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The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
Who: Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Lena Headey, Aidan Turner, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Jared Harris, Kevin Zegers, Kevin Durand
What: A paranormal teen thriller based on the novel by Cassandra Clare. Collins plays a girl named Clary who is thrust into a subworld of demons and Shadowhunters, half-angel warriors who hunt demons, when her mother is kidnapped. Together with Jace (Bower) they seek to save her mother and prevent the Mortal Cup from falling under control of evil forces. Harris plays Hodge Starkweather, and Rhys Meyers plays Valentine Morgenstern.
When: December 3rd - DVD and online on-demand
Why: To be honest, the accented, dangerous, pretty-boy played by Bower, and Collins as lead both appear to indicate that this movie is heavily geared toward teenage girls, of which I am not one. I also feel like the supernatural monster genre feels derivative after the Twilight series (which I also viewed with scorn). But who knows, the effects look like they could be decent, and I'm a fan of Lena Headey, who plays a delicious bad girl in the Game of Thrones series.

Night Train to Lisbon
Who: Jeremy Irons, Mélanie Laurent, Jack Huston, Martina Gedeck, Tom Courtenay, August Diehl, Bruno Ganz, Lena Olin, Christopher Lee, Charlotte Rampling
What: Irons plays a professor seeking the truth about a philosopher during the Salazar dictatorship period in Portugal in this political thriller based on the 2004 novel by Pascal Mercier.
When: December 17th - DVD and online on-demand
Why: I know next to nothing about the Salazar period in Portugal, so this movie might be an interesting introduction to the subject. The source novel is an international best-seller, and this is the kind of movie that will appeal to the literary and film festival crowd.

One Direction: This is Us
Who: Musical group One Direction, director Morgan Spurlock
What: A documentary following the superstar band as they toured in early 2013.
When: December 17th - DVD and online on-demand
Why: I don't follow these guys so I decided to watch this movie so I could converse with my niece if needed. I was surprised to find that I was impressed by these guys. Unlike Spurlock's social issue documentaries (Super Size Me, POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold), he doesn't add any factoid voiceovers - it's almost entirely footage of concerts and behind the scenes with the group members and family/staff interviews.

Only God Forgives
Who: Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vithaya Pansringarm
What: A revenge thriller set in Thailand. Gosling plays a criminal, running drugs and prostitutes from a boxing club in Thailand. When his brother is killed, and his mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) puts out a hit on the cop who killed her son, Gosling's character is drawn into a violent duel with the cop.
When: December 3rd - DVD, Netflix streaming, and online on-demand
Why: I remember coming out of the theater for Drive and hearing a lot of the crowd utterly confused about what they had just seen. I think that was largely due to a marketing campaign that suggested something different than what it was, but I thought the movie's style was very cool. So the return combination of director Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling is a big seller for me. Reviews have been good, but viewers should be aware going in that this is a heavy R-rated film due to the violence.

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