Downton Abbey: Season 3

The popular BBC Series sees its third season get a Blu-ray release. While I’m sure plenty of people will snatch this one up immediately, in all honesty I still haven’t seen it. One of these days, sure, but as of right now I’m just not sure I quite get what all the fuss has been about.

That Obscure Object of Desire

Director Luis Buñuel’s (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie) final film is a stirring and suitably bizarre drama about the romance between a wealthy businessman and his sexy young housemaid. The twist? While the male lead is played by the great Fernando Rey, the role of the maid is split between two incredible actresses, Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina, the pair swapping in and out depending on the character’s idiosyncratic mood swings. A classic in every sense, this is a movie that justifiably lives up to its landmark status. A must see.

Seven Psychopaths

From my theatrical review (read it here): “I have no idea what to make of Seven Psychopaths. I’m of multiple minds on it, torn in two between adoration and disappointment. The movie is funny, magnificently so at times, writer/director Martin McDonagh following up his near instantly classic In Bruges with some of the more ghoulishly hysterical dialogue and situations fans of coal black comedies are sure to delight in. But the point? The story? In all honesty there truly isn’t one, the filmmaker’s satire of Hollywood, celebrity, violence and friendship more a series of loosely connected vignettes than it is anything even close to substantive.” For more on the film, check out my recently posted Blu-ray Review.

Hotel Transylvania 3D

Hotel Transylvania

From my theatrical review (read it here): “The script is a lost cause, filled with sophomoric toilet humor below even the lowest Disney Channel or Cartoon Network standards. Structurally, it’s also a bit of a mess, the central dynamics never rising too far above the humdrum or the status quo to make them anywhere near as exciting or as endearing as they absolutely must be for the movie to be even anything close to a success.” For more on this release, check out my recently posted Blu-ray Review.

Paranormal Activity 4

I’ve watched and liked all three of the previous Paranormal Activity films, so even though the buzz on this one has been decidedly lackluster that doesn’t mean I’m any less excited to slip the Blu-ray into the player and to give it a look. As a review copy only just arrived today, expect me to do just that as soon as I finish writing this column.

Citadel

From my theatrical review (read it here): “A clever mixture of genre thrillers as wide-ranging as Attack the Block, Aliens, Copycat, Village of the Damned and Assault on Precinct 13, writer/director Ciaran Foy’s Citadel is an unsettling low budget thriller that knows exactly what it is and precisely what it wants to do. This is a movie that gets straight to the point, produces fear and dread in almost equal measure right from the first frame, everything building to an unsettling and, somewhat surprisingly, quietly menacing climax that is as simple as it is effective.”

OTHER NOTABLE BLU-RAY RELEASES

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·         All Superheroes Must Die

·         The Awakening

·         Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2

·         Cold Light of Day

·         Die Hard: 25^th Anniversary Collection (Read Sara's Theatrical Review of Live Free of Die Hard)

·         Tales of the Night

·         White Zombie

NOTABLE DVD RELEASES

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Hello I Must Be Going

From my theatrical review (read it here): “A showcase for the talented [Melanie] Lynskey, Sundance Film Festival favorite Hello I Must Be Going is a smart, sexually flippant dramatic comedy about a woman seemingly at the end of her rope and the young man who gets her to realize she’s still got more than enough slack left to lasso any and all of her remaining dreams. There’s not a lot new here, little I haven’t seen before, yet Sarah Koskoff’s clever script and Todd Louiso’s (Love Liza) confident direction, coupled with Lynskey’s magnetic performance, manage to elevate the proceedings to an entrancing level making the resulting motion picture a far more enjoyable experience than it would have been otherwise.”

Cherry Tree Lane

Christine and Mike are an ordinary middle‐class couple, living in what could be any house, on any street. It's an average evening at home, until Christine goes to answer a knock at the front door. When she reappears, she has a knife at her throat and a gang of teenagers at her back. What happens next is anything but an average evening on an ordinary street. (Description reprinted from Amazon.com)

OTHER NOTABLE DVD RELEASES

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·         Femme Fatales: The Complete First Season

·         Madly Madagascar

·         Misfits – Season Two

·         Pan Am – The Complete Series

NOTABLE NEW BLU-RAY ANNOUNCEMENTS

·         Holy Motors (Feb 26, 2013)

·         The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (March 2, 2013)

·         Parental Guidance (March 26, 2013)

·         Jurassic Park 3D (April 23, 2013)