This week’s Blu-ray list is pretty weak on brand new day-and-date releases, but much stronger on catalog titles, especially those with ties to the Oscars. Let’s see what’s cookin’, shall we?<\/p>\n
Here’s the release slate:<\/p>\n
With this year’s Oscars right around the corner, the studios are cranking out former honorees on Blu-ray. These include ‘Last Tango in Paris<\/strong>‘ (Best Actor nominee & Best Director nominee, 1974), ‘All the President’s Men<\/strong>‘ (Best Adapted Screenplay, 1977), ‘Network<\/strong>‘ (Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress & Best Original Screenplay, 1977), ‘Chaplin<\/strong>‘ (Best Actor nominee, 1993), ‘Moonstruck<\/strong>‘ (Best Actress & Best Supporting Actress, 1988), and ‘Rain Man<\/strong>‘ (Best Picture, Best Director & Best Actor, 1989). <\/p>\n Of these, the wins (and further nominations in the Best Picture and Best Director categories) for ‘Moonstruck’ are major Oscar embarrassments. That movie is just a dreadful parade of cartoonish Italian-American stereotypes. ‘Chaplin’ is really only<\/em> notable for Robert Downey, Jr.’s performance, and is otherwise a pretty conventional and formulaic biopic. However, ‘Rain Man’ is a solid movie, ‘Network’ and ‘All the President’s Men’ are terrific, and ‘Last Tango’ is a genuine masterpiece. <\/p>\n Let’s switch tracks to look at the day-and-date releases chugging onto store shelves. Tony Scott and Denzel Washington’s 80th collaboration together, ‘Unstoppable<\/strong>‘, proved to be stoppable after all. The runaway train thriller derailed at the box office last year. (All right, I’m done with the train puns. Sorry!)<\/p>\n Woody Allen continues to crank out his contractually-guaranteed movie a year. His latest is ‘You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger<\/strong>‘. Like most of the world, I didn’t pay much attention to it. I’ll have to rely on our site’s resident Woody fanatic Mike Attebery to fill me in.<\/p>\n