At the time when Showtime was making efforts to expand their original programming line-up, 'Weeds' emerged as a shining star in an otherwise ignored schedule. The cannabis inspired drama quickly became a top performer on the premium channel, and has already completed its fifth season - which is out on Blu-ray today - and a sixth season is set to begin later this year.
For today's Blu-ray release of ‘
Weeds: Season 5', Lionsgate has brought together all episodes in a package that should be very familiar to anyone who owns the previous seasons on Blu-ray
After becoming somewhat of a horror icon for her work in the 'Underworld' series, Kate Beckinsale recently starred in the chilling thriller '
Whiteout', which is out today on Blu-ray. Unfortunately, the results left both moviegoers and critics alike in an underwhelmed state, much like her previous departures from horror in '
Click' and '
Vacancy'.
For the
Blu-ray review of 'Whiteout', staff reviewer Ken Brown concluded, "I can only hope the graphic novel is more intense, less derivative, and more engrossing than Sena's underwhelming, uneventful, poorly paced thriller. The Blu-ray edition doesn't help matters, serving up an excellent TrueHD audio track alongside a scattershot video transfer and a nearly non-existent supplemental package."
'
Pandorum' arrives today on Blu-ray with a familiarity that with either attract longtime "resource exploration" fans or repel moviegoers looking for something new from the overly utilized "space horror" genre. It seems our main characters have been sent from an over-populated, under-resourced Earth to find an alternate source for human survival. Where films like 'Avatar' excel in creating a unique experience from a familiar story, 'Pandorum' repeats much of what you've seen before, which begs the question, "Why again?"
Staff reviewer Martin Liebman commented in his
Blu-ray review of 'Pandorum', "By picture's end and despite a series of interesting revelations that culminate in a conclusion that arrives expectedly but not within a wholly generic and predictable context, Pandorum comes across as a good all-around movie but not one that's destined to live on as anything more than a slightly better-than-average genre fright-fest." He continues, " This Starz Blu-ray release does right by the film, delivering a 1080p picture quality that's reflective of the deliberately drab tone, a pulse-pounding Dolby TrueHD lossless soundtrack, and a few extras of note."
Combining the two uber-markets of motion pictures and video games is not a new venture, and the integration has resulted in quite a few successes. But typically, the one rarely translates well to the other, and such is the case of today's Blu-ray release of '
Gamer'. Selecting the very imposing Gerard Butler as the lead character was a smart decision, but the film's concept, unfortunately, never fully matures.
For the
Blu-ray review of 'Gamer', staff reviewer Martin Liebman comments, "The film's action visuals are most impressive, but the opportunity for a deeper story is lost underneath the avalanche of spent shell casings, a thin plot, mediocre character development, and predictable story arcs." He continues, "Lionsgate's Blu-ray release, however, is of top-notch quality. The disc sports an exceptional 1080p transfer, a reference-grade lossless soundtrack, and a quality assortment of well-implemented and exciting extras."
For a complete listing of all the Blu-ray titles released today,
click here.