Your Weekly Source for the Newest Releases to Blu-Ray

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS: 30th Anniversary Special Edition (1980)

Synopsis: Shad must scour the cosmos to recruit mercenaries from different planets and cultures, in order to save his peaceful home planet from the threat of the evil tyrant Sador, bent on dominating and enslaving the entire universe. Joining this “magnificent seven” of mercenaries are the deadly Gelt, carefree Cowboy, and the sexy Valkyrie Saint-Exmin. (courtesy of Blu-Ray.com)

Special Features: Audio commentary with producer Roger Corman and writer John Sayles; Audio commentary from production manager Gale Anne Hurd; The Man Who Would Be Shad featurette; Space Opera on a Shoestring featurette; Still gallery; Poster gallery; Theatrical trailer; Radio spot.

BRAZIL (1985)

Synopsis: In the future, a clerk at the all-powerful Ministry of Information sticks to his ideals and ends up crushed by the system in this half comedy, half horror story from former ‘Monty Python’ animator Terry Gilliam. Like Orwell’s novel ‘1984’, which it echoes, the future is seen from a 1940’s perspective. (courtesy of Blu-Ray.com)

Special Features: BD-Live and D-Box enabled.

BROTHER’S JUSTICE: Blu-Ray/DVD Combo (2010)

Synopsis: Motivated by Box Office statistics, Dax Shepard has made a decision to leave comedy to pursue his dream of becoming an international Martial Arts action star. (courtesy of Blu-Ray.com)

Special Features: Dax Shepard and Bradley Cooper interviews; Behind-the-scenes; Deleted scenes; Photo gallery.

BUSTER KEATON SHORT FILMS COLLECTION: 3-Disc Ultimate Edition (1920-1923)

Synopsis: Authorized by the Buster Keaton estate and mastered in HD from 35mm archival film elements, The Short Films Collection gathers all of Keaton’s solo silent comedies in one monumental three-disc set. Widely considered to be among Keaton’s finest work, the nineteen two-reel shorts are loaded with laughs, punctuated by breath-taking stunts, and bursting with raw creativity. Over the course of this three-year period, Keaton evolved from a successful slapstick comedian into one of cinema’s most inventive visual stylists, and became an enduring icon of American popular culture. (courtesy of Blu-Ray.com)

Special Features: Visual essays, illustrated with clips and stills, written by various Keaton experts; Brief alternate/deleted shots from The Balloonatic, The Blacksmith, Cops, Day Dreams, and The Goat; “The Men Who Would Be Buster,” a collection of clips from slapstick films influenced by Keaton’s work: Only Me (1929, with Lupino Lane), Be Reasonable (1921, excerpt, with Billy Bevan), Hello Baby! (1925, excerpt, with Charley Chase), White Wings (1923, excerpt, with Stan Laurel); “Character Studies” (ca. 1922), a gag film starring Carter DeHaven, with cameos by Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, and others; “Seeing Stars” (excerpts), a 1922 promotional film for First National, featuring cameos by Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and others.

DAMNATION ALLEY (1977)

Synopsis: In an post-apocalyptic world, a group of survivors travel and find other settlements in huge custom designed all terrain vehicles. (courtesy of IMDb.com)

Special Features: Audio commentary producer Paul Maslansky; Three 10-minute featurettes; Trailer and TV Spot.

Roger Corman presents: DINOCROC VS. SUPERGATOR (2010)

Synopsis: Scientist Jason Drake (Carradine) has been holed up deep within a secret island laboratory of an unscrupulous biotech corporation. Doing what? Meddling with the laws of nature, of course! When he turns his attention from mutating fruits and vegetables to alligators, crocodiles and dinosaurs, something’s bound to grow to horrific proportions – and escape! Now, two of his most terrifying creations are loose on a tropical island paradise. Bullets won’t stop them. Explosives only tick them off. And their ravenous appetite for scientists, tourists, mercenaries and swimsuit models keeps growing. (courtesy of Blu-Ray.com)

Special Features: Audio commentary with director Jim Wynorsky.

INSIDIOUS (2011)

Synopsis: Shortly after moving, a family discovers that dark spirits have possessed their home and that their son has inexplicably fallen into a coma. Trying to escape the haunting and save their son, they move again only to discover that it was not their house that was haunted. (courtesy of Blu-Ray.com)

Special Features: Horror 101: The Exclusive Seminar; On Set with INSIDIOUS; Insidious Entities; Additional Sony previews; BD-Live.

THE LINCOLN LAWYER: 2-Disc Blu-Ray/DVD Combo (2011)

Synopsis: Having spent most of his career defending gutter-variety criminals, attorney Mick Haller (McConaughey) takes on a case that could land him a real office, instead of running his practice out of his old Lincoln. Haller reaches a crisis of conscious, though, while working on the defense of Beverly Hills playboy Louis Roulet (Phillippe). Roulet is charged with attempted murder and what appears to be a straightforward case with a big payoff escalates into a deadly match between two masters of manipulation. (courtesy of Blu-Ray.com)

Special Features: Making the Case: Creating The Lincoln Lawyer featurette; Michael Connelly: At Home on the Road featurette; One-on-One interview with McConaughey and Connelly; Deleted scenes.

MIRAL (2010)

Synopsis: From Academy Award® nominated director Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), and based on the acclaimed semi-autobiographical novel, Miral is the story of a Palestinian girl coming of age amidst the war zone of the Israeli-Arab conflict — unflinchingly told through the perspective of Miral (Freida Pinto, Slumdog Millionaire) herself. Following the death of her troubled mother, Miral’s father (Alexander Siddig) is forced to entrust her to the orphanage of Hind Husseini (Hiam Abbass), a woman whose commitment to peace through education has a profound impact on the maturing young woman as her epic journey to self-esteem and social consciousness proves both harrowing and hopeful. Also starring Willem Dafoe and Vanessa Redgrave. (courtesy of Amazon.com)

Special Features: Audio commentary with Julian Schnabel and producer Jon Kilik; 30-minute filmmaker Q&A with the director; Seven-minute “Julian Schnabel Studio Tour,” Deleted scenes; 14-minute Making of featurette.

NAKED: The Criterion Collection (1993)

Synopsis: The brilliant and controversial Naked, from director Mike Leigh, stars David Thewlis as Johnny, a charming and eloquent but relentlessly vicious drifter. Rejecting anyone who might care for him, the volcanic Johnny hurls himself around London on a nocturnal odyssey, colliding with a succession of other desperate and dispossessed people and scorching everyone in his path. With a virtuoso script and raw performances from Thewlis and costars Katrin Cartlidge and Lesley Sharp, Leigh’s depiction of England’s underbelly is an amalgam of black comedy and doomsday prophecy that took the best director and best actor prizes at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. (courtesy of Criterion.com)

Special Features: Audio commentary by Leigh and actors David Thewlis and Katrin Cartlidge; Exclusive video interview with director Neil LaBute; Episode of the BBC program The Art Zone in which author Will Self interviews Leigh; The Short and Curlies, a short comedy from 1982 directed by Leigh and starring Thewlis, with audio commentary by Leigh; Original theatrical trailer; PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by film critics Derek Malcolm and Amy Taubin.

UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES (2010)

Synopsis: Suffering from acute kidney failure, Uncle Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days with his loved ones in the countryside. During this time, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form. In order to understand the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave which he comes to understand is the birthplace of his first life. (courtesy of Blu-Ray.com)

Special Features: Interview with director Apichatpong Weerasethakul; Short film A LETTER TO UNCLE BOONMEE; Deleted scenes; Original theatrical trailer; Essay “The Memory of Nabua”

WHITE IRISH DRINKERS (2010)

Synopsis: Brooklyn, 1975: two brothers looking for a way out of their working-class neighborhood make a pact to rob a local theater on the night of a Rolling Stones concert. (courtesy of Blu-Ray.com)

Special Features: None/Unknown