New on DVD & Blu-Ray: 'Ender's Game', 'The Best Man Holiday', 'All is Lost'

Ender's Game - Based on the popular book by Orson Scott Card, the film follows Ender Wiggin, a kid who is recruited to battle school in order to train and prepare himself mentally for the next alien invasion attack on earth. But Ender isn't a soldier, as the battle school only recruits young boys to train by watching them as children to see if they're worthy of being recruited. The film stars Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield, and Viola Davis. 

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The Jungle Book (Diamond Edition) - The beloved Disney classic is getting its first Blu-ray release as we celebrate such classic songs like "Bare Necessities" and "That's What Friends Are For" that made the movie so memorable. Now Mowgli and Baloo can be seen in even better quality you can enjoy with the family over and over again. 

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The Best Man Holiday - Taye Diggs, Nia Long, and the rest of The Best Man gang are back in this fun sequel. When they get together for a reunion over Christmas, they remember how easy it is for old rivalries and romances to be brought into the present. The film stars Morris Chestnut, Taye Diggs, Nia Long, Monica Calhoun, Melissa De Sousa, Regina Hall, and Terrence Howard. 

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Austenland - Jane Austen's novels have been a staple in the literary world for a long time. To the point where many women would like their own versions of Mr. Darcy and be Lizzy Bennett for a day. Well, Jane (not Austen) is so obsessed with Austen's novels that any man she goes out with never quite meets her standards. And as her experiences get worse, she clings to Austen's world even more. So, to kick her habit and experience some time with a Mr. Darcy of her own, Jane travels to England to Austenland, where the world of Jane Austen comes to life. The film stars Keri Russell and Jane Seymour. 

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All is Lost - There's nothing scarier than being stranded and alone in the middle of the ocean after having a cargo storage container ram into your boat. This film is a story about survival as even Robert Redford's character doesn't have a name, just a man at sea. The movie's subtle and evokes emotions from the audience because of everything that Redford has to fight through in order to survive. 

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The Counselor - Director Ridley Scott and author Cormac McCarthy bring to life a story of a lawyer who gets in over his head when he buys into a drug cartel and it all goes to hell. He's forced to deal with the consequences once events start getting out of his control and learns a major lesson in the choices one makes and the aftermath. The film has an all-star cast in Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem, and Peneleope Cruz. 

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Diana - Since the death of Princess Diana in 1997, her story has been told and told again. This time around, Naomi Watts plays the beloved princess. The new take on this story being the focus on only the last two years of Diana's life and her relationship with heart surgeon Hasnat Khan. The film also stars Cas Anvar, Naveen Andrews, and Charles Edwards. 

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The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box - When Mariah's parents vanish and his brother is kidnapped, he sets out on an adventure to find the Midas box. A box tasked by his parents and a secret organization to protect from anyone looking to find it and use it for evil purposes. Mariah is given the responsibility of spying at a hotel where the box is hidden underground and tries to stop its destruction. The film stars Sam Neill, Michael Sheen, and Lena Heady.

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Chicago (Diamond Edition) - The Diamond Edition of the Best Picture Academy Award Winning film is now available. Watch the special edition and re-watch Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart battle it out in a stunning silver screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical. The film stars Renee Zellweger, Catherin Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, John C. Reilly, Queen Latifah, Lucy Liu, and Taye Diggs. 

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Wadjda - A young Saudi Arabian girl signs up for Koran recitation class so that she can win the competition and gain the funds needed to finally get the green bicycle she's been wanting. Through her eyes, we see her culture. We watch as she befriends a neighborhood boy, watches the relationship between her mother and father deteriorate, and get through her days at school. The film stars Waad Mohammed, Reem Abdullah, Abdullrahman Al Gohani. 

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The Armstrong Lie - Alex Gibney started out making a documentary about the return of Lance Armstrong to professional cycling, but had to seriously rethink his project when Armstrong admitted that he'd take performance enhancing drugs and was then stripped of all his tour de France titles. The film explores the cyclists history from before he began his professional career to the present day. 

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G.B.F - Two closeted gay friends are taken on a Mean Girls-esque adventure when one of them is outed and then targeted by the three most popular girls in school to be their G.B.F. (gay best friend), and the new must-have accessory. The film is funny, witty, and quotable and stars Michael J. Willett, Paul Iocono, Sasha Pieterse, Evanna Lynch, Andrea Bowen, Molly Tarlov, and Joanna 'JoJo' Levesque.

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Life of a King - In order to help troubled teens living in inner-cities in Washington, DC, ex-felon Eugene Brown, establishes a chess club for them to participate in. The film stars Cuba Gooding, Jr., Thurston Hill, Dennis Haysbert, and Lisa Gay Hamilton. 

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Review: 'All Is Lost' Starring Robert Redford

After J.C. Chandor's talky financial world drama Margin Call, for which his screenplay earned an Oscar nomination, one would have been excused for thinking that was the course his career would continue to take. He'd be another of many filmmakers who are perhaps better writers than purveyors of visual artistry, and it wouldn't be surprising to see him helm an HBO political film or something as his sophomore effort. But for his sophomore effort, the rigorous high-seas survival thriller All Is Lost, Chandor shows he's a true cinematic chameleon in every sense of the word, right up there with the unpredictable Danny Boyle. And in the process helps the great Robert Redford deliver one of the finest performances of his storied career.

Burning with a young man's vigor and stripped bare of every ounce of celebrity, Redford commands the screen and drags us into the watery ordeal with him, leaving us adrift in the midst of his unnamed character's existential crisis. Other than a few words of dialogue, read from a poignant note he's writing in the very beginning, we learn very little about Redford's character. We see a wedding band on his finger, but that's about all we can surmise. He could be anyone; a regular guy who we know has deep regrets about some mistake from his past, and at the pit of an obvious despair makes one final desperate attempt to address those wrongs.

We're then thrust eight days into the past, when a random shipping container carrying loads of sneakers has collided with his boat, a recreational vessel he clearly uses as an escape from the rest of the world. As such, he's all alone as the decks begin to take on water at a rapid clip. Initially it's unclear just how much nautical experience he has, but over time we come to realize he's a smart, intuitive jack-of-all-trades. Whether that's enough to survive what quickly escalates into a very real life-or-death situation is another story altogether.

But don't get it into your head that this is just another film where one man overcomes the odds and battles Mother Nature in a true triumph of the human spirit. There are elements of that, sure, but mainly this is a concise, rather simple story about loneliness and the fear of dying. All Is Lost makes for a perfect companion piece to Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity in that way, and covers much of the same emotional territory just as effectively. The visceral sense of helplessness and yes, even weightlessness, are evoked brilliantly by Chandor as Redford's character is frequently thrown about the ship's cabin, tossing and turning in unfathomable angles at the full mercy of the ocean's wrath, all while trapped in its vast emptiness. Chandor's ability to capture the overwhelming power and terror of the seas is something to behold, adding an incredible sense of urgency behind every moment.

That immediacy is needed because much of what Redford's character actually does can be considered mundane. Attempting to fix the ship's communications; patching up the hole in the hull; and gathering his most precious items aren't exactly exciting, but they reveal a man of great wisdom and preparedness. Redford projects these qualities effortlessly, both in look and demeanor, without need of uttering a word other than the occasional grunt and expletive. The physical demands increase as the story grows darker and more ominous, and Redford is more than up to the challenge. Chandor wisely refrains from giving in to typical thriller tropes, allowing the creaky sounds of buckling wood and crashing waves to ratchet up the tension to uncomfortable levels. Such a high level of realism is attained that it makes the few unbelievable occurrences stand out a little more, in particular a conclusion that doesn't quite gel with the tone Chandor had painstakingly established. Regardless, this is brilliant, evocative filmmaking that Chandor makes look extremely simple in execution, and one can only imagine what he'll do to try and top it.

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Robert Redford is Lost at Sea in Trailer for 'All Is Lost'

Embarking on an exciting new path in his storied career, Robert Redford seems to be challenging himself in ways few would predict. Earlier this year he gave us the taut political thriller The Company You Keep, and he'll be venturing into the world of superheroes for the first time in Marvel's Captain America sequel. But one film that critics are still buzzing about months after Cannes is All Is Lost, hailed for its sheer intensity and Redford's commanding solo performance. A clip hit the web awhile back that gave us a look at just how harrowing the film would be, but the new trailer suggests it could be even more gripping.

Featuring almost no dialogue, the trailer relies on the stunning visuals capturing the power of Mother Nature's fury to do all of the talking. Redford is a man lost at sea and battling the elements aboard his sinking ship. As the incredibly tense footage shows, things go from bad to worse as a storm rages, sharks begin circling, and Redford is forced to rely on his own wits and survival instinct to survive.

Remarkably, this comes from director J.C. Chandor, who gave us the economic crisis film Margin Call.  As Redford continues to push himself in new directions, it's just as fascinating to see a young filmmaker like Chandor doing the same. All Is Lost opens on October 18th.

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First clip from J.C. Chandor's 'All Is Lost' starring Robert Redford

Here's the interesting thing about film festivals, especially the big ones like Cannes, when you're not actually there to attend it: You pretty much know right away whether a film has won or failed. For instance, when Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling's Only God Forgives got booed mercilessly by the Croisette crowd, it spread all over the Internets like a rash in a matter of minutes. At the same time, when a film that nobody was expecting much from turns out to be the surprise hit of the show....well, it can be the kind of boost that catapults it to future glory.

Such is the case with All Is Lost, the follow-up feature from J.C. Chandor, who burst onto the scene a couple of years ago with his economic crisis flick, Margin Call. The film earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay, and Chandor decided his next move was to do a complete 180 and tell a story of human survival featuring a screen legend and practically no dialogue. Robert Redford, who at the age of 76 is performing most of his own stunts, plays a man on a solo voyage who wakes to discover his yacht taking on water in the middle of the Indian Ocean. As he works to fix the damage and repair the radio, a violent storm approaches and he must do whatever he can to survive the assault.

The first clip has been released, and if anything it shows that this isn't going to be just another Cast Away. Redford's character is silently working atop the ship's mast, while the storm looms ominously in the distance. Look for All Is Lost to hit theaters on October 25th.

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