Sorry for the severely tardy New Release post this week, folks. I’ve been overwhelmed by a nasty combo of home renovations, office work, meetings, band rehearsals and health issues. I’m not trying to make excuses for this late post here. Just trying to let you in on why I couldn’t get it posted before now. In any case, be sure you scroll all the way down to the bottom for the additional Blu-ray releases this week. There’s some good looking stuff there like the US release of Herzog‘s Cave of Forgotten Dreams (we took a look at the Canadian version a few weeks ago), Paul Rudd in Our Idiot Brother and the final season of the hit TV show, Smallville.

As always, clicking the Blu-ray package art will zip you over to Amazon where every purchase you make through our links helps the site stay on its feet. We appreciate every single click and thank you again for continuing to read The Blu-ray Blog.

Blu-ray disc of the week: ANOTHER EARTH

“This “deeply emotional…extraordinarily profound” (USA Today) film became a must-see sensation at the Sundance Film Festival. “Beautiful, bright and fearless” (Associated Press) newcomer Brit Marling and fan favorite William Mapother (TV’s “Lost”) star as Rhoda and John, two people whose worlds collide after a tragic accident. Their intimate drama plays out against the astounding discovery of Earth 2, a parallel world that poses provocative and fascinating possibilities. Does a new Earth mean a chance at another life? Another destiny? Another self? “Another Earth is science-fiction at its best” (The Hollywood Reporter) — with a mind-bending surprise ending that you will never forget.“

Another Earth is definitely a special film. Though set against a sci-fi concept, it’s a very intimate character drama. In fact, it’s so focused on the two leads, one could argue that the film could succeed just as well without the conceit of a duplicate Earth hanging overhead. Sure, it provides the inciting incident and helps motivate a handful of actions throughout the story but the core of the narrative is the tragic relationship of Marling and Mapother’s broken characters, performed to great effect by both actors. Shot on a super-low-budget, director Mike Cahill makes the best use of what he’s got on hand in the film, focusing on those stellar performances while only occasionally delivering the conceptual goods in the fashion of a small handful of attractive, spacey shots. His twist ending, however, will leave most wanting. I actually liked it. What’s important here is that the film establishes a great, melancholy vibe. Stick with it and you’ll most likely really appreciate what savvy young filmmakers can accomplish now on a shoestring budget.

I’ve yet to take a look at Fox‘s Blu-ray edition of the film but the DVD screener they sent over looks pretty soft. The compressed audio is clear and dynamic enough for a show of this budget but, from the evidence on the DVD, I’m not expecting the Blu to look very impressive. There were no special features on the screener but the extras on the Blu-ray are listed below.

Special Features:

• Deleted Scenes
• Music Video: “The First Time I Saw Jupiter” by Fall On Your Sword
• The Science Behind Another Earth
• Creating Another Earth
• Fox Movie Channel presents “Direct Effect with Mike Cahill,” “In Character with Brit Marling,” and “In Character with William Mapother”

AMAZON: $19.99

TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL

“Dale (Tyler Labine) and Tucker (Alan Tudyk) are checking out their newly acquired “summer home” (read: dilapidated cabin) when they save the life of a gorgeous college student (Katrina Bowden) who’s camping in the woods with some friends. When a series of misunderstandings leads to Dale and Tucker being labeled psycho killers by the vacationing students, the situation takes a sudden and ghastly turn for the worst.“

To say I was taken aback by how much I enjoyed Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil is something of a massive understatement. This is not only one of the best comedy/horror films I’ve seen in years, it’s also one of the most refreshing, lively films I’ve had the pleasure of watching in a long time! Labine and Tudyk are suitably hilarious and Bowden is as lovely (and plastic) as she is in her regular appearances on 30 Rock. It’s not much of a horror film, per se, but Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil plays with the conventions of the terrorized-camping-college-kids genre so ingeniously that it’s probably the finest commentary on those conventions since the first Scream hit theatres way back in the ’90s. Recommended for those who love horror, comedy and film criticism.

The Blu-ray edition of the film looks spectacular (I screened the Canadian released from Alliance, which should be sourced from the same elements as the Magnolia release in the US.) The film was shot on the RED camera, providing a digital-to-digital transfer that really shines. This is the way to make a small-budget film that still looks like a million bucks! The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is also impressive, while maybe not as explosive or immersive as bigger budget Hollywood fare.

The collection of bonus goodies on the disc is par for the course but be certain to check out both the hilarious-yet-informative commentary with director Eli Craig and actors Labine and Tudyk and the truly excellent outtakes from the film. Just when you think the laughs are over, there’s a lot more to be found in the discs Special Features department! Also included are a standard “making of” featurette, a 5-minute long HDNet promo for the film, storyboards, a trailer and a pretty funny feature that cuts the film down to around 16-minutes and shows the events of the story from the POV of the “College Kids”.

AMAZON: CDN$ 19.99

Also available: TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL (US Edition)

AMAZON: $16.99

CHILLERAMA

“It’s the closing night at the last drive-in theater in America and Cecil B. Kaufman (“Hatchet’s” Richard Riehle) has planned the ultimate marathon of lost film prints to unleash upon his faithful cinephile patrons. Four films so rare that they have never been exhibited publicly on American soil until this very night! What could possibly go wrong? In the spirit of classic anthology films like “Creepshow” and “Twilight Zone: The Movie” and containing films that not only celebrate the golden age of drive-in B horror shlock but also span over four decades of cinema, “Chillerama” offers something for every bad taste. With titles like “Wadzilla”, “I Was a Teenage Werebear”, “The Diary of Anne Frankenstein”, and “Zom-B-Movie” and featuring appearances by Joel David Moore (“Avatar”), Lin Shaye (“Insidious”), Ray Wise (“X-Men: First Class”), Kane Hodder (“Friday the 13th”), Eric Roberts (“The Dark Knight”) and more cameos than you can count, “Chillerama” is sure to have you screaming for more. From the depraved minds of Adam Rifkin (“Detroit Rock City”), Tim Sullivan (“2001 Maniacs”), Adam Green (“Frozen”), and Joe Lynch (“Wrong Turn 2″).“

If you’ve read this blog for a while, you’ll know of my deep affection for all things horror and of my love of B-movies of all variety. You can imagine then how much I wanted to fall in love with Chillerama. But it just didn’t happen. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot to like in the film but ultimately some of the material just comes off as rather slipshod and cheapens the whole already sophomoric affair. But I love what the film stands for and nearly all of the concepts within, so I’m not going to spend these few words tearing it a new one. Instead, I’ll just provide a few shout-outs to the stuff that works.

The first short, Wadzilla, is the strongest of the bunch and, even in it’s lowest, most bargain basement moments, feels like it’s right on target. And Ray Wise, as the urologist and sperm-enhancer Dr. Weems, is really the best ever. Not too short and not too long, not too cheap but still B-grade all the way, the short film strikes the perfect balance. As does the overarching narrative entitled Zom-B-Movie, which wraps up the entire picture in a fairly pleasing way. There’s a lot of heart up there on screen and a lot of laughs for any audience that enjoys the combination of horror, comedy, nudity and substantial gross-outs. Recommended for a drunken midnight-madness party.

The Blu-ray encode from Image is most likely right on the money but the source material varies greatly from short to short so it’s tough to be sure. Despite the fact that the film and all the extras are crammed onto a single layer disc though, the studio has delivered an encode without any sign of compression nastiness. As a film shot on digital but heavily processed, I think Chillerama looks pretty great on Blu. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is also a bit of a mixed bag but certainly sounds more impressive than it has any right to. Well done all around!

There are plenty of special features on the disc including a fairly thorough group commentary track with all four directors. It’s presented as a picture-in-picture track, so you can get a sense of who is talking and when, particularly useful as there’s lot of joking around and talking over one another. There are a collection of deleted scenes from each of the films-within-the-film, with the exception of “The Diary of Anne Frankenstein“, which instead, is afforded a 23-minute “making of” featurette. “I Was a Teenage Werebear” also receives a 22-minute “Behind the Scenes” doc. The disc is rounded out with a couple of interiew segments with all four directors (both filmed at Comic Con) and some trailers.

AMAZON: $15.99

HORROR EXPRESS

“An English anthropologist has discovered a frozen monster in the frozen wastes of Manchuria which he believes may be the Missing Link. He brings the creature back to Europe aboard the Trans-Siberian Express, but during the trip the monster thaws out and starts to butcher the passengers one by one.“

Oh man, I’ve been tracking the journey of the Horror Express Blu-ray release since last October (over a year now!) and was so hoping to have a review copy so I could sing it’s praises at length. Alas, another fine-looking Severin release has passed me by (I still haven’t seen Santa Sangre or The Stunt Man from earlier in the year) but this time around, I know it’s only a matter of time before I get my grubby mitts on a copy of the disc in question. Though it’s yet to ship, my Amazon order for the Horror Express Blu is in and I’m anxiously awaiting my first viewing of a high-def Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing teamup! I can’t recomend the Blu-ray disc from first hand experience but include it here out of my sheer excitement for the release. Fingers crossed that it’s all I hope it’ll be!

READ MORE: Horror Express Blu-ray detailed

AMAZON: $13.99

THE ART OF GETTING BY

“Fatalistic teenager George Zingavoy (Freddie Highmore) is a master at just barely getting by. In fact, he’s practically turned it into an art form – making it through the entire school year without doing a shred of work. But when George meets a beautiful and complicated girl named Sally (Emma Roberts), he discovers a kindred spirit who turns his slacker world upside down. Their quirky and unexpected romance may just inspire George to do the unthinkable – get off his butt and chase after his dreams.“

Whoa. Okay, I’m really hard pressed to find a fifth disc to recommend this week. So, I’ll cap off my list with The Art of Getting By, which my girlfriend thoroughly enjoyed. Yes, I know, it’s somewhat of a cop-out but if the lady of the house sings it’s praises there must be something there to like. The AVS forum speaks highly of the presentation on the Blu-ray, which includes a commentary track and a bunch of featurettes. Check it out here.

AMAZON: $24.99

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:

Related posts

• [VIDEO] Horror Express Blu-ray Trailer (3)
• Horror Express Blu-ray detailed (1)
• Another Earth Blu-ray announced and detailed (0)
• [VIDEO] Fox Horror on Blu-ray: Silence of the Lambs, 28 Days Later, The Omen, more (1)
• Classic Hammer films being restored, released on Blu-ray (0)