Category: External Movie DVDs (Page 35 of 74)

Blu Tuesday: Punisher: War Zone and More

March 17, 2009 /

This week’s high-def offerings are pretty slim due to some unconventional marketing decisions. Though DVDs and Blu-rays are typically released on Tuesdays (hence the title of the column), there are only a few movies actually being released today. Summit Entertainment hopes to maximize Day One sales of “Twilight” by holding a midnight sale of the film on March 21st, while Walt Disney’s “Bolt” races into stores a day later. (Curiously, the DVD edition is still scheduled for the following Tuesday). Because it makes more sense to talk about those titles when they’re actually available in stores, however, I’ll save both “Twilight” and “Bolt” for next week’s column. Which leaves us with just one major release for the week…

“Punisher: War Zone” (Lionsgate)

Lexi Alexander’s “Punisher” reboot had all the makings of a box office disaster, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that it performed terribly in theaters. Still, for all the drama plaguing production (from recasting Thomas Jane with Ray Stevenson to Alexander’s falling out with the studio), “War Zone” is a pretty entertaining flick. Fans of the comic will absolutely love all of the graphic violence, and though it can be a bit cheesy at times, it’s still better than some of the other Marvel films. The Blu-ray definitely does the movie justice (especially Steve Gainer’s excellent cinematography), but in the end, there just aren’t enough extras to make it worth owning.

The only other major releases this week are two catalog titles from Fox: “The Princess Bride” and “The Robe.” The former looks to be identical to the 20th Anniversary DVD (with the exception of a high-def transfer), while the biblical epic touts a digital restoration and all-new bonus features. Hopefully, I’ll get the chance to check out both discs and report back next week. Until then, be sure to save up some extra cash, because next week’s impressive Blu-ray schedule could set you back a hefty sum.

Action Movies, External Movie DVDs, Movie DVDs, Movies

Baghead

March 15, 2009 /

Four struggling L.A. actors retreat to a mountain cabin to write themselves some work via a zero-budget screenplay, but things take a meta-not-quite-horror turn in the Duplass Brothers’ follow-up to their “mumblecore” festival circuit hit, “The Puffy Chair.” Billed as a kind of comedy-horror film, “Baghead” starts out strongly, poking knowledgeable fun at the indie film scene, but takes way too long developing the uninteresting tangle of relationships, real and imagined, between buddies Matt (Ross Partridge) and Chad (Steve Zissis) and their respective not-exactly-dates, Catherine (Elise Muller) and Michelle (the ultra-cute Greta Gurwig of “Hannah Takes the Stairs”). By the time a seriously tipsy Michelle thinks she’s dreamed of a creepy slasher with a bag over his head, and that becomes the subject of the screenplay the foursome imagines they might work on, we’ve lost a great deal of interest. Even when an actual dude with a lunch bag over his head starts appearing, the dramatic juices never really flow. While “Baghead” eventually regains some steam, it’s pretty much the opposite of scary – and I’m rather easily scared – and not even close to funny or compelling enough to rate a recommendation, despite a sweet-natured ending, some laughs early on, lots of good intentions, and some very decent performances. It might, however, make an interesting point of comparison when the possibly-meta super secret Joss Whedon/Drew Goddard collaboration, “The Cabin in the Woods,” comes out next year.

Click to buy “Baghead”

External Movie DVDs, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie DVD Quicktakes, Movie DVDs, Movies, Reviews

Who Killed the Electric Car?

March 12, 2009 /

With a share of General Motors running just a bit above the price of a single Hot Wheels car, this seems like an opportune time to catch-up with this surprisingly upbeat 2006 documentary covering perhaps the worst single piece of corporate strategy in business history. Directed by first-timer Chris Paine, with assists from big-time executive producer Dean Devlin and super-documentarian Alex Gibney, “Who Killed the Electric Car?” starts off as an earnest, L.A.-centric, paean to the efforts of activist drivers to fight GM’s very literal trashing of the all-electric EV-1 — launched in 1996 on a lease-only arrangement after California emissions rules forced auto companies to explore non-polluting vehicles. After spending time with such once-satisfied EV-1 customers as actors Mel Gibson, Tom Hanks, Peter Horton, Alexandra Paul, and comedienne Phyllis Diller, the film switches gears to becomes a far more interesting industrial whodunit, examining the corporate and the political forces that led to the car’s passive-aggressive treatment by GM.

Conservatives will likely be irked that the Bush Administration and the oil companies figure prominently as suspects, and will also note that the film is narrated by well-known lefty Martin Sheen. Nevertheless, Paine’s film takes a healthily bipartisan approach and includes neoconservatives James Woolsey and Franklin Gaffney making the national security case for electric autos. The very bad news is that the resistance of GM to its own best technology may have played a huge roll in the near destruction of the company and, along with it, the U.S. and world economy. On the other hand, the electric car may be due for a resurrection – director Chris Paine is working on a sequel.

Click to buy “Who Killed the Electric Car?”

Documentaries, External Movie DVDs, External Movies, Movie DVD Quicktakes, Movie DVDs, Movies, Reviews

Blu Tuesday: Pinocchio, Let the Right One In and The French Connection

March 10, 2009 /

Welcome to the latest column on Premium Hollywood, Blu Tuesday, where I’ll be covering some of the best and biggest high-def titles of the week. For those hoping this was a post about a New Order/Rolling Stones tribute band, I apologize, but you’ll have to keep holding your breath for that one, whoever you may be.

You see, when Blu-ray first hit the market, there weren’t very many titles to talk about other than the new releases that were already coming out on DVD. Now that the format is more popular with studios, however, my office has become overrun with high-def titles, and well, I just don’t have the time to cover every one in as much detail as I’d like. That doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to be covered at all, however, and so I’ve created this column to help cleanse my conscience (and some office space) and keep you all in the know on some Blu-rays you might be looking forward to, as well as a few others you should add to your shopping list.

“Pinocchio” (Walt Disney)

One of my least favorite Disney classics after “Dumbo” and “Bambi,” “Pinocchio” is still a no-brainer when it comes to diehard collectors and fans of animated films. It’s been years since Disney last released this from their ominous vault and so they’ve not only put out a new DVD edition to celebrate the occassion, but a high-def version as well. As expected, the new digital restoration is incredible. The colors pop off the screen like they were freshly painted, and were it not for the fact that hand-drawn animation is virtually extinct, you’d swear this was made yesterday. The best part about the three-disc set, though, isn’t the new transfer or the fact that you get three different versions of the movie (Blu-ray, DVD and a digital copy), but the hours of bonus material that have been lovingly crammed onto the disc. You get all the usual stuff that you’d expect from a typical new release (audio commentary, making-of, deleted scenes), but somehow they just feel more special on a movie this old.

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Action Movies, External Movie DVDs, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movie DVDs, Movies

“Gulliver’s Travels”: still animated, but forgotten no more!

March 10, 2009 /

Right about this time last year, Bullz-Eye pulled together a feature entitled “Animated and Forgotten,” where we shined the spotlight on some of our favorite animated films that hadn’t gotten nearly as much love as we thought they deserved. The piece opened with a look at Max and Dave Fleischer’s 1939 take on Jonathan Swift’s “Gullliver’s Travels,” about which our man Bob Westal wrote…

After Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” became the top grossing picture of 1938, Paramount Pictures turned to Disney’s best known competitor, Max Fleischer (animator of the hugely popular Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons) for an animated feature of its own. That was the good news for Fleischer. The bad news was the studio wanted it in less than a year, and “Snow White” had taken three years to complete. Turning to Irish satirist Jonathan Swift’s fantasy classic — which, strangely enough, had already been transformed into a pro-Communist parable by stop-motion animators in the Soviet Union — Max and brother Dave Fleischer discarded their original concept of using Popeye as their Gulliver. Instead, they went with a conventionally heroic characterization, relying on timesaving rotoscopes of actor Sam Parker. (If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, rotoscoping was an animation process invented by Max Fleischer that involved tracing over filmed images.) The rushed production was marked by innumerable problems, including a bitter feud between west coast and east coast animators. While no gunplay resulted from the cartoony clash, it didn’t help the final result. When the film was released at Christmas, critics were unimpressed, but the Fleischer shop’s visual invention and broad comedy was enough to make the film a hit; animated features were still very much a novelty and Paramount’s gamble actually paid off. A follow-up film, the fanciful musical bug fable, “Hoppity Goes to Town” might have done as well. But it was released on Dec. 9, 1941 — two days after Pearl Harbor was attacked.

Ouch.

Fortunately for you, however, E1 Entertainment has released “Gulliver’s Travels” on DVD and Blu-ray…and unlike the cheap-ass versions that are regularly popping up in Only-A-Dollar stores, this time it’s been digitally restored and re-mastered. Investigate it a bit more with the widget below:

External Entertainment, External Movie DVDs, External Movies, Movies, News

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