James Patterson is pretty prolific. And pretty rich.
Based on the phenomenal bestselling young adult fantasy novels by their author, Maximum Ride takes flight on DVD on December 6 from Paramount Home Media Distribution. Patterson’s book series spent 144 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, has sold more than 20 million books worldwide and has spawned 11 Manga comics.
The film brings to life the extraordinary journey of six DNA-enhanced young orphans with the ability to fly who are on a mission to rescue the youngest of their flock while discovering the diabolical, scientific secrets of how they came to exist. Their leader is Max, wise beyond her years, who must summon all her courage and acumen to outmaneuver the brutal half-human/half-wolf creations known as “Erasers”, confront her own inner demons and ultimately face a stunning betrayal.
Maximum Ride boasts a sensational cast of up-and-coming talent including digital influencers such as Allie Marie Evans, Patrick Johnson, Lyliana Wray, Luke Gregory Crosby, Gavin Lewis, Tetona Jackson, Zayne Emory, Carrie Wampler and Peter O’Brien.
The film ran into trouble in early 2012, when Catherine Hardwicke quit as the film director. When asked about the odds of a movie still being made, Patterson claimed he was “very hopeful as opposed to mildly depressed”. Trouble continued with the death of screenplay writer Don Payne on March 26, 2013. Two years later, the plans geared into a maximum ride and the flick was made.
Think of this as a memorial event. Each year on Memorial Day weekend, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center takes up residency in one of the country’s most beautiful historic sites: Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in Kentucky, where a vibrant Shaker community once flourished.
Live From LincolnCenter went on the road with the ensemble for the first time in its 40-year history, taking its cameras, trucks and a 15-member crew into the heart of rural America. Performed for a riveted audience in a converted tobacco barn, the concert celebrated American music with unparalleled intimacy and intensity, climaxing with Aaron Copland’s iconic Appalachian Spring, which incorporates a traditional Shaker theme at the heart of the work. Pulsing with the spirit of the Shakers, the film draws poignant parallels between art and craftsmanship; the beauty and hardships of the frontier; and the quest for transcendence in American life.
The result? Simple Gifts: The Chamber Music Society at Shaker Village(PBS Distribution). Featured on the DVD are performances of Copland’s Appalachian Spring; Gottschalk’s The Union; Dvořák’s Sonatina; Barber’s Souvenirs; O’Connor’s F.C.’s Jig; and selections from Foster’s The Social Orchestra, plus an additional 52-minute bonus documentary, A Gift to be Simple with a behind the scenes look at the Chamber Music Society and the story of the Shaker community.
Christmas may bring good cheer, but sometimes it brings a completely boorish relative to spoil the family gathering. My Aunt Thelma was one such creature.
Yet she wasn’t as bad as Uncle Nick, a drunken horndog who sets his sights on his brother’s stepdaughter . . . the endearing antihero of the raunchy comedy. Brian Posehn, a familiar and beloved comic character actor, gets the starring role of his career in this riotously anti-feel-good comedy arriving just in time for the Big Day.
Indeed. Lewd, drunken Uncle Nick stumbles his way through his brother’s cookie cutter family’s annual Christmas gathering in the hopes of scoring with a super-hot party guest . . . who just happens to be Nick’s brother’s stepdaughter!
The arrival of Uncle Nick’s equally crass sister coupled with Nick’s liquor-fueled faux pas cause family secrets to bubble to the surface . . . secrets that just might spell disaster for the whole clan before the night is over. Oh, and that super-hot guest(Melia Renee, Transparent)!
Presented by executive producer Errol Morris, Uncle Nick is a raucously funny comedy of inappropriate behavior, uncomfortably interrupted trysts and a monumental over-serving of 10-cent beers.
Maybe I will stay home, alone, with Uncle Nick (except on DVD) and Aunt Thelma.
It’s home to over a billion people. Yet India is a place where you can see animals that exist nowhere else on Earth, where the natural world has been woven into people’s lives and where wilderness still holds strong. Wildlife expert Liz Bonnin, actress Freida Pinto and mountaineer Jon Gupta reveal the wonders of India’s natural world in India: Nature’s Wonderland (PBS Distribution) on DVD. From the Valley of the Flowers in West Himalaya and turtles hatching on the beaches of the east coast to the lions of the Gir forest, the film reveals a land packed full of unrivaled wildlife experiences.
Here, descriptions for each of the two parts included on the DVD.
An Asiatic lion family in Gir Forest
Part 1 Liz Bonnin visits the Gir Forest, home to the world’s last Asiatic lions, where she witness two females hunting, before watching elephants walking through a tea plantation. Freida meets a man who has dedicated his life to the Hoolock gibbon, India’s only ape, which starts the morning by singing. Jon climbs into the Himalayas and stops off at Debprayag to bathe in the sacred waters at a holy place where the River Ganges begins.
Mama and baby one-horned rhinos
Part 2 Every winter morning the desert town of Khichan is invaded by thousands of Demoiselle Cranes. Liz can hardly believe the number of birds. Freida needs to ride on an elephant to get close to one of India’s rarest sights–the One Horned Rhino. Not only does she get to see one in the tall grass, she also sees its baby. Jon comes down from the mountains to a beach on the Bay of Bengal to witness the mass hatching of Olive Ridley Turtles, more than a million baby turtles will erupt from nests buried in the sand.
We know the story well: Ben-Hur is the epic story of Judah Ben-Hur, a prince falsely accused of treason by his adopted brother Messala, an officer in the Roman army.
The story’s highlight still remains the chariot race: Both the 1925 silent film version, starring gay icon Ramon Navarro as Ben-Hur, and the 1959 blockbuster with dead gun advocate Charlton Heston, remain memorable with Biblical proportions. (Three were two other adaptations of the 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace: The 1907 silent film starring Herman Rottger and the 2003 animated film with Ben-Hur voiced by Heston. Wallace’s tome is in public domain: How about an all-female take, with Bette Midler as Bennette-Her?)
A new version hit theaters earlier this year, starring Jack Huston in the title role. Paramount Pictures’ and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures’ breathtaking action-adventure arrives on Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD December 13, from Paramount Home Media Distribution. The film arrives two weeks early on Digital HD November 29.
BEN-HUR is the epic story of Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston), a prince falsely accused of treason by his adopted brother Messala (Toby Kebbell), an officer in the Roman army. Stripped of his title, separated from his family and the woman he loves (Nazanin Boniadi), Judah is forced into slavery. After years at sea, Judah returns to his homeland to seek revenge, but finds redemption. Based on Lew Wallace’s timeless novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, the film also stars Rodrigo Santoro, Ayelet Zurer, Pilou Asbaek, Sofia Black D’Elia and Oscar winner Morgan Freeman.
The Ben-Hur Blu-ray Combo Pack with Digital HD features over an hour of bonus content including an in-depth look at the creation of the film’s spectacular chariot race, an exploration of the story’s legacy and enduring relevance, behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast, deleted and extended scenes, music videos from Andra Day, For King and Country and Mary Mary and more. In addition, for a limited time, the Blu-ray Combo Pack will include a $10 movie card that can be applied to the purchase of a ticket for any movie in theaters.
The combo pack includes access to a Digital HD copy of the film as well as the following:
A young couple find themselves in a beautiful yet eerie mountain town where everyone seems strangely familiar. While Jenny busies herself in a small antique shop, Michael wanders into the local watering hole. The bartender dares Michael to check out Olivia, a sultry brunette in the corner. After a drink, Michael takes him up on the offer and moves to sit next to her. The two begin an ominous flirtation with Olivia slipping him her phone number.
Michael and Jenny decide to stay overnight at the dimly lit and aging hotel. During the night Michael is jolted out of bed when he hears frantic screams from another room. When he calls the front desk for help, he is met with cold indifference. No one believes him . . . including Jenny. As his hallucinations become more real through a series of horrific events, Michael finds himself desperately trying to walk the line between reality and the terror that awaits him.
Welcome to Monday at 11:01 A.M. The fright flick from K Street Pictures stars Charles Agron as Michael and Lauren Shaw as Jenny; the DVD and Blu-Ray also include a 20-minute behind-the-scenes discussion with co-stars Lance Henriksen and Charles Agron; director Harvey Lawry; and cinematographer Emmanuel Vouniozos.
It’s been called “arguably the best pro-Civil Rights film made since 2014’s Selma.” Welcome to The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: A Tale of Billionaires and Ballot Bandits.
Rolling Stone investigative reporter Greg Palast busted Jeb Bush for stealing the 2000 election by purging Black voters from Florida’s electoral rolls. In Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Palast is back to take a deep dive into the Republicans’ dark operation, Crosscheck, designed to steal a million votes by November.
Crosscheck is controlled by a Trump henchman, Kris Kobach, Kansas Secretary of State who claims his computer program has identified 7.2 million people in 29 states who may have voted twice in the same election—a felony crime. The catch? Most of these ‘suspects’ are minorities—in other words, mainly Democratic voters. Yet the lists and the evidence remain “confidential.”
Palast and his investigative partner Leni Badpenny do what it takes to get their hands on the data, analyzing it to find the names of nearly one million Americans about to lose their vote by November.
They hunt down and confront Kobach with the evidence of his “lynching by laptop.” Then they are off to find the billionaires behind this voting scam. The search takes Palast from Kansas to the Arctic, the Congo and to a swanky Hamptons dinner party held by Trump’s sugardaddy, John Paulson, a.k.a. “JP The Foreclosure King.” Palast and Badpenny stake out top GOP donors, the billionaire known as “The Vulture” and the Koch brothers, whom Palast nails with a damning tape recording.
In this real life detective story brought to life in a film noir style with cartoon animation, secret documents, hidden cameras and a little help from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit detectives Ice-T and Richard Belzer; Shailene Woodley; Rosario Dawson; Willie Nelson; and Ed Asner, Palast and his associates expose the darkest plans of the uber-rich to steal America’s democracy.
For the film, Graham Nash re-recorded his Crosby, Stills & Nash blockbuster hit “Chicago,” re-writing the words to reference Ohio, the most crucial swing state in the coming election. Cartoons are by Emmy award-winning artist Keith Tucker.
More food for thought, brought in a delicious serving by PBS Distribution: The release of the Peabody and Emmy-winning docu-series A Chef’s Life, Season 4 on DVD. (The program is also available for digital download.) The character-driven series takes viewers inside the life and kitchen of acclaimed Chef Vivian Howard and her restaurants located in the low country of eastern North Carolina.
This season Vivian takes viewers on a culinary journey that stretches from Kinston to Portland to the Big Apple. Things kick off in melodic gear with a benefit dinner where The Avett Brothers play second fiddle and spring onions take center stage. The program explores a lush landscape of watermelon, sunchokes, field peas, catfish, mayo and other unlikely food stars.
The program spans both American coasts, and the self-professed “Collard Queen” cooks cabbage and crowns it king. Vivian also realizes a longtime dream and embraces her new role as cookbook author; this season takes viewers into the high-pressure and rewarding business of book writing. Major staff changes at the restaurant, a heavier workload and the drama of heightened emotions make each portion of this fourth season all the more delicious.
Some more tasty info: The program won a Peabody Award in 2014, a Daytime Emmy Award in 2015 and a James Beard Award in 2016. Dig in!
We promise this won’t be Greek to you. Indeed, the PBS Masterpiece drama The Durrells in Corfu is a terrific event. Keeley Hawes stars as an intrepid widow who decamps from dreary 1930s England to a sun-dappled Greek island with her four recalcitrant children, ages 11 to 21, in this adaptation of conservationist Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals and its two sequels.
Missed it on the tube? The Durrells in Corfu is now on Blu-ray and DVD; the program will also be available for digital download.
Co-starring with Hawes, who plays Louisa Durrell, are Josh O’Connor as her eldest son, Larry, the instigator of the family’s sudden move to Corfu and a budding writer on his way to becoming the famous novelist Lawrence Durrell; newcomer Callum Woodhouse as son number two, Leslie, an impulsive firearms enthusiast; Daisy Waterstone as daughter Margo, a man-crazy teen; and Milo Parker as 11-year-old Gerry, who only has eyes for wildlife and grew up to be a world-renowned naturalist.
Also appearing are Alexis Georgoulis as Spiros, a Greek taxi driver and all-around fixer for the disoriented Durrells; Yorgos Karamihos as Dr. Theo Stephanides, Gerry’s zoological soulmate; and Ulric von der Esch as Sven, a handsome Swedish expat, living his own bucolic fantasy on Corfu, into which he entangles Louisa.
A tight budget and desperation—not holiday-making—originally drive the Durrells to sink their meager savings into boat fare to Corfu, where they hope to find a refuge more welcoming for their unconventional ways than the stuffy UK. They arrive on an island with no beach resorts, night clubs, tourist shops, or even electricity—for this is 1935. What Corfu does have is endless opportunity for living, loving, shooting and animal collecting—depending on your preferences.
Ulric von der Esch as Sven: gay in the books, straight in the film
Gerald Durrell drew on (and embellished) the family’s real-life adventures to create three bestsellers: My Family and Other Animals (published in 1956); Birds, Beasts, and Relatives (1969); and Fauna and Family (1978). The PBS drama has come under pressure: Producers of the ITV drama are still under fire for changing the storyline to make a gay character straight. Handsome Sven, kisses Louisa Durrell in the show, but in the book by conservationist Gerald Durrell, Sven prefers men. In 1971 novel Fillets of Plaice, Sven says of Louisa: “She’s so beautiful, in fact, it almost makes me wish I weren’t a homosexual.”
ITV’s response? “The series is loosely based on Gerald Durrell’s books and is not intended to be true to life. Characters originally included have been adapted and new characters have been created.”
Screenwriter Simon Nye created an adaptation that has a bit of the epic quality of Greek myth: There’s Gerry’s enchantment with the marvelous animals that populate the island; Margo and Leslie’s quest to cast a spell on members of the opposite sex; Larry’s titanic struggle to produce a novel that someone will publish; and Louisa’s futile stratagems to force her children to get jobs.
But the central odyssey is the children’s search for a suitable mate for their lovelorn mom. Of course, success hinges on whether mother and offspring can agree on what constitutes “suitable.”
Leave it to Rob Zombie (real name: Robert Bartleh Cummings) and his macabre mind to add another twisted terror tale to his resume. The naughty nightmare, 31, arrives on Blu-ray and DVD December 20 from Lionsgate. Just in time for stocking stuffing!
Clowns have never been as terrifying, especially in the course of one shocking evening in the middle of nowhere. Currently available on Digital HD and On Demand, 31 stars scream queen Sheri Moon Zombie (born Sheri Lyn Skurkis; she legally changed her name to Sheri Moon and later Sheri Moon Zombie after she married her longtime boyfriend . . . Rob Zombie), Jeff Daniel Phillips, Elizabeth Daily, Meg Foster, Kevin Jackson, Richard Blake and Malcolm McDowell. Judy Geeson also stars in 31, and we strongly suggest you check out her over-the-top (read: great) performance as Joan Crawford’s daughter in the 1967 camp classic, Berserk!
31 (which was partially crowdfunded) came from the visionary mind of Rob Zombie comes the horrific story of five carnival workers who are kidnapped on Halloween and held hostage in a large compound. At the mercy of their captors, they are forced to play a twisted game or life or death called 31. For the next 12 hours they must fight for their lives against an endless parade of homicidal maniacs.
The 31 Blu-ray and DVD release special features include a two-hour behind-the-scenes documentary and audio commentary with Rob Zombie. The 31 digital HD release will include a four-hour behind-the-scenes documentary with two exclusive hours of footage not included on the Blu-ray release. For those who have previously purchased the digital release, the documentary will be available to watch beginning on December 20.
