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DISCussion: What’s New on DVD/Blu-ray (7.3.12)

God Bless America is on its way in to becoming a cult hit, and in a week of rather underwhelming releases, it won our contest of Recommendation of the Week.

First Releases
- God Bless America (DVD and Blu-ray)
- The Hunter (DVD and Blu-ray)
- The Forger (DVD)

Re-Releases
- Born on the Fourth of July (Blu-ray)
- The Horse Whisperer (Blu-ray)
- Step Up (Blu-ray)
- Under the Tuscan Sun (Blu-ray)
- Treasure Planet (Blu-ray)
- Barbarella (Blu-ray)
- Django Kill… If You Live Shoot (Blu-ray)



God Bless America (DVD and Blu-ray) *Recommendation of the Week*
Written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait
Starring: Joe Murray, Tara Lynne Barr

What’s the Deal?
From comedian to writer/director, Bobcat Goldthwait (World’s Greatest Dad) has made a name for himself with dark comedy.

Frank Murdoch (Joel Murray, Mad Men), is a divorced man, who has lost his job and discovers he has terminal cancer. With nothing to lose, Frank goes on killing spree, ridding the world of the most stupid, cruel and repellent members of society and finding an unusual partner in the form of a 16-year-old girl, Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr).

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 66% (good)
Player Affinity Score: 7.5/10

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: Closed Caption; Outtakes/Bloopers; "God Bless TV" - Deleted Television Spoofs; Behind the Scenes; Interviews with Bobcat Goldthwait, Joel Murray and Tara Lynne Barr; HDNet: A Look at God Bless America; Music Video; Commentary with Bobcat Goldthwait, Joel Murray and Tara Lynne Barr; Trailer

Amazon Price: $14.99 (DVD), $19.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A



There are only two other new DVD releases this week, the Willem Dafoe Australian movie The Hunter and the straight-to-DVD movie The Forger. The biggest rerelease of the week is the war drama Born on the Fourth of July, while fans of cult cinema can get Barbarella on Blu-ray.


The Hunter (DVD and Blu-ray)

Directed by Daniel Nettheim
Written by Daniel Nettheim (screenplay), Julia Leigh (novel)
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, Frances O’Connor

What’s the Deal?
Based on Julia Leigh’s 1999 novel, the Australian movie The Hunter sees Willem Dafoe play Martin David, an American mercenary hired by a mysterious biotech company to find the extinct Tasmanian Tiger. In the Tasmanian wilderness, the usual loner Martin starts to become close to family, but ends up risking putting them in danger.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 68% (good)
Player Affinity Score: 4.0/10

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: Closed Caption; Deleted Scenes; Making of The Hunter; HDNet: A Look at The Hunter; Commentary

Amazon Price: $23.92 (DVD), $21.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A



The Forger (DVD)

Directed by Lawrence Roeck
Written by Carlos De Los Rios
Starring: Josh Hutcherson, Hayden Panettiere, Lauren Bacall, Alfred Molina

What’s the Deal?
The straight-to-DVD drama The Forger has a lot quality in its cast in the form of Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games), Hayden Panettiere (Heroes) and Alfred Molina.

Joshua (Hutcherson) is a troubled 15-year-old art prodigy who was abandoned by his drug-addicted mother and finds himself in Carmel, California. He uses his talents to get involved with the art forgery community.

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

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $9.99 (DVD)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A



Born on the Fourth of July (1989) (DVD and Blu-ray)

Directed by Oliver Stone
Written by Oliver Stone, Ron Kovic (screenplay), Ron Kovic (autobiography)
Starring: Tom Cruise

What’s the Deal?
Based on the life of Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic, the Oliver Stone movie Born on the Fourth of July won two Academy Awards, including Best Director, and was nominated for Best Actor and Best Picture. Born on the Fourth of the July was made at a time when Cruise was proving himself as a serious actor and it was his closest attempt at winning that long-desired Oscar.

Kovic (Cruise) is a young patriotic man in the 1960s who joins the U.S. army to serve in the Vietnam War. But after being paralyzed, Kovic sees first hand the poor treatment of veterans by the U.S. government and society as he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and becomes an anti-war activist.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 89% (excellent)
Player Affinity Score: 7.8/10

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $13.48 (DVD), $9.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A



The Horse Whisperer (1998) (Blu-ray)

Directed by Robert Redford
Written by Eric Roth, Richard LaGranvense (screenplay), Nicholas Evans (novel)
Starring: Robert Redford, Kristin Scott Thomas, Sam Neill, Dianne Wiest, Scarlett Johansson

What’s the Deal?
Robert Redford is of course a celebrated actor and director as well as the founder of the Sundance Film Festival. One of his projects he directed and starred in was the adaptation of The Horse Whisperer.

After a car accident leaves a teenager, Grace (Scarlett Johansson), and her horse both severely physically and mentally injured, her mother Annie (Kristin Scott Thomas) takes them to a range in Montana to see a horse whisperer (Redford) to heal their scars.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 72% (good)
Player Affinity Score: 6.0/10

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $14.95 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A



Step Up (2006) (Blu-ray)

Directed by Anne Fletcher, Mico Heltborg
Written by Duane Adler, Melissa Rosenberg
Starring: Channing Tatum, Jenna Dewan, Mario, Drew Sidora, Damaine Radcliff

What’s the Deal?
The noughties saw a big influx of dance movies. The most enduring is the “Step Up” series, with a fourth entry coming out later this month. Quite a few people who have worked on bigger projects since made this one, inlcluding director Anne Fletcher (27 Dresses and The Proposal) Melissa Rosenberg (adapter of “The Twilight Saga”) and Channing Tatum, who has had a banner 2012.

Step Up tells a clichéd story of a young Tyler Gage (Tatum) who has been on the wrong side of the law and ends up having to serve 200 hours of community service as the janitor for a school for the performing arts. He wants nothing to do with this world, but of course Tyler falls for a beautiful student, Nora (Jenna Dewan) and he discovers his own dancing talents.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 20% (very bad)
Player Affinity Score: 3.5/10

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: Deleted scenes and bloopers; MySpace.com dance contest videos; "Making the Moves" featurette; Music videos:; Ciara featuring Chamillionaire - "Get Up"; Sean Paul featuring Keyshia Cole - "(When You Gonna) Give It up to Me"; Chris Brown - "Say Goodbye"; Samantha Jade - "Step Up"; Audio commentary with Channing Tatum, Jenna Dewan and director/choreographer Anne Fletcher

Amazon Price: $14.95 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A



Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) (Blu-ray)

Directed by Audrey Wells
Written by Audrey Wells (screenplay), Frances Mayes (memoirs)
Starring: Diane Lane, Sandra Oh, Lindsay Duncan

What’s the Deal?
Based on Frances Mayes’ 1996 memoirs Under the Tuscan Sun, Diane Lane stars as Frances, a seemingly happily married woman from San Francisco whose marriage suddenly ends. One of her friends convinces Frances to visit Tuscany and on her travels Frances buys and refurnishes an old villa.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 61% (good)
Player Affinity Score: 6.5/10

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $14.95 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A



Treasure Planet (2002) (Blu-ray)

Directed by Ron Clements, John Musker
Written by Ron Clements, John Musker, Rob Edwards (screenplay), Ron Clements, John Musker, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio (story)
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brian Murray, David Hyde Pierce, Martin Short, Emma Thompson

What’s the Deal?
In a week filled with of book adaptations, the most unusual is Treasure Planet, a loose sci-fi retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel Treasure Island, as a young tearaway, Jim Hawkins (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), joins a voyage to the edges of the known universe as a cabin boy.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 70% (good)
Player Affinity Score: 7.5/10

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $19.96 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A



Barbarella (1968) (Blu-ray)

Directed by Roger Vadim
Written by Terry Southern, Roger Vadim (screenplay), Jean-Claude Forest (comic)
Starring: Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, Anita Pallenberg, Milo O’Shea, Marcel Marceau

What’s the Deal?
Based on a French comic book series by Jean-Claude Forest, Barbarella is considered a classic piece of sci-fi kitsch and offers us one of Jane Fonda’s most famous roles in her sexy adventures. This erotic movie sees government agent of the far future Barbarella (Fonda) who has to stop the evil Durand-Durand (Milo O’Shea) and his various minions.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 72% (good)
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $14.96 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): Content: 3 stars, Video 4.5 stars, Audio 4 stars, Extras 2.5 stars, Replay 3.5 stars (out of 5). Recommended.



Django Kill… If You Live, Shoot (Blu-ray)

Directed by Giullo Questi
Written by Franco Arcalli, María del Carmen Martínez Román, Giulio Questi
Starring: Tomas Milian, Marilù Tolo

What’s the Deal?
Django Kill…. If You Live, Shoot is often considered on of the most surreal and controversial Spaghetti Westerns as a Mexican bandit (Tomas Milian) who is left for dead ends up in a town called the "The Unhappy Place" and becomes embroiled in an odyssey involving torture, violence and sexual depravity as fractions of Mexican Bandits, homosexual cowboys and a priest fight over stolen gold.

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

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $24.99 (Blu-ray)

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

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