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DVD/Blu-ray Christmas Gift Ideas ![]() Here's a list of some great DVD and Blu-ray gift ideas for films and tv series released in 2009.
![]() This post was cross-posted from our sister site, ShoppingBlog.com) Posted on December 19, 2009 Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View) | Studios are pushing to delay the release of Redbox, a service that rents DVDs through vending machines, according to Variety. Warner Home Video, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment all joined together to get a delay in the release date for the Redbox DVDs. Warner wants to make the DVDs available to Redbox 28 days after their release date. But Redbox wants to make the DVDs available for rental on the day they are released, with no delay windows. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Lionsgate, on the other hand, recently signed direct distribution agreements with Redbox and are not asking for delays in releasing titles. Studios hope that consumers who want brand-new releases will buy them for $15-$20 instead of turning to low-cost rentals.The Redbox kiosks rent the DVDs for only $1 a night and some of the studios are worried that will hurt full price sales of the DVDs. Redbox is not happy and is suing Fox and Universal, alleging antitrust violations. The whole mess is just another symptom of the technology convergance that is colliding with the studios' business models. People want to rent or buy DVDs on the same day they come out: consumers hate delay windows. Posted on August 13, 2009 Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View) | DVD Review: Quantum of Solace
The James Bond franchise is in good hands. In the second film with Daniel Craig in the lead role, Quantum of Solace picks up right after the events in Casino Royale. Bond is devastated after being betrayed by Vesper Lynd and is hellbent on revenge. The worldwide conspiracy called QUANTUM has infiltrated the Bond's organization, putting his boss M in great danger. Bond sets off to find QUANTUM and stop their next project, expressly against M's orders.
His investigation leads him to Bolivia where he rescues Camile (Olga Kurylenko) from environmental entrepreneur Mathieu Amalric. Camile has her own motives for going after the man who will become the dictator of Bolivia in exchange for ownership of a vast desert that appears to be full of oil (of course, there is more going on here than meets the eye). This Bond film really works best for viewers who have seen Casino Royale and understand why Bond is in such a terrible mood for the entire film. The action scenes are fantastic, especially the opening car chase in Italy. The cinematography is gorgeous and Daniel Craig is always worth watching. After the Italian chase scene, our favorite scene was the one set at the opera house. Any lover of espionage will appreciate the tightly choreographed cat and mouse game Bond plays with QUANTUM's agents. The extras on the DVD are a bit of a let down, unfortunately. Most of the extras were available before the film aired. But there is an interesting featurette called "Bond on Location" that shows how the filmmakers used Panama to look like Haiti and Bolivia and how in the world they filmed those amazing chase scenes in a tiny hilltown in Italy. There are also some very short interviews with the director and the crew, and a music video featuring Alicia Keys. This DVD is worth buying for the film alone. The special two-disc edition is available at Amazon.com at a nice discount. Posted on April 10, 2009 Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View) |
We recently watched the DVD of Eagle Eye starring Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monoghan. The film did very well at the box office, making $101,440,743 domestically, with $76,420,593 in foreign sales. Eagle Eye is an sf thriller that focuses on the erosion of privacy in our everyday lives.
Shia LaBeouf is Jerry Shaw, a seeming loser who can't pay his rent. When his normally skimpy bank account suddenly has $750,000 in it, he can't believe his good fortune. When he heads home, he finds his apartment stuffed with weapons, cash, passports and just about everything you'd need to be a terrorist. A phone call tells him to leave before he's arrested, but he ignores the advice -- and the cops show up. The mysterious female voice on the phone then helps him escape from FBI custody. He then meets a young mother named Rachel (Michelle Monoghan) who has been told her son will be killed if she doesn't do as the voice tells her to. Soon Jerry and Rachel are on cross-country mission, all the while being chased by the FBI. The pair is being ruthlessly manipulated, but it's unclear whether their mission is for evil or for good. When the identity of the voice is revealed in a major plot twist, the film takes a different turn as the players race towards a final, deadly confrontation. Shia LaBeouf does a good job at making Jerry likable, and Michelle Monoghan is serviceable as the frightened young mother. Billy Bob Thornton steals every scene he is in as the FBI agent who is on Jerry's trail. Rosario Dawson is underused as an Air Force investigator, but she makes use of the little screen time she has. Eagle Eye is an entertaining thriller with lots of action that would make a fun choice for movie night. Eagle Eye is available at Amazon.com and everywhere DVDs are sold. Posted on February 12, 2009 Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View) | Jumper Lands on DVD Based on the bestselling novel by Stephen Gould, Jumper stars The film stars Hayden Christensen and Rachel Bilson. Christensen plays David Rice, a young man who discovers he has the power to teleport anywhere in the world just by thinking about it. At first his new power seems incredible -- he uses it to rob banks and vacation in exotic places -- but he eventually learns there is a price for his power.
David runs afoul of the Paladins, an ancient group that hunts Jumpers who they believe to be unnatural and an abomination. Now David has Roland Cox (Samuel L. Jackson), a senior Paladin, on his trail. As David races to find out more about his abilities and to evade Cox, he realizes that he will never live a normal life. His girlfriend, played by Rachel Bilson, is along for the ride. Diane Lane as Jack's mom is really underused -- we would have loved to have seen more of her backstory. Jumper underperformed at the box office, but it's a perfect SF action film for summer. It's great fun and the action never stops. Yes, it's a bit disjointed, but the scenery is terrific -- and so is the CGI. The two disc special edition has all kinds of cool features, including deleted scenes, behind the scenes commentary and a digital version of the film. It's available everywhere DVDs are sold, and online at a nice discount from Amazon.com. Posted on June 26, 2008 Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View) |
Win a Set of Three Hot New DVDs from our sister site, ShoppingBlog.com: Dan in Real Life, Enchanted and No Country for Old Men.
Dan in Real Life is a funny and heartwarming story which stars Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche. Enchanted is one of our new favorite movies: Amy Adams is hilarious as an animated Disney princess who lands in the real world and must convince stick in the mud lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) that true love really will conquer all. The music is fabulous and the dialogue is a scream. No Country for Old Men won the Oscar for Best Picture: it's a compelling, gritty and violent post-modern Western that's a must-see for Javier Bardem's Oscar-winning performance as a sociopathic serial killer. To enter, please fill out the online form here. There is no entry fee or purchase obligation of any kind to enter. You must be a U.S. resident and be eighteen or over in order to enter. Winners will be selected in a random drawing, which will be announced on ShoppingBlog.com and in the Writers Write Update email newsletter. There's also an optional comment form where you can give your opinion about topics in the news. The comment section is optional, but we'd love to hear your opinion! As with all Writers Write, Inc. giveaways, email addresses and mailing addresses will remain strictly confidential and will not be revealed to any third parties. You must enter before 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/12:00 p.m. Central Time, Friday, April 11, 2008. Good luck! Posted on April 2, 2008 Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View) | DVD Pick: No Country For Old Men The Coen Brothers swept the Oscars, winning Best Picture and Best Director for their post-modern noir Western, No Country for Old Men. The Coens also won Best Adapted Screenplay. The Best Supporting Actor trophy for Javier Bardem for his chilling turn as as the sociopathic serial killer Anton Chigurh.
Based on the bestselling novel by Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men shares the nihilistic worldview of many of McCarthy's books. McCarthy's is a bleak landscape, in which subtle truths and shards of hope can sometimes be found. When Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) finds a suitcase containing $2 million dollars at the scene of a failed drug deal that ended in a bloodbath he should have walked away. He doesn't, of course: he takes the money. On his trail is the utterly ruthless and evil killer Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), who has been hired to get the money back. Chigurh dispatches anyone who gets in his way, leaving a trail of bodies behind him. Small-town sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is determined to stop Chigurh's reign of terror and sets off in pursuit. It is a violent and yet somehow thoughtful film, which is essentially a character study of the three men. Tommy Lee Jones is brilliant as Sheriff Bell who, although he has seen it all in his career, cannot quite fathom the pure evil that is Chigurh. Javier Bardem is effectively terrifying as the psychopathic Chigurh, and Josh Brolin turns in a surprisingly shaded performance as Moss. The cinematography is stunning, providing the perfect backdrop for a story that is so raw, so tightly-paced that you really can't stop watching -- even though you may want to during some of the intensely violent scenes. Rated R for graphic violence and harsh language, the film is definitely for adults only. The DVD also includes some great extras, including reflections of the cast and crew, a "making of" feature and "Diary of a Country Sheriff", which explores the relationship between the compassion of Sheriff Bell and the brutality of Anton Chigurh. The DVD is available now wherever DVDs are sold, and at a nice discount at Amazon.com. Posted on March 24, 2008 Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View) | New Giveaway: Platinum Edition 101 Dalmatians DVD Disney Classic, 101 Dalmatians
101 Dalmatians has charmed audiences for generations with its irresistible tail-wagging stars, memorable music, and a wonderful blend of fantasy, humor, and adventure. Now, with spectacular new bonus features and brilliantly restored, Walt Disney's beloved animated classic shines like never before in an all-new 2-disc Platinum Edition. Cruella De Vil, Disney's most outrageous villain, sets the fur-raising adventure in motion when she dognaps all of Pongo and Perdita's puppies. Through the power of the Twilight Bark, Pongo leads a heroic cast of animal characters on a quest across London to rescue them. The 2-disc Platinum Edition has something for everyone, including the all-new virtual Dalmatians game, over 101 pop-up trivia facts, an all-new music video and much more! To enter, please fill out the online form here. There is no entry fee or purchase obligation of any kind to enter. You must be a U.S. resident and be eighteen or over in order to enter. Winners will be selected in a random drawing, which will be announced on ShoppingBlog.com and our our network's email newsletter, The Writers Write Update. There's also an optional comment form where you can give your opinion about topics in the news. The comment section is optional, but we'd love to hear your opinion! As with all Writers Write, Inc. giveaways, email addresses and mailing addresses will remain strictly confidential and will not be revealed to any third parties. You must enter before 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/12:00 p.m. Central Time, Friday, March 28, 2008. Good luck! Posted on March 13, 2008 Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View) | Reviewers Hate September Dawn Black Diamond Pictures has released a controversial film called September Dawn on DVD. The film starring Jon Voight and Terence Stamp has stirred controversy over the Mormons' role in an 1857 massacre in Utah. September Dawn potrays the Mountain Meadows Massacre, in which a wagon train of 120 men, women and children from Arkansas and Missouri were killed in cold blood. The fim blames a Mormon militia group. In the past blame for the massacre fell on the Paiute Indians.
The Salt Lake Tribune calls the film "stridently anti-Mormon." Massacred movie: The biggest LDS-themed movie of 2007 was stridently anti-Mormon: "September Dawn," an idiotically campy and one-sided telling of the events leading up to the Mountain Meadows Massacre, when a Mormon militia killed 120 Arkansas wagon-train members coming through southern Utah. The movie, which cost around $11 million to make and featured hammy acting by Jon Voight and Terence Stamp (as Brigham Young), made just over $1 million at the box office (according to BoxOfficeMojo.com).Film Roger Critic absolutely hated the movie and gave it zero stars. Ebert also mentioned a couple theories surrounding the movie - that it could be an attempt to derail Mitt Romney's presidential bid or that it might be some sort of 9-11 allegory. What a strange, confused, unpleasant movie this is. Two theories have clustered around it: (1) It is anti-Mormon propaganda to muddy the waters around the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, or (2) it is not about Mormons at all, but an allegory about the 9/11/01 terrorists. Take your choice. The problem with allegories is that you can plug them in anywhere. No doubt the film would have great impact in Darfur.Whatever the filmmakers were trying to do it hasn't been very successful. Rotten Tomatoes listing has the film at just 13% fresh with a 0% fresh rating from top critics. Posted on January 16, 2008 Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View) | Netflix On Your TV Netflix is looking beyond its basic mailorder DVD rental business. It has teamed up with South Korean electronics maker LG to stream movies and other programming straight to LG's hi-def tvs. Netflix hopes to sign up more electronics makers in the near future. Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix, said he hoped to strike other such deals and that Netflix would soon be viewed as a movie channel that might appear on myriad devices. "We want to be integrated on every Internet-connected device, game system, high-definition DVD player and dedicated Internet set-top box," he said. "Eventually, as TVs have wireless connectivity built into them, we'll integrate right into the television."Netflix will be competing with a number of companies to be consumers' number one choice for downloadable movies. The company has a decided advantage in the upcoming downloadable movies war: it has 7 million customers who are already happy with Netflix and already have an account set up. Posted on January 3, 2008 Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View) | Holiday DVD Gift Ideas We helped our sister site ShoppingBlog.com come up with a list of great DVD gifts for the holidays. Be sure to choose your DVD gifts wisely this year. You don't want a boring DVD gift to "reflect poorly on you and your taste." You can see the list of DVD gift ideas with descriptions here. Posted on December 9, 2006 Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View) | |
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