Case 39 2010
Directed by Christian Alvart
Starring: Rene Zellweger, Ian McShane

Academy Award® winner Renee Zellweger stars in this terrifying, supernatural thriller about a social worker who has been assigned the unusual and disturbing case of Lillith Sullivan…a girl with a strange and mysterious past. When Emily (Renee Zellweger) opens her home in an attempt to help Lillith, it turns into a deadly nightmare she may not survive. Co–starring Bradley Cooper (The Hangover), Case 39 is a heart-stopping chiller with startling surprises that lead to a shocking and sinister ending.(Paramount)

The Wild West (disc 1) 2009
History Channel

The most legendary cowboys and notorious outlaws of America's western frontier are brought to life in this comprehensive DVD set from HISTORY. In The Real West, an award-winning series hosted by Kenny Rogers, authentic diary entries, period accounts, rare photos, and expert commentary deliver the real stories behind personalities from lead-slinging lawmen like Stephen F. Austin to anti-heroes Billy the Kid and Doc Holliday. Remember The Alamo and The Real West: Battle of the Alamo examine the most famous battle cry in American history, revealing behind the epic encounter a story of ambition and heroism, greed and vanity, desperation and defeat. Jesse James: American Outlaw presents a compelling look at one of the most infamous criminals in American history, from his early days as a Confederate guerrilla fighter to his crime-filled life, treacherous murder and the mystery that continues to surround his death today. And Carson and Cody: The Hunter Heroes follows legendary frontiersmen Kit Carson and 'Buffalo Bill' Cody across the Mississippi River into the Rocky Mountains and California, where both men defied incredible odds while developing the mystique of the self-made man.(History Channel)

Brooklyn's Finest 2010
Directed by Antoine Fugua
Starring: Richard Gere, Don Cheadle

Fans of the grit of HBO's The Wire, as well as of the mean-streets story intersection plot of Crash, will find a lot to like in the intense crime drama Brooklyn's Finest. Directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) with a sure hand, Brooklyn's Finest follows three NYPD cops who come from very different places (geographically and personally) as their lives, and the compromises they have made daily to coexist with the mean streets of Brooklyn, dovetail to a climax that will have viewers on the edge of their seats. Fuqua has assembled a stellar cast here, including Richard Gere, a veteran cop just a week from retirement; the always amazing Don Cheadle, an undercover officer whose loyalties to the force may be compromised by his growing loyalties to the groups he's infiltrating; and the film's true revelation, Ethan Hawke, a young corrupt cop whose morals make the stomach turn, though Hawke's performance is nuanced and riveting. Supporting cast members include Wesley Snipes as a badass gangster whom even the police have second thoughts about messing with. Other great performances are turned in by Vincent D'Onofrio, whose wooden delivery works here to make his character all the more menacing; Lili Taylor; and a ravishing, world-weary Ellen Barkin. The action is propelled along by the great performances, the excellent cinematography, Fuqua's deft direction, and the moody score by Brazilian composer Marcelo Zarvos. If the plot is a little far-fetched, even for a crime drama, the stellar performances more than make up for it, making Brooklyn's Finest one of Fuqua's, and certainly Hawke's, finest. --A.T. Hurley

Runaways 2010
Directed by Floria Sigismondi
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning

In adapting Cherie Currie's memoir, Neon Angel, Floria Sigismondi focuses on three figures. Sensing imminent stardom, Sunset Strip impresario Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon) brings together blond Bowie fanatic Cherie (Dakota Fanning) with raven-haired rocker Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart). Manufactured bands weren't a novel phenomenon in the 1970s, but the Runaways wrote their own songs and played their own instruments, paving the way for the all-girl outfits to come. With a mother (Tatum O'Neal) in Singapore and a perpetually drunk father, Cherie and her sister, Marie (Riley Keough), must fend for themselves. When the group heads out on tour, there's no adult supervision, leading to drinking and drugging from California to Japan, where the crowds go wild, but just as they're taking off in public, they're falling apart in private. Cherie tires of Fowley's tough-love tactics, while her bandmates resent the focus on their sexpot singer. The best thing about Sigismondi's film is that her risky casting choices pay off: Fanning leaves her little-girl roles behind just as easily as Stewart breaks free from her Twilight shackles, so it's too bad Jett has no back story and that the other players, particularly Sandy West (Stella Maeve) and Lita Ford (Scout Taylor-Compton), don't register more as distinct personalities. Shannon's Fowley, on the other hand, steals the show with his profane performance. For a film dedicated to female empowerment, that may not have been the director's intention, but as Fowley says, "This isn't about women's lib; this is about women's libido." --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Cop Out 2010
Directed by Kevin Smith
Starring: Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan

Fan-favorite filmmaker Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy) directs the first movie he didn't write himself: Cop Out, starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan (30 Rock) as mismatched cops. When a bust goes wrong, they get suspended, forcing Willis to sell a treasured baseball card in order to pay for his daughter's wedding. But while selling the card, it gets stolen, sending the pair on a wild chase featuring a parkour-loving housebreaker, a hot Latina trapped in the trunk of a Mercedes-Benz, a 10-year-old car thief, and a lot of other goofiness. It's hard to believe that Smith didn't have a hand in the writing, as the comedy has all of his loose, ramshackle habits (and his reliance on jokes about poop and male genitalia)--though much of it also has the feel of being improvised by Willis and Morgan. Cop Out wants to mock buddy-cop movies, but it also wants to be a buddy-cop movie; these conflicting impulses are never harmonized, so the whole movie feels out of tune. The star-studded supporting cast includes Jason Lee, Michelle Trachtenberg, Seann William Scott, Fred Armisen, Kevin Pollak, Adam Brody, Rashida Jones, and Susie Essman. --Bret Fetzer

Chloe 2010
Directed by Atom Egoyan
Starring: Julianne Moore, Amanda Seyfried

In the erotic thriller Chloe, Dr. Catherine Stewart (Julianne Moore, A Single Man) suspects that her husband David (Liam Neeson, Taken) is cheating on her. So she hires an escort named Chloe (Amanda Seyfried, Mamma Mia!) to offer herself to him, to see how he responds--but Catherine has a surprising response to what unfolds, and Chloe becomes drawn deeply into the doctor's life. Chloe is an atypical "Hollywood" film from Canadian auteur Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica), as it features big stars, a script Egoyan didn't write himself (it's by Erin Cressida Wilson, the screenwriter of Secretary), an editing rhythm notably less idiosyncratic than Egoyan films of old, and an ending that feels forced and unsatisfying. But Chloe explores classic Egoyan obsessions: voyeurism, jealousy, and betrayal. As the movie unfolds, the performances are full of rich details, capturing jagged emotional edges that make the somewhat-implausible plot compelling. Chloe doesn't have the uncanny psychological acuity of Egoyan's best films, but anyone who's enjoyed this unique director's earlier work will find much to enjoy. --Bret Fetzer

A Single Man 2009
Directed by Tom Ford
Starring: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore

Colin Firth gives the performance of a lifetime in A Single Man, a drama directed and adapted for the screen by fashion designer Tom Ford, who clearly has a deft vision and ability in the world of film as well. A Single Man is based on a novel by Christopher Isherwood, and Ford's--and Firth's--gift is bringing the inner-turmoil world of the novel to believable, and devastating, life on the screen. Firth may be best known as a dashing romantic-comedy hero (Pride and Prejudice, the Bridget Jones films), but in A Single Man he demonstrates nuance and depth that will stay with the viewer long after the film is over. Firth plays George, a gay British professor, living a life of true, if closeted, bliss with his partner, Jim (Matthew Goode), in the straitlaced early '60s. When Jim dies suddenly at the beginning of the film, George wrestles with how to go on without his true love--and with never being able ever to express his grief openly. The film flashes back to scenes of George and Jim and their dogs, scenes awash in warm tones, and then forward to the present, shot in subtle sepia tones that show joy has disappeared from George's life. Yet there are flashes of hope and feeling: one brief scene--showing George's seeing a dog similar to one the couple had owned, and drawing his face close to the dog's for a familiar and comforting scent--lasts but a moment yet resonates that grief and loss are felt the same by everyone, no matter what they have lost. A Single Man's cast also includes Julianne Moore, playing a complex role as George's best friend and long-ago lover--one of the only people on the planet who can know all that George is going through, yet with vast vulnerabilities of her own. Nicholas Hoult plays a student who reaches out to George, saying, "I guess I just thought you looked like you could use a friend." But it's Firth who triumphs in the film, and who drives the complex emotions--all true, all rewarding--that hold A Single Man aloft and give it its impact. A Single Man can hold its own against Brokeback Mountain as a story of love and loss that transcends any single genre. --A.T. Hurley

Losers 2010
Directed by Sylvain White
Starring: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana

An explosive action tale of betrayal and revenge, The Losers centers around an elite Special Forces unit sent to the Bolivian jungle on a search-and-destroy mission. But the team – Clay, Jensen, Roque, Pooch and Cougar – soon find that they have become the target of a deadly double cross instigated by a powerful enemy known only as Max. Making good use of the fact they’re now presumed dead, the group goes deep undercover in a dangerous plot to clear their names and even the score with Max. (Warner Bros.)

Ghost Writer 2010
Directed by Roman Polanski
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Pierce Bronsan

Oscar-winning director Roman Polanksi (The Pianist) teams up with author-screenwriter Robert Harris (Enigma) for this twisty political thriller. Ewan McGregor plays an unnamed ghostwriter who signs on to pen the memoirs of former British prime minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan). The money is good, but there's a catch: the ghost's predecessor perished under mysterious circumstances (his body washed up on the shore in an apparent suicide). Being the adventurous sort, the ghost puts that information aside and travels to Lang's austere compound on Martha's Vineyard, where he meets Lang's efficient personal secretary, Amelia (Kim Cattrall, good but for an inconsistent accent), and acerbic wife, Ruth (An Education's Olivia Williams). Just as he's wading through Lang's dull text, the PM's ex-cabinet minister accuses him of handing over suspected terrorists to the CIA, fully aware that torture would be on the agenda. The next thing the ghost knows, he's working for a possible war criminal, and the deeper he digs, the more convinced he becomes that Lang is lying about his past. After exchanging a few words with a sharp-eyed old man (Eli Wallach) and a tight-lipped professor (Tom Wilkinson), he realizes his life may also be at risk. Then, while Lang hits the road to proclaim his innocence, the ghost gets to know Ruth better--much better. If the conclusion feels a little glib, Polanksi tightens the screws with skill, McGregor enjoys his best role in years, and Williams proves she's fully prepared to carry a movie of her own. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Death at a Funeral 2010
Directed by Neil LaBute
Starring: Loretta Devine, Peter Dinklage

Less than three years after the 2007 Brit-com Death at a Funeral hit theaters, this remake offered a nearly scene-for-scene variation on the original. Once again a family has gathered for the dignified memorial service for a patriarch: older son (Chris Rock) has prepared a eulogy; younger son (Martin Lawrence) has flown in on his celebrity as a bestselling author; favorite niece (Zoe Saldana) has brought her fiancé (James Marsden, flipping out), unaware that he has accidentally ingested a hallucinogen manufactured by her pharmaceutically minded brother (Columbus Short, from Cadillac Records). You know, the usual fare for a funeral. The wild card is a stranger (Peter Dinklage, the only member of the cast to repeat his role from the 2007 film) who has something urgent to impart to the two sons. There's nothing terribly elevated about the slapstick, and one particular scatological sequence tests the boundaries of the bearable (30 Rock's Tracy Morgan, in his usual unbounded form, takes the brunt of this scene). The unexpected director is Neil LaBute, who shows off his sense of comic timing and keeps the whole apparatus moving along briskly. In addition to the relatively subdued lead turns by Rock and Lawrence, the big cast includes Danny Glover, Regina Hall, Luke Wilson, and Loretta Devine. It is almost irrelevant to debate whether this version improves or deflates the original; both hit their marks, deliver the broad yuks, and leave behind a mostly mechanical feel. But the job is accomplished--now rest in peace. --Robert Horton