Top DVD Releases for the Week of January 6 2009
Here is a list of the DVD Releases for the week of January 6 2009:
Pineapple Express
Synopsis: Ride high on the Pineapple Express, the outrageously hysterical blockbuster from Judd Apatow, the director and screenwriter of Knocked Up. A lazy stoner (Seth Rogen) is the sole witness to a murder by an evil drug lord (Gary Cole) and the corrupt cop (Rosie Perez). Marked for death, he runs for his life, dragging his dazed dealer (James Franco) and his supplier (Danny McBride) with him on a hilarious smokin’ adventure.
Cast: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Gary Cole, Rosie Perez, James Remar, Danny R. McBride, Amber Heard, Craig Robinson, Ken Jeong
Recommendations: It’s a comedy and it’s actually funny. Turns out Pineapple Express was way better than what I thought it would be and I wouldn’t mind watching it over again.
Buy it: Pineapple Express on Amazon (Also available on Blu-ray)
Babylon A.D.
Synopsis: It is the not-too-distant future. Thousands of satellites scan, observe and monitor our every move. Much of the planet is a war zone; the rest, a collection of wretched way stations, teeming megalopolises, and vast wastelands punctuated by areas left radioactive from nuclear meltdowns. It is a world made for hardened warriors, one of whom, a mercenary known only as Toorop, lives by a simple survivor’s code: kill or be killed. His latest assignment has him smuggling a young woman named Aurora from a convent in Kazakhstan to New York City. Toorop, his new young charge Aurora and Aurora’s guardian Sister Rebeka embark on a 6,000 mile journey that takes them from Eastern Europe, through a refugee camp in “New Russia,” across the Bering Straight in a pilfered submarine, then through the frozen tundra of Alaska and Canada, and finally to New York. Facing obstacles at every turn, Toorop, the killer for hire, is tested like never before, in ways he could never have imagined–as he comes to understand that he is the custodian of the only hope for the future of mankind. For the first time in his life, Toorop has to make a choice: to make a difference or walk away and save himself. Too bad it came on the day he died. (Source: Yahoo! Movies)
Cast: Vin Diesel, Charlotte Rampling, Gerard Depardieu, Michelle Yeoh, Mark Strong, Lambert Wilson
Recommendations: I did hear bad things about the movie, but since I haven’t actually seen it yet, I’m curious, hence the must rent recommendation.
Buy it: Babylon A.D. on Amazon (Also available on Blu-ray)
Bangkok Dangerous
Synopsis: The life of Joe, an anonymous assassin, takes an unexpected turn when he travels to Thailand to complete a series of contract killings. Joe, a remorseless hitman, is in Bangkok to execute four enemies of a ruthless crime boss named Surat. He hires Kong, a street punk and pickpocket, to run errands for him with the intention of covering his tracks by killing him at the end of the assignment. Strangely, Joe, the ultimate lone wolf, finds himself mentoring the young man instead whilst simultaneously being drawn into a tentative romance with a local shop girl. As he falls further under the sway of Bangkok’s intoxicating beauty, Joe begins to question his isolated existence and let down his guard–just as Surat decides it’s time to clean house. (Source: Yahoo! Movies)
Cast: Nicolas Cage, James With, Charlie Yeung, Philip Waley, Shaun Delaney, Shahkrit Yamnarm, Panward Hemmanee, Dom Hetrakul
Recommendations: I feel the same way about Bangkok Dangerous that I feel about Babylon A.D. Haven’t heard great things about it, but still want to see it. What can I say, I’m an entertainment whore.
Buy it: Bangkok Dangerous on Amazon (Also available on Blu-ray)
The Wackness
Synopsis: Set in New York in the sweltering summer of 1994, THE WACKNESS tells the story of a troubled teenage drug dealer, who trades pot for therapy sessions with a drug-addled psychiatrist.. Things get more complicated when the kid falls for one of his classmates, who just happens to be the doctor’s daughter.
Set against the backdrop of the greatest year in hip hop history, THE WACKNESS is a coming-of-age
story about sex, drugs, music–and what it takes to be a man.
Cast: Ben Kingsley, Josh Peck, Famke Janssen, Mary-Kate Olsen, Olivia Thirlby, Method Man, Aaron Yoo
Recommendations: I have heard great things about The Wackness and have been waiting to see it.
Buy it: The Wackness on Amazon (Also available on Blu-ray)
Disaster Movie
Synopsis: In DISASTER MOVIE, the filmmaking team behind the hits “Scary Movie,” “Date Movie,” “Epic Movie” and “Meet The Spartans” this time puts its unique, inimitable stamp on one of the biggest and most bloated movie genres of all time — the disaster film. DISASTER MOVIE follows the comic misadventures of a group of ridiculously attractive twenty-somethings during one fateful night as they try to make their way to safety while every known natural disaster and catastrophic event — asteroids, twisters, earthquakes, the works — hits the city and their path as they try to solve a series of mysteries to end the rampant destruction. Taking aim at everything and everyone, from “Indiana Jones” and “Iron Man” to Amy Winehouse and “High School Musical,” DISASTER MOVIE lampoons the blockbuster movie, pop culture icons and public figures along the way as Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer satirize everything as only they can. (Source: Yahoo! Movies)
Cast: Carmen Electra, Matt Lanter, Vanessa Minnillo, Kimberly Kardashian
Recommendations: Been there, done that. Seriously how many of these movies can they make?
Buy it: Disaster Movie on Amazon (Also available on Blu-ray)
Righteous Kill
Synopsis: A pair of veteran New York City police detectives are on the trail of a vigilante serial killer. After 30 years as partners in the pressure cooker environment of the NYPD, highly decorated Detectives David Fisk and Thomas Cowan should be ready for retirement, but aren’t. Before they can hang up their badges, they are called in to investigate the murder of a notorious pimp, which appears to have ties to a case they solved years before. Like the original murder, the victim is a suspected criminal whose body is found accompanied by a four line poem justifying the killing. When additional crimes take place, it becomes clear the detectives are looking for a serial killer, one who targets criminals that have fallen through the cracks of the judicial system. His mission is to do what the cops can’t do on their own–take the culprits off the streets for good. The similarities between the recent killings and their earlier case raise a nagging question: Did they put the wrong man behind bars? (Source: Yahoo! Movies)
Cast: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, 50 Cent, Donnie Wahlberg, Carla Gugino, John Leguizamo, Dan Futterman, Trilby Glover, Rob Dyrdek
Recommendations: I know it’s a Robert De Niro and Al Pacino movie, but it just doesn’t look that great to me.
Buy it: Righteous Kill on Amazon (Also available on Blu-ray)
