My love for Blu-ray threatens every bit of financial security I’ve managed to build up over the years. Amazon.com is my dealer, and I am its numero uno degenerate junkie. The challenge is that most of my embarrassingly large DVD collection actually looks perfectly fine in 1080p, thanks to the enhanced technology of my Blu-ray player. Not all of my DVDs do; for some reason, 20th Century-Fox films tend to look a little blurry. But even Warner Bros. titles purchased fifteen years ago in those hybrid cardboard/plastic cases, when DVD technology was just starting to take off, look great. Not Blu-ray great, but plenty sharp and perfectly acceptable — which leaves me with no real excuse to buy them again on Blu-ray.
Still, what’s a junkie to do when “The Matrix” (the freakin’ “Matrix!”) Blu-ray goes on sale for $5.99? No sales tax. No shipping fees. Just that warm, ticklish feeling in the tummy that comes with the sound the UPS truck pulling to a stop in front of the house.
For those of you who share this dreaded disease, here’s something of a buying guide on some recent Blu-ray releases. Some of these I’ve rented, some I’ve purchased, and some have been sent to me as screeners. The pile got a little overwhelming, so rather than knock them out one at a time, this felt like the most efficient way.
Title links will take to you directly to my dealer, Amazon.
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I Don’t Know How She Does It (2011)
Sarah Jessica Parker, Greg Kinnear, Kelsey Grammar, and Pierce Brosnan are all game, but the script, based on Allison Pearson’s best-seller is a complete letdown. Maybe in 1983, a film about a woman attempting to juggle a high-powered career as a wife and mother might have resonated, but these days that theme’s been completely played out. With its cutesy voice-over and trite romantic complications, what we really have here is a sitcom episode stretched out over 90 minutes. Most off-putting, though, is a hostile mean-streak directed at that legion of left-wing apostates known as stay-at-home moms.
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What a reminder of a simpler time when you didn’t have to worry about gross-out gags and non-stop raunch popping the cherry of your child’s innocence before their time. In 1986, Steve Martin and Chevy Chase were major box office stars, and director John Landis was just as hot. The trio could’ve made any film they chose, and how lucky we are that they chose this frequently hilarious (Look up here! Look up here!) fluff about three silent-era movie actors who inadvertently get caught up in a real-life “Magnificent Seven” situation.
Obviously this isn’t the kind of film that demands you purchase it again on Blu-ray, but my DVD copy was blurry and looked pretty awful in high-def. And the scenery really is gorgeous in Blu-ray.
By no means is this a classic, but the frequent laughs are earned honestly, the score is better than you remember, and the affection Landis has for the era and his characters really comes through. There’s a Bob Hope vibe throughout, and some of the individual scenes actually are classic.
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‘ Evil Dead 2’: 25th Anniversary Edition – (1987)
This is easily the best entry in this fabulous trilogy and one of the most satisfying (thrills, scares, laughs, gore, The Mighty Bruce Campbell) horror films to come out of the 1980s. It’s also a must-own on Blu-ray. I don’t have to sell you on the film itself. You’re either on board, or you’re not. But after 15 years of suffering through a DVD print that was never that great to begin with, to finally see this low-budget masterpiece in all of its high-def, low-budget glory was a revelation.
There’s also a ton of extras that ensures this is the last copy you’ll ever have to purchase (and lord knows, there’s been a flood of copies).
At ten bucks, this is one of the best Blu-ray deals ever.
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‘The Expendables’: Extended Director’s Cut – (2010)
Director’s cuts are not my cup of tea. It’s just a fact that the original cut of the film is usually the leanest and meanest, and with rare exceptions, a “director’s cut” is really just a cynical way to milk another purchase out of the fanboys. I’m not quite a fanboy, but I am a fan of director Sylvester Stallone’s successful return to the meterosexual-free action films that helped make the 1980s so glorious. Stallone’s cut of the film does no harm, but it really doesn’t add much. However…
Included in the extras is “Inferno: The Making of ‘The Expendables,'” a superb, feature-length documentary fans will love. If you haven’t already purchased “The Expendables” on Blu-ray but intend to, for the documentary alone I would recommend this. It’s practically a two-for-one deal.
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For good or bad, this is the Hong Kong classic that would go on to inspire the Martin Scorsese Best Picture-winner “The Departed.” The first time I saw the original was just last month on Blu-ray and I slid that disc into the player with great anticipation. Unfortunately, I found the overall story choppy, hard to follow and under-whelming. Understandably, this opinion leaves me in the minority, but those of you who are fans will love the high-def transfer. The cinematography is gorgeous and the on-location shooting only enhances the viewing experience.
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Huge disappointment. How do you blow the story of a little girl who grows into a gorgeous, ninja-like assassin seething with vengeance to kill the men who murdered her parents in front of her? But blow it director Oliver Megaton does. As does writer/producer Luc Besson, who brought us “Taken” and the under-appreciated “From Paris With Love.”
Avoid.
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I remained a Woody Allen fan straight through to the deplorable “Melinda and Melinda.” Then I came back for the near-brilliant “Match Point,” the fun and fluffy “Scoop,” and the legitimately suspenseful and well-crafted “Cassandra’s Dream.” But ever since then it’s been one completely unwatchable entry from Allen after another. “Midnight in Paris” isn’t that bad. The first half is downright charming, and Owen Wilson makes for a much better Woody stand-in than Scarlett Johansson, Will Ferrell, or Kenneth Branagh. But the second half is tedious and too-cute by half.
The studio did a great job over-hyping the film’s box office success, and naturally the sycophant entertainment media went along, but the critical accolades are the most confusing. Both the plot and the themes collapse into predictability and the laughs completely disappear thanks to jokes not worthy of a sitcom pilot.
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Another solid concept blown by poor execution. Bradley Cooper is passable as Eddie Morra, a marginal talent of a writer who can’t come to terms with the fact that he won’t write a best-seller and will now have to join the rest of us in the real world. A super drug that allows him to use 100 percent of his brain changes all of that, and for a while the story really takes off as we see full-potential Eddie in action. The contrived climax involving a violent drug dealer and Eddie’s “Charly“-like fall is a real letdown, though, and almost unforgivable.
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In 1965, three Mossad agents were charged with bringing a Nazi war criminal back alive to stand trial. Something went horribly wrong, and now it’s 1997 and these three national heroes are about to have their secret uncovered.
While there are some truly engrossing individual scenes, the overall plot just doesn’t work –the flashbacks, the melodrama. And the final scene is just stupid and overwrought. A real waste of two of our finest actors, Tom Wilkinson and Helen Mirren.