Friday, November 22, 2013

What to Watch This Weekend: November 22, 2013

The obvious suggestion for this week is Catching Fire. However, if you'd rather stay home, we've got some great DVD recommendations. Other than Prince Avalanche, we recommend the comedies The To-Do List, The World's End and We're the Millers.


Jennifer Lawrence returns in Catching Fire, the bigger-budgeted second installment in the blockbuster Hunger Games series. A sense of foreboding lingers as the world and its oppressive government react to Katniss' unanticipated actions during the previous Hunger Games.
Prince Avalanche is much more low-key than director David Gordon Green's recent work, funnier than All the Real Girls but less crazy than Pineapple Express and The Sitter. Stern Alvin (Paul Rudd) is reluctantly spending his summer with his girlfriend's dopey little brother (Emile Hirsch) in the hopes that his seriousness will rub off on him. They humor and annoy one another while repainting a highway in a wildfire-ravaged forest. It's a more grounded take on bromance. Film buffs may recognize it as a remake of 2011 Icelandic film Á annan veg (Either Way).

Streaming (Amazon, Netflix): Robot & Frank
In this quirky, sci-fi dramedy, a retired, dementia-suffering thief's (Frank Langella) son opts to give him a helpful robotic companion (voice of Peter Saarsgard) rather than place him in an assisted care facility. It's a fun, initially frosty odd coupling that sometimes explores the harder parts of aging. The supporting characters and story sometimes disappoint, but Frank and Robot's relationship is consistently entertaining.

Amazon link: 
http://www.amazon.com/Robot-Frank-Langella/dp/B00BESJNFA/
Netflix link: https://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Robot_Frank/70227654?locale=en-US

Get ready for Catching Fire by seeing the first film in the series. It's the beginning of one of the better book adaptation series in recent memory, set in a post-apocalyptic world where youth sare annually forced to battle one another to the death in a grim, televised event.

Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/The-Hunger-Games-Jennifer-Lawrence/dp/B008602KQI
Netflix link: http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/The_Hunger_Games/70206672?locale=en-US

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