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DVD/Blu-ray DISCussion (New for 2.14.11)

The 1930 adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front is easily considered an essential movie to have in your DVD collection. Now this classic is coming onto Blu-ray for the first time, so it's our Recommendation of the Week.

First Releases
- Take Shelter (DVD and Blu-ray)
- The Rum Diary (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (DVD and Blu-ray)
- The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Tiny Furniture (DVD and Blu-ray)
- The Dead (DVD and Blu-ray)
- All Things Fall Apart (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Nude Nuns With Big Guns (DVD and Blu-ray)
- The Debt (2007) (DVD)

Re-Releases
- Three Outlaw Samurai (1964) (DVD and Blu-ray)
- All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) (Blu-ray)


All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) (Blu-ray) *Recommendation of the Week*

Directed by Lewis Milestone
Written by George Abbott (screenplay), Erich Maria Remarque (novel)
Starring: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolhiem

What’s the Deal?
All Quiet on the Western Front is a classic piece of anti-war literature turned into a classic anti-war movie. All Quiet on the Western Front is often regarded as a culturally significant movie, winning Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director in 1930, preserved by the United States Library of Congress and often in the in the American Film Institute Top 100 lists. It is a movie that was greatly influenced the D-Day scene in Saving Private Ryan.

On the outbreak of The Great War, Paul Baumer (Lew Ayres) and his school friends are convinced to join the German army after a patriotic speech by their professor. But after the initial excitement, it soon becomes clear that war is a horrid act, fighting battles in the trenches, seeing the impact on civilians, asking what is the reason for war and realizing that British and French soldiers are not that much different than the Germans.
 
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 97% (excellent)
Player Affinity Score: 10/10

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $26.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): Content 4 stars, Video 4.5 stars, Audio 4 stars, Extras 4.5 stars, Replay 4 stars (out of 5). DVD Talk Collector Series.




The major first release of the week is Take Shelter, one of the indie highlights of 2011. There's also the sequel to Elite Squad, or if you are a sadomasochist there is The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence.  If you are a fan of Japanese cinema and samurai movies then Three Outlaw Samurai is coming onto Blu-ray thanks to the Criterion Collection.


Take Shelter (DVD and Blu-ray)

Written and directed by Jeff Nichols
Starring: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain

What’s the Deal?
The low budget Take Shelter was one of the critical and festival hits of 2011. Starring the future General Zod, Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road), and Jessica Chastain in what was a great year for her, Take Shelter tells the story of Curtis LaForche (Shannon), who suffers from apocalyptic visions and builds a shelter for his family. But is he really seeing the future or is it a sign of mental illness?

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 92% (excellent)
Player Affinity Score: 8.2/10 (read our review)

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: Commentary with Jeff Nichols & Michael Shannon; Behind the Scenes of Take Shelter; Q&A with Michael Shannon & Shea Whigham; Better Safe Than Sorry

Amazon Price: $29.99 (DVD), $23.99 (Blu-ray)

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



The Rum Diary (DVD and Blu-ray)

Directed by Bruce Robinson
Written by Bruce Robinson (screenplay), Hunter S. Thompson (novel)
Starring: Johnny Depp, Aaron Eckhart, Amber Heard, Giovanni Ribisi

What’s the Deal?
Johnny Depp and Hunter S. Thompson were friends before the time of Thompson’s death and The Rum Diary was one of the last Thompson novels to be published, even though it was written in 1961. Depp was highly involved with the production of the movie and got Withnail and I director Bruce Robinson to return to directing after a 19-year absence.

Paul Kemp (Depp) is a New Yorker who accepts a job of working for a local newspaper in Puerto Rico in 1960. With two other American journalists (Michael Rispoli,The Sopranos, and Giovanni Ribisi, The Boiler Room), the three attempt to drain the island’s rum supplies. Kemp also agrees to help a businessman named Hal Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart) promote his real estate ventures to displace poverty-stricken Puerto Ricans, even though it goes against his political and moral beliefs.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 50% (average)
Player Affinity Score: 4.0/10 (read our review)

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: A Voice Made of Ink and Rage: Inside The Rum Diary; The Rum Diary Back-Story

Amazon Price: $16.99 (DVD), $19.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A



Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (DVD and Blu-ray)

Directed by Jose Padilha
Written by Jose Padilha, Braulio Mantovani
Starring: Wagner Moura, Irandhir Santos, Andre Ramiro

What’s the Deal?
The Brazilian action thriller Elite Squad was a critical and commercial hit and its sequel has been able to match it, even though it had allegations of a right-wing slant. Director Jose Padilha is now an in demand director, being linked to a reboot of Robocop.

After a prison riot, Lieutenant Colonel Roberto Nascimento (Wagner Moura) of the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State and his second in command Andre Matias (Irandhir Santos) are accused of human rights abuses. Nascimento is exonerated and is transferred to state security, but Matias is moved to a corrupt unit. Now Nascimento is swept up in a political dispute between government officials and paramilitary groups.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 95% (excellent)
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $21.99 (DVD), $23.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A



The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence (DVD and Blu-ray)

Written and directed by Tom Six
Starring: Laurence R. Harvey

What’s the Deal?
Tom Six, perhaps the Uwe Boll of horror, has returned with a post-modern sequel to his original movie The Human Centipede: First Sequence. The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence was so controversial that the British Board of Film Classification refused to give it a rating, effectively banning the movie for a while in the U.K. and giving Six a marketing coup. Six claims this film is art, but we wouldn't agree.

Martin (Laurence R. Harvey) is an overweight, mentally ill middle-age man who lives with his abusive mother (Vivien Bridson) and was sexually abused by his father (Six). He works in a multi-story car parking garage and is obsessed with The Human Centipede, so obsessed that he plans to make his own, so he kidnaps various people to accomplis it.

Six has already promised a third “Human Centipede” movie and that it will “make the last one look like a Disney film.” God/all applicable religious figures help us all.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 31% (poor)
Player Affinity Score: 1.0/10 (read our review)

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $10.99 (DVD), $14.99 (Blu-ray)

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



Tiny Furniture (DVD and Blu-ray)

Written and directed by Lena Dunham
Starring: Lena Dunham, Laurie Simmons, Grace Dunham

What’s the Deal?
Young filmmaker Lena Dunham is considered a rising star. She made her start on Youtube and her TV show, Girls, has been picked up by HBO. Tiny Furniture is her feature debut, a movie that won Best Narrative Feature at South by Southwest and Best First Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards in 2010.

Dunham wrote, directed and starred in Tiny Furniture as Aura, a recent college graduate who returns to New York and tries to figure out what to do with her life.

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

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: New digital transfer; Director Lena Dunham talks about filmmaking and autobiography in a new interview; New interview with writer-director Paul Schrader; Creative Nonfiction, Dunham's first feature film; Four short films by Dunham; Trailer; PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Phillip Lopate

Amazon Price: $21.99 (DVD), $28.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): Content 2.5 stars, Video 4 stars, Audio 3.5 stars, Extras 4 stars, Replay 2 stars (out of 5). Rent It.



The Dead (DVD and Blu-ray)

Written and Directed by Howard J. Ford, Jonathan Ford
Starring: Ron Freeman, Prince David Oseia, David Dontoh

What’s the Deal?
Who does not love a good zombie movie? Whether The Dead is able to join the likes of Dawn of the Dead or 28 Days Later is unknown at the moment, but so far it has positive reviews from Ain’t it Cool News and DVDTalk.com but only a 6.0/10 on IMDB.

Lt. Brian Murphy (Rob Freeman) is a US Air Force Engineer caught in the middle of Africa who must try and get back to his family. He is joined by a local military man, Sgt. Daniel Dembele (Prince David Oseia), searching for his son. But both men have to survive the onslaught of the living dead.

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

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $9.99 (DVD), $14.49 (Blu-ray)

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



All Things Fall Apart (DVD and Blu-ray)

Directed by Mario Van Peebles
Written by Curtis Jackson, Brian A Miller
Starring: Curtis Jackson, Ray Liotta, Mario Van Peebles

What’s the Deal?
The  rapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson continues his attempt at an acting career, but here he's stuck in direct-to-DVD hell. With All Things Fall Apart, Jackson plays Deon, a College Football star destined for the NFL who ends up suffering from a deadly disease.

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

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $11.99 (DVD), $26.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A



Nude Nuns With Big Guns (DVD and Blu-ray)

Directed by Joseph Guzman
Written by Joseph Guzman, Robert James Hayes II
Starring: Asun Ortega, David Castro, Perry D’Marco

What’s the Deal?
With a title like that, Nude Nuns With Big Guns is hardly likely to be an art-house classic. Sister Sarah (Asun Ortega) is a nun who has been abused, brainwashed and drugged into submission by the corrupt clergy. When she suffers an overdose she receives a message from God to get vengeance against her tormentors.

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

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

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

Score (DVDTalk.com): Content 0.5 stars, Video 3 stars, Audio 1 stars, Extras 1 stars, Replay 0 stars (out of 5). Skip It.



The Debt (2007) (DVD)

Directed by Assaf Bernstein
Written by Assaf Bernstein, Ido Rosenblum
Starring: Gila Almagor, Yuriy Chepurnov, Oleg Drach

What’s the Deal?
The Israeli film The Debt was recently remade by John Madden, Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman, but surprising the original had little exposure outside the Jewish state. Now it is coming onto DVD in the USA. The story centers on three Mossad agents who were sent to assassinate a Nazi doctor in the 1960s but have to settle old business 30 years later.

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

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $11.99 (DVD)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A


Three Outlaw Samurai (1964) (DVD and Blu-ray)

Directed by Hideo Gosha
Written by Keiicha Abe, Eizaburo Shiba, Hideo Gosha
Starring: Tetsuro Tanba, Isamu Nagato, Mikijiro Hira, Yoshiko Kayama

What’s the Deal?
Three Outlaw Samurai is a spin-off from a Japanese TV show in the 1960s but is a highly regarded movie in its own right. Three Outlaw Samurai serves as an origin story as three ronin samurai (Tetsuro Tanba, Isamu Nagato and Mikijiro Hira) have been ordered to save the daughter of a corrupt magistrate from a band of peasants demanding tax cuts.

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

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: High-definition digital restoration; Trailer; New English subtitle translation; PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Bilge Ebiri

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

Score (DVDTalk.com): Content 4 stars, Video 4.5 stars, Audio 4 stars, Extras 0.5 stars, Replay 3 stars (out of 5). Recommended.



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