Player Affinity’s Recommendation of the Week is the sci-thriller Source Code. Duncan Jones brings us another intelligent movie filled with ideas that impressed critics, audiences and of course, us here at Player Affinity Movies.
First Releases
- Source Code (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Trust (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Dylan Dog: Dead of Night (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Life During Wartime (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Ironclad (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Bodyguards and Assassins (DVD)
Re-Releases
- Leon Morin Priest (DVD and Blu-ray)
- High and Low (Blu-ray)
- Animal House (Blu-ray)
Source Code (DVD and Blu-ray) *Recommendation of the Week*
What's the Deal?
Duncan Jones, son of David Bowie, earn a lot of respect when he made Moon, so much so that Jake Gyllenhaal recommended him to direct Source Code. This smart sci-fi film allowed Jones to work with a bigger budget and he impressed again. As well as Gyllenhaal, Source Code features Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright (Felix Leiter in the new “Bond” movies).
Colter Stevens (Gyllenhaal) wakes up on a commuter train heading toward Chicago opposite a woman he does not know, Christina Warren (Monaghan). Minutes later the train blows up and Stevens finds out from an Air Force Captain, Colleen Goodwin (Farmiga), that he can go back to the last eight minutes of someone’s life in a time loop program. He has to find out who the terrorist is before they launch even worse attacks. But Stevens questions the morality of his mission, especially letting Christina and everyone else on the train die.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 91% (exccellent)
Player Affinity: 8.1/10
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: Audio Commentary with Director Duncan Jones, Writer Ben Ripley and Actor Jake Gyllenhaal; ; Cast Insights - Explore the Story and Filming of Source Code through the eyes of the Cast and Crew; ; Focal Points - Watch animated shorts on time travel and other scientific phenomena addressed in the film; ; "Did You Know" Trivia Track
Amazon Price: $12.99 (DVD), $18.99 (Blu-ray)
Score (DVDTalk.com): Content 4 stars, Video 4.5 stars, Audio 4.5 stars, Extras 2.5 stars, Replay 4.5 stars (out of 5). Highly Recommended.
The only real highlight this week is David Schwimmer’s second movie as a director, the drama Trust. On the re-release front there are movies from France and Japan and the comedy classic Animal House.
Trust (DVD and Blu-ray)
What's the Deal?
David Schwimmer is of course best known as Ross Gellar from Friends, but since he left the show he has gained a reputation as a theater director. Trust is Schwimmer’s second movie as a film director (his first being Run Fatboy Run) and this is a very different approach for him.
Trust is a hard-hitting social drama about a typical 14-year-old girl, Annie (Liana Liberato), who befriends a boy over the internet, Charlie. But it turns out that Charlie is a man who is grooming the girl. After meeting him, Trust focuses on the impact of this horrid event on the girl and her parents (Clive Owen and Catherine Keener).
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 78% (very good)
Player Affinity Score: N/A
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: Includes free digital copy of the film; Featurette: "Between The Lines"; Film outtakes; Previews
Amazon Price: $10.99 (DVD), $13.99 (Blu-ray)
Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A
Dylan Dog: Dead of Night (DVD and Blu-ray)
What's the Deal?
You have to ask whatever happened to Brandon Routh? He started out with promise, earning the coveted Superman role and there was even a campaign to let him keep it even after the series got rebooted. But since Superman Returns, Routh has only had supporting roles in projects such as Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and TV's Chuck. Now he stars in a critically derided adaptation of the Italian comic book series Dylan Dog directed by Kevin Munroe (TNMT). Most horror buffs, including our own, had a low opinion of this movie.
Dylan Dog (Routh) is a private eye and human who investigates crimes for supernatural beings in New Orleans. As a human he is able to remain neutral in the vampire/werewolf/zombie fight for supremacy.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 3% (awful)
Player Affinity Score: 1.0/10
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: Closed Caption
Amazon Price: $15.99 (DVD), $19.99 (Blu-ray)
Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A
Life During Wartime (DVD and Blu-ray)
What's the Deal?
Todd Solondz is a respected if controversial writer/director on the American Indie scene. His latest film contains an interesting cast, including Shirley Henderson (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Bridget Jones’s Diary), Allison Janney (The West Wing), Ciaran Hinds (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2), Ally Sheedy (WarGames) and Paul Reubens. Life During Wartime is a multi-story film about three sisters (Henderson, Sheedy and Janney), their relationship history and how it affects them.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 68% (good)
Player Affinity Score: N/A
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: New digital transfer, supervised and approved by director of photography; Ask Todd, an audio Q&A with director Todd Solondz; Making "Life During Wartime," a new documentary featuring interviews with actors; New video piece in which Lachman discusses his work on the film; Original theatrical trailer; PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic David Sterritt
Amazon Price: $21.99 (DVD), $27.99 (Blu-ray)
Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A
Ironclad (DVD and Blu-ray)
What's the Deal?
In recent years there has been a rise in pseudo-historical movies, including 300, Death Black, Solomon Kane and Centurion. In 2011, Jonathan English has taken on a film about a historical footnote, the siege of Rochester Castle in 1215. James Purefoy (Rome) took on the lead role with Brain Cox, Mackenzie Crook (The Office), Jason Flemyng (Layer Cake), Derek Jacobi and Paul Giamatti, who plays King John. At the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Megan Fox was attached to movie, but Kate Mara (127 Hours) replaced her.
In 1215, King John has reneged on the Magna Carta, the deal with the bacons that limits the King’s power. A group of nobles and knights plan to defy the king at Rochester Castle in Kent, England.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 43% (poor)
Player Affinity Score: N/A
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: Closed Caption; Commentary by director Jonathan English; Theatrical trailer
Amazon Price: $15.99 (DVD), $19.99 (Blu-ray)
Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A
Bodyguards and Assassins (DVD)
What's the Deal?
Hong Kong has the third biggest film industry in the world and many of their movies have an appeal in the West, whether they are in the crime, historical or martial arts genres. Bodyguards and Assassins gets to combine two of these genres. Director Teddy Chan's latest movie is led by Donnie Yen (Ip Man), Nicholas Tse (New Police Story) and Tony Leung Ka-fai (Election, 2005).
In 1905, a leader of a revolution, Sun Wen (Zhang Hanyu), goes to Hong Kong to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and bring in a new age of modernism and democracy. As Wen and his organization plan their coup, a group of assassins is sent to kill him. Wen’s bodyguards must then defend him if they want China to have a prosperous future.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): N/A
Player Affinity Score: N/A
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: Five Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes; Extended Interviews with Cast and Crew; International QR Code for Additional Bonus Materials
Amazon Price: $15.99 (DVD)
Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A
Léon Morin, Priest (DVD and Blu-ray)
What's the Deal?
The Criterion Collection certainly love movies from Jean-Pierre Melville (Army of Shadows) and his 1961 effort Léon Morin, Priest is now getting a re-release. Based on a novel by Beatrix Beck,
Léon Morin, Priest is a story set during World War II about a sexually frustrated widow, Barny (Emmanuelle Riva) who attempts to protect her half-Jewish daughter by getting her Christened. She gets priest
Léon Morin (Jean-Paul Belmondo) to do it and teach them about Catholicism so they can avoid the Nazis.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 92% (excellent)
Player Affinity Score: N/A
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: French Television Interview with Director Jean-Pierre Melville and Actor Jean-Paul Belmondo from 1961; Selected-Scene Commentary by Film Scholar Ginette Vincendeau; Deleted Scenes; Original Theatrical Trailer; ; Plus: a Booklet featuring an Essay by critic and novelist Gary Indiana and excerpts from Melville on Melville
Amazon Price: $21.99 (DVD), $29.99 (Blu-ray)
Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A
High and Low (Blu-ray)
What's the Deal?
Our final foreign movie of the week comes courtesy of Japanese legend Akira Kurosawa. His 1963 film is a crime thriller about Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune), a successful industrialist who plans to take over the National Shoe Company to avoid it being overrun by incompetent executives. He raises money to achieve this, but fate intervenes as his son is kidnapped and a massive ransom is demanded.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 93% (excellent)
Player Affinity Score: N/A
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: High-definition digital restoration, with original four-track surround sound; Audio commentary by Akira Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince; Documentary on the making of "High and Low"; Rare video interview with actor Toshiro Mifune; Video interview with actor Tsutomu Yamazaki, who plays the kidnapper; Theatrical trailers from Japan and the U.S.; PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien and more!
Amazon Price: $29.99 (Blu-ray)
Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A
Animal House (Blu-ray)
What's the Deal?
There is a lot of respected comedy talent behind the 1978 hit Animal House: John Landis in the director’s chair, Harold Ramis with a co-writing credit, Ivan Reitman as a producer and of course John Belushi as the star. In addition, Animal House helped bring the fraternity system back to popularity in North America.
In 1962, Faber College has two frat houses: one that is filled with rich white Anglo-Saxon men; the other, the Delta Fraternity, will take anyone. But because of Delta Fraternity’s antics, the Dean of the University (John Vernon) wants them taken down and recruits the other house to do so.
Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 90% (excellent)
Player Affinity Score: N/A
DISC DETAILS
DVD Special Features: The Yearbook: An Animal House Reunion an original documentary featuring interviews and behind-the-scenes footage with the cast ; Where Are They Now? A Delta Alumni Update a hilarious mockumentary featuring the original cast ; Scene It? Animal House relive your favorite moments with this mini-game experience, including movie clips, trivia
Amazon Price: $19.99 (Blu-ray)
Score (DVDTalk.com): Content 4.5 stars, Video 3 stars, Audio 3.5 stars, Extras 3 stars, Replay 4.5 stars (out of 5). Highly Recommended.