To put it mildly,
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World had a tough time at the box office, having only pulled in half of its estimated $60M budget in domestic box office receipts. A victim of its own success, Universal wasn't able to market the quirky film correctly, and moviegoers couldn't figure if the film was another
Juno or
Superbad (turns out, it was neither). Whatever genre director Edgar Wright (
Hot Fuzz) was aiming for is debatable, but the result is an unexpectedly great film.
Staff reviewer Jeffrey Kaufman commented in his
Blu-ray review of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, "It's an odd, amazing, confounding and flat out silly film, but it has a generous amount of heart and an overwhelming amount of whimsy keeping it afloat." He continues, "Some of the film looks a bit on the soft side, and colors are not always brilliantly saturated. That said, I'm sure that's exactly the lo-fi look that Wright and Pope were going for here."
The concept seemed sound enough. Take five of the (arguably) funniest comedians who have passed their prime, and put them in a film with a thin plot and thinner direction and see what happens. Turns out, nothing spectacular. Some are winners, some are losers, and some end up being right in the middle, like today's Blu-ray release of
Grown Ups.
For the
Blu-ray review of Grown Ups, staff reviewer Martin Liebman commented, "Grown Ups fails to deliver on a good concept, but it does sport a quality ensemble cast that squeezes out just enough humor, heart, and believability in their relationship to make the movie worth a watch." He continues, "Grown Ups' Blu-ray release is decent; the image and sound quality could use some maturing, but the included supplements are about what's expected of a midlevel Comedy, making this a disc that's worth a rent but nothing more."
For those looking to check out new Bilbo before he makes his appearance as lead character in
The Hobbit, BBC is releasing
Sherlock: Season One on Blu-ray today with actor Martin Freeman playing the supporting lead character Dr. John Watson. Fans of the show shouldn't fret with the recent
Hobbit casting announcements, however. Freeman will continue his role as Watson during filming of
The Hobbit, which begins in February.
Last summer, guitar legend Eric Clapton once again asked some of the top musicians of all time to play a benefit concert to support the Crossroads Centre, a drug treatment center founded by Clapton. For this third outing in Illinois, Clapton asked back some old friends such as B.B. King, Jeff Beck, and ZZ Top, as well as invited some newer acts like the John Mayer Trio and Citizen Cope. Rhino is presenting the concert in high definition with today's Blu-ray release of
Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010.