How to Spend $20
By Eric Hughes
April 13, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Pick of the Week
For people who don't sleep well at night because they're afraid a psycho killer will kill them once they shut their eyes: A Nightmare On Elm Street [Blu-ray]
It was only a matter of time before all three famous horror icons from yesteryear underwent the reboot treatment. Michael Myers was first, thanks to Rob Zombie's re-imagining of Halloween in 2007. It performed so well domestically -- $58.3 million – that Dimension released a sequel. Two years later, Friday the 13th (with Jason Voorhees) stormed the box office over a Friday the 13th weekend in February. It collected a franchise-best $19.3 million on opening day, and ended with $40.6 million for the weekend – good enough for the largest three-day tally for any horror film ever.
Up next is Freddy Kreuger and his popular A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Of the three villains, he's the one I know the least about. While I've seen just about every Halloween movie and a good number of Friday the 13th films, I can't say the same about A Nightmare on Elm Street. Come to think of it, I've only seen the 1984 original. (You know, the one with Johnny Depp before he was Johnny Depp: Superstar).
Before New Line Cinema releases its Elm Street reboot on April 30th, do yourself a favor and check out the franchise's first movie from writer-director Wes Craven. It's now available in Blu-ray, fool!
Disc includes: Ready Freddy Focus Points, audio commentary, alternate endings, three featurettes, Interactive Trivia Track
For people who want to know what School of Rock would have been like if Philip Seymour Hoffman had been in it, not Jack Black: Pirate Radio
Based on its trailer and the little I had read about it, Pirate Radio always seemed to me like it was an adult version of School of Rock. No, it has nothing to do with plot. I speak more of their lead characters. In both, you've got leading men who are extremely obsessed with rock music and will do whatever possible to not only run with their passion, but deliver it to mass audiences. They're also a bit crazed in the head, which is always ripe for comedy.
For School of Rock's Dewey Finn, this meant posing as a substitute teacher to at first earn a little cash and then take advantage of his students' extremely skilled musical abilities for a battle of the bands competition. For Pirate Radio's The Count, this meant broadcasting an illegal rock ‘n roll radio station on a boat in the water after the music genre is banned from terrestrial radio by English government in the 1960s.
Though Universal released it wide in November, Pirate Radio all but bombed at the domestic box office. The flick earned a meager $2.9 million from 882 theaters in its opening weekend, and ended with a smidge over $8 million. Pirate Radio – or, as it was known everywhere else outside the States, The Boat That Rocked – performed better internationally, having made an additional $21.1 million in box office receipts.
Disc includes: Deleted scenes, audio commentary, featurettes
For people who didn't get around to watching the Olympics the first time: 2010 Winter Olympics
The United States' most dominant Winter Olympics team ever is showcased in NBC Universal's 2010 Winter Olympics DVD. The disc, which carries a runtime of about four hours, includes highlights from the ice dancing and figure skating competitions, alpine skiing with Lindsay Vonn, short track speed skating with Apolo Ohno, snowboarding with Shaun White, competition final heats, gold medal finals and highlights from both the opening and closing ceremonies.
I personally didn't catch much Olympics coverage in February. In recent years, I've become very accustomed to watching television online and became insanely irritated with NBC when it rashly decided to only offer live coverage of ice hockey and curling on the Internet. In my mind, this was a horrendous decision on the network's part. Had I had any affiliation with NBC Sports at the time, I would have been embarrassed by the company I was working for.
Stands on soap box** Americans have had the benefit of watching full episodes of television online (legally) since as early as 2006 thanks to ABC, and live coverage of sporting events probably happened prior to that. To prohibit free streaming of anything other than ice hockey and curling is simply pathetic. For one, no one understands the rules to curling anyway, so free streaming of that event probably excited about six people in a population of 300+ million. And two, it couldn't be any more apparent that the reason NBC barred figure skating and other popular events from the Internet was because it wanted audiences to watch them in a more traditional way: on their televisions.
This year, Netflix struck deals with Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox and Universal Studios to delay its customers from renting new releases for 28 days from their retail release dates. In a way, this sort of feels like the way NBC handled the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Ain't it lovely when companies disregard their customers for monetary gain?
**Steps off soap box**
Now, go support NBC Universal and purchase this disc!
Disc includes: Behind-the-scenes footage, additional featurettes
For people who think it's time for "Houston, we have a problem" to make a comeback: Apollo 13 (15th Anniversary Edition) [Blu-ray]
It's been, well, 15 years since I've seen Apollo 13, so I do wonder whether watching it now will feel dated – in the way that Jurassic Park feels super dated – or if the movie holds up. Either way, the popular Ron Howard film celebrates 15 years with an anniversary edition today. Better still, it's in Blu-ray. The movie, which dramatizes the aborted lunar mission of the same name in 1970, stars Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton (not Pullman) and Kevin Bacon as the mission's astronauts. Gary Sinise and Ed Harris round out the cast.
Disc includes: Lost Moon: The Triumph of Apollo 13 featurette, Conquering Space: The Moon and Beyond featurette, Lucky 13: The Astronaut's Story featurette, audio commentary
April 13, 2010
Blu-ray
Apollo 13 (15th Anniversary Edition)
Bad Guys / Fast Lane (Double Feature)
Gone With The Wind (Scarlett Edition)
National Geographic: Africa's Lost Eden
A Nightmare On Elm Street
Pirate Radio
The Slammin' Salmon
DVD
8 1/2 (Essential Art House)
Apollo 13 (15th Anniversary Edition)
Crazy on the Outside
Dallas: The Complete Thirteenth Season
Defendor (Widescreen)
Emergency! Season 6
Genshiken 2 Collection (Special Edition)
Gone With The Wind (Scarlett Edition)
The Great American Snuff Film (Special Edition)
The Great Mouse Detective (Special Edition)
Ice Twisters
A Nightmare On Elm Street
Nightmare on Elm Street Collection (Set)
Pirate Radio
The Slammin' Salmon
Space Ranger: Complete Collection