New Blu-ray Reviews

Beauty and the Beast 3D Blu-ray Movie  

Diamond Edition / Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy

Disney / Buena Vista | 1991 | 1 Movie, 3 Cuts | 85 min | Rated G | Oct 04, 2011 | Kenneth Brown

In a quaint French village during the late 18th century, Belle, a bright and beautiful young woman, finds escape from her ordinary life, and the advances of a boorish suitor, Gaston, by reading books. Meanwhile, off in a castle in the distance, a cruel young prince is cast under the spell of an enchantress who turns him into a tormented beast, while transforming his servants into animated household objects. In order to remove the curse, the Beast must discover a true love who will return his affection before the last petal falls from an enchanted rose. When Belle’s inventor father stumbles upon the Beast’s castle and is taken prisoner, Belle comes to the rescue and agrees to take her father’s place. With the help of the castle’s enchanted staff, she sees beneath the Beast’s exterior and discovers the heart and soul of a human prince.

Adventure / Animation / Family / Fantasy / Musical / Romance

Sounds and Silence Blu-ray Movie  

ECM Records | 2010 | 90 min | Not rated | Sep 27, 2011 | Jeffrey Kauffman

This documentary profiles Manfred Eicher, founder of ECM Records.

Documentary / Music

Fast Five Blu-ray Movie  

Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy

Universal Studios | 2011 | 1 Movie, 2 Cuts | 132 min | Rated PG-13 | Oct 04, 2011 | Kenneth Brown

Dominic and his crew find themselves on the wrong side of the law once again as they try to switch lanes between a ruthless drug lord and a relentless federal agent.

Action / Crime / Thriller / Heist

The Lion King 3D Blu-ray Movie  

Diamond Edition / Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy

Disney / Buena Vista | 1994 | 89 min | Rated G | Oct 04, 2011 | Kenneth Brown

A young lion cub named Simba just can't wait to be king. But the sudden death of his father, Mufasa, and the treacherous actions of his Uncle Scar lead Simba into exile and ultimately on a hero's journey of self-discovery. Adopting the "hakuna matata" philosophy of his comical jungle guardians — a warthog and a meerkat (Pumbaa and Timon) — Simba eventually comes to terms with his destiny and returns home to Pride Rock to help put things right.

Adventure / Animation / Comedy / Family / Musical / Epic / Coming of age

Life Is Beautiful Blu-ray Movie  

La vita è bella

Lionsgate Films | 1997 | 116 min | Rated PG-13 | Oct 04, 2011 | Jeffrey Kauffman

In 1939, Guido, an Italian Jew, falls in love with Dora, who isn't Jewish. He woos her away from the Fascist official she has been dating, and they get married. Their son Giosue grows up among growing anti-Semitism. As the war progresses, Guido and Giosue are arrested and taken to a concentration camp. Dora goes too, determined not to separate the family. In the midst of the horrors of the camp, Guido protects his son by pretending that survival in the concentration camp is an elaborate game with which Giosue must play along or be sent home.

Comedy / Drama / Romance / War / Foreign / Period

Les cousins Blu-ray Movie  

Criterion | 1959 | 110 min | Not rated | Sep 20, 2011 | Dr. Svet Atanasov

Reserved, bourgeois college student Charles comes to stay with his devil-may-care cousin, Paul, who lives the fast life in Paris. Sensitive Charles, thrown into the whirlwind of his cousin's social circle, meets pretty Florence at a party and believes he has found true love. When Florence breaks his heart, Charles concentrates on his studies with renewed fervor, but soon tensions between the two cousins take a dark turn.

Drama / Foreign

Meek's Cutoff Blu-ray Movie  

Blu-ray + DVD

Oscilloscope Pictures | 2010 | 103 min | Rated PG | Sep 13, 2011 | Casey Broadwater

The year is 1845, the earliest days of the Oregon Trail, and a wagon team of three families has hired the mountain man Stephen Meek to guide them over the Cascade Mountains. Claiming to know a short cut, Meek leads the group on an unmarked path across the high plain desert, only to become lost in the dry rock and sage. Over the coming days, the emigrants must face the scourges of hunger, thirst and their own lack of faith in each other's instincts for survival. When a Native American wanderer crosses their path, the emigrants are torn between their trust in a guide who has proven himself unreliable and a man who has always been seen as the natural enemy.

Drama / Western

The Hills Have Eyes Blu-ray Movie  

Unrated Edition

20th Century Fox | 2006 | 108 min | Unrated | Sep 13, 2011 | Brian Orndorf

Wes Craven produces this remake of his 1977 classic of the same name, about the Carters, an idyllic American family travelling through the great American southwest. But their trip takes a detour into an area closed off from the public, but more importantly from society. An area originally used by the U.S. Government for nuclear testing that was intended to be empty...or so they thought? When the Carter's car breaks down at the old site, they're stranded...or are they? As the Carters may soon realize that what seemed like a car casually breaking down, might actually be a trap. This trap might be perpetrated by the inhabitants of the site who aren't pulling a prank, but are out to set up a gruesome massacre.

Action / Drama / Horror / Thriller

The Stool Pigeon Blu-ray Movie  

綫人 / Sin yan

Well Go USA | 2010 | 113 min | Not rated | Sep 27, 2011 | Jeffrey Kauffman

Policeman Don Lee often works with informants but numerous too-close calls and failed missions cause him to see the world as one betrayal after another - then he meets Guy, and is given a new chance to change his views.

Action / Drama / Thriller / Foreign

Fall Classic at Fenway Park Blu-ray Movie  

A&E Home Video | 2004-2007 | 163 min | Not rated | Sep 27, 2011 | Jeffrey Kauffman

The two World Series championships of the Boston Red Sox are documented in these films from Major League Baseball.

Documentary / Sport

Lewis & Clark: Great Journey West Blu-ray Movie  

National Geographic | 2002 | 45 min | Rated TV-G | Sep 13, 2011 | Jeffrey Kauffman

Relive an amazing tale of discovery and exploration in Lewis & Clark: Great Journey West, as National Geographic brings to life the first crossing of what would become the United States. With careful research and meticulous re-creations, this expedition comes to life for the first time in stunning high-definition. Two hundred years after their epic journey, go back in time with Lewis, Clark, their guide Sacagawea, and the brave Corps of Discovery as they discover the adventure, danger, and beauty of the unmapped West.

Documentary / Drama / History / Short

Gettysburg Blu-ray Movie  

Blu-ray + DVD

A&E Home Video | 2011 | 94 min | Rated TV-PG | Sep 20, 2011 | Jeffrey Kauffman

This feature-length history special looks at the battle of Gettysburg from the perspective of the everyday soldiers who fought there, in a confrontation that changed the fate of our nation. Stripping away the romanticized veneer of past treatments, this special conveys new information and honors the sacrifice of those, both North and South, who fought and died there.

Documentary / History / War

City of God Blu-ray Movie    

Cidade de Deus

Studio Canal | 2002 | 130 min | Rated BBFC: 18 | Sep 19, 2011 | Dr. Svet Atanasov

In the slums of Rio, two kids' paths diverge as one struggles to become a photographer and the other a kingpin.

Crime / Drama / Foreign

Scrooge Blu-ray Movie  

Legend | 1935 | 61 min | Not rated | Sep 20, 2011 | Jeffrey Kauffman

Scrooge, the ultimate Victorian miser, hasn't a good word for Christmas, though his impoverished clerk Cratchit and nephew Fred are full of holiday spirit. But in the night, Scrooge is visited by spirits of another color.

Drama / Family / Fantasy / Holiday

Mimic Blu-ray Movie  

The Director's Cut / Blu-ray + Digital Copy

Lionsgate Films | 1997 | 112 min | Rated R | Sep 27, 2011 | Jeffrey Kauffman

Three years ago, two young scientists teamed up to save New York City from an roach-borne epidemic that was killing thousands of children. Their miracle of genetic engineering was the Judas Breed, an insect whose enzimes proved deadly to the disease-carrying roaches. However, their creation has come back to haunt them, altering the balance of nature and tipping the scales in favor of the insects. The thing created in the lab has changed, and now, out there in the city it has begun to mimic the most dangerous predator of all---humans.

Drama / Horror / Sci-Fi

The Lion King Blu-ray Movie  

Diamond Edition / Blu-ray + DVD

Disney / Buena Vista | 1994 | 88 min | Rated G | Oct 04, 2011 | Kenneth Brown

A young lion cub named Simba just can't wait to be king. But the sudden death of his father, Mufasa, and the treacherous actions of his Uncle Scar lead Simba into exile and ultimately on a hero's journey of self-discovery. Adopting the "hakuna matata" philosophy of his comical jungle guardians — a warthog and a meerkat (Pumbaa and Timon) — Simba eventually comes to terms with his destiny and returns home to Pride Rock to help put things right.

Adventure / Animation / Comedy / Family / Musical / Epic / Coming of age

Conan O'Brien Can't Stop Blu-ray Movie  

Magnolia Pictures | 2011 | 89 min | Rated R | Sep 13, 2011 | Casey Broadwater

After a much-publicized departure from hosting NBC's Tonight Show, O'Brien hit the road with a 32-city music-and-comedy show to exercise his performing chops and exorcise a few demons. Filmmaker Rodman Flender's documentary, Conan O'Brien Can't Stop, is an intimate portrait of an artist trained in improvisation, captured at the most improvisational time of his career. It offers a window into the private writers room and rehearsal halls as O'Brien's "Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour" is almost instantly assembled and mounted to an adoring fan base. At times angry, mostly hilarious, we see a comic who does not stop -- performing, singing, pushing his staff and himself. Did Conan O'Brien hit the road to give something back to his loyal fans, or did he travel across the continent, stopping at cities large and remote to fill a void within himself?

Comedy / Documentary / Music

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec Blu-ray Movie    

Les aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec

Optimum Home Entertainment | 2010 | 107 min | Rated BBFC: 12 | Aug 15, 2011 | Dr. Svet Atanasov

Adèle Blanc-Sec is a cynical novelist of popular fiction, who turns to investigative journalism as her research and subsequent adventures reveal further details of the mystical world of crime in Paris during the years before and after World War I.

Action / Adventure / Comedy / Family / Fantasy / Mystery / Supernatural / Comic book / Foreign

Witchfinder General Blu-ray Movie    

Special Edition

Odeon | 1968 | 87 min | Rated BBFC: 18 | Jun 13, 2011 | Dr. Svet Atanasov

In 17th century England, torn by civil war, the Puritans appoint a "Witchfinder General" with the legal authority to hunt down suspected witches with the help of a henchman. When he is on the trail of one suspected witch, a young girl he has raped, her fiance, a Royalist, decides to give chase and hunt them down.

Biography / Drama / History / Horror

Burst Angel: Complete Series Plus OVA Blu-ray Movie  

Anime Classics

FUNimation Entertainment | 2004 | 625 min | Rated TV-14 | Sep 06, 2011 | Jeffrey Kauffman

A new law and a dark underground syndicate have delivered devastating chaos to Tokyo. The city's only chance for survival is a fearless mercenary, her dangerously beautiful comrades and a massively armed and armored mech. In this land where war has spread like a disease, they will have to put their very existence on the line and fight to be the cure.

Action / Adventure / Anime / Comedy / Crime / Drama / Mystery / Romance / Sci-Fi / Foreign