Silent House should perhaps be called Really Noisy House, judging by the amount of screaming going on.

The horror movie stars Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene) as Sarah, who gets trapped inside her family’s lakeside retreat. Unable to get out or contact anyone outside, Sarah experiences increasingly ominous events in and around the house.

Based on the 2010 foreign film The Silent House, the R-rated 2011 movie got mixed reviews from critics, and less appreciation from moviegoers. Silent House grossed $12 million in wide release in theaters, and while some critics say the film is incredibly scary, others say the only scary part is the movie’s flaws.

Both the DVD and the Blu-ray/DVD Combo pack include a feature commentary by co-director Chris Kentis (Open Water) and screenwriter/co-director Laura Lau (Grind).

That’s the only entertaining extra in the packages. The Blu-ray also has Universal’s standard techie extras:

• BD-Live
• Pocket Blu app that allows smartphones to interact with the Blu-ray player
• UHear for quick rewinding if you miss dialog
• digital copy of the movie
• and instant streaming through UltraViolet.

Here’s the trailer with all that screaming:

Buy or Rent Silent House
DVD | Blu-ray/DVD Combo	DVD | Blu-ray/DVD Combo	DVD | Blu-ray/DVD Combo

STUDIO: Olive Films | DIRECTOR: Bernardo Bertolucci | CAST: Robert De Niro, Gerard Depardieu, Burt Lancaster , Donald Sutherland, Sterling Hayden, Dominique Sanda , Alida Valli, Stefania Sandrelli
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 5/15/2012 | PRICE: Blu-ray $39.95, DVD $29.95
BONUSES: 2002 documentary on Bertolucci
SPECS: NR | 315  min. | Drama | 1.78:1 widescreen | DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 | English and Italian with English subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

Coming off his 1970 international arthouse triumphs The Spider’s Stratagem and The Conformist and the ground-breaking 1972 erotic drama Last Tango in Paris, Italian master Bernardo Bertolucci shot for the heavens with his epic  film 1900, which arrives on Blu-ray in all its five-hour-plus glory.

Well, “glory” might be a bit too triumphant a declaration–it’s not a “glorious” film–but 1900 can rightfully be considered one of the world cinema’s most audacious and ambitious projects of the past half-century. A bold examination of the changing social and political climate of 20th century Italy, the film’s grand sweep grows from the seeds of its quite-intimate portrait of two close friends, both of whom are born in the film’s opening minutes on January 1, 1900.

Robert De Niro (l.) and Gerard Depardieu star in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900.

Set in Bertolucci’s ancestral region of Emilia in Northern Italy, the same-day birthday boys are Olmo Dalcò (portrayed as an adult by Potiche’s Gerard Depardieu), the grandson of an estate farm foreman (Sterling Hayden, The Killing), and Alfredo Berlinghieri (who grows up into Stone’s Robert De Niro), the grandson of the estate’s wealthy owner (Burt Lancaster, Sweet Smell of Success). It’s the landowner’s hiring of a nasty fascist-in-the-making named Attila (Donald Sutherland, The Eagle) as the estate’s new foreman that sets the film’s dueling ideologies of socialism versus fascism into motion.

As the two youths grow to adulthood (and ultimately old men!) and marry (Alfredo’s troubled wife  Ada is played by the luminous Dominique Sanda), they live their lives while Italy goes through countless upheavals. The men’s stories—filled with episodic landmark events, personal conflicts and strained relationships—mirror the political and social turmoil of their ever-changing country.

Again, it’s ambitious, sprawling stuff, and a lot of it isn’t pretty, particularly in detailing the effects of fascism in the film’s second half and the violent, graphic nature of Attila’s embracing of the movement. But Bertolucci’s obvious passion for 1900 and his ardent approach to the material is so pure that it can truly be felt while watching the film.  That the cast is excellent (Lancaster offers one of his finest late-career performances here) and Vittorio Storaro’s cinematography is stunning doesn’t hurt either.

On Blu-ray, 1900 can be likened to a kind of cinematic banquet, filled with all sorts of flavors, tastes and colors, spread out over an extended evening with that contains plenty of peaks and, yes, it’s share of valleys. Rarely has a film’s outdoor cinematography presented the  colors and textures of the various seasons so provocatively—autumn harvest in the fields, winter snows in the city, blooming poppies in the spring and so on. Even if 1900′s sometimes difficult-to-follow politics and occasionally disturbing sequences are not to one’s taste, there’s always the sumptuousness of the presentation to fall back on.

Many of the performers in the international ensemble appear to have spoken their native languages in the film, led by De Niro and Lancaster, who emote in English, of course. On the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 English language audio track, one can see that handful of other performers were dubbed into English. Watching that can be a bit distracting, but not so much that it detracts from the film. Overall, the audio quality is well-above average—the dialogue is crystal clear and Ennio Morricone’s rich score receives the respect it deserves.

A DVD version of the hour-long 2002 TV documentary Bernardo Bertolucci: Reflections on Cinema is included as a bonus feature. Directed by Sandro Lai, it includes dozens of interview snippets with Bertolucci from past decades, along with the requisite film clips and behind-the-scenes footage.

Buy or Rent 1900
DVD | Blu-ray		DVD | Blu-ray

Marat Descartes watches his neighborhood turn ugly in The Tenants.

Directed by Sergio Bianchi, The Tenants is a 2009 drama-thriller film from Brazil that zeroes in on the tensions that mount in a once-tranquil neighborhood when the wrong kind of neighbors move into development.

Despite a recent wave of violent crime in the city, manual laborer and night student Valter (Marat Descartes) lives a relatively content life with wife (Ana Carbatti) and two children in working-class São Paulo. But when three young criminals move in next door, a bunker mentality sets in and Valter soon discovers he is not the only one perversely affected by the mounting chaos of a city under siege, or the unsettling presence of his new neighbors.

The Tenants (or Os Inquilinos in its native Portuguese) played a host of film festivals in North and South America along with a run in theaters in its Brazil.

Presented in Portuguese with English subtitles, the DVD of the unrated movie contains no bonus features.

You can check out the trailer at Global Film Initiative’s site here.

Buy or Rent The Tenants
DVD

STUDIO: Universal� | DIRECTOR: Joe Carnahan� | CAST: Liam Neeson, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo, Dallas Roberts
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 5/22/2012 | PRICE: DVD $29.98, Blu-ray $34.98
BONUSES: deleted scenes, commentary
SPECS: R | 118 min. | Action� | 2.40:1 aspect ratio | 5.1 DTS-HD audio | English, Spanish, French subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

The Grey is a tense, nail-biting action movie that’s ultimately quite unsatisfying.

Liam Neeson (Unknown) plays Ottway, a depressed man who’s an expert on hunting wolves in the wilderness. When his plane crashes in Alaska, he’s one of seven other survivors, all oil workers, and it becomes Ottway’s job to lead them all to safety. As if snowstorms, extreme cold and no food are bad enough, the group is being hunted by a pack of merciless wolves.

As the group raids the dead bodies of their friends and trudges through snow and forest, they also battle each other — such evolved humans we are — and that provides plenty of good opportunities for the predominantly male cast to flex their acting muscle.

Neeson is the obvious standout in the pack. He’s quiet, pensive, serious. Wounded on the inside, but a strong and powerful warrior out. And Neeson wears his tortured soul on his sleeve.

Frank Grillo (Warrior) is good too as Neeson’s opposite, a brash oil worker who doesn’t share Neeson’s idealistic view of their situation until he takes his anger out on an attacking wolf.

Director Joe Carnahan (The A-Team), who co-wrote the screenplay, keeps the film’s pacing taut. As soon as the proceedings start to seem relaxed — as much as a survival story like this can be relaxed — Carnahan throws in another encounter with one of those glowing eyed, white toothed wolves.

And those encounters are terrifying. But it’s not the flashes of saliva and hair, and muscle and blood that we see. The flashes are so quick and so close, we can barely see anything scary. But the sound of growls, gnashing teeth, scrapes and punches crawl across your skin. And they’re especially horrifying in Blu-ray’s 5.1 DTS-HD sound.

The high-definition picture is equally good. In the nighttime scenes, the blackness of the wilderness is deep, and the wolves’ glowing eyes bright. The red of the blood clearly stands out against the white of the snow. And the details are impressive from the big landscapes to the frozen tears on eyelashes.

What’s disappointing in the film is the unhopeful ending, which leaves us feeling like we spent two tense hours watching man fight the wild with very little payoff.

Special features-wise, the Blu-ray is sparse for action movies like this, offering just deleted and a commentary with Carnahan and editors Roger Barton and Jason Hellmann.

The deleted scenes are mostly extensions of shots from the film and don’t add much to the story.

In the commentary, the trio begin by pointing out that while they’re recording their track, they’re drinking whiskey, “the best way to watch the film,” as Carnahan says. Maybe he’s onto something there.

They keep the commentary moving, talking about the movie’s shooting, locations, special effects enhancements and the personal behind-the-scenes stories. They also talk about the philosophy behind the film, “God helps those who help themselves sort of thing,” as Carnahan says, and he poses the ending as “fate” and admits its might “piss people off.” Okay.

He describes The Grey as an “odyssey,” and I agree. It’s a good film, a well-made film, just one that’s too depressing for repeat viewing.

Buy or Rent The Grey
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Kevin Corrigan dresses for murderous success in Some Guy Who Kills People.

Kevin Corrigan (Unstoppable) stars in the  horror-comedy-thriller mash-up Some Guy Who Kills People, a 2011 independent film directed by Jack Perez.

At first glance, Ken Boyd (Corrigan) may seem like an average comic enthusiast, living with his mother and working to make ends meet as an underpaid ice cream parlor attendant. But Ken has a dirty little secret: he fantasizes about killing people. After being released from a stay in an institution for severe mental trauma suffered when he was beaten and tortured by a gang of high school thugs, Ken’s repressed anger suddenly reaches a boiling point.  He begins to hunt down his tormentors, one by one, and exacts his bloody revenge – all the while forming an unconventional bond with his estranged 11-year old daughter (Ariel Gade, Dark Water).

Executive produced by John Landis, Some Guy Who Kills People co-stars Barry Bostwick (The Rocky Horror Picture Show), Karen Black (Five Easy Pieces), Leo Fitzpatrick (Serendipity) and Lucy Davis (TV’s The Office).

The R-rated film played nearly three dozen film festival in the U.S. and abroad–most of the fests featured horror and/or underground programming.

Bonus features on the Some Guy Who Kills People DVD include the following:

• Audio commentary by director/co-producer Jack Perez and writer/producer Ryan Levin
• The Fifth – a short film that inspired Some Guy Who Kills People;
• Featurette: The Making of Some Guy Who Kills People;
• Theatrical trailer

Buy or Rent Some Guy Who Kills People
DVD	DVD	DVD

Those titans just keep coming back. Sam Worthington (Avatar) battles them again in the 2012 Wrath of the Titans, the sequel of the 2010 movie Clash of the Titans, a remake of the original 1981 epic fantasy.

In Wrath of the Titans, Worthington’s Perseus has been out of the hero business for decade, instead looking after his young son. But he’s dragged back to his job of saving the world after his father, Zeus (Liam Neeson, The Grey) is sent to the underworld. Zeus was kidnapped by his son Ares (Edgar Ramirez, The Bourne Ultimatum) and brother Hades (Ralph Fiennes, Coriolanus) so they can unleash the ancient titans on the world.

It’s action, action and more action for the cast, which also includes Bill Nighy (Wild Target), Rosamund Pike (Barney’s Version), Danny Huston (Robin Hood) and Toby Kebbell (The Conspirator).

Directed by Jonathan Liebesman (Battle Los Angeles), the PG-13 movie got about as much love from critics and moviegoers as the 2010 Clash of the Titans: 25% approval from critics and 50% from moviegoers, according to Rotten Tomatoes. Rolling Stone‘s Peter Travers says the film “sucketh the mighty big one” and Reel Film Reviews called it “seriously underwhelming.”

Wrath of the Titans grossed $82 million in theaters, about half of the take of the 2010 film.

Warner packed the Blu-ray/DVD and Blu-ray 3D combos with special features. Both include instant streaming of the movie via UltraViolet, redeemable through June 26, 2014, plus these extras:

• Maximum Movie Mode: The Path of Men
• Maximum Movie Mode: The Path of Gods
• Demon of the Underworld: Battling the Chimera - The Path of Men
• Who Are The Titans? - The Path of Men
• Agenor: The Other Demi-God – The Path of Men
• The Cyclops Fight – The Path of Men
• Hephaestus: God of Fire – The Path of Gods
• Prison of the Titans – The Path of Men
• Lost in Tartarus’ Labyrinth – The Path of Gods
• Minotaur: The Human Nightmare – ThePath of Men
• Creatures of the Titans – The Path of Gods
• The Heavens Raise Hell on Earth – The Path of Men
• three deleted scenes: “Perseus owes Helius an xxplanation,” “Perseus addresses the troops” and “Zeus is led past missing Olympians”
• MMM Graphic Localization

Buy or Rent Wrath of the Titans
DVD | Blu-ray

Anti-terrorist agents track down a dangerous Islamic leader in Act of Vengeance.

Two Turkish anti-terrorist agents are sent to New York City on a mission to find and bring back a dangerous Islamic leader in the 2010 action drama film Act of Vengeance.

After an unsuccessful and bloody raid in Istanbul, the two Turkish (writer-director Mahsun Kirmizigul and Mustafa Sandal) agents arrive in NYC to capture the notorious “Dejjal” (Arabic for Antichrist). Working with the FBI and NYPD, the agents orchestrate the arrest of a suspect who may or may not be  Dejjal, but when events escalate, the foreign agents must take things in their own hands to avert disaster.

Turkish filmmaker Mahsun Kirmizigul’s movie, originally entitled Five Minarets in New York, also stars such American actors as Danny Glover (2012), Gina Gershon (Showgirls) and Robert Patrick (Safe House).

The unrated Act of Vengeance enjoyed a limited release in theaters across Europe in 2010 and 2011 but is premiering in the U.S. on DVD and Blu-ray.

There are no bonus features announced for the discs.

 

Buy or Rent Act of Vengeance
DVD | Blu-Ray	DVD | Blu-ray	DVD | Blu-ray

David Soul (l.) and Hector Elizondo are Rick and Louie in Casablanca.

The “Oh Yeah, I Forgot About That One” Award for the week goes to Casablanca: The Complete Series, the 1983 television show drama based on the legendary 1942 film starring Humphrey Bogart (The African Queen) and Ingrid Bergman (Notorious).

Set in the years prior to when the movie takes place, the series stars David Soul (TV’s Starsky and Hutch) in the Bogie role as Rick Blaine, an American expatriate and the owner of Rick’s Café in unoccupied Africa during the early days of WWII.  Fighting for “the cause” in his own detached fashion, Rick tries to keep things cool whenever trouble rears its head in the form of Nazis and other evil-doers.

Executive produced by David L. Wolper, the show also stars Hector Elizondo (Pretty Woman) as Captain Renault (a role played by Claude Raines in the film), Patrick Horgan as Major Heinrich Strasser (Conrad Veidt in the film), a young  Ray Liotta (Something Wild) as Sacha (Leonid Kinskey in the film),  Reuven Bar-Yotam as Ferrari (a role originated by Sydney Greenstreet in the film), and Scatman Crothers (The Shining)  as the piano-tinkling, “As Times Goes By”-singing Sam (Dooley Wilson in the film).

We’re not surprised that you might not remember the Casablanca TV incarnation as it only ran for five episodes before being cancelled, all of which are included in this two-disc DVD.

Oh, and the series is shot in color, unlike the black-and-white promo shot of Soul and Elizondo that you see above.

Buy or Rent Casablanca: The Complete Series
DVD		DVD

Singin’ in the Rain didn’t win an Academy Award back when it was first released in theaters in 1952, but it still became one of the most loved musicals of all time. It’s the American Film Institute’s No. 1 Movie Musical. We’re glad to see the film get its Blu-ray debut for its 60th birthday. A gift for fans indeed.

The movie’s story is reminiscent of the 2012 Best Picture winner The Artist. Set in 1927 Hollywood, Singin’ in the Rain stars Gene Kelly (Cover Girl) as Don Lockwood, a silent movie star with Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen, The Shaggy Dog). When the talkies are introduced and Don and Lina’s film is changed into a musical, Don’s voice is perfect for the new medium, but Lina gets left behind. The studio brings in aspiring actress Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds, One for the Money) to take over the role, and Don falls in love.

The movie was the second feature for which Kelly stepped behind the camera as well as acting, directing with Stanley Donen (Lucky Lady). Although it didn’t win an Oscar, the film was nominated for two: Best Supporting Actress for Jean Hagen and Best Score for Lennie Hayton.

Signin’ in the Rain was digitally restored for this release, which comes in a two-DVD set, a single Blu-ray and a three-disc limited edition, numbered Ultimate Collector’s Edition Blu-ray and DVD pack.

All have these special features:

• new documentary Singin’ in the Rain: Raining On a New Generation
• commentary by Donen; Reynolds; co-stars Donald O’Connor, Kathleen Freeman and Cyd Charisse; screenwriters Betty Comdon and Adolph Green, filmmaker Baz Luhrman and film historian Rudy Behlmer
• 1996 PBS documentary Great Performances: Musicals Great Musicals: The Arthur Freed Unit at MGM about the career of producer/songwriter Arthur Freed
• The Making of Singin’ in the Rain
• “You Are My Lucky Star” musical number outtake
• Nacio Herb Brown/Arthur Freed film excerpts, 12 clips from earlier movies
• Scoring Stage Session Cures
• stills gallery
• theatrical trailer.

The 60th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition package also includes a 48-page hard cover book with production memos and photos, as well as reproductions of the original poster and a full-size commemorative umbrella.

Buy or Rent Singin’ in the Rain 60th Anniversary
Blu-ray/DVD Combo		Blu-ray/DVD Combo

The 1981 cult horror movie The Boogens finally makes its DVD and Blu-ray debut!

In a small town near Denver, two young guys begin to explore a long-abandoned, boarded up silver mine old mine. When one of them goes missing, his begin a search that reveals something horrifying: By opening up the mine, a brood of nasty little monsters–turtle-like, agile, talon-clawed and sharp-toothed—have been unleashed. The grisly truth is quickly revealed as the titular creatures begans to knock the townsfolk one by one.

Directed by James L. Conway (Hanger 18), The Boogens stars Rebecca Balding, Fred McCarren, Anne-Marie Martin and Jeff Harlan.

In a rare instance of an archival Olive Film’s release having any supplemental materials, the DVD and Blu-ray of the R-rated film include a commentary by director Conway, star Balding and screenwriter David O’Malley.

Buy or Rent The Boogens
DVD | Blu-ray		DVD | Blu-ray

STUDIO: Fox | DIRECTOR: Josh Trank | CAST: Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan, Michael Kelly, Ashley Hinshaw
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 5/15/2012 | PRICE: DVD $29.98, Blu-ray $39.99
BONUSES: deleted scene, pre-viz, camera test, soundtrack information
SPECS: PG-13 | 84 min. | Science fiction thriller | 1.85:1 widescreen | Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS Master Audio 5.1udio | English, French and Spanish subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie� | Audio� | Video� | Overall

Mixing the previously-tackled subject of teen telekinesis (as we’ve seen in the Brian De Palma films Carrie and The Fury and, hell, even the silly comedy Zapped!) with the found-footage-shot-by-a-shaky-single-camera approach that’s been a genre staple since The Blair Witch Project, the science fiction thriller Chronicle sets out to prove the adage that everything old is new again. And if it’s not wholly new, well then at least it can be a little different.

Dane DeHaan uses his powers in Chronicle.

Chronicle finds a trio of Seattle high school students—popular Steve (Michael B. Jordan), regular guy Matt (Alex Russell) and troubled teen Andrew (Dane DeHaan) –are attending an outdoor rave when they stumble across a mysterious glowing crystal in a hidden cave.  The next thing they know, the boys have developed telekinetic abilities. Early on, they use their powers for mild pranks and games, but as their abilities grow more powerful with each passing day, the mild stuff gives way to darker pursuits, which include flying alongside jet planes and striking back at an abusive father. The benefits and dangers of said powers are all “recorded” by Andrew, who early has announced that he is making a minute-by-minute documentary of his life.

As the movie progresses, Chronicle begins to broaden its visual scope beyond the boundaries of Andrew’s camcorder (which is at it’s most effectively eerie he floats the camera in the air to shoot film himself below) and includes views taken from surveillance and security cameras. Though it’s sort of necessary to capture the film high-flying, climactic action sequences that lay waste to a chunk of downtown Seattle, it’s glaringly inconsistent with what we’ve seen before via Andrew’s camcorder. Perhaps if the multi-camera style was incorporated into the story earlier on I wouldn’t have minded, but as it only kicks in for the film’s final quarter, it feels a bit like cheating.  Still, that could be considered nitpicking at director Josh Trank’s feature film debut, as the finale and other effects-filled sequences look pretty good considering the relative confines of the film’s $15 million budget.

The disc’s bonus features are pretty slight and include a single deleted scene, some camera test footage and pre-visualization computer footage that laid the groundwork for the film’s nifty, budget-conscious visual effects.

Buy or Rent Chronicle
DVD | Blu-ray/DVD Combo	DVD | Blu-ray/DVD Combo	DVD | Blu-ray/DVD Combo

Ewan McGregor and Eva Green get sensory in Perfect Sense.

Ewan McGregor (Haywire) and Eva Green (TV’s Camelot) are two damaged people who come together to face a global catastrophe in the 2011 science fiction drama-romance film Perfect Sense.

The story begins with a strange wave of sadness sweeping the globe, with people everywhere breaking down in sobbing fits. When they regain their composure, something has changed: everyone has lost their senses of smell and taste. Two people come to the fore: Susan (Green), a scientist in Glasgow with a broken heart who is studying the odd pandemic, and Michael (McGregor), a successful and happily single chef at a restaurant near Susan’s apartment. When Susan and Michael meet, they share an intensely emotional and erotic night just as the rest of the world is losing its sensory perception, and a serious relationship slowly blossoms. Here’s the question: Are Susan and Michael’s intense feelings for each other due to the epidemic, or in spite of it?

Directed by David Mackenzie, Perfect Sense also features Connie Nielsen (A Shine of Rainbows), Stephen Dillane (TV’s Game of Thrones) and Ewen Bremner (Trainspotting).

The R-rated Perfect Sense premiered in the U.S. as a Video On Demand title in January, 2012 following a limited theatrical rollout around the world and screenings at some dozen film festivals. Audience and critical response was largely positive, with New York magazine’s David Edelstein saying that, “You’ve got to make room in your heart for a film in which the world ends with neither a bang nor a whimper but a cuddle.”

No bonus features have been announced for the discs.

 

Buy or Rent Perfect Sense
DVD | Blu-ray | Instant Video	DVD | Blu-ray	DVD | Blu-ray

Janell Shirtcliff is one of the denizens of Dirty Old Town.

Dirty Old Town is a 2010 independent comedy-drama set in downtown New York City.

Revolving around the city’s Lower East Side, the film focuses (loosely) on a merchant (William Leroy, playing a fictionalized version of himself) who has 72 hours to pay his rent. Facing extinction, his ramshackle tent of antiquities lures a troop of misfits, freaks and renegades—classic downtown New Yorkers holding on to the pre-gentrification days of the area—who scramble about as the closing hour draws nigh.

A bizarre “love letter” of sorts to the fast-fading days of downtown bohemia, Dirty Old Town embodies a free-form, improvisational style (though still a narrative).

The film is directed by Jenner Furst and Daniel B. Levin, who reportedly made the movie for under $10,000, shot it in two days and edited it in two months.

“We knew we were going to make a film, it was going to be improv,” co-director Furst told The Villager newspaper in a July, 2010 interview. “The goal was to make art with nothing, no money. And that’s the message — you don’t have to have $10 million or $15 million to make an independent film.”

The unrated Dirty Old Town has popped up at festivals and in a couple of New York theaters over the past couple of years and will have a one-day theatrical release at Brooklyn’s BAM Cinematek several days before it is issued on disc.

No bonus features have been announced for the DVD.

 

Buy or Rent Dirty Old Town
DVD | Instant Video	DVD

In A Thousand Words, Eddie Murphy (Tower Heist) treads similar ground to Jim Carrey in 1997′s Liar Liar.

The comedy movie follows Murphy’s Jack McCall, a fast-talking literary agent who doesn’t mince words when he’s trying to close a deal. For his own selfish reasons, Jack sets his sights on popular New Age guru Dr. Sinja (Cliff Curtis, Colombiana), but his scheme backfires. Sinja connects Jack’s life with a magical Bodhi tree. The more Jack talks, the more leaves the tree loses. And when the tree loses its last leaf, both the tree and Jack will die. Jack comes up with some interesting ways to communicate, but sooner or later, he has to learn what matters most in life.

The movie also stars Kerry Washington (TV’s Scandal), the funny Clark Duke (Hot Tub Time Machine) and the fabulous Allison Janney (The Help).

The third Eddie Murphy film directed by Brian Robbins (Meet Dave, Norbit), A Thousand Words was written by Steve Koren, whose badly reviewed Jack and Jill got a higher approval rating than this Murphy movie.

A Thousand Words got a rating of … 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, according to critics. Yep, zero. Apparently there’s nothing redeemable about the movie. Moviegoers liked it better, though, with 57%.

Both the DVD and Blu-ray include instant streaming of the movie via UltraViolet. For special features, the DVD comes with six deleted scenes, and the Blu-ray has 11 deleted scenes and an alternate ending.

Here’s the film’s trailer:

Buy or Rent A Thousand Words
DVD | Blu-ray

Emily VanCamp (TV’s Brothers & Sisters) avenges her dead father in the hit ABC TV show Revenge.

Created by Mike Kelley (TV’s Jericho), the drama television series follows the exploits of Emily Thorne (VanCamp), daughter of the late David Clarke who was set up by the rich Grayson family, including mother Victoria (Madeleine Stowe, We Were Soldiers) and father Conrad (Henry Czerny, The A-Team). Emily returns to the Hamptons to get her, well, revenge, starting by seducing the Grayson’s son, Daniel (Joshua Bowman, Love’s Kitchen).

In the first season of the addictive show, Emily uncovers secrets, takes down suspects and gets in deep with her enemies.

The cast also includes Ashley Madekwe (TV’s Secret Diary of a Call Girl), Gabriel Mann (TV’s Mad Men) and Amber Valletta (Gamer).

The Revenge: The Complete First Season DVD contains these special features:

• “Nolan Ross: Exposed” interview with the infamous Nolan Ross (Mann)
• “Lifestyles of the Rich and Dangerous”
• “Hamptons Bound: Preparing for Life at the Shore”
• “Haute Hamptons: Femme Fatale Fashion”
• bloopers
• deleted scenes
• episode commentaries.

Buy or Rent Revenge: The Complete First Season
DVD | Instant Video SD | Instant Video HD		DVD

The drama movie Being Flynn stars three powerhouse actors: Robert De Niro (Taxi Driver), Paul Dano (Cowboys & Aliens) and Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right).

Based on the memoir by Nick Flynn, the film tells the story of a father, Jonathan (De Niro), and a son, Nick (Dano), who have not seen each other for 18 years. A writer, Nick takes a job at a homeless shelter to bring purpose to his life, and one night, Jonathan shows up looking for a bed. Reunited, Nick wrestles with whether to reach out to his father and give them both a chance at a future.

Olivia Thirlby (Juno), Lily Taylor (Brooklyn’s Finest) and Wes Studi (Avatar) also star in the movie, which is rated R. And it was directed and written by Paul Weitz, writer/director of the fabulous and touching comedy About a Boy.

Despite all that cache, Being Flynn only got a very limited release in theaters. And there, it got mixed reviews from both critics and moviegoers. Newsday critic Rafer Guzman said, “Weitz digs diligently for emotional truths and makes the most of his excellent cast.” Whereas Toronto Star‘s Peter Howell said the film “heads downward in every sense of the word.”

If you try out the movie on DVD or Blu-ray, you won’t have too much else for entertainment. Both discs contain just one main special feature:

• “The Heart of Being Flynn” behind-the-scenes featurette including interviews with De Niro, Dano and Weitz.

The Blu-ray also has:

• BD-Live access
• Pocket Blu app to allow smart phones to interact with your Blu-ray player
• and uHear, so you don’t miss any dialog.

Check out the trailer:

Buy or Rent Being Flynn
DVD | Blu-ray	DVD | Blu-ray	DVD | Blu-ray

Nick Stahl and Olivia Wilde meet in an institution for the criminally insane in On the Inside.

Nick Stahl (Afghan Luke ), Olivia Wilde (Cowboys & Aliens) and Dash Mihok (I am Legend ) star in the 2011 psychological thriller On The Inside.

Stahl is Allen Meneric, a troubled man who’s committed to a psychiatric institution for the criminally insane after carrying out a brutal revenge murder. There, he is forced to deal with the very ill and the dangerous until, as part of a socialization program, he is transferred to minimum security where he meets beautiful bipolar female inmate Mia (Wilde). Ever haunted by his past, Allen seeks his redemption when sudden events demand that he protect Mia from the violence and chaos of the institution.

Written and directed by D.W. Brown, the film also features Daniel Franzese (I Spit on Your Grave), Pruitt Taylor Vince (TV’s The Walking Dead), and Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog).

On The Inside’s release on DVD and Blu-ray represents its commercial debut in the U.S.

No bonus features have been announced for the discs.

STUDIO: Millennium | DIRECTOR: Oren Moverman | CAST: Woody Harrelson, Ned Beatty, Robin Wright, Steve Buscemi, Sigourney Weaver, Ben Foster, Anne Heche, Cynthia Nixon, Brie Larson
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 5/15/2012 | PRICE: DVD $28.99, Blu-ray $29.99, Blu-ray/DVD Combo $34.99
BONUSES: featurette; BD adds commentary
SPECS: R | 107 min. | Crime drama | 2.35:1 widescreen | Dolby Digital 2.0/Dolby TrueHD 5.1 | English and Spanish subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

The second collaboration between director Oren Moverman and actor Woody Harrelson (Friends With Benefits) following their Oscar-nominated work in The Messenger, the crime drama Rampart offers a 180 degree shift in style from their previous effort. While The Messenger—and its story of soldiers assigned to tell relatives that their loved ones have been lost at war– found its power in quiet moments, Rampart is shot with hand-held cameras, edited in rapid-fire fashion.

The story, co-written by Moverman and James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential)  is set in the late 1990s against the backdrop of the Los Angeles “Rampart” police scandal. It centers on Harrelson’s Dave “Date Rape” Brown, a boozing, out-of-control maverick cop who’s under scrutiny by the Internal Affairs Department and the assistant DA (Sigourney Weaver, Paul).  At the same time, Brown has an unusual home life, living with his daughter and both his lover (Anne Heche, Cedar Rapids) and her sister (Cynthia Nixon,TV’s The Big C), who also happens to be his ex-wife. At the same time, he becomes involved with an attorney (Robin Wright, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) who may or may not be investigating him.

If it sounds like there’s a lot going on, you’re right. In fact, there appears to be too much going on. Moverman has trouble juggling all of the elements together as peripheral characters essayed by such actors as Ned Beatty (Rango), Ben Foster (Pandorum) and Steve Buscemi (TV’s Boardwalk Empire) come and go and offer pieces to a big, sloppy puzzle that never quite fits together.

But Harrelson offers a snarling, mesmerizing performance that stands proudly at the center of the film. It’s just unfortunate that Rampart, like Harrelson’s character, is a  fierce creation that is also deeply flawed.

Bonus features include a making-of featurette and a commentary track by Moverman and cinematographer Bobby Bukowski, wherein the two discuss shooting in and around Los Angeles and how they did their damnedest to make their LAPD genre film different from all the other ones they’ve seen.

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Danny Trejo (l.) means business in Ranchero.

Roger Gutierrez and Danny Trejo—the man who never met a movie he didn’t want to appear in—star in the 2008 independent drama-thriller film Ranchero.

After the death of his parents Jesse Torres (Gutierrez) leaves his childhood cattle ranch for the Bright Lights of the Big City.  Reconnecting with his childhood friend, the troubled Tom (Brian Johnson), Jesse finds himself in a squalid neighborhood of drugs, gangs and broken dreams. Struggling with his new life, Jesse finds solace in a local girl, Lil’ Bit (Christina Woods), but as the romance blossoms Jesse finds himself confronted by the neighborhood mobster, Capone (Trejo) who owns her. Now faced with a drug addicted best friend, an angry mobster and his girlfriend’s freedom, Jesse must make some hard choices with dangerous consequences.

Directed by Richard Kaponas and written by co-star Johnson, Ranchero has popped up in a few U.S. film festivals over the past couple of years, most notably the SENE Film, Arts, and Music Festival, where it picked up a handful of awards.
It also rolled out to a pair of theaters in May, 2011.

Of course, we most thrilled to note that Disc Dish favorite Danny Trejo appears in this one! The past year alone has seen him in the DVD/Blu-ray releases of We’re thrilled to A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas, Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World, Poolboy: Drowning Out the Fury, Recoil and the upcoming Bad Ass. Go Danny!

Check  out an interview with Danny where he discusses Ranchero and his love of indie cinema.

 

Buy or Rent Ranchero
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The American Pie gang return with more bawdy adventures in American Reunion, the fourth movie in the comedy franchise; sixth if you include the two DVD premiere American Pie Presents films.

In American Reunion, more than a decade after they left home, Jim (Jason Biggs, My Best Friend’s Girl), Oz (Chris Klein, TV’s Wilfred), Heather (Mena Suvari, American Beauty), Michelle (Alyson Hannigan, TV’s How I Met Your Mother), Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas, The Rules of Attraction), Vicky (Tara Reid, The Big Lebowski), Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas, A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas) and Stifler (Seann William Scott, Role Models) return to East Great Falls for a weekend get-together. Even Stifler’s mom (Jennifer Coolidge, TV’s 2 Broke Girls) and Jim’s dad (Eugene Levy, For Your Consideration) are back for the fun.

The R-rated movie grossed a tidy $129 million when it was in theaters, giving moviegoers the laughs they wanted. Critics, however, didn’t appreciate the film so much. USA Today‘s Claudia Puig said American Reunion is “a strained, relentless quest for gross-out humor and outlandish sexual escapades.”

Universal packed both the DVD and Blu-ray with special features. Both contain:

• seven deleted scenes
• gag reel
• behind-the-scenes featurette “The ‘Reunion’ Reunion: Re-launching the Series,” with the original cast talking about the challenges of doing a reunion movie and reflecting on the new film’s production
• “Jim’s Dad”
• “Ouch! My Balls!” about the male cast members’ hobby of crotch-blasting
• commentary with co-directors/co-writers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg.

The Blu-ray/DVD Combo also includes all these:

• 13 extended scenes
• alternate takes
• The “Out of Control” Track in which cast members pop up during the playing of the film to laugh at, comment and cut on their fellow actors
• “The Best of Biggs — Hangin’ With Jason B.” with cast members reflecting on their time working with Biggs
• “Lake Bake” about how their beach shoots were the most challenges
• “Dancing With the Oz” behind-the-scenes of Oz’s appearance on Celebrity Dance-Off
• “American Gonad-iators: The Fight Scene” about how one line in the film turned into a crazy scene with a half-naked Biggs
• interactive “American Reunion Yearbook” with the cast discussing their characters
• digital copy of the film
• instant streaming of the movie via UltraViolet
• BD Live
• Pocket Blu app that allows smart phones to interact with the Blu-ray player.

Buy or Rent American Reunion
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