The Prince & Me 3: A Royal Honeymoon on blu-ray

First comes love…then comes marriage…then comes the honeymoon fit for a queen. Newlyweds Queen Paige (formerly a farm girl from Wisconsin) and her husband, King Edvard (formerly the prince) of Denmark, want to leave all the trappings befitting a royal couple behind and go on their long-awaited romantic honeymoon.

Amidst ancient castles, glittering snowcapped mountains and dreams of passionate embraces in the enchanted land of Belavia, the noble couple find themselves thrust back into the spotlight. The captivating forest they have found refuge in is under attack by their own prime minister, who wants to turn it in to an oil field. To make matters worse, an old flame of Queen Paige has turned up and wants to tell secrets from her past. What is a royal to do?

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The Prince & Me 2: The Royal Wedding on blu-ray

With just weeks before their royal wedding, Paige and Edvard find their relationship–and the Danish monarchy–in jeopardy when an old law is brought to light, stating that an unmarried heir to the throne can only marry a woman of noble blood, or else he must relinquish the crown.

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Zombie Strippers on blu-ray

The world’s most famous adult film star, Jenna Jameson stars in this thrilling zombie adventure. In the not too distant future a secret government re-animation chemo-virus gets released into conservative Sartre, Nebraska and lands in an underground strip club. As the virus begins to spread, turning the strippers into “Super Zombie Strippers” the girls struggle with whether or not to conform to the new “fad” even if it means there’s no turning back. They’re not just strippers…They’re Zombie Strippers !!

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Hell Ride on blu-ray

From Executive Producer Quentin Tarantino (Grindhouse Presents: Death Proof) and Writer/Director Larry Bishop (Mad Dog Time) comes this lean, mean mayhem machine - fully loaded with bikers, babes, and booze. Michael Madsen (Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2), Eric Balfour (TV’s “24″) and legendary “Easy Rider” Dennis Hopper are part of a wild motorcycle gang bent on avenging the death of one of their own. With Vinnie Jones (The Condemned) as the crazed arrow-wielding rival gang leader, Hell Ride is a savagely enjoyable good-time where the women are hot, the bikes are even hotter, and the action never stops!

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The Final Countdown on blu-ray

With a tantalizing “what-if?” scenario and a respectable cast of Hollywood veterans, The Final Countdown plays like a grand-scale episode of The Twilight Zone. It’s really no more than that, and time-travel movies have grown far more sophisticated since this popular 1980 release, but there’s still some life remaining in the movie’s basic premise: What if a modern-era Navy aircraft carrier–in this case the real-life nuclear-powered U.S.S. Nimitz–was caught in an anomalous storm and thrust 40 years backwards in time to the eve of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor? Will the ship’s commander (Kirk Douglas) interfere with history? Will the visiting systems analyst (Martin Sheen) convince him not to? Will a rescued senator from 1941 (Charles Durning) play an unexpected role in the future of American politics? Veteran TV director Don Taylor doesn’t do much with the ideas posed by this potentially intriguing plot; he seems more interested in satisfying aviation buffs with loving footage of F-14 “Jolly Roger” fighter jets, made possible by the Navy’s generous cooperation. That makes The Final Countdown a better Navy film than a full-fledged time-travel fantasy, but there’s a nice little twist at the end, and the plot holes are easy to ignore. James Cameron would’ve done it better, but this popcorn thriller makes an enjoyable double-bill with The Philadelphia Experiment.

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The Polar Express Presented in 3-D on blu-ray

Destined to become a holiday perennial, The Polar Express also heralded a brave new world of all-digital filmmaking. Critics and audiences were divided between those who hailed it as an instant classic that captures the visual splendor and evocative innocence of Chris Van Allsburg’s popular children’s book, and those who felt that the innovative use of “performance capture”–to accurately translate live performances into all-digital characters–was an eerie and not-quite-lifelike distraction from the story’s epic-scale North Pole adventure. In any case it’s a benign, kind-hearted celebration of the yuletide spirit, especially for kids who have almost grown out of their need to believe in Santa Claus.

Tom Hanks is the nominal “star” who performs five different computer-generated characters, but it’s the visuals that steal this show, as director Robert Zemeckis indulges his tireless pursuit of technological innovation. No matter how you respond to the many wonders on display, it’s clear that The Polar Express represents a significant milestone in the digital revolution of cinema. If it also fills you with the joy of Christmas (in spite of its Nuremberg-like rally of frantic elves), so much the better.

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Baraka on blu-ray

The word Baraka means “blessing” in several languages; watching this film, the viewer is blessed with a dazzling barrage of images that transcend language. Filmed in 24 countries and set to an ever-changing global soundtrack, the movie draws some surprising connections between various peoples and the spaces they inhabit, whether that space is a lonely mountaintop or a crowded cigarette factory. Some of these attempts at connection are more successful than others: for instance, an early sequence segues between the daily devotions of Tibetan monks, Orthodox Jews, and whirling dervishes, finding more similarity among these rituals than one might expect.

And there are other amazing moments, as when sped-up footage of a busy Hong Kong intersection reveals a beautiful symmetry to urban life that could only be appreciated from the perspective of film. The lack of context is occasionally frustrating–not knowing where a section was filmed, or the meaning of the ritual taking place–and some of the transitions are puzzling. However, the DVD includes a short behind-the-scenes featurette in which cinematographer Ron Fricke (Koyaanisqatsi) explains that the effect was intentional: “It’s not where you are that’s important, it’s what’s there.” And what’s here, in Baraka, is a whole world summed up in 104 minutes.

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Tinker Bell on blu-ray

Born into the fantastic world of Pixie Hollow, Tinker Bell thinks her fairy talent as a tinker isn t as special or important as the other fairies talents. But when Tink tries to change who she is, she creates nothing but disaster! With encouragement from her friends Rosetta, Silvermist, Fawn and Iridessa, Tink learns the key to solving her problems lies in her unique tinker abilities and discovers that when she s true to herself, magical things can happen.

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Journey to the Center of the Earth on blu-ray

Released in 2-D and Limited-Edition 3-D which includes four red/blue glasses.

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Week 44 has 31 new blu-ray releases.

Journey to the Center of the Earth
Tinker Bell
Baraka
The Polar Express Presented in 3-D
Dead Space: Downfall
The Final Countdown
Elf
Zombie Strippers
Hell Ride
Jewel: The Essential Live Songbook
Beat the Devil
Essential Holiday Collection (The Polar Express / National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation / Elf / A Christmas Story)
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concertos 1-6
Jack and the Beanstalk
The Terror
Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter
Last Time I Saw Paris
Mysterious Island
Chihuly in the Hotshop
Jewels
Cannibal Taboo
Zoroastre
Cruel World
The Prince & Me 2: The Royal Wedding
The Prince & Me 3: A Royal Honeymoon
Eye on Extreme Monster Trucks
Eye on Extreme Professional Bull Riding
4/20 Live in Seattle
The Final Patient
HD Traveling Rock