THE SPECIAL EDITION: 4.06.10

THE WEEK OF APRIL 6th 2010

GROUP EDITED by: TROY ANDERSON

DVD/BR SECTION by: Troy Anderson

LORD OF THE RINGS: THE MOTION PICTURE TRILOGY
Director: Peter Jackson
New Line/Warner Brothers

CLICK HERE TO BUY IT AT AMAZON!

Special Features

• Trailers
• TV Spots
• Music Videos
• Featurettes
• Short Film
• BD-Live
• Digital Copies

The Lord of the Rings comes to Blu-Ray for the first time. But, it’s just the theatrical cuts. The video source will mastered into a 1080 transfer also seems to be a bit overexposed. Plus, all of the feature discs are stuffed into one giant Blu-Ray case. While the second Blu-Ray cases is full of three Digital Copy discs. You also can’t buy the films individually. Happy Easter, Tolkein fans!

BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL – NEW ORLEANS
d. Werner Herzog

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Special Features

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans is a movie that has stuck with me over the last several months. Mainly, it’s because I still have no idea what Nicolas Cage was trying to accomplish in this film. The films of Herzog demand a certain something from its audience, but Cage was acting on another planet.

COCOON
d. Ron Howard

CLICK HERE TO BUY IT AT AMAZON!

Special Features

• Audio commentary by director Ron Howard
• Behind-the-scenes featurette
• Ron Howard profile
• Underwater training
• Actors
• Creating Antareans
• Theatrical teaser
• Theatrical trailer
• TV spots
• Cocoon: The Return teaser

Cocoon didn’t do anything to help with my fears about the elderly. I remember being a little kid and wondering what the fuck was wrong with old people. Ron Howard taught me they were aliens in disguise. More than 20 years later, I discover that Ron Howard lied to me. He also lied about the Illuminati trying to fuck up the Vatican. Hell, I’m willing to bet that Darryl Hannah isn’t even a mermaid. Fucking movies, they’re all bullshit. Well, this is bullshit in Blu-Ray. Thrill to the sight of Wilford Brimley’s many fleshy folds, as he goes swimming.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: THE COMPLETE SERIES
Showrunner: Ronald Moore

CLICK HERE TO BUY IT AT AMAZON!

Special Features

• Featurettes
• Commentaries
• Deleted Scenes
• and more!

Remember when you found the cash to buy Battlestar Galactica on Blu-Ray the first time? That’s not including those poor souls that took the dip on HD-DVD. Well, you probably wondered why in the hell Universal didn’t bother to include The Plan or the webisodes. Then, there was the issue with that crappy packaging that seemed to come apart while opening the case. Universal got around to fixing that. So, if you haven’t bought the Complete Series yet…well, there’s that. 

VIDEO GAMES

section by: Justin Clark and SCOTT!

OOOH: ON THE DLC TIP

MASS EFFECT 2: KASUMI’S STOLEN MEMORY
XBox Live, PC
Release Date: 4/6
560 MS Points

Bioware loves you. They love you, and they’re willing to do anything for you, like releasing cool little sidestories involving female master thieves in galactic high society, and adding new characters and weaponry to an already stellar lineup just for no other reason than to say they love you. It doesn’t even matter that you’re off playing other RPGs, like that slut with the XIII in her title. It’s okay, baby. Bioware knows you always come back. Aw yeah.

ROCK BAND TUESDAY

Anberlin – Feel Good Drag
Hawk Nelson – Live Life Loud
Skillet – Monster
Superchick – Stand in the Rain
Switchfoot – Meant to Live
Thousand Foot Krutch – Fire It Up

(Tracks are $1.99/160 MS points. All tracks available for Lego Rock Band)

6 tracks of modern Christian pop rock. Being agnostic, the only appreciation I could have potentially gotten out of this pack set gets cheated from me by nature of Rock Band Tuesday being two days after Easter Sunday. So, sadly, it’s another slow week for most of us.

Actually, I lied. I appreciate that it’s not Stryper. There ya go.

MUSIC

section by: Jeb Delia

HERE LIES LOVE

David Byrne and Fatboy Slim

CLICK HERE TO BUY IT AT AMAZON!

Imelda Marcos is every bit as logical a choice to write a musical around as Eva Peron was (even if there’s no songs about shoes). And this song-cycle (originally envisioned as a sort of touring disco revue) is certainly catchier and more danceable than your average Lloyd Webber show. The list of (mostly female) vocalists is large and eclectic (including Steve Earle as Ferdinand Marcos [!], Natalie Merchant, Tori Amos, Sharon Jones, Nellie McKay, Martha Wainwright, and Cyndi Lauper), with Kate Pierson’s contributions particularly choice. As a collaboration, it’s certainly livelier than Byrne’s reunion with Eno last year, though most of it feels a bit too neatly divided: Byrne on top, Fatboy on bottom (I’m sure there’s a fetish website for that). And while a lot of the lyrics are generic enough that you could pull songs off the album for recycling as diva numbers (whoda thunk?), my favorite musical moment of the week was hearing a reference to Richard Nixon pop up out of the dance grooves.

I LEARNED THE HARD WAY

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings 

CLICK HERE TO BUY IT AT AMAZON!

OUT OF OUR MINDS
Melissa Auf Der Maur

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Not sure I can evaluate her new “multi-media experience” solely on the basis of this CD, but they didn’t send me the comic book. Anyway, I doubt the comic rocks as effectively, and the movie’s not likely to be as catchy. A bit of Hole, more than a touch of Curve/Garbage, adding a soupcon of Benatar. Secrets, maps, keys, gravesites and paradise, with punchy vocals and some very big guitars.

 

CODEINE VELVET CLUB

Codeine Velvet Club

 

CLICK HERE TO BUY IT AT AMAZON!

Somewhere on the continuum between Petula Clark and Scott Walker, shading slightly towards ABC, lies Codeine Velvet Club. Jon Fratelli and Lou Hickey have their Mark Ronson moves down, the super-Spector production doesn’t get in the way too often, and the occasional Peter Gunn guitar leavens the recipe nicely. Teen romance and dancing may not seem like the headiest subjects for songwriting, but I can’t say that my typical day consists of much deeper thinking than that, so why not?  And you really need to hear them cover “I Am The Resurrection.”

 

Other noteworthy 4/06 music releases:

Slash: Slash. Riffs R Us, with guest appearances by folks from Ozzie to… Fergie? Um… rock on, I guess.

 

Peter Wolf: Midnight Souvenirs. A bit of funk and rock, but the guest vocalists include Merle Haggard and Shelby Lynne, as well as Neko Case (who turns up on half this week’s releases). So, the Wolf’s gone a bit rootsy on us. FWIW, he manages it about as well as Jakob Dylan… and you’ll never guess who sings on HIS new album.

 

Jakob Dylan: Women and Country. With production by T-Bone Burnett, and backing vocals from Neko Case and Kelly Hogan, do you really care if the songs are any good?

 

Robyn Hitchcock: Propellor Time. Fuck, it’s guest star week! Here, among others: John Paul Jones, Johnny Marr, and Nick Lowe (how the hell he missed Neko Case I can’t imagine), all at the service of the willful weirdness that Hitchcock makes his own.

 

Jonsi: Go. Joyous and sensitive and poppy and earnest, in English this time. At least it sounds like English.

 

Solomon Burke: Nothing’s Impossible. What, no guest stars? With Willie Mitchell at the board, who needs ‘em? His final production does right by the 70-year-old Burke, whose warm mixture of country and soul has just the right amount of grits for both.

 

The BoDeans: Mr. Sad Clown. Their near-perfect live album is probably all the BoDeans anyone really needs. But life’s about more than “needs,” and those aching Kurt & Sammy harmonies rank high among my aural “wants.” Welcome back, boys.

THIS WEEK’S DVD REVIEWS at CHUD

Did you miss a review this week? A lot of titles go unnoticed during the hectic news days around the site.

Click here to discover some of the latest DVD reviews.

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NEW RELEASES

*Blu-Ray prices are in BOLD BLUE

Lord of the Rings Trilogy Boxset                           $59.99  $74.99
Lord of the Rings (1978 animated)                         $19.99 
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans             $14.99   $19.99   
The Natural                                                               $19.99   
The Collector                                                            $14.99   $22.99   
Hart and Soul                                                            $19.99 
Sorority Row                                                             $14.99  $19.99 
Couples Retreat                                                      $14.99 $19.99
Brothers                                                                  $16.99  $24.99
Law Abiding Citizen                                               $14.99  $24.99
Armored                                                                 $16.99    $24.99
Planet 51                                                                $16.99   $24.99
Did You Hear About the Morgans                       $16.99  $24.99
Jennifer’s Body                                                     $14.99   $24.99
Twilight: New Moon                                             $24.99  $29.99

DVD Sale

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past                             $9.99
Julie and Julia                                              $14.99
Funny People                                             $14.99
I Can Do Bad All By Myself                       $14.99
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs            $14.99
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs             $14.99
G.I. Joe The Rise of Cobra                        $14.99
Ninja Assassin                                           $14.99
Sherlock Holmes                                        $19.99

$9.99 Blu-Rays

Blow
A History of Violence
The Lost Boys
Firewall
Righteous Kill
Behind Enemy Lines
Entrapment
Transporter 2
The Running Man

VIDEO GAME DEALS

Best Buy
WarioWare DIY – $34.99 w/ 500 bonus points ($10 value) for RZ gamer members
Borderlands $29.99
Battlefield Bad Company 2 $49.99 (consoles), $39.99 (PC)

Target
Avatar: $19.99
Call of Duty 4: $29.99
Call of Duty: World at War: $29.99
Drawn to Life The Next Chapter: $19.99

Toys R Us
DS Games
Lego Rock Band: $12.49
Chaotic: Shadow Warrior for Nintendo: $12.49
Battle of Giants: Dragons for Nintendo: $17.99
Battle of Giants: Mutant Insects: $17.99
Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2010: Reverse of Arcadia: $19.99
Bakugan Battle Brawlers: Battle Trainer: $24.99
Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief: $17.99
Pokemon: Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time: $22.49
Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia: $24.99
Pokemon SoulSilver: $34.99
Pokemon HeartGold: $34.99