This is another one of those weeks that seems to be jam-packed with new Blu-ray releases. But, when you really take a look at it, there’s not a whole lot of interest in there. At least, not for me. Perhaps you’ll disagree?
Before we start, I need to mention that last week’s Blu-ray Highlights post omitted a number of Best Buy exclusive titles that we didn’t become aware of until after the fact. These include ‘Dead Man Walking‘, ‘Heavy Metal’, ‘Hotel Rwanda‘, ‘The Last House on the Left (1972)‘, ‘Leaving Las Vegas’, ‘The Manchurian Candidate (1962)’, ‘Out of Sight’, ‘Poltergeist II: The Other Side‘, ‘RoboCop 2‘, ‘RoboCop 3‘, and ‘The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)’.
These retailer exclusives are getting out of hand. There are a few really worthy titles in there, especially ‘Out of Sight’, ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’, and ‘The Manchurian Candidate’. Yet they’re being released only to one retailer with little to no promotion. How are consumers supposed to even know about them?
Anway, let’s see what’s up for offer this week:
- ‘Amarcord‘ (Criterion)
- ‘Barb Wire‘ (Universal)
- ‘Beauty and the Briefcase‘ (Image)
- ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Essentials Collection)‘ (Sony – February 11th)
- ‘Discover Planet Ocean‘ (Image)
- ‘Embodiment of Evil‘ (Synapse Films)
- ‘Five Corners‘ (Image)
- ‘Flipper‘ (Universal)
- ‘For Colored Girls‘ (Lionsgate)
- ‘I Spit on Your Grave (1978)‘ (Starz/Anchor Bay)
- ‘I Spit on Your Grave (2010)‘ (Starz/Anchor Bay)
- ‘It’s Kind of a Funny Story‘ (Universal)
- ‘Legends of the Fall‘ (Sony)
- ‘Life as We Know It‘ (Warner Brothers)
- ‘Middle Men (2009)‘ (Paramount)
- ‘My Soul To Take‘ (Universal)
- ‘Ocean Odyssey: The Blue Realm‘ (Image)
- ‘Ong Bak 3: The Final Battle‘ (Magnolia)
- ‘Paranormal Activity 2‘ (Paramount)
- ‘A Private Function‘ (Image)
- ‘Repo Chick‘ (CAV)
- ‘The River Wild‘ (Universal)
- ‘A River Runs Through It (Non-Digibook)‘ (Sony)
- ‘Rush Hour‘ (New Line)
- ‘Still Walking‘ (Criterion)
- ‘Tamara Drewe‘ (Sony)
- ‘Thelma & Louise: 20th Anniversary Edition‘ (MGM/UA)
- ‘Uncle Buck‘ (Universal)
- ‘Waist Deep‘ (Universal)
- ‘Wild Target‘ (20th Century Fox)
- ‘You Again‘ (Disney/Buena Vista)
To be honest, the only title in there that’s a sure-fire purchase for me is the Criterion edition of Federico Fellini’s ‘Amarcord‘. We need more Fellini in high definition, and this is one of his best films.
Criterion is also releasing a Japanese film from 2008 called ‘Still Walking‘. I’m kind of ashamed to admit that I’ve never even heard of this one.
If I have to stretch for other things of interest, I suppose there’s MGM’s catalog release of ‘Thelma & Louise‘. I haven’t watched this since it came out on VHS, and I’ll be frank that I wasn’t a fan of it at the time. The simplistic “Butch and Sundance with Boobs” concept didn’t do much for me. However, the movie was a big hit, was well received, won an Oscar for Best Screenplay, made a star out of Brad Pitt, and revived Ridley Scott’s career from the dead. I should probably give it another look.
Dick recently shared a little love for John Candy’s ‘Uncle Buck‘ in one of his Netflix posts. I’ll admit that it’s a pretty funny movie, but I don’t know that it’s one I feel the need to own, personally. I think that’s mostly because I watched the hell out of it repeatedly on HBO back in the day, to the point where I think I’ve seen it enough for one lifetime.
Has anyone even heard of ‘Tamara Drewe‘? This movie flew completely under the radar. Apparently, it’s based on a comic strip and stars Gemma Arterton, who looks pretty amazing in jean shorts and a red tank top. This is the extent of what I know about the movie, but it’s directed by Stephen Frears, and I’m inclined to give anything he does the benefit of the doubt.
Other day-and-date releases include ‘Paranormal Activity 2‘ (Drew liked that one), ‘You Again‘ (yawn), and ‘It’s Kind of a Funny Story‘. The latter earned a little bit of buzz for star Zach Galifianakis at last year’s Toronto Film Festival, but then went nowhere in general release.
Even his fans all seemed to be in agreement last year that ‘For Colored Girls‘ is by far Tyler Perry’s worst film, and utterly destroys a beloved stage play. It’s safe to say that anyone who isn’t a fan can stay far, far away.
Speaking of bad movies, does anyone remember when Pamela Anderson tried to remake ‘Casablanca‘ as a sci-fi action parody? Oh yeah, that really happened, and now ‘Barb Wire‘ is available on Blu-ray for us to relive the cheese. This is the guiltiest of guilty pleasures, with perhaps more guilt than pleasure. I’ll ‘fess up to having watched it, but I don’t think I can bring myself to actually buy a copy.
Finally, this last one just makes me sad. ‘Repo Chick‘ is Alex Cox’s official semi-sequel to his cult classic ‘Repo Man’, made for a budget of about $1.50 with actors who aren’t good enough to get into porn. Everything about it is just embarrassing. Don’t believe me? Watch the trailer.
Sigh. This is really from the director of ‘Sid and Nancy’. This guy actually used to have talent once. And now there’s… this.
