This Week in DVD & Blu-ray: The Princess and the Frog, Ninja Assassin, Astro Boy, Armored, Breaking Bad (Season 2), and More

Posted on Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 by Adam Quigley

This Week in DVD & Blu-ray is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD and Blu-ray releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy and Fry’s.

BREAKING BAD (SEASON 2)
Season 2 of Breaking Bad opens with a disturbing but seemingly innocuous shot of a charred stuffed bear floating in a pool, and its relevance is not made clear until the season finale. When provided full context, the remains of that bear is a brutal, in-your-face emblem of the destructive consequences of Walt’s moral decay. Consider the characters we met in Season 1: Walt a mild-mannered chemistry teacher, and Jesse an obnoxious, irresponsible punk. Season 2 finds these characters reaching emotionally devastating new highs and lows, and experiencing those moments with them is as compelling as it is stressful. Between this season and its last, Breaking Bad has solidified itself as one of the greatest shows ever made. If you aren’t watching it, you are missing the best that serialized drama has to offer.
Available on Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras: DVD & Blu-ray – Cast & crew commentaries, deleted scenes, Inside Breaking Bad - 13 Featurettes About The Making of Each Episode, Walt’s Warning Featurette, “Negro y Azul” Music Video, “Better Call Saul” Commercial, 11 Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes, Cop Talk with Dean Norris, a gag reel, 6 Breaking Bad Original Webisodes, Season 3 Sneak Peek, and Vince Gilligan’s Photo Gallery.

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This Week in DVD & Blu-ray: Up in the Air, Precious, The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, and More

Posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 by Adam Quigley

This Week in DVD & Blu-ray is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD and Blu-ray releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy and Fry’s.

UP IN THE AIR
As a drama, Up in the Air offers the best of both cinematic worlds; it contains all the heart and intimacy of a thoughtful indie, and all the pure entertainment value of a mainstream crowd-pleaser. Every scene, every line of dialogue offers either something to laugh at, reflect on, or further engage you in the lives of these characters. It’s one of those movies that’s so immediately watchable, I’m genuinely surprised to find out that there are people who dislike it. It might not be the most daring of cinematic endeavors, but it gets all of the important details right—smart writing, slick filmmaking, tight storytelling, terrific acting, etc.—and explores themes that anybody can relate to, asking the question: Which of these do you want to define your life: your job or your relationships? The answer may seem obvious, but Up in the Air tackles it in a way that refrains from leaving audiences with an easy answer.
Available on Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras: DVD – Commentary by writer/director Jason Reitman and others, a Shadowplay: Before The Story featurette, and deleted scenes. Blu-ray – Includes everything on the DVD, as well as 8 additional deleted scenes, a “Help Yourself” music video by Sad Brad, storyboards, and a American Airlines Prank feature.

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This Week in DVD & Blu-ray: 2012, Where the Wild Things Are, Ponyo, and More

Posted on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 by Adam Quigley

This Week in DVD & Blu-ray is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD and Blu-ray releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy and Fry’s.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
With his adaptation of the classic children’s book Where the Wild Things Are, co-writer/director Spike Jonze took the $100 million budget he was given by the studio to make an accessible family film, and used it to make a heartrending arthouse film for adults. And we could not be better off for it. Never before has a film so honestly and fascinatingly depicted what it’s like to be a kid: the excitement, the loneliness, the confusion, the joy, the anger—even the rapid mood swings that lead from one to the other. There is no traditional three-act arc; the story takes place entirely through the eyes of Max, who invents the world of the Wild Things as a means of coping with his emotional pain, and later uses it to help gain a better understanding of life and himself. Jonze approaches all of the themes with great subtlety and intimacy, even when the larger than life Wild Things are punching holes through trees and launching each other into the air. The cinematography, special effects, sound work, and score are all astounding, and perfectly complement the tone and ideas of the film to create a fully unified vision—all while still firmly retaining the spirit of the book. That a film this unique and wonderful exists is surprising; that it’s been so casually neglected by audiences, critics and the Oscars is straight-up tragic.
Available on Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras: DVD – 4 Webisodes. Blu-ray – Includes everything on the DVD, as well as an all-new short entitled “Higglety Pigglety Pop!” featuring the voices of Meryl Streep and Forest Whitaker, a HBO First Look featurette, a digital copy, and the standard definition DVD.

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This Week in DVD & Blu-ray: The Informant!, The Box, The Damned United, Dead Snow, and More

Posted on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 by Adam Quigley

This Week in DVD & Blu-ray is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD and Blu-ray releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy and Fry’s.

THE INFORMANT!
The true tale at the core of The Informant! is not one that would appear to lend itself very well to comedy, and yet in taking that approach, director Steven Soderbergh managed to craft a sly, unusual little satire that both amuses and perplexes in all the right ways. Soderbergh’s interests appear to lie less in the lysine price-fixing conspiracy that the story revolves around than in the peculiar actions of high-ranking executive Mark Whitacre, presenting an ever-evolving portrait of a goofy, naïve, affable and possibly deranged whistleblower. Viewers will likely feel uneasy at the way the film is presented from Whitacre’s perspective, providing endless stream-of-consciousness anecdotes about corn, polar bears and ’90s corporate thrillers, and yet never giving you a strong sense of what his motives are or what exactly he’s trying to accomplish. The longer the film moves forward though, the more it becomes clear that that’s exactly the point; not even Whitacre is sure why he does the things he does, and it isn’t until he runs out of lies to tell that he stops running his mouth long enough to let that notion dawn on him. Matt Damon’s hilarious, Oscar-deserving performance conveys these facets of Whitacre perfectly, and in doing so, assists Soderbergh in the creation of one of recent cinema’s most fascinating, oddball characters.
Available on Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras: DVD – Deleted scenes. Blu-ray – Includes everything on the DVD, as well as a commentary with director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Burns, and a digital copy of the film.

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This Week in DVD & Blu-ray: Law Abiding Citizen, Black Dynamite, Cabin Fever 2, and More

Posted on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 by Adam Quigley

This Week in DVD & Blu-ray is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD and Blu-ray releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy and Fry’s.

LAW ABIDING CITIZEN
Logic and subtlety are the last things viewers should expect from Law Abiding Citizen, an absurdly enjoyable B-movie thriller that critics made the mistake of trying to take seriously. The film is disposable low-brow entertainment, no question. The unfolding of the plot doesn’t yield a single unanticipated turn, nor does it fail to act on a convenient cliché when one is available—and there are many available. Rarely, though, does a thriller embrace its R-rating as fully as this one. It’s amusing how quickly Gerard Butler’s introduction as the sympathetic anti-hero is tossed aside in favor of full-on deranged villainy—even more so when you realize how much more fun it makes the movie. The gleeful maliciousness that the film displays as it continually cranks up the violence is a little disturbing, but it’s in that gratuitous carnage that Law Abiding Citizen earns its place amongst the rest of the compulsively watchable trash that cinema has to offer.
Available on Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras: DVD – An audio commentary, and behind the scenes featurettes. Blu-ray – Includes everything on the DVD, as well as an exclusive unrated director’s cut.

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This Week in DVD & Blu-ray: A Serious Man, Couples Retreat, Bronson, and More

Posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 by Adam Quigley

This Week in DVD & Blu-ray is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD and Blu-ray releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy and Fry’s.

A SERIOUS MAN
Some films rely on your willingness to invest a great deal of time and energy to analyze their themes and explore what they’re trying to say in order to appreciate them. Better films allow you the privilege of having no idea what the point is without detracting from the overall enjoyment of the experience. A Serious Man is the latter. Between the thematic mirroring of the otherwise unrelated opening Yiddish folktale, the lingering question of a greater power, and the endless perplexing mysteries that plague the character’s lives, it’s a movie with a lot going on under the surface, and one that interested parties will find themselves greatly rewarded by if they decide to dissect it further. Casual viewers, meanwhile, will find just as much to love, with the Coens yet again injecting in every scene their wonderful idiosyncratic touches (see: dialogue, visual style, character mannerisms, etc.), transforming what easily could’ve been a simplistic, ponderous story and turning it into one that’s at once compelling, puzzling and hilarious.
Available on Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras: DVD & Blu-ray – 3 featurettes (”Becoming Serious”, “Creating 1967″, “Hebrew and Yiddish for Goys”).

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This Week in DVD & Blu-ray: Zombieland, The House of the Devil, Ong Bak 2, and More

Posted on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 by Adam Quigley

This Week in DVD & Blu-ray is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD and Blu-ray releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy and Fry’s.

ZOMBIELAND
The zombie film’s usual affixation to the horror genre has been broken. Even Shaun of the Dead acknowledged the unfortunate realities of a zombie outbreak, and in turn, its latter half yielded numerous intense and teary scenes. Zombieland is the first zombie film to not concern itself with such issues, exclusively embracing the fun side of the apocalypse. There’s an element of wish fulfillment to it, as the young, awkward protagonist finds himself—for the first time ever, and as a direct result of the aforementioned “atrocities”—in a position to lock down some hot poon. And you know, build a meaningful relationship and stuff. Moreover, the characters engage in frequent acts of gift store destruction, mansion plundering, and undead obliteration–all things that, putting aside the likelihood of your whole family being dead and all, would make living in a zombie-infested world pretty damn enjoyable. We may not get to experience the thrill of those experiences for ourselves, but coupled with the film’s energetic and stylish directional flair, it’s a joy to watch.
Available on Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras: DVD – Audio commentary with actors Woody Harrelson & Jesse Eisenberg, director Ruben Fleischer, and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, featurettes (”In Search of Zombieland”, “Zombieland is Your Land”), deleted scenes, Visual Effects Progression Scenes, and a Woke Up Dead Episode (”Up and At ‘Em”). Blu-ray – Includes everything on the DVD, as well as a “Beyond the Graveyard” Behind the Scenes Picture-in-Picture Track, and a digital copy of the film.

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This Week in DVD & Blu-ray: Surrogates, Whip It, Saw VI, This Is It, and More

Posted on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 by Adam Quigley

This Week in DVD & Blu-ray is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD and Blu-ray releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy and Fry’s.

SURROGATES
It’s bad, no question. But bad doesn’t necessarily mean unwatchable. At a scant 88 minutes, Surrogates doesn’t linger on a single idea long enough to be boring. Swap out “boring” with “interesting”, and the same point stands. There was undeniably potential here for a vastly better film, one which more creatively explores this world and more thoughtfully examines the many questions that Surrogates only touches on before rushing to hit the next derivative action movie beat. If you’re willing to accept that the movie isn’t going to do that, it should suffice as cheesily enjoyable formula trash. Hopefully you liked I, Robot, because it’s pretty much the same movie.
Available on Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras: DVD – A commentary with director Jonathan Mostow. Blu-ray – Includes everything on the DVD, as well as 2 featurettes (”A More Perfect You: The Science of Surrogates”, “Breaking the Frame: A Graphic Novel Comes to Life”), and 4 deleted scenes.

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This Week in DVD & Blu-ray: Gamer, The Invention of Lying, Pandorum, Weeds (Season 5), and More…

Posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 by Adam Quigley

This Week in DVD & Blu-ray is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD and Blu-ray releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy and Fry’s.

GAMER
The ADD-infused style that suited writers/directors Neveldine/Taylor so well on the Crank films doesn’t quite work to their benefit in Gamer, a futuristic sci-fi action flick which exposes their shortcomings as filmmakers. The film is a mess, blundering through one set piece to the next, with little sense of what the film as a whole is trying to achieve. There’s something to be said for energy and enthusiasm though, of which they clearly have plenty. The movie remains watchable even when you’re not exactly sure what it is that you’re watching. The mindlessness of the action is balanced against a scathing, cynical depiction of what the world has become, and that angle provides the film with just enough to help separate it from the hordes of other futuristic sci-fi actioners that it so clearly evokes. Also, it has Rocky Balboa’s son playing a character named Rick Rape, and a musical number featuring Michael C. Hall. So, yeah… it has that going for it.
Available on Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras: DVD – An audio commentary with writers/directors Neveldine/Taylor and actors Amber Valletta, Alison Lohman, and Terry Crews, an Inside the Game multi-part making-of documentary, a First Person Shooter: The Evolution of Red featurette, and a never-before-seen theatrical trailer cut by the filmmakers. Blu-ray – Includes everything on the DVD, as well as an I-Con Mode interactive feature, Gamer Cheat Codes (interactive specialized scene-specific audio and video commentary accessible throughout the film), and a digital copy of the film.

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This Week in DVD & Blu-ray: The Hurt Locker, In the Loop, Moon, The Brothers Bloom, Halloween II, and More

Posted on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 by Adam Quigley

This Week in DVD & Blu-ray is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD and Blu-ray releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy and Fry’s.

THE HURT LOCKER
There’s a compelling character moment toward the end of The Hurt Locker that takes place in a supermarket, which is startlingly effective in its contrast to prior events. Much of that, I suppose, is due to it being one of the few scenes in the film where somebody’s limbs aren’t as risk of being blown off their torso. This film isn’t attempting to offer any political insights into the Iraq War, or even realistically examine what it is that soldiers stationed out in Iraq go through every day (if that’s what you’re after, I recommend checking out The Wire-creator David Simon’s most recent televised opus, Generation Kill). This film, like District 9, is an action film. It’s less an intricately structured narrative than it is a series of loosely-fitted action set pieces, directed with such precise pacing and weight that the intensity of them literally left me with a migraine upon my initial viewing. Given the predictability of movies nowadays, I found this forgoing of traditional plotting to be a refreshing change of pace. People don’t see war-based action movies to be lectured; they see them because the subject matter lends itself to terrifyingly believable life-or-death scenarios. The Hurt Locker knows that this is the case, and embraces it. It is easily one of the most thrilling movie-going experiences I’ve ever had, and a definite highlight of ‘09.
Available on Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras: DVD & Blu-ray – An audio commentary by director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal, and a “Hurt Locker: Behind the Scenes” featurette.

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