RoosterFlix DVD Picks for August 26th and September 2nd

DVD Picks for August 26th, 2008

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Heroes: Season 2 (2008)
dir. n/a

Yeah, the writer's strike killed the show's momentum, but it was still fun to watch. Hopefully season 3 can get in the same groove that season 1 was in.

Product Decsription:
Rejoin the epic and suspenseful phenomenon as Heroes: Season 2 arrives on DVD. Experience all the new and exciting twists of the astonishing series in this 4-disc set that includes every gripping Season 2 episode. Plus, see what could have been with exclusive bonus features that reveal the untold stories that never aired and an alternate ending to the season finale, where the fate of humanity takes an ominous turn when Peter fails to catch the vial containing the deadly virus.

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Entourage - The Complete Fourth Season (2007)
dir. n/a

It's weird, I can't really remember much about this season. When I watch this show, I just kind of sit there and absorb it without thinking about anything, and then in about 24 hours, it's all gone. It's a very re-watchable show, so maybe I'll watch the last couple episodes and refresh my memory before season 5 starts.

Product Decsription:
Sure it would be great to have it all, but at what price? For Vince, Eric, Drama and Turtle, life in Hollywoods fast lane can be an intoxicating ride. In Season Four, in fact, Eric and Vince have taken on new roles as producers. Will their film be hailed as a critical masterpiece, or will it end up on the trash heap of broken Tinseltown dreams?

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The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
dir. Henry Selick

Compelling story, incredible music, amazing animation...just a great movie in every aspect. One of Tim Burton's best (even though he wasn't the director).

Product Decsription:
For those who never thought Disney would release a film in which Santa Claus is kidnapped and tortured, well, here it is! The full title is Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, which should give you an idea of the tone of this stop-action animated musical/fantasy/horror/comedy. It is based on characters created by Burton, the former Disney animator best known as the director of Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and the first two Batman movies. His benignly scary-funny sensibility dominates the story of Halloweentown resident Jack Skellington (voice by Danny Elfman, who also wrote the songs), who stumbles on a bizarre and fascinating alternative universe called ... Christmastown! Directed by Henry Selick (who later made the delightful James and the Giant Peach), this PG-rated picture has a reassuringly light touch. As Roger Ebert noted in his review, "some of the Halloween creatures might be a tad scary for smaller children, but this is the kind of movie older kids will eat up; it has the kind of offbeat, subversive energy that tells them wonderful things are likely to happen."

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Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini

At last, Criterion gets the rights back to distribute this movie. Now people won't have to pay thousands of dollars on eBay for that out-of-print edition...although, this new version doesn't really change the fact that the DVD was so rare, so I'm sure those hardcore collectors will still have an interest in the fabled "white-ring" DVD. I mean, they could've just as easily bought a region 2 version of the movie for standard price if it's just the movie you were wanting to buy. Anyway, many people regard this as Pasolini's masterpiece, as controversial as it is. It was his final film, but not by choice; he was murdered shortly after the movie was done shooting.

Product Decsription:
Pier Paolo Pasolini’s notorious final film, Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, has been called nauseating, shocking, depraved, pornographic . . . it’s also a masterpiece. The controversial poet, novelist, and filmmaker’s transposition of the Marquis de Sade’s 18th-century opus of torture and degradation to 1944 Fascist Italy remains one of the most passionately debated films of all time, a thought-provoking inquiry into the political, social, and sexual dynamics that define the world we live in.

DVD Features:
SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES:
New, restored high-definition digital transfer
"Salò": Yesterday and Today, a 33-minute documentary featuring interviews with director Pier Paolo Pasolini, actor-filmmaker Jean-Claude Biette, and Pasolini friend Nineto Davoli
Fade to Black, a 23-minute documentary featuring directors Bernardo Bertolucci, Catherine Breillat, and John Maybury, as well as scholar David Forgacs
The End of "Salò", a 40-minute documentary about the film’s production
New interviews with set designer Dante Ferretti and director and film scholar Jean-Pierre Gorin
Optional English-dubbed soundtrack
Theatrical trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring new essays by Neil Bartlett, Catherine Breillat, Naomi Greene, Sam Rohdie, Roberto Chiesi, and Gary Indiana, and excerpts from Gideon Bachmann’s on-set diary
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The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
dir. Michael Curtiz

One of the best movies of all time. Can't wait to check out all the wondrous technicolor imagery in 1080p.

Product Decsription:
Dashing Errol Flynn is the definitive Robin Hood in the most gloriously swashbuckling version of the legendary story. Warner Brothers reunited Michael Curtiz, their top-action director, with the winning team of Flynn and Olivia de Havilland (Maid Marian) and perennial villain Basil Rathbone as the aristocratic Sir Guy of Gisbourne, and pulled out all stops for the production. It became their costliest film to date, a grandly handsome, glowing Technicolor adventure set to a stirring, Oscar-winning score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The decadent Prince John (a smoothly conniving Claude Rains) takes advantage of King Richard's absence to tax the country into poverty but meets his match in the medieval guerrilla rebel Robin Hood and his Merry Men of Sherwood Forest, who rise up and, to quote a cliché coined by the film, "steal from the rich and give to the poor." Stocky Alan Hale Sr. plays Robin's loyal friend Little John (a part he played in Douglas Fairbanks's silent version), Eugene Palette the portly Friar Tuck, and Melville Cooper the bumbling Sheriff of Nottingham. Flynn's confidence and cocky charm makes for a perfect Robin Hood, and his easygoing manner is a marvelous counterpoint to Rathbone's regal bearing and courtly diction. The film climaxes in their rousing battle-to-the-finish sword fight, a magnificently choreographed scene highlighted by Curtiz's inventive use of shadows cast upon the castle walls.

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Errol Flynn Westerns Collection
MOVIES INCLUDE:
Montana (1950)
Rocky Mountain (1950)
San Antonio (1945)
Virginia City (1940)

Product Decsription:
Montana: Big Sky Country is cattle country! But sheep rancher Flynn has other ideas in this gun-blazing range-war saga. Alexis Smith co-stars. In Technicolor. Rocky Mountain: The Civil War comes to California, and rebel leader Flynn finds that marauding Shoshones may be fiercer foes than the Union Army. With future Mrs. Flynn, Patrice Wymore. San Antonio: A man is only as good as his aim when Flynn rides into ol' San Antone to hunt cattle rustlers. A landmark of Western excitement with an amazing saloon shoot-'em-up... and the lovely Alexis Smith. In Technicolor. Virginia City: Union officer Flynn goes undercover to stop a gold-laden Nevada wagon train rolling to Dixie. With Randolph Scott and, yes, Humphrey Bogart as a pencil-mustached desperado.

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Warner Home Video Western Classics Collection
MOVIES INCLUDE:
Escape From Fort Bravo (1953)
Many Rivers to Cross (1955)
Cimarron (1960)
The Law and Jake Wade (1958)
Saddle the Wind (1958)
The Stalking Moon (1968)

Product Decsription:
Escape from Fort Bravo: Union officer William Holden contends with Johnny Reb prisoners inside Fort Bravo... and fierce Indians outside. John Sturges (The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven). Many Rivers to Cross: Bullwhip-crackin' trapper and resolute bachelor Bushrod Gentry comes to Kentucky, where a marriage-minded lass is a-waitin'. Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker team in a comedy/adventure. Cimarron: Oklahoma is theirs.. if they can tame it. Glenn Ford stars in the decades-spanning tale of the famed land rush and of settlers sinking deep roots. Anthony Mann (Winchester '73) directs. The Law and Jake Wade: Lawman Robert Taylor is sworn to uphold the law but destined for a showdown with his outlaw past when former partner Richard Widmark resurfaces. Directed by John Sturges. Saddle the Wind: Blood for blood. Brother against brother. An ex-gunslinger's attempts to go straight meet a fury of violence ignited by his brother. Robert Taylor stars in Rod Serling's taut tale. The Stalking Moon: A suspenseful manhunt saga. A relentless foe tracks Army scout Gregory Peck as he attempts to lead a woman (Eva Marie Saint) once held captive by Apaches to safety.

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Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? (2008)
dir. Morgan Spurlock

Product Decsription:
There's no doubt Morgan Spurlock is a brave man. In Super Size Me, the director subsisted on junk food for 30 days and suffered the consequences. In 2006, after finding out his wife, vegan chef Alexandra Jamieson (who features in his previous effort), is pregnant, Spurlock takes action--John McCain style--to secure a more peaceful planet for his unborn child. In Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?, he gets his shots, works out, and takes a self-defense class in preparation for a jaunt through Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to track down the Al-Qaeda fugitive (his itinerary neglects Iran and Iraq). With a child on the way, the $25 million reward holds some attraction, but video-game graphics, terrorist trading cards, and action-movie music underline the quixotic nature of Spurlock's quest. Similarly, the movie itself is a mixed success. The humor that fueled his first film can fall flat when the stakes are higher. Pop-culture references and serious conversations with concerned citizens make for odd bedfellows. It isn’t that Spurlock disrespects his subjects, but that he tries harder to entertain than to elucidate, and his interviews merely reinforce the notion that people everywhere share similar concerns. Unfortunately, fellow Oscar nominated filmmakers, like Laura Poitras (My Country, My Country) and James Longley (Iraq in Fragments), already beat him to the punch. Spurlock has also released a book with the same name to expand on themes explored in this somewhat superfluous documentary.

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Redbelt (2008)
dir. David Mamet

Product Decsription:
Like David Mamet's previous films, Redbelt's narrative slowly exposes the well-guarded secrets of systems shrouded in mystique and conspiracy, this time at martial-arts academies and on Hollywood film and television sets. Reminiscent of Rocky, Redbelt is an unapologetically moralistic tale of an impoverished, inner city Jiu Jitsu instructor whose idealism is an affront to those who seek to sink him. Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor), unknowingly affiliated with the wealthy Brazilian family who rigs televised MMA matches, naively rescues actor Chet Frank (Tim Allen) from being mutilated in a bar brawl, but isn't able to link Frank's sketchy relations until Terry's life is endangered. Fated to assist Terry is attorney Laura Black (Emily Mortimer), who conveniently stumbles into Terry's Jiu Jitsu academy early in the film's opening. With an impossibly mandarin plot, Redbelt is packed with improbable coincidences and confusing, maze-like dead-ends, but the sheer brainpower required to sleuth along keeps one riveted throughout. Plus, it is hard not to be thrilled by ample, accurately enacted Jiu Jitsu fight scenes. Mamet's actors deliver deadpan, poker-faced dialogue to comedic effect, especially Ricky Jay, who plays an MMA star's corrupt manager. Allen, also, is surprisingly suited to portraying an untouchable, overly serious Hollywood film star. Even Redbelt's subplots revolve around fighting: while Frank shoots a war film, Terry hashes it out with his wife who urges him to earn some cash. In the end, one wonders if Terry's uphill struggle isn't representative of the director's attempt to sift through convoluted narrative threads for an archetypal hero legend that is sparklingly simple.

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Chicago 10 (2007)
dir. Brett Morgen

Product Decsription:
Some documentaries endow historical events with context, while others recreate them in all their messy glory, leaving viewers to organize the chaos themselves. Brett Morgen (co-director, The Kid Stays in the Picture) takes the latter tack in his multi-media reconstruction of the protests during 1968's Democratic National Convention. Using the ensuing conspiracy trial as a framing device, he assembles archival footage and animated sequences into a Rorschach-type pattern (the title refers to the eight defendants and their attorneys). Further, he turns to blistering tracks from the Beastie Boys and Rage Against the Machine to distinguish his doc from the usual nostalgia parade--sprinkled with period-appropriate selections, like Black Sabbath's "War Pigs." In the motion-capture portions, actors voice the primary players: Yippie leaders Abbie Hoffman (Hank Azaria) and Jerry Rubin (Mark Ruffalo), Black Panther Bobby Seale (Jeffrey Wright), Prosecutor Thomas Foran (an ultra-raspy Nick Nolte), and Judge Julius Hoffman (Roy Scheider, in one of his final roles). Until the tone darkens towards the end, Chicago 10 is almost too diverting for its own good. Hoffman and Rubin come across as charismatic comedians rather than committed activists, though there’s nothing funny about their furor over the conflict in Vietnam. If Morgen spends too much time on their Marx Brothers-like antics--in attempting to expose the ridiculousness of their plight, they sometimes seem more like petulant pranksters than First Amendment champions--Chicago 10's contemporary relevance makes it necessary viewing for free-speech proponents and anti-war protestors alike.

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Postal (2007)
dir. Uwe Boll

Uwe Boll + Scut Farkas = destined for greatness.

Product Decsription:
Prepare yourself for the hilarious, laugh-packed comedy POSTAL, the irreverent and outrageous film based on the popular video game. After a clueless slacker named the Postal Dude (Zack Ward) loses his job, he joins his shady Uncle Dave (Dave Foley) and a bevy of big-breasted, scantily–clad female cult followers in a scheme to steal a shipment of hot new toys. But first they must foil a band of ruthless terrorists — led by none other than Osama Bin Laden — and save the world from destruction in this offensive, mayhem-ridden laugh riot that threatens the very limits of common decency.

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Pale Rider (1985)
dir. Clint Eastwood

Product Decsription:
After a nine-year break from the genre that made him an international star (the Western just before this one was The Outlaw Josey Wales, from 1976), Clint Eastwood returned in this gritty Western, crafted in the tradition of Shane and High Noon. Eastwood directed and stars as the nameless stranger known only as "Preacher," because he rides into a beleaguered mining town wearing a clerical collar. He's either an agent of death or an angel of mercy, and the echoes of Shane ring loud and clear when he comes to the aid of independent miners who are being terrorized by a local tycoon (Richard Dysart) and his ruthless band of hired guns. Befriended by a miner (Michael Moriarty) and idolized by the miner's wife and daughter (played by Carrie Snodgress and Sydney Penny, respectively), the "Pale Rider" sparks the defiant spirit of the underdog miners and takes after the bad guys with single-minded purpose.

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Virgin Territory (2007)
dir. David Leland

Product Decsription:
Hayden Christensen of Jumper stars as charming scoundrel Lorenzo di Lamberti who can – and does – deflower any woman he wants in 14th century Florence. But the only maiden that truly sets his heart ablaze is the sexy beauty Pampinea (Mischa Barton of The O.C.) who is also being pursued by an obsessed Russian count (Mathew Rhys of Brothers & Sisters) and a psycho nobleman (Academy Award® nominee Tim Roth) who has vowed to take her virtue. In a time when lust is contagious, can trickery become the ultimate act of seduction? Christopher Egan (Eragon) co-stars in this sexy action-comedy where one kiss may unlock a world of pleasure and anything can happen when you’re in Virgin Territory.

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Delicatessen (Special Edition) (1991)
dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro

Apparently this is a pretty pointless double-dip, but it's still worth mentioning since it's such a great movie.

Product Decsription:
The title credit for Delicatessen reads "Presented by Terry Gilliam," and it's easy to understand why the director of Brazil was so supportive of this outrageously black French comedy from 1991. Like Gilliam, French codirectors Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro have wildly inventive imaginations that gravitate to the darker absurdities of human behavior, and their visual extravagance is matched by impressive technical skill. Here, making their feature debut, Jeunet and Caro present a postapocalyptic scenario set entirely in a dank and gloomy building where the landlord operates a delicatessen on the ground floor. But this is an altogether meatless world, so the butcher-landlord keeps his customers happy by chopping unsuspecting victims into cutlets, and he's sharpening his knife for a new tenant (French comic actor Dominque Pinon) who's got the hots for the butcher's nearsighted daughter! Delicatessen is a feast (if you will) of hilarious vignettes, slapstick gags, and sweetly eccentric characters, including a man in a swampy room full of frogs, a woman doggedly determined to commit suicide (she never gets its right), and a pair of brothers who make toy sound boxes that "moo" like cows. It doesn't amount to much as a story, but that hardly matters; this is the kind of comedy that springs from a unique wellspring of imagination and inspiration, and it's handled with such visual virtuosity that you can't help but be mesmerized. There's some priceless comedy happening here, some of which is so inventive that you may feel the urge to stand up and cheer.

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Purple Violets (2007)
dir. Edward Burns

Product Decsription:
Four college friends meet up again years later and reconnect in ways that will change their lives forever.

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Devil Hunter (1980)
dir. Jesús Franco

Product Decsription:
Re-Mastered In High-Definition And Featuring An All-New Interview With Jess Franco!King Of EuroSleaze Jess Franco (BLOODY MOON MACUMBA SEXUAL) takes on the 80s Cannibal genre and delivers a jungle sickie like no other! When a safari of sexy babes and violent boneheads ventures into native-crazed wilderness Uncle Jess unleashes a deluge of relentless nudity dubious anthropology and his own brand of cut-rate carnage. Ursula Fellner (SADOMANIA) Al Cliver (ZOMBIE) Robert Foster (CANNIBAL TERROR) and Gisela Hahn (CONTAMINATION) co-star in this original Video Nasty also tastefully known as SEXO CANNIBAL and MANDINGO MANHUNTER with something to offend everyone now fully restored from the original Spanish negative and presented uncut and uncensored for the first time ever in America!

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Lynch (One) (2007)
dir. blackANDwhite

Product Decsription:
Compiled from over two years of footage, the film is an intimate portrait of Lynch's creative process as he completes his latest film, INLAND EMPIRE. We follow Lynch as he discovers beauty in ideas, leading us on a journey through the abstract which ultimately unveils his cinematic vision. The director of the documentary immersed himself in David Lynch's world; living and working at Lynch's home. His unobtrusive style has captured a personal side of David Lynch not seen before. The film reveals Lynch not only as one of the most original and compelling directors of contemporary film but also as an artist who continues to explore and experiment in countless mediums. We witness his "hands on" approach to painting, sculpting, music and screenwriting. His enthusiasm is infectious; inspiring us to tap into the well of creativity that Lynch believes we all have.

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Mr. Cinema (2007)
dir. Samson Chiu, Leung Chun 'Samson' Chiu

No idea what this is about aside from the Cinema Paradiso comparison, but I must say I'm really interested in seeing it.

Product Decsription:
Tracing the life of a left-wing film projectionist and his family over 40 years of Hong Kong history.

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On the Ecstasy of Ski-Flying: Werner Herzog in Conversation with Karen Beckman (2007)
dir. n/a

I guess this is just an interview. Simple as that. Great cover, too. If you check it out on Amazon, there should be a video excerpt there, if you're interested.

Product Decsription:
n/a

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Dante's Inferno (2007)
dir. Sean Meredith

Product Decsription:
Hell goes animated as apocalyptic graphic novel artwork and eerie Victorian toy theater converge in this subversively satiric update of a literary classic. Reinterpreted with the use of intricately hand-drawn puppets and stunning miniature sets, this bizarre travelogue narrated by Dante, a hard-living hoodie-clad twenty-something, will take you on a gritty, violent tour of hell that bears a disturbing resemblance to our own world. Featuring the dark, mood-drenched voice of Dermot Mulroney (Zodiac, My Best Friend's Wedding) as Dante, and the wizened pipes of James Cromwell (L.A. Confidential, Six Feet Under ) as his ghostly guide, Dante s Inferno is like nothing you ve ever experienced before.

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Phantasm 4: Oblivion (1998)
dir. Don Coscarelli

Product Decsription:
The Sequel With Balls... Now Loaded With Extras! Writer/director Don Coscarelli reunites A. Michael Baldwin, Reggie Bannister, Bill Thornbury and Angus Scrimm for the final shocking chapter of the most unique series in horror movie history! As The Tall Man’s unholy harvest reaches its crescendo, Mike, Reggie and Jody will converge across portals of time and dimensions of the undead to uncover his startling secrets. Flying spheres will be unleashed. Ice cream vendors will reload. But will the ultimate nightmare end where it all began? The final game now begins in this decisive sequel that Digitally Obsessed calls "a superb conclusion…one of the most rewarding films in the series!"

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Tall Tale: The Unbelieveable Adventure of Pecos Bill (1994)
dir. Jeremiah S. Chechik



Product Decsription:
A young boy draws on the inspiration of legendary western characters to find the strength to fight an evil land baron in the old west who wants to steal his family's farm and destroy their idyllic community. When Daniel Hackett (Nick Stahl) sees his father Jonas (Stephen Lang) gravely wounded by the villainous Stiles (Scott Glenn), his first urge is for his family to flee the danger, and give up their life on a farm which Daniel has come to despise anyway. Going alone to a lake to try to decide what to do, he falls asleep on a boat and wakes to find himself in the wild west, in the company of such "tall tale" legends as Pecos Bill (Patrick Swayze), Paul Bunyan (Oliver Platt), John Henry (Roger Aaron Brown) and Calamity Jane (Catherine O'Hara). Together, they battle the same villains Daniel is facing in his "real" world, ending with a heroic confrontation in which the boy stands up to Stiles and his henchmen, and rallies his neighbors to fight back against land grabbers who want to destroy their town.

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Gypsy Caravan: When the Road Bends (2007)
dir. Jasmine Dellal

Product Decsription:
An audience favorite at film festivals worldwide, GYPSY CARAVAN is a dazzling display of the musical world of the Roma, juxtaposed to the real world they live in. Five bands from four countries unite for the World Music Institute s Gypsy Caravan 6-week concert tour across North America with the musicians astounding every audience they meet. Their musical styles range from flamenco to brass band, from Romanian violin and Indian folk to Raga and jazz. And with fire in their bellies and soul in their voices, they present an explosion of song and dance that celebrates the best of Gypsy music and the diversity of the Romani people.

Shot by cinema verité icon Albert Maysles, the film takes place during the USA tour as well as on location in Macedonia, Romania, India and Spain, the tales of these characters unfold and are woven between their performances, reflecting the imagery and emotion of the music. GYPSY CARAVAN is a Romani celebration that will leave your toes tapping, your heart pumping, and your soul uplifted.

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The Little Mermaid - Ariel's Beginning (2008)
dir. Peggy Holmes

worrrrrrrrrrd

Product Decsription:
Every story has a beginning but only one begins under the sea now for the first time ever discover the story you never knew in The Little Mermaid: Ariel s Beginning an all-new motion picture only on Disney DVD. Long ago in a kingdom where music is outlawed King Triton s youngest daughter Ariel discovers her love for music in a secret underground music club. Torn with the choice of whether to hide her passion or share it with her father and risk losing everything Ariel sets off on a daring adventure to restore music to Atlantica.

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Lords Of The Street (2008)
dir. Amir Valinia

Gotta love those photoshopped heads. I'm not so sure that Kris Kristofferson would be making that face while holding a rifle and surrounded by fire and explosions. Maybe he really likes it, I don't know.

Product Decsription:
DMX and Kris Kristofferson star in this action packed thrill ride set in post hurricane New Orleans. A brutal Mexican drug lord busts out of jail to retrieve the $15 million that his girlfriend is hiding. Can he find the girl and the cash before the cops track him down?

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DVD Picks for September 2nd, 2008

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The Office: Season Four (2008)
dir. n/a

Weakest season yet, but still very very funny.

Product Decsription:
Steve Carell (Get Smart) returns in his Golden Globe®-winning role of “The World’s Greatest Boss,” Michael Scott, in Season Four of the hit comedy series The Office! This must-own four-disc set includes every irreverent episode from Season Four, including the five extended full TV-hour specials, plus hours of hilarious deleted scenes and bonus features! Rejoin Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) as they bring romance to the workplace, Dwight (Rainn Wilson) as he continues his quest to be Michael’s right-hand man, and newly deemed “Wunderkind” Ryan (B.J. Novak), who’s working to drag Dunder Mifflin into the digital age. Developed for American TV by Primetime Emmy® Award winner Greg Daniels (King of the Hill, The Simpsons), The Office is the intelligent and edgy Primetime Emmy® Award-winning series that critics are hailing as “the funniest show on TV” (Gavin Edwards, Rolling Stone). You’ll enjoy the inappropriate remarks, uncomfortable silences and petty behavior again and again!

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Transformers (Two-Disc Special Edition) (2007)
dir. Michael Bay

This was initially only released on standard DVD and HD-DVD, but since HD-DVD is all but dead, this was inevitable. Shitty movie, but I bet it looks good in HD.

Product Decsription:
"I bought a car. Turned out to be an alien robot. Who knew?" deadpans Sam Witwicky, hero and human heart of Michael Bay's rollicking robot-smackdown fest, Transformers. Witwicky (the sweetly nerdy Shia LaBeouf, channeling a young John Cusack) is the perfect counterpoint to the nearly nonstop exhilarating action. The plot is simple: an alien civil war (the Autobots vs. the evil Decepticons) has spilled onto Earth, and young Sam is caught in the fray by his newly purchased souped-up Camaro. Which has a mind--and identity, as a noble-warrior robot named Bumblebee--of its own. The effects, especially the mind-blowing transformations of the robots into their earthly forms and back again, are stellar.
Fans of the earlier film and TV series will be thrilled at this cutting-edge incarnation, but this version should please all fans of high-adrenaline action. Director Bay gleefully salts the movie with homages to pop-culture touchstones like Raiders of the Lost Ark, King Kong, and the early technothriller WarGames. The actors, though clearly all supporting those kickass robots, are uniformly on-target, including the dashing Josh Duhamel as a U.S. Army sergeant fighting an enemy he never anticipated; Jon Voight, as a tough yet sympathetic Secretary of Defense in over his head; and John Turturro, whose special agent manages to be confidently unctuous, even stripped to his undies. But the film belongs to Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, and the dastardly Megatron--and the wicked stunts they collide in all over the globe. Long live Transformers!

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Eraser (1996)
dir. Chuck Russell

It's not the greatest movie on Earth, but I still enjoy the hell out of it. For my money, it's the last Arnold movie I really liked. The 6th Day was pathetic, and Collateral Damage just kind of passed through me with no reaction whatsoever.

Product Decsription:
If you're going to submit yourself to a dazzling example of mainstream action, this thriller is as good a choice as any. Eraser is a live-action cartoon, the kind of movie in which Arnold Schwarzenegger can survive nail bombs, hails of bullets, an attack by voracious alligators ("You're luggage," he says, after killing one of the beasts), and still emerge from the mayhem relatively intact. Arnold plays an "eraser" from the Federal Witness Protection Program, so named because he can virtually erase the existence of anyone he's been assigned to protect. His latest beneficiary is an FBI employee (Vanessa Williams) who stumbled across a secret government group involved in the sale and export of an advanced weapon capable of shooting rounds at nearly the speed of light. Fantastic action sequences are handled with flair by director Charles Russell (The Mask), so it's easy to forgive the fact that this movie is almost completely ridiculous.

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The Promotion (2008)
dir. Steve Conrad

Was this even in theaters at all? The trailers didn't look that great, but I'll watch aaaaanything with John C. Reilly.

Product Decsription:
In a hilarious take on life in mid-management hell, two junior managers at a Chicago grocery store vie for a coveted promotion, while their wives and their co-workers can only stand back and watch how far the one-upmanship will go to get the job done.

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Fist of Legend (1994)
dir. Gordon Chan, Yuen Woo Ping

Great, great movie. They could've picked something more exciting for the cover, though....looks like they took that at the DMV.

Product Decsription:
A Chinese martial artist returns to Shanghai to find his teacher dead and his school harassed by occupying Japanese forces. He has but one choice - to avenge his master's murder and restore his school's honor.

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The Boys in Company C (1977)
dir. Sidney J. Furie

Product Decsription:
Set in 1967, The Boys in Company C follows the lives of five Marine inductees from their training in boot camp through a tour of duty in Vietnam that quickly devolves into a hellish nightmare. Disheartened by futile combat, appalled by the corruption of their South Vietnamese ally, and constantly endangered by the incompetence of their own company commander, the young men discover a possible way out of the war. They are told that if they can defeat a rival soccer team they may spend the rest of their tour playing exhibition games safely behind the lines. But, as might be expected, nothing in Vietnam is as simple as it seems. Andrew Stevens was nominated for a Golden Globe award for his performance as Private Billy Ray Pike.

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Married Life (2008)
dir. Ira Sachs

Product Decsription:
Far too many period productions look right, but feel wrong. Set in 1949, Married Life doesn't just bring the post-war era to vivid life with cigarettes and cocktails aplenty; it even plays like a product of the time. In that respect, it calls to mind AMC's Mad Men, except Ira Sachs (Forty Shades of Blue) takes a lighter tone towards domestic disharmony. In this well-scrubbed suburban world, middle-class wives, like Pat (Patricia Clarkson), build their lives around their husbands. Pat and Harry (Chris Cooper) seem happy, but Harry confesses to his pal, Richard (narrator Pierce Brosnan), that the spark is gone. He plans to leave Pat for vibrant young war widow Kay (Rachel McAdams in a role that recalls The Notebook). Once Richard, a notorious ladies man, gets a gander at the platinum blonde, he secretly sets out to win her affections, while Harry plots to take Pat out of the picture. Married Life almost simulates one of Alfred Hitchcock’s pessimistic disquisitions on matrimony, yet Harry and Richard seek less hurtful means to achieve their goals. Though women's lib has yet to hit the suburbs, Pat and Kay harbor desires of their own, and the best-laid plans soon go awry. Though Kay could use further development, this ensemble hums along almost as harmoniously as the quartet in Starting Out in the Evening. Along with co-writer Oren Moverman (I'm Not There), Sachs transforms John Bingham’s 1953 novel, Five Roundabouts to Heaven, into an insightful treatise on love, marriage, and fidelity. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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Road House (1948)
dir. Jean Negulesco

Product Decsription:
Jefty, owner of a roadhouse in a backwoods town, hires sultry, tough-talking torch singer Lily Stevens against the advice of his manager Pete Morgan. Jefty is smitten with Lily, who in turn exerts her charms on the more resistant Pete. When Pete finally falls for her and she turns down Jefty's marriage proposal, they must face Jefty's murderous jealousy and his twisted plots to "punish" the two.

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Moontide (1942)
dir. Archie Mayo

Product Decsription:
After a drunken binge on the San Pablo waterfront, longshoreman Bobo fears he may have killed a man. In his uncertainty, he takes a job on an isolated bait barge. That night, he rescues lovely Anna from a watery suicide attempt and installs her on the barge. But Tiny, Bobo's longtime pal and parasite, hopes to drive Anna away before domestic bliss tears Bobo away from him; the still unsolved murder may be just the wedge Tiny needs. There's fog on the water and evil brewing...

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How to Rob a Bank (2007)
dir. Andrews Jenkins

Product Decsription:
Half of the fun of writer-director Andrew Jenkins' feature debut - a heist film that gets everything right about a crime that goes all too wrong - is keeping track of who is doing what to whom and why. Who is robbing the bank? What are they after? These are the simple elements that keep rearranging themselves as Jinx (Nick Stahl) and Jessica (Erika Christensen) find themselves trapped inside a vault, with bank-robber Simon (Gavin Rossdale), stuck on the other side of the vault door, and the police stuck outside the bank. A fresh, freewheeling take on a genre perennial, Jenkins' film playfully hits the reset button every time things seem to settle into place.

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Time After Time (1979)
dir. Nicholas Meyer

Product Decsription:
H.G. Wells has just invented a time machine but hasn't tried it out yet. When he discovers that one of his friends is actually Jack the Ripper, Jack makes his escape using the time machine. Herbert follows Jack into the late 1970's where he meets Amy, a bank clerk, who teaches Herbert about life in 70's while they pursue Jack, who is enjoying the more violent society in which he continues his murderous activities.

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It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1981)
dir. Bill Melendez

Product Decsription:
Charlie Brown gets rocks in his trick-or-treat bag, Linus awaits a visitation from the Great Pumpkin in his terribly sincere pumpkin patch (while the adoring little Sally sits tight with him), Snoopy falls asleep, Lucy harasses Schroeder, and Pig-Pen kicks up a dust storm even beneath his costume in this classic television broadcast. Funny stuff, but also graced with Charles Schultz's more poignant and gently satiric themes from the 1960s on the influence of faith, failure, and hope in our lives.

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Under Siege 2 - Dark Territory (1995)
dir. Geoff Murphy

They could've picked a better Seagal movie for Blu-ray...although that cover is extremely kick-ass.

Product Decsription:
The success ofUnder Siege made a sequel mandatory according to Hollywood's rules of maximum revenue, and as sequels go, this one's not half bad. Steven Seagal returns as former Navy SEAL and skilled chef Casey Ryback, who's trying to spend quality time with his niece on a cross-country train trip. But as luck and action-movie formulas would have it, the train has been hijacked by a demented genius (Eric Bogosian) who is using the train as a moving platform to seize computerized control of a top-secret U.S. satellite that is capable of causing earthquakes from space. Seagal has to stop the train or the villain (whichever comes first), and the action is fast and furious on its way to a high-speed climax. He's not as wacky as Tommy Lee Jones in the first Under Siege, but Bogosian has got a delirious quality that serves the comic-book plot, and action fans get more than their fill of dazzling stunts and special effects. --Jeff Shannon

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The Wolves (1972)
dir. Hideo Gosha

Anything with Tatsuya Nakadai is worth checking out. End of story.

Product Decsription:
At the dawn of the Showa Era, the new Emperor has granted amnesty to almost 400 prisoners. One of those men, Seiji (Nakadai), formally a henchmen for one of Japan's toughest gangs, must now cope with the fact that his former boss is dead and the power shift has created new conspiracies.

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The Gauntlet (1977)
dir. Clint Eastwood

Can someone please explain why people don't get Frank Frazetta to make their movie posters? Is mostly everyone retarded, or would just be an overload of awesomeness?

Product Decsription:
Clint Eastwood is a down-and-out cop who is sent on a routine mission to pick up a witness and deliver her to the Phoenix courthouse. Sounds easy until he realizes he's been set up by the man who gave him this simple assignment. The interplay between Eastwood and the witness, a clever prostitute played by the actor's former girlfriend, Sondra Locke, is tough and playful. They obviously had strong chemistry. The story is highly implausible at times, but the action sequences are satisfying. Eastwood directs The Gauntlet very much in the style of his Academy Award-winning Western Unforgiven. Although the body count is surprisingly low for an Eastwood action film, a house, several cars, and a large bus get shot through with more holes than a big wheel of Swiss cheese. For Eastwood fans, this is the laconic hero at his prime.

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Every Which Way But Loose (1978)
dir. James Fargo

Product Decsription:
Clint Eastwood's 1978 comedy introduces Filo Beddoe, a truck driver and mechanic whose daily life is an absurd grind. He's constantly coming up short on money, love, and anything else to help him get through the day, while also saddled with a loony mother (deliciously played by Ruth Gordon), a best friend (Geoffrey Lewis) who's not too swift on the uptake, and an orangutan named Clyde who fights almost as well as Clint. While moonlighting as a bare-knuckle fighter, Clint finally meets the girl of his dreams (Sondra Locke), a snooty country singer who rebuffs him even as he pursues her, trailed by bikers and brawlers. It's Eastwood's magnetism and charm that make this more than a mere string of comic sketches, and things move along quickly enough to be entertaining, if a little thin. Clyde is a natural scene-stealer, but it's Ruth Gordon's crazy, cranky old coot who steals the movie. --Robert Lane

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Bright Lights, Big City (1988)
dir. James Bridges

Dang, can you imagine Michael J. Fox on cocaine? I bet it registers on the richter scale. *groan*

Product Decsription:
Michael J. Fox plays the most sympathetic cocaine addict you've ever seen in the movie of Jay McInerney's popular novel Bright Lights, Big City, the book that famously chronicled the coke- and cash-fueled era of the 1980s. Jamie Conway (Fox) works as a fact-checker for a major New York magazine, but because he spends his nights partying with his glib best friend (Kiefer Sutherland), he's on the verge of getting fired. His wife, a fast-rising model (Phoebe Cates), just left him; he's still reeling from the death of his mother (Dianne Wiest) a year earlier; and he's obsessed with a tabloid story about a pregnant woman in a coma. Bright Lights, Big City doesn't have much of a plot, but in its meandering way it captures some of the glossy chaos of the time and of a man desperately trying to escape the pain in his life. --Bret Fetzer

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Quark - The Complete Series (1977)
dir. Hy Averback

Product Decsription:
A spoof of science fiction films and TV series, these are the adventures of Adam Quark, captain of a United Galactic Sanitation Patrol ship. His cohorts include Gene/Jean, a "transmute" with male and female characteristics; a Vegeton (a highly-evolved plant-man) named Ficus; and Andy the Android and Betty and Betty (who always argue over who's the clone of the other). Based at Space Station Perma One are Otto Palindrome and The Head. Though Quark is supposed to stick to his sanitization patrols, he and his crew often meet adventure with such colorful space denizens as the evil High Gorgon (head of the villainous Gorgons), Zoltar the Magnificent, and Zargon the Malevolent.

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Monster Camp (2007)
dir. Cullen Hoback

Unfortunately, the LARPers in this movie are not the butt of every single joke, so I'm not sure how enjoyable this would be to watch.

Product Decsription:
MONSTER CAMP is a rare and fascinating glimpse into the world of live-action role playing, known as LARPing, as people act out the real-life version of the videogame phenomenon, "World of Warcraft." In this award-winning documentary, gamer stereotypes are simultaneously shattered and confirmed. Immerse yourself in a world completely unlike our own; a world built upon fantasy, chivalry, and imagination; a place where you can be anything, dress however, and have almost any power. This is the true story of NERO Seattle, one of over 60 LARPing franchises with thousands of members in North America.

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Savage Weekend (1979)
dir. John Mason Kirby, D. Paulson

Product Decsription:
Several couples head upstate to the country to watch a boat being built. Unfortunately they are stalked by a murderer behind a ghoulish mask.

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