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Heroes, yesterday and today
HEROES COME IN all shapes and sizes.
From an industrialist transformed to an activist, to a robot with a heart of gold, the flicks
available this month at Costco and online at
costco.com feature them all. Nearly all titles
are available in DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
Iron Man. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.)
is a self-absorbed engineering genius. He can
build almost anything he can imagine. His
technology company, Stark Enterprises, builds
weapons capable of previously unimaginable
destruction. But a turn of events forces him to
reassess his life’s work and lifestyle, after which
he wants only to protect the people his company has put in harm’s way. His quest, however, proves very complicated. PG- 13.
Kung Fu Panda. Po (voiced by Jack Black),
a portly, clumsy panda bear, becomes an unlikely kung fu hero when a treacherous enemy
spreads chaos throughout the countryside in
this animated martial-arts adventure. Expert
kung fu fighters, the Furious Five—Tigress
PARAMOUN T PIC TURES
I ron Man
PARAMOUNTPICTURES
( Angelina Jolie), Crane (David Cross), Mantis
(Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), Monkey
(Jackie Chan) and their wise sensei, Master
Shifu (Dustin Hoffman)—all draw on their
vast knowledge of fighting skills to transform
a lumbering panda into a lethal fighting
machine. PG.
PARAMOUN T PICTURES
WALL-E. Due to environmental damage
resulting from mismanagement of Earth’s
natural resources, mankind had to leave their
home planet. Seven hundred years after their
exodus, WALL-E (short for Waste Allocation
Load Lifter Earth-Class) a robot, discovers a
new purpose in life when he meets a sleek
search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL-E has inadvertently stumbled
upon the key to the planet’s future, and
races back to space to report her
findings to the humans who
have been eagerly awaiting
word that it is safe to return
home. The ensuing adventure runs across the galaxy
and requires a m onumental
effort by WALL-E to get the
information
to mankind. G.
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. After an
ancient truce existing between humankind
and the invisible realm of the fantastic is
broken, hell on Earth is ready to erupt. The
planet’s toughest superhero, Hellboy (Ron
Perlman) must battle a merciless dictator
and his marauders. Hellboy and his expanding team in the Bureau for Paranormal
Research and Development—pyrokinetic
girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair), aquatic mutant
Abe (Doug Jones) and protoplasmic mystic
Johann—travel between our “normal” world
and the unseen magical one, where creatures of fantasy become visible. And Hellboy,
a creature of two worlds—accepted by neither—must choose between the life he knows
and an unknown destiny that beckons him.
PG- 13.
Get Smart. This film is based on the popular 1960s television comedy series of the
same title. When world order as we know it is
threatened, Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell), an
inexperienced analyst, is promoted to Special
Agent 86. The chief of super spy agency
CONTROL (Alan Arkin) teams Smart with
Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway), an experienced
spy, to thwart a diabolical plot hatched by the
super crime organization KAOS. PG- 13.
UNIVERSAL HOME EN TER TAINMEN T
Hellboy 2
PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS
Also look for Journey to the Center of the
Earth, Tropic Thunder, the complete multi-season packages of the TV series The Sopranos
and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, and the
complete TV mini-series Band of Brothers on
Blu-ray.—Will Fifield