Top 5 DVD's of the Week 7/27/10
|
Jul 26 2010, 6:07 PM
PICK OF THE WEEK – Clash of the Titans (Blu-ray/DVD)
If we are lucky, Clash of the Titans will mark the beginning of the end of 3-D as a trend. Hastily post-converted in the wake of Avatar’s tremendous success, Louis Letterier’s remake of the Ray Harryhausen cultish classic was fairly awful, and so Warners thought they might make more money if it was the newest/latest. It also doesn’t bode well for Sam Worthington, who’s a movie star by default at this point. Asked to do nothing in this movie but run around, I guess he does it well enough, but it’s sad to think Harry Hamlin had a better defined character. But then there’s also so much deleted from this movie and poorly thought out. It’s a mess, and it doesn’t work, but it’s sort of fascinating in that this will likely be a turning point. It made money, but there’s no 3-D version on DVD or Blu-ray. Telling.
RETRO – Rambo: Extended Cut (Blu-ray/DVD)
In preparation for The Expendables, Lionsgate is releasing this on DVD and Blu-ray and Lock Up and Johnny Handsome on Blu-ray. I prefer the latter two on a whole, but Stallone’s Rambo is still a thing of beauty, even if the additional footage is – almost entirely – useless. The film is essentially two acts. The first gets people in the shit and sets up Rambo’s reluctant warrior, and then the second half is John Rambo fucking shit up. Since Stallone is on in years, he doesn’t run around so much, instead he just mows people down. I think the film’s trailer used the song “Bodies hit the floor” which is a terrible song but rarely used as aptly. A lot of people die in this film, and they don’t just die, they explode. It’s an awesomely bloody mess. Huzzah for blood!
NEW– Repo Men (Blu-ray/DVD)
A slightly original sci-fi film that got tagged as a rip of Repo: The Genetic Opera, I have heard moderately good things about this film, and with a cast like Jude Law, Forrest Whitaker and Carice Van Houten (How Houten? Very Houten, if you ask me), I’m going to give it a recommend, even if it isn’t entirely satisfying. I also know that the Genetic Opera fans hated on this film for having a similar premise, even if Monty Python did something similar in The Meaning of Life. I’m going to check it out one way or the other, but home video seems like the way to go.
RETRO – G.I. Joe: The Movie (Blu-ray)
Hey, what are you going to do? A toy advert masquerading as a movie, G.I. Joe got a film much as Transformers did. Since no major studio was involved, these films quietly snuck into theaters, perhaps coming too late in the cycle, or perhaps existing just for home video and TV sales. Now it gets a super special edition, because people grew up with the show, and the video. I can’t say I hated The Transformers movie the last time I watched it, but I also will probably never watch it again.
NEW –IP Man (Blu-ray/DVD)
Donnie Yen. Kicking ass. Need I say more? Should I have to? He plays the guy who taught Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee.
More on Geekweek
PICK OF THE WEEK – Clash of the Titans (Blu-ray/DVD)
If we are lucky, Clash of the Titans will mark the beginning of the end of 3-D as a trend. Hastily post-converted in the wake of Avatar’s tremendous success, Louis Letterier’s remake of the Ray Harryhausen cultish classic was fairly awful, and so Warners thought they might make more money if it was the newest/latest. It also doesn’t bode well for Sam Worthington, who’s a movie star by default at this point. Asked to do nothing in this movie but run around, I guess he does it well enough, but it’s sad to think Harry Hamlin had a better defined character. But then there’s also so much deleted from this movie and poorly thought out. It’s a mess, and it doesn’t work, but it’s sort of fascinating in that this will likely be a turning point. It made money, but there’s no 3-D version on DVD or Blu-ray. Telling.
RETRO – Rambo: Extended Cut (Blu-ray/DVD)
In preparation for The Expendables, Lionsgate is releasing this on DVD and Blu-ray and Lock Up and Johnny Handsome on Blu-ray. I prefer the latter two on a whole, but Stallone’s Rambo is still a thing of beauty, even if the additional footage is – almost entirely – useless. The film is essentially two acts. The first gets people in the shit and sets up Rambo’s reluctant warrior, and then the second half is John Rambo fucking shit up. Since Stallone is on in years, he doesn’t run around so much, instead he just mows people down. I think the film’s trailer used the song “Bodies hit the floor” which is a terrible song but rarely used as aptly. A lot of people die in this film, and they don’t just die, they explode. It’s an awesomely bloody mess. Huzzah for blood!
NEW– Repo Men (Blu-ray/DVD)
A slightly original sci-fi film that got tagged as a rip of Repo: The Genetic Opera, I have heard moderately good things about this film, and with a cast like Jude Law, Forrest Whitaker and Carice Van Houten (How Houten? Very Houten, if you ask me), I’m going to give it a recommend, even if it isn’t entirely satisfying. I also know that the Genetic Opera fans hated on this film for having a similar premise, even if Monty Python did something similar in The Meaning of Life. I’m going to check it out one way or the other, but home video seems like the way to go.
RETRO – G.I. Joe: The Movie (Blu-ray)
Hey, what are you going to do? A toy advert masquerading as a movie, G.I. Joe got a film much as Transformers did. Since no major studio was involved, these films quietly snuck into theaters, perhaps coming too late in the cycle, or perhaps existing just for home video and TV sales. Now it gets a super special edition, because people grew up with the show, and the video. I can’t say I hated The Transformers movie the last time I watched it, but I also will probably never watch it again.
NEW –IP Man (Blu-ray/DVD)
Donnie Yen. Kicking ass. Need I say more? Should I have to? He plays the guy who taught Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee.
Comments
Sign in to comment with your TypePad, Twitter, Facebook, Google, Yahoo or OpenID.