June 5th, 2012
While summer is usually the slowest time of the year on the home market, this week is fantastic with a lot of prime releases, including first-run, TV on DVD releases, classics and limited releases. Unfortunately, the largest single category is, "Screener is Late". You will see that phrase countless times on this list. (Perhaps it's because last week was a short week due to Memorial Day.) It is especially hard to select a Pick of the Week, because I don't like handing out that title when the screener is late. There are a few likely candidates, including Burn Notice: The Complete Fifth Season, Yellow Submarine on Blu-ray, but I went with Tomboy on DVD.
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August 16th, 2011
It's a deceptively busy week, as there are several significant releases hitting the home market on Tuesday. However, most of these are wide releases that flopped, to one degree or another. In fact, one of the best selling releases of the week is Jane Eyre, an early success story in limited release. When a limited release could conceivably lead the way in sales... well, that's a sure sign of weakness in the overall market. As for the best release of the week, that would have to go to The Big Lebowski Limited Edition Blu-ray Digibook. The latest season of Dexter would come close, but while the show is great, the releases are not Pick of the Week material.
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August 12th, 2011
It was a slow week on the home market, especially on Blu-ray, where it was a rare week suffering from year-over-year declines. But more on that in a bit. The number one selling Blu-ray was Source Code with 189,000 units. It was a little disappointing on DVD and its opening week Blu-ray ratio was just under 33%, acceptable, but not great. It was visual enough that upgrading to High Definition wasn't a bad choice, but second-tier enough that I would understand if a lot of people just didn't want to bother with the extra price.
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August 11th, 2011
I'm combining the Blu-ray reviews for National Lampoon's Animal House and The Blues Brothers for a number reasons. They were originally released in theaters less than two years apart, came out on Blu-ray the same day, they are both being released by the same studio, and I previously reviewed The Blues Brothers, so that review will be rather short. Another similarity... they're both widely considered the best of their respective franchises, both of which have fallen on hard times. So, have the years been good to them? And are these Blu-ray releases worth picking up
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