Nov 29th - Dec 5th Downloads
& DVDs
 

  •  Emily the Criminal (2022):

    Aubrey Plaza ("Parks & Rec") is the titular character here, young Emily, saddled with student debt, and unable to get a decent job because of a minor criminal offense in her background that has left potential employers too wary to hire her. She finds herself on the fringe of the what's-legal-and-what's-not world when she accepts a role as a "dummy shopper," buying goods with stolen credit cards supplied to her by Youcef (Theo Rossi from "Sons of Anarchy"). As the plot thickens, Emily and Youcef feel that there are bigger fish to fry here, and they soon find themselves in the criminal underbelly of Los Angeles with a gig that could become not only dangerous, but life-threatening. Emily loves the adrenaline rush from easy cash and clever scams, and at the same time finds herself falling for Youcef, her mentor, and now her love interest. But does that door swing both ways? For Emily, and for the movie audience, the tension builds as what began as a life of petty crime becomes very big, and very deadly business. Plaza is excellent here and makes us believe every word that she utters, even when she is blatantly lying. A good thriller with no computer-generated effects – just good acting and a good script. Rated 14A.

     

  • AINBO: Spirit of the Amazon (2021):

    This animated feature perfect for ages 6 years and up, is directed at the audience that enjoyed such other cartoon fare as "Moana" and "Frozen." Lola Raie is the voice of the title character who leads her two spirit guides, Dillo, a comical armadillo, and Vaca, a comedic tapir, voiced by Dino Andrade and Joe Hernandez respectively. As are table stakes for such films, there is trouble that threatens the homeland of our characters and their families, and only AINBO can save the day. To that end, she and her spirit guides embark on a journey to the farthest reaches of the Amazon Rainforest in the hope of saving their home from the evil threat that could change everything. What AINBO does not yet know is that the spirit of the Yucuruna, and evil darkness that threatens everything, lurks in every jungle shadow threatening to create a bleak and unliveable world if she and her animal pals cannot solve the puzzle as to how to stop the darkness. Rated G.

  • Detective Knight: Rogue (2022):

    One of the final movies made by Bruce Willis before his medical problems forced him to commit acting, this is pretty standard fare for the direct-to-video movies that he has been turning out in recent years. Here he is Detective James Knight, a veteran of the LAPD. Halloween is approaching, and as the city and its police force prepare for the worst, a brutal heist results in a shootout critically wounding Knight’s partner. Knight is the quintessential tough guy, a former Marine, and a guy not interested in aging out of the system. He is always up to take on the criminal element, and with his partner’s injuries so severe, he gives chase to the gang that did the deed. They decide that it’s too hot for them in LA, and they head to NYC. Despite the fact that Knight has no jurisdiction in that city, he doesn’t let those minor details stop him, and he gives relentless chase turning the Big Apple into his own hunting ground. But Knight has a past that catches up with him in New York, and soon he has not only the heist gang with which to deal, he has ghosts of the past that threaten to take him down before the bad guys do. Also stars BC native and long-time Vancouver resident Lochlyn Munroe. Rated 14A.

  • The Swimmers (2022):

    Yusra and Sara Mardini are a pair of Syrian sisters who, in 2015, fled the civil war in their home country to find themselves on a rubber raft in the middle of the Aegean Sea with a number of other refugees who had fled to Lebanon, then to Turkey, and ultimately to Greece when the overloaded raft ran into trouble. The two sisters, along with another two people who could swim, were responsible for saving the lives of all on board. One year later, Yusra was competing in the Olympics in Rio as part of the 2016 Refugee team. This dramatic biography was shot on location in all the places that the girls had fled, hidden in, and looked for salvation in before becoming heroes. Rated 14A.

     

    Slumberland (2022):

    A good cast shows up for this adventure story that will appeal to children 8 or 10 and up. Based on the comic book series "Little Nemo in Slumberland '' by Winston McClay, we follow the adventures of a tweenage girl named Nemo and her eccentric companion Flip (Jason Mamoa) who come together after Nemo's father Peter (Kyle Chandler goes missing at sea. Set in the Pacific Northwest, but shot in Toronto, we follow Nemo as she is sent to live with relatives in the big city, a place foreign to her after the coastline life she had been living. While struggling in a new school with new people all around her, Nemo finds a secret map which hooks her up with Flip, and begins a challenging journey through lands of dreams and nightmares that she believes will help reunite her with her lost father. Rated PG.

New on CRAVE

The Serpent Queen (2022) (TV Series):

The only snakes and serpents in this historical drama are of the human variety as we get an eight-part series based on Leona Friede's book "Catherine de Medici, Renaissance Queen of France." Samantha Morton ("Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them") plays the title role here. She was queen of France by marriage to King Henry II for a dozen years and became one of the most significant political voices of her generation. After the death of her husband, she continued to become increasingly more influential, pulling the strings on the reigns of her subsequent sons who had no idea of the extent to which they were being manipulated. For most of the 16th century she was the most important woman in Europe, and was known for her ruthlessness and for her ability to make ground-breaking decisions with no concern for the human price. Rated 14A.

 

New on AMAZON PRIME

My Policeman (2022):

In 1950s London, we become acquainted with a young police officer named Tom (Harry Styles), a teacher named Marion (Emma Corrin), and a museum curator named Patrick (David Dawson). The morals and the conduct of those days is significantly different than what is acceptable in today's world, and the relationship between the three, in those early days not long after WWII, evolves into and emotional firestorm in which alliances are made and lost and regrets hang heavily in the air as the trio struggles with their respective relationship issues. Then, a flash forward to the 1990s, and our trio come together again, still full of remorse and hurt from the events of the past, but they feel they have one last chance to heal the wounds that still fester, and to heal the damage that was near fatal at a psychological level. A character study with a level of intensity that may be too strong for some viewers. Rated 18A.

 

New on DISNEY + /Star

Disenchanted (2022):

Amy Adams and much of the original cast, including James Marsden and Patrick Dempsey, show up 15 years after the movie "Enchanted" graced the big screen and was a blockbuster hit bringing in more than $350 million. In that film, Princess Giselle (Adams), living in an animated fairytale land, was just biding her time and singing her songs while she waited for Prince Charming. He showed up in the person of Prince Edward (Marsden) and the day before their marriage, a tragedy befell the princess. At the hands of an evil hag (Susan Sarandon), she was dumped into a well, which was actually a conduit between two worlds, the animate land of Andalasia, and now, the harsh, racaus world of New York City, complete with honking taxis and frenetic pedestrians. There she met a divorce lawyer named Robert Philip (Dempsey) and eventually fell in love, married, and lived happily ... well, not quite ever after. As this new story opens, it is 10 years later and Giselle and her husband are moving to the suburbs with their child and new baby in tow. On arrival, it's clear that something isn't quite right as their new home in Monroeville seems to be under the control of Malvina Monroe (Maya Rudolph) who is not what she seems. As Giselle struggles with this new twist, she makes a wish, wanting everything to be a perfect fairy-tale. The spell backfires and it turns both her live-action world and the animated world of Andalasia upside down. There are more songs in this sequel than in the original, a good account given by Idena Menzel who once again plays Nancy. Rated PG.

New on Apple +

Spirited (2022):
Just when you thought you had seen every possible variation on the Dickens classic, "A Christmas Carol," from the Muppets to George C. Scott, to the Alistair Sim version from 1951, along comes a truly different twist. Set in the present day, the star here, the Scrooge of the story, is a character named Clint Briggs (Ryan Reynolds). As expected, he is a miserable soul given to creating chaos and grief all around himself through his thoughtless, sometimes mean, stingy mannerisms. As Christmas Eve approaches, Briggs is visited by the first of three ghosts, this one being the spirit of Christmas Present played by Will Farrell. Each Christmas Eve, this spirit seeks out a wretched person to reform, and this time it's Briggs. Unlike Dickens' original story, Briggs turns the tables on the ghost and soon has Christmas Present examining his own past, present and future, completely forgetting the original mission. This is the first version of "A Christmas Carol" told from the perspective of the spirits themselves, Past, Present, and Future, and it's clear that they picked on the wrong Scrooge this time. Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer also stars, as does Sunita Mani from the series GLOW, as the spirit of Christmas Past. An interesting spin on an old classic, and a musical version at that. Rated PG.