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Disc includes: Redefining the Cop Drama: Producers and Cast Reveal the Story Behind Creating a New Series About the LAPD featurette

For people who think that kids say the darnedest things: Atonement [Blu-ray]

When coining a phrase for Ian McEwan's Atonement, masterpiece seems appropriate. It's quality fiction for many reasons - its story, especially, though McEwan's writing isn't anything to scoff at either - and easily sits in my top five favorite books. Broken into fourths, the book is epic in scope, beginning in the hot, English summer of 1935 and ending a hair shy of the new millennium in 1999. McEwan goes big with ambition and hits it out of the park.

As far as adaptations go, Atonement the movie holds up fine. Had No Country for Old Men not been released in the same year, I'm pretty sure Atonement would have been my favorite movie of 2007. Its score is one of the best I've ever heard, and the way the movie revises a significant narrative device from the book that I assumed was impossible to visually replicate works very well.

The film is about a bratty young thing named Briony who witnesses what she thinks is sexual abuse on the part of her sister's good male friend. Turns out what she saw was anything but, and consequences that stem from her misinterpretation follow her - and her family - for decades.

Disc includes: Deleted scenes, Bringing the Past to Life: The Making Of featurette, From Novel to Screen: Adapting a Classic featurette, audio commentary

For people who wonder how high the Saw series will go: Saw VI (Unrated)

And now comes the part of the column where I rip on a lucrative, yet critically detested movie franchise. No, it's not a project from the Scary Movie people, but rather a flick from the fine folks behind Saw, who were dealt an embarrassing blow last Halloween when their venerable franchise got shut down at the box office by new scary movie competition with a budget 0.001% that of Saw's.
Saw, which had been the reigning Halloween champ for four consecutive years, stumbled badly out of the gate, earning just $14.1 million in its opening frame. (In comparison, Saws II-V earned $30+ million). When all was said and done, Saw VI made just $27.7 million in domestic receipts, a considerably lower figure than all previous installments -- including the 2004 original. Though Paranormal Activity turned out to be an overhyped piece of crap - in my opinion - it was very refreshing to see a cash grabbing franchise like Saw finally get beat, especially since its filmmakers have been spitting out the same movie year after year in hopes that moviegoers with expendable incomes would simply fall for it. (And up until 2009, they had been).

Things get interesting this October when a planned sequel to Paranormal Activity - appropriately titled Paranormal Activity 2 - goes toe-to-toe with Saw 3D, the franchise's first foray into the third dimension. For now, both PA2 and Saw 3D are slated to debut on October 22nd. Let the bloodbath begin.

Disc includes: Audio commentaries, Jigsaw Revealed featurette, The Traps of Saw VI featurette, A Killer Maze: Making Saw: Game Over featurette, music videos

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