Blu Ray Releases for 10/14 Previewed Briefly by Blue

* American Gangster (Universal) - This movie sounds great on paper and it's well made and well acted, but in the final analysis it falls short of being truly great. It expends a lot of effort to be a classic crime drama but ends up struggling to be average.

* Casino (Universal) - Worthwhile but inferior followup to Goodfellas.

* The Code (First Look) - Okay this is on the list of releases but I can't find any evidence this movie actually exists.

* Constantine (Warner) - The comic was about a blonde British magician/con man who outwits the devil for his soul. The movie was about a dark haired American freelance exorcist who lives above a bowling alley and had a gold crucifix shotgun he uses to kill cgi demons. Yeah, guess which was better. Still it's kind of entertaining.

* Eastern Promises (Universal) - Cronenberg's not-weird period continues. It turns out Cronenberg is a lot better than most at doing crime drama, as this is fairly original for the genre, as was A History of Violence.

* Gangster Giftset (American Gangster, Casino, Eastern Promises) (Universal) - See individual reviews.

* IMAX: Coral Reef Adventure (Image) - Yawn.

* IMAX: Cosmic Voyage/Destiny In Space (Warner) - Yawn.

* IMAX: Dolphins (Image) - Yawn.

* IMAX: Space Station/Mission to Mir (Warner) - Yawn.

* IMAX: The Living Sea (Image) - Wow this is an interesting disc. Just kidding. Yawn.

* Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Paramount Entetainment) - Nuh? Buh? An actual NEW movie release this week? Wow. I liked this, but I can't deny that it's weak sauce as far as the Indy series goes.

* The Jewel of the Nile (Fox) - Remember when Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner were sex symbols? When I was like 5? Yeah. Generally fun movies but wow, so 80s.

* Mongol (Universal) - An incredibly frustrating experience at the theater. Basically this is Genghis Khan: The Early Years. And apparantly all Genghis Khan did as a kid and young man was constantly run away from his enemies, betray his friends, and walk around the desert. Seriously, this movie sucked. We see his humiliations in great detail, basically he loses every fight for 99% of the film, then at the end there's a huge battle that's mostly off screen, that he wins. This battle is won by an army they gloss over him recruiting, btw. The whole production is a waste. Pass pass pass.

* Poltergeist (Warner) - Tobe Hooper's big try at getting into the A List was actually a huge success, but it didn't do him any good, as there have been constant rumors of producer Spielberg being the actual director. Which is probably not that far off the mark. Anyway I don't really care for this movie, it's better than stuff like The Amityville Horror, but it's still in the "ooh scary fart cloud ghosts!".

* The Rocker (Fox) - This actually was well reviewed. Sank like a rock, though. Sounds like a wait-for-cable sitch.

* Romancing the Stone (Fox) - See Jewel of the Nile preview,

* Standard Operating Procedure (Sony) - Errol Morris is one of the best documentarians around, but I'm not really big on his interview style, it feels off to me.

* The Ultimate Matrix Collection (Warner) - Honesty time: none of these movies hold up outside of the action scenes.

* The Universe: Season One (A&E) - Yawn.

* War, Inc. (First Look) - What happened to John Cusack being awesome? Come on man, you can do it again. This is surely not it.

* War: Greatest Hits - Live (Warner Music Group) - Yay, boring music blu ray of the week. What's it good for? Absolutely nothing.