New Releases for the week of July 13-19
Under the Skin
An alien hides its identity by taking the body of a beautiful young woman. She travels through the streets of Scotland while hunting and luring her masculine prey. After seducing her victims, she leaves the men for dead. But when she encounters a man with neurofibromatosis, the alien is struck with a sudden epiphany, one that allows her to become more aware of the human body and the emotions it holds.
Director: Jonathan Glazer. Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Paul Brannigan, Jessica Mance, Joe Szula, Krystof Hádek, Jeremy McWilliams. 2013. 108 min. Sci-fi.
Rio 2
After Blu (Eisenberg) discovers his former owners are searching the Amazon for the lost feather of a spix’s macaw, Jewel (Hathaway) suggests leaving Rio de Janeiro with their three kids to help their human friends. But the wild Amazon creates numerous obstacles for Blu as he goes beak-to-beak with an avenging Nigel (Clement) and meets Jewel’s long lost father, Eduardo (Garcia).
Director: Carlos Saldanha. Stars: Anne Hathaway, Jesse Eisenberg, Jemaine Clement, Andy Garcia, Tracy Morgan, George Lopez, Leslie Mann, Rodrigo Santoro, Jake T. Austin, Jamie Foxx, Kristin Chenoweth, Rita Moreno. 2014. 101 min. Animation
A Day Late and a Dollar Short
When Viola Price (Goldberg), a bitter grande dame, discovers her next asthma attack will likely be the end of her life, she realizes she must repair her severely broken family before it’s too late. However, Viola must struggle to win the hearts of the Price family, who haven’t felt much sincerity or kindness from the woman in decades.
Director: Stephen Tolkin. Stars: Whoopi Goldberg, Mekhi Phifer, Ving Rhames, Kimberly Elise , Anika Noni Rose. 2014. 88 min. Drama.
Torment
When newlyweds Cory (Dunne) and Sarah (Isabelle) take their seven-year-old son Liam (DaCunha) to a country home for some much-needed bonding, their family vacation takes a sadistic and horrific turn when Liam goes missing. The psychological suspense intensifies as Cory and Sarah discover a cult-like family have been hiding in the house and have taken Liam as one of their own.
Director: Jordan Barker. Stars: Katharine Isabelle, Robin Dunne, Peter DaCunha, Stephen McHattie. 2013. 82 min. Horror.
True Blood, on HBO
Sookie (Anna Paquin), Bill (Stephen Moyer) and the gang are back for another bloody night in Bon Temps in this new episode. Now in its final season, the massively popular series follows vampires and other supernatural beings living alongside humans in the American south.
Wipeout, on ABC
The action ramps up as 24 new competitors tackle the world's largest extreme obstacle course. In this episode, a team of attractive people will compete against a team of "nerds" to see who will get further and take the prize.
Crossbones, on NBC Global
Lowe (Richard Coyle) makes plans to kidnap Blackbeard (John Malkovich) and turn him in to the authorities in this new episode. He hopes his plan will save the citizens of Santa Compana from the villainous wrath of William Jagger (Julian Sands).
Working the Engels, on NBC
Renowned comedian Andrea Martin stars as the family matriarch in this kooky Canadian-American sitcom. In the pilot episode, Jenna (Kacey Rohl) leaves her job at a corporate law firm to take over her dead father's practice with the help of her loving, if intractable, family.
The Bridge, on FX
A man connected to Sonya's (Diane Kruger) past resurfaces in this season premiere. Marco (Demian Bichir) feels his safety threatened in his own department, while Frye (Matthew Lillard) and Adriana (Emily Rios) look into the origins of the "money house."
Celebrity Wife Swap, on ABC
The dads trade places in this new episode. Two families will be turned on their heads when Comedian Joe Piscopo of "Saturday Night Live" fame switches homes with "The Brady Bunch's" Barry Williams. The guys move in lock, stock and barrel, but there's bound to be some friction.
Under the Dome, on CBS Global
Chester's Mill is faced with a fresh crisis in this new episode. When Rebecca (Karla Crome) makes the unsettling discovery that an infestation of butterfly eggs is threatening the town's crops, Barbie (Mike Vogel) risks his life to help her save the food supply.
Witches of East End, on Lifetime TV
The Beauchamp family is back for a second enchanting season. After discovering last season that they were witches, sisters Freya (Jenna Dewan-Tatum) and Ingrid (Rachel Boston) learned to hone their powers while protecting their family from supernatural beings with malicious intentions.
New Releases for the week of July 6-12
Bad Words
Forty-year-old Guy Trilby (Bateman) is a middle school dropout who never had the chance to meet his biological father -- the man who left his mother upon learning of her pregnancy. When he discovers his father runs one of the largest spelling bees in America, he aims to seek revenge on the man he never knew. In order to do so, he attempts to win the Golden Quill spelling bee to ensure his father forever remembers his name.
Director: Jason Bateman. Stars: Jason Bateman, Rohan Chand, Kathryn Hahn, Allison Janney, Philip Baker Hall, Judith Hoag, Beth Grant. 2013. 89 min. Comedy.
Nymphomaniac Volumes I & II
On a cold night in winter, Seligman (Skarsgård), an aging bachelor, finds a woman badly beaten in an alley and takes her into his home to tend to her wounds. The woman, Joe (Gainsbourg/Martin), is a self-diagnosed nymphomaniac and has long struggled with an obsession with sex. As Seligman listens on, she tells him the story of her highly erotic life, recounted from adolescence through to young adulthood.
Director: Lars von Trier. Stars: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Shia LaBeouf, Stacy Martin, Willem Dafoe, Mia Goth, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Christian Slater, Jamie Bell, Uma Thurman, Michael Pas, Connie Nielsen. 2014. 118 min. Drama.
Wings: Sky Force Heroes
An egotistical firefighter named Ace (Duhamel) is forced to resign and work in the coal mines after resisting his colonel’s (Skerritt) orders in an attempt to carry out a reckless solo mission -- an act that had tremendous consequences for himself and his team. But when a fire breaks out in the mines, Ace may still prove that he is destined to be a hero.
Directors: Tony Tang, Mychal Simka. Stars: Josh Duhamel, Rob Schneider, Tom Skerritt, Jesse McCartney, Hilary Duff, Dallas Lovato, Russell Peters. 2014. 84 min. Animation.
Kid Cannabis
This true story centres on Idaho dropout Nate Norman (Brown), whose world is forever altered after he builds a multimillion-dollar marijuana trafficking business that reaches across the border of Canada in order to earn a life he never knew existed.
Director: John Stockwell. Stars: Jonathan Daniel Brown, Kenny Wormald, Ron Perlman, John C. McGinley, Aaron Yoo, Corey Large, Bryce Hodgson, Lochlyn Munro. 2014. 110 min. Drama.