How to Spend $20
By Eric Hughes
April 14, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Pick of the Week
For people who still can't believe this movie was up for Best Picture: The Reader
Like nearly anyone that saw this thing, I didn't love The Reader. It had its moments, but certainly wasn't deserving of all its Oscar nods. The fact it was a Holocaust movie further solidified the idea that the Academy has, and frankly will always praise, just about anything set in the time period. Either that or the Weinsteins really know how to throw their weight around (an idea promoted here at BOP by David Mumpower).
But besides all that politic stuff, Kate Winslet truly dished out an amazing performance as Hanna Schmitz. She was either going to win for this or for Revolutionary Road. Winslet owned 2008.
Based on the brief, albeit best-selling German novel from 1995, The Reader is about a young boy, Michael (David Kross), who has a passionate love affair with a much older woman, Hanna (Kate Winslet). The boy (portrayed by Ralph Fiennes much later in the story) loses contact with Hanna, but is reunited with her when his law school class sits in on her trial, where Hanna defends her Nazi past.
Disc includes: Deleted scenes, Adapting a Timeless Masterpiece: Making The Reader featurette, A Conversation with David Kross & Stephen Daldry featurette, Kate Winslet on the Art of Aging Hanna Schmitz featurette, A New Voice: A Look at Composer Nico Muhly featurette, Coming to Grips with the Past: Production Designer Brigitte Broch featurette
For people who remember the time when America appreciated Lindsay Lohan and didn't consider her a gigantic slut: Mean Girls [Blu-ray]
Do you seriously remember such a time? It sure seems so long, so long ago.
Anyway. Mean Girls would be Lindsay Lohan's breakout role as a grownup actress. Of course, she made a name for herself in The Parent Trap remake a few years prior to the release of this one. But let's get serious. She was a kid actor then, and who could have expected she'd blow up big time just a few years later? Most of us were mulling over the fact that she doesn't actually have a twin sister.
Mean Girls stars Lohan as a newbie student who learns the ins-and-outs of an American high school after she's planted there following a move from Africa with her parents. It boasts a solid resume of former Saturday Night Live players, including Amy Poehler, Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer and Tina Fey, who also wrote the adaptation. The movie is based on the 2002 book, Queen Bees and Wannabes, by Rosalind Wiseman.
Disc includes: Audio commentary, Only the Strong Survive featurette, The Politics of Girl World featurette, Plastic Fashion featurette, blooper reel, deleted scenes
For people who missed out on a horror movie that actually reviewed very well: Splinter
There's been so many horror movies released as of late that I'm not entirely surprised when you come across one that slips through the cracks. Though Splinter, which basically earned zero dollars at the box office, did more than slip through the cracks. It recklessly tumbled through the pavement and made a mess of itself on the floor below.
The flick, whose trailer made it out to look like your standard chiller, worked well with critics. About 70% of 'em gave it a positive review according to Rotten Tomatoes. And in horror movie terms, that's pretty damn fantastic. Too bad the rogue in Splinter is some demented virus-y thing that causes its victims to take on porcupine-like characteristics. Else wise, a bigger audience likely would have been had.
Disc includes: The Splinter Creature featurette, art gallery, The Wizard featurette, Building the Gas Station featurette, Shoot Digitally featurette, Oklahoma Weather featurette, How to Make a Splinter Pumpkin featurette, HDNet: A Look at Splinter, audio commentary
For the Goddamn Batman: The Spirit (Special Edition)
Frank Miller hit it big with Sin City. (That title's expecting not one but two sequels here a bit down the road). But The Spirit? Eh...not so much. Even with its impressive cast – Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johannson, Eva Mendes, Sarah Paulson, Paz Vega, and so on – the movie managed just $37 million in worldwide receipts. (And a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 14% isn't something to write home about, either).
I mention both in the same breath not only because they're both Frank Miller products, but also because they certainly look like they're of the same family, style-wise. The Spirit could've been marketed as the follow up to Sin City, and the average moviegoer wouldn't have known the difference. (Because of Sin City, the movie's black and white backdrop, interspersed with bits of color, is by no means revolutionary).
In The Spirit, Gabriel Macht stars as the title character, who returns from the dead to fight crime, and his arch-enemy (Jackson) in Central City. While tracking him down, The Spirit clashes with a number of beautiful women. It's based on a comic strip first published in 1940 by Will Eisner.
Disc includes: Green World featurette, Miller on Miller featurette, alternate storyboard ending, audio commentary, digital copy of the film
April 14, 2009
Blu-ray
8 Mile
Bali
California Redwoods
Costa Rica
Cranford
Fall In New England
Florez / Zurich: Donizetti: Don Pasquale
IMAX: Deep Sea / IMAX: Into The Deep
The Last Kiss
Mean Girls
Olympic Rainforest
Pacific Coast
Pride and Prejudice
Rocky Mountains
Sacred Canyons of the Southwest
The Spirit
Splinter
The Story of India
Strange Wilderness
The Thirteenth Floor
Universal Soldier
Wild Africa
DVD
House of Saddam
IMAX: Deep Sea / IMAX: Into The Deep (Double Feature)
John Wayne Western Collection (Deluxe Edition)
Knots Landing: The Complete Second Season
Lost Concert Series: Dean Martin
Lost in Austen
Malcolm & Eddie: Season One
Pete Seegar: Live In Australia 1963
Phish: The Clifford Ball
Pillow Talk (50th Anniversary Edition)
Pride and Prejudice
Skins: Volume 2 (Widescreen)
Taste of Life: Season Three
The Thirteenth Floor
The Who: Live
Wild Africa
Wings: The Complete Series (Set)
Wings: The Final Season