How to Spend $20
By Eric Hughes
March 3, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Pick of the Week
For people who are patiently waiting for Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster to reunite on screen for one final Hannibal movie: The Silence of the Lambs [Blu-ray]
If Hannibal weren't already scary enough, we're now offered the opportunity to see the killer in gorgeous Blu-ray. You've officially been warned.
One of the best psychological thrillers ever to grace the big screen, The Silence of the Lambs was the first of four films to feature the famed character (with the first three starring Sir Anthony Hopkins, who earned his only Academy Award with Lambs). Of course, I'm excluding 1986's box office flop Manhunter in the tally. That movie, based on Thomas Harris's Red Dragon, is usually forgotten about anyway.
Disc includes: Breaking the Silence featurette, Understanding the Madness featurette, Inside the Labyrinth: Making The Silence of the Lambs documentary, The Silence of the Lambs: Page to Screen documentary, Scoring the Silence featurette, Original 1991 Making of featurette, deleted scenes, outtakes, Anthony Hopkins phone message
For people who are glad Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox were able to settle their scuffle: Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic
Can't wait for Watchmen? You know, the blockbuster movie brought to you by Warner Bros. and NOT 20th Century Fox. (Don't make the mistake of confusing the two). Then get your grubby hands on Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic, a DVD product that is exactly as it sounds.
Instead of paging through the most celebrated graphic novel of all time, you now can watch a digital version of the comic already sold in stores, complete with (limited) motion, voices and sound effects. How... American. The DVD takes about five hours to get through the story's 12 chapters.
Disc includes: Wonder Woman DVD sneak peek
For people who wish they had a guy like Hugh Jackman waiting for them when they went Down Under: Australia
If you got tired of all that Hugh Jackman singing and dancing stuff at the Oscars... relax... there isn't any of that going on here. Australia is very much a romance story...and at the same time a war story. So for the curious, there will be no boogying around bullets and bopping around bombs. And trust me. Nicole Kidman doesn't require her men to prance around like little gazelles to develop a thing for them.
In the period film that 20th Century Fox thought would be a contender for serious Oscar hardware, Kidman plays Lady Sarah Ashley, an English aristocrat who falls in love with an Australian drover (Hugh Jackman). The burly man helps the woman move her cattle to save themselves from the threat of a nearby town, Darwin, being bombed. It's World War II, and the bombing of Darwin, which occurred in 1942, was the largest attack ever enacted by a foreign country against Australia.
Disc includes: Deleted scenes
For people who believe The Hills is so fake that it's real that it's fake: The Hills: The Complete Fourth Season
Ladies and gentlemen, let's all bow our heads a moment and pay our respects to MTV darling The Hills, which has been confirmed to come to a close at the end of the fifth season. The new episodes are slated to air sometime in the spring.
Okay, I'm over it. How about you?
A show I've never watched (nor do I ever really care to), The Hills is itself a spinoff of faux-reality series Laguna Beach, which ceased production about two-and-a-half years ago. The show, which documents the lives of Lauren Conrad (or more properly, L.C.) and her Bobbsey twins in L.A. following her move from Laguna Beach, quickly became a ratings juggernaut for the cable network. It even spawned its own offspring, The City, which started airing original episodes at the end of 2008. (But don't fret. This franchise still has got nothing on the number of series VH1 squeezed out of Flavor Flav's Flavor of Love).
Out today is The Hills' penultimate season, which featured L.C. kicking her friend, Audrina, out; Spencer and Heidi eloping in Mexico and Whitney interviewing to work for fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg.
Disc includes: Deleted scenes, interviews, Lessons in Love featurette, after show remixes, photo shoot, Rolling Stone photo shoot, Virtual Hills featurette
For people who put family in front of breakfast: I've Loved You So Long
Last year proved to be the year of the international actor (to us Americans, at least). At the Oscars, Brit Kate Winslet won her first statue, as did Spaniard Penelope Cruz. And at the Globes, Irish bad boy Colin Farrell, Brit Sally Hawkins and again Winslet won awards. I've Loved You So Long's Kristin Scott Thomas is no exception. Though she only mustered a nod at the Globes, her performance surely brought much needed attention to her acclaimed French film while it made the rounds on the awards circuit.
Here, Scott Thomas stars as Juliette, a woman who has been in prison for committing murder. After serving the sentence, Juliette moves in with her sister's (Elsa Zylberstein) family, including her husband, his mute father and their adopted daughters. While with the family, Juliette learns to break through her bitterness and carefully open up.
Disc includes: Audio commentary, deleted scenes
March 3rd, 2009
Blu-ray
Australia
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Hi Def Moods: HD Fire
I've Loved You So Long
In the Electric Mist
Machaidze / Villazon / Petrenko / Brau: Gounod: Ro
Stargate: The Ark of Truth/Continuum
Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic
Wonder Woman
DVD
7th Heaven: The Eighth Season
Air Bud (Widescreen Special Edition)
The Art of Travel (Special Edition)
Ashes of Time Redux (Widescreen)
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Boz Scaggs: Greatest Hits Live
Creedence Clearwater Revival
ER: The Complete Tenth Season (Widescreen)
Exit Speed
Fountains of Wayne No Better Place Live in Chicago
Hotel Babylon: Season 3 (Widescreen)
A Moment in History: Inauguration of Barack Obama
My Two Dads: The Complete First Season
Nash Bridges: The Second Season
Neil Peart: Anatomy of a Drum Solo
Ozzy Osbourne: Randy Rhoad's Years
Raffi: Raffi in Concert
Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares: Complete Series 1
Return Of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Rick & Steve: The Complete Second Season
Sam Cook: Legend
Scarlett Johansson Collection (Set)
The Sin
Stargate: The Ark of Truth/Continuum (Double Feature)
The Village Barbershop
Weapons (Widescreen)
Wet Kiss (Widescreen)
What Planet Are You From? (Set)
Wildfire: Season Three (Widescreen)
Wonder Woman (Special Edition)