Category: DVD Review

New on DVD

Lost: The Complete Sixth and Final Season
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
While there were a few folks out there that didn’t like the direction taken for the passengers of Oceanic Flight 815,  most, like myself, found the journey to be breathtaking and the end to be everything hoped for.  The parallel story lines were a bit confusing at first, but watching them a second time on this set along with some great special features including “The New Men In Charge,” a documentary that answers even more questions about the island including my biggest one about the polar bears, you can see the real genius in the writing and the beautiful ending of a truly special television event.  Very few shows have been able to leave like this and none so eloquently.  Noticeably missing is a commentary on the last episode, which I was really looking forward to listening to.  A

Pawn Stars: Season Two
Available on DVD
Back for another season are the family of pawnbrokers from Las Vegas trying to figure out the good deals from the bad as folks dream of big cash that they’ll later be losing in the casinos down the street.  Regardless of the clientele though, it’s always interesting to see what’s valuable and what’s not and how these guys try to pay bottom dollar for what they want.  In thirty-minute increments, the show is just fast-paced enough to make for a nice little guilty pleasure TV snack.  B-

The Backup Plan
Rated PG-13 for sexual content including references, some crude material and language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
J-Lo wants a baby so bad and doesn’t want to have to wait for the man to give it to her so she decides to have an artificial insemination.  Unfortunately she meets the man of her dreams on the same day.  He doesn’t mind that she’s having a baby, or in this case two, so they start off on a relationship doing things slightly out of order.  While the premise here is not bad, everything else is.  The jokes bomb due to being horribly written and terribly acted.  J-lo is pretty and all, but just not a movie star and while her love interest carries his weight pretty well, he just can’t make it work.  Then there is the Jerry McGuire wannabe women’s support group that just plain stinks up the place.  Maybe if they hadn’t tried to make this a comedy and left it at a romance with complications it might have had a chance, but J-lo and most of the rest of the cast lack the timing to pull it off.  D

City Island
Rated PG-13 for sexual content, smoking and language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies head up an extremely dysfunctional family in the New York City area that could very easily be functional if they’d only communicate a little better with one another.  In this comedy of errors, the mistakes the characters make build upon one another, some organically and some not, until the hilarious finale when things come to a head and have no choice but to pop.  The film has a small, indie feel to it, but it does deliver big laughs and has a nice quirkiness that many will appreciate.  B

The Simpsons: The Thirteenth Season
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
While not the best of the Simpson’s Seasons, this 2001-2002 airing still had the show pulling off some pretty funny material that gave South Park and Family Guy tons of ideas to steal from.  Still considered on the cutting edge at this time, the Simpsons covered a number of hot topics including medicinal marijuana, spirituality, reality television executions and obesity.  Among the best this season were “The Blunder Years” where Homer takes a flashback to his younger days with young Moe, Lenny, and Carl, as well as the episode “Sweets and Sour Marge” where Springfield is named World’s fattest town and Homer becomes a sugar smuggler when sweets are banned.  B+

The Instant Expert Series from The History Channel
Available on DVD
The History Channel has taken some of its most popular titles on some of its most interesting subjects and added a school-like approach with a small booklet in the case and quiz on the disc.  If you’ve ever wanted to know more about subjects such as Benjamin Franklin, Oil, Egypt, The Mayflower, The French Revolution or Beowulf, these discs are a great resource and very affordable.  

New on DVD

The Good, The Bad, The Weird
Rated R for nonstop violence and some drug use
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Korean, Mandarin, and Japanese with English subtitles
Writer/director Ji-woon Kim (The Uninvited) tells the story of three Korean outlaws in 1940s Manchuria that are all out to possess a secret map that will lead them to a treasure beyond their imaginations in this creative and highly stylized recrafting of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.  While the original can never be surpassed, this new take is so full of life and color and jam-packed with action that its hard to imagine not having fun watching it.  The Ugly is replaced here by The Weird, played by Kang-ho Song, and actor that is really turning in some great work lately with The Host and last year’s Thirst.  He adds a sense of comedy relief that provides an interesting element to the drama.  The rest of the cast and the production are also excellent and very big might I add.  This film has an epic feel to it with its huge set pieces and over-the-top action sequences.  I had a smile on my face for two straight hours.  A-

Cemetery Junction
Rated R for language and some sexual material
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
When I saw that Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the team behind series “The Office,” wrote and directed a film I immediately assumed funny and uncomfortable with bits of slapstick.  I assumed wrong.  Cemetery Junction is a town in England where three young friends burn time drinking, fighting and chasing girls while trying to figure out how to get out of their 1970s blue-collar town.  It’s a very thoughtful coming-of-age dramady with an excellent cast including Ralph Fiennes, Emily Watson, and Matthew Goode as the adults and Christian Cooke, Felicity Jones, Tom Hughes, and Jack Doolan as four very promising newcomers Gervais and Merchant brought in for the leads.  While certainly not a blockbuster, it’s a deeper piece of work than most will have thought possible from its creators and definitely worth the rental.  B

The Joneses
Rated R for language, some sexual content, teen drinking and drug use
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
When David Duchovny, Demi Moore and their two kids move into their new neighborhood, they seem like the perfect family with the latest and greatest fashions and toys, but behind their flashy exteriors lies a hidden agenda that has the potential to destroy the very neighbors’ lives they are befriending.  The first act of this film is very eye-opening.  In fact it had me pressing pause and researching the very subject matter the film was actually covering.  So at the very least, I think you will find this movie about the evils of consumerism and sheepish buying behavior enlightening.  It is also quite simplistic after the midpoint which is a little annoying.  Where the filmmakers had a chance to really make a strong statement, they went in the obvious directions and chose to sensationalize the characters’ actions for drama sake.  So while I liked the film, a different pathway would have been much more preferable.  B-

New on DVD   

Date Night
Rated PG-13 for sexual and crude content throughout, language, some violence and a drug reference
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Steve Carell and Tina Fey are just your average boring married couple with average married problems when they spontaneously go out on a date in New York City.  When two killers mistake them for another couple, they find themselves on the run, in severe danger, and on the most exciting night of their lives.  This romantic comedy take on North by Northwest is actually a fairly clever little picture that waivers here and there, but serves up a pretty entertaining experience.  The guest appearances are some of the best things about this film including a great scene where they interact with James Franco and Mila Kunis playing the couple they are being mistaken for.  This scene alone is worth watching the film.  While many women will like the Mark Wahlberg moments where he is shirtless in almost every scene he is in, the joke does get a little old, or maybe its me getting a little jealous.  I’m not above admitting that.  B

A Prophet
Rated R for strong violence, sexual content, nudity, language and drug material
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
French with English Subtitles
A Prophet tells the story of Malik, a 19-year-old Arab that is sentenced to a French prison and is forced to carry out missions for a Corsican gang leader in exchange for protection until his release.  Having missed the film while it only spent a couple of weeks in theaters, I am now surprised that it only took home a nomination for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars this past year.  This is one of the most original, gritty, well-acted, and well-written crime dramas I’ve scene in years.  Evolving way past the prison drama genre, this feels like an epic, as powerful as The Godfather, where you grow with Malik as the scared kid in prison who must not only survive, but out-smart his fellow prisoners and eventually end up a potentially monstrous crime lord.  If this script were around 30 years ago, and in English, Robert De Niro would have been the only actor capable of performing this role.  That being said, Tahar Rahim has turned in what I can only sum up as a brilliant performance that you must see to believe.  A

Multiple Sarcasms
Rated R for sexual references and language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Timothy Hutton is a whiny man having a midlife crisis that decides that the best way to cope with said crisis is to write an autobiographical play about his life.  The cast, which also includes Mira Sorvino, Dana Delany, Mario Van Peebles, and Stockard Channing sounds impressive at first for an indie until you see it and then you can’t figure out why they would have possibly signed on for such a script that wastes all of their talents.  It’s pretentious, overbearing, and the exact opposite of entertaining – almost like a version of Californication that has been edited for the airlines.  There is a moment where Hutton is talking about the play and exclaims “I don’t even care if anybody sees it.”  You could tell that this was the screenwriter’s philosophy and a self-fulfilling prophecy.  D  

New on DVD

To Save a Life
Rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements involving teen suicide, teen drinking, some drug content, disturbing images and sexuality
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
This latest installment of theatrically-released Christian-themed films tells the story of Jake Taylor (Randy Wayne), a high schooler with a bright future including a basketball scholarship offer to Louisville, the hottest girlfriend in school, and intense popularity.  But when his best friend from childhood commits suicide, Jake examines his life and discovers that he is not happy with the path he has chosen.  No one is going to watch this film and say that this is the best film of the year, but for the one million dollar investment New Song Church in Oceanside, CA made (yes this film was made largely by a church, and then picked up by Sony for distribution), they sure did a heck of a job.  The production values look better than many of the big Hollywood films I see nowadays.  The acting was surprisingly good, especially by Wayne who I found to be very convincing in the leading role as a confused yet confident teen, and aside from an inorganic moment where the writer felt Jake needed to flip out and things needed to fall apart a bit, the cast acted like real teenagers.  I was pleasantly surprised that they didn’t water down the drunken parties where teens have unprotected sex.  It’s reality and refreshing that they took the guts to admit it.  Where they went wrong was a meandering subplot with Jake’s pregnant girlfriend that frankly took away from the very important theme of the film.  Sure To Save a Life can refer to a fetus also, but it shouldn’t have in this particular film – it just didn’t fit.  It also added a lot of extra time that desperately needed to be shaved off.  But overall, I can see this being a positive influence for many who watch it and for some it could possibly even make a huge difference, and you don’t get that from many movies these days.  A-  

The Ghost Writer
Rated PG-13 for language, brief nudity/sexuality, some violence and a drug reference
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
While in a Swiss prison waiting for word of his extradition to the United States, writer/director Roman Polanski oversaw the entire post-production for this subtle thriller about a writer (Ewan McGregor) hired to write the autobiography for the former British prime minister (Pierce Brosnan).  While the ghost writer knew it wouldn’t be a simple job, what he couldn’t predict was the hate storm coming the Prime Minister’s way and the immediate danger he was in from all sides.  Part mystery, part thriller, the film is intriguing and most definitely intelligent, but almost too so to be entertaining.  It’s a movie I actually wanted to like, but could only merely appreciate.  C+

Road to Perdition
Rated R for violence and language
Available on Blu-ray
Road to Perdition, which is one of my favorite films from the last decade is making a very important blu-ray debut this week which many will consider to be a must-own for their libraries.  Based on the graphic novel by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner, Road follows Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks), a hit man for a small-town crime boss played by Paul Newman.  When Michael’s oldest son sneaks along to follow his dad and Newman’s son (played by Daniel Craig) on a hit, Craig takes it upon himself to try to take out Michael and his family to cover up the evidence.  When he only ends up killing Michael’s wife and youngest son, the two take off on a mission of survival and revenge, all the while being chased by another hit man played by Jude Law.  Everything about this film is pure art including the acting, writing, directing, and music.  But what stands out most is the breathtaking cinematography by Oscar winner Conrad Hall, who died shortly before winning for this film.  Many consider it to be one of the most beautifully shot films ever and on blu-ray you can catch every single wonderful nuance.  The special features serve as love letter to the memory of Hall with a look back at his life and his work.  A+

The Breakfast Club
Rated R
Available on Blu-ray
It’s hard to believe 25 years have passed since the brat pack hit the screen for the first time in this iconic film by John Hughes.  Getting it’s blu-ray debut, the film looks brand new aside from the bad but trendy fashion.  Also included is a 12-part documentary looking back at all of the actors and their stories as well as the origin of the label “Brat Pack” which they weren’t exactly fond of at the time.  B+

James and Giant Peach
Rated PG for some frightening images
Available on Blu-ray/DVD Combo
One thing Roald Dahl (Fantastic Mr. Fox) is known for is telling imaginative and weird tales, and this story of a young boy who goes on a journey inside a giant peach with a cast of friendly insects is no different.  It’s a shame that Tim Burton and director Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas) couldn’t come up with a better artistic vision for the film.  While some of the animation is creative and beautiful, much of the movie is ugly and so unpleasing to look at that I wanted to turn the film off.  The story just could not carry me past the poor aesthetics of the lack of vision of the filmmakers.  I’m not sure if different minds could have made this better, but I’m certain that Disney should have chosen different artists for this creation.  C-

New on DVD

Clash of the Titans
Rated PG-13 for fantasy action violence, some frightening images and brief sensuality
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Sam Worthington stars in this remake of the original 1981 cult classic done-up with big special effects and less cheese.  While the filmmakers were considering throwing in gods from several ancient religions (bad idea), they stuck with the story of Perseus, the half-human son of Zeus, who goes on a journey to figure out a way to stop the kraken from destroying the capital city.  Here, Perseus ultimately wishes to seek revenge against Hades for killing his father.  While the special effects are fairly decent (and they look much better now that the ridiculous 3D has been taken out), the film still has no sense of adventure.  It’s just one action scene after another with no soul.  Without the adventure and fun, it lacks entertainment value and a film like this needs entertainment value.  It was a good idea to dust this one off and bring it back, but the absence of imagination shown by these filmmakers proves that they shouldn’t have been the ones that were allowed to do it.  Maybe 30 years from now, someone will get it right.  C-

Repo Men
Rated R for strong bloody violence, grisly images, language and some sexuality/nudity
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Jude Law and Forest Whitaker star in this futuristic thriller about a pair of friends that work as repo men for an artificial organs company.  Whenever folks get too far behind on their bills – they come in and take back their hearts, livers, spines, or whatever else the person might have implanted within them.  When Jude Law’s character has an on-the-job mishap, he is put into a coma and wakes up with an artificial heart that he can’t and doesn’t even want to pay for.  So he must decide to go on the run, or fight back against the company that put it in him in the first place.  While the concept of this film was recently seen in Repo: The Genetic Opera (interesting slasher musical if you ever feel like a fun rental), this film explores a different side of the business and for the first hour I actually thought it was going to be a pretty good film.  And it’s not like they didn’t have a clear roadmap of where to go – the formula is easy and it would have worked in this case.  But no, instead they went in this trippy, strange, sexual direction and even brought in a fight scene that looked like it belonged in a blooper reel.  The movie didn’t start off as a comedy, but after the half-way point, it sure enough became one, much to its detriment.  C-

Vincere
Not Rated but contains strong sexual content, nudity, violence, and language
Available on DVD
Italian with English Subtitles
According to the events of this film, fascist dictator Benito Mussolini led a double life in his early years by marrying a woman and then covering that marriage up while living his public life.  While at one time he was madly in love with his first wife, Ida Dalser (brilliantly played here by Giovanna Mezzogiorno) he soon refused to admit their relationship or that she gave birth to his first-born son.  Hell-bent on forcing him to make public their relationship and accept his son, she works her way into an insane asylum in this gut-wrenching historical drama.  While I’m not an expert on Mussolini and not sure how much of the story is accurate, since I’ve never actually seen a movie about the dictator, I found the film to be completely engrossing and spellbinding.  Using actual footage of the mature Mussolini throughout the film, there is a sense of eerie foreshadowing that exists throughout.  No matter what happens, you know it has to end badly for all parties involved.  But story aside, the film is gorgeously filmed, terrifically acted, and marvelously directed.  My only gripes are the strange transitions which I’m sure were meant to be artistic but I felt merely served as distractions.  Due to the graphic nature of the movie, this probably isn’t the film to rent for your teenager studying WWII, but if you are looking for a heavy, adult-oriented historical drama, it’s hard to find better.  A-

The Art of the Steal
Not Rated
Available on DVD
I love art and I love art museums, and I’ve been to some of the finest in the world, but I won’t pretend to be an expert on the subject.  There is just something about a beautiful painting that speaks to you and when you find one, you just want to stop and stare and get lost in it.  This documentary explores one of the greatest art exhibits that most people don’t even know exists.  The Albert C. Barnes Foundation holds some of the finest Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse, Van Gogh and other masters that he never wanted the world at large to get a look at.  It wasn’t completely private, but private enough.  Located just outside Philadelphia, Barnes collected his pieces and then put into his will that when he died they were not to be loaned out, put on tour, or seen by great numbers of people.  He wanted students to have viewing privileges, but never intended for you and I to.  After his death, the foundation saw things differently and eventually politicians and other people of power in Philadelphia convinced a judge to move the entire exhibit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  This prompted the makers of this film to call it the largest theft of art since the Nazis in WWII.  So unbiased filmmaking this ain’t.  They have a message to convey and frankly they sound like a bunch of elitist art snobs.  They do not make a strong case against and while the methods of moving the art might have been a bit shady, I for one can’t wait to see these fantastic pieces when the Barnes exhibit opens in 2012.  One of the subjects being interviewed made a statement that they overheard someone walk out of the exhibit while it was on tour saying “I’ve seen too many naked fat women for one day,” like that represented all of the museum-going public without art degrees.  That sums up the attitude of the film, but I’m still glad I saw it, because had I not I would have never known what to look forward to in Philly in just a couple of years time.  B

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Rated PG-13 for martial arts violence and some sexuality
Available on Blu-ray
Chinese with English subtitles (English dub also available)
Available for the first time on blu-ray is Ang Lee’s masterpiece about forbidden love, betrayal and redemption set in 19th-century China.  While the flying put some folks off,  the fact that it made $128 million at the box office and took home several Oscars proves that most Americans really got into the fantasy.  This transfer is stunning with a color palette captured for the screen by Oscar-winning cinematographer Peter Pau who provides a brand-new commentary for the disc.  The disc also contains all of the old special features from the DVD such as the making-of and a commentary by Ang Lee.  A

New on DVD

The Losers
Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action and violence, a scene of sensuality and language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
What I originally thought was an A-Team copycat, I soon found out to be a film based on a popular graphic novel (that was probably an A-Team copycat).  In the film, an elite group of soldiers are mistakenly left alive by the very funny super-villain played by Jason Patric and now they are upset and after revenge.  While the script suffers from a budget not able to support a big action film, the cast is a pretty solid one with Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Watchmen), Zoe Saldana (Avatar), and Chris Evans (Fantastic Four).  The movie offers nothing in the way of originality, but there is tons of action to be found although I found myself not really caring about any of the characters by the end.  it might be a mediocre flick, but it fits in well into our mediocre movie year we are having.  C

Cop Out
Rated R for pervasive language including sexual references, violence and brief sexuality
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan are a team of fumbling cops in this film directed by Kevin Smith that can’t decide if it wants to be a parody or a cop comedy.  There’s no doubt you will laugh a lot as Morgan is hilarious and Willis plays a great straight man to his clueless partner.  And Seann William Scott steals every scene he is in as a thief that they apprehend and befriend.  But the tone of the film never takes a clear direction and it almost feels like Smith wanted to give the movie an indie vibe, and in the process made it come off as unprofessional.  One thing I did like about the Blu-ray was the creativity of the special features including “Maximum Comedy Mode” which makes the film immensely more enjoyable.  Smith is such a likable fellow and this special feature is almost like watching the movie with him and letting him laugh about it and make fun of it with you.  I’ve always said that Warner Brothers releases the best Blu-rays and even their bad and mediocre films are elevated by their special features.  C+

Mary and Max
Not Rated
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
I’m a little behind on this one as it was released last month, but as it is a little indie that almost escaped me, I thought it might have escaped most of you, and I just had to do everything I could to prevent that.  This stop-motion clayography film follows a little Australian child named Mary who finds an older Autistic pen pal in New York named Max.  Both are lonely and in need of a friend, and over a span of many years, the two develop a beautiful friendship of the most bizarre kind.  While certainly not for kids, the film is a wonderfully creative movie with an absolutely unforgettable storyline that many adults will be enthralled with.  It might be a bit sad for some, but the tears didn’t take away from the enjoyment at all.  Voiced by Toni Colette, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Eric Bana, as well as many other gifted actors, this film is a showcase for talent in every aspect.  A  

New on DVD

Greenberg
Rated R for some strong sexuality, drug use and language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Ben Stiller stars in this film written and directed by Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale) about a single, forty-something man who prides himself on the fact that he does nothing.  When he housesits for his brother over an extended period of time, he falls for and emotionally abuses his brother’s personal assistant (Greta Gerwig), who very knowingly allows him to use her in her own sense of experimentation.  It’s a comedy in the sense that it has some extremely awkward moments that make you so uncomfortable that you can’t help but laugh.  But just like his other films, this discomfort only serves as a stop sign for most viewers.  Ben Stiller might have a draw in zany pics, but in films like these, where he actually shows off his acting chops, his core audience won’t follow along.  If they do – they might not like what they see.  This is more of a film for those folks who like Baumbach, and if you don’t know if you are one of them, you’ll find out rather quickly once you stick the disc in.  B

The Greatest
Rated R for language, some sexual content and drug use
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Carey Mulligan is the only one of a pair of teenagers to survive a car crash that leaves the son of Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon taken too early.  Pregnant after their first night together, Mulligan turns to the boy’s parents to help her, but due to their grief they don’t know how to accept the only part of their son that is still alive.  What could have been a super-manipulative mess, only turns into a slightly manipulative one.  The problem with films about loss of life like this is that they are just too uncomfortable to watch.  Needless to say, the acting is great, which is probably why the film doesn’t feel as fake as you would think it would.  Then again, you have to be wanting a good cry to watch a movie like this and there’s hardly ever a time where I want to sit and stew in my own tears.  So while it’s a good film, I just can’t see it flying off the shelves.  B+

Our Family Wedding
Rated PG-13 for some sexual content and brief strong language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
This twist on the multicultural wedding movie pairs the black family with the Latino family as a young couple in love have to introduce their parents, and most notably their fathers: Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia.  Of course they don’t get along at first and then the formula is followed down to the closing credits.  It’s one cliche after another and the jokes are as lame as can be.  I’m glad Forest Whitaker is getting work, but he has been cursed since he won his Oscar in 2006 for The Last King Scotland.  He should have enough money now that he’s taken all of these horrible jobs that he can finally accept some great roles again.  D

White Collar: The Complete First Season
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
On this hit USA show, Mat Bomer is a con man that escapes from a maximum security prison only to be caught again and brought in as a consultant for the White Collar Crimes Division of the FBI.  Other than the bad (and I mean horrible) acting by Tiffani Thiessen, this is one extremely watchable show that is about as entertaining as, well, all of the other shows on USA.  Fast paced, well written, and just plain fun, the series makes for a good summer excursion.  A-

New on DVD

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Rated R for disturbing violent content including rape, grisly images, sexual material, nudity and language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Swedish with English subtitles
Now the biggest literary sensation since Harry Potter (sorry – can’t give any respect to Twilight), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Millennium Trilogy has been at the top of the New York Times best seller charts for months and is one of the most adult-read books in ages.  While there will soon be an American version with big stars and directed by David Fincher, it will be hard to beat this Swedish import starring Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist in the leading roles.  Originally titled Men Who Hate Women, the story revolves two tales of brutality towards women, one involving the heroine, Lisbeth Salander (Rapace), and one involving a missing woman whose loving uncle is convinced was murdered.  When Lisbeth goes against her code of going it solo, she teams with a reporter (Nyqvist) to uncover the secrets thought buried by this missing woman’s family.  It’s a terrific mystery, although the violence, and particularly the theme of sexual violence, is difficult to watch.  That being said, it is one of the best nail-biters so far this year.  Having already seen the sequel (review coming next week), I can assure you that this trilogy is worth seeing before it is remade by Hollywood.  A

Jason and the Argonauts
Rated G
Available on Blu-ray Disc
Very few folks in the movie business are actually known past the actors, directors, and maybe the composers, but in the world of special effects Ray Harryhausen is a legend, and Jason and the Argonauts, the mythological tale of the quest for the golden fleece, is one of his unique effects masterpieces.  In 1963, Harryhausen was the first to ever use stop motion animation for anything other than monsters, although there are a few of those in there also.  Sure your kids will make fun of it, but the influence of a film such as this was far reaching.  Proof of that is a special commentary on the disc by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson who practically gushes over the film while watching it.  The film also contains a commentary by Harryhausen himself with all sorts of interesting facts such as the legendary skeleton scene at the end almost took them from a G-rating to an X-rating due to what was allowed in films at the time.  B+

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief
Rated PG for action violence and peril, some scary images and suggestive material, and mild language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Completely unlike Jason and the Argonauts, Percy uses the latest in special effects to tell the story of a young demi-god in Manhattan that discovers who he is and also that he has a mission to recover a stolen lightening bolt before Zeus gets really mad and does a lot of nasty things.  The special effects are good enough here, but the film is much longer than it should be   at two hours, and with mediocre acting and directing, it just gets old quick.  It feels like Hollywood is desperate to fill the hole that is going to be left when Harry Potter goes away, but if they want it to be Percy (bad name by the way) they need a better cast and scribe.  C

A Single Man
Rated R for some disturbing images and nudity/sexual content
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Colin Firth turns in a great performance in this stylish piece written and directed by famed clothing designer Tom Ford about a college professor in the early 60’s whose partner’s (played by Matthew Goode) death sends him into a deep depression that he cannot shake.  It’s a very challenging film, and definitely not one for all audiences, but viewing the movie as a work of art, rather than entertainment, will help in its appreciation.  The commentary by Ford will help tremendously with that.  B-

Predator: Ultimate Hunter Edition
Rated R
Available on Blu-ray
Just in time for its new film Predators, Twentieth Century Fox is releasing the original Schwarzenegger classic on Blu-ray with tons of special features including a look at the new film and a new making of featurette.  So if you already own it on Blu-ray is it worth buying?  Probably not, although if you can get a good  enough price on it, there is a $10 movie reward that you can use to buy tickets to the new Predator movie.  In that case – it might be worth the purchase.  B+

New on DVD

The Crazies
Rated R for bloody violence and language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
In this remake of the George A. Romero classic, something is turning the citizens of a small Iowa town into crazy sociopaths, and it’s up to the town sheriff (Timothy Olyphant) to figure out how to end what seems to be an unstoppable epidemic.  What could have been a stupid, lazy horror film, turns into a smart, twisty thriller with this great cast, frightening script, and very effective directing.  When a scary movie is this good, it becomes fun to watch, and boy was I entertained.  Sure it went a little too far with the gore, but that’s forgivable considering its genre.  A-

The White Ribbon
Rated R for some disturbing content involving violence and sexuality
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
German with English subtitles
This 2009 Oscar Nominated Foreign Film and winner of the Canne Palm D’Or tells the story of a small German village on the eve of World War I, where a series of mysterious accidents occur and it seems that some of the children in the village might be at the very center of them.  While there is some disturbing content in the movie, the most troubling elements of all come after when you’ve had time to think about who these children will grow up to become.  While this is not an easy film to watch, it is very rewarding and will stick around to haunt you for a long time.  A-

Showgirls: 15th Anniversary Sinsational Edition
Rated NC-17  
Available on Blu-ray
It has already been 15 years since Paul Verhoeven’s stripper movie, starring then teen television star Elizabeth Berkley, became the first mainstream NC-17 film to stir up controversy.  While this new HD release gives us a more clear view of, well, everything, the movie is still better at shocking than entertaining.  I guess it just depends on your definition of “entertaining.”  C-

Don McKay
Rated R for language and some violence
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Twenty-five years after leaving his home town for what he thought was the last time, Don McKay (Thomas Haden Church) gets a call from a woman claiming to be his high school girlfriend (Elisabeth Shue) and thus decides to pay his old home a visit again.  One thing this film is not is exciting, but it has quirky down pat.  What appears at first to be a melodrama quickly turns into a dark comedy that hits you completely by surprise, but you have to be patient to get there.  I think the film would have worked better as a play than a movie, but even as a film it was fairly entertaining and had me in stitches towards the end.  B-

Stolen
Rated R for a scene of sexuality
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Jon Hamm is a cop whose son was kidnapped and presumed dead.  When he discovers the grave of a missing boy from a crime that took place 50 years ago, he decides to try to solve that crime to find catharsis for his own loss.  If that description didn’t drive you to call your doctor for a prescription for an antidepressant, than watching the film surely will.  I can’t recall such a downer of a movie, and while the production values were good, and you could tell a lot of love went into making it, it’s just not a story most people wish to see.  I, for one, wish I had never put the disc in.  C-

New on DVD

The Book of Eli
Rated R for some brutal violence and language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Denzel Washington stars in this post-apocalyptic thriller about a man on a mission from God traveling west through America after civilization is destroyed, only to be hunted down by Gary Oldman for the book he is carrying with him.  I missed this one in theaters and wasn’t too keen on catching the Blu-ray release either, but figured there were far worse things to watch.  Little did I know that this critically-panned film is actually a pretty darn good movie that is hard to take your eyes off.  Washington is terrific in the butt-kicking journeyman role and once again Oldman pulls off a fabulous villain.  What really wins here though is the story and the message, and while I don’t want to spoil anything, I feel that if I don’t say that this movie is ultimately about the power of The Bible, the right audience might not give it a try.  That audience will probably have some difficulties with the extreme amounts of violence, but I’ve never seen a more convincing argument that the Good Book is the most critical weapon one can possess.  Just like many of the other Warner Brothers titles, the Maximum Movie Mode provides for the ultimate film school experience with picture-in-picture director and crew interviews and storyboard comparisons put right in during the film.  A-

The Last Station
Rated R for a scene of sexuality/nudity
Available on DVD/Blu-ray
The story of Leo Tolstoy and his wife (portrayed by 2009 Oscar nominees Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren) is played forth in this heartbreaking drama about the famous author and his desire to leave his fortunes to the Russian people while his wife tries to do everything possible to keep this from happening.  The cast is as solid as you can get with Paul Giamatti and James McAvoy along for the ride.  The surprise for me was that there was a bit more sense of humor, in the beginning at least, than I expected.  I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not, but I feel like I know the life of Leo Tolstoy a lot better now; what I’m not certain of is how interested I am in it.  It’s a very well-made film, but for me it just wasn’t a very engaging one.  C+

Hung: The Complete First Season
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
In HBO’s breakout freshman comedy, Tom Jane is a down-on-his-luck high school coach who needs to find extra work in order to support his teenage son and daughter.  The only career he thinks he is suitable for, besides coaching, is becoming a male prostitute due to the fact that he is so, well, the title of the show kind of says it.  I’ve always thought that Tom Jane could have been an A-lister were it not for his unfortunate choice in name (he was actually born Thomas Elliott).  His comic abilities in this series are showing what he is capable of and this has quickly become one of my favorite guilty pleasures.  It’s funny, moving, weird, sexy, and very entertaining.  B+

She’s Out of My League
Rated R for language and sexual content
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Jay Baruchel (How to Train Your Dragon) is just your average lovable loser until he somehow impresses a beautiful woman at the airport to the point where she wants to date him.  From the trailers this looks like an unbelievable tale dreamed up by someone that looks like Jay Baruchel.  Once inside the movie, you find a sweet interior that helps you understand how something like this could and actually does happen.  The pic is really raunchy, just like you would expect in an r-rated comedy, and there are some gags that will have you in absolute stitches.  There are also a few two-dimensional characters that are as badly acted as they are written,  so the film is far from perfect.  But if you need a laugh, you’ll get your money’s worth.  B

Entourage: The Complete Sixth Season
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
In this latest season of HBO’s hit show about celebrity and friendship, Vince  is finally on top again as he stars in the newest Martin Scorsese film while his crew are all trying to make it doing their own thing.  While the group are still friends, they are getting to be less and less of an “entourage.”  Still, their antics are fun to watch and if Johnny Drama making an idiot of himself doesn’t make you laugh, not much will.  One mistake they made this season was taking the Ari Gold/Andrew Klein relationship a lot too far as Ari tries desperately to both save his friend’s marriage and be as mean to his assistant Lloyd at the same time.  These story lines just didn’t take hold like they should have and made Ari seem like a bad business man rather than the shark he is.  The writers might have been trying to make him look human, but frankly, I like the shark.  C+

Green Zone
Rated R for violence and language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy) re-team in this fictionalization of events that took place during the war in Iraq where Damon is a rogue U.S. Army officer who is trying to hunt down either WMDs or proof that they don’t exist.  There is some good food for thought and the action is pretty solid throughout, but for the first half Damon is just a little too redundant as he repeatedly asks about the WMDs over and over and over again like a broken record.  Once he gets it that there aren’t any, the film starts moving in the right direction and turns into a decent enough thriller.  Some might think it’s closer to fact than fiction.  I can’t say.  I can say it will start discussions no matter which side of the argument you may stand on, but if you lean too far right, you may want to skip it entirely.  If you check out the special features you’ll learn that the soldiers working with Damon in the film are actual veteran soldiers and not trained actors.  In order to get the realism they needed, they hired the real thing and they did an impressive job.  B