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It is now May and that means the summer movie season is officially upon us! According to the Internet Movie Database the Top Ten movies to see this summer are:

1. Iron Man 3 (May 3)
2. Elysium (August 9)
3. Star Trek Into Darkness (May 17)
4. Man of Steel (June 14)
5. World War Z (June 21)
6. Pacific Rim (July 12)
7. Monsters University (June 21)
8. The World's End (August 23)
9. The Wolverine (July 26)
10. Despicable Me 2 (July 5)

Many of these films are sequels, prequels, or franchise re-boots. Get excited for them by checking out their accompanying films from the library!

This month's featured actor is Daniel Day-Lewis, a three time Best Actor Academy Award winner. His latest film, Lincoln, is released on DVD and blu-ray on March 26. Check out the Daniel Day-Lewis films the Library has in its DVD collection:

This year's Academy Awards will be held on February 24th. To celebrate, the Library is having an Oscars contest! All you have to do is fill out one of our ballots with your predicted winners and return it to the Reader's Advisory desk at the Library. A contest winner will be drawn from the most accurate ballots once the awards have been announced. Pick up a ballot from the New DVDs shelf at the Library or download one here.

Tomorrow, Sunday, January 6 marks the start of season three of Downton Abbey here in the United States. This season will be set in the 1920s and features Shirley McLaine as Cora's American mother. Get caught up on the previous seasons by checking out the DVDs from the library. We also have the season three DVD on order and you can place a hold on it now! Just click the links below to be taken to the items in the library catalog.

Season One

Season Two

Season Three

November 16

Anna Karenina: The latest film adapation of Tolstoy's classic novel set in Russian high society during the 19th century stars Keira Knightley, Jude Law, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

Lincoln: This new Steven Spielberg film stars Daniel Day-Lewis as the 16th president and is based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2: This is the final movie in the ever popular Twilight series.

November 21

Life of Pi: Yann Martel's novel about a boy stranded on a lifeboat with a tiger, hyena, zebra, and orangutan is made into a film by director Ang Lee.

October 5 marked the 50th anniversary of the James Bond film franchise. Dr. No, the first official James Bond movie, was originally released on October 5, 1962 and starred Sean Connery. Since then 22 Bond movies have been released and six actors have played 007. The next film, Skyfall, starring the current Bond, Daniel Craig, comes out in theaters on November 9th of this year. To celebrate the anniversary, check out some James Bond movies from the Library's DVD collection:

October 19th

Alex Cross - This is a new film about Detective Alex Cross from the popular James Patterson books. The title character is portrayed by Tyler Perry in this thriller, which is based loosely on the novel Cross.

October 26th

Cloud Atlas - This film is based on the 2004 novel by David Mitchell. It is about six different yet connected stories, set in the past and future and in different parts of the world. Several of the film's stars, including Tom Hanks and Halle Berry, play multiple roles.

September 21

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Author Stephen Chbosky wrote the screenplay and directed the film adaptation of his high school coming-of-age novel. It stars Logan Lerman, Ezra Miller, and Harry Potter's Emma Watson.

Alien

As someone who was born in 1979, (the year "Alien" came out) it's with disappointment that I wasn't able to experience "Alien" like I imagine many film-goers did upon its release.  While there were antecedents in literature and in film prior to this film there was really nothing like it before.  One can only speculate (if you were born in 1979 or later of course) what it must have been like to have seen "Alien" without websites with spoilers, or YouTube trailers.  In fact there was hardly anything at the time to warn the viewer about the film they were going to experience beyond word of mouth.  What works best with horror is the unknown, and an unfortunate consequence of human progression is that there is less and less mystery with regard to cinema because of technology.  So while the modern viewer might not have the same guttural reaction that those first time viewers in '79 had to a certain classic dinner scene in Alien, Ridley Scott has at least done his part within the film to portray the horrors of the unknown.