If I had the power to name this week, I think I would have to dub it “The Mighty Catalogue Release Week”…or something like that. I mean, there are a couple of major new releases this week but my god, there are a ton of amazing older titles hitting shelves today. It’s tough to be interested in a new title when so many of my favourite oldies are hitting Blu today. But to be truthful here, there isn’t really a clunker in this list. Including the discs that didn’t make my top 5. They’re all worth a look!
But if I had to put them in order of preference, to pick a Top 5, this is what I’d end up with:
1. THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS
If you’ve read this blog in the past, you know that I’m an unabashed Terry Gilliam fan. And while there are a whole host of his films that just plain don’t work for me, I can’t count the The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus among them. It’s not his best flik, by far, but it manages to incorporate so many themes and images from his past work that I couldn’t help but feel warmly toward it. It’s good stuff. I may not have had a chance to check out the Blu-ray disc yet, but it’s so jam packed with goodies I’m willing to bet it’s the best new disc available this week!
Note: The Canadian release of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is still a week away. E1 Entertainment will get the Blu-ray into shops north of the 49th parallel on May 4th.
2. DUNE
I can’t wait to get my hands on this Blu-ray edition of David Lynch‘s Dune! Not because there’s any new content on the disc, or additional cuts of the film, or anything fun or different here. Nope. It’s just the plain old vanilla original cut of the film with most of the extras from the last DVD incarnation. But you know what? That’s enough for me. I’m so excited to get a chance to see Dune in 1080p!
3. TOMBSTONE
I love Tombstone! It’s far from a perfect film (there’s a lot of hokey, tired dialogue and melodrama) but this 1993 western about the famous showdown between Wyatt Earp and the Cowboys boasts a damn-near perfect cast – Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton, Powers Boothe, Billy Bob Thornton, Charlton Heston and the list goes on and on! The disc is stunning, the best the film has ever looked but far from textbook perfect. Still worth a purchase, if you’re a fan of the film or of westerns in general.
4. ELIZABETH, ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE
I’m still dying to see Elizabeth: The Golden Age. It’s making the list this week only as a companion to the first film, which has been a favourite of mine for years now. Incredible costumes and production design, beautiful, rich photography and a riveting performance from Cate Blanchett are the obvious reasons to grab this disc but don’t overlook the fact that Elizabeth features a healthy dose of religious tension, political conspiracy, sex, violence, and war – the stuff that all epic stories are made of!
I’ll admit that I wasn’t blown away by Ride with the Devil. I was expecting a lot more from it. I’m a big fan of Ang Lee and will gladly watch any film he makes but something about this one just didn’t click with me. That said, I’m more than excited to give it another shot on this brand new Criterion Collection Blu-ray edition. There aren’t as many special features as you’d expect from a Criterion disc, but a couple of commentary tracks, the one with Lee and writer James Shamus in particular, might shed some light on why I didn’t connect with this odd civil war epic. This one is a renter for me but totally worth a look.
ALSO AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY THIS WEEK
Clicking an image will take you to Amazon.com where you can learn more about and purchase the Blu-ray disc:
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