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DVD/Blu-ray DISCussion (New for 2.8.11)

It is a week to really excite or depress horror fans, depending on your viewpoint. It is sadly a disappointing week of DVD releases as few of these films have wooed critics. Still, you'll likely find something on here to your liking. Let's DISCuss.

First Releases
- Paranormal Activity 2 (DVD and Blu-ray)
- It’s Kind of a Funny Story (DVD and Blu-ray)
- For Colored Girls (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Still Walking (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Middle Men (DVD and Blu-ray)
- I Spit on Your Grave (2010) (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Life As We Know It (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Wild Target (DVD and Blu-ray)
- My Soul to Take (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Ong Bak 3 (DVD and Blu-ray)

Re-Releases
- Amarcord (Blu-ray)
- Thelma and Louise (Blu-ray)
- I Spit on Your Grave (1978) (DVD and Blu-ray)


Paranormal Activity 2 (DVD and Blu-ray)

What's the Deal?
Made with a budget of $15,000, the original Paranormal Activity was a surprise hit and a bigger hit for horror fans. Making over $193 million, a sequel was quickly commissioned and Paramount has found its own low-budget horror series. Tod “Kip” Williams (The Door in the Floor) replaces Oren Peli in the director spot for this film, whilst Peli stays as a producer. Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat reprise their roles with some new actors like Sprague Grayden (Jericho) and Brian Boland joining them.

Set a few months before the events of Paranormal Activity, this film focuses on Katie’s sister Kristi (Grayden). Kristi lives in a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles with her husband Daniel (Boland), step-daughter Ali (Molly Ephraim) and newborn son Hunter. But a demon is haunting them, making their lives hell and the security camera capture all the horror.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 61% (good)
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: 
Teaser Trailer; Found Footage

Amazon Price: $15.99 (DVD), $19.99 (2-Disc Blu-ray), $23.99 (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Director's Cut)

Score (DVDTalk.com): Content: 1.5 stars, Video 2.5 stars, Audio 3.5 stars, Extras 1 stars, Replay 0 stars (out of 5). Skip It.


It's Kind of a Funny Story (DVD and Blu-ray)

What's the Deal?
Psychiatric hospitals tend to be a popular setting for films, ranging from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s and Girl Interrupted to films like Changeling having some scene in that world. Now, the writer/directors of Half Nelson, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, have a go into a ward-set comedy-drama. The cast features the likes of Keir Gilchrist (United States of Tara), Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover), Emma Roberts and Viola Davis (Doubt).

Craig (Gilchrist) is a depressed 16-year-old boy with suicidal thoughts, so checks himself into a psychiatric hospital. In the hospital, Craig ends up making friends with the patients, including Bobby (Galifianakis), a troubled father and Noelle (Roberts), a 16-year-old girl who self-harms.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 58% (average)
Player Affinity Score: 3.0/10

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Additional Blu-ray Special Features: 
Deleted scenes; Outtakes; A look inside It's Kind of a Funny Story; It's Kind of a Funny Story premiere in New York City

Amazon Price: $16.99 (DVD), $26.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A


For Colored Girls (DVD and Blu-ray)

What's the Deal?
Tyler Perry is famous for making comedies that are popular in the box office but often critically panned. Now he is having a go at making a serious drama, adapting Ntozake Shange’s critically praised stage play. A prominent cast of African-American women and one British woman star, including Janet Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, Kerry Washington (Lakeview Terrace) and Thandie Newton.

Based around a collection of poems, For Colored Girls focuses on a collection of women suffering from issues ranging from racism and prejudice, poverty, male abandonment, rape, love and infidelity and all the other nasty aspects of live.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 33% (poor)
Player Affinity Score: 7.2/10

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: "Span of the Rainbow" Original Interactive Documentary; Prism of Poems; Transformation: Movie Magic; Living Portraits; Music "For Colored Girls"

Amazon Price: $16.99 (DVD), $24.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A


Still Walking (DVD and Blu-ray)

What's the Deal?
The highly respected director Hirokazu Koreeda (After Life, Nobody Knows) has returned with his critically praised drama Still Walking. Starring the likes of Hiroshi Abe (Chocolate), Yui Natsukawa (Zatoichi) and You (Noboby Knows), Still Walking tells the story of a children of an aging couple returning home for one summer day. They remember the tragic loss of their older sibling and notice the subtle changes to their home.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 100% (excellent)
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: New high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Hirokazu Kore-eda and director of photography Yutaka Yamazaki; New video interviews with Kore-eda and Yamazaki; Documentary on the making of the film, featuring on-set footage; Trailer

Additional Blu-ray Special Features: a booklet featuring an essay by film critic Dennis Lim and recipes for for the food prepared in the film

Amazon Price: $21.99 (DVD), $27.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A


Middle Men (DVD and Blu-ray)

What's the Deal?
We all know that the Internet is an international pornography network and a great source for perverts everywhere, but someone must have come up with the idea that you could make a lot of money with it. Writer/director George Gallo (writer of Midnight Run) decides to tackle this subject and gets Luke Wilson (Old School), Giovanni Ribisi (Boiler Room), Gabriel Macht (The Spirit), James Caan and Kelsey Grammer to star in a film about Jake Harris (Wilson). In 1995, Jake is a businessman who creates the first online billing service for adult entertainment, but is plunged into a world of con men, gangsters, pornographers and the FBI.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 41% (poor)
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $17.99 (DVD), $24.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): Content: 2 stars, Video 3 stars, Audio 3.5 stars, Extras 1.5 stars, Replay 2 stars (out of 5). Skip It.


I Spit on Your Grave (2010) (DVD and Blu-ray)

What's the Deal?
The original I Spit on Your Grave was one of the most controversial horror films from the 1970s, but we will talk more about that film later. As we all know, Hollywood is running out of original horror ideas and even really controversial horror films are seen as fair game, such as The Last House on the Left. Professional cameraman Steven R. Monroe helms this continuing trend of remaking horror films with a glossy look, working with a script by Jeffrey Reddick (Final Destination). Young actress Sarah Butler takes on the lead role of Jennifer Hills, a novelist who is working on a new novel. Whilst staying in a isolated cabin a group of local rednecks brutally gang-rape her and when Jennifer gets away, she plans her bloody revenge, picking them off one-by-one.

Critic Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 38% (poor)
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: 
Audio Commentary with Director Steven R. Monroe and Producer Lisa Hansen; The Revenge of Jennifer Hills: Remaking a Cult Icon;
Deleted Scenes, Teaser Trailer, Theatrical Trailer, Theatrical Trailer #2, Radio Spot

Amazon Price: $11.99 (DVD), $15.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): 
Content: 3.5 stars, Video 3.5 stars, Audio 4.5 stars, Extras 2.5 stars, Replay 3 stars (out of 5). Recommended.


Life As We Know It (DVD and Blu-ray)

What's the Deal?
After starring in Knocked Up, Katherine Heigl’s filmography is merely a collection of mediocre comedy. She has sadly not broken this run with Life As We Know It. With Josh Duhamel (Transformers), the two star in a film directed by Greg Berlanti (writer and producer of Brothers & Sisters) about a couple given custody of a small baby.

Holly Berenson (Heigl) and Eric Messer (Duhamel) are two people who have been on the blind date from hell with each other. But when their friends die in an accident, they leave young baby Sophie in their care, because as you know, logic does not exist in these type of movies. Holly and Eric have to live with each other as they care for the child.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 29% (bad)
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: Deleted Scenes

Blu-ray Special Features: 
A Survival Guide To Instant Parenting: Cast Members Offer Outrageously Funny Child-Rearing Advice That Would Make the PTA Cringe!; ; Katherine Heigl: Becoming The Best Mom Ever: See All the Touching, Funny and Challenging Moments Katherine Faced in Becoming and Overnight Mom; ; Josh Duhamel: The Triplet Tamer - Josh Gets Sentimental and Brims with Charm As He Wins the Admiration of His Three "Little" Leading Ladies; ; Plus Additional Scenes

Amazon Price: $13.99 (DVD), $24.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): 
Content: 1 stars, Video 2.5 stars, Audio 3.5 stars, Extras 2.5 stars, Replay 0 stars (out of 5). Skip It.


Wild Target (DVD and Blu-ray)

What's the Deal?
After a 10-year break from filmmaking, Jonathan Lynn (The Whole Nine Yards) has returned to his British roots to make a comedy-crime remake of Cible Emouvante. A top cast of British actors appeal in this film: Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt, Rupert Grint (the most prolific of the “Harry Potter” trio), Eileen Atikens (Robin Hood), Martin Freeman (the future Bilbo Baggins) and Rupert Everett.

Rose (Blunt) is a young con-artist who sells a fake painting to a gangster. To get revenge the gangsters hires the best assassin in Europe, Victor (Nighy) to kill. Victor hesitates killing Rose and with Victor’s apprentice Tony (Grint) have to go on the run from Europe’s second best assassin.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 29% (bad)
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: Target Practice: Emily Blunt on Wild Target

Amazon Price: $16.99 (DVD), $20.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A


My Soul to Take (DVD and Blu-ray)

What's the Deal?
Wes Craven is one of the a greatest horror directors, with films like The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream to his credits, but My Soul to Take was considered a real turkey and was declared Player Affinity’s worst film of 2010. My Soul to Take features a mostly young cast that includes Max Thieriot (Chloe), Denzel Whitaker (The Great Debaters), Raúl Esparza and Shareeka Epps (Half Nelson).

Set years after a serial killer terrorised a small town, a wage of killing starts with seven teenagers sharing the same birthday being targeted. Adam “Bug” Hellerman becomes ones of the suspects and question arise on whether there is a copycat or a spirit causing the killings.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 9% (awful)
Player Affinity Score: 1.6/10

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Additional Blu-ray Features: 
Alternate opening; Alternate endings; Deleted and extended scenes; Feature commentary with director Wes Craven and cast members Max Thierot, John Magaro and Emily Meade

Amazon Price: $16.99 (DVD), $24.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): 
Content: 0 stars, Video 4 stars, Audio 4 stars, Extras 1.5 stars, Replay 0 stars (out of 5). Skip It.


Ong Bak 3 (DVD and Blu-ray)

What's the Deal?
I love Tony Jaa, a great martial artist who has appeared in some really entertaining action films. In 2003 he made his presence known to the world with Ong Bak and now the second sequel is about to be released. Jaa directed with his action choreographer Panna Rittikrai. Set after the events of Ong Bak 2, Tien (Jaa) has been captured and beaten almost to death. He is saved and brought to a village to learn about meditation and Karma. But the call to battle is too strong.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): N/A
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: 
Closed Caption; HDNet: A Look at Ong Bak 3; Theatrical Trailer

2-Disc DVD Special Features: 
The making of a legend; Behind the scenes: uncovering the action; Interviews with cast and crew; Behind the scenes footage

Amazon Price: 
$12.99 (1-Disc DVD), $17.99 (2-Disc DVD), $17.99 (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray), $26.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A


Amarcord (DVD and Blu-ray)

What's the Deal?
Federico Fellini is considered one of the greatest filmmakers ever and a hero of the Italian cinema. Many of his films are renowned as classics and his Academy Award winning film for Best Foreign Language Film, Amarcord, has earned a re-release.

Amarcord is a 
semi-autographical film set in 1930s fascist Italy. Set during the course of a year in a small coastal town, Fellini looks at this unique community when their gather and how it shapes a young man, Titta (Bruno Zanin).

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 92% (excellent)
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: 
Restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack; Audio commentary by film scholars Peter Brunette and Frank Burke; Fellini's Homecoming, a 45-minute documentary on the complicated relationship between the celebrated director, his hometown, and his past; Video interview with star Magali Noël; Federico Fellini's drawings of characters in the film; "Felliniana," a presentation of ephemera devoted to Amarcord, from the collection of Don Young; Archival studio interviews with Fellini and his friends and familt, by longtime radio film critic Gideon Bachmann; Restoration demonstration; Deleted scene; American release trailer; Plus: a booklet featuring an essay by scholar Sam Rohdie and Fellini's 1967 essay "My Rimini"

Amazon Price: $27.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A


Thelma and Louise (Blu-ray)

What's the Deal?
It has been 20 years since the widely considered feminist masterpiece Thelma and Louise hit cinema screens. Now it has been re-released onto Blu-ray. First-time screenwriter Callie Khouri won an Oscar for her script. Ridley Scott took on the project and Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis were cast in the leading roles. The supporting cast included the likes of Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs), Harvey Keitel and Brad Pitt in one of his first major roles.

Thelma (Davis) and Louise (Sarandon) are two friends from Arkansas who go are on the run after Louise murders an an attempted rapist. They are chased through the South and Southwestern United States by the police as they try escape to Mexico.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 91% (excellent)
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $13.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A


I Spit on Your Grave (1978) (DVD and Blu-ray)

What's the Deal?
Originally called “Day of the Woman,” the rape revenge I Spit on Your Grave is one of the most controversial films ever made. Film critic Roger Ebert calls it “a vile bag of garbage ... without a shred of artistic distinction” and Time placed it in its Top 10 Ridiculously Violent Movies in 2007. Academics have argued that I Spit on Your Grave is either a film about female empowerment to a misogynistic, sadomasochistic piece.

Directed by Meir Zarchi, Camille Keaton stars as Jennifer Hills, a magazine writer who goes to the countryside to write her first novel. But she is brutally gang-raped by a group of locals and left for dead. But Jennifer lives and she plan her violence revenge against the four men.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 57% (average)
Player Affinity Score: 4.0/10

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: 
Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Meir Zarchi; Audio Commentary with Author/Historian Joe Bob Briggs; The Values of Vengeance: Meir Zarchi Remembers I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE; Alternate Main Title;
Trailers, TV Spots, Radio Spots, Poster & Still Gallery

Amazon Price: $14.99 (DVD), $15.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): 
Content: 3.5 stars, Video 3.5 stars, Audio 2.5 stars, Extras 3.5 stars, Replay 2.5 stars (out of 5). Recommended.

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