We have a really strong week of releases this week and we at Player Affinity have picked X-Men: First Class as our Recommendation of the Week. X-Men: First Class
set out to give the series the reboot it badly needed, and audiences
want to show Fox that we want this model or the Bryan Singer one, not
the Tom Rothman dumbed down version. The
action movie Hanna is a movie of particular note, getting high scores
from all of us at Player Affinity Movies. As for re-releases we have the
crime classic Scarface, Paul Greengrass’ United 93 and the Scream
Trilogy in a Blu-ray boxset.
First Releases - Hanna (DVD and Blu-ray) - Everything Must Go (DVD and Blu-ray) - X-Men: First Class (DVD and Blu-ray) Release Date Sep 9.
Re-Releases - Scarface (1983) (Blu-ray) - United 93 (Blu-ray) - The Hills Have Eyes (1977) (Blu-ray) - Dressed to Kill (1980) (Blu-ray) - Scream Trilogy (Blu-ray)
X-Men: First Class (DVD and Blu-ray – Release Date Sept. 9th) *Recommendation of the Week*
What’s the Deal? The X-Men series did take two big critical knocks and fanboy backlash after the releases of X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine and many fans were losing hope. But Bryan Singer and Matthew Vaughn have injected new life into the series, using a prequel as a reboot. This prequel was made at remarkable speed by Singer, Vaughn and their team with the result being surprisingly excellent. This movie will do well on DVD and Blu-ray and provide an example to Fox that people want quality in their blockbusters. Added to the story and mutant action is a great cast, with Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Lawrence and Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids).
At the height of the Cold War, Erik Lensherr (Fassbender) is a Holocaust survivor with mutant powers on the hunt for the Nazis that experimented on him. Charles Xavier (McAvoy) is a PhD graduate from Oxford University. Both end up getting recruited by the CIA and sent out to find more mutants to form a team. A new threat has risen, the Hellfire Club, led by Sebastian Shaw (Bacon) who is trying to manipulate the United States and Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis to start World War III.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 87% (excellent) Player Affinity Score: 8.1/10 (Read the Review).
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: Theatrical Feature; Children of the Atom – 8 Part Featurette Series
Additional Blu-ray Features: X Marks The Spot; Composer's Isolated Score; Cerebro: Mutant Tracker; Deleted Scenes
What’s the Deal? Hanna is one of Player Affinity’s most highly rated movies of 2011 so far with a score of 8.6 out of 10. It is set to be a hit on DVD and Blu-ray as a fun action movie that has a lot of substance behind it. Hanna helped cement Saoirse Ronan’s reputation as one of the best child actors around, giving a terrific performance as the title character. She is firmly supported by Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett and Tom Hollander. Joe Wright steps out his comfort zone of historical dramas like Pride and Prejudice and Atonement and shows he is a very confident action director. Plus we cannot forget that great soundtrack by the Chemical Brothers.
Hanna is a very special girl living in the forests of Finland with her father, Eric Heller (Bana). Eric had trained Hanna to be the ultimate assassin and be able to survive anywhere. Hanna throws herself into the big wide world and sets out to assassinate CIA agent Marissa Wiegler (Blanchett). But she only kills a double and Hanna and Eric are on the run from the CIA in Europe and Hanna has to find out the mystery of her own past.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 72% (good) Player Affinity Score: 8.6/10 (Read the Review)
What’s the Deal? Will Ferrell is a headline comedian for many movies, including Anchorman and The Other Guys, but in his latest movie Everything Must Go he is attempting to follow a similar route to Jim Carrey towards more bittersweet comedy-drama. Everything Must Go is the directional debut of Dan Rush and also stars Rebecca Hall (Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Town).
Nick Halsey (Ferrell) is an alcoholic who has relapsed. He loses his job and his wife kicks him out of his house. Nick moves to his own front lawn and has a yard sale. Nick’s only friend is a young boy named Kenny (Christopher Jordan Wallace) and Nick gives him baseball lessons. Nick also starts to befriend a new neighbor, Samantha (Hall).
What’s the Deal? Scarface is renounced as a classic movie from the 80s and particularly popular with crime movie fans. This remake of the 1932 movie was written by Oliver Stone and it was Brian De Palma’s (Carrie, The Untouchables) best movie. The role of Tony Montana is one of Al Pacino’s most famous and the movie was a major influence on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (a great game by the way). Scarface focuses on Tony Montana, a Cuban criminal who is exiled to Miami, and his rise and fall in the criminal underworld and his curse of power and greed.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 88% (excellent) Player Affinity Score: 8.2/10
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: 10 collectible art cards; Bonus disc of the original 1932 Scarface; Digital Copy of Scarface (1983) (expires 9/30/2012); U-Control: Scarface Scoreboard; U-Control: Picture in Picture; The Scarface Phenomenon; The World of Tony Montana; Deleted Scenes; The Rebirth; The Acting; The Creating; The Making of Scarface: The Video Game; Scarface: The TV Version; Scarface at The Palms; BD-Live; My Scene; Pocket BLU; U-Hear; D-BOX
Amazon Price: $19.99 (Blu-ray)
Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A
United 93 (DVD and Blu-ray)
What’s the Deal? 9/11 is obviously one of the most important events in recent history and had a traumatic effect on the American psyche. And yet it only took Hollywood five years to make movies about it. United 93 was the first movie released in 2006 and considered the best. Paul Greengrass of the “Bourne” Trilogy fame, famous for his documentary style, took on the project looking at the military and civilian response to the confusing situation. The other narrative looks at the flight of United 93 that is hijacked by terrorists: the passengers don’t know what’s happening and hear rumors about what was happening. They know they have to fight back to stop the terrorists from their objective.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 91% (excellent) Player Affinity Score: 9.0/10
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: N/A
Amazon Price: $26.91 (Blu-ray)
Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A
The Hills Have Eyes (1977) (Blu-ray)
What’s the Deal? Back in the 70s Wes Craven gained notoriety with his debut movie, the very violent Last House on the Left. His follow-up movie The Hills Have Eyes was also a controversial piece of work and has a cult following, leading to a remake in 2006. This grim and violent horror movie focuses on the Carter family who on a road trip to California break down in the middle of nowhere. But the real horror comes from a clan of mutated interbred cannibals who want to hunt them down. Soon it becomes a battle for survival and we find out who the real savages are.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 64% (good) Player Affinity Score: 5.0/10
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: N/A
Amazon Price: $12.99 (Blu-ray)
Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A
Dressed to Kill (1980) (Blu-ray)
What’s the Deal? The second Brain De Palma movie of the week is his 1980 erotic thriller Dressed to Kill, starring Michael Caine and Angie Dickinson (Rio Bravo). Kate Miller (Dickinson) is a frustrated New York housewife who starts to live out her sexual fantasies with her psychiatrist, Robert Elliott (Caine) – that’s a healthy patient-doctor relationship for you. But soon the movie turns into a murder mystery as a woman named Liz (Nancy Allen) and Dr. Elliott’s son Peter (Keith Gordon) attempt to solve a murder before a crude detective (Dennis Franz). This movie was met with strong criticism by feminists for being misogynist.
DVD Special Features: The Making of Dressed to Kill Documentary Including Interviews with Brian De Palma, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, Dennis Franz and More!; Unrated, R-Rated and TV-Rated Comparison Featurette; Slashing Dressed to Kill Featurette; An Appreciation by Keith Gordon Featurette; Animated Photo Gallery; Theatrical Trailer
Amazon Price: $15.99 (Blu-ray)
Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A
Scream Trilogy (Blu-ray)
What’s the Deal? By the time the 1990s rolled around, the slasher movie genre was becoming too stale, predictable and formulaic. It needed a jolt of energy to bring it back to glory and this was done by Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson, doing a post-modern take on the genre. Many actors were involved in the original trilogy, led by Neve Campbell. The series also has David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan and Liev Schreiber. Made with a series in mind, the big twist is that it is set in a world where people are aware of horror movies and all the clichés and pitfalls everyone needs to avoid. The Scream Trilogy is very popular to anyone who enjoys horror movies and it mixes horror and comedy effectively.
X-Men: First Class (DVD and Blu-ray – Release Date Sept. 9th) *Recommendation of the Week*
Hanna (DVD and Blu-ray)
Everything Must Go (DVD and Blu-ray)
Scarface (1983) (Blu-ray)
United 93 (DVD and Blu-ray)
The Hills Have Eyes (1977) (Blu-ray)
Dressed to Kill (1980) (Blu-ray)
Scream Trilogy (Blu-ray)