The Month’s Top U.S. Releases: May 2011

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Released 3rd May:

The Green Hornet:

Format: 3D Blu-ray/Blu-ray/DVD Classification: PG-13

Stars:  Seth Rogen (Knocked Up), Jay Chou (Curse of the Golden Flower), Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds)

After the death of his media-mogul father, wealthy playboy Britt Reid (Rogen) decides to take up his crusading mantle in a rather different fashion; by teaming up with his father’s mechanic Kato (Chou) to become the superhero The Green Hornet, and fight LA’s most ruthless criminals.

Released 10th May:

No Strings Attached:

Format: Blu-ray (Triple Play)/DVD Classification: R

Stars: Natalie Portman (Black Swan), Ashton Kutcher (The Butterfly Effect), Kevin Kline (Wild Wild West), Cary Elwes (Saw)

A guy and a girl; two best friends named Emma (Portman) and Adam (Kutcher); try to keep their relationship purely physical, but soon begin to realise that they both want something more, in this heavily R-rated comedy from Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman.

Watch the Red-Band trailer for No Strings Attached here.

Released 17th May:

The Mechanic:

Format: Blu-ray/DVD Classification: R

Stars:Jason Statham (The Expendables), Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma), Tony Goldwyn (Ghost), Donald Sutherland (The Eagle)

Arthur Bishop is an assassin; the best in his business; and begins to train the son of his latest victim out of guilt for having killed his father (Arthur’s best friend), but will the student find out? And was the cost of murdering a friend more than Arthur can bare?

Read our review of The Mechanic here, or find our interview with star Donald Sutherland here.

The Rite:

Format: Blu-ray (Triple Play)/Blu-ray/DVD Classification: PG-13

Stars:Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs), Cirian Hinds (Rome), Alice Braga (Predators), Rutger Hauer (The Hitcher)

A supernatural thriller inspired by true events; about a seminary student who, despite having doubts about the controversial practice, is sent to study exorcism at the Vatican, and witnesses a phenomenon he can neither explain or control, forcing him to question everything he believes in.

Released 24th May:

I Am Number Four:

Format: Blu-ray (Triple Play)/Blu-ray/DVD Classification: PG-13

Stars: Alex Pettyfer (Beastly), Timothy Olyphant (Justified), Teresa Palmer (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice), Kevin Durand (Robin Hood)

Masking his true identity, John (Pettyfer) is an extraordinary teen who passes for a typical high-school student, but is really a member of a handful of aliens hiding on Earth from would be killers. Three like him have already been killed… he is number four.

 

The Big Bang:

Format: Blu-ray/DVD Classification: Not Rated

Stars:Antonio Banderas (Desperado), Sam Elliot (Road House), Snoop Dogg (Starsky and Hutch), Autumn Reeser (The Bannen Way)

A film noir style movie which places a run-down private investigator (Banderas) on the search for a missing stripper; along the way making contact with all sorts of criminals, porn kings (Snoop Dogg), and billionaires conducting crazy physics experiments.

Watch the official trailer for The Big Bang here.

Released 31st May:

 

Drive Angry:

Format: 3D Blu-ray/Blu-ray/DVD Classification: R

Stars:Nicholas Cage (Face/Off), Amber Heard (The Stepfather), William Fichtner (The Dark Knight)

Condemned to spend eternity in hell for his sins, a vengeful father (Cage) escapes from hell to seek revenge upon the men who killed his daughter and kidnapped his granddaughter; whilst being pursued by the Devil’s right-hand-man (Fichtner).

 

Passion Play:

Format: Blu-ray /DVD     Classification: R

Stars:Mickey Rourke (The Expendables), Megan Fox (Transformers), Bill Murray (Ghostbusters), Rhys Ifans (Mr Nice)

A one of a kind, seductive, thriller; from the screenwriter of The Recruit; about a washed up jazz musician (Rourke) who never wanted to betray gangster Happy Shannon (Murray), but may be about to, as he’s tasked with delivering a beautiful carnival attraction named Lily (Fox) to him.

 

A Clockwork Orange (Anniversary Edition):

Format: Blu-ray  Classification: R

Stars: Malcolm McDowell (Halloween, 2007), Patrick Magee (Barry Lyndon), Warren Clarke (Top Secret!), John Clive (The Italian Job)

Stanley Kubrick’s classic, brutal, and often disturbing, masterpiece takes place in future Britain; where the charismatic delinquent Alex (McDowell) is jailed, and volunteers for experimental aversion therapy designed to solve society’s crime epidemic.

True Blood: The Complete Third Season:

Format: Blu-ray/DVD Classification: Not-Rated

Stars: Anna Pacquin (X-Men), Stephen Moyer (88 Minutes), Alexander Skarsgard (Generation Kill), Ryan Kwanten (Dead Silence)

After Bill’s mysterious kidnaping, Sookie Stackhouse heads to Mississippi; where she becomes entangled in a world ruled by a pack of vicious werewolves, meets a vampire king, and begins to believe that maybe Bill can’t be trusted.


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Matt Wheeldon is the Founder, and Editor in Chief of Good Film Guide. He still refers to the cinema as "the pictures", and has what some would describe as a misguided appreciation for Waterworld.