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August 16th - 22nd Downloads
& DVDs
 

  • Angry Birds:

    With 3 billion downloads of the Angry Birds game since 2009, one might guess that there was a built-in audience for a movie, and one might guess right.  It was expensive to produce, with a budget of $73 million, but so far its US box office alone has cashed in at $106 million, the worldwide release is nearly twice that, and we’re just getting to DVD, on-demand, and downloads. It is both the most expensive, and the most profitable movie ever to come out of Finland.   The movie answers the underlying question, “just what makes these birds so angry?”  Well, for many years, nothing.  They are flightless, living on a tropical isle, and enjoying life to the max.  Everything changes when a small band of pigs shows up.  The pigs say they are here to become friends, but what the pigs are really after are eggs, threatening the long-term survival of the Birds. Jason Sudeikis is voice of Red, the main character, and a bird with anger management problems, something for which he attends classes.  When the piggies arrive, he’s the only one with the temperament to start fighting for the Birds’ rights.  Bill Heder, Josh Gadd, Maya Rudolf, and Blake Shelton all add their voices.  Great fun even if you don’t play the game! Rated PG.

  • God’s Not Dead 2:

    Some of the same characters from the previous faith-based movie return to this one, which tells the story of a high school teacher named Grace (Melissa Joan Hart) who has a struggling student named Brooke who lost her brother six months earlier in a car accident.  Brooke’s parents seem to be over it and are moving forward with their lives, but Brooke is struggling.  One day she asks her teacher, Grace, for a little time after class, and asks how she remains so upbeat during times of trouble.  Grace answers, “Jesus.”  Later, in a modern history class a student asks if Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and Ghandi had teachings similar to those of Jesus.  Grace explains, using historical evidence, and one of the students takes out his smart phone and records the conversation.  This creates big trouble and a court case, as Grace is suspended, and is charged with preaching in class. 82 year-old Pat Boone plays her father, an island of reason in a storm-tossed court case.  Rated PG.

  • Fathers & Daughters:

    Russell Crowe is intense and focused here in a non—action movie, but rather one in which he plays a Pulitzer Prize winning author, who has most of what one would see as a successful life – money, prestige, respect, and a great future.  Everything changes when a tragic accident takes the life of his wife, leaving him to raise their five-year-old daughter on his own. As time passes, his in-laws work to take his daughter away from him, and as she grows up, he is prepared to sacrifice everything to keep her.  As an adult, the daughter is played by Amanda Seyfried and the narrative moves back and forth between her years as a young child, and her challenges as an adult because of all the turmoil she went through as a child and as a teen.  Very intense, extremely well-acted, but very sad in many spots.  Rated 14A.

  • The Lorax (2012):

     Based on the book by Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Suess, this movie is interesting because of its environmental message about preserving trees.  Ted (voice of Zac Efron) is a young man who lives in the walled town of Thneedville ... no one goes outside the walls because Thneedville has everything ... except for the fact that all the trees and all the greenery is made of plastic.  Seeking the affections of a girl named Audrey (voice of Taylor Swift), Ted learns that all she really wants is to see a real tree, so he mounts an expedition outside the town to bring one home for her.  Once outside the walls, he finds total devastation, the result of a greedy businessman who clear-cut everything.   The Lorax (voice of Danny DeVito) is the lone resident of the outside, a creature who would like to somehow help restore the forests that once were.  Maybe, with Ted's help, something can be done.  What's of particular interest here is that the book was published in 1971, 41 years before the movie, and well before the current environmental movement began to take hold.  Also features the voices of Betty White and Ed Helms.  Rated G.
Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011):

 Jim Carrey is the title character here, a successful businessman, divorced because of his strict attention to his career instead of his wife (Carla Gugino) and children - but he comes by it honestly - his own father was and still is a world traveler who had little time for Popper when he was a boy, and that's how Popper raised his own family.  One day, a mysterious crate arrives at Mr. Popper's home - it's from Dad, and it happens to be a live penguin.  Popper tries to get rid of it, but in the confusion, actually orders five more, so now it's a cool half-dozen when his ex and the kids come for a visit.  Strangely enough, the penguins offer the perfect way to connect with his estranged family.  Also stars Angela Lansbury.  Rated PG.