Books Into Movies Now on DVD

August 2010

August 3rd

Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Cast: Zachary Gordon, Steve Zahn, Rachel Harris
Director: Thor Freudenthal
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated
Based on: DIARY OF A WIMPY KID by Jeff Kinney

Follows the travails of wise-cracking middle school student Greg Heffley over the course of an academic year.

August 17th

The Last Song
Cast: Miley Cyrus, Liam Hemsworth, Greg Kinnear, Kelly Preston
Director: Julie Anne Robinson
Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Distribution
MPAA Rating: PG
Based on: THE LAST SONG by Nicholas Sparks

Based on the bestselling novelist Nicholas Sparks’s latest novel, The Last Song is set in a small Southern beach town where an estranged father gets a chance to spend the summer with his reluctant teenaged daughter, who’d rather be home in New York. He tries to reconnect with her through the only thing they have in common --- music --- in a story of family, friendship, secrets and salvation, along with first loves and second chances.

Past Releases

July 2010

July 6th

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Cast: Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Lena Endre, Sven-Bertil Taube
Director: Niels Arden Oplev
Distributor: Music Box Films
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated
Based on: THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

A mystery thriller based on Stieg Larsson’s international bestselling novel about a disgraced journalist and a troubled young female computer hacker who investigate the mysterious disappearance of an industrialist’s niece.

Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her beloved uncle is convinced it was murder and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed and troubled but resourceful computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate.

When the pair link Harriet’s disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from almost 40 years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.

July 27th

The Repo Men
Cast: Forest Whitaker, Jude Law, Alice Braga, Carice van Houten, Liev Schreiber
Director: Miguel Sapochnik
Distributor: Universal Pictures
MPAA Rating: R
Based on: THE REPOSSESSION MAMBO by Eric Garcia

Humans have extended and improved our lives through highly sophisticated and expensive mechanical organs created by a company called The Union. The dark side of these medical breakthroughs is that if you don't pay your bill, The Union sends its highly skilled repo men to take back its property...with no concern for your comfort or survival. Remy is one of the best organ repo men in the business. But when he suffers a cardiac failure on the job, he awakens to find himself fitted with the company's top-of-the-line heart-replacement...as well as a hefty debt.
But a side effect of the procedure is that his heart's no longer in the job. When he can't make the payments, The Union sends its toughest enforcer, Remy's former partner Jake, to track him down. Now that the hunter has become the hunted, Remy joins Beth, another debtor who teaches him how to vanish from the system. And as he and Jake embark on a chase across a landscape populated by maniacal friends and foes, one man will become a reluctant champion for thousands on the run.

June 2010

June 1st

Alice in Wonderland
Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Matt Lucas, Johnny Depp, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Anne Hathaway, Christopher Lee, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispin Glover, Alan Rickman
Director: Tim Burton
Distributors: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG
Based on: ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND by Lewis Carroll

Seventeen-year-old Alice returns to the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl, reuniting with her childhood friends: the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Dormouse, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and of course, the Mad Hatter. Alice embarks on a fantastical journey to find her true destiny and end the Red Queen’s reign of terror.

June 8th

Shutter Island
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Max von Sydow
Director: Martin Scorsese
Distributors: Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Releasing International
MPAA Rating: R
Based on: SHUTTER ISLAND by Dennis Lehane

Two U.S. marshals, Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, are summoned to a remote and barren island off the coast of Massachusetts to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a murderess from the island's fortress-like hospital for the criminally insane.

June 15th

Youth in Revolt
Cast: Michael Cera, Portia Doubleday, Justin Long, Ray Liotta, Steve Buscemi
Director: Miguel Arteta
Distributor: MGM Distribution Company
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Based on: YOUTH IN REVOLT by CD Payne

As a teenage fan of Albert Camus and Jean-Luc Godard, Nick Twisp is most definitely out of his element when his mother and her boyfriend move the family to a trailer park. When a pretty neighbor named Sheeni plays records by French crooners, it's love at first sight for frustrated virgin Nick. Upon learning that Sheeni is already dating someone, Nick launches a hilarious quest to find his way into Sheeni's heart, and bed.

June 29th

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Cast: Logan Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson, Alexandra Daddario, Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Chris Columbus
Distributor: 20th Century Fox Distribution
MPAA Rating: PG
Based on: THE LIGHTNING THIEF: Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book One by Rick Riordan

It's the 21st century, but the gods of Mount Olympus and assorted monsters have walked out of the pages of high school student Percy Jackson's Greek mythology texts and into his life. And they're not happy: Zeus's lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect. Even more troubling is the sudden disappearance of Percy's mother. As Percy adapts to his newly discovered status as a demi-god (his father is Poseidon), he finds himself caught between the battling titans of Mt. Olympus. He and his friends embark on a cross-country adventure to catch the true lightning thief, save Percy's mom, and unravel a mystery more powerful than the gods themselves.

May 2010

May 18th

Extraordinary Measures
Cast: Harrison Ford, Brendan Fraser, Keri Russell, Meredith Droeger, Jared Harris
Director: Tom Vaughn
Distributor: CBS Films
MPAA Rating: PG
Based on: THE CURE: How a Father Raised $100 Million and Bucked the Medical Establishment in a Quest to Save His Children by Geeta Anand

In the tradition of great inspirational dramas like the Academy Award-nominated film Erin Brockovich and The Pursuit of Happyness, Extraordinary Measures is inspired by the true story of John Crowley, a man who defied conventional wisdom and great odds, and risked his family’s future to pursue a cure for his children’s life-threatening disease. From his working-class roots, John Crowley has finally begun to taste success in corporate America. Supported by his beautiful wife Aileen and their three children, John is on the fast track. But just as his career is taking off, Crowley walks away from it all when his two youngest children, Megan and Patrick, are diagnosed with a fatal disease. With Aileen by his side, harnessing all of his determination, Crowley teams up with a brilliant, but under-appreciated and unconventional scientist, Dr. Robert Stonehill.

Together they form a bio-tech company focused on developing a life-saving drug. Once driven to prove himself and his theories, the other by a chance to save his children, this unlikely alliance eventually develops into mutual respect as they battle the medical and business establishments in a fight against the system and time. But, at the last minute, when it appears that a solution has been found, the relationship between the two men faces a final test --- the outcome of which will affect the fate of John’s children.

Invictus
Cast: Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon, Scott Reeves, Bonnie Henna
Director: Clint Eastwood
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Based on: PLAYING THE ENEMY: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation by John Carlin

Invictus is the true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa's rugby team, Francois Pienaar, to help unite their country. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa's underdog rugby team as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match.

May 25th

Dear John
Cast: Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried, Henry Thomas, Richard Jenkins, Scott Porter
Director: Lasse Hallstrom
Distributor: Screen Gems
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Based on: DEAR JOHN by Nicholas Sparks

Dear John tells the story of John Tyree, a young soldier home on leave, and Savannah Curtis, the idealistic college student he falls in love with during her spring vacation. Over the next seven tumultuous years, the couple is separated by John’s increasingly dangerous deployments. While meeting only sporadically, they stay in touch by sending a continuous stream of love letters overseas --- correspondence that eventually triggers fatal consequences.

The Road
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall, Garret Billahunt
Director: John Hillcoat
Distributor: Dimension Films
MPAA Rating: R
Based on: THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy

Based on Cormac McCarthy's bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Road is the epic post-apocalyptic tale of a journey taken by a father and his young son across a barren landscape that was blasted by an unnamed cataclysm that destroyed civilization and most life on earth.

April 2010

April 20th

The Lovely Bones
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Michael Imperioli, Saoirse Ronan
Director: Peter Jackson
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Based on: THE LOVELY BONES by Alice Sebold

The Lovely Bones centers on a young girl who has been murdered and watches over her family --- and her killer --- from heaven. She must weigh her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal.

March 2010

March 2nd

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
Cast: Robin Wright Penn, Julianne Moore, Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, Alan Arkin, Monica Bellucci, Blake Lively, Maria Bello, Ryan McDonald
Director: Rebecca Miller
Distributor: Screen Media Films
MPAA Rating: R
Based on: THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE by Rebecca Miller

From all outward appearances, Pippa Lee leads a charmed existence. She is the devoted wife of an accomplished publisher 30 years her senior, the proud mother of two grown children, and a trusted friend and confidant to all who cross her path. But as Pippa dutifully follows her husband to a new life in a staid Connecticut retirement community, her idyllic world and the persona she has built over the course of her marriage will be put to the ultimate test. In truth, looks are deceiving, and this picture-perfect woman has seen more than her fair share of turmoil in her youth. Embarking on a bittersweet journey of self-discovery, accompanied by a new, strange and soulful acquaintance, Pippa must now confront both her volatile past and the hidden resentment of her seemingly perfect life in order to find her true sense of self.

Where the Wild Things Are
Cast: Catherine Keener, Max Records, Benicio Del Toro, Forest Whitaker, Catherine O’Hara, Paul Dano, Lauren Ambrose
Director: Spike Jonze
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution
MPAA Rating: PG
Based on: WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE by Maurice Sendak

Inside all of us is… everything we’ve ever seen, everything we’ve ever done, and everything we’ve ever loved.

The film tells the story of Max, a rambunctious and sensitive boy who feels misunderstood at home and escapes to where the Wild Things are. Max lands on an island where he meets mysterious and strange creatures whose emotions are as wild and unpredictable as their actions.

The Wild Things desperately long for a leader to guide them, just as Max longs for a kingdom to rule. When Max is crowned king, he promises to create a place where everyone will be happy.

Max soon finds, though, that ruling his kingdom is not so easy and his relationships prove to be more complicated than he originally thought.

March 9th

Precious
Cast: Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz, Gabourey Sidibe
Director: Lee Daniels
Distributor: Lionsgate
MPAA Rating: R
Based on: PUSH by Sapphire

Set in Harlem in 1987, Precious is the story of Claireece “Precious” Jones, a 16-year-old African-American girl born into a life no one would want. She’s pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother, a poisonously angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and an awful secret: she can neither read nor write.

Precious may sometimes be down, but she is never out. Beneath her impassive expression is a watchful, curious young woman with an inchoate but unshakeable sense that other possibilities exist for her. Threatened with expulsion, Precious is offered the chance to transfer to an alternative school, Each One / Teach One. Precious doesn’t know the meaning of “alternative,” but her instincts tell her this is the change she has been waiting for. In the literacy workshop taught by the patient yet firm Ms. Rain, Precious begins a journey that will lead her from darkness, pain and powerlessness to light, love and self-determination.

The Stoning of Soraya M.
Cast: Shohreh Aghdashloo, Jim Caviezel, Mozhan Marnó, Navid Negahban
Director: Cyrus Nowrasteh
Distributor: Roadside Attractions
MPAA Rating: R
Based on: THE STONING OF SORAYA M. by Freidoune Sahebjam

In a world of secrecy, corruption and injustice, a single courageous voice can tell a true story that changes everything.

This is what lies at the heart of the emotionally charged experience of The Stoning of Soraya M. Based on an incredible true story, this powerful tale of a village’s persecution of an innocent woman becomes both a daring act of witness and a compelling parable about mob rule. Who will join forces with the plot against her, who will surrender to the mob, and who will stand up for what’s right. It is both a classic fable of good and evil and an inspiring tribute to the many fighting against injustice around the world, The Stoning of Soraya M. was a rousing runner-up to Slumdog Millionaire as the Audience Favorite at the Toronto Film Festival.

Academy Award nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo stars in the heroic role of Zahara, an Iranian woman with a burning secret. When a journalist is stranded in her remote village, she takes a bold chance to reveal what the villagers will stop at nothing to keep hidden.

Up in the Air
Cast: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman, Danny McBride
Director: Jason Reitman
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
MPAA Rating: R
Based on: UP IN THE AIR by Walter Kirn

Ryan Bingham is a corporate downsizing expert whose cherished life on the road is threatened just as he is on the cusp of reaching 10 million frequent flyer miles and just after he's met the frequent-traveler woman of his dreams.

March 20th

The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Dakota Fanning, Chaske Spencer
Director: Chris Weitz
Distributor: Summit Entertainment
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Based on: NEW MOON by Stephenie Meyer

Bella Swan is devastated by the abrupt departure of her vampire love, Edward Cullen, but her spirit is rekindled by her growing friendship with the irresistible Jacob Black. Suddenly she finds herself drawn into the world of the werewolves, ancestral enemies of the vampires, and finds her loyalties tested.

March 23rd

Fantastic Mr. Fox
Cast: Owen Wilson, George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Angelica Huston, Michael Gambon
Director: Wes Anderson
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG
Based on: FANTASTIC MR. FOX by Roald Dahl

Mr. and Mrs. Fox live an idyllic home life with their son, Ash, and visiting young nephew, Kristopherson. But after 12 years, the bucolic existence proves too much for Mr. Fox's wild animal instincts. Soon he slips back into his old ways as a sneaky chicken thief and in doing so, endangers not only his beloved family, but the whole animal community. Trapped underground and with not enough food to go around, the animals band together to fight against the evil Farmers --- Boggis, Bunce and Bean --- who are determined to capture the audacious, fantastic Mr. Fox at any cost.

The Men Who Stare at Goats
Cast: Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges
Director: Grant Heslov
Distributor: Overture Films
MPAA Rating: R
Based on: MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS by Jon Ronson

In a comedic look at real-life events that are almost too bizarre to believe, a reporter discovers a top-secret wing of the U.S. military when he accompanies an enigmatic Special Forces operator on a mind-boggling mission.

Reporter Bob Wilton is in search of his next big story when he encounters Lyn Cassady, a shadowy figure who claims to be a part of an experimental U.S. military unit. According to Cassady, the New Earth Army is changing the way wars are fought. A legion of “Warrior Monks” with unparalleled psychic powers can read the enemy’s thoughts, pass through solid walls, and even kill a goat simply by staring at it. Now, the program’s founder, Bill Django, has gone missing and Cassady’s mission is to find him.

Intrigued by his new acquaintance’s far-fetched stories, Bob impulsively decides to tag along. When the pair tracks Django to a clandestine training camp run by renegade psychic Larry Hooper, the reporter is trapped in the middle of a grudge between the forces of Django’s New Earth Army and Hooper’s personal militia of super soldiers. In order to survive this wild adventure, Bo will have to outwit an enemy he never thought possible.

The Men Who Stare at Goats was inspired by Jon Ronson’s nonfiction bestseller of the same name, an eye-opening and often hilarious exploration of the government’s attempts to harness paranormal abilities to combat enemies.

Coco Before Chanel
Cast: Audrey Tautou, Benoît Poelvoorde, Alessandro Nivola, Marie Gillain, Emmanuelle Devos
Director: Anne Fontaine
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Based on: L'IRREGULIERE, OU MON ITINERAIRE CHANEL by Edmonde Charles-Roux

A little girl who is sent with her sister to an orphanage in the heart of France, who waits in vain every Sunday for her father to come for her…

A cabaret performer with a weak voice who sings to an audience of drunken soldiers…

A humble seamstress, who stitches hems at the back of a provincial tailor’s shop…

A young, skinny courtesan, to whom protector Étienne Balsan offers a safe haven, amongst the idle and decadent…

A woman in love who knows she will never be anyone’s wife, refusing marriage even to Boy Capel, the man who returned her love…

A rebel who finds the conventions of her time oppressive, and instead dresses in her lovers’ clothes…

This is the story of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, who begins her life as a headstrong orphan, and through an extraordinary journey becomes the legendary couturier who embodied the modern woman and became a timeless symbol of success, freedom and style.

February 2010

February 16th

January 2010

January 5th

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Cast: Anna Faris, Bill Hader, Bruce Campbell, James Caan, Andy Samberg, Tracy Morgan, Mr. T
Directors: Phil Lord and Chris Miller
Distributor: Sony Pictures Releasing
MPAA Rating: G
Based on: CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS by Judi Barrett and Ron Barrett

Since childhood, Flint Lockwood has dreamed of inventing something that would make a difference in people’s lives. Unfortunately, all of his absurd inventions (including spray-on shoes, hair unbalder and monkey thought translator) have ended in trouble for him, his parents and his hometown of Swallow Falls. But the ceaseless optimist has never given up on his lifelong goal, and now his latest invention --- a machine that makes awesome food rain from the sky --- actually works and changes the lives of everyone in his small town. Flint is ecstatic, but there’s still a nagging suspicion that something, as always, will go wrong…

Sam is a cute, young, enthusiastic weather station intern who dreams of becoming a professional TV weather reporter. She gets her big break when she witnesses --- and exclusively reports --- one of the greatest weather stories of all time: a cheeseburger rain! As Flint’s food machine creates more and more delicious food weather, Sam’s career catapults worldwide. Everything is perfect until Sam discovers larger than normal food storms in the forecast. Sam can help Flint stop the out-of-control machine, but to do so, she risks revealing a side of herself that she’s kept hidden from the world --- and that might mean giving up on her dream.

January 26th

Whip It
Cast: Drew Barrymore, Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Kristen Wiig, Juliette Lewis, Jimmy Fallon, Daniel Stern, Alia Shawkat
Director: Drew Barrymore
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Based on: WHIP IT by Shauna Cross

The directorial debut of Drew Barrymore stars Ellen Page as Bliss, a rebellious Texas teen who throws in her small town beauty pageant crown for the rowdy world of roller derby. Marcia Gay Harden plays Bliss’s disapproving mother while Kristen Wiig and Juliette Lewis play roller-derby stars. Also starring Eve, Jimmy Fallon and Daniel Stern.

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
Cast: Matt Czuchry, Jesse Bradford, Geoff Stults, Keri Lynn Pratt, Marika Dominczyk
Director: Bob Gosse
Distributor: Freestyle Releasing, LLC
MPAA Rating: R
Based on: I HOPE THEY SERVE BEER IN HELL by Tucker Max

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell --- based on the shocking, ridiculous and hilarious real-life adventures of Tucker Max --- is the story of an impromptu bachelor party gone horribly awry thanks to a midget, a fat girl, a gaggle of strippers, an overly destructive public intoxication ordinance, and the consequence of Tucker’s unflinching narcissism.

A tireless and charismatic novelty seeker, Tucker, tricks his buddy Dan into lying to his fiancée Kristy, so they can go to a legendary strip club three and a half hours away to celebrate Dan’s last days of bachelorhood in proper style. Tucker drags their misanthropic friend Drew along for the ride, and before they know it Tucker’s pursuit of a hilarious carnal interest lands Dan in serious trouble with both the law and his future wife.

The ensuing blowout leaves Tucker uninvited to the wedding and ankle deep in a mess of his own creation. If he wants back into the wedding and the lives of his best friends, he’ll have to find a way to balance the demands of friendship with his own narcissism and selfishness.