Video Releases

Releasing December 5

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Captain Jack is back … and so are Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, joined by a roistering shipload of characters both new and familiar, in the epic second installment in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” saga. In this follow-up to the blockbuster 2003 film, the decidedly eccentric Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is caught up in another tangled web of supernatural intrigue. Although the curse of the Black Pearl has been lifted, an even more terrifying threat looms over its captain and scurvy crew. Director: Gore Verbinski. Stars: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jack Davenport, Bill Nighy, Jonathan Pryce, Lee Arenberg, Mackenzie Crook, Kevin McNally, David Bailie, Stellan Skarsgard. 2006, CC, MPAA rating: PG-13, 150 min., Action, Box office gross: $ 414.013 million, Buena Vista.

Miami Vice

Michael Mann revisits his landmark TV series “Miami Vice” with this big-screen adaptation that allows the director to further explore — unrestricted by the limitations of television — that nexus where thirdworld drug running intersects with the billion-dollar corporate-industrial complex. Director: Michael Mann. Stars: Colin Farrell,Jamie Foxx, Li Gong, Naomie Harris, Ciaran Hinds,Justin Theroux. 2006, CC, MPAA rating: R, 140 min., Action thriller, Box office gross: $63.437 million, Universal.

Pulse

Based on the Japanese horror movie “Kairo,” “Pulse” centers on a group of college students who discover that a computer hacker friend of theirs unwittingly pirated a signal that opens a doorway for evil to cross over into the world: through cell phones, e-mail, etc. As it spreads, everyone in its path is consumed, and the students must race to find a way to stop it. Director: Jim Sonzero. Stars: Kristen Bell, Ian Somerhalder, Christina Milian, Rick Gonzalez, Jonathan Tucker. 2006, CC, MPAA rating: PG-13, 90 min., Horror, Box office gross: $20.230 million, The Weinstein Co./Genius Products.

Beerfest

The Broken Lizard comedy group returns to the big screen with a new comedy — about beer. When American brothers Todd and Jan Wolfhouse (Erik Stolhanske and Paul Soter) are sent to Germany on a mission to spread their grandfather’s ashes at Oktoberfest, they stumble upon a super-secret, centuries-old, underground beer games competition — Beerfest — the Olympics of beer drinking. At Beerfest, the brothers receive a less than warm welcome from their German cousins, the Von Wolfhausens, who shun Todd and Jan, slander their heritage, and worst of all, drink them under the table. Director: Jay Chandrasekhar. Stars: Paul Soter, Jay Chandrasekhar, Erik Stolhanske, Steve Lemme, Kevin Heffernan, Cloris Leachman, Will Forte, Mo’nique, Ryan Blanchard, Eric Christian Olsen. 2006, CC, MPAA rating: R, 112 min., Comedy, Box office gross: $19.073 million, Warner.

How to Eat Fried Worms

Family comedy about 11-year-old Billy (Luke Benward), who inadvertently challenges the town bully, Joe Guire (Adam Hicks), on his first day at a new school. To save face and earn the respect of his new classmates, Billy agrees to a bet that will determine his fate at the school — whether or not he can eat 10 worms in one day. As the pressure mounts, he must summon heroic strength to keep his five-year-old brother from blabbing, his weak stomach from betraying him, and his big mouth from getting him into more trouble than he’s already in. Director: Bob Dolman. Stars:. James Rebhorn, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Tom Cavanagh, Luke Benward, Adam Hicks. 2006, CC, MPAA rating: PG, 84 min., Family Comedy, Box office gross: $13.022 million, New Line.

Releasing December 12

The Devil Wears Prada

In the dizzying world of New York fashion, where size zero is the new 2, six is the new 8, and a bad hair day can end a career, Runway Magazine is the Holy Grail. Overseen with a finely manicured fist by Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) — the most powerful woman in fashion — Runway is a fearsome gauntlet for anyone who wants to make it in the industry. To make Runway the fashion bible of New York and therefore the world, Miranda has let nothing stand in her way … including a long line of assistants who didn’t make the cut. Director: David Frankel. Stars: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, Adrian Grenier. 2006, CC, MPAA rating: P-13, 110 min., Comedy, Box office gross: $122.676 million, Fox.

World Trade Center

Director Oliver Stone tells the true story of the heroic survival and rescue of two Port Authority policemen — John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno — who were trapped in the rubble of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, after they went in to help people escape. The film also follows their families as they try to find out what happened to them, as well as the rescuers who found them in the debris field and pulled them out. Their story shows how the best in people rose above the tragic events of that day. Vitals: Director: Oliver Stone. Stars: Nicolas Cage, Michael Pena, Maria Bello, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jay Hernandez. 2006, CC, MPAA rating: PG-13, 129 min., Drama, Box office gross: $70.118 million, Paramount.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

The fastest man on four wheels, Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) is one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history. A big, hairy American winning machine, Ricky has everything a daredevil could want: a luxurious mansion, a “hot” wife (Leslie Bibb) and all the fast food he can eat. But Ricky’s turbo-charged lifestyle hits an unexpected speed bump when he’s bested by flamboyant Euro-idiot Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen) and reduced to a fear-ridden wreck. Losing his wife and job to best bud and fellow fool, Cal Naughton, Jr. (John C. Reilly), Ricky has his work cut out to get his career back on track, beat Girard and reclaim his fame and fortune. Director: Adam McKay. Stars: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen, Gary Cole, Michael Clarke Duncan, Leslie Bibb, Jane Lynch, Amy Adams. 2006, CC, MPAA rating: PG-13, 108 min., Comedy, Box office gross: $ 316.694 million, Sony.

Barnyard

Comic look at what really happens in a barnyard when the farmer’s back is turned, centering around Otis (voiced by Kevin James), a carefree party cow, who enjoys singing, dancing and playing tricks on humans. Unlike his father Ben (voiced by Sam Elliott), the respected patriarch of the farm — the cow who makes sure the farm is running on all cylinders — and Miles, the wise old mule (voiced by Danny Glover), Otis is unconcerned about keeping the animals’ humanlike talents a secret. Director: Steve Oedekerk. Stars: Voices of Kevin James, Courteney Cox, Sam Elliott, Danny Glover, Wanda Sykes, Andie MacDowell, David Koechner. 2006, CC, MPAA rating: PG, 89 min., Animated Family, Box office gross: $72.394 million, Paramount.

Material Girls

To Ava (Haylie Duff) and Tanzie Marchetta (Hilary Duff), adult responsibilities are making sure their shoes are in season, getting into the right clubs, and, in Ava’s case, being engaged to the right TV star. Ava and Tanzie are the “face” of Marchetta Cosmetics, the mega-company their late father built from the ground up, and as a consequence they’ve never had to develop any skills beyond looking good. Other than the occasional board meeting or photo shoot, the sisters let their father’s trusted partner, Tommy (Brent Spiner) look after the company. But when Tommy presents a takeover offer from their father’s arch-rival Fabiella (Anjelica Huston), Tanzie takes a stand.Director: Martha Coolidge. Stars: Hilary Duff, Haylie Duff, Anjelica Huston, Lukas Haas, Maria Conchita Alonso, Brent Spiner. 2006, CC, MPAA rating: PG, 98 min., Comedy, Box office gross: $11.383 million, MGM.

The Weeping Meadow

A sweeping historical odyssey. Theo Angelopoulos, a master of the cinema, embarks on his crowning achievement: a projected trilogy whose goal is nothing less that a “poetic summing up of the century that just ended.” Eleni falls in love with her adoptive brother, Alexis and, after marrying his widowed father, flees with her lover to the nearby port of Thessaloniki. As the unrest of the 1930s pits fascism against leftism, Alexis, now a talented musician, departs for America and leaves Eleni behind to bear the brunt of Greek history: war, political repression, civil war. In Greek with English subtitles. Director: Theo Angelopoulos. Stars: Alexandra Aidini, Nikos Poursadinis, Vassilis Kolovos, Eva Kotamanidou. 2005, CC, MPAA rating: NR, 170 min., Drama, Box office gross: $.024 million, New Yorker Video.

House of Sand

Epic drama about the lives and passions of three generations of Brazilian women struggling to find their place amidst an encroaching desert and the relentless march of time. Aurea’s (Fernanda Torres) saga beings in 1910 when she and her mother, Maria (Fernanda Montenegro), arrive in a caravan at a labyrinth of sand in Maranhao in northern Brazil where her insane husband plans to start a farm. Aurea is desperate to return to the city, but she cannot traverse the dunes alone with her aging mother and unborn child. Then calamity strikes and the two women are left on their own. They eventually become accustomed to life among the swelling and shifting dunes, and Ëurea bears a daughter in the house of sand. Years go by, and Aurea (now played by Montenegro) has found peace in the desert while her promiscuous daughter Maria (played by Torres) has inherited her mother’s lust for the world beyond the dunes. Desiccated desert textures permeate the senses as marvelous performances from Montenegro and Torres place human intensity at center stage. Montenegro is Torres’ mother in real life. In Portuguese with English subtitles. Vitals: Director: Andrucha Waddington. Stars: Fernanda Montenegro, Fernanda Torres, Ruy Guerra. 2006, CC, MPAA rating: R, 115 min., Drama, Box office gross: $.379 million, Sony.

Releasing December 19

My Super Ex-Girlfriend

Breaking up is hard to do, but sometimes it can be downright dangerous. In the “My Super Ex-Girlfriend,” Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson) thinks he’s finally found the perfect girlfriend, the beautiful Jenny Johnson (Uma Thurman) — who just so happens to be a superhero. When Jenny/G-Girl becomes overly possessive, Matt wants to call it quits — but how do you break up with a superhero? A scorned woman, Jenny/G-Girl unleashes on her ex the full fury of her super-powered wrath as she sets out on a no-holds-barred mission to humiliate and torment him and bust up his budding romance with his co-worker Hannah (Anna Faris). Vitals: Director: Ivan Reitman. Stars: Uma Thurman, Luke Wilson, Anna Faris, Eddie Izzard, Rainn Wilson, Wanda Sykes. 2006, CC, MPAA rating: PG-13, 102 min., Comedy, Box office gross: $22.488 million, Fox.

A Scanner Darkly

Set in suburban Orange County, California, in a future where America has lost the war on drugs. America’s endless and futile war on drugs has become one and the same with its war on terror. Reluctant undercover cop Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) follows orders to start spying on his friends, Jim Barris (Robert Downey Jr.), Ernie Luckman (Woody Harrelson), Donna Hawthorne (Winona Ryder) and Charles Freck (Rory Cochrane). When he is directed to step up the surveillance on himself, he is launched on a paranoid journey into the absurd, where identities and loyalties are impossible to decode. Based on legendary science fiction author Philip K. Dick’s own experiences, “A Scanner Darkly” tells the darkly comedic, caustic, but deeply tragic tale of drug use in the modern world. The film plays like a graphic novel come to life with live-action photography overlaid with an advanced animation process — a method known as interpolated rotoscoping, first employed in writer-director Richard Linklater’s 2001 film “Waking Life” — to create a haunting version of America, seven years from now. Philip K. Dick has slowly but steadily become a cultural icon with his works of mind-bending fiction. His first novel debuted in 1955, and ever since, his cumulative works have sold roughly 20 million copies and been translated to 25 different languages. Considered by some measures to be the most adapted science fiction author in the history of film, Dick has created futuristic worlds in many of his works, several of which have been adapted into feature films: “Blade Runner,” based on the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”; “Total Recall,” based on the short story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale”; “Screamers,” based on the short story “Second Variety”; the French film “Confessions d’un Barjo,” based on “Confessions of a Crap Artist”; and “Minority Report,” “Impostor” and “Paycheck,” based on works of the same name. Vitals: Director: Richard Linklater. Stars: Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder, Rory Cochrane. 2006, CC, MPAA rating: R, 100 min., Science Fiction, Box office gross: $5.480 million, Warner.

The Wicker Man

In a remake of the 1973 British horror thriller of the same name, Nicolas Cage plays a reclusive sheriff who goes to search for his ex-girlfriend’s daughter after she mysteriously disappears on a secluded island.

When he arrives, he senses something more is amiss among the island’s secretive residents as he starts to uncover a mystery involving strange sexual rituals, a harvest festival and possible human sacrifice. Weak. Vitals: Director: Neil LaBute. Stars: Nicolas Cage, Ellen Burstyn, Kate Beahan, Frances Conroy, Molly Parker, Leelee Sobieski, Diane Delano. 2006, CC, MPAA rating: PG-13, 102 min., Horror Thriller, Box office gross: $23.440 million, Warner.

The Celestine Prophecy

Based on James Redfield’s worldwide best-selling novel, “The Celestine Prophecy” is a spiritual adventure chronicling the discovery of ancient scrolls in the rainforests of Peru. The prophecy and its nine key insights predict a worldwide awakening, arising within all religious traditions, that moves humanity toward a deeper experience of spirituality. Since first published in the mid-90’s, “The Celestine Prophecy” has captivated readers around the world with its tale of spiritual adventure and has sold over 14 million copies in 45 languages and spent more than three years on the New York Times bestsellers list. Vitals: Director: Armand Mastroianni. Stars: Matthew Settle, Thomas Kretschmann, Annabeth Gish, Hector Elizondo, Jurgen Prochnow. 2006, CC, MPAA rating: PG, 99 min., Drama, Box office gross: $.594 million, Sony.

Releasing December 26

Jackass Number Two

Johnny Knoxville and the entire crew from the popular MTV franchise return with all-new — and often nude — stunts, pants-wetting practical jokes, fun with bears, bees, snakes, bulls, yaks, sharks and other really bad ideas. Available in rated and unrated versions. Vitals: Director: Jeff Tremaine. Stars: Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Preston Lacy. 2006, CC, MPAA rating: R, 95 min., Documentary, Box office gross: $71.065 million, Paramount.

The Last Kiss

Follows four male friends as they struggle with love, infidelity, forgiveness, marriage, friendship and the inevitability of turning 30. A remake of the 2001 Italian film “L’Ultimo bacio.” Vitals: Director: Tony Goldwyn. Stars: Zach Braff, Jacinda Barrett, Casey Affleck, Rachel Bilson ., Harold Ramis, Blythe Danner, Tom Wilkinson, Michael Weston, Eric Christian Olsen. 2006, CC, MPAA rating: R, 103 min., Drama, Box office gross: $11.596 million, Company.