This Week On DVD and Blu-ray: April 14, 2009
Yikes, this week doesn't look good, but I have some alternative options for you
 |
Wow, what a horrible week for DVD and Blu-ray releases. Sure, some people will be interested in picking up The Reader after it was nominated for Best Picture, beating out poor ol' Dark Knight. I had it at #10 on my Best of 2008 list and I would love to own a Blu-ray version for reasons I will soon tell you, but I think that is a film I will remain in the minority and I would never recommend anyone pick it up on a blind buy. So what does that leave you with? The Spirit? I know a few people will probably be interested in the Blu-ray edition of Pride and Prejudice and the other half might think about buying 8 Mile on Blu-ray, but all-in-all there is really nothing to suggest here.
So, while you can still read my mini-capsules below I would like to steer you in another direction. This past Sunday I purchased three DVDs, one of them I suggest anyone that says they actually like movies should just stop right now and buy, and the other two being yet two more Akira Kurosawa films I didn't already have in my collection.
First, the Kurosawa films include The Hidden Fortress and Ran. Both editions are from Criterion, The Hidden Fortress stars Toshiro Mifune and is best known as the primary influence on Star Wars and comes with a video interview with Lucas about Kurosawa. I still don't own Kagemusha, which was helped greatly by Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola who helped convince 20th Century Fox to foot part of the bill on the film as the original producers, Toho Studios, could not afford to complete it.
As for Ran, I was very upset to learn Criterion had to withdraw the upcoming Blu-ray release of the Kurosawa classic due to a rights issue. I have seen Ran only once, but when I saw it I saw it via Netflix with a non-anamorphic version with an awful picture and subtitling. To say watching a thumbnail version of a 2 hour and 40 minute film affected my viewing would be an understatement. So, considering the Blu-ray release is in limbo and Criterion's DVD release is out of print, when I saw it I just had to pick it up. You can watch the trailer for Ran right here.
Finally, we come to the DVD I actually went to the store to pick up. Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, a film that was just named to TCM's list of 15 Most Influential Films of All-Time. I saw this film on Saturday night on Netflix's Instant Play service and had to have it and I wanted all the information I could get. The version on Netflix is the 2001 Fox Lorber release and if you are a Netflix member and have downloaded the Instant Play software you can click here and watch it now, but if you would like to see the difference between the Fox Lorber release and the Criterion version just mouse over the pic to the right. The top image is from the Fox release and the one you see after mousing over comes from the Criterion release, the pictures come from DVD Beaver where they have several more screen capture comparisons.
I don't want to go too deep into my personal thoughts on the film just yet, although I am obviously enamored with it, but I plan on watching the Richard Gere 1983 remake this week prior to doing my write-up and also want to digest some of the features on this disc first. Breathless was the first Godard film I have seen outside of the short he created with Francois Truffaut, which is available on Criterion's The Last Metro. I hope to be able to bring more than just empty adjectives when I write it up, but if you want a very well written piece check out Ebert's 2003 review in which I was very happy to see he mentioned Bonnie and Clyde more than once.
If you are interested in any of the above titles just click here and take your pick. Obviously I recommend Breathless above and beyond any DVD or Blu-ray listed in this today's report, but you can't go wrong with the other two either.
|
The Reader
|
|
 |
 |
Like I said in the opening, The Reader ranked #10 on my list of Best Movies in 2008, here is what I had to say about the film in that feature:
Should you buy it without seeing it? Definitely not. Should you definitely see it? Yes. SIDE NOTE: The Blu-ray doesn't actually hit shelves for another two weeks, on April 28. |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
The Spirit (2-Disc Special Edition)
|
|
 |
|
| Blech, The Spirit is not a good film and looking at the number of features on the Blu-ray edition you would think this is some kind of massive hit. It was roasted by critics and was quickly forgotten. Perhaps the strangest thing about the film is that Lionsgate screened it for critics, but refuses to screen this week's Crank 2, a film many are actually looking forward to seeing. Go figure. | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pride and Prejudice (BBC Version) [Blu-ray]
|
|
 |
|
| I have never seen this version, but I have been told by damn near everyone how great it is. I was offered a review copy, but I feel it is a title that neither I or the feature benefits from my opinion. So what's the use? | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Paramount Catalog Blu-ray
Mean Girls / Strange Wilderness / The Last Kiss |
|
 |
|
| Paramount releases another wave of inexplicable Blu-ray catalog titles, the seemingly most appropriate release would be for Mean Girls, but I can't help this feeling that the majority of Blu-ray player owners are more interested in action features and not little girl teen comedies, critically panned comedies or hardly seen or heard of romantic comedies. I would love to see the sales stats because I can't imagine anyone getting too excited over any of these. | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dark Matter
|
|
 |
|
| Oh, the timing… Then again, it is beginning to feel as if there will never be a good time to release a film based on some disturbed person going violently crazy. Dark Matter is a film based on actual events, in which a Chinese university student responds violently when his chances for a Nobel Prize are dashed by school politics. Meryl Streep is in it, so I guess that is something, but when this DVD arrived on my doorstep I couldn't drum up the interest to give it a chance. | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
8 Mile
|
|
 |
|
| Eminem has a new album dropping on May 19 and from what I understand another one at the end of the year so perhaps the release of 8 Mile on Blu-ray actually does benefit from timing. I expect retailers to litter the store with this title once "Relapse" hits shelves. On top of that, it isn't actually all that bad a film, after all, it is an Oscar winner. | |
|
|
|
|
|
- Wings: Final Season
- Knots Landing – The Complete Second Season
- Splinter
- Lionsgate's Lost Collection DVDs
- The Thirteenth Floor [Blu-ray]
- IMAX: Deep Sea/Into the Sea [Blu-ray]
- Cranford [Blu-ray]
- Pillow Talk (Rock Hudson, Doris Day)
- Morning Light
Releasing on June 16, 2009 - Fired Up! (Unrated) (buy now)
Releasing on June 9, 2009 - Lost – The Complete Fifth Season (buy now)
Releasing on December 8, 2009 - Weeds – The Complete Fourth Season (buy now)
Releasing on June 2, 2009 - Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (Deluxe Edition)
Releasing on June 16, 2009 - Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (Deluxe Edition)
Releasing on June 16, 2009 - Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (Deluxe Edition)
Releasing on June 16, 2009 - The International (buy now)
Releasing on June 9, 2009
- Glory (buy now)
Releasing on June 2, 2009 - Jackie Brown
Releasing on August 4, 2009 - Pulp Fiction (Special Edition)
Releasing on August 4, 2009 - Morning Light (buy now)
Releasing on June 16, 2009 - Fired Up! (Unrated) (buy now)
Releasing on July 28, 2009 - The Waterboy (buy now)
Releasing on July 28, 2009 - Lost – The Complete Fifth Season (buy now)
Releasing on December 8, 2009 - Weeds – The Complete Fourth Season (buy now)
Releasing on June 2, 2009 - Friday the 13th Part 3: 3D
Releasing on June 16, 2009 - Friday the 13th Part 2
Releasing on June 16, 2009 - The International (buy now)
Releasing on June 9, 2009
RSS Feed
| 7 comments so far 
news feeds