Twi-hards have turned out en masse with the finale of the franchise in theaters. But there is one last gasp of vampire devotion that fans can spend their cash on - the Blu-Ray of course. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 can now be yours.
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"Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up."
Was The Dark Knight Rises the finale that Batman deserved and needed? On the new TDKR DVD/Blu-ray release (on shelves today), Christopher Nolan and his collaborators wax poetic about their Batman saga and shed light on what made Bruce Wayne's rise, fall, and redemption such compelling material.
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I'll give Ridley Scott this much: Despite leaving us all with a thousand unanswered questions at the end of Prometheus, he's seemingly packed a multitude of answers into the upcoming Blu-ray, DVD, and 3D Blu home video release. Count down the days — mere days! — until October 8, when the secrets of Prometheus are yours to devour, with a tantalizing look at the spoilery Blu-ray/DVD trailer.
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It had its big debut in Cannes in May and its U.S. release at the end of August. Now John Hillcoat's Lawless is headed to Blu-ray and DVD. Based on Matt Bondurant's novel The Wettest County in the World, the film stars Shia LaBeouf (Disturbia), Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises), Academy Award-nominee Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland), Academy Award-nominee Jessica Chastain (The Help) and Emmy winner Guy Pearce (The King's Speech). The Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD will include special features.
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Fire up the Bat-signal: Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises has a home video street date of December 3, which means Christmas is coming early for the kids, the action fans, the Bat-fans, pretty much all grown adults, Christian Baleheads, Tom Hardyites, Nolanazis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's transmedia empire, Furries who count Anne Hathaway's Catwoman getup, freeclimbing enthusiasts, and those Warner Home Video suits awaiting their piles of cash. Mark your calendars!
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A long time ago in a culture far removed from this one — 1987 to be exact — cinematic satirist Mel Brooks took on box-office game changer George Lucas' Star Wars franchise and didn't end up in the Hollywood equivalent of a Sarlacc Pit. Substituting the Schwartz for the Force, Yogurt for Yoda and Pizza The Hutt for Jabba, Brooks gave us Spaceballs and made us laugh harder (intentionally) than Jar Jar Binks ever did. To celebrate the movie's 25th anniversary, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has released a commemorative Blu-Ray edition that mostly does justice to this comedy gem. more »
If you're already jonesing for more gritty Batman heroics, you won't have to wait for the eventual home video release of The Dark Knight Rises to get your fix: The folks at Warner Premiere have announced the September release of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, an animated adaptation of Frank Miller's celebrated 1986 graphic novel charting the return of the retired Caped Crusader to a Gotham City in need. Bonus cool points: Peter Weller as Batman!
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Before there was Django Unchained, there was Django, and the star of that 1966 spaghetti western, Franco Nero, can be found in the 1970 surreal comedy Compañeros, which also inspired Quentin Tarantino's upcoming anti-slavery opus.
The Film: Compañeros (1970)
Why It's an Inessential Essential: With Django Unchained on the way, it's a good time to revisit the films that inspired Quentin Tarantino's upcoming pastiche. The winningly surreal action comedy Compañeros is the third installment of a trilogy that spaghetti-western director Sergio Corbucci's shot with Franco Nero, the star of the original Django (1966) and the mysterious man who makes a prominent cameo at the end of the Django Unchained trailer. Like most spaghetti westerns, Compañeros is a mish-mosh of narrative tropes that takes the kind of mercenary outsider made popular in the genre by A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and Django and places him in the political, revolutionary-centric context of "Zapata westerns" like Tepepa (1969) and Duck, You Sucker! (1971). more »
A caped crusader. A city wiped clean of criminals. A madman with a doomsday device who terrorizes the populace until average citizen heroes step forward to help save the day. Batman? Nope! On the heels of The Dark Knight Rises, Movieline takes a look back at 1999's Mystery Men, new to Blu-ray, in the latest installment of Inessential Essentials.
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Why It's an Inessential Essential: Last week, Warner Brothers released a Blu Ray box set of British director Christopher Nolan's films. Looking at the box set (other titles include: Memento, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and Inception), one is reminded of Nolan's celebrity status as one of the most instantly recognizable filmmakers working today. Which makes it difficult to imagine a film that might be considered obscure or in need of reconsideration. But the clear outlier in the Christopher Nolan Director's Collection is Insomnia, Nolan's remake of the 1997 Norwegian film of the same name.
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Why It's an Inessential Essential: Co-scripted and produced by Jack Abramoff, Red Scorpion is a starring vehicle for Sweden's own living action hero, Dolph Lundgren. Being the modest gentle giant that he is, Lundgren has nothing but good things to say about the film during the interview segment he shot for Synapse Films new release of the movie. But that says more about Lundgren's personality than it does the crackerjack B-movie. As self-styled Lundgren expert Jeremie Damoiseau remarks in his annotated(!) liner notes, Red Scorpion nearly ruined Lundgren's career (more on this shortly).
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The film: Shallow Grave (1994)
Why It's an Inessential Essential: Today, Danny Boyle is commonly known as "the director of Slumdog Millionaire." (Or: Olympian designer!) After that, he's usually "the director of Trainspotting," or 127 Hours or even Millions. So it's nice to see that the Criterion Collection's first DVD/Blu-Ray release of a Boyle film is Shallow Grave, an early film by Boyle but an especially worthy one. Scripted by regular collaborator John Hodge (Trainspotting, A Life Less Ordinary), Shallow Grave is a nasty little neo-noir about three apathetic yuppies that cover up a crime involving a dead body and a bag full of cash.
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As part of their 100th anniversary, Universal Studios has just released a commemorative Blu-Ray edition of Smokey and the Bandit. Today, the 35-year old Burt Reynolds vehicle is mostly remembered for Reynolds' good ol' boy schtick, Jackie Gleason's mugging and first-time director Hal Needham's stuntwork. Unfortunately, while Needham's contributions to Smokey are probably the most essential, he remains the least renowned of that bunch. But thanks to the behind the scenes featurette included on Universal's new release, laypeople and stuntwork junkies alike can get a good idea of why Smokey and the Bandit belongs to Hal Needham.
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If you're going to watch Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds traipse through the stinker that is Safe House, at least have fun with the unofficial Safe House Drinking Game, courtesy of the fine folks at Film School Rejects: "TAKE A DRINK WHEN YOU SEE: a flag, an explosion, a close-up on a computer screen... TAKE A DRINK WHEN SOMEONE SAYS 'Frost,' 'house,' 'file' or 'files,' the name of a city..." Might I also suggest taking a swig every time you find yourself on the verge of a shaky-cam migraine? Prepare to get wasted. [Film School Rejects]
The film: Telling Lies in America (1997)
Why It's An Inessential Essential: Two years after Showgirls got screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct, Burn Hollywood Burn: An Alan Smithee Film) blacklisted, the wily self-promoter returned with Telling Lies in America. Lies, based on a semi-autobiographical story, is somewhat similar to Showgirls in that they have common themes. Both films treat selling out and deception as an integral part of getting ahead in show business. But Lies, directed by Guy Ferland, is obviously not as garishly sarcastic as Showgirls is (few films are...). It's refreshing in that sense to see Eszterhas show genuine affection for his con men and hucksters in Lies rather than alternately mock and then half-heartedly show affection for his desperate protagonists.
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