<strong>Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 or region free DVD player in order to play.</strong>



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<strong>Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy</strong> finds George Smiley (Gary Oldman), a recently retired MI6 agent, doing his best to adjust to a life outside the secret service. However, when a disgraced agent reappears with information concerning a mole at the heart of the service, Smiley is drawn back into the murky field of espionage. Tasked with investigating which of his trusted former colleagues has chosen to betray him and their country, Smiley narrows his search to four suspects - all experienced, skilled and successful agents - but past histories, rivalries and friendships make it far from easy to pinpoint the man who is eating away at the heart of the British establishment.<br /><br /> An acting masterclass from the crème de la crème of British film (Colin Firth, The King's Speech; Tom Hardy, Inception; Mark Strong, Kick Ass; Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock Holmes) and inspired direction from Let The Right One In's Tomas Alfredson make this gripping and tense adaptation of John le Carré's classic spy novel essential viewing.

Nicolas Winding Refn's <em>Drive</em>--a pulp fairytale about a driver struggling to protect an optionless family--has deep cinematic roots that run through the canon of existential noir from the '60s onwards, borrowing the central characterization of Walter Hill's <em>The Driver</em>, the professional code of Jean-Pierre Melville's <em>The Samurai</em> and the palette and pace of Michael Mann's <em>Heat</em>. Ryan Gosling has formidable presence as the un-named hero: a classic celluloid stranger whose eyes give away everything his controlled dialogue tries to conceal. He makes fair money as an in-demand getaway driver with a legit career in stunt-driving and racing ahead of him. But when a protective relationship is struck with a coping mother (Carey Mulligan) and her young son (Kaden Leos) he breaks his own rules to help her backslider husband with one last heist. Sure enough, nothing goes according to plan--and the driver must lay down a trail of retribution, attitude and scorched rubber to shake off a brutal entanglement with the mob. Gosling's depiction of heroic cool is flawless, as are supporting performances from <em>Mad Men</em>'s Christina Hendricks as a trashy moll, Albert Brooks as a dangerous investor and Ron Perlman as the demonic gangster pulling the narrative strings. The cinematography of Newton Thomas Sigel (<em>The Usual Suspects</em>) also gives Los Angeles a hip starring role: the shots of Gosling racing his 1973 Chevrolet Malibu along LA's concrete riverbed--or just rolling it around the sodium-tinted backstreets--make franchise concepts like <em>The Fast and The Furious</em> look suspiciously like nerd territory. <em>--Leo Batchelor</em>

<strong>Please note this is a region B Blu-ray and will require a region B or region free Blu-ray player in order to play.</strong>



<strong>Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 or region free DVD player in order to play.</strong>



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<strong>Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy</strong> finds George Smiley (Gary Oldman), a recently retired MI6 agent, doing his best to adjust to a life outside the secret service. However, when a disgraced agent reappears with information concerning a mole at the heart of the service, Smiley is drawn back into the murky field of espionage. Tasked with investigating which of his trusted former colleagues has chosen to betray him and their country, Smiley narrows his search to four suspects - all experienced, skilled and successful agents - but past histories, rivalries and friendships make it far from easy to pinpoint the man who is eating away at the heart of the British establishment.<br /><br /> An acting masterclass from the crème de la crème of British film (Colin Firth, The King's Speech; Tom Hardy, Inception; Mark Strong, Kick Ass; Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock Holmes) and inspired direction from Let The Right One In's Tomas Alfredson make this gripping and tense adaptation of John le Carré's classic spy novel essential viewing.

Nicolas Winding Refn's <em>Drive</em>--a pulp fairytale about a driver struggling to protect an optionless family--has deep cinematic roots that run through the canon of existential noir from the '60s onwards, borrowing the central characterization of Walter Hill's <em>The Driver</em>, the professional code of Jean-Pierre Melville's <em>The Samurai</em> and the palette and pace of Michael Mann's <em>Heat</em>. Ryan Gosling has formidable presence as the un-named hero: a classic celluloid stranger whose eyes give away everything his controlled dialogue tries to conceal. He makes fair money as an in-demand getaway driver with a legit career in stunt-driving and racing ahead of him. But when a protective relationship is struck with a coping mother (Carey Mulligan) and her young son (Kaden Leos) he breaks his own rules to help her backslider husband with one last heist. Sure enough, nothing goes according to plan--and the driver must lay down a trail of retribution, attitude and scorched rubber to shake off a brutal entanglement with the mob. Gosling's depiction of heroic cool is flawless, as are supporting performances from <em>Mad Men</em>'s Christina Hendricks as a trashy moll, Albert Brooks as a dangerous investor and Ron Perlman as the demonic gangster pulling the narrative strings. The cinematography of Newton Thomas Sigel (<em>The Usual Suspects</em>) also gives Los Angeles a hip starring role: the shots of Gosling racing his 1973 Chevrolet Malibu along LA's concrete riverbed--or just rolling it around the sodium-tinted backstreets--make franchise concepts like <em>The Fast and The Furious</em> look suspiciously like nerd territory. <em>--Leo Batchelor</em>

<strong>Please note this is a region B Blu-ray and will require a region B or region free Blu-ray player in order to play.</strong>



<strong>Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 or region free DVD player in order to play.</strong>



&



<strong>Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy</strong> finds George Smiley (Gary Oldman), a recently retired MI6 agent, doing his best to adjust to a life outside the secret service. However, when a disgraced agent reappears with information concerning a mole at the heart of the service, Smiley is drawn back into the murky field of espionage. Tasked with investigating which of his trusted former colleagues has chosen to betray him and their country, Smiley narrows his search to four suspects - all experienced, skilled and successful agents - but past histories, rivalries and friendships make it far from easy to pinpoint the man who is eating away at the heart of the British establishment.<br /><br /> An acting masterclass from the crème de la crème of British film (Colin Firth, The King's Speech; Tom Hardy, Inception; Mark Strong, Kick Ass; Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock Holmes) and inspired direction from Let The Right One In's Tomas Alfredson make this gripping and tense adaptation of John le Carré's classic spy novel essential viewing.

If you’ve got too many pre-conceptions of just how a Sherlock Holmes movie should pan out, then it’s probably best that you check them in before popping this latest version in your player. Starring Robert Downey Jr. in the title role and accompanied by Jude Law as Watson, this film dispenses with some of the conventions of Holmes, and instead starts turning him into something of a period action hero.

Downey Jr. is more than up to the challenge too. Early scenes in Sherlock Holmes are more Fight Club than sleuth-influenced, with the hand of director Guy Ritchie behind the camera being very clear. But the film soon settles down and starts to have some fun, with the able assistance of Mark Strong and Rachel McAdams, among the supporting cast.

Yet this is Downey Jr.’s show, and he doesn’t waste the opportunity. He’s an engaging leading man at the worst of times, and he’s clearly having a ball here. What’s more, it’s immensely satisfying when his Sherlock Holmes gets down to the business of solving crimes, even though there are some really quite impressive action sequences to work through first.

There are problems, of course. There’s not enough flesh on the bones of some of the characters, and the early part of the film feels very different from the latter stages. But there’s solid groundwork here for the inevitable franchise, and watching Downey Jr. reprise the role of Sherlock Holmes over the next few years should be really quite good fun too. -- Jon Foster

It takes a while, but the saga of one of the more fascinating characters put on the page or the screen in recent years comes to a satisfying conclusion with <em>The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest</em>, the last installment of the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson's so-called Millennium Trilogy. That character is Lisbeth Salander, the computer-hacking, Goth-loving, dark angel of revenge, played by Noomi Rapace with the same black stare and taciturn charisma that were so riveting in the first two films (<em>The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</em> and <em>The Girl Who Played with Fire</em>, both also released in 2010). When we last saw her, Lisbeth was trying to kill her father, a Russian defector and abusive monster; in the process, the girl was seriously wounded by her half-brother, a hulking freak with a strange condition that renders him impervious to physical pain. As the new film opens, all three are still alive, and she's being taken to a hospital to recover while waiting to stand trial for attempted murder. Meanwhile, her champion and erstwhile lover, journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), sets about uncovering the full extent of the conspiracy responsible for (among other crimes) Lisbeth's being sent to an asylum at age 12 while her father was protected by evil forces within the government. This investigation, which puts not only Lisbeth but also Blomkvist and his colleagues in considerable danger, leads to"the Section," a thoroughly repellent bunch of aging liars, killers, thieves, and perverts with a great many secrets they'd like to keep (the oily Dr. Peter Teleborian, who was responsible for Lisbeth's"treatment" as a child, emerges as the most vile antagonist since the guardian who brutally assaulted her in the first film). Although much of the exhaustive detail about these and other matters has been eliminated by director Daniel Alfredson (who also helmed <em>The Girl Who Played with Fire</em>) and screenwriters Jonas Frykberg and Ulf Ryberg for the purpose of adapting the novel to the screen, <em>The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest</em> is still quite long (148 minutes), and less kinetic and violent than the earlier films; there are some exciting sequences, but Lisbeth, previously an unlikely but magnetic action heroine, is seen mostly on a hospital bed or in a courtroom, and much of the film is spent on procedural matters. Still, the fact that the loose ends are wrapped up in fairly conventional fashion doesn't make the conclusion any less satisfying. In fact, the only real letdown comes from knowing that we won't get to see Noomi Rapace play Lisbeth Salander again. <em>--Sam Graham</em>

Depending on your take-away of the visual inventiveness and jam-packed plot that drives <em>Limitless</em> to peaks and valleys of preposterous fun, drugs are either a terrible scourge or the fundamental solution to all of life's problems. <em>Limitless</em> isn't exactly a morality tale, but the made-up drug that turns Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) from a scuzzy loser into a master of the universe does become a metaphor for ambition, menace, devastation, and ultimate success. Eddie is a writer who can't write, his girlfriend (Abbie Cornish) just dumped him, and his squalid lifestyle has driven him to the breaking point. After a chance meeting with his mysterious ex-brother-in-law, he's offered change in the form of a little transparent button, a pill code-named NZT that allows the user to access 100 percent of their brain. After he pops it, Eddie is transformed. Everything he's ever heard, seen, glanced at, or passed by becomes neatly ordered in his mind. He has total recall, total access to knowledge both known and unknown, and he understands exactly what to do. Without the ingenious visual effects that frequently push the bounds of innovation, our view of the alteration of Eddie's drug-induced reality would fail utterly. When his synapses snap from every new hit, the sparkling blue of Bradley Cooper's eyes pops off of the screen, the colours and textures of his reality ripple and zoom with his every move. Of course he needs more of the drug to maintain his progression, not to mention his very life--remember, kids, drugs are addictive! <br /><br />The movie throws tangled clumps of plot threads against each other in a whizzing mass that incorporates Russian gangsters, shadowy surveillance figures, cops, lawyers, and a couple of murder mysteries. It's a hurtling progression of narrative tangents that often echo the physical and mental extremes Eddie experiences when he's either on or off the drug. Sex, society, and money are big parts of Eddie's newfound brainpower, and he exploits them all. The money element leads Eddie to a big-shot investor, played with twinkling irony by Robert De Niro. The sparring matches between Cooper and De Niro are some of the best parts of the convoluted and manic pace that drives <em>Limitless</em> inexorably onward. Abbie Cornish is relegated to the sidelines far too much, and the suspension of disbelief required to simply maintain stride with the movie's frenzied velocity is often exhausting. But there are some bigger themes that director Neil Burger and writer Leslie Dixon try to sustain in spite of repeated absurdities meant to be accepted at face value. Eddie's actions are both vile and redemptive, and Cooper gives a rousing performance as he bounces from being contemptible to irresistible, sometimes all at once. Fortunately, <em>Limitless</em> is itself redeemed by the nifty visuals that often do evoke the effects of a drug that promises perfect clarity. It's best to just forget the ludicrous lack of coherence and enjoy it as a wildly entertaining trip on a perfect drug that offers the potential for payback and infinite salvation. --Ted Fry

The good news is, Dr. Watson does get married. The bad news is, Sherlock Holmes throws his bride off a moving train. Actually, there's even worse news than that--but all will be explained in <em>Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows</em>, the sequel to Guy Ritchie's 2009 hit. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law return to their roles as Holmes and Watson, as the duo take on the world's greatest criminal mind, Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris), a man whose latest scheme has global implications. Sherlockians who prefer their consulting detective to remain in a traditional mode had best look the other way, for the sequel continues Ritchie's vision of Holmes as a hard-punching action hero hurtling through a barrage of special effects sequences. If you can go with that, <em>A Game of Shadows</em> actually improves on the first film: the story makes a little more sense (or possibly the whole thing moves so smoothly you don't notice the illogic), Harris is a delicious villain, and new cast members Noomi Rapace (from the Swedish <em>Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</em> series) and Stephen Fry (playing Sherlock's brother Mycroft, who calls his sibling"Sherlie") add appeal. It's all frivolous and superficial, but the film's playful attitude and breathless forward motion are skillfully managed--and the final note adds just the right punctuation. <em>--Robert Horton</em>

The good news is, Dr. Watson does get married. The bad news is, Sherlock Holmes throws his bride off a moving train. Actually, there's even worse news than that--but all will be explained in <em>Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows</em>, the sequel to Guy Ritchie's 2009 hit. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law return to their roles as Holmes and Watson, as the duo take on the world's greatest criminal mind, Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris), a man whose latest scheme has global implications. Sherlockians who prefer their consulting detective to remain in a traditional mode had best look the other way, for the sequel continues Ritchie's vision of Holmes as a hard-punching action hero hurtling through a barrage of special effects sequences. If you can go with that, <em>A Game of Shadows</em> actually improves on the first film: the story makes a little more sense (or possibly the whole thing moves so smoothly you don't notice the illogic), Harris is a delicious villain, and new cast members Noomi Rapace (from the Swedish <em>Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</em> series) and Stephen Fry (playing Sherlock's brother Mycroft, who calls his sibling "Sherlie") add appeal. It's all frivolous and superficial, but the film's playful attitude and breathless forward motion are skillfully managed--and the final note adds just the right punctuation. <em>--Robert Horton</em>

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first film in Columbia Pictures’ three-picture adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s literary blockbuster The Millennium Trilogy. Directed by David Fincher and starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, the film is based on the first novel in the trilogy, which altogether have sold 50 million copies in 46 countries and become a worldwide phenomenon. The screenplay is by Steven Zaillian.

RED RIDING HOOD [DVD][2001] [2011] CONTAINS MODERATE FANTASY VIOLENCE AND HORROR. STARRING GARY OLDMAN ,AMANDA SEYFRIED, BILLY BURKE AND JULIE CHRISTIE.

Feverish worlds such as espionage and warfare have nothing on the hothouse realm of ballet, as director Darren Aronofsky makes clear in <em>Black Swan</em>, his over-the-top delve into a particularly fraught production of <em>Swan Lake</em>. At the very moment hard-working ballerina Nina (Natalie Portman) lands the plum role of the White Swan, her company director (Vincent Cassel) informs her that she'll also play the Black Swan--and while Nina's precise, almost virginal technique will serve her well in the former role, the latter will require a looser, lustier attack. The strain of reaching within herself for these feelings, along with nattering comments from her mother (Barbara Hershey) and the perceived rivalry from a new dancer (Mila Kunis), are enough to make anybody crack… and tracing out the fault lines of Nina's breakdown is right in Aronofsky's wheelhouse. Those cracks are broad indeed, as Nina's psychological instability is telegraphed with blunt-force emphasis in this neurotic roller-coaster ride. The characters are stick figures--literally, in the case of the dancers, but also as single-note stereotypes in the horror show: witchy bad mummy, sexually intimidating male boss, wacko diva (Winona Ryder, as the prima ballerina Nina is replacing). Yet the film does work up some crazed momentum (and undeniably earned its share of critical raves), and the final sequence is one juicy curtain-dropper. A good part of the reason for this is the superbly all-or-nothing performance by Natalie Portman, who packs an enormous amount of ferocity into her small body. Kudos, too, to Tchaikovsky's incredibly durable music, which has meshed well with psychological horror at least since being excerpted for the memorably moody opening credits of the 1931 <em>Dracula</em>, another pirouette through the dark side. --Robert Horton