Contagion

Dvd release date: 01/03/2012

Starring: Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Category: Thrillers
Rated: PG-13

An international traveler reaches into the snack bowl at an airport bar before passing her credit card to a waiter. A business meeting begins with a round of handshakes. A man coughs on a crowded bus... One contact. One instant. And a lethal virus is transmitted. When Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) returns to Minneapolis from business in Hong Kong, what she thought was jet lag takes a virulent turn. Two days later, she's dead in the ER and the doctors tell her shocked and grieving husband (Matt Damon) they have no idea why. Soon, others exhibit the same mysterious symptoms: hacking coughs and fever, followed by seizure, brain hemorrhage... and ultimately death. In Minneapolis, Chicago, London, Paris, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, the numbers quickly multiply as the contagion sweeps across all borders, fueled by the countless human interactions that make up the course of an average day. A global pandemic explodes. At the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers mobilize to break the code of a unique biological pathogen as it continues to mutate. Deputy Director Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) tries to allay the growing panic despite his own personal concerns, and must send a brave young doctor (Kate Winslet) into harm's way. At the same time, amid a rising tide of suspicion over a potential vaccine, - and who gets it first - Dr. Leonora Orantes (Marion Cotillard) of the World Health Organization works through the network of connections that could lead back to the source of what they're dealing with. As the death toll escalates and people struggle to protect themselves and their loved ones in a society breaking down, one activist blogger (Jude Law) claims the public isn't getting the truth about what's really going on, and sets off an epidemic of paranoia and fear as infectious as the virus itself.(Publisher)

Summary of critic reviews:

Chicago Tribune: *** (out of four)
New York Post: *** (out of four)
Rolling Stone: **1/2 (out of four)
USA Today: **1/2 (out of four)

Overall: *** (out of four)

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

Dvd release date: 01/03/2012

Starring: Katie Holmes, Guy Pearce
Director: Troy Nixey
Category: Horror
Rated: R

Sally, a young girl, moves to Rhode Island to live with her father and his new girlfriend in the 19th-century mansion they are restoring. While exploring the house, Sally starts to hear voices coming from creatures in the basement whose hidden agenda is to claim her as one of their own. (Publisher)

Summary of critic reviews:

Chicago Tribune: ** (out of four)
New York Post: ** (out of four)
USA Today: ** (out of four)

Overall: ** (out of four)

I Don't Know How She Does It

Dvd release date: 01/03/2012

Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Douglas McGrath
Category: Comedy
Rated: PG-13

Trying to balance work and family is a non-stop juggling act for Kate Reddy (Sarah Jessica Parker). As a determined Boston-based finance executive, she devotes her day to her job and her night to her adoring husband Richard (Greg Kinnear) and their two young children. In between conference calls, meetings, deadlines, and her daughter's school bake sale, Kate manages to survive on a daily basis. But when she gets handed a major new account that will require frequent trips to New York, and Richard also wins the new job he's been hoping for, both will be spreading themselves even thinner. Complicating matters is Kate's charming new business associate Jack Abelhammer (Pierce Brosnan), a handsome executive whose unexpected emotional support becomes a source of refuge. Also starring: Christina Hendricks, Kelsey Grammer, Seth Meyers and Olivia Munn. (Publisher)

Summary of critic reviews:

New York Post: * (out of four)
USA Today: ** (out of four)

Overall: *1/2 (out of four)

Final Destination 5

Dvd release date: 12/27/2011

Starring: Nicholas D'Agosto, Emma Bell
Director: Steven Quale
Category: Horror
Rated: R

Death is just as omnipresent as ever, and in "Final Destination 5" it strikes again. During the bus ride to a corporate retreat, Sam (Nicholas D'Agosto) has a premonition in which he and most of his friends - as well as numerous others - die in a horrific bridge collapse. When his vision ends, events begin to mirror what he had seen, and he frantically ushers as many of his colleagues - including his friend, Peter (Miles Fisher), and girlfriend, Molly (Emma Bell) - away from the disaster before Death can claim them. But these unsuspecting souls were never supposed to survive, and in a terrifying race against time, the ill-fated group tries to discover a way to escape Death's sinister agenda. (Publisher)

Summary of critic reviews:

New York Post: **1/2 (out of four)
Rolling Stone: * (out of four)
USA Today: **1/2 (out of four)

Overall: ** (out of four)

Colombiana

Dvd release date: 12/20/2011

Starring: Zoe Saldana, Jordi MollÃ
Director: Olivier Megaton
Category: Action & Adventure
Rated: PG-13

In the action film "Colombiana", Zoe Saldana plays Cataleya, a young woman who has grown up to be an assassin after witnessing the murder of her parents as a child. Turning herself into a professional killer and working for her uncle, she remains focused on her ultimate goal: to hunt down and get revenge on the mobster responsible for her parents' deaths. (Publisher)

Summary of critic reviews:

New York Post: 1/2 (out of four)
USA Today: **1/2 (out of four)

Overall: *1/2 (out of four)