This Week In Movies: ‘The Protector 2,’ ‘Spider-Man 2,’ ‘Walk Of Shame’

We begin the first week of May 2014 with a whopping 18 movie releases, which is a huge amount of films for one single week, not including all those arriving on VOD. Spider-Man 2 is the biggest movie of the week, but I must confess, the documentary DOCUMENTED caught my eye, as well as Kevin Spacey’s theater doc, NOW and BELLE which has had good buzz since TIFF. But since I like action so much, one usually can’t go wrong with a Tony Jaa action film in THE PROTECTOR 2. Not a bad week, but not a great week either. Nevertheless, peruse at your leisure and see if anything catches your attention.

Below is the list of ALL the movies coming out this weekend. Hope you find something interesting to watch!

VOD

18. Whitewash (90m, Drama, Thriller)
Director: Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais
Cast: Thomas Haden Church, Anie Pascale, Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais
Synopsis: In the harsh, wintry woods of rural Quebec, Bruce (Thomas Haden Church), a down-on-his-luck snowplow operator, accidentally kills a man during a drunken night joyride. Stricken with panic, he hides the body and takes to the deep wilderness in hopes of outrunning both the authorities and his own conscience. But as both begin to close in, Bruce falls apart mentally and morally, and mysteries unravel to reveal who he was before the accident, the truth behind his victim, and the circumstances that brought them together in a single moment.

LIMITED RELEASE

17. Friended To Death (R, 1hr. 34min, Comedy)
Director: Sarah Smick
Cast: Ryan Hansen, Zach McGowan, James Immekus, Sarah Smick
Synopsis: To get a reaction from his friends, a man (Ryan Hansen) concocts a scheme to fake his death online.

16. Journey of a Female Comic (PG, 1hr. 28m, Documentary, Comedy, Special Interest)
Director: Erick M. Crespo, Kiki Melendez
Cast: Kiki Melendez, Maria Conchita Alonso, Edward James Olmos
Synopsis: The film chronicles the ups and downs of a Hollywood actress/comedian, Kiki Melendez, as she struggles to make it in Tinsel Town.

15. Speak The Music: Robert Mann And The Mysteries Of Chamber Music (1hr Documentary)
Director: Allan Miller
Cast: Robert Mann
Synopsis: Robert Mann has been a vital force in the world of music for more than seventy years. As founder and first violinist of the Julliard String Quartet, and as a soloist, composer, teacher, and conductor, Mann has brought a refreshing sense of adventure and discovery to chamber music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0PuRCEKodM

14. Unclaimed (Unrated, 1hr. 17m, Documentary, Drama)
Director: Michael Jorgensen
Synopsis: While working in Southeast Asia, a war torn veteran of the Vietnam War discovers a mysterious man claiming to be an American MIA and so begins his struggle to prove the lost soldier’s identity and reunite him with his family.

13. For A Woman (1hr. 50m, Drama)
Director: Diane Kurys
Cast: Benoît Magimel, Mélanie Thierry, Nicolas Duvauchelle
Synopsis: The story of the marriage between Michel and Lena, as told by their daughter Anne, with reflections on the mystery of abiding love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ARlvzPuZw

12. Blood Glacier (98m, Horror)
Director: Marvin Kren
Cast: Gerhard Liebmann, Edita Malovcic, Brigitte Kren
Synopsis: Scientists working in the Austrian Alps discover that a glacier is leaking a liquid that appears to be affecting local wildlife.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IwneZOHaA4

11. Mr. Jones (90m, Drama, Horror, Thriller)
Director: Karl Mueller
Cast: Jon Foster, Sarah Jones, Mark Steger
Synopsis: A young couple moves to the woods and soon finds their nightmares and reality colliding.

10. Bad Johnson (1hr. 28m, Comedy, Fantasy)
Director: Huck Botko
Cast: Cam Gigandet, Jamie Chung, Nick Thune
Synopsis: A charismatic womanizer receives his comeuppance after his penis mysteriously leaves his body and takes human form.

9. Water & Power (Crime, Drama)
Director: Richard Montoya
Cast: Enrique Murciano, Nicholas Gonzalez, Clancy Brown
Synopsis: Twin brothers nicknamed “Water” and “Power” from the hard scrabble Eastside streets of Los Angeles rise like prince’s through the city’s political and police ranks to become players in a complex and dangerous web of the powerful and corrupt of Los Angeles. One a decorated cop – the other a senator, find themselves in a seedy motel room on the eastern edge of Sunset Boulevard on a dark and rainy night. Something has gone very wrong. Can Power exist without Water? The Fixers and Powers of the city need answers. Everybody is looking for the Twins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FElg8E16LeU

8. Documented (89m, Documentary, Biography, Family)
Director: Jose Antonio Vargas, Ann Raffaela Lupo
Cast: Emelie Salinas, Leonila Salinas, Jose Antonio Vargas
Synopsis: In 2011, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas outed himself as an undocumented immigrant in the New York Times Magazine. ‘Documented’ chronicles his journey to America from the Philippines as a child; his journey through America as an immigration reform activist/provocateur; and his journey inward as he re-connects with his mother, whom he hasn’t seen in 20 years.

7. Ida (PG-13, 1hr. 20min, Art House/Foreign, Drama)
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
Cast: Agata Kulesza, Agata Trzebuchowska, Dawid Ogrodnik, Jerzy Trela
Synopsis: 18-year old Anna, a sheltered orphan raised in a convent, is preparing to become a nun when the Mother Superior insists she first visit her sole living relative.

6. NOW: In the Wings on a World Stage (Unrated, 1hr. 33m)
Directors: Jeremy Whelehan
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Maureen Anderman, Stephen Lee Anderson
Synopsis: “NOW: In the Wings on a World Stage” takes us along with twenty British and American actors on a whirlwind ten month international tour of “Richard III,” led by Kevin Spacey in the title role, and directed by Sam Mendes. We see Spacey demonstrate how leadership can unify and bring the best out of the group.

http://youtu.be/rvNioS8GIu0

5. Decoding Annie Parker (R, 1hr 15min, Documentary, Comedy)
Director: Steven Bernstein
Cast: Samantha Morton, Helen Hunt, Aaron Paul, Alice Eve
Synopsis: Love, science, sex, infidelity, disease and comedy, the wild, mostly true story of the irrepressible Annie Parker and the almost discovery of a cure for cancer.

4. Belle (PG, 1hr. 43 min Drama)
Director: Amma Asante
Cast: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Matthew Goode, Emily Watson, Miranda Richardson
Synopsis: The mixed-race daughter of a British admiral becomes a force for change in 18th-century England.

3. The Protector 2 (R, 1hr. 44 min, Action, Adventure, Suspense, Thriller)
Director: Prachya Pinkaew
Cast: Tony Jaa, RZA, Petchtai Wongkamlao, JeeJa Yanin
Synopsis: When the owner of a major elephant camp is murdered, Kham finds himself the number one suspect and on the run from both the police and the deceased’s vengeful the twin nieces. But luck is on Kham’s side when he runs into an Interpol agent sent to Thailand on a secret mission.

WIDE RELEASE

[youtube id=”yaRw4auU2kQ”]

2. Walk of Shame (R , 1hr. 35 min Comedy, Romance)
Director: Steven Brill
Cast: Elizabeth Banks, James Marsden, Gillian Jacobs, Sarah Wright
Synopsis: A reporter’s dream of becoming a news anchor is compromised after a one-night stand leaves her stranded in downtown L.A. without a phone, car, ID or money – and only 8 hours to make it to the most important job interview of her life.

[youtube id=”DlM2CWNTQ84″]

1. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (PG-13, 2hr. 22 min, Action, Adventure, Fantasy)
Director: Marc Webb
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Paul Giamatti
Synopsis: Peter Parker runs the gauntlet as the mysterious company Oscorp sends up a slew of supervillains against him, impacting on his life.