Flick Picks 8/27

New This Week

ENTERTAINMENT: The blockbuster board game adaptation Battleship comes to DVD this week, as Taylor Kitsch and Liam Neeson fight off an alien invasion. We've got it on DVD and Blu-ray and it's sure to entertain in either format! Also, despite being marketed as children's films, the movies that Britain's Aardman Animation creates are always good fun for the whole family. The Pirates! Band of Misfits, which stars the voices of Hugh Grant, Jeremy Piven and Salma Hayek, is another one of their modern claymation extravaganzas.

SERIES: One of the most anticipated series to hit DVD in some time is Homeland. This Showtime series stars Claire Danes as a CIA Officer who suspects that a recently returned Marine Sergeant might be planning an attack on America. It's suspenseful and was nominated for nine Emmy awards, including Best Drama Series, Lead Actress and Lead Actor. For you anglophiles we've got Injustice, a new series from the creator of Foyle's War. It's a legal drama and police investigation starring James Purefoy. Also out this week are season 2 of the zombie extravaganza The Walking Dead and the fifth and final season of In Plain Sight.

SUBTITLED: Headhunters is a Norwegian thriller based on Jo Nesbo's novel. It tells the story of a headhunter who steals art on the side and discovers something that disrupts his life. It's an intense, exciting, violent film, with a Coen brothers feel.

INFORMATIONAL: If you enjoyed The Art of The Steal, which was a Monday Night at the Movies selection in 2010, you might want to check out The Barnes Collection, which is more of a straightforward look at the famous Philadelphia collection and the new museum that houses it.

You can see all of our new and upcoming DVDs by visiting Bibliocommons.

To See Or Not To See...

You may be aware that this year's From Page to Stage program focuses on Writer's Theatre's staging of Hamlet. There have been many excellent film versions of Hamlet. The version that set the standard is Laurence Olivier's 1948 Hamlet, which was the first British film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. An intriguing recent adaptation is The Royal Shakespeare Company's version, which stars David Tennant (who played one incarnation of Doctor Who) as Hamlet and Star Trek's Patrick Stewart as Claudius. This was a reprise of the role for Patrick Stewart who also played Claudius in a 1980 BBC version starring Derek Jacobi as Hamlet. Finally, for an in-depth look at what it's like to create a version of Hamlet check out Discovering Hamlet, a documentary that follows Kenneth Branagh as he attempts to bring his vision of Hamlet to the stage. Hamletphiles should be sure to attend our next From Page to Stage program on September 10th at 7:00, where Rabbi Herbert Bronstein will discuss Hamlet's delay in seeking to avenge his father.

Talking Pictures

Our next Talking Pictures program takes place on Wednesday, September 5th at 1:00. Susan Benjamin will be screening Invictus, starring Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman in the story of post-Apartheid South Africa's rugby team as it attempts to win the Rugby World Cup. A discussion will follow.