DVD Releases

One of the biggest hits of the summer, Despicable Me tells the story of Gru, the second most nefarious villain in the history of the world. A man with big ideas but poor execution skills, Gru is evil incarnate. He takes pleasure in the little things, too, such as cutting in line at Starbucks and popping children’s balloon animals. “Evil incarnate” may be a stretch, though, considering he’s just adopted three little girls. They were meant to be pawns, but he’s falling for them and their childish antics. Still, love won’t stand in his way to pull off his penultimate plan: to steal the moon.

Read FilmJabber’s full Despicable Me movie review.

It’s a timeless tale of redemption and forgiveness, of holiday giving and the Christmas spirit (or three spirits). A Christmas Carol is one of the most well known stories in the world and has been reinvented and re-imagined countless times over the last century. But with Disney’s latest incarnation of the movie, we’re once again left asking: what the hell happened to Robert Zemeckis?

Read FilmJabber’s full A Christmas Carol movie review.

Michael Cera haters got a smack down this summer. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is as if all of Cera’s work up until this point has been preparation for this one uber-role. Michaela Cera is best at playing Michael Cera, but equip him with an awesome screenplay and super powers and you get Michael Cera on steroids. Thank Edgar Wright for that, the skillful director behind Hot Fuzz and some little movie called Shaun of the Dead. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World could be the pinnacle of Cera’s career. It’s also one of the best movies of the year.

Unfortunately, no one saw it. Well, cool people saw it, but there aren’t that many cool people in the world anymore. Scott Pilgrim was more or less a box office flop, but movies can’t become cult classics if they’re blockbuster hits. With its debut on DVD and Blu-Ray this Tuesday, November 9, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World begins its upward trajectory toward greatness.

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Highlander is one of those ’80′s movies action fans look back on fondly. The movie isn’t great, but it is what it is. A tale of immortality and a battle to end all battles, Highlander is an adequately done action-drama that shifts in between character Conner MacLeod’s past and present. In the 25 years since its release, it has lost some of its edge but is a perfectly watchable, mildly entertaining flick.

Highlander II. Wow. That’s another story. Both movies come to Blu-Ray for the first time on November 2, 2010.

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Believe it or not, there is one Oscar race that is already decided and done. That race doesn’t belong to an actor or a drama, but to Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story 3, the sure-lock for Best Animated Picture at the 2011 Academy Awards. Pixar has won nearly every contest in this category since the beginning of the century, and Toy Story 3 was yet another critically praised film from the studio-that-can-do-no-wrong. It also has earned over $1 billion worldwide and is about to make a lot more as it releases on DVD and Blu-Ray this Tuesday, November 2, 2010.

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Every week the Hollywood studios release more and more previously released movies on Blu-Ray, looking to squeak out a few extra dollars from their stagnant home video businesses. Most movies don’t need Blu-Ray. Do you need to see Sleepless in Seattle in Blu-Ray? What about a comedy made in 1950? As I said, most movies don’t need the format Blu-Ray, and at the very least aren’t worthy of purchase when the picture is released for the tenth time.

And then there’s Apocalypse Now.

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Belle, the Beast and the teapots are back as Disney’s Beauty and the Beast debuts on Blu-Ray on Tuesday, October 5, bringing with it not only the classic movie but loads of magical special features. A fitting set for any movie fan’s collection (especially one catering to children, of course), Beauty and the Beast: Diamond Edition is definitely worth buying.

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Drugs, sex and rock ‘n roll are on full display in the critically praised comedy Get Him to the Greek, available today on DVD and Blu-Ray. Starring Russell Brand as Aldous Snow, the sex-fueled singer from Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Jonah Hill, who also had a role in Marshall (albeit a different one), Get Him to the Greek is an entertaining but hard to fully swallow onslaught of eccentric characters and ridiculous situations.

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The twisted psychological thriller Jacob’s Ladder was recently released to Blu-Ray, and I’ve been asked to review it. I’m two weeks late, so I’ll make this quick.

If for some reason you haven’t seen this 1990 classic, go and rent it now. Or buy it. I don’t care, but watch it. It’s f**ked up beyond belief, but is also a carefully constructed journey into the dark recesses of the mind. Tim Robbins stars as Jacob Singer, a Vietnam vet haunted by the memories of war and the death of his young soon. Back at home, he begins to question his sanity as visions of demons and creatures begin to appear, but are they merely figments of his imagination or something more real and evil?

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MGM may be struggling to get new movies off the ground, but the Blu-Rays keep on coming: in recent weeks, classics such as Bull Durham and Escape from New York have hit high definition, along with an early Brad Pitt thriller called Kalifornia. None of the films need the Blu-Ray format (Escape from New York succeeds in part due to its low-budget effects), but Blu-Ray format they have received nonetheless.

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That’s the question on everyone’s minds: Does the Kick-Ass Blu-Ray kick ass? There’s a reason why “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” hasn’t yet been repealed, or the economy hasn’t fully recovered. Everyone is just preoccupied with this nagging question. The answer: it’s pretty good. Kick ass? Maybe not, but Lionsgate doesn’t want to get ahead of itself.

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Sylvestor Stallone’s new movie The Expendables explodes into theaters on August 13 (exaggerated marketing pitch? Watch the trailer and tell me you think a better word is suited to describe its arrival), and that means many of his big movies are getting the Blu-Ray “special edition” makeover – along with a few of his pals’ old movies. With the Rocky movies already having received the full Blu-Ray treatment, it was only a matter of time before Lionsgate packaged all the Rambo movies into a nice, clean, bloody package.

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I want Amanda Seyfried’s agent. Just a few years ago, the actress was just “the daughter on HBO’s Big Love” or “the really dumb one from Mean Girls“, sort of cute, not really scorching hot. But Mamma Mia that career later and she’s received rave reviews and been in a couple moderate hits; suddenly, she’s a leading actress who’s recognized the world over. And she’s somehow become significantly more attractive.

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The Robert Rodriguez-produced “reboot” of the Predator franchise – Predators – opens this coming Friday, and it was inevitable that 20th Century Fox would unleash an updated edition of the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic Predator to milk a few extra dollars out of willing cinephiles. This new Blu-Ray edition, titled The Ultimate Hunter Edition, doesn’t provide many if any new bonus features, but it does have a few things going for it.

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Based on a seemingly popular book series, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief is about a dyslexic teenager in New York who, after being attacked by his step-teacher-turned-winged-creature-from-hell, discovers that he is in fact a demigod, the son of Poseidon, can control water in unnatural ways (he doesn’t have to go to the bathroom for days on end!) and that many believe he stole Zeus’s lightning – which just isn’t a very smart thing to do. Throw Hades into the mix and we have ourselves an adventure.

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