Blu Ray Releases for 1/27/09 Previewed Briefly By Blue

* Any Given Sunday - Director's Cut (Warner) - Unfairly criticized Oliver Stone film. Not among his best, but a decent movie. Don't know about you, but I am sick to death of heart-warming/motivational football movies. They all have the same plot. This one is cynical, and perhaps too on-the-nose, because at times it's a little obvious.

* The Bourne Trilogy (Universal) - Don't get me wrong, I like these movies a lot, but goddamn they manage to stretch the plot out. There's enough plot in all three of these for one regular movie. Still, really well done thrillers.

* Dead & Buried (Blue Underground) - Terrific horror movie from the early 80s. I have a perfectly good dvd of this already though, and frankly this movie wouldn't really benefit too much from blu ray resolution.

* Death Trance (Tokyo Shock) - Fantasy samurai movie from the director of Versus starring Steven Seagal's son. It's about the apocalypse. Sounds about right.

* Groundhog Day (Sony) - I'd say this was Bill Murray's best movie but really there's a few that are all pretty amazing. This is a real contender. Though again this doesn't really call out for HD.

* Hulk Vs. (Lionsgate) - Two short animated films I guess? With Hulk fighting Thor and Hulk fighting Wolverine. Yawn.

* Lakeview Terrace (Sony) - The latest installment of the "Samuel L Jackson yelling at people" series. This time he's an evil cop!

* Open Season 2 (Sony) - Is this an animated film? I forget.

* The Pink Panther (1963) (Fox) - Oh, nice, the original. Dunno how this looks in blu ray but it should be nice. The Closeau-centric sequels are better though, imo.

* Pride & Glory (Warner) - I don't get why people hate Colin Ferrell. I mean, he was maybe in too many movies at once, but he's routinely good in all his roles. Even in Alexander, which was a poor movie(not as poor as people say at that) he was pretty solid. And I flat out love his work in Miami Vice and In Bruges. Anyway people assumed this particular movie sucks because he's in it, despite the presence of Ed Norton as well. Well hell! It got good reviews and is probably worth a watch on dvd at least.

* The Rocker (Fox) - I heard this comedy with Rainn Wilson from the Office is actually pretty good, if not actually rip roaringly hilarious. Sounds like a wait for cable deal though.

* RockNRolla (Warner) - Oh man. I loved this movie in the theater, and this is my must-buy of the week. Guy Ritchie's return to form, and for my money I actually like this better than Snatch and Lock,Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. The best soundtrack in years to boot. Fun fun fun movie and every performance is good.

* Stomp Live (Well Go USA) - Fuck Stomp. Them and the Blue Man Group. They exist on the same plane of retard-pleasing performance art that Carrot Top does, but since he talks he's labeled a stand up and held to a higher standard. Well guess what. Performance art sucks. Yeah, sorry. It's the bottom layer of bad art as far as I'm concerned, along with soft jazz, baby photography and modern country music. What does that mean exactly? Well, just this: even the people who are considered to be really good at it, are fucking terrible. It's non-art.

* Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Weinstein) - Woody Allen's 12th Return To Form in a row! Amazing how that works out. I'm serious. I've heard every movie of his since Deconstructing Harry has been a return to form. Such bullshit. Why can't critics just admit he's good but unpopular? I haven't seen a movie he's made in the past ten years that I'd consider bad. Anyway, this movie has the midget Scarlett Johanssen, Rat Face Penelope Cruz, and an actually attractive-from-every-angle actress in Rebecca Hall. Also Javier Bardem in a non-murder role that would've gone to Antonio Banderas five years ago.

* Zodiac: Director's Cut (Paramount) - This movie grew on me like no other in recent memory. I've probably seen it 15 times by now and it's better each time.