DVD and Blu-ray Releases for March 22nd, 2011

March 21st, 2011

It's a deceptively slow week when it comes to DVD and Blu-ray releases. Have I mentioned how much I love the word, "deceptively"? It is worse than meaningless and actually reduces the amount of information given in any sentence it appears in. In this case, the first sentence could mean the week appears to be slow, but it is actually quite busy. Or it could mean the week appears busy, but is quite slow. Unfortunately, it's the latter. There are four first run releases coming out on the home market, which is more than most weeks, but all four missed expectations to one degree or another. Additionally, there's only one new release that I'm seriously considering for Pick of the Week, The Venture Bros.: Season Four on Blu-ray. In fact, there are a couple Blu-ray catalog titles that are more interesting than any of the first run releases. Leading the way there is Stand By Me, which is not only a great movie, but the Blu-ray isn't shovelware and includes Blu-ray exclusive extras like a Picture-in-Picture track. So which release is the Pick of the Week? I can't decide, so let's call it a tie. More...

DVD and Blu-ray Releases for March 15th, 2011

March 14th, 2011

Another exhaustingly slow week. It seems like forever since there was a week with two or more top-tier releases. There is one film that was a hit both at the box office and with critics, The Fighter, while most of the rest failed to succeed in both areas and during a normal week many would have not even been worth mentioning. That said, The Fighter would have been a contender for Pick of the Week even if the competition was stronger than average and the DVD or the Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack is worth grabbing. More...

Featured DVD Review: Siren

March 14th, 2011

Siren is a British horror film being released direct-to-DVD here by Lionsgate. Normally when you hear "horror" and "direct-to-DVD" in the same sentence, it raises warning bells. However, Lionsgate does have a better than average success rate at finding smaller films like this, while it is an import, which could explain why it couldn't find a theatrical release here. This does give me some reason to be cautiously optimistic. More...