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A Serious Man
Coen Brothers. Academy Award-nominated. Need more? "The culmination of their lives, reminiscent both of their own suburban childhoods in the '60s, and of their cinematic successes over the last twenty-five years." Michael Stuhbarg stars as "a man utterly at a loss to explain his life's severe turn for the worse; he is a man desperate for answers." (Monika Bartyzel, Cinematical.) Buy it.

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Couples Retreat
Shameless it may be, but "you end up laughing more than expected," I wrote in my review. Vince Vaughan, Jon Favreau, Jason Bateman, Faizon Love, Malin Akerman, Kristin Davis, Kristen Bell and Kali Hawk star. The comedy is broad and silly, but harsher truths occasionally emerge. Rent it.

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The Time Traveler's Wife
Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams star in an adaptation of the novel by Audrey Niffenegger. "Adds up to a mildly successful time-passer, though one too concerned with trying to target its audience rather than with trying to figure out where it's actually coming from." (Jeffrey M. Anderson, Cinematical.) Rent it.

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The Stepfather
"The most intense Lifetime Channel Original Movie that the Lifetime Channel never made. ... [It] just isn't enough." (Peter Hall, Horror Squad.) Skip it.

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Also out: Serious Moonlight, Free Style, Emma, Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic.

After the jump: Indies on DVD, library titles on Blu-ray, and Collector's Corner!

Zombieland
Jesse Eisenberg teams up with Woody Harrelson to survive the zombie apocalypse, as the latter sets out to find the last Twinkie on Earth. Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin enter the fray, and, well, as William Goss wrote in his review: "It's a constantly clever comedy whose characters have amusingly direct motives (i.e. Tallahassee wants a Twinkie above all else) that disguise some genuine losses, and most of the gags stem from their relationships -- coward vs. cowboy, gals undermining guys -- above general (albeit welcome) irreverence." Buy it.

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Amelia
Hilary Swank's Amelia Earhart biopic is now hitting the shelves, detailing her love of George Putnam (Richard Gere), and the advances of one Mr. Gene Vidal (Gore Vidal's dad, played by Ewan McGregor). Jette Kernion wrote that the film: "succeeds in portraying the famous aviatrix in a whole new light ... as a mundane soap-opera character with relationship issues." Skip it.

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Love Happens
A fairly forgotten 2009 romcom, Love Happens stars Aaron Eckhart as a grieving widow who falls in love for student Jennifer Aniston. In her review, Jenni Miller wrote that it was "boring and lazy," and Eric Snider wondered what they were thinking including a classic slow clap. Skip it.

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Also out: Universal Soldier: Regeneration, The House of the Devil, Triangle, Whatever She Wants, Ong-Bak 2: The Beginning

Whip It
Drew Barrymore directs Ellen Page in a coming-of-age tale set in the rough and tumble world of roller derby. As you might expect for the directorial debut of an actor, nearly eveyone in the cast gets their own moment to shine, which drags down the pacing, but overall this is bright and lively entertainment. Page is terrific as a young woman seeking to break out from a small town, but not certain she wants to leave everyone behind. Rent it.

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Michael Jackson: This is It
Jackson's tragic death converted behind-the-scenes footage into a must-see documentary for millions of his fans as well as the merely curious. "A strange, confusing look into Michael Jackson's world, or at least the version of it that his friends, family, and/or estate wanted us to see," wrote Cinematical's Jenni Miller. Jackson fanatics: Buy it. All others: Skip it.

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Surrogates
Bruce Willis stars as an FBI agent in Jonathan Mostow's adaptation of a comic book in which humans control artificial representations of themselves. Our own Jeffrey M. Anderson opined: "It's more of a thriller than a cautionary tale, and it doesn't go very deep in either direction." Sci-fi fans: Rent it. All others: Skip it.

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Also out: Saw VI, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, Give 'Em Hell Malone

After the jump: Indies on DVD, plus more Blu-ray picks and Collector's Corner.

Remember those Filipino prisoners who became YouTube sensations for their staged version of Michael Jackson's "Thriller," complete with a cross-dressing inmate playing MJ's terrified girlfriend? After delighting the world with their forced renditions of numbers from Sister Act and "YMCA," the dancers are back...and they've apparently joined forces with Sony Pictures to help promote the 2010 DVD release of the MJ documentary This Is It.

On paper, the idea of merging the pop cultural firepower of Michael Jackson's posthumous hit documentary with that one prison in the Philippines where inmates are forced to learn cool dances sounds like an awesome idea, if a little bizarre. And for once, the army of orange-pantsed convicts have been filmed with panache – in crisp high def, with multiple cameras and swooping crane shots. But as you watch choreographer Travis Payne and dancers Daniel Celebre and Dres Reid lead 1500 or so of Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in a selection of numbers from Jackson's planned This Is It concert tour, the whole thing starts to feel a little icky.

This week the Criterion Collection releases the Roberto Rossellini War Trilogy on DVD, filling an important gap in DVD libraries everywhere. The first and third movies in the trilogy, Open City (1945) and Germany Year Zero (1948), were available in shoddy editions that did not do justice to the films, and the second, Paisan (1946), has been on the hard-to-find list for some time. These movies are notable for establishing the "Italian Neorealism" movement that cropped up just after WWII. Italy was devastated, and several young filmmakers realized that making glossy entertainments felt false under the circumstances. So they grabbed some cameras, some short ends and some inexperienced actors and hit the streets.

The odd thing about Open City is how much of it takes place indoors, and how much it resembles a standard-issue melodrama. But it still contains moments of genuine invention and power -- especially the performance of Anna Magnani -- and it's hard to deny the dangerous and challenging spirit in which it was made. Open City is generally considered one of the greatest films ever made, and Criterion adds it and the other two to an impressive list of Rossellini titles they have released: The Flowers of St. Francis (1950), Il generale della Rovere (1959), The Taking of Power by Louis XIV (1966), and the "History Films" box set, including Blaise Pascal (1972), The Age of the Medici (1973) and Cartesius (1974). Additionally, Lionsgate released a two-disc set not too long ago that included Where is Freedom? (1954) and Escape By Night (1960).

So it's with great anticipation that his supporters look toward 2010, when Carnahan directs again for the first time in four years. His summer studio flick, an update of the television show The A-Team, has earned buzz with a newly unveiled teaser trailer and, he assured Cinematical, will not disappoint fans of the original series. But first, Carnahan offers a more immediate treat for his fans: Smokin' Aces 2: Assassin's Ball, a prequel to Smokin' Aces on DVD this week that stars Tom Berenger, Clayne Crawford, Michael Parks, Vinnie Jones, and Autumn Reeser as the Tremor sister we never knew existed (in a cackling, guns-blazing performance that will eradicate the memory of her goody-two-shoes role on The O.C.).

Full interview after the jump.

Whiteout
Perhaps Kate Beckinsale is the most powerful superchick of them all, lounging in Antarctica without the slightest winter weathering, fighting off the area's first killer. Or, Whiteout is just a lazy movie not worth your time. As Peter Hall said in his review: "Whiteout is the film equivalent of a PC point-and-click adventure game from the '90s." Skip it.

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Gamer
Games stop being purely fictional adventures in this action flick from Crank creators Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. The game controls death row inmates who have a barely-there chance of surviving and earning their freedom. No one ever has ... but Gerard Butler is close. "Gamer is at times striking, and at others silly, and and yet at others sickening, but never too stupid, at least not compared to so much else flash and pop peddled to the masses these days," says William Goss. Rent it.

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The Invention of Lying
Ricky Gervais jumps into the directorial chair while also throwing himself into a world free of lies, and just what happens when he creates the first one, becomes the world's first religious figure, and tries to get the love of the girl? In his review, Eric Snider wrote: "Apart from that and what feels like a rushed finale, however, The Invention of Lying is a satisfying comedy with a fair number of solid laughs. Its strange concept and storyline make it something of a curiosity, too: you can have fun thinking about it even after it's over. Honest." Rent it.

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More big releases after the jump.

The Hurt Locker
Simple and stunning, Kathryn Bigelow directs a character-based action thriller that's also a low-key, lived-in drama. The tension builds slowly and explodes at unexpected moments, which is fitting, since the story follows a three-man Army bomb squad in a war zone. Jeremy Renner is the new squad leader, whose heedless, devil-may-care attitude may be more lethal to his men than the explosives they're charged with disarming. Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty co-star. Buy it.

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Moon
One of SciFi Squad's Best of the Decade, Duncan Jones' directorial debut is "old school science fiction," wrote Jennifer A. Brown, eschewing "gimmickry for a solid, provocative story of identity and memory that will make you wish you never gave up your old copies of Analog. ... Sam Rockwell is mesmerizing, no mean feet considering for most of the film he is alone." Buy it.

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The Brothers Bloom
Finally! More than three months after it became available to rent, Rian Johnson's con man caper may be purchased legally in the U.S. "Adrian Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Rinko Kikuchi, and Rachel Weisz star in "a clever, funny and warm-hearted take on the con man genre," according to our own William Goss. (Will also detailed the features on the Blu-ray and ranted about the release strategy.) You've waited long enough. Buy it.

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Tyler Perry Fans, Buy This: I Can Do Bad All by Myself.
Everyone, Skip These: Fame, Halloween II (rancid and boring), Post Grad (pleasant but non-essential).

After the jump: a wealth of Indies on DVD, plus Classics (?!) on Blu-ray and Collector's Corner.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
The latest in crazy adventure movies, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs offers a world where weather becomes food, where snowball fights morph into ice cream battles. In his review, Todd Gilchrist wrote: "co-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller have adapted Ron and Judi Barrett's kids book into a true larger-than-life tale, creating a world that scarcely resembles anything that could or would happen, and manages to be all the more exciting because of it." Buy it on Blu-ray or DVD.

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The Final Destination
In this formulaic fourth installment, once again: a premonition helps save a group of people, only for them to then die one by one in grotesque ways. Except this time, it's in 3D. In his review, Eric Snider wrote: "You might just as well stay home and watch one of the other three, where at least there will be some devilish wit and ironic humor in evidence. You'll get none of that here." Skip it on Blu-ray or DVD.

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50 Dead Men Walking
Loosely based on a true story, Kari Skogland's thriller finds Jim Sturgess playing Martin McGartland, a young criminal recruited by the British police (Ben Kingsley) to infiltrate the IRA. While some shortcomings are noted, the film received a strong 86% fresh rating. Rent it on Blu-ray or DVD.

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Also out: Good Witch, The Circuit, Tommy and the Cool Mule, Ravage, Below the Earth's Surface, The Ministers

Jennifer's Body
Written by Diablo Cody and directed by Karyn Kusama, Jennifer's Body is a horror movie for people who don't like horror movies, dawdling and teasing and never really coming to grips with whatever it is it's supposed to be about. Amanda Seyfried easily walks away with the picture from ostensible star Megan Fox. But it's worth watching for the discussions it will provoke. Available in both theatrical and extended versions. Rent it. Also on Blu-ray. Diablo fans can also pick up her premium cable TV series, United States of Tara: Season One.

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Paranormal Activity
Ten years after The Blair Witch Project, another 'fake reality' scare show connects with jaded audiences. The simplicity of the set-up by director Oren Peli and the warmth of the married couple -- fighting a bit, loving a bit, pushing each other a bit -- adds to the creepy atmosphere. Rent it. Also on Blu-ray. See Collector's Corner after the jump for another edition.

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9
This is the one without singing and dancing. Shane Acker's animated tale of a nightmarish future got lost in the busy autumn release shuffle, but should find a more receptive audience on home video. As our own William Goss observed, the expansion from Acker's beautiful short film into a feature-length film results in some 'over-explanation,' but animation fans should go nuts. Rent it. Also on Blu-ray.

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