The
Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has been a huge success for Disney, though its commercial appeal was almost universally questions prior to the first film's release. In hindsight, this may have been a contributing factor to the film's grand success – no one saw it coming! Conversely, when Disney was planning the release of
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the was already talk of a trilogy and comparisons to
Pirates, which at the end of the day, never happened.
Price of Persia isn't a
bad film, it just wasn't the film that we consumers were promised. As staff reviewer Ken Brown points out in his
Blu-ray review of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, "It's merely an average, by-the-numbers, FX-laden fantasy actioner; hardly the revolutionary thrill-ride that could have rejuvenated an ailing genre and ignited a creative firestorm." However, the Blu-ray quality doesn't disappoint, as he continues, "Its near-perfect video transfer rarely disappoints, its chest-thumping DTS-HD Master Audio track will wake the neighbors, and it offers gamers and filmfans two hours of behind-the-scenes material."
What makes
Se7en such a special film is not the form by which the story unfolds – the crime drama/suspense genre has been used by Hollywood ad nauseam – but rather it's the shocking, gory, and often vomit-inducing images used by director David Fincher to engulf viewers is legendary. Most people get a daily dose of murder and death by watching the evening news, but only a very few films have been able to capture the very darkest and disgusting acts of human beings so convincingly.
Se7en is truly deserving of its digibook rapper.
For the
Blu-ray review of Se7en, staff reviewer Martin Liebman concluded, "It's a complex film of dark themes and darker visuals, but Fincher's construction results in a picture that's at the top of the cinematic landscape and a hallmark of moviemaking done absolutely right. Warner Brothers' Digibook Blu-ray release easily finds itself in the running as one of the year's top 10 Blu-ray releases."
There is really a surprising amount of great material being released this week, that I'm sure that some of you are a bit overwhelmed. TV fans get their choice of
Fringe: The Complete Second Season,
Glee: The Complete First Season, or
The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Third Season. If classic TV is more your thing, you can't go wrong with
The Twilight Zone: Season 1. Warner is releasing the three
Lord of the Rings films separately (
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King) for the first time (previously available only in the box set). And I recommend everyone add
Jacob's Ladder to your rent list if you haven't purchased a copy already.