By volume, the Blu-ray release slate slows down quite a bit this week, compared to the last several. Most of the big day-and-date titles are pretty lousy, too. Even so, there are a couple of major catalog releases that definitely deserve your dollars. Let’s take a look.
Here’s this week’s list:
- ‘America Lost and Found: The BBS Story ‘ (Criterion)
- ‘The Complete Metropolis‘ (Kino International)
- ‘Countdown to Zero‘ (Magnolia)
- ‘Crank/Crank 2 (Double Feature)‘ (Lionsgate)
- ‘Deadwood: The Complete Series‘ (HBO)
- ‘Diary of a Mad Black Woman‘ (Lionsgate)
- ‘The Disappearance of Alice Creed ‘ (Starz/Anchor Bay)
- ‘Eat Pray Love‘ (Sony)
- ‘The Expendables ‘ (Lionsgate)
- ‘The Family that Preys‘ (Lionsgate)
- ‘Flipped‘ (Warner Brothers)
- ‘The Hunting Party‘ (Weinstein)
- ‘I’m Still Here‘ (Magnolia)
- ‘Madea Goes to Jail‘ (Lionsgate)
- ‘Madea’s Family Reunion‘ (Lionsgate)
- ‘The Pillars of the Earth‘ (Sony)
- ‘Regina Spektor: Live in London‘ (Sire/Warner Music – November 22nd)
- ‘Salon Kitty‘ (Blue Underground)
- ‘The Search For Santa Paws‘ (Disney/Buena Vista)
- ‘Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family (The Play)‘ (Lionsgate)
- ‘Why Did I Get Married?‘ (Lionsgate)
I wrote about the new restoration of Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis‘ when it circulated through art house theaters this past summer. It’s astounding, and I’ve been eager to pick up the Blu-ray ever since. This is a must buy title for any film lover.
The other big catalog release I’ve been eagerly awaiting is the complete series box set of ‘Deadwood‘. Yes, it’s expensive, and the show was canceled after the third season without a proper ending. But it’s still one of the most stunning achievements of the television medium. The series looked great during its original high-def broadcasts, and I’d imagine should look pretty great on Blu-ray too.
Sadly, everything else this week is less exciting. ‘The Expendables‘ was a pretty big box office hit this summer, but word of mouth on it varied from “a fun guilty pleasure” to “atrocious.” Drew really hated it when he reviewed it here in the blog. I didn’t see it myself. The trailers looked awful. I would probably relegate this to a rental, personally. Your mileage may vary.
I don’t know what the folks at Sony are thinking. They tried to counter-program the Julia Roberts rom-com ‘Eat Pray Love‘ against ‘The Expendables’ when the two movies were released to theaters on the same day. ‘Eat Pray Love’ got its butt handed to it, and was one of the summer’s biggest box office disappointments. Yet here the studio is releasing it on video directly against Sylvester Stallone’s testosterone-fest again. Are the people at Sony Home Entertainment a bunch of masochists, or are they deliberately trying to kill the movie? You decide.
If you’re like most people, you gave up caring about Joaquin Phoenix and didn’t bother to see the “Is it a documentary or a stupid publicity stunt?” movie ‘I’m Still Here‘ in theaters. (Answer: It was an idiotic publicity stunt.) Now’s your chance to ignore it all over again on video. Get right on that. I know I will.
That’s about it, unless you happen to be a Tyler Perry fan, in which case you’ll find this week to bring a veritable Blu-ray bonanza. Everyone else can continue looking on in confused disbelief.
Dail Whiteley
i have the expendables coming through netflix. i’m pondering eat pray love as a birthday gift for my mom.
Thulsadoom
Looking forward to Metropolis. Pillars of the Earth was pretty good till episode 5, where it killed off the only decent/interesting character and tapered off into just being ‘okay’. Certainly not worth buying, unfortunately. Couldn’t care less about the rest! 😉
William Henley
METROPOLIS! METROPOLIS! METROPOLIS! It should be waiting for me when I get home for lunch! Yay, Amazon!
Also, will probably end up picking up a gift-set or two of the Harry Potter movies for Christmas presents. Can’t beat $40 for the boxed set!
Dail Whiteley
i’m waiting for lucas to buy metropolis then make it into a special edititon. or for the michael bay remake. either way should be fun.
William Henley
The CGI, colorized, 3D, 2.4:1 Aspect Ratio, THX certified version of Metropolis? What is sad is that I would probably be lined up for it the day it comes to theaters.
Josh Zyber
AuthorWilliam, have you seen the Metropolis anime?
William Henley
Its in my streaming Netflix que, I just haven’t gotten to it yet. I added it because I thought it was the movie. Love anime, just haven’t got to it yet. But I got a 4 day weekend coming up!
Is it based on the movie? I thought it was a totally different story.
Josh Zyber
AuthorIt’s “inspired by” the Lang film, but not strictly “based on” it. The story has the same general themes, but isn’t a direct remake, per se.
It’s OK. Didn’t love it, but it has some good visuals and the climax is pretty cool.
William Henley
Started it last night, as The Complete Metropolis is sitting in Phoenix for some reason. Interesting look. I got about an hour in – I am also working on doing a fansub right now, and my enthusiasm for that was calling to me. 🙂
HuskerGuy
As far as new releases, I’m only getting The Expendables. I’m a Sly homer and loved it in the theater so it was a no brainer.
I finally picked up The Princess Bride and Gran Turino since they were super cheap on Amazon.
BostonMA
Metropolis. can’t wait to see it.
besch64
I want to buy America Lost and Found so bad it hurts. And by “buy,” I mean “make love to.” I mean, I also still want to buy it though.
If I find a good deal on it on Friday, I’ll cry tears of joy. I’ll hug the stressed out Best Buy employee. If it’s a girl, I might kiss her on the mouth.
Then I’ll make it up to my girlfriend by letting her watch the movies with me.