nightclub the rest of the year.
Alright, we gotta run and get a lobotomy right about now.
Also in stores: Dwele, “W.ants. W.orld. W.omen. (W.W.W.)”; Alejandro Escovedo, “Street Songs of Love (CD/DVD)”; Haste the Day, “Attack of the Wolf King”; Kenny G, “Heart and Soul”; Robby Krieger, “Singularity”; Parkway Drive, “Deep Blue”; Lee Ritenour, “6 String Theory”; Scissor Sisters, “Night Work”; Semi Precious Weapons, “You Love You”; The-Dream, “Love King”; and Wolf Parade, “Expo 86.”
BOOKS
“Private” by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro: Jack Morgan, a former Marine and CIA agent, has a lot on his shoulders after inheriting his father’s detective business. Not only is he looking into an NFL gambling scandal and the unsolved murders of 18 schoolgirls, he’s also investigating the murder of his best friend’s wife, a case that will have him seeking revenge.
Brad Thor has a new political thriller expected out this week. “Foreign Influence” finds covert operative Scot Harvath attempting to prevent a terror attack as he connects the dots between a hit-and-run in Chicago and a deadly bombing in Rome.
Also hitting shelves this week: “Home Team: Coaching the Saints and New Orleans Back to Life” by Sean Payton and Ellis Henican; “How to Ride a Dragon’s Storm (How to Train Your Dragon Series No. 7)” by Cressida Cowell; “Ice Cold (Jane Rizzoli & Maura Isles Series No. 8)” by Tess Gerritsen; “Inside Out” by Barry Eisler; “Only the Good Spy Young” by Ally Carter; “The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet” by David Mitchell; “The Whisper” by Carla Neggers; and “Work Song” by Ivan Doig.
