Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
This Week in DVD: Speed Racer, The Love Guru, Pushing Daisies, 88 Minutes, and More…
Posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 by Adam Quigley
This Week in DVD is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy, Circuit City, and Fry’s.
SPEED RACER
A film that has earned equal shares vehement hatred and unabashed praise, Speed Racer has proven itself one of the most divisive films to come out in a long while. This fact was made very clear when the movie only earned back $40 million of its $120 million budget. Even so, I have to admit to being one of the supporters for the film, as once I got past my initial nausea in reaction to the film’s over-stylized visuals (which are tantamount to what you might get if the Easter Bunny had a nasty case of rainbow diarrhea), the kickass action sequences, strong actors and palpable appreciation for the source material make the whole experience a very fun and worthwhile ride.
Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras: Unsurprisingly, there isn’t much in the way of special features for this massive box office flop. We only get two featurettes (’Speed Racer: Supercharged’ and ‘Spritle in the Big Leagues’).
| BEST PRICE | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Target | Best Buy | Circuit City | Fry’s |
| $16.99 | $15.99 | $14.99 | |
| Amazon – $15.99 | |||
EXCLUSIVE DEAL:
What? Exclusive deluxe edition ($22.99).
Where? Target.
PUSHING DAISIES (SEASON 1)
This will be the first DVD I’ve ever blind bought. Normally I’d test the waters through Netflix before potentially wasting $20 bucks, but after being unable to escape the show’s constant praise (with words being thrown around like “wonderful,” “quirky,” “unique,” “brilliant,” “magical,” etc. etc.) and discovering it’s from the creator of one of my favorite shows, Dead Like Me, I get a strong feeling that this is a purchase I won’t regret. The premise revolves around a man named Ned who possesses the ability to bring the dead to life (and back to death again) with only a touch. However, if they remain alive for longer than a minute, someone else dies in their place. Season 1 contains 9 episodes.
Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras: There’s a substantial amount of material available to access, but the only way to get to it is through a feature called ‘Pie Time: Time for Pie.’ It allows you to view the episodes and periodically select a cursor that appears onscreen, and from there it takes you to individual feaurettes.
| BEST PRICE | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Target | Best Buy | Circuit City | Fry’s |
| $22.99 | $24.99 | $19.99 | N/A |
| Amazon – $18.99 | |||
EXCLUSIVE DEAL:
What? Exclusive book.
Where? Target.
CHUCK (SEASON 1)
You guys can go ahead and debate over the quality of this show, because I honestly could not have less interest in it. I remember watching the pilot episode and now looking back there’s not one scene I can remember from it. I also remember catching the last five minutes of almost every episode before Heroes would air, and being confused as to whether they were just playing reruns of the same episode over and over again (since they all seemed to resolve in the exact same way). However, there’s a reason this is in the good section and not the bad: people like it. Maybe I need to actually invest some time in the show before I understand why, but apparently the season continued to get better as it went along. So if you’re in the mood for an action dramedy about a computer geek turned secret agent, by all means check out Chuck. Season 1 contains 13 episodes.
Blu-ray? Will be released November 11, 2008.
Notable Extras: Declassified Scenes, 2 featurettes (’Chuck’s World’, ‘Chuck on Chuck’), a gag reel, and a gallery of web originated mini-featurettes.
| BEST PRICE | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Target | Best Buy | Circuit City | Fry’s |
| $27.99 | $29.99 | N/A | |
| Amazon – $25.99 | |||
88 MINUTES
So many people doubted me when I said Righteous Kill would be bad. “How the hell do you take two of the world’s best actors and make a shitty movie?” Unfortunately, half that question was already answered when Righteous Kill director Jon Avnet squandered Al Pacino’s talents with 88 Minutes, a movie that currently holds a whopping 6% on Rotten Tomatoes and was even slapped with the indignity of being released straight-to-DVD outside of the U.S. before its domestic release. And now that Righteous Kill has been released to a 22% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it seems a lot of the blame can continued to be put squarely on director Jon Avnet. Here’s a tip for studios: next time you want to pair together two of the world’s most badass actors, choose a competent director who hasn’t already put one of those actors to shame in a film like this.
Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras: A director commentary, an alternate ending, and 2 featurettes (’Director’s Point of View’, ‘The Character Within’).
| BEST PRICE | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Target | Best Buy | Circuit City | Fry’s |
| $19.99 | $16.99 | $17.99 | $16.99 |
| Amazon – $24.99 | |||
THE LOVE GURU
(Available as single-disc and 2-Disc Digital Copy Special Editions)
Featured as one of this week’s Shit Movies of the Week on the /Filmcast, The Love Guru is possibly one of the most embarrassing comedies I’ve ever had the misfortune of seeing. It’s almost even on the level of a Jason Friedberg/Aaron Seltzer production (the geniuses behind Date Movie, Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, and so on…) as there’s a constant supply of random pop culture references that aren’t funny and don’t relate to anything going on in the movie, of which there really isn’t much to begin with. When the film isn’t wasting time on unfunny referential nonsense, Mike Myers makes sure to keep things moving by incessantly mugging for the camera and overall just making a huge ass of himself, a fact that’s further evidenced every time he recycles his own material from the Austin Powers films.
Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras: Extras on the single-disc include featurettes (’One Hellava Elephant’, ‘Hockey Training for Actors’, ‘Back In The Booth With Trent and Jay’), 11 deleted and extended scenes, and bloopers. The only addition exclusive to the 2-disc is a digital copy of the film.
| BEST PRICE | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Target | Best Buy | Circuit City | Fry’s |
| $16.99 | $17.99 | $16.99 | |
| Amazon – $18.99 | |||
*Does not include 2-Disc Edition, which costs $22.99 at each of the listed stores (including Amazon).
MADE OF HONOR
I don’t think anybody was really debating over whether or not this would be anything more than just another inoffensive, bland and unoriginal chick flick, but the 12% on Rotten Tomatoes and 5.4 rating on IMDB certainly solidify those expectations nicely. Apparently Hugh Grant and Matthew McConaughey weren’t available for the role of “awkward yet likable leading man with a good heart,” so the role went to Patrick Dempsey. Not even the amazing Michelle Monaghan (from one of my favorite films, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) presents enough incentive to give this film the go-ahead. And man does that stupid pun in the title make me cringe.
Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras: Just a director commentary.
| BEST PRICE | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Target | Best Buy | Circuit City | Fry’s |
| $16.99 | $15.99 | $14.99 | |
| Amazon – $15.99 | |||
EXCLUSIVE DEAL:
What? Deluxe edition ($22.99), includes exclusive bonus content and digital copy.
Where? Target.
Other noteworthy DVDs available this week…
Young@Heart – Snow Angels – Beetlejuice (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) – Risky Business (Deluxe Edition) – The Breakfast Club (Flashback Edition) – Sixteen Candles (Flashback Edition) – Weird Science (Flashback Edition) – Blood Simple (Director’s Cut) – Will & Grace (Season 8) – Private Practice (Season 1) – Dirty Sexy Money (Season 1) – Torchwood (Season 2) – Criminal Minds (Season 3)
Discuss: What are you planning to rent or buy this week?
NOTE: Some deals may be in-store only.
Exclusive: Free $10 Target GiftCard with purchase of both Private Practice (Season 1) ($29.99) and Dirty Sexy Money (Season 1) ($29.99).
$19.99 – Dexter (Season 1 or 2), Family Guy (Volumes 3 – 5), and more…
$29.99 – The Office (Seasons 2 – 4), House (Seasons 1 – 4)
$10 – Casino Royale, The Kingdom, Stomp the Yard, and more…
Exclusive: Save $10 with purchase of both Private Practice (Season 1) ($29.99) and Dirty Sexy Money (Season 1) ($29.99).
$14.99 – Doomsday, The Bank Job, There Will Be Blood, Vantage Point, The Other Boleyn Girl, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, 21, What Happens in Vegas, and more…
$4.99 – Vanilla Sky, The Manchurian Candidate, Enemy at the Gates, Road to Perdition, 8 Mile, The Hunt for Red October, Spy Game, Jacob’s Ladder, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Patriot Games, Double Jeopardy, For Love of the Game, and more…
$6.99 – Punch-Drunk Love, Say Anything, Jerry Maguire, Garden State, The Girl Next Door, Sleepless in Seattle, Legally Blonde, Guess Who, 50 First Dates, and more…
$3.99 – Jeepers Creepers, Blue Velvet, Fargo, Hotel Rwanda, Eight Men Out, This is Spinal Tap, Dances with Wolves, Hoosiers, and more…
You can be the coolest one at this year’s Halloween party by dressing up like Speed Racer’s Racer X on Halloween? Yes, I was being sarcastic.
Note: This post will be tacked to the top of /Film until Sunday.
Okay, so Speed Racer hit theaters nationwide today. Most movie critics are slamming The Wachowski Brother’s latest film (35% on Rotten Tomatoes). I actually had a lot of fun, but was left exhausted. I very much appreciated the cinematography and editing which made the movie look and feel like a live action anime, but felt the story was lacking. But enough about me…
I want to know what you thought of the movie. Leave your mini review in the comments below!
Speed Racer: 7 Minutes in HD and My First Thoughts
Posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
You can now watch the first seven minutes of Speed Racer in High Definition over on Yahoo! Movies.
Speed Racer is sure to polarize audiences. I saw the film with a group of five people, and the resulting opinions were across the board. One of the guys expected to hate it and ended up loving it. And for another one of my friends, it was the complete opposite. Speaking for myself, I was expecting very little going into the screening, and I had a lot more fun than I ever could have expected. The Wachowski Brothers have created a live action anime that is bright, and sometimes visually assaulting. A nudge over two hours, you will leave the theater extremely exhausted from ADD overload. The Wachowski Brothers have created a film unlike anything that has ever been seen before. You have to respect this film from a pure filmmaking perspective. I would even go as far as saying that Speed Racer is a great movie. But at the end of the day, it’s still just a great movie about Speed Racer. And yes, it could have been 25 minutes shorter.
Warner Bros has released three minutes of Wachowski Brothers’ Speed Racer online. Think you’ve seen the crazy cinematography of the wacked out action sequences in the trailers? Think again. This new clip shows how it’s all cut together with insane non-stop transitions and I’m actually surprised at how much it actually plays like a cartoon. Check out the clip below.
VOTD: The Asylum’s Speed Racer knock off Street Racer
Posted on Sunday, May 4th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
Street Racer created by The Asylum
The Pitch: The Asylum, a direct-to-dvd production company responsible for producing cheap knock-offs of the latest big budget Hollywood movies (termed “Knockbusters) takes on Speed Racer with a movie that looks more like a film from The Fast and the Furious series. The Asylum’s past titles include: Transmorphers, Snakes on a Train, I Am Omega, Da Vinci Treasure, Temple of the Skulls, HG Wells’ War of the Worlds, AVH: Alien vs. Hunter, Monster (the Cloverfield rip) and Pirates of Treasure Island.
“After serving time for a tragic accident, in which a young boy is crippled, an illegal street racer finds himself dragged back into the world of high speed competition on the side streets and highways of Los Angeles.”
Video of the Day is a daily feature of /Film showcasing geekarific video creations. Have a video we should be feature on VOTD? E-Mail us at orfilms@gmail.com.
Could the Twilight Teaser Trailer Save Speed Racer?
Posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
Even our box office analysts are predicting a disappointing opening for Speed Racer. But what industry analysts don’t know is that the first teaser trailer for Catherine Hardwicke’s big screen adaptation of Twilight will be attached to the Wachowski Brothers film, this according to Collider. Twilight is, of course, the first of a series of best-selling novels about teenage vampires. We first really discovered this film last week when /Film was bombarded with over 1400 comments from fans of the series. The last book knocked Harry Potter out of the top spot on the Best-sellers list, so I’m thinking this could be pretty big. One thing is for sure, there is a huge hardcore fan following on the internet. But could that translate to huge box office? Speed Racer will be the first huge test to see how big Twilight actually is. If that film performs higher than expected, it could be due to “the Twilight effect”. But will Twilight fans be able to save Speed and the Racer family? That has yet to be seen.
Twilight tells the story of 17-year-old Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) who moves to the small town of Forks, Washington to live with her father, and becomes drawn to Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), a pale, mysterious classmate who seems determined to push her away. But neither can deny the attraction that pulls them together… even when Edward confides that he and his family are vampires. Their unorthodox romance puts her in physical danger when Edward’s nemesis comes to town and sets his sights on Bella.
Go Speed Racer Go Music Video makes me want to Vomit
Posted on Saturday, April 26th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
Now you might be saying to yourself, how could someone screw up the classic Speed Racer theme song? The answer comes in a 3-minute music video of the newly revamped version of the Go Speed Racer Go theme song as performed by Ali Dee and the Deekompressors. I swear, this new music video makes me want to vomit. The Playlist calls it ” 3-minute of painful ear damage” and Paul Scheer points focus to the song’s “awesome” lyrics such as “I tear up every party I’m at”. Ughhh. Check out the video below.
Here is a round up of stories that just didn’t make the /Film front page, or what we like to call…. Page 2!
Collider has the first photos of Xzibit from X-Files: I Want to Believe.
Film School Rejects has obtained footage of the Ninja from Ask a Ninja talking about Fanboys.
Shock has a couple borring photos of Megan Fox on the set of Jennifer’s Body.
Actress Lindsay Lohan’s 14-year-old kid sister, Ali, has been cast in a film based on R.L. Stine’s pre-teen book series “Mostly Ghostly.” [THR]
Last week at a Back to the Future screening in Florida, writer/producer Bob Gale announced that Universal was working on a Blu-ray release of the classic 80’s film: “I dont’ know when it’s coming out yet, but I was involved in the mastering of this tape, so I can tell you that it looks absolutely beautiful!” [bttf]
KungFuRodeo has a photo of the Speed Racer advertisement in Times Square.
You can now listen to Fergie’s Sex and the City theme, but why would you want to. [badandugly]
Fox 2000 has hired Brian McGreevy and Lee Shipman to write a re-imagining of Brian De Palma’s 1978 supernatural thriller The Fury. [scifi]
Adriana Barraza (Babel) has been cast in Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell. [Bloody-disgusting]
Juno generated an estimated $8.4 million in its first week of release on DVD. [THR]
Christina Ricci feels that the marketing campaign for Black Snake Moan exploited woman. No duh! [starpulse]
Yoko Ono has filed suit against the filmmakers of “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,” for the unauthorized use of John Lennon’s classic 1971 song, “Imagine.” [theplaylist]
Warner Bros has released a final batch of Speed Racer production photos. We’ve included all 34 photos below. As always, click on the images to enlarge.
Read More »
Here is a round up of stories that just didn’t make the /Film front page, or what we like to call…. Page 2!
The Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull billboards in Los Angeles are out of control. [Rejects]
Louis Leterrier is downplaying The Incredible Hulk dispute with actor/screenwriter Edward Norton and Marvel: “It’s so unsettling, because it’s not true.” [Sci-Fi]
Joe Carnahan will be shooting a big portion of Killing Pablo in Colombia, “which is really the only place you should make that film.”
Empire Magazine has new photos from Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Joel Silver says the Wachowski Brothers have ideas for Speed Racer and Ninja Assassin sequels. Let’s wait for the first films to be released and or filmed before we start talking about sequels, please. [Collider]
Enter to win the One Missed Call sweepstakes.
Cinematical has the poster for The Duplass Brother’s Sundance hit Baghead.
LatinoReview has a script review of Chris Bertolini’s Battle: Los Angeles which was recently picked up by Columbia and is set to shoot sometime this year: “Uninspired, predictable, logic-defying ending.”
Virginia Madsen has signed on to co-star in the Amelia Earhart biopic Amelia for Fox Searchlight. Snor. [Variety]
Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy) has replaced Thomas Kretschmann as the voice of Johann Kraus in Hellboy II: The Golden Army. [CS]
The Pixar Story will be released on DVD in June. [pixarblog]
STYD has the poster for The Strangers, Rogue Pictures’ home invasion film starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman.
Marvel Comics announced that it will publish a comic-book series based on Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game book series. [scifi]
Michael Moore has announced his support for Barack Obama, which is expected considering he slammed Clinton in SiCKO?
Production has started in Connecticut this week on an untitled contemporary comedy directed by Academy Award winner Sam Mendes (American Beauty) from an original screenplay by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida. [CS]
And the Speed Racer pre-release marketing won’t stop. Warner Bros has released another 4-minute long featurette that includes a ton of new footage intercut with cast and crew interviews. I’d say more, but I’ve already said enough in the 4-Minute movie trailer post from earlier today. Check it out below.
Watch the new featurette in High Definition on Apple.com. Speed Racer hits theaters on May 9th.
