Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Joey's DVD Picks of the Week (6/14/2011)

Before we get into this week's releases, which are fair at best, it's worth noting that last week those of you who picked up True Grit on Blu-Ray or DVD got a nice surprise on the back of the box art. Yes, The Awards Circuit was quoted! John Foote's blurb is there for all of you to see, and yes...we're gloating a bit (despite me obviously not being as strong for the film as most others are, but that's neither here nor there). As for this week, well...it's not nearly as good a week as last week was. That being said, there's some variety and that's always a plus. There's plenty of mediocrity to sift through, but I managed to distill one into being my PICK OF THE WEEK. It's a tremendously flawed film, but it does more right than wrong and gets the top slot. It's:

Battle: Los Angeles

Most weeks, this movie wouldn't get close to being cited this highly, but here we are anyway. The film has an awful script and seems to be a bit too much in the way of a Right-Wing rah rah piece of military propaganda, but when you push that out of your head, it's a decently exciting sci-fi action flick. Aaron Eckhart is surprisingly committed to the lead role, and the action is suitably kinetic. I wanted to like this more than I did, but it's still something that achieves the goals that it sets out to achieve. If you think you'll like it, you likely will.

-Also out this week we have the mediocre latest outing from the Farrelly Brothers, entitled Hall Pass, as well as the decent crime drama Kill the Irishman and the certifiably awful Red Riding Hood. Neither of the former two are much to write home about, but both are fair enough to not get any scorn from me. The latter of the three however, is absolutely terrible and wastes both some nice visuals and Amanda Seyfried, not to mention Gary Oldman. Little more than a spin on Twilight, it's dreadful and you should avoid it at all costs.

-The other release this week is the foreign flick The Concert, which I haven't seen. A year ago, this was seen as a potential Oscar contender by Harvey Weinstein, but it never materialized. I'm curious to see it, if for Melanie Laurent alone. If you get a chance to check it out, let us know what you think!

-My Vintage pick this week, in honor of the release of Green Lantern, are some underrated Ryan Reynolds films that I found to be enjoyable. They are, in alphabetical order: Adventureland, Buried, Buying the Cow, and Definitely, Maybe. Especially the first two, these are quality flicks, and I recommend them. Give them a shot before Reynolds becomes a intergalactic cop on Friday!

-What will you be watching on DVD this week?

4 comments:

  1. And the dvds get better next week...

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  2. Very happy to see something good for John and the site!

    P.S. If someone's looking for additional classic DVDs to coincide with Green Lantern, one might also want to consider Kimberly Peirce's excellent tragedy Boys Don't Cry, to witness how truly menacing Peter Sarsgaard can be.

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