It’s another slow week in VUDU Town. Only a small handful of titles are being added to the streaming service. You know what that means – It’s time to dig into the back catalog to find something fun that can’t be gotten on Blu-ray yet.
The following titles enter the VUDU stream this week:
- ‘The Devil’s Double’ (11/18)
- ‘Griff the Invisible’ (11/15)
- ‘Larry Crowne’ (11/15)
- ‘The Righteous and the Wicked’ (11/15)
The biggest title here (which isn’t saying much) is ‘Larry Crowne‘ the new rom-com that sees Tom Hanks return to the director’s chair for the first feature since his fizzy, underrated ‘That Thing You Do!’ in 1996. Sadly, as I said in yesterday’s Blu-ray update, the reviews for this one were generally poor, and its box office was even poorer. Still, fans of the actor or co-star Julia Roberts might find a rental worthwhile.
Lee Tamahori’s thriller ‘The Devil’s Double‘, about an Iraqi man abducted and forced to live a lavish playboy lifestyle impersonating one of Saddam Hussein’s sons, had a hell of a trailer. Unfortunately, most of the reviews said that the movie doesn’t quite live up to it. Again, perhaps this might also be best suited to a rental. VUDU actually gets this one a few days in advance of its Blu-ray release, which doesn’t street until the 22nd.
We also have the latest entry in the “real life superheroes” subgenre, the Australian film ‘Griff the Invisible‘, starring Ryan Kwanten as a man who dresses up in costume to fight crime. Unlike the recent, similarly-themed ‘Kick-Ass’ or ‘Super’, this one seems to put more focus on the how the character’s secret identity affects his romantic relationship. It could be fun, though it’s a little weird to hear Kwanten speak in his native accent after watching him on ‘True Blood’ for the past few years. Here’s the trailer:
Josh’s Random VUDU Pick:
It seems that one reader (cough:Jane:cough) didn’t care for my random pick last week. For her benefit, and by her recommendation, I’ll use this opportunity to highlight ‘Wag the Dog‘, the very funny (and frighteningly plausible) political satire written by David Mamet and directed by Barry Levinson. It’s perhaps the last decent thing that Levinson has made. It’s also one of the last films where Robert De Niro actually gave a damn about giving an actual performance rather than just mugging for the camera. The movie isn’t available on Blu-ray, and Netflix only has it on DVD, but you can stream it in high definition from VUDU now.
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.
