New Blu-ray Reviews

Monsieur Lazhar Blu-ray Movie  

Music Box Films | 2011 | 94 min | Rated PG-13 | Aug 28, 2012 | Jeffrey Kauffman

Bachir Lazhar, an Algerian immigrant, is hired to replace an elementary school teacher who died tragically. While the class goes through a long healing process, nobody in the school is aware of Bachir's painful former life; nor that he is at risk of being deported at any moment. Adapted from Evelyne de la Cheneliere's play, Bachir Lazhar depicts the encounter between two distant worlds and the power of self-expression. Using great sensitivity and humor, Philippe Falardeau follows a humble man who is ready to transcend his own loss in order to accompany children beyond the silence and taboo of death.

Comedy / Drama / Foreign

Looney Tunes Mouse Chronicles: Chuck Jones Collection Blu-ray Movie  

Warner Bros. | 1930-1969 | 145 min | Not rated | Aug 28, 2012 | Kenneth Brown

The characters of Looney Tunes get themselves into crazy situations.

Animation / Comedy / Family / Short

Harvey Blu-ray Movie  

Universal 100th Anniversary / Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy

Universal Studios | 1950 | 104 min | Not rated | Aug 28, 2012 | Jeffrey Kauffman

Elwood P. Dowd’s constant companion is Harvey, a six-foot tall rabbit that only he can see. When Elwood's sister, Veta Louise, reluctantly decides to have him committed to a mental hospital, a wondrously funny turn of events occurs. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play.

Comedy / Drama / Imaginary

The Viral Factor Blu-ray Movie  

逆戰

Well Go USA | 2012 | 122 min | Not rated | Aug 28, 2012 | Jeffrey Kauffman

Jon and Yeung are two brothers, who due to family circumstances, are led down different paths in life - one of them a recalcitrant criminal and the other an Interpol agent.

Action / Drama / Foreign

Rosetta Blu-ray Movie  

Criterion | 1999 | 94 min | Rated R | Aug 14, 2012 | Dr. Svet Atanasov

A poor young woman struggles to hold on to a job to support herself and her alcoholic mother.

Drama / Foreign

WarGames Blu-ray Movie  

War Games

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | 1983 | 113 min | Rated PG | Aug 21, 2012 | Michael Reuben

A young computer whizz kid accidentally connects into a top secret super-computer which has complete control over the U.S. nuclear arsenal. It challenges him to a game between America and Russia, and he innocently starts the countdown to World War 3. Can he convince the computer he wanted to play a game and not the real thing?

Drama / Thriller / Teen / Psychological thriller

Starship Troopers: Invasion Blu-ray Movie  

Blu-ray + UV Digital Copy

Sony Pictures | 2012 | 89 min | Rated R | Aug 28, 2012 | Martin Liebman

A distant Federation outpost Fort Casey comes under attack by bugs. The team on the fast attack ship Alesia is assigned to help the Starship John A. Warden stationed in Fort Casey evacuate along with the survivors and bring military intelligence safely back to Earth. Carl Jenkins, now ministry of Paranormal Warfare, takes the starship on a clandestine mission before its rendezvous with the Alesia and goes missing in the nebula. Now, the battle-hardened troopers are charged with a rescue mission that may lead to a much more sinister consequence than they ever could have imagined....

Action / Adventure / Animation / Anime / Sci-Fi

Good Will Hunting Blu-ray Movie  

15th Anniversary Edition

Lionsgate Films | 1997 | 127 min | Rated R | Aug 21, 2012 | Jeffrey Kauffman

Although gifted with a brilliant mind, a young South Boston man can only find work as a janitor. When his lack of anger management lands him in court yet again, a judge orders the man to see a psychologist, who tries to help him find direction in his life.

Drama / Coming of age

Snow White and the Huntsman Blu-ray Movie  

Extended Edition / Blu-ray + DVD + UV Digital Copy

Universal Studios | 2012 | 1 Movie, 2 Cuts | 131 min | Rated PG-13 | Sep 11, 2012 | Kenneth Brown

In a twist to the fairy tale, the Huntsman ordered to take Snow White into the woods to be killed winds up becoming her protector and mentor in a quest to vanquish the Evil Queen.

Action / Adventure / Fantasy / Teen / Epic

Black Magic Rites Blu-ray Movie  

Riti, magie nere e segrete orge nel trecento...

Redemption | 1973 | 98 min | Unrated | Aug 21, 2012 | Casey Broadwater

Delirium director Renato Polselli delivers yet another delectable slice of cinematic sleaze with this sadomasochistic shocker set in a gothic castle, and culminating with the sacrifice of seven naked virgins during a bloody satanic orgy. Lurid depictions of whippings, torture, and beatings abound in a truly diabolical tale of inhuman cruelty starring Euro sleaze-queen Rita Calderoni and prolific actor/bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay.

Horror

White Vengeance Blu-ray Movie  

鴻門宴

Well Go USA | 2011 | 138 min | Not rated | Sep 04, 2012 | Jeffrey Kauffman

White Vengeance tells the story of two brothers contending for supremacy during the fall of the Qin Dynasty, which ruled Imperial China from 221 to 206 BC. As rebels rose, the nation fell into chaos. Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, became leaders of the rebellious army, and also became sworn brothers in battle. Xiang Yu and Liu Bang are close friends who both serve King Huai of Chu. King Huai uses a plot, saying that whoever can subvert the Qin kingdom in Guanzhong would be the Lord Qin, in order to benefit from the competition between Xiang Yu and Liu Bang. Xiang Yu is over-confident. He fights against the main force of Qin army, and entrusts Liu Bang with Yu Ji, the woman he loves.

Drama / History / War / Foreign

Freezing: Complete Series Blu-ray Movie  

Limited Edition / Blu-ray + DVD

FUNimation Entertainment | 2011 | 300 min | Rated TV-MA | Aug 28, 2012 | Jeffrey Kauffman

In a word overrun by aliens, mankind is protected by genetically-enhanced female warriors called Pandoras. Satellizer el Bridget is the most feared Pandora at West Genetics academy, and anyone foolish enough to lay a finger on her lush body may not live to regret it. Until, that is, her status as the “Untouchable Queen” is threatened by the arrival of Kazuya, a young boy with a tortured past.

Action / Anime / Comedy / Fantasy / Romance / Sci-Fi / Erotic / Comic book / Foreign

Shostakovich: Symphony Nº 8 Blu-ray Movie  

Lucerne Festival Sep 2011

C MAJOR | 2011 | 100 min | Not rated | May 29, 2012 | Jeffrey Kauffman

No synopsis for this title.

Music

The Dark Mirror Blu-ray Movie  

Olive Films | 1946 | 85 min | Not rated | Sep 12, 2012 | Jeffrey Kauffman

A woman suspected of murdering her doctor boyfriend has an identical twin sister. When both twins have an alibi for the night of the murder, a psychiatrist is called in to assist a detective in solving the case. Through a series of tests, he discovers which twin actually committed the crime and in the course of his investigation he falls in love with the normal twin.

Drama / Film-Noir

The Pirates! Band of Misfits 3D Blu-ray Movie  

Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray + DVD + UV Digital Copy

Sony Pictures | 2012 | 88 min | Rated PG | Aug 28, 2012 | Martin Liebman

With a rag-tag crew at his side, and seemingly blind to the impossible odds stacked against him, the Pirate Captain has one dream: to beat his bitter rivals Black Bellamy and Cutlass Liz to the much coveted Pirate of the Year Award. It's a quest that takes our heroes from the shores of exotic Blood Island to the foggy streets of Victorian London. Along the way they battle a diabolical queen and team up with a young Charles Darwin.

Adventure / Animation / Comedy / Family

The Pirates! Band of Misfits Blu-ray Movie  

Blu-ray + DVD + UV Digital Copy

Sony Pictures | 2012 | 88 min | Rated PG | Aug 28, 2012 | Martin Liebman

With a rag-tag crew at his side, and seemingly blind to the impossible odds stacked against him, the Pirate Captain has one dream: to beat his bitter rivals Black Bellamy and Cutlass Liz to the much coveted Pirate of the Year Award. It's a quest that takes our heroes from the shores of exotic Blood Island to the foggy streets of Victorian London. Along the way they battle a diabolical queen and team up with a young Charles Darwin.

Adventure / Animation / Comedy / Family

Post Mortem Blu-ray Movie  

Kino Lorber | 2010 | 98 min | Not rated | Aug 21, 2012 | Casey Broadwater

In Chile, 1973, during the last days of Salvador Allende's presidency, an employee at a Morgue's recording office falls for a burlesque dancer who mysteriously disappears.

Drama / Foreign

Chimpanzee Blu-ray Movie  

Disneynature / Blu-ray + DVD

Disney / Buena Vista | 2012 | 78 min | Rated G | Aug 21, 2012 | Kenneth Brown

Oscar, a baby chimpanzee is enjoying his life with his mother in the jungles along the Ivory Coast. Without warning, young Oscar is tragically orphaned during an attack from a rival group of chimpanzees. Afterwards, he attempts to survive on his own, and to be accepted by the other chimps. But Oscar struggles, until he is surprising adopted by the Alpha Male of his group.

Documentary / Family / Nature

Poirot: Series 6 Blu-ray Movie  

Acorn Media | 1995-1996 | 428 min | Not rated | Aug 28, 2012 | Michael Reuben

The sixth series of the TV dramatization of the cases of Agatha Christie's brilliant Belgian detective first aired in Jan.-Feb. 1995 and Feb.-Mar. 1996. These feature-length mysteries include: <i>Hercule Poirot's Christmas, Hickory Dickory Dock, Murder on the Links</i> and <i>Dumb Witness</i>.

Crime / Drama / Mystery / Thriller / Period

Death Watch Blu-ray Movie  

Blu-ray + DVD

Shout Factory | 1980 | 130 min | Rated R | Aug 28, 2012 | Dr. Svet Atanasov

Roddy has a camera implanted in his brain. He is then hired by a television producer to film a documentary of terminally ill Katherine...

Drama / Sci-Fi