DISCussion: New on DVD and Blu-ray (6.10.2014)

We have all seen James Bond and Jason Bourne, now Jack Ryan is back with his reboot Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. The Blu-ray version of this movie features a range of commentaries, behind-the-scenes featurettes and deleted and extended scenes. First Release - Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (DVD and Blu-ray) - Non-Stop (DVD and Blu-ray) - Devil's Knot (DVD and Blu-ray) - Alan Partridge (DVD and Blu-ray) - Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles (DVD and Blu-ray) - Omar (DVD and Blu-ray) Re-Release - All That Heaven Allows (1955) (Blu-ray) - L'eclisse (1962) (Blu-ray) Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (DVD and Blu-ray) *Recommendation of the Week* Directed by Kenneth Branagh Written by Adam Cozad, David Koepp (screenplay), Tom Clancy (character) Starring: Chris Pine, Kevin Costner, Kenneth Branagh, Keira Knightley After four movies Tom Clancy's popular Jack Ryan character returns in a reboot and origins story which updates the character. Chris Pine takes on the role of Jack Ryan, an economics student during 9/11 and joins the military because of the event. After getting injured in Afghanistan he gets recruited by CIA and meets his girlfriend, Dr. Cathy Muller (Keira Knightley). Ryan ends up becoming a field agent as he discovers a plot by a Russian Oligarch who plans to crash the American economy. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 56% (average) Metacritic Rating: 57/100 (average) Entertainment Fuse Score: 6.6/10 (read our review) DISC DETAILS DVD Special Features: N/A Additional Blu-ray Special Features: Commentary: Commentary by Kenneth Branagh and Lorenzo di Bonaventura; Featurette: Jack Ryan: The Smartest Guy in the Room; Featurette: Sir Kenneth Branagh: The Tsar of Shadow Recruit; Featurette: Jack Ryan: A Thinking Man of Action; Featurette: Old Enemies Return; Additional Scenes: Deleted & Extended Scenes (with optional commentary by Kenneth Branagh and Lorenzo di Bonaventura) Amazon Price: $12.99 (DVD), $12.99 (Blu-ray) Score (DVDTalk.com): Content 3 stars, Video 5 stars, Audio 5 stars, Extras 3 stars, Replay 2 stars (out of 5). Rent It. Movies from around the world, including Britain, Italy and Palestine are being released and Liam Neeson returns for his latest action-thriller. Non-Stop (DVD and Blu-ray) Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra Written by John W. Richardson, Chris Roach, Ryan Engle (screenplay), John W. Richardson, Chris Roach Starring: Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore Liam Neeson reunites with Unknown director Jaume Collet-Serra for the action-thriller Non-Stop. Neeson stars as Bill Marks, an alcoholic air marshal assigned on a flight from New York to London. But on his mission one of the passengers texts him, threatening to kill a passenger every 20 minutes if they are not paid $150 Million. But for Marks its turns out to be more than a hostage/blackmail operation. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 59% (average) Metacritic Rating: 56/100 (average) Entertainment Fuse Score: 6.0/10 DISC DETAILS DVD Special Features: Suspense at 40,000 Feet Additional Blu-ray Special Features: Digital Copy of Non-Stop (Subject to expiration. Go to NBCUCodes.com for details.); Includes UltraViolet (Subject to expiration. Go to NBCUCodes.com for details.); Non-Stop Action Amazon Price: $14.96 (DVD), $19.99 (Blu-ray) Score (DVDTalk.com): Content 3.5 stars, Video 4.5 stars, Audio 4.5 stars, Extras 1.5 stars, Replay 3 stars (out of 5). Recommended. Devil's Knot (DVD and Blu-ray) Directed by Atom Egoyan Written by Paul Harris Boardman, Scott Derrickson (screenplay), Mara Leveritt (book 'Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three') Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Mireille Enos, Colin Firth, Dane DeHaan, Bruce Greenwood, Stephen Moyer, Elias Koteas, Amy Ryan, Alessandro Nivola Devil's Knot is based on the murder case of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas and the police arresting three teenagers over the crime, believing they were committing a satanic act. As a mother of one of the boys, Pamela (Reese Witherspoon) is grieving and wanting justice, a private investigator, Ron Lax (Colin Firth) believes someone else was responsible for the crime. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 23% (poor) Metacritic Rating: 42/100 (poor) DISC DETAILS Amazon Price: $12.49 (DVD), $16.49 (Blu-ray) Alan Partridge (DVD and Blu-ray) Directed by Declan Lowney Written by Neil Gibbons, Rob Gibbons, Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci, Peter Baynham (screenplay), Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci, Patrick Marber, Peter Baynham (character) Starring: Steve Coogan, Colm Meaney Steve Coogan has played Alan Partridge for 22 years, appearing on television, radio and now the silver screen. Alan Partridge is a radio presenter for North Norfolk Digital Radio which had been a media conglomerate who plan to broadcast to a younger audience. Desperate to keep his job Partridge throws another veteran broadcaster, Pat Farrell (Colm Meaney, Layer Cake) under the bus. Pat gets revenge by holding the radio station hostage and Partridge is the only person he will talk to. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 87% (excellent) Metacritic Rating: 66/100 (good) Entertainment Fuse Score: 7.0/10 DISC DETAILS Amazon Price: $15.78 (DVD), $14.96 (Blu-ray) Score (DVDTalk.com): Content 3.5 stars, Video 4 stars, Audio 4.5 stars, Extras 2 stars, Replay 3 stars (out of 5). Recommended. Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles (DVD and Blu-ray) Written and directed by Takanori Tsujmoto Starring: Mitsuki Koga From Japan is the martial arts movie Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles about Toramaru (Mitsuki Koga), a man who goes on a pilgrimage across the country to fight the martial arts masters. DISC DETAILS DVD Special Features: The Making Of Bushido Man Amazon Price: $11.04 (DVD), $14.99 (Blu-ray) Score (DVDTalk.com): Content 3.5 stars, Video 2.5 stars, Audio 3.5 stars, Extras 1.5 stars, Replay 3 stars (out of 5). Recommended. Omar (DVD and Blu-ray) Written and directed by Hany Abu-Assad Starring: Adam Bakri Omar is a Palestinian drama that was nominated for the Un Certain Regard at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Omar (Adam Bakri) is a Palestinian freedom fighter who is tricked into confessing for the murder of an Israeli soldier and forced to become an informant for his enemy. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 91% (excellent) Metacritic Rating: 75/100 (very good) DISC DETAILS Amazon Price: $25.46 (DVD), $31.44 (Blu-ray) All That Heaven Allows (1955) (DVD and Blu-ray) Directed by Douglas Sirk Written by Peg Fenwick (screenplay), Edna Lee, Harry Lee (story) Starring: Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson From the Criterion Collection is the romance movie All That Heaven Allows about Cary Scott (Jane Wyman), a wealthy widower with grown up children who falls for her younger down-to-earth gardener Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson). The relationship is met with disapproval from her friends and family and she has to decide between her happiness and her status. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 92% (excellent) Entertainment Fuse Score: 6.0/10 DISC DETAILS DVD Special Features: New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray; Audio commentary featuring John Mercer, co-author of Melodrama: Genre, Style, Sensibility, and film scholar Tamar Jeffers-McDonald; Rock Hudson’s Home Movies (1992), a ground-breaking essay film about the actor by Mark Rappaport; French television interview with Sirk from 1982; Excerpts from Behind the Mirror: A Profile of Douglas Sirk, a 1979 BBC documentary featuring rare interview footage with the director; Contract Kid: William Reynolds on Douglas Sirk, a 2007 interview with the actor, who co-starred in three Sirk films, including All That Heaven Allows; Trailer; One Blu-ray and two DVDs, with all content available in both formats; PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Laura Mulvey and an excerpt from a 1971 essay by filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder on Sirk Amazon Price: $33.96 (Blu-ray) L'eclisse (1962) (DVD and Blu-ray) Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni Written by Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra, Elio Bartolini, Ottiero Ottoeri Starring: Alain Delon, Monica Vitti, Francisco Rabal, Louis Seigner The other re-release from the Criterion Collection is the Italian drama about the doom relationship between Vittoria (Monica Vitti) and Piero (Alain Delon) because of Vittoria's feeling for an old partner and Piero's materialistic natural. L'eclisse won the Special Jury Prize at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes: 88% (excellent) Entertainment Fuse Score: 7.0/10 DISC DETAILS DVD Special Features: New, restored high-definition digital film transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray; Audio commentary by film scholar Richard Peña, former program director of New York’s Film Society of Lincoln Center; Michelangelo Antonioni: The Eye That Changed Cinema (2001), a fifty-six-minute documentary exploring the director’s life and career; Elements of Landscape, a twenty-two-minute piece from 2005 about Antonioni and L’eclisse, featuring Italian film critic Adriano Aprà and longtime Antonioni friend Carlo di Carlo; New English subtitle translation; One Blu-ray and two DVDs, with all content available in both formats; PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by film critics Jonathan Rosenbaum and Gilberto Perez, as well as excerpts from Antonioni’s writing about his work Amazon Price: $33.96 (Blu-ray)