New to VUDU: Week of January 8th, 2012

Maybe I just never noticed it before, but I only recently realized that VUDU has a wishlist feature both on the web site and within VUDU-enabled devices that tie together with each other and your account. Has this been there the whole time, or was this a recent addition? I’m not sure. In any case, I find this very handy to flag movies that I might be interested to rent at a later time, but am liable to forget about without a reminder. Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot that I’ll be adding to the wishlist this week.

The following titles are entering the VUDU stream:

  • ‘1911’ (1/10/12)
  • ‘Abduction’ (Rental 12/22/11, Purchase 1/17/12)
  • ‘Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star’ (1/17/12)
  • ‘Courageous’ (1/17/12)
  • ‘The Double’ (1/17/12)
  • ‘Drive’ (Rental 1/31/12, Purchase 1/17/12)
  • ‘Higher Ground’ (1/10/12)
  • ‘The Ides of March’ (1/17/12)
  • ‘Kevin Hart: Laugh at My Pain – Stand-Up Performance’ (Rental 4/17/12, Purchase 1/17/12)
  • ‘Kevin Hart: Laugh at My Pain – Theatrical Version’ (Rental 4/17/12, Purchase 1/17/12)
  • ‘Killer Elite’ (1/10/12)
  • ‘Lbs.’ (1/17/12)
  • ‘Moneyball’ (Rental 1/10/12, Purchase 12/20/11)
  • ‘There Be Dragons’ (1/10/12)
  • ‘What’s Your Number? – Extended Version’ (1/10/12)

For my money, the most promising title on the list is George Clooney’s political drama ‘The Ides of March‘, which the actor both stars in and directed. Although not as rapturously received as his earlier ‘Good Night, and Good Luck.’, the film received mostly positive reviews. I kept meaning to see it, and now might be a good chance.

I’ve already mentioned ‘Moneyball‘ in a previous VUDU post. The movie became available for purchase last month, and is finally coming up for rental now. This is another high-interest title for me, but I talked about it enough in Tuesday’s Blu-ray update post.

A film critic friend of mine describes ‘Higher Ground‘ (the directorial debut of actress Vera Farmiga) as a “modest but well-observed study of a couple who join an evangelical community after a terrifying accident as a way of giving meaning to the incident, only to find themselves facing a new set of challenges.” Aaron also gave it high marks in his recent Blu-ray review. Could be interesting. Here’s the trailer:

Otherwise, I don’t see a lot here. I realize that a lot of people might be excited for ‘Drive‘, which was one of the most hotly-buzzed pictures of the year. As I recall, both Luke and Aaron loved it. I went into it really wanting to like this movie when I saw it in the theater, but (as I mentioned in a post yesterday) I thought it absolutely sucked. Your mileage may vary (har har).

Josh’s Random VUDU Pick:

Back to George Clooney for a second. I highlighted a couple of the actor’s collaborations with director Steven Soderbergh last week. He’s also worked with the Coen brothers three times so far. One of those movies, the fizzy romantic comedy ‘Intolerable Cruelty‘, has yet to hit Blu-ray in this country. (I believe it may have been released in Europe, however.) The film is often disparaged as a lesser Coen effort, but I think it’s been undervalued. While perhaps not an artistic masterwork, it’s a perfectly witty, amusing little comedy with great chemistry between Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones. VUDU offers it in 1080p HDX, and I consider this fine rental material.

All dates provided refer specifically to rental availability. Check VUDU for sell-through availability, if interested. Be sure to also check for VUDU’s $0.99 Movie of the Day offers, which are announced each day on the company’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *