Joey's DVD Picks of the week (7/16/2011)

First of all, sorry for the delay in posting this, but I was dealing with a few things today, and then technical difficulties got in my way. All is good now, and we can focus on the DVD offerings that the current week has. This week, the top 2 releases are very strong, and the rest is just enough to boost the week into a rather notable category of being "better than usual". On their own, either of the top 2 flicks would be easy selections for top honors this week, but since they're together, a bit more thinking is needed. I thought long and hard about it, but I ultimately went with the one that managed to crack my mid-year top 10 list for my PICK OF THE WEEK. It's a supremely entertaining and surprisingly high quality hollywood offering. It's:

Source Code

I was already a huge fan of Duncan Jones from Moon a few years back, but this solidified him as one of the top young directors working today. It does feature a script that somewhat falls apart upon close inspection, but during the initial viewing it's an incredibly entertaining thrill ride that expertly directed by Jones and strongly acted by Jake Gyllenhaal in a lead role well suited for him, as well as strong supporting turns from Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, and Jeffrey Wright. It was easily one of the 10 best things I saw during the first half of 2011, and now that it's available on DVD, I highly recommend picking it up!

-Also out getting a big thumbs up from me is David Schwimmer's well made melodrama Trust. It's a well acted cautionary tale about internet predators that's notable for two reasons. One is the breakout performance of young Liana Liberato (to go along with good supporting work from Clive Owen and Catherine Keener), and the other is the absolute gut punch of an ending that Schwimmer allows the film to conclude on. It's perhaps the most haunting final minutes of any film this year. It didn't do much in theaters, but now that it's out on DVD, I do recommend giving it a shot...

-The rest of the releases this week include the flawed but decent Dylan Dog: Dead of Night, the pseudo-sequel to Happiness that I missed called Life During Wartime, the biographic drama Mao's Last Dancer, and the nearly direct to video action flick Ironclad. I can only speak for the first film, but none of these movies seem that bad to me (or that amazing, for that matter), so it comes down to a matter of taste. Go with your gut on this one...

-My Vintage pick, in honor of this week's release of Crazy Stupid Love, is a collection of Ryan Gosling's 5 best performances (to me at least). They are, in quality of performance order: Blue Valentine, Half Nelson, The Slaughter Rule, Lars and the Real Girl, and The Believer. All are strong films, and Gosling is incredible in each of them, so if you haven't seen them, correct that now!

-What will you be watching on DVD this week?