DISCussion: New on DVD and Blu-ray (3.25.2014)

Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street has come out on DVD and Blu-ray and is the DISCussion's Recommendation of the Week. It is a must have movie for Scorsese fans and deserves to be seen by all of the readers here at Entertainment Fuse!  First Release - The Wolf of Wall Street (DVD and Blu-ray) - Walking With Dinosaurs (DVD and Blu-ray) - Delivery Man (DVD and Blu-ray) - The Past (Blu-ray) - The Great Beauty (DVD and Blu-ray) - Chinese Zodiac (DVD and Blu-ray) - Welcome to the Jungle (DVD and Blu-ray) Re-Release - Persona (1966) (Blu-ray) - The Freshman (1925) (Blu-ray) - The King of Comedy (1983) (Blu-ray) - The Best of Bogart Collection (Blu-ray) The Wolf of Wall Street (DVD and Blu-ray) *Recommendation of the Week* Directed by Martin Scorsese Written by Terence Winter (screenplay), Jordan Belfort (book) Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Kyle Chander, Rob Reiner, Jon Bernthal, Jon Favreau, Jean Dujardin, Matthew McConaughey The ever popular director Martin Scorsese returns to filmmaking with the three hour long black comedy based on Jordan Belfort's memoirs. The Sopranos' Terence Winter adapted the book and The Wolf of Wall Street features an all star cast, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill and The Artist's Jean Dujardin. DiCaprio stars as Jordan Belfort, a controversial stockbroker who represents the worst aspects of the financial industry, recklessly catching a quick buck and the almighty dollar, regardless about who he steps over as he goes into a world of drugs, sex, excess and debauchery. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 77% (very good) Metacritic Rating: 75/100 (very good) Entertainment Fuse Score: 8.5/10 (read our review) DISC DETAILS DVD Special Features: Closed Caption Additional Blu-ray Special Features: the Wolf Pack Amazon Price: $16.99 (DVD), $19.96 (Blu-ray) The best new releases of the week come from the foreign art-house market with The Past and The Great Beauty. The Criterion Collection offers us two re-releases and a cult classics from the 80s has earned a re-release. Walking With Dinosaurs (DVD and Blu-ray) Directed by Neil Nightingale, Barry Cook Written by John Collee Starring: John Leguizamo, Justin Long, Tiya Sircar, Skyler Stone Walking With Dinosaurs was popular and critical praised programme from the BBC, looking at the lives of dinosaurs as a nature documentary. The 3D film from BBC and 20th Century Fox is a film adaptation in name only as it is a family movie about a herd of Pachyrhinosaurus, focusing on the young Patchi (Justin Long) as his herd looks for safety. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 25% (very bad) Metacritic Rating: 37/100 (poor) DISC DETAILS DVD Special Features: Closed Caption; Dino files; Match the call game Additional Blu-ray Special Features: Ultimate dino guide; Interactive map; Brainosaur trivia track; Nickelodeon Orange Carpet Dino Rap; Walking With Dinosaurs for portable media players Amazon Price: $14.99 (DVD), $19.99 (Blu-ray), $27.99 (3D Blu-ray) Delivery Man (DVD and Blu-ray) Directed by Ken Scott Written by Ken Scott, Martin Petit Starring: Vince Vaughn, Chris Pratt, Cobie Smulders Delivery Man is the latest movie from Vince Vaughn and the latest of a series of duds from him. Writer/director Ken Scott remakes his own Canadian movie Starbuck. Vaughn stars as David Wozniak a man in his 40s who finds out that due to an administrative error at a sperm bank he has inadvertently fathered 533 children and 142 of them have filled a class action lawsuit to find out who their biological father is. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 39% (poor) Metacritic Rating: 44/100 (poor) DISC DETAILS DVD Special Features: Bloopers Additional Blu-ray Special Features: Building Family -- Explore The Challenges And Fun Of Creating This Modern Family, And Learn How The 142 Young Actors Cast As Biological Siblings Bonded Both During And After Production Amazon Price: $14.99 (DVD), $17.99 (Blu-ray) The Past (Blu-ray) Written and directed by Asghar Farhadi Starring: Bérénice Bejo, Tahar Rahim, Ali Mosaffa The Past is a critically acclaimed French drama from Iranian director Asghar Farhadi (A Separation). The Past was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the Best Actress prize for Bérénice Bejo (The Artist). Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) is an Iranian man who arrives in France to finalize a divorce with his wife Marie (Bejo). Marie is in a relationship with another man and Ahmad notices her relationship with her oldest daughter Lucie (Pauline Burlet) is very tense. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 96% (excellent) Metacritic Rating: 85/100 (excellent) DISC DETAILS DVD Special Features: Commentary with Asghar Farhadi; Making THE PAST; Directors Guild of America Q&A with Asghar Farhadi Amazon Price: $24.96 (Blu-ray) Score (DVDTalk.com): Content 4 stars, Video 5 stars, Audio 4.5 stars, Extras 4.5 stars, Replay 4 stars (out of 5). Highly Recommended. Odd Thomas (DVD and Blu-ray) Directed by Stephen Sommers Written by Stephen Sommers (screenplay), Dean Koontz (novel) Starring: Anton Yelchin, Willem Dafoe, Addison Timlin Odd Thomas is a supernatural thriller that was adapted from the Dean Koontz novel of the same name. Anton Yelchin stars as Odd Thomas, a small town man who can see the ghosts. When his town comes under threat by a supernatural evil it is up to Odd to save the day. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes: 33% (bad) Metacritic Rating: 45/100 (average) DISC DETAILS Amazon Price: $12.96 (DVD), $18.96 (Blu-ray) The Great Beauty (DVD and Blu-ray) Directed by Paolo Sorrentino Written by Paolo Sorrentino, Umberto Contarello (screenplay), Paolo Sorrentino (story) Starring: Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone, Sabrina Ferilli, Carol Buccirosso From Italy is The Great Beauty which won this year's Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo) is a journalist and one-time novelist who has charmed and seduced his way through the Rome literary scene. But on his 65th birthday he starts to reflect on his life. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 91% (excellent) Metacritic Rating: 86/100 (excellent) DISC DETAILS DVD Special Features: New 2K digital film transfer, approved by director Paolo Sorrentino; New conversation between Sorrentino and Italian cultural critic Antonio Monda; New interview with actor Toni Servillo; New interview with screenwriter Umberto Contarello; Deleted scenes; Trailer; New English subtitle translation; PLUS: a booklet featuring an essay by critic Phillip Lopate Amazon Price: $15.99 (DVD), $24.99 (Blu-ray) Chinese Zodiac (DVD and Blu-ray) Directed by Jackie Chan Written by Jackie Chan, Stanley Tong, Frankie Chan, Edward Tang Starring: Jackie Chan, Kwon Sang-woo, Liao Fan, Yao Xing Tong, Zhang Lan Xin Laura Weissbecker Jackie Chan directed, starred and co-wrote the Hong Kong action movie about Asian Hawk (Chan), a skilled thief who is tasked with finding 12 animal zodiac heads and bring them back to China. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 38% (poor) DISC DETAILS DVD Special Features: N/A Additional Blu-ray Special Features: The making of Chinese Zodiac Amazon Price: $16.98 (DVD), $17.99 (Blu-ray) Welcome to the Jungle (DVD and Blu-ray) Directed by Rob Meltzer Written by Jeff Kauffman, Doug Magnuson, Jon Greenlagh Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Adam Brody, Rob Huebel, Kristen Schaal, Megan Boone, Dennis Haysbert, Kristopher Varenberg Jean-Claude Van Damme is the big star in the comedy Welcome to the Jungle which features Adam Brody (The O.C.), comedian Kristen Schaal and Dennis Haysbert as a company retreat to a tropical island turns into a battle for survival. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 25% (very bad) Metacritic Rating: 25/100 (very bad) DISC DETAILS DVD Special Features: N/A Additional Blu-ray Special Features: Behind the scenes; Deleted scene Amazon Price: $16.98 (DVD), $24.28 (Blu-ray) Score (DVDTalk.com): Content 2 stars, Video 5 stars, Audio 5 stars, Extras 3 stars, Replay 1 stars (out of 5). Rent It. Persona (1966) (Blu-ray) Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman Starring: Bibi Anderson, Liv Ullmann Ingmar Bergman has made many great movies during his career, including Persona, telling the story of a young nurse, Alma (Bibi Andersson) on a remote island who tries to help actress Elisabeth (LIv Ullmann) who has developed mutism. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 92% (excellent) DISC DETAILS DVD Special Features: New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray; New visual essay on the film's prologue by Ingmar Bergman scholar Peter Cowie; New interviews with actor Liv Ullmann and filmmaker Paul Schrader; Excerpted archival interviews with Bergman, Ullmann, and actor Bibi Andersson; On-set footage, with audio commentary by Bergman historian Birgitta Steene; Liv & Ingmar, a 2012 feature documentary directed by Dheeraj Akolkar; Trailer; New English subtitle translaton; One Blu-ray and two DVDs, with all content available in both formats; PLUS: a booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Thomas Elsaesser, an excerpt from the 1970 book Bergman On Bergman, and an excerpted 1977 interview with Andersson Amazon Price: $34.99 (Blu-ray) The Freshman (1925) (Blu-ray) Directed by Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor Written by John Grey, Sam Taylor, Tim Whelan, Ted Wilde Starring: Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston From the world of the silent era is the comedy The Freshman, telling the story of Harold Lamb (Harold Lloyd), a nerdy college student who tries to impact by joining the college football team. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes: 88% (excellent) DISC DETAILS DVD Special Features: New 4k digital film transfer from a 1998 restoration by the UCLA Film & Television Archive; New orchestral score, composed and conducted by Carl Davis, persented in uncompressed stero on the Blu-ray; Audio Commentary featuring Director and Harold Lloyd archivist Richard Correll, film historian Richard Bann, and film critic Leonard Maltin; On-camera introduction to The Freshman by Lloyd and a clip reel, both from Harold Lloyd's Funny Side of Life (1966); Three newly restored Lloyd shorts: The Marathon (1919), with a new piano score by Gabriel Thibaudeau, and An Eastern Westerner and High and Dizzy (both 1920), with orchestral scores by Davis; Harold Lloyd: Big Man on Campus, a new visual essay on the film's locations by Lloyd author John Bengston; Conversation between Correll and film historian Kevin Brownlow; Footage from a 1963 Delta Kappa Alpha tribute to Lloyd, featuring comedian Steve Allen, Director Delmer Daves, and actor Jack Lemmon; Lloyd's 1953 appearance on the television show What's My Line? ; Plus: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Stephen Winer Amazon Price: $34.99 (Blu-ray) The King of Comedy (1983) (Blu-ray) Directed by Martin Scorsese Written by Paul D. Zimmerman Starring: Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Sandra Bernhard, Diahnne Abbott, Shelley Hack As well as The Wolf of Wall Street, Martin Scorsese's dark comedy The King of Comedy has earned a Blu-ray re-release, telling the story of Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro), a struggling comedian who becomes obsessed with a famous TV host, Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis) and sees him as the best to break into show business. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 93% (excellent) Entertainment Fuse Score: 8.0/10 DISC DETAILS DVD Special Features: Tribeca Film Festival: A conversation with Martin Scorsese, Robert DeNiro and Jerry Lewis; A Shot at the Top: The making of The King of Comedy; Deleted and extended scenes; Theatrical trailer Amazon Price: $16.19 (Blu-ray) The Best of Bogart Collection (DVD and Blu-ray) The Maltese Falcon (1941) Directed by John Huston Written by John Huston (screenplay), Dashiell Hammett (novel) Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet Casablanca (1942) Directed by Michael Curtiz Written by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch (screenplay), Murray Burnett, Joan Alison (play 'Everybody Comes to Rick's') Starring: Humphery Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948) Directed by John Huston Written by John Huston (screenplay), B. Traven (novel) Starring: Humphery Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt, Bruce Bennett The African Queen (1951) Directed by John Huston Written by John Huston, James Agee, Peter Viertel, John Collier(screenplay) C.S. Forester (novel) Starring: Humphery Bogart, Katharine Hepburn Last but not least is The Best of Bogart Collection, a Blu-ray boxset featuring four of Humphery Bogart's most popular movies. The Maltese Falcon (1941) Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 100% (excellent) Entertainment Fuse Score: 8.5/10 Casablanca (1942) Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 97% (excellent) Entertainment Fuse Score: 10/10 The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948) Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 100% (excellent) Entertainment Fuse Score: 9.0/10 The African Queen (1952) Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 100% (excellent) Entertainment Fuse Score: 8.0/10 DISC DETAILS DVD Special Features: The Maltese Falcon: Commentary by Bogart biographer Eric Lax; Featurette The Maltese Falcon: One Magnificent Bird; Breakdowns of 1941: Studio blooper reel; Makeup tests; Becoming attractions: The trailers of Humphrey Bogart Warner Night at the movies ; 1941 short subjects gallery; Audio-only bonus: ; 3 radio show adaptations; Casablanca: Commentary by Roger Ebert; Commentary by historian Rudy Behlmer; Introduction by Lauren Bacall; Additional scenes & outtakes; Scoring session outtakes; Bacall on Bogart; You must remember this: a tribute to Casablanca; Featurette As Time Goes By: The Children Remember; Production research gallery; Homage cartoon Carrotblanca; Who holds tomorrow?: Premiere episode from 1955 Warner Bros. Presents TV series adaptation of Casablanca ; Audio-only bonus: Radio production with the movie's 3 key stars; Theatrical trailers; The Treasure of the Sierra Madre:; Commentary by Bogart biographer Eric Lax; Discovering treasure: The story of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre; Documentary profile John Huston; Warner Night at the Movies 1948 short subjects gallery: Leonard Matlin introduction, newsreel, 2 classic cartoons, comedy short, theatrical trailers; Audio-only bonus: Radio show with the movie's original stars; The African Queen:; Embracing chaos: Making the African Queen Amazon Price: $34.96 (Blu-ray) Score (DVDTalk.com): Content 5 stars, Video 4.5 stars, Audio 4.5 stars, Extras 4.5 stars, Replay 5 stars (out of 5). DVD Talk Collector Series.