DVD Releases November 16 2010

From New DVD Releases November 16 2010 & Buy Cheap New DVD Movies November 16 2010

Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. November 16 2010

Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
Directed by Brad Peyton
Average customer review:

A definite improvement over the original 2001 Cats & Dogs, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore is a brand-new story about an underground world of animal intelligence, featuring cat spy agency M.E.O.W.S., a dog intelligence agency, and even a pigeon. They find themselves in the unlikely position of joining forces against renegade M.E.O.W.S. agent Kitty Galore as she seeks revenge against dogs and humans in a plan that will destroy the human race and allow her to rule the world. This 3-D film is a blend of live action, puppetry, and animation, and the combination of better writing and a cast of talented voice artists makes the animal spies in this sequel much more believable than in the previous film. Kitty Galore is unlikable to the core and Bette Midler is absolutely perfect in the role. Neil Patrick Harris is highly effective as Lou, head of the dog agency; James Marsden plays the conflicted police-dog-turned-new-recruit Diggs; Nick Nolte plays fellow canine agent Butch; Christina Applegate is M.E.O.W.S. agent Catherine; and Katt Williams as Seamus does a great pigeon. The unlikely cooperation between canine, feline, and bird leads to an action-adventure that takes the agents from dark back alleys to a cat house run by a cat lady pushing catnip and even a local carnival. The action scenes will hold the interest of most children ages 6 to 12, though many of the adults in the crowd may find them rather on the slow side, and kids and adults alike will chuckle at the silly jokes and slapstick comedy that pop up throughout the film. A notable laugh for the adults in the audience comes in an extended scene that clearly invokes Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. Add in a robot cat, some silly magician tricks--including Kitty Galore zipped into a rabbit suit--a squirrel robot that self-destructs after a quick dance, and the requisite 3-D effects and you've got a perfectly adequate action comedy that kids will enjoy and their parents can stomach without too much complaining.

DVD Releases October 26 2010

From New DVD Releases October 26 2010 & Buy Cheap New DVD Movies October 26 2010

Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. October 26 2010

Sex and the City 2
Directed by Michael Patrick King
Average customer review:
The four glitziest ladies ever to hit Manhattan as a single force--Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte--are back, fabulous as ever, in Sex and the City 2. They may be older, and even a little wiser, but the pulls of love, lust, careers, and a pair of well-turned stilettos are still the focus of this Fab Four. As the women gamely face the prospect of aging--children, menopause, glass ceilings, and, in Carrie's opinion a fate worse than death--domesticity--they still manage to sparkle with the banter and great outfits that made the HBO series and the first film such hits. Sex and the City 2 opens with Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) at the wedding of two of the foursome's favorite gay male friends, Stanford (Willie Garson) and Anthony (Mario Cantone). The wedding itself pulls out all the stops--in the true spirit of Sex and the City--and is one of the highlights of the film. From the no-holds-barred décor, including live swans, to the gay men's chorus singing show tunes while the guests arrive, the event is on the far side of over the top. As the guests settle into their seats, Miranda whispers, "Could this wedding be any gayer?" and as if on command, out comes Liza Minnelli, playing herself, to officiate. (Minnelli's performance is unexpectedly splendid, and her "wedding song" will wow all her fans--gay, straight, married, single.) Yet beneath the luscious glamour and the really bad hats (oh, Carrie, you should have resisted that harlequin feathered crown), the heroines are struggling with the not-so-glamorous realities of their lives. Charlotte and Harry (the always delightful and dependable Evan Handler) have two demanding young daughters--and a nanny from Ireland whose braless voluptuousness puts new meaning in the phrase "Irish spring," and who may be threatening their marriage. Miranda, ever the focused career gal, is getting nowhere fast at her law firm. And Carrie, now married to Mr. Big (Chris Noth), is chafing at the cozy staying-in and lying-low that she thinks spell death to romance. (It should be noted that vixen Samantha is still game for walking on the wild side. At the wedding she meets a handsome straight guy and asks him what he does for a living. "I lay concrete," he says. Samantha: "That sounds promising.") And for once there are no easy, glib answers to the real-life problem of the four stars, and Sex and the City 2 lets the characters actually grow up, at least a little. Which doesn't mean their fashions aren't fabulous. The film is also chock-a-block with great cameos, including Miley Cyrus, Project Runway's Tim Gunn, and Penélope Cruz. And longtime fans of the TV series will be happy to hear that Smith Jerrod (Jason Lewis), Samantha's onetime flame, and Aidan (John Corbett), who once stole Carrie's heart, also make appearances. Sex and the City 2 is frothier than a shaken bottle of Champagne, and goes down as smoothly as a couple of appletinis. So fans, drink up!

DVD Releases October 12 2010

From New DVD Releases October 12 2010 & Buy Cheap New DVD Movies October 12 2010

Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. October 12 2010

Jonah Hex
From Warner Home Video
Average customer review:

Another DC Comics hero gets a workout in Jonah Hex, the movie incarnation of DC's scar-faced bounty hunter, played here by Josh Brolin. Out to exact revenge on the varmint who wrecked his face and killed his family, Jonah also gets yanked back into the service of his country--against his will, of course. Said varmint, Quentin Turnbull, is played by John Malkovich, although the more spirited villainy is provided by Turnbull's tattooed Irish assistant (Inglourious Basterds's Michael Fassbender plays the part with the kind of energy noticeably absent from the other cast members). In this 80-minute hodgepodge of a movie, Jonah regularly checks in with his lady friend, a prostitute (Megan Fox) whose bordello room has a remarkable amount of glamour lighting, and in his spare time investigates Turnbull's plot to use a super weapon against Washington, D.C. By giving Jonah a halfway-interesting supernatural talent--he can talk with the dead, by placing his hands on them--the film adds a kicky new wrinkle, but it's not enough to improve the mangled storytelling or the sleepwalking pace. Brolin's makeup is impressive, but in scarring his cheek and pulling his mouth back in a grotesque grimace, the prosthetics designers have robbed the actor of any ability to express himself through speech. Kind of a miscalculation there, and typical of this movie's tendency to shoot itself in the face.
See more details and customer reviews: Jonah Hex

DVD Releases September 21 2010

From New DVD Releases September 21 2010 & Buy Cheap New DVD Movies September 21 2010

Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. September 21 2010

Ondine
From MAGNOLIA FILMS
Average customer review:

Colin Farrell shows his soulful side in Ondine, a lovely Irish drama from director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Breakfast on Pluto). Syracuse (Farrell), a down-on-his-luck fisherman called Circus by friends and foes alike due to his formerly boozy ways, pulls up his net one morning to find a beautiful, near-drowned woman in it. She calls herself Ondine (Polish actress Alicja Bachleda) and Syracuse's daughter Annie (charming newcomer Alison Barry) thinks she's a selkie (a seal that's taken human form and can grant wishes). Ondine is happy to feed Annie's fantasies, and Syracuse is pretty convinced himself--but things take a dark turn as Annie's illness and Ondine's past intrude on this sweet fantasy. Ondine has a different feel than typical Hollywood fare; events that in most movies would be hyped and emphasized (such as a plot-turning car crash) here pass with jolting swiftness. Instead, Ondine lingers on the interplay between a sad father and a yearning daughter, between a lonely man and a lost woman. The movie builds a rich and deeply felt web of relationships--when the story takes hold, you'll be all the more gripped as a result. Featuring a delightful comic turn by Stephen Rea (V for Vendetta) as a skeptical priest.

DVD Releases September 14 2010

From New DVD Releases September 14 2010 & Buy Cheap New DVD Movies September 14 2010

Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. September 14 2010

Just Wright
Directed by Sanaa Hamri
Average customer review:

If you've ever doubted that Queen Latifah is a movie star, watch Just Wright. It's not that Just Wright is a great movie--it isn't. It's a perfectly capable romantic comedy with some lovely touches and some typical clichés. The plot--physical therapist Leslie Wright (Latifah) becomes the personal therapist to basketball star Scott McKnight (rapper Common) after a devastating injury, and gradually, love blossoms--isn't really the point. What makes the movie work are little moments of pain and pleasure, such as the flicker of betrayal when Leslie watches her mother give a pair of heirloom earrings to Leslie's prettier childhood pal, Morgan (Paula Patton, Precious), or the hesitation, followed by a leap, when Leslie and Scott have their first kiss. Director Sanaa Hamri, who also made the unjustly ignored interracial romance Something New, has an excellent eye for the details of how people interact; she never forgets that people rarely know what they're going to do until they actually do it, so her movies are in a constant state of discovery. She draws a new vulnerability out of Queen Latifah, who usually coasts on a sassy, breezy confidence. Just Wright is about a woman who's quietly endured a thousand indignities and tries not to let her unhappiness show--which is what makes it so engaging. This sort of performance doesn't win awards, but it makes this sort of movie an unexpected pleasure.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Directed by Mike Newell
Average customer review:

Jake Gyllenhaal's doe eyes and bulging biceps will make some hearts flutter in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Dastan (Gyllenhaal), adopted prince of the Persian empire, must flee into the desert when accused of murdering his royal father--but a glass-handled dagger he found as loot from a captured city turns out to hold powerful time-manipulating magic. Not only is he pursued by his vengeful brothers, his scheming uncle (Ben Kingsley, Sexy Beast), and a strange cabal of assassins, but a princess/priestess named Tamina (Gemma Arterton, Quantum of Solace) wants the dagger back and will kill Dastan if she has to. Prince of Persia wants to be a rollicking adventure along the lines of Pirates of the Caribbean. Unfortunately, it's hampered by clumsy dialogue and hard-to-follow action sequences, with choppy editing that wrecks the flow of the parkour-inspired stunts. But the production design is extravagant and every time Alfred Molina (Spiderman 2) appears as a greedy sheik the movie gets a delightful jolt of energy. Gyllenhaal doesn't have much to work with--Dastan is a fairly generic hero--and whoever designed his hair should have been fired on the first day, but his lazy charm comes through and carries him through the movie.

Letters to Juliet
Directed by Gary Winick
Average customer review:

Letters to Juliet succeeds in being just what it's meant to be, a feel-good romantic comedy about love lost and love found, in which love triumphs in the face of cynicism. Inspired by the book of the same name, and filmed against the beautiful backdrop of Verona, Italy, the movie tells the story of how troubled young women seek advice from Shakespeare's Juliet by leaving letters tacked to a wall, where they are carefully answered by Juliet's self-appointed "secretaries." One such note is found 50 years later by Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), a young American woman who is soon to be married and who yearns to become a writer. Her heartfelt answer to the letter serves as a catalyst for an epic romantic journey that will span continents and generations. The success of the film lies in the powerful interaction between the wistfully romantic and fully mature author of the letter, Claire (Vanessa Redgrave); the romantically idealistic Sophie; and Claire's overly pragmatic, downright cynical grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan), who grudgingly accompanies his grandmother on what he deems an insane quest to Verona to find her long lost love, Lorenzo. The filmmakers, writers, and actors all capitalize well on the comic possibilities of the situation, and there are more than a few good chuckles to be had at the absurdity of the interactions between these three very different characters, as they experience everything from hope and longing to disappointment and unexpected fulfillment. In the end, each character grows and changes profoundly as a result of their shared journey. Sure, the events portrayed in the film are highly unrealistic, but that doesn't change the fact that the film speaks to that innermost part of us all that, despite all logic, makes us want to believe that true love really does exist and that it just might triumph in the end.

Princess Kaiulani
Directed by Marc Forby
Average customer review:

Princess Kaiulani is a moving film that's part romantic epic, part historical period piece. But mostly it's a portrait of how a frightened young girl grew into an extraordinary woman. The film begins in 1889, when civil unrest unseated Hawaii's royal family and the Hawaiian people began a struggle to maintain their independence and right of self-governance, and when the 13-year-old princess Ka'iulani (Q'orianka Kilcher), who was next in line for the Hawaiian throne, was exiled to England to ensure her safety. Shot on location in both England and Hawaii by indie director Marc Forby, this breathtakingly beautiful film follows Ka'iulani as she is plopped down in a foreign world that looks upon Hawaiians as barbarians and where her royal heritage counts for virtually nothing. Princess Ka'iulani, or "Victoria," as the English often call her, endures harsh treatment at the hands of both teachers and students at boarding school, but she refuses to crumble, carrying on with a strength and quiet resolve that's powerfully portrayed by Kilcher. As Ka'iulani matures, she falls in love with Englishman Clive Davies (Shaun Evans) and becomes engaged. Just as Ka'iulani's happiness seems assured, her father visits her in England, bringing with him serious news: her uncle, King Kalakaua (Ocean Kaowili), has died unexpectedly after having been forced to adopt a constitution in conflict with the best interests of the Hawaiian people, and Ka'iulani's aunt Liliu'okalani (Leo Anderson Akana), who ascended to the throne, has subsequently been put under house arrest and removed from power. Incensed by the grave injustices inflicted upon her people, Princess Ka'iulani is propelled by her inherent sense of duty to sacrifice her own potential happiness. She journeys first to America, where she eloquently pleads with outgoing president Grover Cleveland for his help, and later to Hawaii, where she fights for her people's rights in person. Princess Kaiulani is a powerful film, and what comes across so strongly is not just the often-overlooked perspective of the native Hawaiian people regarding America's annexation of Hawaii and the cultural consequences of that annexation, but the truly heroic acts of Hawaii's extraordinary Princess Ka'iulani.

The Twilight Zone: Season 1 [Blu-ray]
From Image Entertainment
Average customer review:

All 36 episodes of the first season of Rod Serling’s classic, groundbreaking series, now presented in pristine high definition for the first time ever!

• Loaded with new and exclusive bonus features not available anywhere else including extremely rare, never-before-released unofficial pilot “The Time Element” written by Rod Serling and hosted by Desi Arnaz – the episode that started a cultural phenomenon – presented in glorious high definition!
• All new 1080p high-definition transfers have been created from the original camera negatives, as well as uncompressed PCM audio, remastered from the original magnetic soundtracks. Season One Episodes: Where Is Everybody?, One for the Angels, Mr. Denton on Doomsday, The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine, Walking Distance, Escape Clause, The Lonely, Time Enough at Last, Perchance to Dream, Judgment Night, And When the Sky Was Opened, What You Need, The Four of Us Are Dying, Third from the Sun, I Shot an Arrow into the Air, The Hitch-Hiker, The Fever, The Last Flight, The Purple Testament, Elegy, Mirror Image, The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, A World of Difference, Long Live Walter Jameson, People Are Alike All Over, Execution, The Big Tall Wish, A Nice Place to Visit, Nightmare as a Child, A Stop at Willoughby, The Chaser, A Passage for Trumpet, Mr. Bevis, The After Hours, The Mighty Casey, A World of His Own. Season 1 included such stars as Anne Francis, Burgess Meredith (eventual veteran of numerous TZ episodes), Ida Lupino, Jack Klugman, Richard Conte, Gig Young, Nehemiah Persoff, Sebastian Cabot, Claude Akins, Earl Holliman, Roddy McDowall, Kevin McCarthy, Ed Wynn, Murray Hamilton, Vera Miles and Ron Howard, all featured in classic episodes. Before the season had even finished, it was hailed by the critics, named by Daily Variety as "the best that has ever been accomplished in half-hour filmed television,” a new phrase had entered the pop-culture lexicon and its success and impact is still felt today – fifty-one years after its debut.

Seven [Blu-ray Book]
From New Line Home Video
Average customer review:

The most viscerally frightening and disturbing homicidal-maniac picture since The Silence of the Lambs, Seven is based on an idea that's both gruesome and ingenious. A serial killer forces each of his victims to die by acting out one of the seven deadly sins. The murder scene is then artfully arranged into a grotesque tableau, a graphic illustration of each mortal vice. From the jittery opening credits to the horrifying (and seemingly inescapable) concluding twist, director David Fincher immerses us in a murky urban twilight where everything seems to be rotting, rusting, or molding; the air is cold and heavy with dread. Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt are the detectives who skillfully track down the killer--all the while unaware that he has been closing in on them, as well. Gwyneth Paltrow and Kevin Spacey are also featured, but it is director Fincher and the ominous, overwhelmingly oppressive atmosphere of doom that he creates that are the real stars of the film. It's a terrific date movie--for vampires.

Relate Links:
Cheap New DVD Movies
DVD Releases
DVD releases UK
DVD releases CA

DVD Releases September 7 2010

From New DVD Releases September 7 2010 & Buy Cheap New DVD Movies September 7 2010

Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. September 7 2010

Killers
Directed by Robert Luketic
Average customer review:
Killers has been murdered by most film critics, and the box-office receipts haven't been too impressive either. But that's kind of a bad rap. Granted, it isn't likely to make many year's best (or even month's best) lists, but this is an entertaining little diversion that at the very least offers an appealing cast, a few laughs, and some cool chase scenes. Katherine Heigl plays Jen, who, having recently been dumped by her boyfriend, is vacationing in Nice with her parents (Tom Selleck and Catherine O'Hara). Enter Spencer (Ashton Kutcher), a hired assassin (hey, it's a comedy) who happens to be on the scene for a job. The couple's cutesy flirting turns into a romantic dinner, which leads to some heavy drinking… and before you know it, Spencer has renounced the killing gig, married Jen, and moved back to her hometown in the States, where he becomes a "corporate consultant." Three years later his past catches up to him, as we knew it would, and a seemingly limitless array of hired guns emerges from the woodwork, intent on collecting the $20 million bounty that's been put on Spencer's head. Exactly why this is, and who's responsible for it, are secrets revealed only at the end, although perspicacious viewers will no doubt have seen it coming. In the meantime, Spencer's revelation of who he really is and Jen's reaction to it are mildly reminiscent of the Arnold Schwarzenegger-Jamie Lee Curtis relationship in True Lies, as issues of trust, safety, and Jen's newly discovered pregnancy complicate Spencer's attempts to keep the two of them alive while he tries to figure out what's going on. Director Robert Luketic displays a sure hand during the action sequences, but he's working with a thin script and a pair of attractive young actors whose chemistry doesn't exactly burn up the screen. Those are serious drawbacks, but all in all, there are far worse ways to kill a couple of hours than watching Killers.

DVD Releases August 31 2010

From New DVD Releases August 31 2010 & Buy Cheap New DVD Movies August 31 2010

Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. August 31 2010

Harry Brown
Directed by Daniel Barber
Average customer review:

With its themes of rampant urban decay and crime, mistreatment of the elderly, and vigilantism, Harry Brown will inevitably be compared to earlier movies from Death Wish to Gran Torino. The comparisons are apt, but with the able assistance of Michael Caine in the title role, director Daniel Barber and screenwriter Gary Young's tale stands on its own, grimly but compellingly. Caine's Harry Brown, a retiree and former marine, lives alone in a flat in a decrepit London council estate, spending his time visiting his comatose wife in the hospital, playing chess at the local pub with his only friend (David Bradley), and gazing out at the quotidian violence and drug dealing carried out with virtual impunity by the insolent young thugs and lowlifes on the estate grounds. It's a lonely existence that only gets sadder when his wife dies and his pal is murdered; and when the police inform him that nailing those responsible will be next to impossible, Harry turns dirty. His first killing is in self-defense, but once he gets hold of a gun (obtained from a dealer-junkie in a nightmarishly vivid scene), it is on, as our "vigilante pensioner" takes no prisoners in his pursuit of street justice. The cops, who are mostly depicted as clueless and thoroughly inept, assume the local gangs are responsible; only Detective Inspector Alice Frampton (Emily Mortimer), about the only one with a brain and a heart, suspects Harry, and she plays an important role as the film careens towards its operatically brutal climax. The scenes of violence are intense but very well staged, and the film's overall look and downbeat color palette effectively convey the sense of squalid hopelessness permeating this stratum of British existence. Harry Brown isn't a lot of fun, but it will stick with you.

DVD Releases August 17 2010

From New DVD Releases August 17 2010 & Buy Cheap New DVD Movies August 17 2010

Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. August 17 2010

The Last Song
Directed by Julie Anne Robinson
Average customer review:

This romantic tearjerker from writer Nicholas Sparks (Dear John, The Notebook) can be formulaic at times, but it stays interesting thanks to pacing and snappy dialogue. Miley Cyrus sulks through The Last Song as troubled teen Ronnie, who resents her father (Greg Kinnear) for divorcing Mom (Kelly Preston) and leaving the family. A piano prodigy, Ronnie refuses to play after her father leaves, and she snubs admission to Julliard. Ronnie and her wisecracking brother Jonah (Bobby Coleman) are sent to spend the summer with their father in a small Georgia beach town. Handsome townie Will (Liam Hemsworth) strikes up a tense relationship with Ronnie and, true to romance formula, they fall in love. Ronnie softens her attitude and the ice between father and daughter begins to melt away. But Dad has a tragic secret, and in the end, music helps Ronnie open her heart and heal. Cyrus gives a predictable performance as the all-attitude Ronnie, but she's helped along by Coleman's cute-little-brother shtick (which can be a bit heavy-handed, but the youngster is a scene-stealer). Veteran actors Preston and Kinnear are one-dimensional, but The Last Song is a harmless teen romance--who's watching the adults, anyway?

DVD Releases August 10 2010

From New DVD Releases Aug 10 2010 & Buy Cheap New DVD Movies Aug 10 2010

Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. August 10 2010

Date Night
Directed by Shawn Levy
Average customer review:

Tina Fey and Steve Carell are two of the most charming performers in entertainment today. Their goofy attractiveness makes them a perfect couple in Date Night: an unremarkable husband and wife from New Jersey, they get mistaken for crooks in Manhattan, sending them on a wild night replete with snooty wait staff, crooked cops, glitter-specked strippers, a shirtless superspy (Mark Wahlberg, as buff as ever), and a preposterous car chase. The movie makes no effort to be remotely plausible and the last third really goes off the rails, and it would probably be better served by less familiar faces in minor roles (bit parts are played by Mark Ruffalo, Kristen Wiig, Common, James Franco, Mila Kunis, William Fichtner, and Ray Liotta). It's disappointing that the dialogue doesn't crackle the way it does on 30 Rock or The Office. But Fey and Carell carry the movie along through sheer nerdy pluck. Rarely does a couple in a movie seem genuinely devoted to each other, not out of wild passion, but for all the things that a real marriage is built on: patience, shared humor, a willingness to deal with day-to-day annoyances, and simple affection. Fey and Carell seem like a couple you'd actually enjoy going out to dinner with. In today's world, that's more romantic than sunsets and bouquets of roses.

DVD Releases August 3 2010

From New DVD Releases Aug 3 2010 & Buy Cheap New DVD Movies Aug 3 2010

Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. August 3 2010

The Ghost Writer
Directed by Roman Polanski
Average customer review:



Oscar-winning director Roman Polanksi (The Pianist) teams up with author-screenwriter Robert Harris (Enigma) for this twisty political thriller. Ewan McGregor plays an unnamed ghostwriter who signs on to pen the memoirs of former British prime minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan). The money is good, but there's a catch: the ghost's predecessor perished under mysterious circumstances (his body washed up on the shore in an apparent suicide). Being the adventurous sort, the ghost puts that information aside and travels to Lang's austere compound on Martha's Vineyard, where he meets Lang's efficient personal secretary, Amelia (Kim Cattrall, good but for an inconsistent accent), and acerbic wife, Ruth (An Education's Olivia Williams). Just as he's wading through Lang's dull text, the PM's ex-cabinet minister accuses him of handing over suspected terrorists to the CIA, fully aware that torture would be on the agenda. The next thing the ghost knows, he's working for a possible war criminal, and the deeper he digs, the more convinced he becomes that Lang is lying about his past. After exchanging a few words with a sharp-eyed old man (Eli Wallach) and a tight-lipped professor (Tom Wilkinson), he realizes his life may also be at risk. Then, while Lang hits the road to proclaim his innocence, the ghost gets to know Ruth better--much better. If the conclusion feels a little glib, Polanksi tightens the screws with skill, McGregor enjoys his best role in years, and Williams proves she's fully prepared to carry a movie of her own.