How to Spend $20
By Eric Hughes
August 4, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Pick of the Week
I Smell Movie Franchise. What's Next? The Mysteries of... Philadelphia?: The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
When I first saw the trailer to The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, I gave the project an enthusiastic nod and vowed to quickly add the original novel to my reading cue. I got around to reading the source material, and guess what happened? I loved it to bits. No surprise there since Michael Chabon has yet to let me down.
For those keeping score, my anticipation in seeing the theatrical version to the original 1988 book was riding fairly high. Then the reviews came in. And boy were they brutal. Take CBS News, who criticized the film's director of "[taking] movie-friendly gold and [turning] it into dull metal."
Regardless, I still feel there's a good story in the coming-of-age Mysteries of Pittsburgh – no matter how muddled its filmmakers made it out to be. Part of me thinks critics cast it off as a second-rate Adventureland, which was released a week before The Mysteries of Pittsburgh bowed in theaters.
Disc includes: Behind-the-Scenes of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh featurette, Based Upon the Novel by Michael Chabon featurette, digital copy of the film
For people who don't blame Ali Larter for going after Beyonce's man meat: Obsessed
Uma Thurman v. Daryl Hannah is soooo 2004. Jump ahead to earlier this year, and Beyonce Knowles v. Ali Larter is all the rage.
In a choreographed fight scene complete with attic crawl spaces, broken chandeliers and girls falling through floors, Larter showed off all that deftness she learned on the set of Heroes in a brawl to the death with – who else? – one of America's biggest pop singers. Let's just say in this case it pays to have once been a member of Destiny's Child.
The flick turned into quite the surprise for Screen Gems Pictures, picking up a huge $28.6 million in its opening frame. (Enough to recoup its budget, and then some). Its worldwide tally now stands at $71.8 million.
Disc includes: Girl Fight!: An Inside Look at the Climactic Fight Sequence Between Beyonce Knowles and Ali Larter featurette
For people who couldn't tell from the trailer whether this thing was going to turn out really, really good or really, really bad: The Soloist
Getting bumped from primetime Oscar season to the week before the start of the summer box office season can never be good. Welcome to The Soloist's world, in which its studio, DreamWorks – out of a lack of confidence or what have you – did that very thing. To just about no one's surprise the movie failed to earn anything remotely close to its $60 million budget. (Yanked from theaters in July, The Soloist barely managed even half that).
Based on a true story helmed by Joe Wright (Atonement), The Soloist follows the unlikely bond between an L.A. Times columnist (Robert Downey Jr.) and a homeless musician (Jamie Foxx) who develops schizophrenia while studying at Juilliard. Catherine Keener's in there too as the editor of the L.A. Times (and ex-wife to Downey Jr.'s character).
Disc includes: Audio commentary, deleted scenes, An Unlikely Friendship: Making The Soloist featurette
For people who like high quality H2O (and picture resolution!): The Waterboy [Blu-ray]
Adam Sandler may have failed to open big a few days ago in Funny People, but the man sure had his schtick in gear about ten years ago when his turn as a stuttering, socially deficient college kid in The Waterboy skyrocketed the movie to nearly $40 million in its opening weekend.
Out today is a Blu-ray version of the film we know and love, and is – admit it already – so damn quotable.
Disc includes: None
Oh what a joyous occasion!: Delgo
Just click here.
Disc includes: Does it matter? It's Delgo on DVD!
August 4, 2009
Blu-ray
America the Beautiful
The Beast (Extended Edition)
Big Trouble In Little China
CHS Essential Concert Collection
CHS Essential Nature Collection
Harvard Beats Yale
A Haunting: Twilight of Evil
Labor Pains
Man on the Moon
Mutant Chronicles (Collector's Edition)
My Cousin Vinny
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
O.A.R.: Live From Madison Square Garden
Obsessed
Oh Happy Day: Sunday Morning Music
Race to Witch Mountain
Sling Blade (Director's Cut)
The Soloist
Stargate Atlantis: Fans' Choice
The Waterboy
Wrong Turn
Wrong Turn 2: Dead End
DVD
200 Family Cartoons (Collectible Tin Box)
The Adventures of Black Beauty: Season 2
Agatha Christie's Marple: Series 4
Alien Uprising
America the Beautiful
August (Special Edition)
Balls of Fury (Widescreen)
The Beast (Extended Edition)
The Best of TV Westerns Collection (Collectible Tin Box)
Beverly Hillbillies Collection (Collectible Tin Box)
Bonanza Collection (Collectible Tin Box)
Classic Comedy Collection (Collectible Tin Box)
Classic Sherlock Holmes (Collectible Tin Box)
Days That Shook The World: Complete Second Season
Delgo (Widescreen)
Doom (Extended Edition)
Dragnet Collection (Collectible Tin Box)
Elvis: The Ed Sullivan Show
Flight of the Conchords: Complete Second Season (Widescreen)
Full Metal Maid: Mehoromatic Complete Collection (Set)
Gunslinger Western Collection (Collectible Tin Box)
Harvard Beats Yale
John Wayne Western Collection (Collectible Tin Box)
Labor Pains
The Lucy Show Collection (Collectible Tin Box)
Mutant Chronicles (Collector's Edition)
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
O.A.R.: Live From Madison Square Garden
Obsessed
Project Runway: The Complete Fifth Season
Race to Witch Mountain (Deluxe Edition)
Saturday Night Live in the '80s: Lost & Found (Full Screen)
Saturday Night Live: The Best of '06/'07
Sling Blade (Director's Cut)
SNL: The Best of David Spade (Full Screen)
The Soloist
The Tigger Movie (10th Anniversary Edition)
Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Season 3
UFC 97: Silva vs. Leites
WWE Summerslam: The Complete Anthology Volume 4