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Notable New Releases

Crazy Heart
It's a lot like The Wrestler, but with country music. Very simple and very effective. Jeff Bridges' performance as washed out country singer Bad Blake is magnificent. He completely inhabits the role and does all his own singing and playing. Maggie Gyllenhaal is just as great, playing opposite him as struggling single mother Jean. The music is of course amazing and the final song (which we see Blake writing throughout the film) will break you.

Extras include:

  • Deleted Scenes
  • Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Robert Duvall interviews (BD exclusive)


The Lovely Bones
Missed this one and it got terrible reviews, but i'm willing to give Peter Jackson a chance and it has a really extensive making of doc.

Extras include:

  • Introduction by Peter Jackson
  • Filming 'The Lovely Bones' - a three hour documentary that chronicles the making of the film (BD exclusive)


The Young Victoria
Nothing new but a solid period romance. Emily Blunt does great work here.

Extras include:

  • Deleted Scenes
  • Making of The Young Victoria
  • The Real Queen Victoria
  • The Coronation
  • The Wedding
  • Lavish History: A Look at the Costumes and Locations
[READ MORE...]



Vivre sa vie
Godard's classic gets the Criterion treatment.

Extras include:

  • Audio commentary featuring film scholar Adrian Martin
  • Video interview with film scholar Jean Narboni, conducted by historian Noël Simsolo
  • Television interview from 1962 with actress Anna Karina
  • Excerpts from a 1961 French television exposé on prostitution
  • Illustrated essay on La prostitution, the book that served as inspiration for the film
  • Stills gallery
  • Director Jean-Luc Godard’s original theatrical trailer
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring Godard’s original scenario, an essay by critic Michael Atkinson, interviews with Godard, and a reprint by critic Jean Collet on the film’s soundtrack


Summer Hours
Haven't seen this French film, but anything with Juliette Binoche is worth watching.

Extras include:

  • New video interview with Assayas
  • Making-of documentary featuring interviews with Assayas and actors Charles Berling and Juliette Binoche, and showing the cast and crew on set
  • Inventory, an hour-long documentary by Olivier Gonard, shot partly in Paris’s Musée d’Orsay, that examines the film’s approach to art
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Kent Jones


Cheech and Chong's Hey Watch This
It's 4-20 man! The stoner comedy duo return to the stage in this concert film.

Extras include:

  • Deleted Scenes


Minority Report Blu-ray
Spielberg's excellent Philip K. Dick adaptation arrives in HD with a ton of cool features.

Extras include:

  • The Future According to Steven Spielberg
  • Inside the World of Precrime
  • Phillip K. Dick, Steven Spielberg, and 'Minority Report'
  • Minority Report: Future Realized
  • Minority Report: Props of the Future
  • Highlights From 'Minority Report': From the Set
  • Minority Report: Commercials of the Future
  • Previz Sequences
  • From Story to Screen
  • Deconstructing 'Minority Report'
  • The Stunts of 'Minority Report'
  • ILM and 'Minority Report'
  • Production Concepts


Battleship Potemkin Blu-ray
Eisenstein's influential silent classic gets restored courtesy of Kino Video. Dozens of missing shots have been replaced, and all 146-title cards restored to Eisenstein's specifications. Edmund Meisel's definitive 1926 score has been rendered by the 55-piece Deutches Filmorchestra in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. The restored film also has newly-translated English intertitles as well as original Russian intertitles (and optional English subtitles).

Extras include:

  • 'Tracing Battleship Potemkin' a 42-minute documentary on the making and restoration of the film


April 22:

Avatar
Despite the lackluster story it's a visually amazing film that's worth owning, but wait for the re-release with actual extras.