This Week on DVD & Blu-ray (10-25-11)

 

 

This week you can choose from a star-spangled super-soldier to the hi-def velociraptors on Blu-ray for the first time….you can’t go wrong with either “Captain America: The First Avenger” or the Jurassic Park trilogy. Among the other movies released this week, I highly recommend two that I haven’t gotten around to reviewing yet, “Winnie the Pooh” (a delightful treat) and “Attack the Block” (an impressive directorial debut). Of notable mention is Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation” with Gene Hackman and John Cazale, which is also released on Blu-ray for the first time. Just in time for Halloween, I plan on catching up with “Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale” a twisted take on St. Nick, and finally “The People vs. George Lucas” which might be scary as well.

 

Other movies that may conjure scares (or at least some nostalgia horror) are two films by Italian gore master Lucio Fulci, “Zombie” and “House by the Cemetary” as well as one of the earliest adaptations of H.G. Wells’ novel, The Island of Dr. Moreau, 1933’s “The Island of Lost Souls” with Charles Laughton and Bela Lugosi, which gets the Criterion treatment.

 

Well, that’s just a handful of standouts from yet another long list of releases. As usual, reviews are highlighted below. Enjoy the Rundown…..

• A Little Help (DVD/Blu-ray)
• A Serbian Film (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Anti-Nazi Classics Vol. 2: Four Films About Nazi Germany (DVD)
• The Art of Filmmaking (DVD)
• Atrocious (DVD)
• Attack the Block (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Barney Miller: The Complete Series (DVD)
• Captain America: The First Avenger (DVD/Blu-ray)
• City of Life and Death (2-Disc Special Edition) (DVD/Blu-ray)
• The Conversation (Blu-ray)
• Cut (DVD)
• Dazed and Confused (Criterion Collection) (Blu-ray)
• Em (DVD)
• Faces in the Crowd (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Fambul Tok (DVD) 
• Fire of Conscience (DVD)
• The House by the Cemetery (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Identification of a Woman (Criterion Collection) (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Island of Lost Souls (Criterion Collection) (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Jurassic Park (Ultimate Trilogy) (DVD)
• Jurassic Park (Limited Edition Trilogy Gift Set) (Blu-ray)
• Laurel & Hardy: The Essential Collection (DVD)
• Mardi Gras: Spring Break (DVD)
• Marvel The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! Volume 3 (DVD)
• Marvel The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! Volume 4 (DVD)
• Mothman (DVD)
• My Queen Karo (DVD)
• Out Late (DVD)
• The People vs. George Lucas (DVD)
• Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (DVDBlu-ray)
• Robot Chicken: Season Five (DVDBlu-ray)
• Starlight & Superfish (DVD)
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (DVD)
• Tom & Jerry: Golden Collection – Volume One (DVDBlu-ray)
• Winnie the Pooh (DVDBlu-ray)
• Works in Progress (DVD) 
• Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings (DVDBlu-ray)
• Young Justice Season 1 Volume 2 (DVD)
• Zombie (1979) (2-Disc Ultimate Edition) (DVDBlu-ray)