Shame

In addition to the following releases, Born to Be Wild and The Divide are also available.

Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) returns for a fourth installation of the Mission: Impossible franchise, and this time, he and his comrades are forced to go rogue after they're implicated in a bombing at the Kremlin. Disowned from the IMF, if they fail to take down a dangerous Russian spy, they'll be arrested for treason. Costarring Paula Patton, Jeremy Renner, and Simon Pegg, Ghost Protocol is full of over-the-top stunts, crazy gadgetry, and shirtless Tom Cruise at his finest. DVD extras include a three-part look behind the scenes of the movie, interviews with the cast and crew, deleted scenes, and film commentary from director Brad Bird.

93%

Shame

Michael Fassbender stars as a tortured sex addict whose secretive life gets disrupted when his sister (Carey Mulligan) shows up for a visit. The film garnered an NC-17 rating for Fassbender's full-frontal nudity and a slew of graphic sex scenes, but it's worth watching for Fassbender's tour de force performance. The DVD includes a "Focus on Michael Fassbender," "The Story of Shame," "A Shared Vision" featurettes, and well as the theatrical trailer.

80%

With no new major releases this weekend, the box office suffered, but Twilight didn't. Breaking Dawn Part 1 landed at the top of the box office for the third weekend in a row with $16.9 million, in what was the second-lowest grossing weekend of 2011. The Muppets came in second place with $11.2 million, and was followed by a series of family-friendly flicks. Hugo nabbed the No. 3 spot with $7.6 million, while Arthur Christmas came in fourth with $7.4 million, and Happy Feet Two rounded out the top five with $6 million. In limited release, Shame earned $361,000 — not bad considering the NC-17 flick featuring Michael Fassbender as a sex addict only opened in 10 theaters.

Photo courtesy of Summit Entertainment

2011 has been a very big year for Michael Fassbender, and indie drama Shame is already being touted as his breakthrough role. The film, which has been garnering excellent reviews and award buzz on the festival circuit, stars Fassbender as a sex addict whose life gets a bit complicated when his sister (Carey Mulligan) tries to help him. The trailer doesn't give away much plot; in fact, it's mostly clips of Fassbender flirting or getting it on interspersed with shots of him running through the streets of Manhattan.

What you can't tell from the trailer is that the film is a bit controversial — not only does Fassbender go full frontal, but it also has an NC-17 rating. The hype alone was enough to pique my interest, but see the trailer for yourself when you read more

We'd be lying if we said our interest wasn't piqued when we heard our celeb crush Michael Fassbender is starring in the upcoming movie Shame as a sex addict, complete with full-frontal nudity and numerous sexy time scenes. But this is no lighthearted romp in the sack. The film sets out to take a dark and realistic approach to the addiction, showing the emptiness and loneliness of being imprisoned by your carnal desires and living life from one sexcapade to the next.

Sex addiction has been in the public eye in recent years, thanks to big-name celebs like David Duchovny, Russell Brand, and Tiger Woods checking into sex rehab and opening up about their struggles with the controversial illness. So it's no surprise that sex addiction is making its way onto the big screen in Shame and another upcoming film Thanks For Sharing, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, about a group of sex addicts in a 12-step recovery group. While these flicks aren't the first to tackle the issue, they both appear to take a more serious tone than comedies like Choke and A Dirty Shame that make light of sex addiction.

Ironically, Hollywood seems to have its own sex addiction of late, with the history of the vibrator explored in Hysteria, steamy spanking scenes in A Dangerous Method, and a man-candy-filled movie about male strippers on the horizon. Are you interested to see some films seriously deal with sex addiction?

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