DISCussion: What’s New on DVD/Blu-ray (7.10.12)

The first two “Blade” movies are considered the cult of supehero movies. The Guillermo del Toro-directed sequel Blade II is now out on Blu-ray and makes for our Recommendation of the Week.

First Releases
- American Reunion (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Being Flynn (DVD and Blu-ray)
- The Flowers of War (DVD and Blu-ray)
- Margaret (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

Re-Releases
- Chariots of Fire (1981) (Blu-ray)
- Blade II (2002) (Blu-ray)
- Senna (2010) (Blu-ray)
- Frequency (2000) (Blu-ray)
- Spawn (1997) (Blu-ray)
- Outland (1981) (Blu-ray)
- Altered States (1980) (Blu-ray)
- Coma (1978) (Blu-ray)


Blade II (2002) (Blu-ray) *Recommendation of the Week*

Directed by Guillermo del Toro
Written by David S. Goyer (screenplay), Marv Wolfman, Gene Colan (comics)
Starring: Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Leonor Varela Ron Perlman, Norman Reedus, Luke Goss

What’s the Deal?
Back in 1998, a little action-horror movie based on a little-known Marvel comic earned a cult following and was seen by some as giving birth to the modern superhero genre. It also helped make David S. Goyer, future writer of The Dark Knight, into a credible screenwriter. It is debateable that the sequel Blade II is even better.

Guillermo del Toro took over the directing duties from Stephen Norrington, moving the action to Eastern Europe. A new threat has emerged to vampires known as Reapers, a near-invincible creature that feeds on the creatures of the night. A group of vampires known as the Bloodpack, led by Nyssa Damaskinos (Leonor Varela, Innocent Voices) recruit its mortal enemy, Blade (Wesley Snipes), to stop the Reapers and their leader (Luke Goss, Hellboy II: The Golden Army) before they turn on humans.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 59% (average)
Player Affinity Score: 7.3/10

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $13.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A



The biggest new release is American Reunion, the long-awaited fourth movie in the franchise. Also out is the Christian Bale movie The Flowers of War and indie flick Margaret. The major rerelease of the week is Chariots of Fire, the documentary Senna and the sci-fi movie Frequency.


American Reunion (DVD and Blu-ray)

Directed by Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg
Written by Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg (screenplay), Adam Herz (characters)
Starring: Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Chris Klein, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Tara Reid, Seann William Scott, Mena Suvari

What’s the Deal?
It has been nine years since the last proper "American Pie" movie (I ignore the straight-to-DVD crap) and there is one simple reason why the series is being given a cinematic revisiting: most of the actors careers have flat-lined. Only Seann William Scott and Alyson Hannigan have had success post-American Pie.

It has been 10 years since the gang has graduated from high school and they reunite in East Great Falls, Michigan, for their high school reunion for a weekend of partying and finding out what happened to them since graduating.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 43% (poor)
Player Affinity Score: 6.3/10 (read our review)

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $15.99 (DVD), $19.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): Content: 1 stars, Video 3 stars, Audio 4 stars, Extras 2.5 stars, Replay 0 stars (out of 5). Skip It.



Being Flynn (DVD and Blu-ray)

Directed by Paul Weitz
Written by Paul Weitz (screenplay), Nick Flynn (memoirs)
Starring: Robert De Niro, Paul Dano, Olivia Thirlby, Julianne Moore

What’s the Deal?
Based on Nick Flynn’s memoirs, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, Nick Flynn (Paul Dano, There Will Be Blood) is a writer who has not seen his con-artist father Jonathan (Robert De Niro) in 18 years. Nick starts to work in a homeless shelter in Boston when on day his father comes in seeking a bed for the night.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 55% (average)
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $16.99 (DVD), $19.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A



The Flowers of War (DVD and Blu-ray)

Directed by Zhang Yimou
Written by Liu Heng (screenplay), Geling Yan (novel)
Starring: Christian Bale, Ni Ni

What’s the Deal?
Based on Geling Yan’s novel 13 Flowers of Nanjing, The Flowers of War is easily seen as an attempt by Chinese filmmakers to make a movie with wide Western appeal, getting Christian Bale to star and having one of China’s biggest directors, Zhang Yimou (Hero, House of Flying Daggers) to helm the adaptation.

During the height of the Second Sino-Japanese war and the Rape of Nanjing, an American mortician, John Miller (Bale), arrives in the city to prepare the funeral for a priest when he ends up becoming the protector of a group of young girls and a woman from the Japanese army.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 41% (poor)
Player Affinity Score: 7.0/10

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $14.99 (DVD), $17.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A



Margaret (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

Written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan
Starring: Anna Paquin, Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, Kieran Culkin

What’s the Deal?
Margaret was finished in 2005, but it ended up sitting on the shelf for six years because problems with creating a final cut and lawsuits against the production. Even Martin Scorsese and his editing partner, Oscar-winner Thelma Schoonmake,r helped edit a 150-minute cut.

Lisa Cohen (Anna Paquin) is a 17-year-old high school student in New York City who witnesses a bus crash she accidentally might have caused that results in a woman's death. She ends up trying to make amends, but meets opposition on the way and questions whether it really was an accident.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 70% (good)
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $27.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A



Chariots of Fire (1981) (Blu-ray)

Directed by Hugh Hudson
Written by Colin Welland
Starring: Ben Cross, Ian Charleson

What’s the Deal?
The London Olympics are just around the corner and of the most famous British sports movies, Chariots of Fire is now coming onto Blu-ray in celebration. Chariots of Fire won four Oscars, including Best Picture, and has one of the most famous pieces of music for a movie.

Chariots of Fire tells the story of two long-distance runners looking to compete in the 1924 Olympics for Great Britain. One of them is Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross, Star Trek, 2009), a Jewish student at Cambridge who suffers from anti-Semitism and elitism. The other is Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson, Gandhi), a devout Scottish Protestant who runs to make him closer to God.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 85% (excellent)
Player Affinity Score: 7.0/10

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: 36 pages of behind-the-scenes photos, production art, history and more -2 all new documentaries: Paris, 1924: Birth of the Modern Games David Puttnam, A Cinematic Champion; New interview with director Hugh Hudson; Commentary by Hugh Hudson; Additional documentaries: Wings on their Heels: The Making of Chariots of Fire, Chariots of Fire: A Reunion; Deleted scenes; Screen tests; Soundtrack sampler; 4 songs from the Oscar-winning compilation

Amazon Price: $27.96 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): Content: 4 stars, Video 4 stars, Audio 3.5 stars, Extras 4 stars, Replay 4.5 stars (out of 5). Highly Recommended.



Senna (2010) (Blu-ray)

Directed by Asif Kapadia
Written by Manish Pandey
Starring: Ayton Senna

What’s the Deal?
The other British sport movie of the week is the Blu-ray rerelease of the Working Title Films documentary Senna about the Brazilian F1 driver Ayton Senna, focusing on his early career, his success in F1, his rivalry with Alain Prost, his personal life and religious beliefs and his untimely death in 1994. Despite the high praise Senna received, it did not earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 92% (excellent)
Player Affinity Score: 8.0/10

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $19.99 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A



Frequency (2000) (Blu-ray)

Directed by Gregory Hoblit
Written by Toby Emmerich
Starring: Dennis Quiad, James Caviezel

What’s the Deal?
In the sci-fi movie Frequency, a phenomenon allows a police officer, John Sullivan (Jim Caviezel) to communicate with his father (Dennis Quaid) 30 years in the past. John is able to warn his father about the warehouse fire that kills him, but of course changing the past will lead to massive consequences that the two must work together to fix.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 70% (good)
Player Affinity Score: 7.5/10

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $14.95 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A



Spawn (1997) (DVD and Blu-ray)

Directed by Mark A.Z. Dippé
Written by Alan B. McElroy (screenplay), Alan B. McElroy, Mark A.Z. Dippé (story), Todd McFarlane (comics)
Starring: Michael Jai White, John Leguizamo, Martin Sheen, Theresa Randle

What’s the Deal?
Todd McFarlane’s Spawn was easily considered Image Comics' best series in their early days. Michael Jai White (Black Dynamite) stars as Al Simmons, an American government assassin who dies during a mission when he is betrayed by his boss Jason Wynn (Martin Sheen). In Hell, he is offered the chance to see his wife (Theresa Randle, Bad Boys II) and have superpowers, if he leads an army to gates of Heaven. But as Spawn he has to make a choice between good and evil as he looks to get revenge on Wynn.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 20% (bad)
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $14.95 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A



Outland (1981) (Blu-ray)

Writed and directed by Peter Hyams
Starring: Sean Connery, Peter Boyle, Frances Sternhagen

What’s the Deal?
Outland is sci-fi thriller from Peter Hyams (2010: The Year We Make Contact, Timecop) and starring Sean Connery as Marshall William O’Niel, a police officer in the mining colony of Io. O’Niel investigates a series of violent deaths of miners where he discovers a drug smuggling operations and ends up marked for murder.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 59% (average)
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $13.96 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A


Altered States (1980) (Blu-ray)

Directed by Ken Russell
Written by Sidney Aaron
Starring: William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban

What’s the Deal?
Another sci-fi movie from the early '80s is Altered Skies, an adaptation of Paddy Chayefsky’s (Network) only novel. In fact, he hated the adaptation so much that he had his name removed from the credits and used a pseudonym instead.

Eddie Jessup (William Hurt) is a Harvard scientist who performs experiments on himself involving hallucinatory drugs and isolation, resulting in him regressing genetically.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 88% (excellent)
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $13.96 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A



Coma (1978) (Blu-ray)

Directed by Michael Crichton
Written by Michael Crichton (screenplay), Robin Cook (novel)
Starring: Geneviève Bujold, Michael Douglas, Elizabeth Ashley, Rip Torn, Richard Widmark

What’s the Deal?
Michael Crichton was a renowned novelist and an occasional director, most famous for making Westworld. Coma is a medical thriller in which Dr. Susan Wheeler (Geneviève Bujold), a surgery resident in Boston, notices a unusually high number of coma patients in her hospital, and it leads to her uncovering a huge conspiracy.

Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 76% (very good)
Player Affinity Score: N/A

DISC DETAILS

DVD Special Features: N/A

Amazon Price: $14.95 (Blu-ray)

Score (DVDTalk.com): N/A