After the past few rough weeks on the new release shelves, this week will feel like a tall cool Budweiser for those in desperate thirst for great home viewing possibilities. This week is filled with must-buys if you’re a Bluray enthusiast, as well as several Oscar nominees and winners. Enjoy!
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Avatar (2009) – DVD & Bluray
Whether love or hate, everyone has an opinion about James Cameron’s green-screened blue-alien epic Avatar. Re-live the adventure of Jake Sully, a paraplegic marine who finds a second chance as a large blue alien while he infiltrates an unknown civilization on the moon called Pandora. In what is sure to be a bare-bones release with no special features or added scenes, there is solace in knowing that the Bluray will at least look good!
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The Lovely Bones (2-Disc Special Edition) (2009) – DVD & Bluray
Peter Jackson – director of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy – returns with another special effects heavy film with “The Lovely Bones”, an adaptation of the bestselling book by Alice Sebold. A quiet neighborhood man murders a young girl named Susie Salmon, but her family only knows that she’s missing. Due to the nature of her death, Susie is trapped between the land of the living and the dead, as she intervenes in the real world to help her family find the identity of her killer. Though the film received very few positive reviews, Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones” will, like “Avatar”, at least look great on Bluray.
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Crazy Heart (2009) – DVD & Bluray
Scott Cooper’s writing and directorial debut “Crazy Heart” features an Oscar-winning performance as Bad Blake, a washed-up alcoholic country-music star who is going through a major low-point in his life. Blake begins to reassess his life when he meets a young newspaper columnist named Jean Craddock. In what may seem like a Greek tragedy, there is a great story buried beneath all the heartache in “Crazy Heart”.
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Other DVD/Bluray releases for the week of 04/20/10):
– The Basketball Diaries – Bluray
– Battleship Potemkin — Bluray
– Cheech & Chong’s Hey Watch This – DVD & Bluray
– Crimes of Fashion — DVD
– Deadly Impact — DVD
– The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie! – DVD
– Handy Manny: Big Race — DVD
– Hercules: The Legendary Journeys – Season 1 — DVD
– Homecoming — DVD
– Merlin: The Complete First Season — DVD
– Minority Report (2-Disc Special Edition) — Bluray
– Necrosis — DVD
– Neowolf — DVD
– Peacock — DVD
– Summer Hours (Criterion Collection) – DVD & Bluray
– Vivre sa vie (Criterion Collection) — DVD
– Xena: Warrior Princess – Season 1 — DVD
– The Young Victoria – DVD & Bluray
Go forth and conquer the video stores, Netflix queues, and Redboxes near you!