• Featurettes

• All Access
• News Ticker
• pocketBLU app
• D-Box Motion Code
• UltraViolet Digital Copy
• DVD Copy
• Alternate Ending
• Featurettes
• BD-Live Functionality
• My Scenes

If you are a Beach Boys fan, then you must own this on bluray.  50th Anniversary – 1st album of new material in 20 years That s Why God Made The Radio; to kickoff worldwide tour. Live Performances and never-before-seen footage from the 1966 ‘Good Vibrations’ recording sessions Behind-the-scenes footage from the 2012 recording sessions for the new Beach Boys release That s Why God Made The Radio The group s moving tributes to founding members Carl and Dennis Wilson Exclusive 2012 interviews The Beach Boys are America s most successful band. With 56 U.S. Top 100 hits, 36 Top Ten Hits and 4 Number One singles, their impression on American pop culture is rivaled only by the band that considered them to be their sole competition, The Beatles. To mark the group s 50th anniversary, Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks gathered in 2012 for an emotional reunion to record their first album of new material in 20 years, to kick off a worldwide tour and to reflect on their remarkable history. The Beach Boys: Doin It Again is what fans thought they’d never see: The Beach Boys, with warmth, perspective and humor, describe their past, their present and their future .

Atlantic City, 1921. In a city whose fortunes have soared in the wake of Prohibition, Nucky Thompson is paying a steep price for wielding ultimate power in “the world’s playground.” Though the 1920 election is over, Nucky finds himself the target of a federal investigation for vote tampering – and an insurrection by those he counted among his closest allies. Steve Buscemi stars in the hit drama series that charts the continued rise of organized crime at the dawn of the Prohibition.  The 2nd season is just as good as the first one.  HBO did an astounding job on this just like they did with the 1st season as well.  Highly recommend picking this up.  It looks amazing and there are tons of very cool extras.  I can’t wait for the 3rd season to start.

• 6 Audio Commentaries
• Set Design Featurette
• Season One Look Back
• New Characters

• Living 1921: Menu-based navigable content on America, circa 1921
• Storytellers featurettes containing interviews and behind-the-scenes material
• Character Dossier

A highly acclaimed French film from 1980, Death Watch was directed by the great French director Bertrand Tavernier (Coup De Torchon, Life And Nothing But, Capitaine Conan) and filmed on location in Glasgow, Scotland. The story is part human drama and part futuristic cautionary tale and focuses primarily on two people: terminally ill Katherine (Romy Schneider, What’s New Pussycat, Ludwig) and Roddy (Harvey Keitel, The Duellists, Bad Lieutenant, Reservoir Dogs), who, after having a camera implanted into his brain, is hired by the producer of the TV series Death Watch to film a documentary of Katherine without her knowledge. Both deeply moving and a fascinating look at society in decay, this is a must-see film, and one made even more poignant knowing that star Romy Schneider herself died tragically only two years later at the age of 44. Also starring Harry Dean Stanton (Repo Man, Paris, Texas), Max von Sydow (The Seventh Seal, The Exorcist) and Robbie Coltrane (Mona Lisa, Cracker).  Awesome stuff here.

I didn’t care too much for this movie.  It felt like five years watching it.  This proves that a great, great cast cannot make a film.  THe script was terrible and the movie didn’t proceed with any real feeling.  Such a failed attempt.  I wish it was better.  I’m sure some of you liked it, but I’m not recommending this one, although there are tons of cool extras on here. The director and writer/star of Forgetting Sarah Marshall reteam for the irreverent comedy The Five-Year Engagement. Beginning where most romantic comedies end, the new film from director Nicholas Stoller, producer Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) and Rodney Rothman (Get Him to the Greek) looks at what happens when an engaged couple, Jason Segel and Emily Blunt, keeps getting tripped up on the long walk down the aisle.

Holy fucking moses!!!  If you want to actually torture somebody till they die a horrible death, then show them this and make them watch every bit of it.  This should never bee seen, except if the good folks at Rifftrax provide comical commentary for it.  Just fucking awful.  With summer in full swing and a record-breaking Fourth of July crowd soaking up the boardwalk sun, Seaside Heights is the place to be in New Jersey! But when an illegal coastal drilling operation inadvertently unleashes a horde of man-eating albino bull sharks, the city is hurled into deadly chaos! Can a local Jersey crew band together to fend off the blood thirsty, ravenous sharks before the whole town is consumed?

• Audio Commentary
• On Set Featurette

‘L!fe Happens’ tries so hard to be a warm hearted movie that will make you laugh and feel for its characters all throughout the movie.  But due to its lack of likability of characters, and its really poor and laughable dialogue, ’L!fe Happens’ plays out more like a 3rd rate series on Lifetime more than the funny, heartwarming, and vulgar humor type of film it wants to be.  And it’s terribly sad, because the cast of this film is amazing.  I like the cast of actors in this movie, but they were given a terrible script and nothing was executed to make me laugh or feel anything for its characters or story.  Kat Coiro directed this film and wrote the film alongside Ritter.  This marks Kat’s first feature film she has directed and according to her IMDB page, she has a couple of other films coming up with spectacular casts.  But if this is what we can expect from her, then I feel very bad for everyone involved.  I hope she gets better, but ’L!fe Happens’ is a waste of time, resources, and effort.  The characters are not likable in the least bit, the dialogue is awkward and poorly written, and there is no satisfaction or redeeming quality about it.  If you want a funny film about unexpected pregnancy, re-watch ‘Knocked Up’.

 

EXTRAS

– Theatrical Trailers

 

 

THE LIVING DEAD GIRL (BLURAY)

 

Hell yes!  80’s zombie chick horror.  When both an earthquake and a toxic waste spill disturb her grave, a deceased girl comes alive to walk the earth again in French filmmaker Jean Rollin’s macabre tale of zombie carnage. After rising from her tomb, Catherine (Francoise Blanchard) hungers for flesh and blood and sets out to find childhood friend and blood sister Helene (Marina Pierro). Helene decides to help satisfy Catherine’s bloodlust by luring people into their lair.  Definitely yes to this.

 

EXTRAS

 

• Introduction by Jean Rollin
• Original trailers of nine other Rollin films
• Jean-Pierre Bouyxou on La Morte Vivante
• The Living Dead Girl: The American Version
• Music by Philippe D’Aram
• When I Was Seventeen: An Homage to Benoit Lestang
• Jean Rollin at Fantasia
• Excerpt of an interview with Jean Rollin by Joshua T. Gravel
• Twelve-page booklet with an essay by Tim Lucas, editor of Video Watchdog
• Original theatrical trailer

 

Criterion rolls out the red carpet yet again, this time for the 1928 film, ‘Lonesome’.  The early Hollywood gem Lonesome is the creation of a little-known but audacious and one-of-a-kind auteur, Paul Fejos (a filmmaker/explorer/anthropologist/doctor!), who bridged the gap between the silent and sound eras. Fejos pulled out all the stops for this lovely New York City symphony set in antic Coney Island during the Fourth of July weekend—employing color tinting, superimposition effects, experimental editing, and a roving camera (plus three dialogue scenes, added because of the craze for talkies). For years, Lonesome has been a rare treat for festival and cinematheque audiences; it’s only now coming to home video. Rarer still are the two other Fejos films included in this release: The Last Performance (featuring a new score by Donald Sosin) and a reconstruction of the previously incomplete sound version of Broadway, in its time the most expensive film ever produced at Universal.

• Audio commentary featuring film historian Richard Koszarski
• The Last Performance, director Paul Fejos’s 1929 silent starring Conrad Veidt, with a new score by Donald Sosin
• Reconstructed sound version of Broadway, Fejos’s 1929 musical
• Fejos Memorial, a 1963 visual essay produced by Paul Falkenberg in collaboration with Fejos’s wife, Lita Binns Fejos, featuring Paul Fejos narrating the story of his life and career
• Audio excerpts about Broadway from an interview with cinematographer Hal Mohr
• A booklet featuring essays by critic Phillip Lopate and film historian Graham Petrie and an excerpt about Lonesome from Fejos’s autobiography

If you were waiting for the extended versions to be released individually, then here are the three films.  Based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterpiece, The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring is an epic adventure of good against evil, the power of friendship and individual courage. The saga centers around an unassuming Hobbit named Frodo Baggins who inherits a Ring that would give a dark and powerful lord the power to enslave the world. With a loyal fellowship of elves, dwarves, men and a wizard, Frodo embarks on a heroic quest to destroy The One Ring and pave the way for the emergence of mankind.

If you were waiting for the extended versions to be released individually, then here are the three films.   Extended Version Of The Film With 50 Minutes of New and Extended Scenes Added by Director Peter Jackson, with New Score by Howard Shore and Hundreds of New Digital Effects.

If you were wondering what the director of ‘The Blair Witch Project’ has been up to, then look no further.   A mysterious evil is waiting for Molly (Gretchen Lodge), who moves with her new husband into her late father’s empty country house. Haunted by dark demons, she is soon left alone to confront a lurking presence inside the house – one that could drive her beyond the edge of pure fear. Hailed as “guaranteed to haunt you” (Dread Central), Lovely Molly breaks new ground in raw, cutting-edge horror, delivering scares that slice to your very soul. You will never want to turn off the lights again!  I’d skip this.

• Path To Madness
• Haunted Past
• Demonic Forces
• Is It Real
• Theatrical Trailer

Aardman Studios proves once again that it can turn out a very charming and hilariously funny film that is fun for all ages.  The claymation is top-notch and mixed with that famous dry humor we have come to love from Peter Lord and his creations.  In the likes of Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run, Peter Lord’s The Pirates! Band of Misfits is a great and pleasurable adventure.  The Pirates! Band of Misfits is a movie you can easily love.  The characters are fun, the animation is that classic Aardman studios animation, and there is a treasure trove of laughs.  If you want to see something lighthearted and easy going this weekend, then you should definitely see The Pirates! Band of Misfits. It is a fun time for the whole family.  Highly recommended.

 

EXTRAS

 

• Audio Commentary
• Animated Short Film
• Interactive Game
• DVD-ROM Features
• Trailers

• Featurettes
• Animated Short Films
• Interactive Game
• DVD Copy
• UltraViolet Digital Copy

 

 

QUADROPHENIA (CRITERION COLLECTION BLURAY)

 

Criterion knocks it out of the park with their release of ‘Quadrophenia’.  The Who’s classic rock opera Quadrophenia was the basis for this invigorating coming-of-age movie and depiction of the defiant, drug-fueled London of the early 1960s. Our antihero, Jimmy (Phil Daniels), is a teenager dissatisfied with family, work, and love, who identifies with the fashionable, pill-popping, scooter-driving mods, a group whose opposition to the motorcycle-riding rockers leads to a climactic riot in Brighton. Director Franc Roddam’s rough-edged film is a quintessential chronicle of youthful rebellion and turmoil, with Pete Townshend’s brilliant songs (including “I’ve Had Enough,” “5:15,” and “Love, Reign O’er Me”) providing emotional support, and featuring Sting and Ray Winstone in early roles.  Simply phenomenal.

 

EXTRAS

 

• New audio commentary featuring director Franc Roddam and director of photography Brian Tufano
• New interview with Bill Curbishley, the film’s co-producer and the Who’s co-manager
• New interview with the Who’s sound engineer, Bob Pridden, discussing the new mix, featuring a restoration demonstration
• On-set and archival footage
• Behind-the-scenes photographs
• A booklet featuring an essay by critic Nick James, a reprinted personal history by original mod Irish Jack, and Pete Townshend’s liner notes from the album

Four interconnected and diverse friends from a pick-up basketball league have their love lives shaken-up after the women they are pursuing buy Steve Harvey’s book and start taking his advice to heart. For years women have been asking other women for advice when no one but another man can tell them how to find and keep a man. When the band of brothers find out that they have been betrayed by one of their own, they conspire to use the book’s teachings to turn the tables. It’s only when the truth is told by all parties that the couples finally get together for true love.   Tim Story’s ‘Think Like A Man’ is comedy gold.  I completely underestimated this film, expecting stupid sex jokes, flat character development, and ridiculous male posturing. But by the end of the film, my cheeks were sore from laughing, and I discovered that romantic ensemble comedies are still in business. ‘Think Like A Man’ is a hilarious film that will keep you smiling for days to come.  I really liked this.

• 5 Behind-the-scenes featurettes
• A gag reel

One of the best stories ever told. AMC’s The Walking Dead is “breathtaking in its small moments” (Wall Street Journal) and “creepy from the first frame” (Variety). The end of civilization was just the beginning for Rick Grimes and the other survivors. As the fight to stay alive intensifies and personal rivalries continue to fuel, the group struggles to hold on to their humanity in a time where slim chances are all that is left.   You know you are getting this, just which version?  The standard or the cool limited edition?

• Exclusive behind-the-scenes footage
• Featurettes
• Audio commentaries

That’s it for this week.  Stay tuned for next week.