THE WEEK OF JANUARY 5th, 2010

THE FINAL DESTINATION
d. David R. Ellis
New Line

Special Features

  • Featurettes
  • Alternate Endings
  • Deleted Scenes
  • A First Look at A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Teen death has never been as great as that presented in the Final Destination films. Sure, the well has run dry with ideas. But, I could think of worst way to spend your time than watching teenagers burn to death. If you have a Blu-Ray player, there’s not much difference in terms of special features. But, you get to see them die in a stunning 1080p transfer.

MIGHTY MOUSE: THE NEW ADVENTURES – THE COMPLETE SERIES
c. Patrick Pinney, Dana Hill and Mona Marshall

Special Features

Featurettes
Commentaries
Network Teaser
Vintage Mighty Mouse shorts


Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures has finally found a legit DVD release. This series has floated around most collectors’ circles in one bootleg form or another. So, Viacom finally decided to invest in a proper cult animated series. It’s loaded down with commentaries and featurettes about the one and done Bakshi led Mighty Mouse revamp. What’s more fascinating is to see John K, Bruce Timm and other modern animation pioneers wax poetically about their time spent on this series. For the old bastards, you also get some vintage shorts. Mighty Mouse doesn’t sniff a bump in any of them.

BIG LOVE: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON
c. Bill Paxton, Chloe Sevigny, Harry Dean Stanton, Ginnifer Goodwin and Amanda Seyfried

Special Features

  • Mini-Episodes

Big Love: The Complete Third Season is the point where the series has come dangerously close to jumping the shark. The show tries to hard to make parallels to Warren Jeffs. Then, came the efforts to skirt controversy by filming on Mormon holy sites. When that wasn’t enough, they had to force in a sanctimonous teen pregnancy storyline to show off Amanda Seyfried. Seyfried is bailing after the current seaosn, so might’ve been all for not. I guess doing Abba fanwank and Nicholas Sparks adaptations make you a little too good for HBO. 

CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS
d. Phil Lord and Chris Miller
c. Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Bruce Campbell and Mr. T

Special Features

A Recipe for Success: The Making of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Directors’ Commentary
Key Ingredients: The Voices of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Flint’s Food Fight Game
Extended Scenes
Early Development Scenes
Progression Reels with Introductions by Visual Effects Supervisor Rob Bredow
Interactive “Raining Sunshine” Sing-A-Long
“Raining Sunshine” Music Video by iCarly’s Miranda Cosgrove
Behind the Scenes of Miranda Cosgrove’s “Raining Sunshine” Music Video
Make It Rain Food

Computed animated movies are more common than a cold. Sony’s Animation Division has been desperate to carve out a niche for itself in the Pixar/Dreamworks/Blue Sky animation world. They’ve done fair to decent work, but nothing’s really ever grabbed the attention. This doesn’t change with Cloudy, a CG adaptation of a popular kid book. Still, it’s nice to see Bruce Campbell pop up in a family film.

NETFLIX INSTANT VIEW (POURING THE DIRT INTO BLOCKBUSTER’S GRAVE)

New movies to watch instantly
New TV to watch instantly

INSTANT VIEW/ON-DEMAND/HULU/GOOGLE VIDEO SHUT-IN CINEMA

For the premiere Instant View sub-section, I’ve decided to cobble together the best of what you might’ve missed at the video store. If you have any legit suggestions to share, post them in the Talkback below.

Below, I’ve included some decent documentaries that have made their way to Netflix/Hulu. Give them a viewing and let me know what you thought.

Whether or not this becomes a mix and match of the latest cool instant view material is up to the readers. I’ve toyed with doing basic list updates, giving you guys a chance to pick a film to show others. Hell, just keep it legal and I’m open to whatever you find. Also, if you just want to bitch about the shitty video quality of the Starz flicks on Netflix Instant View…that works too.

Vernon, Florida (1987)

Click the link to watch it over at Netflix Instant View
(membership required)

The Free Option via HULU

The Weather Underground (2002)
with some commercial interruption



COMING SOON TO YOUR HOME THEATER

  1. Lionsgate is proud
    to announce the upcoming

    DVD and
    Blu-ray Disc release of MAD MEN: SEASON THREE available on
    March 23rd. 


“Mad Men,” one of “TV’s best-ever dramas” (Boston Globe), is back on DVD and Blu-ray Disc with its third and most
captivating season!  
From Matthew
Weiner, the Emmy
and Golden
Globe
award-winning executive
producer and writer of “The Sopranos,” “
Mad Men” is
the ground-breaking series about
the glamorous and ego-driven “Golden Age” of advertising.  Returning for its third season, the show
bursts with one scandalous surprise after another.   This award winning ensemble continues to
captivate us as they contend with a world on the brink.  Welcome to “Mad Men” – a shocking portrait of
a time that was anything but innocent. 
Nothing is as sexy.  Nothing is as
provocative.  Nothing is as it
seems. 

 

Winner of three Golden Globes and nine Emmys, including two for Outstanding Drama Series, the
acclaim for “Mad Men” has not diminished after three seasons.  The
San Francisco Chronicle
praised “beyond being the finest series on
television, ‘Mad Men’ is both ambitious and exquisite, two of the ultimate
rarities in the business,” The Boston Globe
proclaimed it “absolutely gorgeous,” The San Jose Mercury News hailed, “TV at its finest,” and the Wall Street Journal exclaimed “The final episode was nothing short of
brilliant
.” 

 

MAD MEN:
SEASON THREE
contains all 13
episodes of the season, which originally aired in Fall of 2009, and is loaded
with special features including extensive commentaries and innovative
featurettes that showcase interviews with the cast and crew and examine the
historical events that shaped 1963.  The
Blu-ray Disc also features an interactive look at the inventions, events and
people that defined the year while the DVD will be housed in limited edition
“lowball glass” packaging.  With three
new Golden Globe nominations, the third season of “Mad Men” will arrive on DVD
and Blu-ray Disc on
March 23,
2010
. 
The fourth season of “Mad Men” is set to premiere in Summer
2010.


THE CRITERION COMPLETION PROJECT (130 out of 495)

The
Chewer
Nation has been having fun with the little monthly challenges I’ve
thrown down. I’ve got a new one that just might take us through the end
of 2009. What I want us all to do is to review The Criterion
Collection
. But, there’s a catch. The number of words you can use will
be determined by the spine number.

Due to length, click on the titles to access the spine specific reviews.

1 – 100.  The First Hundred
101. Cries and Whispers
102. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise
103. The Lady Eve
104. Double Suicide
105. Spartacus
106. Coup de Torchon
107. Mona Lisa
108. The Rock
109. The Scarlet Empress
110. Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday
111. Mon Oncle
112. Playtime
113. Big Deal on Madonna Street
116. The Hidden Fortress
121. Billy Liar
123. Grey Gardens
135. Rebecca
139. Wild Strawberries
140. 8 1/2
147. In the Mood for Love
151. Traffic
157. The Royal Tenenbaums
175. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
186. Stolen Kisses
187. Bed and Board
188. Love on the Run
191. Jubilee
247. Videodrome
267. Kagemusha

281. Jules and Jim

and so on and so on.

Post your Criterion reviews on the CHUD message board.

THE REST OF THE DVDs THIS WEEK

Akiballion: Battlemaids Of Akihabara!
BBC Atlas Of The Natural World: Africa Europe Americas Antarctica Collection
Below The Earth’s Surface
Big Love: The Complete Third Season
Brava Italia (PBS)
Chuck: The Complete Second Season
Clean
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (One-Disc Standard Edition)
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (Two-Disc Super-Sized Edition)
D.Gray-Man: Season Two, Pt. 2
Doctor Who: Story 5 – The Keys Of Marinus
Doctor Who: Story 137 – The Twin Dilemma
Elvis Presley Gladiators: The 1974 Elvis Karate Legacy Project
Falling Up
50 Dead Men Walking
The Final Destination aka Final Destination 4
Ghost Hunters: The Best Of
IMAX: Solarmax
Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Vol. 2
The Jane Austen Collection (BBC)
A Kelly Ashton Collection: The Danger Ladies/Kelly’s Pajama Party
Kendra: The Complete First Season
Laila’s Birthday
The Last Salt Caravan
Loren Cass (Kino)
Lorna’s Silence
Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures! The Complete Series
The Ministers
Night Head Genesis: Complete Collection
Princess Farhana Bellydance: Basic And Intermediate Workout 2-Pack
Petite Princess Yucie: Complete Collection
The Philanthropist: The Complete Series
The Second Best Science Fiction Movie Ever Made
Super Friends! Season One, Vol. 1
10 Things I Hate About You (10th Anniversary Edition)
They Must Eat
3 Ways To Get A Husband
Trucker
UFC: Ultimate 100 Greatest Fight Moments
The Waltons: The Complete First And Second Seasons (Bundle)
Winnie The Pooh: A Valentine For You (Special Edition)
You’re Under Arrest: Fast And Furious, Collection 2

BLU-RAY: IT’S GETTING CHEAPER

Battlestar Galactica (2000s): Season One
Cheaper By The Dozen 2
Chuck: The Complete Second Season
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack)
D.Gray-Man: Season One, Pt. 1
Dogtown And Z-Boys
50 Dead Men Walking
The Final Destination AKA Final Destination 4
The Green Berets
IMAX: Solarmax
The Last Salt Caravan
The Ministers
Riding Giants
10 Things I Hate About You (10th Anniversary Edition)
Wicked Lake

SPEND YOUR MONEY!

NEW RELEASES


*Blu-Ray prices are in BOLD BLUE

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs               $15.99 $22.99  $24.99
The Final Destination                                     $16.99 $22.99  $19.99
Chuck: Season 2                                           $36.99  $44.99
Sing Along with Barbie                                  $9.99
                                                                                 
$5 DVDs

  • Final Destination 1
  • Final Destination 2
  • Saw I
  • The Blair Witch Project

$10 DVDs

  • Last Chance Harvey
  • Step Brothers
  • Baby Einstein DVDs



———————————————–

NEW RELEASES

*Blu-Ray prices are in BOLD BLUE

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs               $15.99 $22.99  $24.99
The Final Destination                                     $16.99 $22.99  $19.99
Chuck: Season 2                                           $36.99  $45.99

DVD SALE!

$9.99 BUY 2, GET A FIVE DOLLAR GIFTCARD

Bride Wars
Taken
The Day the Earth Stood Still (Keanu Reeves version)
Valkyrie
Quantum of Solace
Bedtime Stories
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Space Buddies
Step Brothers
Pineapple Express
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Fireproof
State of Play
Saw V
Seven Pounds
Coraline
Observe and Report
Dragonball Evolution
I Love You, Man
Hannah Montana: Best of Both Worlds
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
Australia

TV on DVD SALE

  • Family Guy: Season 7                      $13.99
  • The Simpsons: Season 12                $13.99
  • 24: Season 7                                 $13.99
  • How I Met Your Mother: Season 3     $13.99

Blu-Ray Sale!

$26.99

Burn Notice: Season 2
Dollhouse: Season 1
Bones: Season 4
Sons of Anarchy: Season 1

$24.99

District 9

$19.99

The Hangover
Public Enemies

$14.99

Fight Club
Braveheart
Gladiator
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Heat
The Dark Knight