The Mist

All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue. In addition to the titles below, you can watch some very funny recorded improv comedy starring Amy Poehler when you rent The Upright Citizens Brigade: Asssscat!

The Kite Runner
If you enjoyed Khaled Hosseini's bestselling novel, you won't be disappointed by how closely the screen adaptation resembles the book in both plot and its ability to tear your feelings apart. I gave this warning in my review and will say it again: The Kite Runner is not for the faint of heart, and some of the most gut-wrenching scenes from the book are even harder to take visually.

That said, there is much to appreciate about this story, which follows two young boys growing up in Afghanistan before and after the Taliban come to power. The relationship between the two friends is beautifully explored, as tense political events unfold around them. When one of the boys stands mutely aside while his best friend is brutalized, the decision sets off a series of mostly agonizing events and haunts him the rest of his life. In the end, however, it's a tale of love and redemption. Special features include commentary from Khaled Hosseini and the filmmakers.

Two more titles to go — one spooky, one that will take you back in time — so read more

I admit that I wasn’t expecting much from the film adaptation of Stephen King’s novella, The Mist. I thought it might be a fun-scary movie — the kind that jolts you out of your seat with fright but isn't all that memorable. Yet just as the otherwordly mist in the film creeps into a small town in Maine and traps unsuspecting shoppers in a grocery store, The Mist crept up on me, making me realize I was in for a terrifying hour and a half. If you’re looking for quickie scares that will evaporate by the time the movie’s over, look elsewhere. The Mist is a disturbing film that taps into primal fears and real world terrors, and its doomsday mood will stay with you long after you exit the theater.

David Drayton (Thomas Jane) is a movie poster artist whose house is damaged one night after an electrical storm. Together with his son Billy (Nathan Gamble) and neighbor Brent (Andre Braugher) — with whom he's had tense relations in the past — he rides into town to buy groceries. There at the grocery store, the ordinary becomes extraordinary: a dense, white mist surrounds the building, an earthquake rattles its foundations, and a man materializes from the eerie whiteness, blood dripping from his nose, shouting "There's something in the mist! It took John Lee!" Scared yet? Well, read more