New Blu-ray Reviews

Flash Point Blu-ray Movie  

Dou fo sin / Blu-ray + DVD

Well Go USA | 2007 | 88 min | Rated R | Jan 24, 2012 | Jeffrey Kauffman

A hot-headed inspector takes on a small but powerful Vietnamese-Chinese gang, after a series of crimes and murder attempts committed and putting an undercover cop and his girlfriend in great danger.

Action / Crime / Drama / Thriller / Martial arts / Foreign

Lady and the Tramp Blu-ray Movie  

Diamond Edition | Three Disc / Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy

Disney / Buena Vista | 1955 | 76 min | Rated G | Feb 07, 2012 | Kenneth Brown

A cute, classy "Lady" cocker spaniel escapes from her confining owner and falls for an alley dog, known as the "Tramp", who rescues her from some mean dogs out on the streets.

Animation / Family / Musical / Romance

World on a Wire Blu-ray Movie  

Welt am Draht

Criterion | 1973 | 213 min | Not rated | Feb 21, 2012 | Dr. Svet Atanasov

Simulacron 1 is the highly advanced project of a near-future cybernetics company. At the heart of the project is a supercomputer programmed to create a virtual world populated with computer-generated people known as "identity units". When the project's leader has a mental breakdown and commits suicide, his successor, Fred Stiller, takes over. However, as he delves deeper into Simulacron, the line between the real world and its simulated counterpart becomes increasingly blurred, and before long he too is spiraling into madness.

Crime / Mystery / Sci-Fi / Foreign

In Time Blu-ray Movie  

Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy

20th Century Fox | 2011 | 109 min | Rated PG-13 | Jan 31, 2012 | Casey Broadwater

In the not-too-distant future the aging gene has been switched off. To avoid overpopulation, time has become the currency and the way people pay for luxuries and necessities. The rich can live forever, while the rest try to negotiate for their immortality. A poor young man who comes into a fortune of time, though too late to help his mother from dying. He ends up on the run from a corrupt police force known as 'time keepers'.

Action / Crime / Sci-Fi / Thriller

Poirot: Series 2 Blu-ray Movie  

Acorn Media | 1990 | 523 min | Not rated | Jan 31, 2012 | Michael Reuben

Beginning with the two-part "Peril at End House", Agatha Christie's brilliant Belgian detective returns for a second series of mysteries in this television adaptation, which originally aired on ITV in the U.K.

Crime / Drama / Mystery / Thriller / Period

Anonymous Blu-ray Movie  

Sony Pictures | 2011 | 130 min | Rated PG-13 | Feb 07, 2012 | Martin Liebman

Set in the political snake-pit of Elizabethan England, "Anonymous" speculates on an issue that has for centuries intrigued academics and brilliant minds such as Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and Sigmund Freud, namely: who actually created the body of work credited to William Shakespeare? Experts have debated, books have been written, and scholars have devoted their lives to protecting or debunking theories...

Drama / History / Thriller

The Mill and the Cross Blu-ray Movie  

Kino Lorber | 2011 | 96 min | Unrated | Jan 31, 2012 | Casey Broadwater

Behind every great painting lies an even greater story.

Drama / History

The Josephine Baker Story Blu-ray Movie  

HBO | 1991 | 129 min | Rated R | Jan 17, 2012 | Kenneth Brown

Biography of the African-American who became a major performer in the Paris cabarets of the 1920's and 1930's. The film follows her life beginning as a struggling performer in 1917 St. Louis, her frustrations leading to her move to France, and follows to her death in 1975.

Biography / Drama / History / Music / Romance

Outrage Blu-ray Movie  

アウトレイジ / Way of the Yakuza

Magnolia Pictures | 2010 | 109 min | Rated R | Jan 31, 2012 | Casey Broadwater

Sekiuchi, boss of the Sannokai, a huge organized crime syndicate controlling the entire Kanto region, issues a warning to his lieutenant Kato and right-hand man Ikemoto. Kato, in turn, orders Ikemoto to bring a rival gang in line, and immediately passes the task on to his subordinate Otomo, who runs with his own crew. The tricky jobs that no one wants to do always seem to end up in Otomo's lap.

Crime / Drama / Foreign

Melancholia Blu-ray Movie    

Artificial Eye | 2011 | 135 min | Rated BBFC: 15 | Jan 23, 2012 | Dr. Svet Atanasov

Troubled sisters Justine and Claire find their already-strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet, Melancholia, threatens to collide with Earth.

Drama / Sci-Fi

Joe Somebody Blu-ray Movie  

Starz / Anchor Bay | 2001 | 98 min | Rated PG | Jan 31, 2012 | Martin Liebman

When underappreciated video specialist Joe Scheffer is brutally humiliated by the office bully Mark McKinney in front of his daughter, Joe begins a quest for personal redemption. He proceeds by enduring a personal make-over and takes martial arts lessons from a B-action star. As news spreads of his rematch with Mark, Joe suddenly finds himself the center of attention, ascending the corporate ladder and growing in popularity. He's determined to show everyone in his life that he is not a nobody, but a force to be reckoned with.

Comedy / Drama / Romance

Billy Elliot Blu-ray Movie  

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

Universal Studios | 2000 | 110 min | Rated R | Jan 10, 2012 | Kenneth Brown

Yorkshire, during the endless, violent 1984 strike against the Thatcher closure of British coal mines. Widower Jackie Elliot and his firstborn, fellow miner Tony, take a dim view of 11 year-old second son Billy's poor record in boxing class, which worsens when they discover he sneakily transferred to the neighboring, otherwise girls-only-attended ballet class. Only one schoolmate, closet-gay Michael Caffrey, encourages Billy's desire, aroused by the teacher, who judged him talented enough for private lesson, to train and try out for the world-renowned Royal Ballet audition. Only the prospect of a fancy career unimagined in the pauper quarter may twist pa and big brother's opposition to indispensable support.

Comedy / Drama / Music / Coming of age

America in Primetime Blu-ray Movie  

PBS | 2011 | 240 min | Not rated | Jan 17, 2012 | Brian Orndorf

America in Primetime is structured around the most compelling shows on television today, unfolding over four hours and weaving between past and present. Each episode focuses on one character archetype that has remained a staple of primetime through the generations – the Independent Woman, the Man of the House, the Misfit, and the Crusader – capturing both the continuity of the character, and the evolution. The finest television today has as its foundation the best television of yesterday.

Documentary

Grand Canyon Blu-ray Movie  

Starz / Anchor Bay | 1991 | 134 min | Rated R | Jan 31, 2012 | Martin Liebman

Grand Canyon revolved around six residents from different backgrounds whose lives intertwine in modern-day Los Angeles. At the center of the film is the unlikely friendship of two men from different races and classes brought together when one finds himself in jeopardy in the other's rough neighborhood.

Crime / Drama

.hack//Quantum OVA Blu-ray Movie  

Blu-ray + DVD

FUNimation Entertainment | 2011 | 75 min | Rated TV-14 | Feb 14, 2012 | Jeffrey Kauffman

Tobias, Mary, and Sakuya challenge the impregnable "The One Sin", but they lose their way in the maze and unintentionally trap other guild members. A mysterious cat is watching their blunder. Is it another player character or NPC?

Action / Adventure / Anime / Fantasy / Sci-Fi

The Doors: Mr. Mojo Risin - The Story of LA Woman Blu-ray Movie  

Eagle Rock Entertainment | 2011 | 59 min | Not rated | Jan 24, 2012 | Jeffrey Kauffman

Mr Mojo Risin is the story of the making of the Doors last album with Jim Morrison L.A. Woman . 2011 is the 40th anniversary of the albums release and this programme goes into detail of how the album came about, its recording and what was happening to the band at the time. The story is told through new interviews with the three surviving Doors: Ray Manzarek, Robbie Krieger and John Densmore plus contributions from Jac Holzman, founder of their label Elektra Records, Bill Siddons, who was their manager, Bruce Botnick, engineer and co-producer of the album and others associated with the Doors at this time. The show includes archive footage of the Doors performing both live and in the studio, classic photographs and new musical demonstrations from the Doors.

Documentary / Music

Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie  

Blu-ray + DVD

FUNimation Entertainment | 2009 | 325 min | Rated TV-14 | Feb 07, 2012 | Jeffrey Kauffman

In feudal Japan, many generals struggled for power in unending warfare, but one man proved to be too big a threat - the dark lord Oda Nobunaga. Sanada Yukimura and Date Masamune, two young warriors from different regions who become heated rivals, must form an unlikely alliance with the rest of the generals to take down the Devil King. Sengoku Basara is based on the PlayStation game Devil Kings by Capcom. The series was animated by Production I.G., and directed by Itsuro Kawasaki.

Action / Adventure / Anime / Drama / War / Foreign

Le silence de la mer Blu-ray Movie    

The Silence of the Sea / Masters of Cinema / Blu-ray + DVD

Eureka Entertainment | 1949 | 88 min | Rated BBFC: U | Jan 23, 2012 | Dr. Svet Atanasov

Under Nazi occupation, an elderly Frenchman and his niece must board a German officer. As a form of resistance, they enter pact of silence when the officer is present. But as time passes, they realize he far differs from their expectations.

Drama / Romance / War / Foreign

A Soldier's Story Blu-ray Movie  

Image Entertainment | 1984 | 101 min | Rated PG | Jan 31, 2012 | Michael Reuben

In 1944, as a black army company waits at a Louisiana base to be sent to the fighting in Europe, a tough sergeant is killed while returning to the base. His men suspect the Klan, and the brass in Washington send an outsider to investigate: an African-American captain, the first such high-ranking officer anyone on the base has ever seen. Despite the opposition of the base's senior officers, all of them white, Captain Davenport is determined to find the truth.

Drama / Mystery / War

Night Train Murders Blu-ray Movie  

Last Stop on the Night Train / L'ultimo treno della notte

Blue Underground | 1975 | 94 min | Not rated | Jan 31, 2012 | Martin Liebman

A pair of psychotic hoodlums and an equally demented nymphomaniac woman terrorize two young girls on a train trip from Germany to Italy.

Horror / Thriller / Foreign / Holiday