New to VUDU: Week of November 20th, 2011

VUDU had a slow start to November. The streaming service didn’t add too many notable titles during the first two weeks of the month. Fortunately, things pick up a bit this week, which sees several interesting new additions.

The following titles enter the VUDU stream this week:

  • ‘Amigo’ (11/22)
  • ‘Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas’ (11/22)
  • ‘Carjacked’ (11/22)
  • ‘Conan the Barbarian’ (11/22)
  • ‘The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest: Extended Edition’ (11/22)
  • ‘The Girl Who Played with Fire: Extended Edition’ (11/22)
  • ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Extended Edition’ (11/22)
  • ‘Reel Injun’ (11/22)
  • ‘Sarah’s Key’ (11/22)
  • ‘Scary Movie’ (11/21)
  • ‘Spy Kids: All the Time in the World’ (11/22)
  • ‘Spy Kids: All the Time in the World – 3D’ (11/22)
  • ‘Super 8’ (11/22)

I feel like we’ve already talked about ‘Super 8‘ around here quite a bit lately. If you haven’t bought the Blu-ray (or at least entered our contest to win a copy), the movie can also be streamed in 1080p pretty conveniently.

The other major day-and-date titles, namely the ‘Conan the Barbarian‘ remake and Robert Rodriguez’s latest crappy ‘Spy Kids‘ sequel, don’t do much for me. Your mileage may vary on those. Personally, I’m more intrigued by some of the indie titles that might be worth renting.

Kristin Scott-Thomas has proven herself equally adept at French-language roles as English. In fact, she was even nominated for a César Award (the French equivalent of the Oscar) for her performance in ‘Sarah’s Key‘. She plays a journalist in present-day Paris who digs into the story of the infamous Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup of 1942, wherein French police of the day were complicit in helping Nazis arrest Jews and ship them off to Auschwitz to be murdered. It sounds like heavy stuff, but could be compelling. Here’s the trailer:

Amigo‘ is the latest film from John Sayles (‘Matewan’, ‘Lone Star’). It’s a period piece about the Philippine-American War at the turn of the 19th Century. I’ll be honest that the trailer (below) looks pretty dull and even a little amateurish, but the movie stars Chris Cooper and Garret Dillahunt, and Sayles is a talented enough director that I have to assume that this is just a bad trailer. I’m willing to give it enough benefit of the doubt to try a rental.

Reel Injun‘ is a documentary by Neil Diamond (no, not the singer) about the distorted depiction of Native American cultures in cinema through the decades, from the bloodthirsty killers of old Westerns to the (possibly just as offensive) “Noble Savage” stereotype in movies like ‘Dances With Wolves’. The documentary appears to explore this issue with a fair amount of humor.

Finally, VUDU also has the Extended Editions of all three movies in the Stieg Larsson ‘Millennium Trilogy‘ (aka the ‘Dragon Tattoo Trilogy’). These are, of course, the original Swedish films, not the upcoming David Fincher remake of the first entry.

Josh’s Random VUDU Pick:

With John Sayles on the mind, I dug into the VUDU catalog and found that the service has the director’s baseball drama ‘Eight Men Out‘ available for streaming in 1080p HDX format. The film tells the true story of the “Black Sox” scandal, in which members of the Chicago White Sox took bribes from gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series. The movie stars David Strathairn, John Cusack, John Mahoney, Christopher Lloyd and a pre-burnout Charlie Sheen, among others. Somehow, I have never gotten around to watching this over the years.

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.

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