This Week In DVD & Blu-Ray: Unstoppable, Waiting For "Superman", Kites, And More

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

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.Rent ItWAITING FOR "SUPERMAN"

The impassioned, well-meaning Waiting for "Superman" prods at an important and disconcerting issue: the failure of the American school system. But that's all it really does. It prods and points fingers, blaming unions and funding conflicts, all the while tossing out animated statistics to highlight how severe the problem is. Interspersed between this are heart-on-sleeve stories of five families hoping to gain entry to overcrowded charter schools, the procedure for which requires public school students to take place in a lottery. It's a deeply depressing process, and the film's frustration is justified. So what's the solution? Waiting for "Superman" has some half-hearted ideas about what needs to be done, but very little (if any) emphasis is placed on the importance of the parent's role in a child's education. If you're looking for an introduction to an ongoing crisis that's in desperate need of positive action, Waiting for "Superman" will suffice, but it's strictly that.

Available on Blu-ray? Yes.Notable Extras: DVD & Blu-ray – Commentary by Director Davis Guggenheim and Producer Lesley Chilcott, Four additional inspiring teacher/student stories, Changing the Odds: A look at innovative programs that are changing public education, Public Education Updates: Changes which have taken place since the making of the film, A Conversation with Davis Guggenheim, The Future Is In Our Classrooms, and The Making of "Shine": the film's title track by musician John Legend.

BEST DVD PRICE Target Best Buy Fry's $16.99 $16.99 N/A Amazon – $17.99
BEST BLU-RAY PRICE Target Best Buy Fry's $22.99 $21.99 N/A Amazon – $21.99

KITES

Hollywood and Bollywood converge in this hilariously overwrought action-romance about two ridiculously attractive people who overcome all obstacles in their way (read: they're in relationships with slightly less attractive people) in the name of love, histrionics and being too ridiculously attractive to not end up together. But mostly the latter two. As silly and kind of atrocious as it is, it has a bright-eyed energy to it that's infectious. It's part musical, part western, part film noir, and part Michael Bay. Taken as a pure lavish spectacle, Kites is charmingly daft entertainment.

Available on Blu-ray? Yes.Notable Extras: None.

DVD PRICE Amazon – $18.99
BLU-RAY PRICE Amazon – $19.99

Skip ItUNSTOPPABLE

Unstoppable features a runaway train on a terrifying course for THE TRAIN TRACKS IN FRONT OF IT. The set path of the train might seem to strip away some of the suspense, but get this: It goes really fast! Well, not really fast... It goes sort of fast, as trains go. It's faster, anyway, than the train in the true story on which the film is based, which was eventually slowed to a speed of 11 miles per hour before an employee hopped aboard and shut it down. That doesn't happen in Unstoppable, because that would be boring and lame. Unstoppable doesn't want to be boring and lame. It wants to be an action movie! A big, loud, crazy action movie! With explosions! And a train that's actually A MISSLE THE SIZE OF THE CHRYSLER BUILDING! OH MY GOD, THERE'S SOMETHING ON THE TRACKS! WATCH OUT TRAIN FULL OF KIDS! WATCH OUT HORSE! WATCH OUT DENZEL WASHINGTON AND CHRIS PINE, WHO ARE IN NO WAY GOING TO RECONCILE THEIR DIFFERENCES IN A TIME OF NEED! If only there were some way to predict where a train on a set path was going, or to... move out of the way of it. Thankfully that wasn't an option for Tony Scott, so instead we get a series of comedic set pieces that consist mainly of objects being planted in front of the train so it can plow through them. Amazing.

Available on Blu-ray? Yes.Notable Extras: DVD – An audio commentary with director Tony Scott, and a Tracking the Story: Unstoppable Script Development featurette. Blu-ray – Includes everything on the DVD, as well as 4 additional featurettes ("Derailed: Anatomy of a Scene", "Hanging Off the Train: Stunt Work", "On the Rails with the Director and Cast", "The Fastest Track: Unleashing Unstoppable"), and a digital copy of the film.

BEST DVD PRICE Target Best Buy Fry's $16.99 $16.99 N/A Amazon – $15.99
BEST BLU-RAY PRICE Target Best Buy Fry's $22.99 $21.99 N/A Amazon – $21.99

Not ScreenedYOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER

Woody Allen's latest has an amazing cast (Naomi Watts, Anthony Hopkins, Josh Brolin, Antonio Banderas) and nothing to do with it. The trailer suggested as much.

Available on Blu-ray? Yes.Notable Extras: None.

DVD PRICE Amazon – $19.99
BLU-RAY PRICE Amazon – $25.99

Other noteworthy DVD (and Blu-ray) releases this week...

Summer Wars [DVD / Blu-ray] – Glorious 39 [DVD / Blu-ray]

Noteworthy Blu-ray-specific releases this week...All the President's MenNetworkChaplinLast Tango in ParisMoonstruckRain ManThe Twilight Zone (Season 3)The SpecialsNOTES: Some deals may vary by store. Some deals may be in-store only. All deals are for DVDs unless otherwise noted.$12.99 – Blu-ray sale: Taken, The Princess Bride, Fight Club, Boondock Saints II, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Kingdom of Heaven (Director's Cut), The Day After Tomorrow, Ong Bak 3$8.99 DVD or $13.99 Blu-ray – Inception, Toy Story 3, Easy A, The Other Guys, The Town, Salt, Saw: The Final Chapter, Eat Pray Love$9.99 – Blu-ray sale: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Desperado/El Mariachi, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Superbad, Zombieland