Tuesday, August 13, 2013

BLU-RAY TUESDAY: 'Olympus Has Fallen' Leads Week's Blu-ray Assault, 'Muppet Movie' Re-Released for Near Anniversary




















Before Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx teamed up to survive an full-fledged assault on the White House in Roland Emmerich's explosion-fest, White House Down, another film with the same exact plot hit theaters this past spring. Olympus Has Fallen leads this week's new Blu-ray releases which also include: The Muppet Movie (The Nearly 35th Anniversary Edition), Once Upon a Time: The Complete Second Season, The Big Wedding and What Maisie Knew.

Much like Emmerich's White House Down, Gerard Butler takes on the Channing Tatum role, playing a Secret Service agent assigned to protect the President of the United States (Aaron Eckhart) after the White House is under siege by North Koreans. Olympus Has Fallen is released on Blu-ray by Sony Pictures as a Blu-ray, DVD, UltraViolet combo pack and is directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day).

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

BLU-RAY TUESDAY: 'Oblivion' Blasts Home on Blu-ray with Metalpak and Other Retail Exclusives




















Tom Cruise just keeps missing the elusive century mark with his three latest outings (his most recent $100 million hit being 2011's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol), however audiences have the opportunity to check out his dystopian futuristic film Oblivion this week on Blu-ray. Also set to release this week are The Place Beyond the Pines, Mud, The Borgias: The Complete Third Season and several Disney classics. 

In Oblivion, Jack Harper (Cruise) is the one of the few drone repairman stationed on 2077 Earth alongside his communications partner and romantic interest, Victoria (Andrea Riseborough). However after a routine checkup turns south, Harper begins to realize that all that he's known may not exactly be the truth.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

BLU-RAY TUESDAY: Danny Boyle's 'Trance' Leads Quiet Week For Blu-Ray New Releases




















With no major studio releases set to street this Tuesday, audiences however can choose between a few new titles that only received limited exposure beyond the Toronto International Film Festival and a handful of independent markets.

Director Danny Boyle is prominently known for his use of vivid color palettes featured in 2008 Best Picture winner, Slumdog Millionaire and 2010 Best Picture nominee, 127 Hours. His latest psychological caper, Trance is equally stylized while audiences delve deep into the mind of an art auctioneer (James McAvoy), whose memories are the key to locating a misplaced piece of art. 

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

BLU-RAY TUESDAY: 'Evil Dead' Reboot Scares Up Various Exclusives, '42' Hits Home Run on Blu-Ray




















Jackie Robinson, Sylvester Stallone and the Evil Dead are as remotely different from one another as possible, but all three go head-to-head on home media as 42: The Jackie Robinson Story, Bullet to the Head and Evil Dead street this week on Blu-Ray.

42 was released in theaters this past April just in time for the start of the 2013 Major League Baseball season and now finds itself on Blu-Ray precisely for the league's All-Star game. 42 is Jackie Robinson's biography onscreen detailing his initial year playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers as the first player to break the color barrier in the sport in 1947. 

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

BLU-RAY TUESDAY: 'Admission' Leads Class of New Blu-Ray Releases, Tyler Perry and 'Legend of Korra' Debut



With no major titles released on Blu-Ray last week prior to the Fourth of July weekend, Blu-Ray Tuesday returns with six new titles set for release today including: Tyler Perry's Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor, The Host, Spring Breakers, Dead Man Down, Admission and The Legend of Korra: Book One - Air.

Based on the play of the same name, Temptation is the latest film from Madea creator, Tyler Perry, which goes down a more dramatic darker road than many of his other upbeat films. As the title suggests, a marriage counselor divulges a story about their therapist sister (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), whose temptation to fall for another man sends everyone's lives into a downward spiral. Temptation is released as Blu-Ray, UltraViolet combo pack from Lionsgate Films.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

BLU-RAY TUESDAY: 'Burt Wonderstone' Sets to Upstage Halle Berry's "Call" Thriller on Blu-Ray




















Halle Berry and Steve Carrell are both top-tier actors in their own right, but neither The Call nor The Incredible Burt Wonderstone spark a great interest in theaters this past spring. Both films make their way to Blu-Ray this week.

As Vegas magician Burt Wonderstone, Steve Carrell clashes with a street magican (Jim Carrey), while attempting to reunite with his former partner played by Steve Buscemi. Olivia Wilde, Alan Arkin and James Gandolfini round out the ensemble cast.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

BLU-RAY TUESDAY: Fairy Tale Adaptation 'Jack the Giant Slayer' Ascends to New Heights on Blu-Ray




















Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum! Hollywood's latest fairy tale re-imagination, Jack the Giant Slayer, leads this Tuesday's pack of new release Blu-Rays. Directed by Bryan Singer (X-Men, Superman Returns), Jack the Giant Slayer expands on the classic "Jack and the Beanstalk" story, as poor farmboy Jack (Nicolas Hoult) joins an expedition up a beanstalk to rescue a princess from CGI giants dwelling above the clouds.

Jack the Giant Slayer is released in two formats on Blu-Ray from Warner Bros. including a Blu-Ray, DVD, Digital Copy, UltraViolet combo pack as well as a 3D edition that includes the standard combo pack discs. 

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

BLU-RAY TUESDAY: Disney's 'Oz' Sees Green, 'Hansel & Gretel' Battle Fairy-Tale Witches on Blu-Ray




















The first major blockbuster of 2013 makes its way on Blu-Ray this Tuesday, roughly three months after its theatrical release in early March. Oz the Great and Powerful, starring James Franco, Rachel Weisz and Mila Kunis, is set before the 1939 classic when Dorothy arrives in the world of wizards, witches and singing Munchkins exploring how the Wizard of Oz became the mysterious floating head ruling from the confines of Emerald City.

Oz the Great and Powerful is released in multiple formats on Blu-Ray including a Blu-Ray, DVD, Digital Copy combo pack, a Blu-Ray, Digital Copy combo pack and a Blu-Ray 3D, Digital Copy combo pack.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

BLU-RAY TUESDAY: Fantasy Pair 'Beautiful Creatures,' 'True Blood' Lead New Blu-Ray Releases



















Vampires, crime dramas and a return of the "Governator" himself lead the pack in this week's heavily loaded list of new releases. While no major blockbusters are making their way to Blu-Ray yet for a few more weeks, home media audiences can still check out top new releases including Beautiful Creatures, Parker, Side Effects, The Last Stand and True Blood Season 5.

First up from Warner Bros. is Beautiful Creatures, based on the Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl romantic fantasy novel of the same name. Beautiful Creatures isn't here to be the next groundbreaking young adult book-to-film adaptation, but the film wrap still manages to wrap elements of the Deep South, forbidden love and dark magic into a stylistic cinematic interpretation.     

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Tarantino's 'Django' Drives Old-Fashioned Revenge Home on Blu-Ray

Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) stands in the way of Django (Jamie Foxx) reclaiming his enslaved wife.




















One of the perks of being Quentin Tarantino is wielding the power to end the lives of countless onscreen characters in the most stylistic bloody ways imaginable. Feel free to say that's a sadistic manner of thinking, but for Tarantino, that alone defines him as a director he is today and answers the reasoning behind the Spaghetti Western bloodbath simply known as Django Unchained.

After his recent cult classics, Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino has no issues amping up his blood-stained cinematic canvas set against a touchy subject such as American slavery and what's necessary to be free of the shackles of servitude. Enduring many years of hard service, Django (Jamie Foxx) finds himself freed by Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) and now with the means to seek revenge on a charismatic plantation owner keeping his wife all for himself.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Ready 'Guardians' Blu-Ray for Those Easter Baskets

The greatest gift is seeing all these mythological characters sharing the same screen.




















Somebody in the Dreamworks Animation marketing department is an absolute genius. Release Rise of the Guardians in theaters right before the Christmas rush and likewise, its Blu-ray release just in nick of time for Easter. Coincidence? Hardly.

Rise of the Guardians is best summed up as the Avengers of mythological beings - the best of the best joining forces to rid the world of evil in the form of Pitch Black (Jude Law) and his deathly steeds. A thickly Russian accented Santa Claus (Alec Baldwin) and a boomerang-wielding Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackson) are givens to protect the children of the world from the Boogeyman. Joining them in this eternal struggle are the lesser known (or ones without holidays) Tooth Fairy and Sandman. And collectively, they stand united as Earth's Mightiest Heroes...sorry Guardians.