Zodiac – The Director’s Cut (Two-Disc Special Collector’s Edition)
d. David Fincher (Fight Club)
c. Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko), Robert Downey Jr. (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang)
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- Commentary by Director David Fincher
- Commentary by Jake Gyllenhall, Robert Downey Jr., Producer Brad Fischer, James Vanderbilt and James Ellroy
- Zodiac Deciphered: an exhaustive behind the scenes documentary
- The Visual Effects of Zodiac
- Digital Workflow
- Sequence Breakdowns:
- Blue Rock Springs
- Lake Berryessa
- San FranciscoTrailers and TV spots
- The Facts:
- This is the Zodiac Speaking
- Lake Herman Road
- Blue Rock Springs
- Lake Berryessa
- San Francisco
- Prime Suspect:
- His Name Was Arthur Leigh Allen
- Linguistic Analysis
- Jeopardy Surface: Geographic Profiling (6:30 video)
- Dr. Kim Rossmo’s Geographic Profile of the Zodiac (text-based)
- The Psychology of Aggression: Behavioral Profiling (5:30 video)
- Special Agent Sharon Pagaling-Hagan’s Behavioral Profile of the Zodiac (text-based)
I have waited what seems like forever for this DVD to be released. Last year, we got a bare boned version of Zodiac, but it was announced at the time that a special edition would be coming in January. David Fincher is, in my opinion, one of the best director’s of this era. With amazing camera work and a visionary nature that excels at every level, he has brought us masterpieces with Fight Club and Seven and even his lesser movies (Panic Room and Alien 3) look amazing. With Zodiac, he approaches a film of a smaller scale and achieves one of his greatest triumphs. Telling the story of the Zodiac murderer, Gyllenhaal stars as Robert Graysmith, the reporter who received the letters from the murderer. Graysmith also wrote the book that the movie is adapted from. A great turns from Robert Downey Jr. adds to the enjoyment factor. The director’s cut adds five minutes to the movie and the special edition has a ton of great extras. It will also get an HD-DVD release.
3:10 TO YUMA
d. James Mangold (Cop Land)
c. Russell Crowe (American Gangster), Christian Bale (American Psycho), Ben Foster (The Punisher)
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- Destination Yuma – a making of documentary
- An Epic Explored featurette – Director James Mangold explains the mythological qualities of the film
- Outlaws, Gangs & Posses featurette – a look at some of the most famous cowboys of the West
- Deleted scenes
- BD Exclusive – Sea to Shining Sea featurette – How the railroad changed America
- BD Exclusive – Historical Timeline of the West – a feature length navigation through some of the most significant historical events in the evolving history of the West
- BD Exclusive – A Conversation with Elmore Leonard
- BD Exclusive – The Guns of Yuma featurette – a look at the authentic weapons used in the film
- BD Exclusive – Inside Yuma – a feature length “picture in picture” interactive exploration of the creation of the film
- BD Exclusive – 3:10 to Score featurette – Composer Marco Beltrami shows how he achieved some of the unique sounds in the film
In the remake of the 1957 Glen Ford film of the same name, Russell Crowe plays the Glen Ford character of Ben Wade, an outlaw who finds a desperate rancher (Christian Bale) who makes a stand against him. Mangold achieves some of the promise he displayed in the excellent Cop Land in this movie that actually creates a character that surpasses both Crowe and Bale. Ben Foster plays Crowe’s associate, a sociopathic killer who breeds the evil that Crowe only hints at. The movie is being sold on the talents of Crowe and Bale but watch it for the great cinematography and the turn by supporting actor Foster. There will also be a Blu-Ray release the same day with a lot of extra features not found on the regular DVD version.
SUNSHINE
d. Danny Boyle (Trainspotting)
c. Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later), Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon), Chris Evans (Fantastic Four)
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- Audio commentary by director Danny Boyle
- 12 Deleted Scenes with optional commentary by Danny Boyle
- Alternate Ending with optional commentary by Danny Boyle
- 22 Web Production Diaries
- Dad’s Dead Short Film directed by Chris Shepherd
- Mole Hills Short Film directed by Dan Arnold
Danny Boyle has shown such promise as a director that everything he has done lately has seemed to be a disappointment. After the very interesting debut of Shallow Grave, he followed it up with the wonderful Trainspotting and was catapulted to the forefront of the list of the best young directors working. He then adapted The Beach, which was considered a huge disappointment miscast with Leo DiCaprio in the lead role and made the Lord of the Flies styled story into something that barely resembled the brilliant novel on which it was based. 28 Days Later brought Boyle back to the forefront, and he followed that up with the small, but charming Millions and now the larger, more ambitious Sunshine. Sunshine tells the story of a crew sent to try to reignite Earth’s dying sun. The film remains strong as we follow the mission of the crewmen and then falls apart during the third act when it just goes into a climax which is just not as interesting. Included on the disc is multi-award winning short film Dad’s Dead. The film will also be released on Blu-Ray the same day.
DRAGON WARS: D-WAR
d. Hyung-rae Shim
c. Robert Forster (Jackie Brown), Jason Behr (The Grudge)
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- 500 Years in the Making
- Dragon Wars Animatics: From Storyboard to Screen
- Photo Gallery
This 2007 South Korean film was almost completely ignored by the United States but found great popularity in other parts of the world. It set the South Korean box office record, attracting millions of viewers in the first few weeks of its release. It received negative reviews upon its early release in the United States and has a horrible 25% Rotten Tomato rating. Who cares about all that? It’s a giant monster movie with dragons. Who cares if the story is laughable? Who cares if it is Z-grade? It’s a giant monster movie with dragons! I’m serious, what more can you ask for? Hey Look! It’s on Blu-Ray too!
MAMMOTH
d. Tim Cox (Larva)
c. Vincent Ventresca (Larva), Summer Glau (Firefly), Tom Skerritt (Alien)
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- Behind the Scenes Making of featurette
Hey, it’s another monster movie! You can never have enough of those. It’s also got the chick from Firefly and the guy from Alien. But is it any good? Well, its first problem is that it is a Sci-Fi channel movie and those are usually crap (example: Lake Placid 2). Director Tim Cox has pretty much settled into a comfort zone with tongue-in-cheek B-Level movies, so that might be a good thing. Fangoria gave it a pretty poor review, saying it tries not to take itself seriously but fails despite that. The monster, when finally seen, is said to look like a poor CG creation as well. I think it might be worth a rent, but if you want to buy a monster movie this week, stick with D-War.
SMILEY FACE
d. Gregg Araki (Mysterious Skin)
c. Anna Faris (Scary Movie), Adam Brody (Thank You for Smoking), John Krasinski (The Office)
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Gregg Araki turned a lot of heads with his wonderful Mysterious Skin. While helping make television star Joseph Gordon-Levitt into a real life movie star, he won lots of awards along the way. Smiley Face is a huge departure from that movie, as he directs a stoner comedy starring Anna Faris, the best thing about any of the Scary Movie flicks. Faris has always showed she has perfect comic timing and her she is surrounded by some really talented young actors in Adam Brody and John Krasinski in a movie that got a lot of good buzz around the festival circuit. The plot is pretty straightforward. Jane (Faris) gets stoned first thing that morning and maps out the day’s tasks: Buy more pot, go to audition, pay off dealer, pay up electric bill, and do NOT eat the cupcakes Steve (Brody) has made. It is more than Jane can handle when she eats the cupcakes, unaware they are loaded with more marijuana. The movie then turns into her misadventures through the day. It sounds like it might be worth a look. Plus, it’s got Danny Trejo!
JOSHUA
d. George Ratliff
c. Sam Rockwell (The Green Mile), Vera Farmiga (The Departed), Michael McKean (This is Spinal Tap)
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- Commentary by writer/director George Ratliff and writer David Gilbert
- Six deleted scenes
- Dave Matthews music video “Fly”
- Cast and crew interviews
- Jacob Kogan’s audition tapes
- Trailers
Here is a movie that I had never heard of, so I thought I would share it with you. Joshua is a movie that falls into the category of the Bad Seed thriller, almost like The Omen without the supernatural stuff. Young Joshua is smarter than his age and soon begins to go to dark places until bad things begin to happen to the people around him. With a great cast including Sam Rockwell and Michael McKean, the movie has received favorable reviews and was lauded for its wonderful cinematography, for which it won an award at Sundance. I haven’t heard much about it, although Devin gave it an average review (5.0/10). He mentioned wanting to hear a commentary by the director on the DVD and with this release, he gets his wish.
OTHER DVDs RELEASED THIS WEEK
Two and a Half Men – The Complete Second Season
The Waltons – The Complete Sixth Season
Rob & Big – The Complete Seasons 1 & 2 (Uncensored)
MI-5, Volume 5
Death Sentence (Unrated Edition) (Kevin Bacon, Kelly Preston)
Evil Roy Slade (Mickey Rooney, Milton Berle)
Lovejoy – The Complete Season 2
The Riches – Season 1
The Rock [Blu-Ray] (Nic Cage, Sean Connery)
Con Air [Blu-Ray] (Nic Cage, John Malkovich)
Gunsmoke – The Second Season, Vol. 1
The Complete Collection of Sweatin’ to the Oldies (hee hee)
Golden Door (Vincent Schiavelli, Charlotte Gainsbourg)
Man on Fire [Blu-ray] (Denzel Washington)
The All-New Superfriends Hour: Season One, Vol. 1
Eagle vs. Shark (Loren Horsley, Craig Hall)
What’s New Scooby-Doo? – The Complete Third Season
Personal Best (Scott Glenn, Mariel Hemingway)
The Pianist [HD DVD] (Adrian Brody)
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (Alan Arkin, Stacey Keach)
Boogeyman 2 (Tobin Bell, Renee O’Connor)
Terry Jones’ Barbarians
White Noise 2 (Nathan Fillion, Katee Sackhoff)
Mobsters [HD DVD] (Christian Slater, Richard Grieco)
Frankenhooker
THE BARGAIN BIN
Toys R Us is having a Buy One Get One sell on a few Blu Ray titles (in store only) – Casino Royale, High School Musical 2, Bridge to Terabithia, POTC Dead Man’s Chest, POTC At World’s End, Meet the Robinsons, Cars, Open Season, Ratatoullie – They should all be priced at $24.95 each. Also, here is a coupon from Disney for an additional $5 off.
BEST BUY
White Noise 2 – $19.99
White Noise 2 HD-DVD – $29.99
Zodiac: 2 DVD Director’s Cut – $22.99
Zodiac: 2 DVD Director’s Cut HD-DVD – $29.99
3:10 To Yuma – $16.99
3:10 To Yuma Blu-Ray – $29.99
Young Guns – $9.99 *
Lonesome Dove – $9.99 *
American Psycho: Uncut Killer Collector’s Edition – $9.99 *
* Get any of the 3 marked titles above for only $5 with the purchase of ANY version of 3:10 To Yuma
Death Sentence – $19.99 *
Joshua – $19.99 *
Sunshine – $19.99 *
* Buy any 2 of the 3 marked titles above and save $5
Dragon Wars – $17.99 *
Dragon Wars Blu-Ray – $29.99
* Best Buy excusive: Free Lithograph on Pack
Rambo: Ultimate Edition – 3 Disc Collection – $14.99 *
* Free Movie Cash on Pack for Rambo when you purchase the Rambo: Ultimate Collector’s Edition 3 Movie set
Free Movie Money to see In The Name Of The King when you Buy any Of These
Titles for $9.99 EACH: Die Hard, Transporter 2, The 300 Spartans, Bandidas, Behind Enemy Lines, Commando: Director’s Cut, Daredevil: Director’s Cut, The Day After Tomorrow, Edward Scissorhands, Escape From New York, I, Robot, Space Camp, The Transporter, X2 : X-Men United
$9.99 EACH:
300, Hot Fuzz, Casino Royale, Shooter, Disturbia, Fracture, Blades Of Glory, License To Wed, We Are Marshall, The Last Mimzy, A Good Year, Little Miss Sunshine, Georgia Rule, TMNT, The Reaping, Return To House On Haunted Hill, Lucky You, Black Snake Moan, Are We Done Yet?, Peaceful Warrior, Vacancy, Premonition, Dogma, Zodiac, The Host, National Lampoon’s Van Wilder: The Rise Of Taj
30% Off All Fitness DVDs
Carmen Electra’s Aerobic Striptease: In The Bedroom – $14.99
Carmen Electra’s Aerobic Striptease: Vegas Strip – $14.99
The Biggest Loser: The Workout -> $12.99
Denise Austin: Yoga Body Burn – $12.99
10 Minute Solution: Dance It Off & Tone It Up! – $12.99
Crunch: Super Charged Kickbox Party! – $12.99
High Definition Discs (Blu-Ray or HD-DVD)
The Fountain – $24.99
Beerfest: Unrated – $14.99
GoodFellas – $14.99
Training Day – $14.99
A Scanner Darkly – $14.99
Blood Diamond – $14.99
The Corpse Bride – $14.99
Deliverance – $14.99
March Of The Penguins – $14.99
Million Dollar Baby – $14.99
The Lake House – $24.99
Lady In The Water – $24.99
Rumor Has It – $24.99
Superman Returns – $24.99
DVD Sets:
The Waltons: Season 6 – $29.99
The Waltons: Season 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 -> $24.99 each
Two and .5 Men: Season 2 – $29.99
Two and .5 Men: Season 1 – $27.99
Rob & Big: Season 1 + 2 – $27.99
The Naked Brothers Band: Season 1 – $16.99
Nip/Tuck: Season 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 – $24.99 each
Boston Legal: Season 1 / 2 / 3 -> $24.99 each
That 70’s Show: Season 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 -> $24.99 each
The Shield: Season 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 – $24.99 each
The Unit: Season 1 / 2 – $24.99 each
The Riches: Season 1 – $34.99
TARGET
3:10 To Yuma – $16.99
3:10 To Yuma Blu-Ray – $29.99
Death Sentence – $16.99
Dragon Wars – $19.99
Sunshine – $19.99
Superbad – $17.99
The Heartbreak Kid – $17.99
Bratz: The Movie – $15.99
Harry Potter & Order Of The Phoenix – $17.99
Live Free Or Die Hard – $17.99
Shrek The Third – $17.99
Transformers – $17.99
Spider-man 3 – $17.99
Cinderella – $19.99
Cinderella II: Dreams Come True – $19.99
Cinderella III: A Twist In Time – $19.99
Aladdin – $19.99
Aladdin II & III – $24.99
$3.99 DVDs:
Inside Man
Accepted
Something New
$4.75 DVDs:
Catch Me If You Can
Hotel Rwanda
Big Daddy
Fever Pitch
Matrix: Revolutions
$5.99 DVDs:
Because I Said So
Nanny McPhee
The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift
$10.00 DVDs:
Music & Lyrics
Over The Hedge
The Prestige
Dream Girls
Ghostbusters 1 & 2
DVD Sets:
24: Season 6 – $29.99
Big Love: Season 2 – $49.99
Dirt: Season 1 – $39.99
Grey’s Anatomy: Season 1 – $17.99
Two and .5 Men: Season 1 – $29.99
Two and .5 Men: Season 2 – $32.99
The Naked Brothers Band: Season 1 – $19.99
Rob & Big: Complete Seasons 1 + 2 – $29.99
The Tudors: Season 1 – $27.99
What’s New Scooby-Doo?: The Complete 1st Season – $14.99
The Riches: Season 1 – $39.99 *
* Free $5 Target Gift Card with purchase of The Riches: Season 1