Blu-ray Highlights for 12/7/10: What Are You Buying?

The biggest movie of the year comes out on Blu-ray this week. Unfortunately, beyond that, there’s not too much else of interest.

Here’s the release slate:

Obviously, ‘Inception‘ is the week’s major “A” title. It was both one of the year’s biggest blockbusters and also one of its most critically acclaimed films. Drew’s thoughts on the movie are on record, and you can find mine as well. I wasn’t quite as in love with it as he is, but still found it to be one of the most interesting movies in a long time. I look forward to revisiting it on video. While the Blu-ray is being issued in a standard release that most viewers will find perfectly satisfactory, fans of elaborate packaging hopefully ordered the exclusive Briefcase Gift Set from WBShop.com in advance. Sadly, the site is sold out at this point. As a mid-way compromise, FYE has its own exclusive Steelbook edition. If you’re interested, be sure to grab that one while you can.

Next up in order of prominence (as far as day-and-date titles go) would be ‘Shrek Forever After‘, the latest (and supposedly final – until next year’s spin-off) installment in a franchise that went stale about 10 minutes into its first movie. Does anyone still care about Shrek at this point? I suppose so, since this was another pretty big box office hit. If you’ve got kids, you probably have no choice but to buy this.

Oh damn, it looks like I forgot for a minute there that ‘Twilight: Eclipse‘ was also released over the weekend, along with a separate music video tie-in Blu-ray. I have absolutely nothing to say about this. You can read Drew’s review if you really have any interest in this franchise.

The Criterion Collection continues to issue some of the most fascinating titles of the year. This week sees ‘Cronos‘, the debut feature from Guillermo del Toro, and David Cronenberg’s early masterpiece ‘Videodrome‘. I’ve seen the ‘Videodrome’ disc, and its video and audio quality are both excellent.

The only other catalog title this week that interests me is Sophia Coppola’s ‘Lost in Translation‘. However, I still have the HD DVD release, which will continue to suit me well enough unless word comes that Universal has sprung for a stunning new transfer. That seems pretty unlikely.

It looks like a handful of titles previously distributed by Sony have changed hands to Image Entertainment. This is the second time around for ‘About Last Night…‘, ‘The Big Hit‘, ‘Closer‘, ‘The Deep‘, ‘Half Past Dead‘, and ‘St. Elmo’s Fire‘. I have no idea whether any of these are different transfers than the earlier Blu-rays or just straight repackagings under the new label.

10 comments

  1. Inception is on my rent list, as I haven’t seen it yet, as well as Twilight: Eclipse. The Twilight movies are usually good for a single viewing. (That being said, I picked up the first two used at Blockbuster – good date movie – if I had dates that would come back to the house, that is). 🙁

    I had to cancel my Shrek order, which I am devestated about. Its Christmas time, and time to think of others. That being said, I would like to just pick up the first two. I got the third on HD-DVD (which ended up being a HORRID movie), and the forth, while better than the third, was still a yawner. But the first two are AWESOME!

    May pick up the World Series as well. Hey, I am from Dallas / Fort Worth, and the Rangers went to the World Series for the first time EVER! Yeah, I would like to relive that!

    • Callenby

      I’m still stunned they actually made it. I’m a fan and native of DFW, but, really? World Series? They lost, sure, but how ever did they make it? Are claws and antlers really that useful?

      • I claim its all my fault. Te rangers always do really well until I watch or go to a game, then they suck the rest of the season. I was busy this year, so the first game I saw was (timeshifted on the DVR) the last game of the ALCS, then I watched a couple of games of the World Series. Needless to say, they lost the World Series. So my status as a jinx to the Rangers seems to stand.

  2. HuskerGuy

    Inception and *cough* Twilight *cough*. Can’t wait to watch Inception again since I never got around to a second theater viewing. The Twilight acquisition was for my wife, I swear to Jeebus.

  3. Ivan Gomez

    I will buy INCEPTION as my wife and i have abet on what the ending really meant… And CRONOS is a great, great movie and a criterion title i can finally buy and watch (the wife doesnt speak english and Criterion refuses to add spanish subs for whatever reazon)

  4. that1guypictures

    Picked up the Best Buy exclusive edition of Inception and also snagged Alice in Wonderland in 3D. Watched it in 3D and loved it. Having both Alice and Avatar in 3D makes my eyes very happy! 🙂

  5. I thought Inception was enjoyable enough, but just covered ground that other films have done before in a simplified and more mainstream/accessible way. Not one I’ll probably see again, after the cinema (May warrant another watch some time when it gets to TV, and I’ve forgotten enough).

    Tempted by Videodrome some time, though. 🙂 Not bothered with any of the others. Never got round to seeing Cronos, so maybe a rental.