Running Scared on blu-ray

Paul Walker (THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS) plays Joey Gazelle, a low-level Mafia thug, who finds himself in the middle of a drug deal gone wrong, equalling a hail of gunfire and some dead undercover cops as the net result. Fleeing from the scene, Joey steals one of the revolvers, used to kill the cops and stashes it in his own basement, in the chance that it may one day prove useful against his own gang. Unfortunately, Joey’s 10-year-old son, Nicky (Alex Neuberger) and his best friend, Oleg (Cameron Bright), see where the weapon is hidden. Oleg, whose Russian mob-connected stepfather is physically abusive towards him and his mother, steals the gun to exact revenge. Shooting his father in the shoulder, he runs away with the gun. This forces Joey to embark on a nightmarish 18-hour race to locate Oleg and the gun before his own gang, the Russian Mafia, or bad cop, Detective Rydell (Chazz Palminteri). In a film dedicated to directors Sam Peckinpah, Walter Hill, and Brian De Palma in the closing credits, Kramer splatters the screen with a level of violence that would make those masters proud. Drained of bright colours, stylish, and feverishly fast-paced, RUNNING SCARED is one bloody thrill-ride.

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Priceless on blu-ray

On the French Riviera, nothing comes cheap. And when it comes to men, Irene has very rich taste. One very confusing night, she is duped at her own game. Her knight in shining armor turns out to have no shine at all. Irene, however, is the woman of Jean’s dreams. The only way to win her heart back is to turn the tables on her. Audrey Tautou (The Da Vinci Code, Amelié) stars in a romantic comedy that proves true love is PRICELESS.

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Lucky Number Slevin on blu-ray

How boring it is to label a movie Tarantino-esque anymore. The thing is, when it comes to an offering like Lucky Number Slevin, the shoe fits, and the result is anything but boring. Gruesome killings, arid wit, self-reflexive pop culture references, an A-list cast, and style-heavy production values abound, which gives the proceedings an epoxy bond that seals the Q.T. homage factor. Josh Hartnett–who spends a lot of buffed-up time with his shirt off–is Slevin Kelevra, a hapless fellow visiting his New York friend Nick. But Nick has disappeared, which sets off a mistaken-identity thrill ride when two goons grab Slevin (he’s in Nick’s apartment so he must be Nick) and take him to their crime lord boss, the Boss (Morgan Freeman). The Boss doesn’t care about Slevin’s wrong-man protests; he just wants the $96,000 Nick owes him. In one of many offers he can’t refuse, Slevin has to agree to murder the son of the Boss’s felonious arch rival, the Rabbi (Ben Kingsley) or take the bullet himself. But Slevin turns out to be no ordinary patsy. Thrown into the ingeniously designed production, clever plot twists, and academic nods to Bond, Hitchcock, and obscure old cartoons are Lucy Liu as a sexy coroner, Stanley Tucci as an obsessed cop, and Bruce Willis as a wily hit man with his finger in many pots. With so much visual and narrative trickery, there’s almost too much to absorb in one viewing of this convoluted jigsaw puzzle of revenge and entertaining mayhem. Lucky Number Slevin isn’t quite up to par with similarly brainy thrillers like Memento and The Usual Suspects, but the prospect of seeing it again in order to get your bearings is just as appealing.

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Mirrormask on blu-ray

This visually stunning film is the product of a collaboration of award-winning graphic novelist Neil Gaiman (creator of the much-lauded Sandman series), his frequent collaborator Dave McKean (Cages), and The Jim Henson Company, themselves no strangers to elaborate fantasies such as The Dark Crystal. and Labyrinth. As with the latter film, MirrorMask focuses on a young woman unhappy with her daily existence; here, the artistically inclined Helena (Stephanie Leonidas), is at odds with her circus performer parents. When a careless insult appears to send her mother (Gina McKee) into a coma, Helena withdraws into the dark and elaborate world of her drawings, in which a scenario very similar to her predicament in the real world is unfolding. Gaiman and director McKean create arresting images to populate Helena’s world, and the Henson Company brings them vividly to life with CGI; though the story is occasionally murky, the fantasy elements are imaginative enough to enthrall what will undoubtedly be the film’s toughest customers–younger viewers.

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Southland Tales on blu-ray

Well, filmmakers should aim high, they say. And Richard Kelly shot the moon on his highly-anticipated follow-up to cult sensation Donnie Darko, which expands the apocalyptic mood of that movie and blows it up tenfold. Set during the election season of 2008, Southland Tales proposes a series of apparently linked events: the reappearance of a vanished movie star (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), now an amnesiac; the bizarre doubling of a policeman (Seann William Scott in two roles); the development of an energy source from ocean waves; and the presence of an Iraq War veteran (Justin Timberlake) who seems to be watching everything, and narrating some of it. Not that the narration helps; even with voice-over (reportedly added after the film’s disastrous debut at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival), Southland Tales doesn’t come close to making sense, let alone at the minimum level of dangling a carrot to lead the audience along (even Mulholland Drive had a semblance of murder mystery to be solved, or not).

The cast is loaded with Saturday Night Live cut-ups, but only Jon Lovitz connects, and in other roles people like Sarah Michelle Gellar, Christopher Lambert, Bai Ling, and John Larroquette are utterly mystifying, by no fault of their own. In some of the musical sequences Kelly gets in stride, but it’s easy to create drama in a three-minute music video, and harder to do over two and a half hours. Some top critics rushed to champion the movie, as though flying in the face of philistinism, so feel free to try out this incoherent pastiche for yourself.

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Heathers on blu-ray

This dark comedy from 1989 was a good showcase for Winona Ryder, playing a high school girl brought into a clique of bitchy classmates (all named Heather), and Christian Slater, doing his early Jack Nicholson thing. While Ryder’s character mulls over the consequences of giving up one set of friends for another, her association with a new boy (Slater) in school turns out to have deadly consequences. Director Michael Lehmann turned this unusual film into something more than another teen-death flick. There is real wit and sharp satire afoot, and the very fusion of horror and comedy is provocative in itself. Heathers remains a kind of benchmark in contemporary cinema for bringing surreal intelligence into Hollywood films.

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Tropic Thunder on blu-ray

It’s not really a knock to say that nothing in Tropic Thunder is funnier than its first five minutes, so sly that–especially for people watching in theaters–you don’t realize right away they are the opening minutes of the movie. This outrageous comedy begins with a series of fake previews, each introducing one of the main characters in the film-proper (not that there’s anything proper about this film) and each bearing the familiar logo of a different motion picture studio: Universal, DreamWorks SKG, et al. Such playing fast and loose with corporate talismans verges on sacrilege, but it’s an index of how much le tout Tinseltown endorses the movie as a demented valentine to itself.

The premise is that the cast of a would-be “Son of Rambo” movie shooting in some Southeast Asian jungle get into a real shooting war with drug-smuggling montagnards. Don’t ask–though the movie does have an answer–why such highly paid, usually ultra-pampered personnel as superhero Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), Mozart of fart comedy Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), hip-hop artist Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), and five-time Oscar-winner Kirk Lazarus from Aus-try-leeah (Robert Downey Jr.) should be running through the jungle unattended and very vulnerable. It matters only that the real-life cast has a high time kidding their own profession and flexing their comedic muscles. Bonus points go to Stiller for co-writing the script (with Justin Theroux) and directing, and to Downey, brilliant as a white actor surgically turned black actor for his role and utterly committed to staying in character no matter what (”I don’t drop character till I done the DVD commentary”).

Be warned: The movie, too, is committed–to being an equal-opportunity offender. Its political incorrectness extends not only to Lazarus’s black-like-me posturing but also Speedman’s recent, Sean Penn–style Oscar bid playing a cognitively challenged farmboy–or, in Lazarus’s deathless phrase, “going the full retard.” Others in the cast include Steve Coogan as a director out of his depth, Nick Nolte as the Viet-vet novelist whose book inspired the film-within-the-film, Matthew McConaughey as Speedman’s sun-blissed agent back home, and Tom Cruise–bald, fat-suited, and profane–as an epically repulsive studio head. Two hours running time is a mite excessive, but otherwise, what’s not to like?

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Wall-E on blu-ray

Pixar genius reigns in this funny romantic comedy, which stars a robot who says absolutely nothing for a full 25 minutes yet somehow completely transfixes and endears himself to the audience within the first few minutes of the film. As the last robot left on earth, Wall-E (voiced by Ben Burtt) is one small robot–with a big, big heart–who holds the future of earth and mankind squarely in the palm of his metal hand. He’s outlasted all the “Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class” robots that were assigned some 700 years ago to clean up the environmental mess that man made of earth while man vacationed aboard the luxury spaceship Axiom.

Wall-E has dutifully gone about his job compacting trash, the extreme solitude broken only by his pet cockroach, but he’s developed some oddly human habits and ideas. When the Axiom sends its regularly scheduled robotic EVE probe (Elissa Knight) to earth, Wall-E is instantly smitten and proceeds to try to impress EVE with his collection of human memorabilia. EVE’s directive compels her to bring Wall-E’s newly collected plant sprout to the captain of the Axiom and Wall-E follows in hot pursuit. Suddenly, the human world is turned upside down and the Captain (Jeff Garlin) joins forces with Wall-E and a cast of other misfit robots to lead the now lethargic people back home to earth.

Wall-E is a great family film with the most impressive aspect being the depth of emotion conveyed by a simple robot–a machine typically considered devoid of emotion, but made so absolutely touching by the magic of Pixar animation. Also well-worth admiring are the sweeping views from space, the creative yet disturbing vision of what strange luxuries a future space vacation might offer, and the innovative use of trash in a future cityscape. Underneath the slapstick comedy and touching love story is a poignant message about the folly of human greed and its potential effects on earth and the entire human race. Wall-E is preceded in theaters by the comical short Presto in which a magician’s rabbit, unfed one too many times takes his revenge against the egotistical magician.

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Week 47 has 73 new blu-ray release, the holiday shopping season has begun.

Wall-E (Three-Disc Special Edition + Digital Copy and BD Live)
Tropic Thunder (Unrated Director’s Cut)
Wall-E (Two-Disc and BD Live)
The Universe: The Complete Season 1
The Who At Kilburn: 1977
Jeff Dunham’s Very Special Christmas Special
Foo Fighters - Live At Wembley Stadium
Jeff Dunham: Three-Disc Collection (Arguing with Myself, Spark of Insanity, Very Special Christmas Special)
The Beyonce Experience Live
Heathers
Paul McCartney: The Space Within Us
Southland Tales
Mirrormask
Lucky Number Slevin
Priceless
Bizet: Carmen
Encounters at the End of the World
Verdi: Aida
The Nutcracker (Marinsky Theatre)
Extreme
Paris, je t’aime
Revolver
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
The Stendhal Syndrome
Awake
Blue Streak
Kitaro
Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro
Blu-Cube 20-Pack Bundle
The Blu Ray Experience: Opera and Ballet Highlights
Manon
Berlin Concert: Live From Waldbuhne
UFC: Ultimate Comebacks
I Puritani
Eugene Onegin (Metropolitan Opera)
Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Strauss: Rosenkavalier
Zodiac (Directors Cut)
The Bird People of China
Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake
Ocean Aquarium
National Security
The Eagle Has Landed
Verdi: Rigoletto
Mad Money
Khachaturian: Spartacus (Bolshoi Ballet)
Island
Bizet: Carmen
Spark of Insanity
Marvel Blu-ray 3-Pack (Fantastic Four / Fantastic Four - Rise of the Silver Surfer / Daredevil)
Family Blu-ray 3-Pack (Alvin and the Chipmunks / Ice Age / Ice Age 2)
Running Scared
The Goonies
Hard Action Blu-ray 3-Pack (Hitman / Street Kings / Man on Fire)
Action Blu-ray 3-Pack (Jumper / Transporter / Transporter 2)
Bruce Almighty
Female Agents
Infernal Affairs
Sophie Scholl - The Final Days
Chick Flick Blu-ray 3-Pack (Juno / 27 Dresses / The Devil Wears Prada)
Kanye West - Late Orchestration
Kid Blu-ray 3-Pack (Night at the Museum / Eragon / Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium)
Blu-Cube 10-Pack Bundle
Alone in the Dark
Invisible Target
Alpha Dog
Black Christmas 2006
Scary Movie 4
Muscle Blu-ray 3-Pack (AVP Alien vs. Predator / Predator / Commando)
16 Blocks
Protege
Flash Point

Vanessa Paradis Divinidylle Tour on blu-ray

Tracks
1 Irrsistiblement
2 Les piles - En duo avec - M -
3 Be my baby
4 Pourtant
5 Dis-lui toi que je t’aime
6 Que fait la vie
7 La mlodie
8 Junior suite
9 Varvara Pavlovna
10 Natural high
11 L’incendie
12 La bataille
13 Joe le taxi
14 Emmenez-moi
15 Les revenants
16 Chet Baker
17 Ds que j’te vois
18 Tandem
19 Divine Idylle
20 Saint Germain
21 Bliss
22 La vague lames / Scarabe
23 Jackadi
24 Le Tourbillon

Limited Edition from the French chanteuse (and long-time apple of Johnny Depp’s eye), housed in special packaging. The Divinidylle Tour finds Vanessa on tour promoting her excellent Divinidylle album and includes 24 live songs plus documentary footage and a 16 page booklet.

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