The Top 5 DVD's for 1/5/10

 

So, for Geekweek, I’m starting a column on the top five DVD releases of the week. Of course some weeks there will be more worth spotlighting, so I’ll probably cheat, and this week I’m doing some stretching. That’s because any title the studios wanted to get into your home for Christmas came out at least three weeks ago. But like anything, the business will pick back up and some great titles should be coming shortly, and five DVDs a week is more than enough. I’ll be here to highlight the best of bunch, though with an eye towards movies (over TV). Here we go:

 

1.      10 Things I hate About You: 10^th Anniversary Edition – (DVD and Blu-ray): It’s strange to think that this movie came out ten years ago, because – technically – it’s a 1999 film, making it eleven years old by the time of this DVD release. But if the DVD market has shown us anything, pesky release dates are no match for marketing gimmicks. Though the extras on this title look weak, the film itself (a simple redress of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew for the High School set) came at the start of the re-launch of John Hughes-esque modern teen genre that featured such gems as She’s All That, Can’t Hardly Wait, and Down to You. That most of those films have already been forgotten is no surprise, but the passing of Heath Ledger is enough to elevate this film above most of its brethren. I remember liking the film, mostly for Julia Stiles’s turn on a table top dancing to Notorious B.I.G.’s Hypnotize. But it was Ledger they thought would be the breakout star, and Sony worked hard to take him there. The rest, as they say, is history.

 

2.      Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: One of the “surprise hits” of last year, Sony has been one of the weakest studios when it’s come to CGI animation and they haven’t found their niche like Dreamworks or Disney. This was their first foray that hit, and it played fairly well (in that the film cost $100, and did over $100). Unfortunately, the 3-D was a big part of the film’s success and it appears that’s not being replicated at home. At the red-blue glasses aren’t that great, perhaps the film will be reissued when people start buying 3-D televisions. Half of Saturday Night Live is in the cast of this, along with Bruce Campbell and Mr. T. Such a thing should probably be seen, at some point.

3.     Dogtown and Z-Boys (Blu-ray) One of my favorite documentaries of the 00’s, Stacy Peralta sets out to write the story of his youth, and the history of modern skateboarding from its inception. Having grown up watching Bones Brigade videos, this was before my time, but I was sucked in immediately. And the way Peralta assembles the footage he’s able to bring the film to a pretty brilliant conclusion that shows how great athletes pushed each other so hard it changed how the sport was practiced. Though it appears there’s no great upgrade from the previous DVD release, if you haven’t caught the film before, this is definitely worth a look, and is probably my favorite choice of the bunch.

 

4.     Dawn of the Dead/End of Days/8 Mile/Jarhead (Blu-ray w/ DVD). The studios are still figuring out Blu-ray. There is some saturation because the players are getting cheaper and a lot of people have PS3’s, but it seems the studios are stuck treating customers like they did ten years ago adjusting moms and pops to letterbox transfers. And though Universal has released all these titles before on Blu-ray, including the DVD along with it may make it safer or more exciting for the tenuous consumer to rebuy something they probably already own. It may also seem a value-add, where Universal is likely sitting on stock of the Standard def versions of these films. This is likely a stop-gap thing until they figure out exactly how they want to go forward with Blu-ray and how much they should worry about backwards compatibility. And for that we’re in interesting times. But likely Disney and Warners have had some success including the Standard Def version, and Universal is seeing if it helps catalog sales. My guess is it won’t, but I like Blu-ray, so… more power.

 

5.      The Final Destination. 3-D at home hasn’t been any good and word is that the 3-D on this is also not great. I thought that Coraline looked pretty good when I got the Blu-ray, but that is also stop-motion animation. I’m a sucker for the glasses, even though it’s never that good because of the idea of it. Even with Avatar in the theater, when you get that diorama feel from home 3-D (which is about as good as it can ever look) it feels like victory. I felt like this franchise peaked with Final Destination 2, when the makers (and especially director David Ellis) realized that the Rube Goldberg stuff could be thrillingly funny and stupid, and so you have someone killed by pigeons and plate glass. I saw the first reel of this one and it looked like people died in gory and stupid ways, so I’m sure this delivers on that (and they brought Ellis back), but they also did that with part 3, and to diminishing returns. Still, they did solid business with this entry, so I’m sure they’re contemplating a fifth entry.

 

So, that’s the first one. I’m still feeling this out, so comments welcome.