The Sunday Drive: 7/31/11

3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt. 2
Destinies fulfilled and unexpected heroes rise to prominence as the epic clash of good and evil reaches it's ultimate conclusion. The final chapter of Harry Potter's war with Voldemort is a more than satisfying end to the most successful franchise in history.

2. Beats, Rhymes, and Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest
The story of the rise and fall of hip hop's greatest group is a familiar one in a lot of ways. Mounting egos leads to a butting of heads; innocent comments blown out of proportion; friendships ruined. But where it differs is in the personal demons faced by member Pfife Dawg, whose battle with diabetes is the centerpiece of the group's fracturing.
1. Crazy, Stupid, Love
A little bit crazy, kinda stupid at times, but all about love and the way it affects those of many generations. Crazy Stupid Love features fantastic chemistry between it's entire all-star cast, but in particular Steve Carell and Julianne Moore as a recently separated couple who can't figure out where they went wrong. Ryan Gosling gets to play up a side we've never seen from him before, that of a bar hopping womanizer, and is clearly having fun doing it. Combining poignant moments with just a touch of screwball humor, Crazy Stupid Love is one of the summer's most pleasant surprises.

DVD Pick of the Week: Source Code
Duncan Jones follows his stylish, cerebral sci-fi debut, Moon, with a clear cut crowd pleaser. A blend of Hitchcockian elements with technological wonders, Source Code is the thinking man's summer blockbuster, only a few months earlier. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as soldier who finds himself in the midst of a top secret experiment where his consciousness is sent into the last 8 minutes of another person's life, in hopes of discovering the culprit responsible for a terrible terrorist attack. He's forced to repeat those last few minutes until he succeeds. That's the simplest way to explain it, but there's a lot more to it than that. Think of as a science fiction version of Groundhog Day.