DVD/Blu-ray DISCussion (New for 12.27.11)

There is one particular highlight for DISCussion this week: the Blu-ray re-release of the British movie Sid and Nancy. Punk and music history fans will be particularly interested in this bio-pic that was one of Gary Oldman’s first major roles in what is a basic Blu-ray release.

First Releases
- Final Destination 5 (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Apollo 18 (DVD and Blu-ray)
- In the Name of the King 2 (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Inside Out (DVD and Blu-ray)
- The Pool Boy (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Pearl Jam Twenty (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Brighton Rock (2011) (DVD)
- The First Grader (DVD)
- Hostel Part III (DVD)

Re-Releases
- Sid and Nancy (Blu-ray)


Sid and Nancy (Blu-ray) *Recommendation of the Week*

What’s the Deal?
Sid Vicious is a punk rock legend and a tragic figure because of his suicide. His story was turned into a bio-pic by writer/director Alex Cox (Repo Man, 1984) and his movie Sid and Nancy was an early movie role for Gary Oldman. Chloe Webb (Twins) co-stars as his girlfriend Nancy Spungen as this movie looks at their descent into heroin addiction as Sid attempts a solo career.

Despite a lot of praise for Sid and Nancy, lead singer to the Sex Pistols, Johnny Rotten was critical that he was not consulted for the project and that the lead singer for the Clash, Joe Stummer was.

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

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $18.49 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com):  N/A


It certainly seems to be a case of the post-Christmas blues, because there are few DVD and Blu-rays worthy of being reported on. The other major release this week is the documentary/concert movie Pearl Jam Twenty. It is great for us rockers. Horror fans have Final Destination 5 and Apollo 18 to look forward to and the British film industry offers a remake of Brighton Rock and The First Grader. And Uwe Boll fans have another movie for you to mock.


Final Destination 5 (DVD and Blu-ray)

What’s the Deal?
The "Final Destination" series is easy to mock, because its whole premise is based on watching a lot of teens die in gruesome, if comical ways. Still, it makes money and Final Destination 5 was critically the best received of the series. Even though it did not make as much money in the US, it was a hit worldwide. A cast of unknowns lead this horror movie with Tony Todd (The Rock, Chuck) joining them. Avatar second unit director Steven Quale makes his feature directing debut as we follow another group of young adults cheating Death after a suspension bridge collapse and Death picks them all off one-by-one.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 61% (good)
Player Affinity Score: 4.0/10

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: Instant Streaming with UltraViolet Digital Copy; "Circle of Death, Your Final Destination"

Additional Blu-ray/DVD Combo Special Features: Alternate Death Scenes; Visual Effects of Death: Collapsing Bridge; Visual Effects of Death: Airplane Crash

Amazon Price: $14.99 (DVD), $19.99 (Blu-ray), $22.99 (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

Score (DVDTalk.com): Content 4 stars, Video 4 stars, Audio 4 stars, Extras 1.5 stars, Replay 4 stars (out of 5). Highly Recommended.


Apollo 18 (DVD and Blu-ray)

What’s the Deal?
Found footage movies have been on the rise, with movies such as Cloverfield and the "Paranormal Activity" series being box offices smashes. But Apollo 18 really pushes the plausibility to extraordinary lengths, even marketing itself as the real story of what happened to the ‘cancelled’ Apollo 18 mission. Timur Bekmambetov of Wanted fame produces this horror movie and shows why NASA never went back to the Moon after 1974.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 23% (poor)
Player Affinity Score: 4.5/10

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: Feature Commentary With Director Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego & EditorPatrick Lussier; Deleted And Alternate Scenes; Alternate Endings

Amazon Price: $14.99 (DVD), $24.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A


In the Name of the King 2 (DVD and Blu-ray)

What’s the Deal?
Where would the world of bad cinema be without Uwe Boll? Half the fun comes from his egomania and he has a cult following on the Internet. The original In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale is notoriously bad; now a studio was stupid enough to give Boll a $60-million budget to make a sequel. None of the original cast members returned. Swedish action star Dolph Lundgren now leads this movie, which is filled with Boll and bad movie regulars.

Lundgren plays Granger, an ex-Special Forces soldier who ends up getting transported back in time to the Medieval era and has to test himself in another field of battle. Sounds terrible even for Boll standards.

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

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

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

Score (DVDTalk.com): Content 0.5 stars, Video 0 stars, Audio 0 stars, Extras 2 stars, Replay 0 stars (out of 5). Skip It.


Inside Out (DVD and Blu-ray)

What’s the Deal?
Since The Rock was able to break into acting, WWE has been trying their hand at the movie industry, creating their own studio so their wrestlers can act in pictures. Now, Triple H has a leading role in a straight-to-DVD crime thriller with Michael Rapaport (Prison Break) and Parker Posey (Superman Returns). TV director Artie Mandelberg (Saving Grace) helms this movie about A.J. (Triple H) who is released from prison after serving 13 years for manslaughter. A.J. is reunited with his friend Jack (Rapaport) who is a small time hood and A.J. is forced back into the criminal underworld.
 
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 25% (poor)
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: The Game. The Rapper. The Rap: Co-stars Triple H and Michael Rapaport interview each other; Inside outtakes: Bloopers and fun stuff from the set; Triple H: Under Investigation - go behind the scenes with Triple H

Amazon Price: $14.99 (DVD), $18.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A


The Pool Boys (DVD and Blu-ray)

What’s the Deal?
From the director of American Pie 2 (J.B. Rogers) comes a mediocre comedy starring Brett Davern (Awkward) and Matthew Lillard (Scream) as Harvard-bound Alex (Davern), who is stuck in a dead-job, forms a get-rich-quick scheme of turning an empty mansion into a home for ladies of the night.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 35% (poor)
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

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

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A


Pearl Jam Twenty (DVD and Blu-ray)

What’s the Deal?
Fans of the band Pearl Jam will certainly get a kick out of this music DVD that is directed by former music journalist Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous). Crowe compiled over 1,200 hours of rare footage for this documentary as well as interviews with the band and plenty of concert footage that examines the band’s rise to stardom and the trials and tribulations that accompany it.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 65% (good)
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: Mike McCready writing "Faithful"; Jeff Ament in Montana; Stone Gossard Seattle Driving Tour; Boom Gaspar Joins the Band ; Eddie Vedder House Tour; Matt Cameron Writing "The Fixer"; "No Anything"; "Come Back"

Amazon Price: $17.49 (DVD), $23.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A


Brighton Rock (2011) (DVD)

What’s the Deal?
Brighton Rock is consider a classic Graham Greene novel and British gangster from 1947. It is a big risk for any director to remake it, let alone a first-time director, but that was what writer Rowan Joffe (28 Weeks Later, The American) did. A top British cast was assembled for this movie including Sam Riley (Control), Andrea Riseborough (The Devil’s Whore), Helen Mirren, John Hurt and Andy Serkis.

Joffe changes the setting from the 1940s to the 1960s during the mods and rockers period. Riley replaces Richard Attenborough as Pinkie Brown, a ruthless gangster in Brighton who, after committing a murder, has to keep a witness, a waitress called Rose (Riseborough), silent. He decides the best way to do that is to seduce the naïve Catholic girl.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 53% (average)
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: Featurette; Behind The Scenes; Interviews; Trailer

Amazon Price: $18.99 (DVD)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A


The First Grader (DVD)

What’s the Deal?
The other British new release of the week is based on a true story. Justin Chadwick (The Other Boleyn Girl) directs Ann Peacock’s (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) script about Maruge (Oliver Litondo), an 84-year-old illiterate ex-Mau Mau fighter who fights for his right for a primary school education when the Kenyan government introduce free education to its people. Naomie Harris (28 Days Later) also stars in this biopic drama.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 59% (average)
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $14.99 (DVD)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A


Hostel Part III (DVD)

What’s the Deal?
So many horror movies have straight-to-DVD sequels, Now the "Hostel" series joins this dubious crew. The series has been met with quite a bit of controversy: the first one ended up insulting the people of Slovakia and the nation’s Tourism ministry gave Eli Roth a free luxury vacation (a pretty good scam in my opinion) and Hostel Part II was accused of being overly violent and misogynistic, coming out at the height of the gorno craze.

Writer/director of the first two movies, Eli Roth does not return to the series, not even as a producer, nor does Quentin Tarantino, who was Roth’s mentor. Scott Spiegel (From Dawn Til Dusk 2: Texas Blood Money) replaces Roth in the director’s chair. Despite all this trouble, top German actor Thomas Kretschmann (Downfall, Wanted) leads this movie, which sets the action in Las Vegas, as a Bachelor party is tricked into attending a sadistic torture party. So that’s what the Wolf Pack got up to.

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

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: Commentary with Director Scott Spiegel and Actor Kip Pardue

Amazon Price: $15.99 (DVD)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A