Blu-ray Highlights for February 12th, 2013 – Nobody Does It Better

This week belongs to Bond, James Bond, as the franchise’s latest, biggest and (arguably) best entry to date comes to Blu-ray. If that doesn’t do it for you, some other new titles will also compete for your attention and your dollars.

Which Blu-rays Interest You This Week (2/12/13)?

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An All Time High

Aside from a small minority of (awfully vocal) haters, the latest James Bond extravaganza, ‘Skyfall‘, was embraced by both critics and audiences as at least one of (if not the) best movies in the series to date. The film was also a massive, massive billion-dollar-plus box office hit that even kicked Batman’s growly butt. Not bad for a franchise on its 23rd movie. In what may amount to an incredibly minor disappointment for fans who plan to put the Blu-ray into the empty slot in last year’s ‘Bond 50‘ box set, MGM has apparently not made the disc art consistent with the other titles in that package. In other respects, however, I expect nothing short of stellar demonstration-quality video and audio. (Unfortunately, the distributor Fox Home Entertainment refuses to send screener discs to reviewers prior to street date.)

As a tie-in with this, the standalone copies of the other Bond movies that were previously retailer exclusives have expanded to general release.

Meanwhile, indie distributor Twilight Time rolls out the Bond spoof ‘In Like Flint‘, James Coburn’s sequel to his (previously released) ‘Our Man Flint‘.

Other Notable Releases

Bond not your thing? Let’s see what else the week has in store.

Hip hop star The RZA brings us his kung-fu pastiche ‘The Man with the Iron Fists‘.

The crappy videogame-based horror flick ‘Silent Hill’ gets an even crappier sequel called ‘Silent Hill: Revelation‘. What’s the big revelation? In this one, the gore splatters at ya in 3D, which I guess some people will find appealing.

In classier fare (at least, we hope so), Emma Watson teaches us about ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower‘, and Helen Hunt teaches paraplegic John Hawkes the joys of sex in ‘The Sessions‘.

The frequently-remade tale of ‘Dangerous Liaisons‘ finds its latest adaptation in China.

Starz offers the acclaimed documentary ‘Bully‘, and Criterion adds the Dardennes brothers’ touching Neo-Realist drama ‘The Kid with a Bike‘ to its vaunted collection.

Television

Showtime dominates the week’s television offerings, with the latest season of ‘Nurse Jackie‘ and the final season of ‘Weeds‘.

It should come as no surprise that I plan to pick up a copy of ‘Skyfall’ right away. I have no doubt that will also dominate this week’s poll, but does anything else interest you as well?

8 comments

  1. William Henley

    I am probably going to pick up Bond 50 this week. Skyfall I was not crazy about (I was not one of the haters, but certainly not one of the lovers eitehr), so if I do pick it up, it will be mainly for completionist reasons.

    I will probably rent Perks of Being a Wallflower, mainly because I have heard positive things about it.

      • William Henley

        That was one of the things I was refering to. 🙂 Still, I rarely blind buy movies. But the review was good enough that it makes me want to rent it. There is a Redbox across the street from me.

        • William Henley

          Yeah, that Redbox location has several copies of the movie on Blu-Ray. I will rent it when I get off work tomorrow, as I have a class tonight. If I like the movie, I will buy it. But, yeah, spend $1.50 to see if I like it first.

  2. I’m still on TOMORROW NEVER DIES in my BOND 50 set, so it will be a while before I get to SKYFALL. That didn’t stop me from picking it up today, of course. 🙂

    • If you’re on “Tomorrow Never Dies”, I’d say you’re almost finished. That just leaves four more movies before you can fire up “Skyfall”. Right?

  3. Barsoom Bob

    Watched the Blu of Skyfall last night and although I still am not sold on the heavy handed, “old Bond”, let’s wink wink to every other Bond movie we can think of, and the perverse story line, he actually fails at everything he does, it is undeniably a gorgeously designed, lit and photographed movie.

    With the initial disappointment out of the way, that it was not a straight ahead new adventure with the newly formed Bond of the first two Craig movies. I do have to in all fairness re-calibrate it from mid tier Bond to one of the upper tier Bonds.