After last week’s tepid showing, we’ve got a blockbuster set of releases this week. Not just in quality but in sheer numbers. There are a lot of new Blu-ray disc hitting shelves today so brace yourselves! For the most part, I’m only going to highlight discs I’ve had the pleasure of screening already and discs I’m going to rush out and buy this week. Note that I wont be buying the apparently DNR (Digital Noise Reduced) riddled, edge enhanced edition of The Big Lebowski after early reviews have found the digital tampering to be over the top. I’m curious about Jane Eyre (Fassbender rules 2011, if you ask me), Redford‘s The Conspirator and John Carpenter‘s apparent return-to-form film, The Ward. But I have a feeling they’ll just be rentals.

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Blu-ray disc of the week: THE KILLING

“Stanley Kubrick’s account of an ambitious racetrack robbery is one of Hollywood’s tautest, twistiest noirs. Aided by a radically time-shuffling narrative, razor-sharp dialogue from pulp novelist Jim Thompson, and a phenomenal cast of character actors, including Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Timothy Carey, Elisha Cook Jr., and Marie Windsor, The Killing is both a jaunty thriller and a cold-blooded punch to the gut. And with its precise tracking shots and gratifying sense of irony, it’s Kubrick to the core.“

Did you pre-order this disc? If you didn’t, I’m just assuming it’s because you didn’t read my earlier post announcing it’s impending arrival, the release of one of the most important Blu-ray discs of the year. The Killing is early Kubrick and it is awesome. Not in that Michael Bay, buildings-ripped-apart-by-giant-robot-snakes kind of way, of course. Not even in the way that the director’s later efforts are epic. But in the classic noir sense – gunmen pulling stick-ups, served up Kubrick style. I love this film but honestly, one of the most exciting aspects of this new Criterion release is that it also includes Killers Kiss, the director’s other noir produced a year earlier. Outside of Kubrick’s earliest feature, Fear and Desire (which has never been on video, to my knowledge) this release completes the collection of the director’s works on Blu-ray. Grab this, the Criterion Paths of Glory release and Warner‘s Kubrick boxed set and you’re there.

The Killing is one of the must-own Blu-ray discs of the year. Don’t miss this one!

Special Features:

• New high-definition digital restoration with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• New video interview with producer James B. Harris
• Excerpts of interviews with actor Sterling Hayden from the French television series Cinéma cinémas
• New video interview with film scholar Robert Polito about writer Jim Thompson and his work on The Killing
• Restored transfer of Stanley Kubrick’s 1955 noir feature Killer’s Kiss
• New video appreciation of Killer’s Kiss with film critic Geoffrey O’Brien
• Theatrical trailers
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film historian Haden Guest and a reprinted interview with Marie Windsor on The Killing

AMAZON: $24.99

Also availbale from Criterion this week: CUL-DE SAC

“Roman Polanski orchestrates a mental ménage à trois in this slyly absurd tale of paranoia from the director’s golden 1960s period. Donald Pleasence and Françoise Dorléac star as a withdrawn couple whose isolated house is invaded by a rude, burly American gangster on the run, played by Lionel Stander. The three engage in role-playing games of sexual and emotional humiliation. Cul-de-sac is an evocative, claustrophobic, and morbidly funny tale of the modern world in chaos.“

I swear to God this Blu-ray just showed up at my door. If you give me a couple of hours I can watch it all and get it all reviewed up nice for you, you know? Urgh… Nevermind. I guess I’ll just publish this post as is and get you a review later on, when I don’t have to sit in an office tower for like eight hours a day…

Anyway, it’s a classic Roman Polanski film on Blu-ray. It’s a Criterion release. It’s got Donald Pleasance in it. And Lionel Stander. And a 2003 doc about the making of the film. And a vintage interview with Polanski. And more goodness in the booklet and on the disc. What are you waiting for?! Go get it!!

AMAZON: $27.99

DEXTER: THE FIFTH SEASON

“The fifth season finds Dexter struggling with the guilt over (SPOILER)’s death. He seeks solace in his old killer ways and embarks on an unexpected and surprising relationship with the mysterious Lumen (Julia Stiles). But Dexter’s need to kill overpowers his desire for human connection. Now with a few people closer to discovering the truth about him, how much longer will America’s favorite serial killer be able to keep his dark secret? This critically acclaimed original series from Showtime, starring Golden Globe(R) winner Michael C. Hall, is back on DVD with all 12 startling and stirring episodes.

Oh god. How do I even begin to write about season five of Dexter without spoiling previous seasons for you. I mean, if you haven’t been watching yet, you really should. Just run out and pick up the other boxed sets right now and don’t read any further here, just in case I spill the beans.

Okay?

Okay, here goes. As usual, Dexter’s family life is in peril (no, I’m not going to tell you what’s tearing them apart this time) and he spends the season trying to sort out his place within it. Seeking solace, he returns to his criminal-eviscerating ways but, in the midst of disposing of one particular serial killer, inadvertently rescues the fiend’s next victim. Lumen, as played by Julia Stiles is damaged from her ordeal but far from helpless. She and Dexter develop a deep connection and open up to one another. But now that she knows the real Dexter, will their shared secrets put them at greater risk or will they become the ultimate dark passenger teamup?

The cast is brilliant this season, as usual, with added zest from the likes of dirty-retired-cop-turned-dirty-PI, Peter Weller (ROBOCOP!!) and slick motivational speaker Jonny Lee Miller. Dexter’s sister (real life ex-wife Jennifer Carpenter – I know, weird…) sticks to the usual loving, helpful sibling role while her cop boyfriend Quinn (Desmond Harrington) continues to make trouble. I have to admit though, as much as I enjoyed the season, the sooner they get rid of the Batista (David Zayas) and LaGuerta (Lauren Velez) relationship subplot the better. What a drag. Oh, did I mention that Vince Masuka (C.S. Lee) continues to be a highlight of the show? Listen up Showtime – give the man his own series. Masuka rocks my world.

As per Showtime, CBS and Paramount‘s norms, the 3-Disc Dexter: The Fifth Season Blu-ray set is technically marvelous! Each of the 12 episodes look far better than their 1080i broadcast counterparts, exhibiting more accurate, stable colours and deeper blacks. The Dolby True HD 5.1 track is more alive and generally impressive than most television shows I’ve had the pleasure of sampling on Blu over the years. Surrounds are quite active and dialogue is clean and clear throughout. The lows don’t quite approach Michael Bay-film expressiveness but what do you want from TV?

There aren’t any bonus goodies on the Blu-ray discs themselves but the package claims you’ll be able to access cast and crew interviews as well as episodes of other programs over the BD-Live portal once it goes live.

AMAZON: $37.99

THE BANG BANG CLUB

“Based on the acclaimed memoir by Greg Marinovich and João Silva. As apartheid comes to a violent end, four fearless photographers – Greg Marinovich (Ryan Phillippe), Kevin Carter (Taylor Kitsch), Ken Oosterbroek (Frank Rautenbach) and João Silva (Neels Van Jaarsveld) – bonded by their friendship and a sense of purpose, risk their lives to capture the bloody struggle and expose the truth.“

The Bang Bang Club is far more ambitious in its subject matter than it has the time to fully cope with. With the subjects of the film on set and the script a supposed straight adaptation of their book, I’m certain the events on screen hue closely to real life. But it seems like there’s still so much missing. The focus is, of course, on their characters – the photographers – and how they navigated that period of early ’90s South African political and social discontent at the end of Apartheid. But time just somehow breezes by here, with people and relationships coming and going, major social upheavals in the country glossed over. Despite the filmmakers best efforts, there just isn’t enough time afforded to the parts of the narrative necessary to truly grasp how this story played out in the country or in the characters’ lives. I felt like I was watching Cliffs Notes Apartheid.

And yet, it’s still a compelling tale, with genuine, sensitive character portrayals. As is only fitting for a story about photographers, the cinematography by Miroslaw Baszak is attractive, often stunning, and lends a sense of presence and authenticity to the work, which is well replicated on the Blu-ray disc from eOne. But I must admit, I could’ve used a bit more grain. A bit more dirt in the mix. The disc looks almost too clean, if you know what I mean. However, I’m certain the film was shot and processed that way. Attractive images but an odd choice for this style. The score by Philip Miller sounds great in the DTS-HD Master Audio track. Dialogue is clean and clear and there’s plenty of ambient sound coming through the rears. Extras include a feature length audio commentary by director Steven Silver, an excellent and very candid 45-minute “making-of” featurette, 5-minutes or so of deleted scenes, a slideshow and a 17-minute featurette where young cast member Kgosi Mongake interviews the cast and crew (the most candid, interesting, honest and well put together supplement on the disc.)

AMAZON: $26.99

DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY: SPECIAL EDITION

“David Holzman’s Diary is one of the most influential films of the 1960′s, an ”ingenious puzzle movie” (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader) that charts the self destruction of a media-saturated youth. As news from the Vietnam War and social unrest blares over the radio, David Holzman (L.M. Kit Carson) unloads comic-neurotic monologues to his 16mm camera. When his relationship with Penny (Eileen Dietz) goes south, he retreats further into moving images, secretly recording his pretty neighbor and even turning his lens to the TV shows he watches. No longer able to deal with life outside celluloid all of his ties to the real world begin to erode. This ”totally delightful satire” (NY Times) of a narcissistic artist is also a well-crafted fiction about the depictions of cinematic illusionism. Early on, Holzman quotes Jean-Luc Godard’s famous dictum that ”the cinema is truth 24 frames-per-second.” As director Jim McBride (Breathless (1983), The Big Easy, Great Balls of Fire!) teaches and Holzman soon learns, it lies just as often. This Special Edition includes Jim McBride’s full length film ”My Girlfriend’s Wedding” (61 minutes), achieving the director’s intention for these two films (David Holzman’s Diary & My Girlfriend’s Wedding) to be shown together for the first time. Also included on this Special Edition Blu-ray is McBride’s ”Pictures From Life s Other Side” (45 mins) and his short ”My Son s Wedding to My Sister-In-Law” (8 Mins). “

I haven’t seen this film or this Blu-ray disc but this looks like pretty exciting stuff from Kino this week. I’m not sure what more to say that the lengthy disc description above doesn’t already cover. This is one I’ll be picking up soon.

AMAZON: $20.99

Stallone-splosion: COBRA, DEMOLITION MAN, THE SPECIALIST, ASSASSINS

Warner absolutely blew my mind when they sent me a package of these four Stallone films. Of the four, I had only not seen the 1986 George P. Cosmatos (the late director of such action treasures as Rambo and Tombstone) helmed Cobra, so, of course, I didn’t waste any time chomping into it.

Cobra is an absolute ’80s delight. Born from Stallone’s aborted attempt to re-write the Beverly Hills Cop script as a star vehicle for himself, this over the top action flik is as retro as they come and seems to owe more in its final form to Dirty Harry than Axel Foley. The violence is plentiful and righteously over the top and the music is just so right-on, it’s sick. I loved every minute. And can I just tell you, Poppy from Seinfeld, the guy who pisses on Jerry’s couch, is Stallone’s cop-partner in this. Amazing!! The Blu-ray looks nice but far from perfect. Contrast appears boosted with colours a bit punchy and some detail crushed in the deep blacks but it’s not an unattractive look. The DTS-HD 5.1 audio track is the only option on the disc (no original stereo mix!) and is clean and clear throughout, if not a touch front-heavy. Extras include a sleepy director’s commentary track that often plays more akin to descriptive audio, a vintage ‘making-of’ featurette and a trailer.

The other three films feature a solid run of Stallone cinema from 1993 to 1995. Demolition Man is a sci-fi tongue in cheek departure for the action hero and provided an early starring role for Sandra Bullock. Some of the “future” tech is already quite dated, as is Dennis Leary‘s “asshole” schtick, which he unfortunately carries over to his character here, but it all feels like it’s in good fun, so we accept it, laugh along with the gags and dig on the action. Stallone versus Wesley Snipes is a pretty great thing.

The Specialist is undoubtedly the weakest of the four films, apparently inspired by a series of novels about a ex-military explosives expert but seemingly crafted as a spectacle of tits, muscles, ham and cheese. James Woods is awesome in his usual role of villainous dickweed and Sharon Stone, hot on the heels of her landmark “performance” in Basic Instinct, takes her clothes off. The best part of the film is a ridiculous music-video sequence where the camera cuts between Stallone working out and flexing his muscles to some hot tuneage, and Stone, half a city away, posing for no apparent reason, half naked, in “sexy” lingerie. I was with this film until the second act got all caught up in itself and tried to juggle plot threads. Bad idea.

I recall not caring for Assassins very much in the theatre, lo, those long sixteen years past. But this Richard Donner flik has got some fight in it and, despite the nasty mid-nineties fashion, holds up pretty well. Antonio Banderas hams it up more than usual but I get the feeling he was just trying to fit into a measure of what’s considered normal when starring alongside the Italian Stallion. Again, the dated tech drives me nuts. But whatever. This is one of the weaker Richard Donner films I’ve seen but still entertaining in a cheap sort of way.

All three of the films look and sound pretty decent on Blu. Warner has done right by them, with Assassins looking particularly nice, representing well the cinematography of Vilmos Zsigmond. Demolition Man is also often quite breathtaking, with a ton of detail and all-around attractive appearance. Alex Thomson‘s photography takes on a whole new dimension in 1080p. Audio is once again provided solely in DTS-HD 5.1 tracks that represent the early days of digital multichannel sound. Don’t expect to blown away by any of these but they’re all competent.

Special features are limited to theatrical trailers, except on Demolition Man, where you’ll get a commentary with director Marco Brambilla and producer Joel Silver.

AMAZON: $14.99 each

PRIEST

“A vampire western about a warrior priest who disobeys church law by teaming with a young sheriff and a priestess to track down a band of renegade vampires who have kidnapped his niece. An adaptation of the action-horror TokyoPop comic book.“

I can’t believe I’m going to say this but I really enjoyed the hell out of Priest and so did my girlfriend! I mean, this isn’t award winning filmmaking here. It’s a brisk, breathless 87-minutes of vampire killing action. But the filmmakers did just about everything right here, aside from a poorly animated opening sequence of expository info and all-around laughable dialogue. There’s a neo-futuristic (read: Blade Runner rip-off) city walled off against a gun-slinging western frontier that just happens to be run ragged with vampire creatures that were supposed to be extinct, care of a sect of now-retired ninja-like priests. The story follows one such man of the cloth, who defies the will of the church and leaves the town to save his family and stop a vampire Armageddon that only he believes is brewing. The cast, led by Paul Bettany, Karl Urban, Maggie Q and Christopher Plummer, is fantastic, perhaps the films greatest asset, aside from the insane arsenal of transforming stabbing and slicing accoutrements. The effects, while only mediocre at best, serve the film well enough to tell the story and carry the action. It’s a shame this little manga-adaptation didn’t do better at the box office. It’s a lot of fun and I really would have enjoyed catching the inevitable sequels.

As per Sony‘s usual Blu-ray treatment, Priest looks flawless in 1080p. It’s only visual faults are a result of the source material and it’s lower-budget CGI. Otherwise, this disc looks heavenly. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio track is electric and alive, with active surrounds, clean, clear dialogue up the middle and dynamic, full fronts. This is demo quality stuff!

Sony offers up a robust selection of supplemental material on the Blu-ray disc including the ‘Bullets and Crucifixes: Picture-in-Picture Experience‘ which combines cast and crew interviews with artwork, behind the scenes clips and more. It’s really the best thing going here. If you haven’t heard enough from the gang who put together and star in Priest, hit up the commentary track with director Scott Stewart, writer Cory Goodman, Bettany and Maggie Q. It covers a lot of the same ground but is totally worth while for fans. There are 12-minutes worth of deleted scenes and a couple of 12-minute long featurettes on creating the world and the multitude of weapons of the film. The disc is rounded out with trailers, previews, Movie IQ and BD-Live access.

AMAZON: $19.99

THE MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN and MUPPETS FROM SPACE

In anticipation of the new Muppet film set to hit theatres this November, Sony has dragged a couple of Jim Henson and pals’ vintage puppet films out of the vault and given them a cursory spit and polish on their way to their Blu-ray debuts. The Muppets Take Manhattan plays like an innocent ode to children of the ’80s, complete with Muppet babies and an early stab at pop-culture references (I almost couldn’t believe it when I heard someone ask “Where’s the beef?“) It’s a straightforward tale of a group of puppet pals graduating college and moving to the big city to “make it” on Broadway. There’s nothing fancy about the storytelling and that’s really so much of this film’s charm. It’s no The Muppet Movie but it’s heart is in the right place and will play as well to kids today as it did in 1984.

Muppets from Space was released in 1999 and feels like the product of a completely different studio. It’s not a bad film at all but it’s charm is limited, with a story about Gonzo’s origin that tends to meander (or should I say mope) from pointless scene to scene. The Muppets themselves will still entertain children but the film really feels more like a hodgepodge of mildly related, poorly crafted skits than a compelling movie. I won’t be watching it again but I’m sure my niece will burn out the Blu-ray in short order.

Both films look like they were transferred to disc by Sony. By that I mean, they both look amazing. I mean, amazing in an honest, film-like way. The Muppets Take Manhattan looks like an ’80s film. It’s not particularly pretty but this transfer, heaps of grain and all, looks like you’re watching the film off reels of 35mm. Awesome! Muppets from Space is much cleaner and features a more polished, modern look. Neither film exhibits any untoward use of digital artifacts, enhancement or noise that I could see. Both discs also sport new DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mixes, with the ’84 film benefiting from a more dynamic, grander soundtrack for its musical numbers and the ’99 film replicating its cinematic presentation.

There aren’t a lot of extras to talk about here, with the most noteworthy being nearly 15-minutes of vintage interview footage with Muppets creator, the late, great Jim Henson himself on Manhattan. That disc also features some “Muppetisms” videos that aren’t really worth watching. Muppets from Space includes a few minutes of outtakes (some quite entertaining) and a music video.

AMAZON: $14.99 each

Canadian (and Best Buy US) exclusive: EXECUTIVE DECISION

“A 747 traveling from Athens to Washington DC is hijacked by a group of terrorists. They claim it’s to force the government to release their leader, but covert intelligence man David Grant (Kurt Russell) doesn’t believe it. He tries to persuade the authorities to keep the plane out of US airspace while a rescue mission is put together. This mission involves the use of a high tech plane specifically designed for mid-air crew transfers. With Grant, they make it aboard the 747 only to find that they must overpower the terrorists and disable a bomb with enough nerve gas to knock out all of Washington DC below. “

Executive Decision clocks in at over two hours but zips by so quickly you’ll hardly know you watched a feature. It feels more like you’ve just watched a tense, white-knuckle episode of 24, except this thing actually comes to a conclusion in less than the space of a day. Editor Stuart Baird’s directorial debut is not only a cracking good action-thriller, it’s also fairly smart, with the protagonists only pulling a handful of bonehead moves during the runtime of the film – a record for these sorts of military genre pieces. Executive Decision is actually quite lite on action, when you think about it. Most of the film is spent planning, waiting, hiding and problem solving. It’s a real nail-biter that literally had me on the edge of my seat. Kurt Russell keeps his usual bravado in check here, as the understated hero of the piece with Steven Segal along for the ride, giving himself over to a role with a surprising twist (I won’t spoil it you.)

Warner graces Executive Decision with a nice, solid Blu-ray transfer, with plenty of detail, rich colour and deep blacks. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is surprisingly active for one authored in 1996, and affords plenty of dynamic headroom for Jerry Goldsmith‘s score. The only bonus feature on the disc is a theatrical trailer.

AMAZON: CDN$ 16.99

ALSO AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY THIS WEEK
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