DVDizzy.com: JULY 1-15, 2010 NEWS ARCHIVES
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July 15, 2010 - Tom Selleck returns to his new signature role in Jesse Stone: No Remorse, the sixth in the CBS movie series adapted from Robert B. Parker's mystery novels. In this one, a suspended Stone consults on a string of Boston parking ramp murders and indirectly helps Paradise's police department investigate violent convenience store robberies. This whodunit comes to DVD on July 27th and we promise you'll have absolutely no remorse after reading our review.
July 14, 2010 - Paramount has announced that Iron Man 2 will be released on September 28th in a single-disc DVD, a 2-Disc Special Edition DVD, and a 3-Disc Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy combo. For full details, consult our schedule entry.
We've got something different for you today: Lost Reviews. We're not talking about the popular ABC drama, but other movies and TV shows whose DVDs we began writing about only to not get for reasons that still puzzle us. This article serves to both give life to these previously unpublished article openings and to provide you with a peek behind the scenes of this website. Discussed here are "Mad About You", Kid 'n Play's Class Act, and Pirate Radio. We hope you find something both valuable and frustrating in these lost reviews.
July 13, 2010 - Few people have seen Operation: Endgame, our newest review subject, which premieres on DVD and Blu-ray two weeks from today. Joe Anderson, Rob Corddry, Odette Yustman, Ellen Barkin, Maggie Q, Zach Galifianakis, Ving Rhames, and Jeffrey Tambor star in this comedic action thriller about locked-down, unarmed top-secret government assassins pitted against one another to solve a murder mystery and prevent an explosion. Full review.
Tuesday is here and, as always, it brings new DVD and Blu-ray releases. Don't miss our reviews of this week's offerings: Greenberg, The Bounty Hunter, Chloe, and Middle of Nowhere. Look for our reviews of Sesame Street: 20 Years...and Still Counting! and Our Family Wedding in the coming days. And check the schedule
July 10, 2010 - The independent dramedy Middle of Nowhere stars Eva Amurri (Saved) as Grace, a high school graduate trying to earn the thousands of dollars she needs to attend college. Grace finds a way to supplement her summer job lifeguarding at the water park when she partners with rebellious young schemer Dorian (Anton Yelchin, Star Trek). Directed by Into the Blue's John Stockwell and co-starring Amurri's real-life mother Susan Sarandon, Middle comes to DVD and Blu-ray next Tuesday from Image Entertainment. We take a look at the former, which offers a making-of documentary, deleted scenes, cast & crew interviews, and a trailer. Read the review.
July 8, 2010 - Our newest review looks at Chloe, an independent erotic thriller from Academy Award-nominated director Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter). Amanda Seyfried stars in the title role as a high-class prostitute who comes between a long-married Toronto couple played by Julianne Moore and Liam Neeson. Available next Tuesday, Sony's DVD includes an audio commentary by Egoyan, Seyfried, and screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson (who adapted this from a French film), a thorough making-of documentary, deleted scenes, and the trailer. Read on...
July 7, 2010 - Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler team up in The Bounty Hunter, a profitable entry to the action-comedy-romance subgenre that has thrived this year. As the title character, Butler looks to bring his ex-wife Aniston to the police to collect his $5,000 reward. As if the divorced shenanigans weren't enough, bookies and gangsters are also on their trail. In stores next Tuesday, Sony's DVD includes two making-of featurettes and eight rules for outwitting a bounty hunter. Full review.
July 6, 2010 - Ben Stiller goes arthouse in Greenberg, a new comedy from The Squid and the Whale's writer/director Noah Baumbach. In the titular role, Stiller plays a abrasive man returning from New York to Hollywood to housesit for his brother. Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans, and Jennifer Jason Leigh (who co-wrote the story with husband Baumbach) co-star in this acclaimed indie film, available next week from Universal's Focus Features. The DVD includes three featurettes. Read our review.
We've just posted our review of the Blu-ray + DVD Combo of Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Now available, Fox's 3-disc set adds extra deleted scenes and other bonus features to the DVD's bonus features. Read the full review.
July 4, 2010 - A new month is upon us and you know what that means: Updated Schedules. Take a look at what's coming to DVD and/or Blu-ray over each of the next thirteen weeks and on through the end of 2010: July, August, September & Beyond.
Colin Firth received his first Academy Award nomination for his performance in A Single Man. Set in 1962 Los Angeles, Firth plays an English teacher quietly grieving the death of his lover. Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode, and Nicholas Hoult co-star in this Weinstein Company drama, directed and adapted from Christopher Isherwood's semi-autobiographical novel by fashion designer Tom Ford. In stores Tuesday, Sony's DVD includes an audio commentary from Ford and an black & white interview-based making-of featurette. Read the full review.
July 3, 2010 - Training Day director Antoine Fuqua returns to gritty cop drama in Brooklyn's Finest, our latest review subject. Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke, and Don Cheadle star as a retirement-bound veteran, a cash-strapped family man, and an undercover narcotics agent, respectively. Each officer re-evaluates his tactics in the face of dangerous complications. In stores Tuesday, Anchor Bay's DVD includes an audio commentary by Fuqua, a half-hour of deleted and extended scenes, four making-of featurettes, and the trailer. Read on...
July 1, 2010 - Our newest review looks at Warner's recent 2-Disc Deluxe Edition DVD of 1954's A Star is Born. Intended as Judy Garland's comeback film, this Technicolor CinemaScope musical depicts both the rise of a vaudeville entertainer and the fall of her alcoholic husband (James Mason). The new DVD preserves the film's nearly 3-hour cut restored in the 1980s and contains alternate takes, song recording sessions, the telecast of the star-studded Hollywood premiere, Lux Radio Theater's 1942 adaptation of the original film, a Looney Tunes cartoon short, trailers, and more. Our review includes a comparison to the movie's original 2000 DVD. Full review.
Cover art has been posted for the three sparsely-seen Disney documentaries scheduled to make their DVD debuts on November 30:
June 30, 2010 - Aaron Wallace looks at the even more inclusive option among Questar's recent theme park offerings with a review of the DVD Six-Pack of Disney Parks: The Secrets, Stories, and Magic Behind the Scenes. This 6-disc set adds hour-long programs on Disney's Animal Kingdom, the Disney Cruise Line, and the behind-the-scenes of Walt Disney World to the specials on Disneyland, WDW and beyond offered on the Blu-ray. There's also one exclusive extra. Remain seated please (permanecer sentados por favor) for this review.
June 29, 2010 - Our Caddyshack: 30th Anniversary DVD review has been updated with a feature presentation and extras comparison between this recent edition and the movie's previous milestone rerelease. More...
Check out our reviews of today's new releases: The Crazies, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo: The Complete Series, Night Train to Munich: The Criterion Collection. As always, check the schedule for more information on the other new releases we won't be reviewing.
June 28, 2010 - Our newest review covers this week's Criterion Collection release of Night Train to Munich. This 1940 British thriller reunites much of the creative team behind Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, including leading lady Margaret Lockwood, screenwriters Sidney Gilliat & Frank Launder, and two popular comic relief characters. Rex Harrison and Paul Henreid also star in this twisty early WWII tale of Nazi double agents. The DVD includes a new half-hour video discussion of the film. Read the full review.
June 27, 2010 - Kelvin Cedeno reviews "Family Guy": Volume Eight, the latest DVD release of Fox's irreverent animated sitcom. This 3-disc set holds 15 episodes aired in 2009. Included in the lunacy are Stephen King retellings, a trip to a Disneyfied universe, and guest appearances by Lauren Conrad, the cast of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", late night talk show hosts, and cast members from Jaws, 1970s "SNL", and "How I Met Your Mother." Topical targets include religion, illegal drugs, and Hannah Montana. Bonus features include eleven audio commentaries, a making-of and mini script for the ambitious "Road to the Multiverse", 28 sing-along songs from over the years, and 47 deleted scenes. Read on...
June 26, 2010 - Aaron Wallace brings us a review of Disney Parks: The Secrets, Stories, and Magic Behind the Scenes. Not to be confused with the similarly-titled 2007 Walt Disney Treasures, this set compiles hour-long television specials occasionally aired on cable's Travel Channel. Though Questar Entertainment called three concurrent releases the same thing, this review differentiates them while paying most attention to the 2-Disc Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy combo, which holds three programs and nine BD-exclusive extras. No Fastpass needed and no wait to read this review.
Though a release date has yet to be announced, DreamWorks has made its animated hit How to Train Your Dragon available for preorder as a single-disc DVD, a 2-Disc DVD, and the studio's first Blu-ray + DVD combo, none of which will present the film in 3D.
Disney's most devoted fans know that three feature-length documentaries on the studio's legacies have been given extremely limited theatrical release over the past 13 months. Word had been that they'd come to home video late summer or early fall in a collection. | Now, it looks like each will be coming to DVD on its own on November 30th. Amazon.com has new preorder listings for the three PG-rated films, each assigned a $29.99 list price and a number of extras.
Walt & El Grupo (106 mins.) chronicles the ten-week goodwill trip that Walt Disney and his animators took to South America in 1941, an excursion that gave us the films Saludos Amigos & The Three Caballeros. Amazon says we'll get trailers for both of those films (which were absent from their 2008 Classic Caballeros Collection), Saludos Amigos in its (uncensored?) 42-minute entirety, an audio commentary, three cut sequences, and the featurette "Photos in Motion."
The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story (101 mins.) deals, of course, with the famous songwriting siblings. While collaborating on the beloved music of films like Mary Poppins and The Jungle Book, Richard and Robert Sherman didn't always get along, as this film directed by their long-estranged respective sons shows. It includes interviews with the likes of Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, and Ben Stiller (who produced the doc). Among the extras listed: a Sherman Brothers jukebox, looks at the artwork of Robert Sherman and Mouseketeer Roy Williams, Hollywood testimonials, and featurettes on 1960s Disney, casting Mary Poppins, and the Shermans' theme park songs.
Finally, the 86-minute Waking Sleeping Beauty, produced by Don Hahn and former executive Peter Schneider, reflects on the exciting times that marked Walt Disney Feature Animation in the 1980s and 1990s, culminating with the "Renaissance" fan favorites. Bonuses will include deleted scenes, four studio tours, 3 webisodes, a gallery, a reunion of directors Rob Minkoff and Kirk Wise, a tribute to Roy E. Disney and other deceased key players from the documented time, and a featurette comparing the Disney of the '80s and '90s to Walt's Disney.
No Blu-ray releases are planned for these films anytime soon. For more on the films, check out our Upcoming Disney Movies page.
Winners have been announced in our Summer Sandler Giveaway.
Lionsgate is finally getting around to releasing "Boy Meets World", one of the most highly-demanded ABC shows they acquired distribution rights from Disney two years ago. Straightforward repackagings of Buena Vista's Seasons 1, 2, and 3 are due on September 7th and can be pre-ordered at the ridiculously low price of $13.99 each. No word yet on when the studio will start releasing the additional seasons that Disney opted not to release.
June 25, 2010 - Our newest review looks at The Crazies, the 2010 remake of George A. Romero's 1973 horror film. Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell star as the sheriff and doctor of a small Iowa town whose residents strangely begin to exhibit insane behavior. Joe Anderson and Danielle Panabaker co-star in this acclaimed thriller directed by Breck Eisner (Sahara). It comes to DVD on Tuesday from Anchor Bay loaded with bonus features, including audio commentary, several making-of featurettes, an Easter egg, and the screenplay and storyboards on DVD-ROM. Read the full review.
Disney has announced another new DVD release of their top cable draw. "Hannah Montana" Forever: Who is Hannah Montana? ($19.99 SRP) will arrive on November 2nd with a record 8 recent episodes. Cover art posted here.
June 23, 2010 - Our newest review looks at "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo": The Complete Series. Running for just 13 episodes on ABC in 1985-86, this seventh incarnation of the Hanna-Barbera franchise follows Scooby, Shaggy, Scrappy, Daphne, and Flim Flam as they try to send the frightening spirits they accidentally freed back into the Chest of Demons. Advising the gang is Vincent VanGhoul, who looks and sounds just like a 70-year-old Vincent Price. Working with the ghosts are the hapless Bogel and Weerd. Available next Tuesday, Warner's 2-disc set includes a bonus episode from the recent series "Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!" and a preview of Scooby's next Cartoon Network show. Our review includes over 20 screencaps and an episode clip from the DVD.
June 22, 2010 - Our August & Beyond Schedule has been updated with dates and details for the now customary TV-on-DVD blitz slated for August and September.
Released and reviewed today is The Last Station, Sony Pictures Classics' drama about the final year in the life of Leo Tolstoy. Christopher Plummer plays the iconic Russian author, Helen Mirren is his long-suffering wife, and each of the two actors earned Academy Award nominations. James McAvoy, Paul Giamatti, and Kerry Condon co-star in this film directed and adapted by Michael Hoffman (A Midsummer Night's Dream). The DVD includes star and director's audio commentaries, an unexpected blooper reel, deleted scenes, and AFI's 20-minute interview with Plummer. Our review supplies three clips from the film.
Here is an 8-minute clip from the upcoming Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue, whose creators Kelvin Cedeno recently interviewed:
Recent DVD and Blu-ray Reviews:
• She's Out of My League - Judd Apatow regular Jay Baruchel ("Undeclared", Knocked Up) gets a crack at leading man in this raunchy yet sweet male-friendly romantic comedy aspiring to Apatow's stylings. Baruchel plays a nerdy airport security worker who finds himself in a relationship with a wealthy, beautiful event planner (Alice Eve). Could it ever work out? Paramount's DVD of this DreamWorks film includes deleted scenes, a reel of bloopers & alternate takes, an audio commentary, an Easter egg, and "Devon's Dating Show!"
• Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief - In Fox's feature filming of the first book in the popular fantasy series, the titular modern teen (Logan Lerman) learns his father is a Greek god and that other potent figures of myth are real and suspecting Percy of having taken Zeus' bolt. Among those personifying gods are Sean Bean, Pierce Brosnan, Rosario Dawson, Steve Coogan, Kevin McKidd, and Uma Thurman. Among the DVD and Blu-ray bonus features are a handful of deleted scenes, a powers quiz, and an interview with author Rick Riordan.
• Stagecoach: The Criterion Collection - This 1939 western made John Wayne a major star and began his legendary collaboration with director John Ford. Wayne plays outlaw Ringo Kid, one of nine strangers gathered together on a westward ride threatened by Apache Indians. Criterion's two-disc DVD includes a historian's audio commentary, Ford's 1917 silent film Bucking Broadway, an over one-hour 1968 interview with the director, a half-hour radio broadcast, and new video features interviewing the likes of Peter Bogdanovich, Buzz Bissinger, and Ford's grandson. You even get the Ernest Haycox short story Stagecoach is based on.
• Lewis Black: Stark Raving Black - Filmed at the Fillmore Detroit, this 80-minute movie finds the "Daily Show" commentator riled up about aging, alternative energy, and having to follow Vince Gill and Amy Grant. The stand-up film is joined by 70-minute documentary "Basic Black."
• Air Bud: World Pup: Special Edition - Third in Disney's athletic dog series, this direct-to-video 2000 movie lets Buddy play soccer, as he joins owner Josh (Kevin Zegers) on the high school's newly-formed team. The new DVD offers a widescreen feature presentation (for better or worse), a new Buddies Sports Channel report from the next generation's talking puppies, a making-of featurette, and the sports cinch bag you've been needing.
• Youth in Revolt - Based on C.D. Payne's cult novel, this offbeat comedy stars Michael Cera as a cultured virgin who creates a bad boy alter ego to reunite with the girl (Portia Doubleday) he loves. The distinguished supporting cast includes Jean Smart, Steve Buscemi, Mary Kay Place, M. Emmet Walsh, Ray Liotta, Zach Galifianakis, and Justin Long. Sony's DVD of this Dimension film includes an audio commentary by Cera and director Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl), nine deleted scenes, five extended versions of the film's animation sequences, and audition footage.
• "HawthoRNe": The Complete First Season - This TNT medical drama stars Jada Pinkett Smith as the heroic head nurse of Virginia's Richmond Trinity Hospital. Arriving in time for Season 2's premiere, Sony's three-disc set holds the first ten episodes and 7 behind-the-scenes featurettes. Co-starring Michael Vartan ("Alias") and Vanessa Lengies, the series welcomes Season 1 guest appearances by Cloris Leachman, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Judy Reyes, and Joanna Cassidy.
• When in Rome - This romantic comedy stars Kristen Bell as a New York City curator who finds herself persistently pursued by five men whose coins she removed from Italy's Fountain of Love. Josh Duhamel, Will Arnett, Jon Heder, Dax Shepard, Danny DeVito, and Anjelica Huston co-star. Disney's DVD includes bloopers, deleted scenes, and music videos by Friday Night Boys and 3OH!3 with Katy Perry.
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