Flick Picks 11/5

New This Week!

ENTERTAINMENT: It might have only been the third biggest superhero movie of the summer but who doesn't love Spider-man? The Amazing Spider-Man starts at the beginning of the story as Peter Parker gains his powers and learns responsibility while defending New York City from The Lizard. It stars Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone and is available on DVD and Blu-ray.

Yes, we're at the time of year for Christmas movies and the one that we've got this week is a cut above many of the other holiday DVDs. The talented crew at Aardman Animations bring us Arthur Christmas, which tells the tale of Santa Claus' youngest son's attempt to help out his father when a child's present is accidentally left undelivered, despite a computerized and modernized North Pole. Also being released this week is Your Sister's Sister, starring Emily Blunt in the tale of a man, his female best friend and her sister, all of whom end up at a cabin with personal issues to work out. It's a small romantic flick set in the Pacific Northwest. Finally, Trishna is Michael Winterbottom's adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Ubervilles set in India and starring Frieda Pinto.

SERIES: Call the Midwife is the delightful new BBC series about midwives in London in the 1950s. Our other UK import this week is set 2 of Vera, starring Brenda Blethyn as Ann Cleeves's detective Vera Stanhope.

SUBTITLED: I Wish is a sweet Japanese film about a child who wishes to bring his divorced and geographically separated family back together by wishing on a new bullet train. Also this week, Corpo Celeste follows a woman's attempt to find and understand religion upon returning to Italy after years in Switzerland.

DOCUMENTARY:  Looking for a darkly comic take on the African blood diamond industry? The Danish documentary The Ambassador will leave you both laughing and shocked as you view the filmmaker Mads Brugger's attempt to pose undercover as a diplomat in order to expose corruption in a war-torn nation. Despite the often comedic tone, one never forgets that Brugger had to risk his life in order to gather this film's footage. Last Call at the Oasis is the latest ecological documentary call to arms, this time studying the global water crisis.

You can find all of our upcoming videos in Bibliocommons.

Videos in Honor of Veterans

Many of us have veterans in our lives and we've got quite a few DVDs that will help you pay tribute to the work and sacrifices that they have made for our country. Here are some titles that will help you remember the meaning of Veterans Day.

America at War is an A&E network documentary that covers 200 years of American warfare, from the American Revolution to Iraq. Ken Burns' The War, while not a comprehensive documentary on World War II, is a moving documentary that focuses on how four Americans were affected by World War II. Ken Burns brings World War II even closer to home in Remembering Chicago and World War II, which tells Chicago's role in transportation and basic training. WWII in HD makes the war come alive with high quality color film as well as journals and other accounts. We also have Vietnam in HD. Vietnam: A Television History is an Emmy award winning series about that controversial war. Finally, Operation Homecoming uses firsthand accounts by soldiers in Iraq to create an honest look at the human side of the war.

Refuge: Stories of the Selfhelp Home

Did you miss our special showing of Refuge: Stories of the Selfhelp Home? We've got it on DVD for you to put on hold. It tells about some of the remaining Holocaust survivors who live in Selfhelp Home in Chicago.