Entertainment Fuse’s Recommendation of the Week comes courtesy of the French film industry in form of the critically acclaimed Amour. Both the DVD and the Blu-ray feature a making of documentary and Question and Answer session with director Michael Haneke.
First Release
- Epic (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Amour (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Shadow Dancer (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Killing Season (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Scary Movie 5 (DVD and Blu-ray)
Re-Release
- The Big City (1963) (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Charulata (1964) (DVD and Blu-ray)
- The Tailor of Panama (2001) (Blu-ray)
- Peter Pan (1953) (DVD)
- The China Syndrome (1979) (DVD)
Amour (DVD and Blu-ray) *Recommendation of the Week*
Written and directed by Michael Haneke
Starring: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmauelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert
Amour was considered one of the best movies of 2012, winning numerous awards including Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards and the Palme d’Or at Cannes and star Emmauelle Riva becoming the older woman to be nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award.
Written and directed by Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon) Amour focuses on George (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) are an elderly couple in their 80s whose relationship is put to the test when Anne suffers a stroke and her mental and physical abilities start to decrease.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 94% (excellent)
Metacritic Rating: 94/100 (excellent)
Entertainment Fuse Score: 8.5/10 (read our review)
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: Making of Amour; Q&A with director Michael Haneke
Amazon Price: $19.99 (DVD), $22.99 (Blu-ray)
Score (DVDTalk.com): Content 4.5 stars, Video 4.5 stars, Audio 4 stars, Extras 4 stars, Replay 5 stars (out of 5). DVD Talk Collector Series
It is an eclectic week of DVD and Blu-ray releases and re-releases with us getting an animated adventure, two spy dramas and two movies from celebrated Indian director Satyajit Ray.
Epic (DVD and Blu-ray)
Directed by Chris Wedge
Written by William Joyce, James V. Hart, Daniel Shere, Tom J. Astle, Matt Ember (screenplay), William Joyce, James V. Hart, Chris Wedge (story), William Joyce (novel ‘The Leaf Man and the Brave Good Bugs’)
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson, Colin Farrell, Christoph Waltz, Aziz Ansari, Chris O’Dowd, Jason Sudeikis, Beyoncé Knowles
Calling a movie Epic is pretty much gives critics a license to use jokes like ‘epic fail’ if the does match the lofty expectations of that title. Based on a novel by William Joyce, Epic is the latest effort from Blue Sky Studios and directed by Ice Age helmer Chris Wedge.
Mary Katherine AKA M.K. (Amanda Seyfried) is teenage girl who moves in with her eccentric scientist father Professor Bomba (Jason Sudeikis) after her mother’s death. Bomba is seen as an oddball because he believes miniature people live in the forest. But M.K. is stuck down to miniature size and ends up being in the middle of a war between the Leafmen who want to protect the forest and the Boggans who want to destroy it.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 64% (good)
Metacritic Rating: 52/100 (average)
Entertainment Fuse Score: 7.0/10 (read our review)
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: Closed Caption; Birds, bugs and slugs: forest explorer; Bugs of camouflage; Rot rocks
Additional Blu-ray Special Features: Disc 1:; Over 45 minutes of special features; Epic in high definition; The Epic life at 2 inches; Mysteries of Moonhaven revealed; Enhanced coloring book app features; ; Disc 2:; Epic in standard definition; Epic for portable media players
Amazon Price: $16.99 (DVD), $21.99 (Blu-ray), $24.99 (3D Blu-ray)
Shadow Dancer (DVD and Blu-ray)
Directed by James Marsh
Written by Tom Bradby
Starring: Clive Owen, Andrea Riseborough, Gillian Anderson, Aidan Gillen, Domhnall Gleeson
Shadow Dancer is a spy drama set in 1993 about Collette (Andrea Riseborough, Oblivion) who is recruited by MI5 agent Mac (Clive Owen) to spy on her IRA family upon the threat of her going to prison and her young son being put into care. But soon Collette is suspected of being an informant by the IRA and Mac has to do everything he can to protect her.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 82% (very good)
Metacritic Rating: 71/100 (good)
Entertainment Fuse Score: 6.3/10
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: Behind the scenes of Shadow Dancer; Cast and crew interviews; AXS TV: a look at Shadow Dancer
Amazon Price: $14.99 (DVD), $21.93 (Blu-ray)
Killing Season (DVD and Blu-ray)
Directed by Mark Steven Johnson
Written by Evan Daughterty
Starring: Robert De Niro, John Travolta
Killing Season is a thriller set in the Appalachian Mountains about Benjamin Ford (Robert De Niro), an American veteran from the Bosnian War and his Serbian friend Emil Kovac (John Travolta). But Emil real intentions are soon revealed and the two men are pitted in a battle of wits in the mountains.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 11% (awful)
Metacritic Rating: 27/100 (very bad)
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: Killing Season featurette
Amazon Price: $14.49 (DVD), $14.49 (Blu-ray)
Score (DVDTalk.com): Content 2 stars, Video 4 stars, Audio 4.5 stars, Extras 0.5 stars, Replay 1 stars (out of 5). Skip It.
Scary Movie 5 (DVD and Blu-ray)
Directed by Malcolm D. Lee
Written by Pat Proft, David Zucker
Starring: Ashley Tisdale, Simon Rex, Erica Ash, Molly Shannon, Heather Locklear, J.P. Manoux, Jerry O’Connell, Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan
When the Scary Movie series helped make the spoof genre a laughing stock for all the wrong reasons and causes a sense of dread for all film fans. Now a dead horse is being continued to be flogged and get another Scary Movie, featuring cameos from tabloid fodder Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes: 4% (awful)
Metacritic Rating: 11/100 (awful)
DISC DETAILS
Amazon Price: $14.96 (DVD), $19.99 (Blu-ray)
Score (DVDTalk.com): Content 0 stars, Video 4 stars, Audio 4 stars, Extras 0.5 stars, Replay 0 stars (out of 5). Skip It.
The Big City (1963) (DVD and Blu-ray)
Directed by Satyajit Ray
Written by Satyajit Ray (screenplay), Narendranath Mitra (short story ‘Abataranika’)
Starring: Anil Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, Jaya Bhaduri, Vicky Redwood, Sefalika Devi, Haren Chatterjee
The Big City is one of two movies from writer/director Satyajit Ray being re-released from The Criterion Collection. Set in the Calcutta in the 1950s, Aarti Mazumdar (Madhabi Mukherjee) is struggling to support his family so his wife Subrata (Anil Chatterjee) finds a job despite the family’s conservatism and traditionalism.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 87% (excellent)
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: New 2K digital film restoration; New interview with actor Madhabi Mukherjee; Satyajit Ray and the Modern Woman, a new interview program; The Coward (1965), a feature film directed by Ray; New English subtitle translation; PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by scholar Chandak Sengoopta
Amazon Price: $19.99 (DVD), $27.99 (Blu-ray)
Charulata (1964) (DVD and Blu-ray)
Directed by Satyajit Ray
Written by Satyajit Ray (screenplay), Rabindranath Tagore (novella ‘Nastanirh’)
Starring: Soumitra Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, Sailen Mukherjee, Syamal Ghosal
The other Satyajit Ray movie from The Criterion Collection is Charulata. Based on a novella by Rabindranath Tagore Charulata tells the story of Charu (Madhabi Mukherjee), a lonely housewife in late 19th Century India whose husband, Bhupati (Sailen Mukherjee) is more passionate about his newspaper then his wife. Bhupati invites his poet brother-in-law Amal (Soumitra Chatterjee) to keep Charu company. But Charu and Amal’s relationship moves beyond artistic interest.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 92% (excellent)
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: New 2K digital film restoration; New interview program with actors; Adapting Tagore, a new interview program; Archival audio interview with director Satyajit Ray; New English subtitle translation; PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Philip Kemp
Amazon Price: $19.99 (DVD), $27.99 (Blu-ray)
The Tailor of Panama (2001) (Blu-ray)
Directed by John Boorman
Written by John Boorman, Andrew Davies, John le Carré (screenplay), John le Carré (novel)
Starring: Pierce Bronsan, Geoffrey Rush
Many of John le Carré’s spy novels have been turned into movies, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, The Constant Gardener and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy being some of the most famous. Another adaptation which John le Carré helped adapt was The Tailor of Panama. Set just before the Panama Canal is going to be handed over to the Panama government MI6 agent Andy Osnard (Pierce Bronsan) is sent to the sent the nation as a punishment. Andy soon recruits Harry Pendel (Geoffrey Rush), a British tailor for senior government officials and gangsters and sets out to find out what Panama’s president plans to do with the Panama Canal.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 77% (very good)
Metacritic Rating: 66/100 (good)
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: Director's Commentary; The Perfect Fit: Conversation with Pierce Brosnan and Geoffrey Rush; Alternate Ending with Optional Commentary; Theatrical Trailers
Amazon Price: $12.99 (Blu-ray)
Peter Pan (1953) (DVD)
Directed by Clyde Ceronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske
Written by Milt Banta, William Cottrell, Winston Hibler, Bill Peet, Erdman Penner, Joe Rinaldi, Ted Sears, Ralph Wright (screenplay), J.M. Barrie (play)
Starring: Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Beaumont, Hans Conried, Paul Collins, Tommy Luske
Based on J.M. Barrie’s famous play Peter Pan: or, the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, Disney’s version is the most famous adaptation. The Disney version of Peter Pan follows Peter as he takes the Darling children to the wonderful world of Neverland. But evil Captain Hook serves as a constant threat as he wants to kill Peter and the Lost Boys.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes: 75% (very good)
Entertainment Fuse Score: 7.5/10
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: DVD + digital copy; Watch Peter Pan anywhere you go with digital copy; Introduction by Diane Disney Miller; Tinker Bell: a fairy's tale
Amazon Price: $17.99 (DVD)
The China Syndrome (1979) (DVD)
Directed by James Bridges
Written by Mike Gray, T.S. Cook, James Bridges
Starring: Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas
The China Syndrome is a thriller about a reporter, Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) who discovers a cover-up about a safety risk at a nuclear power plant, but also a conspiracy who wants to keep her from reporting her findings.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 82% (very good)
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: Two Exlusive Documenteries featuring Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas; Deleted Scenes; Filmographies; Previews
Amazon Price: $6.99 (DVD)
