Written and compiled by The Film Nest guest contributor “FightinIrish” (peep him in the Comments section)
Wow. Quite a dearth of titles this week. So much so that you see a Direct-to-Blu title in the headline. Of course there’s an obvious choice hovering above all BD titles this week like an alien mothership. Everything else is either lesser known, lesser quality or as previously mentioned, didn’t get a theatrical release. That doesn’t mean you should stay away, though. There’s always something to salvage when 1080p is concerned.
Please know anything you buy through use of the attached links goes toward supporting us at The Film Nest. Thanks in advance.
One of the best movies of the year and one of the surprise hits, as well. Directed by Neill Blomkamp, who should be doing the Halo movie if you’ve seen his Landfall and Halo: Combat short films, does an outstanding job of redefining the whole sci-fi/action universe. The film shows the Hollywood machine you don’t need to spend $300 million – I’m looking at you Transformers 2 – to get a great looking feature and to turn a huge profit. A wise man once said “an effect without a story is just an effect” (George Lucas, before he made the Star Wars prequels) and this film follows the proclamation perfectly. Check our review if you don’t believe it.
Supplements: Metamorphosis: The Transformation of Wikus, Innovation: Acting and Improvisation, Conception and Design: Creating the World of District 9, Alien Generation: Visual Effects, Director’s Commentary, Joburg From Above: Satellite and Schematics of the World of District 9 – Interactive Map, Koobus Big Gun, The Alien Agenda: A Filmmaker’s Log Three-Part Documentary, The Alien Agenda: A Filmmaker’s Log – Chapter 3: Refining District 9, movieIQ, cinechat, BD-Live
One of the better films of the year and a film that continues to prove that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is an actor to follow, if they do another Batman film with the Joker, I nominate JG-L as the new Joker, as he even kind of looks like Ledger. Back to this film, Zooey Deschanel is in it, so what else can I say other than this is a unique look at the romantic film genre. Who hasn’t had a girlfriend/boyfriend that you just can’t seem to get out of your mind? Our review has even more to say.
Supplements: Feature commentary with Director Marc Webb, Writer Michael Weber, Co-Writer Scott Neustadter and Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lost Days of Summer: Deleted and Extended Scenes With Optional Commentary by Director Marc Webb, Writer Michael Weber, Co-Writer Scott Neustadter and Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Summer At Sundance, Not A Love Story – Making (500) Days of Summer, Two Audition Tapes With Optional Commentary By Director Marc Webb, Summer Storyboards, Bank Dance Directed By Marc Webb, Mean’s Cinemash: “Sid and Nancy/(500) Days of Summer”, Music Video: “Sweet Disposition” By Temper Trap, Six Conversations With Zooey and Joseph, Filmmaking Specials
Is this the year of Sandra Bullock? With The Blindside, The Proposal and this film, it would be hard to argue otherwise. Your main weapon in that argument would be this film, which is highly forgettable and was definitely her worst of the year. If you’re a fan of Bradley Cooper, maybe you check this out, but even then, I don’t know.
Supplements: Commentary by writer Kim Barker, Sandra Bullock, Thomas Haden Church, Bradley Cooper, Ken Jeong and director Phil Traill, All About All About Steve, Gag Reel, Crew Snapshots To Mary’s Rap, Take A Stab at Vocab!, Fox Movie Channel Presents Casting Session
Family Guy: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side
Ah, “Family Guy,” your lack of creative writing and thought causes you to use and reference every other work of pop culture from the last 30 years. I’ll admit, even when you do that, I am still a fan. This is the second of their Star Wars rip-offs, I mean, homages, and by far it will be the best thing they do all year, such was the case with Blue Harvest. It will be funny, it will follow the story of Empire step-by-step and it will make unrelated references to “Happy Days,” Bill Clinton, wards of the state, Carl Lewis botching the National Anthem (“uh-oh”) and “Charles in Charge,” but overall it’s going to be talked about and if you don’t buy this you will be out of the loop.
Supplements: “Something Something Something” pop-up video, The Dark Side of Poster Art, Animatic version of the episode, Deleted scenes, Digital Copy
The newest Mike Judge creation, expect this to become cult material in no time, as with all his other work. Jason Bateman has really displayed a comedic style, playing the straight man so well. Check the review.
Supplements: Mike Judge’s Secret Recipe, Deleted scenes, Extended scenes
Didn’t see it. Looked like a complete copy of Alien. It’s got Dennis Quaid (the non-hotel-room-fee-evading one) and Ben Foster in it, so that’s something right? Maybe our review could give you a better idea.
Supplements: Audio commentary, The World of Elysium: Behind-the-scenes featurette, Flight team training video, Deleted and alternate scenes, Still galleries
A documentary for anyone who is a fan of rock music and its key instrument. Featuring The Edge, Jimmy Paige and Jack White, what more could one with an ax ask for?
Supplements: Toronto Film Festival Press Conference, BD-Live
American Pie: The Book of Love
Remember 1999, when there was a movie about a group of guys trying to lose their virginity before college, it involved some crazy scenarios, horrible yet comical results, and we all had a big laugh? What was that movie’s name? Oh yeah, it was American Pie. Well it seems that the people behind this continuation think we’ve all had memory loss because this is basically an exact repeat of that film, only 10 years later. They even decided to include Eugene Levy in it, as a slap-in-the-face insult to us viewers. Really now, if you’re going to use the American Pie name in the same vein as the National Lampoon name is used, don’t make the same movie twice. National Lampoon sure as hell didn’t try to make Animal House a second time 10 years later, with Stephen Furst reprising his role as “Dorfman” and pass it off as something new and original.
Supplements: Deleted scenes, Gag reel, Featurettes, American Pie Trivia, BD-Live, My Scenes Sharing, My Chat
