Your Weekly Source for the Newest Releases to Blu-Ray

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011

ALIEN (1979)
Synopsis: Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror classic stars Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, a tough-as-nails warrant officer who stares down one of the most terrifying movie monsters of all time: a bloodthirsty alien that stalks and eviscerates its prey. As the deadly creature winds its way through the air shafts of the spacecraft Nostramo, the crew members consider deploying the ship’s escape shuttle… but there’s only room for four people.

ALIENS (1986)
Synopsis: In this acclaimed sequel, the only survivor from the first film, Lt. Ripley, finds her horrific account of her crew’s fate is met with skepticism — until the disappearance of colonists on LV-426 prompts a team of high-tech Marines to investigate. Ripley travels with the team as an advisor, only to find that her biggest fear has come true. Weaver was Oscar nominated for Best Actress.

ALIEN 3 (1992)
Synopsis: In the third chapter of this sci-fi saga, Lt. Ripley is the lone survivor when her spaceship crashes on a planet inhabited by former prison inmates. Her fears that an alien was aboard her craft are confirmed when bodies begin to pile up. But as Ripley tries to lead the inmates into battle against the creature, she makes another horrifying discovery. This edition includes the theatrical and restored print versions of the film.

ALIEN: RESURRECTION (1997)
Synopsis: Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder star in the fourth installment of the Alien series. Two hundred years after Lt. Ripley died, a group of scientists clone her, hoping to breed the ultimate weapon. But the new Ripley is full of surprises … as are the new aliens. Ripley must team with a band of smugglers to keep the creatures from reaching Earth. Includes the theatrical and extended cuts of the film.

ANOTHER STAKEOUT (1993)
Synopsis: In this uproarious sequel, Chris Lecce (Richard Dreyfuss) and his partner Bill Reimers (Emilio Estevez) are back — this time, accompanied by a woman from the district attorney’s office (Rosie O’Donnell). Their mission: to case the lakeside home of a Mafia trial witness — without blowing their cover, of course. It’s a comic battle of wills among the unlikely trio when things go from bad to worse.

BLACK DEATH (2011)
Synopsis: Sean Bean stars in this historically rooted horror-thriller as Ulric, a church-appointed knight in the age of the Bubonic Plague’s first wave who’s tasked with investigating rumors of a woman (Carice van Houten) who can bring the dead back to life. A young monk (Eddie Redmayne) named Osmund is aiding Ulric on his quest to root out the necromancer — and to determine whether or not she has ties to Satan.

BLUE VALENTINE (2010)
Synopsis: Once crazy about each other, Cindy (Michelle Williams) and Dean (Ryan Gosling) have now grown apart. Cindy is bored and disenchanted with her life while Dean languishes in the emotional emptiness of their sexless, routine life in rural Pennsylvania. As they muddle through their marriage, they hearken back to the golden days when life was filled with possibility and romance.

BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)
Synopsis: Legendary outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid display their gifts for perfect comedic timing and charisma as they pull off heist after heist in this Academy Award-winning film from director George Roy Hill. To evade a relentless posse, the boys flee to Bolivia, thinking they’ll find easier pickings there. But trouble finds the charming desperadoes wherever they go, prompting yet another run.

CHILDREN OF THE CORN III: URBAN HARVEST (1994)
Synopsis: After Eli kills his father, he and his brother, Joshua, leave rural Nebraska behind when they’re taken in by a Chicago couple. Joshua easily adapts to his new home, but Eli wastes no time in bringing his special brand of evil to the big city. The bad seed of the family plants a patch of corn in an abandoned lot and calls forth the demonic “He Who Walks Behind the Rows,” kicking off another murderous rampage.

COUGARS, INC. (2011)
Synopsis: Faced with a tuition bill he can’t afford to pay, college-age Sam concocts a lucrative side business that pairs sex-crazed students with sex-starved “cougars,” older women who are keen on showing the eager boys around the bedroom.
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DRACLUA 2000 (2000)
Synopsis: Wes Craven produces this reinvention of Bram Stoker’s classic horror story. After breaking into a high-security vault, a team of thieves discovers an ancient crypt that holds none other than the corpse of Dracula. Freed from a century of confinement, the fanged count travels to New Orleans so he can quench his thirst for blood — and find the woman who holds the key to world domination and eternal life.

EQUILIBRIUM (2002)
Synopsis: In a futuristic world, a strict regime has eliminated war by suppressing emotions: Books, art & music are strictly forbidden & feeling is a crime punishable by death; a rule that’s enforced by feeding the denizens a mood-limiting drug. John Preston is a top government official responsible for destroying those who resist the rules. But when he misses a dose of his own medication, he experiences a pang of conscience.

FLICKA 2 (2010)
Synopsis: Skateboarder Carrie McLaughlin (Tammin Sursok) feels as if she’s living out a prison sentence when she’s sent West to stay at her father’s horse ranch, far from the big-city lights she’s used to. But she finds unexpected friendship in an untamed horse named Flicka. Patrick Warburton, Clint Black and Emily Tennant co-star in director Michael Damian’s updated adaptation of the classic 1941 novel My Friend Flicka.

HALLOWEEN VI: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS (1995)
Synopsis: The crazed serial killer returns from the dead in this splatter-fest sequel. After Michael Myers’ niece gives birth, she turns the baby over to Tommy Doyle to save the child from Michael. Living with members of the Strode family, Tommy suspects that the evil force that drove Michael to murder now curses young Danny Strode. Can Tommy — with help from Michael’s nemesis — end the madness?

HANG’EM HIGH (1968)
Synopsis: Clint Eastwood (in all his squinty-eyed glory) survives a hanging, vowing revenge on the lynch mob that left him dangling, in this film that aspires to be an Americanized spaghetti Western — and succeeds. To carry out his oath for vengeance, he returns to his former job as a lawman. Before long, he’s caught up with the nine men on his hit list and starts dispensing his own brand of Wild West justice.

HELLRAISER IV: BLOODLINE (1996)
Synopsis: Spanning four centuries, this petrifying Gothic thriller recounts the anguished past of the L’Merchant clan, who unwittingly fashioned the puzzle box that unlocked the gates of Hades and unleashed the monstrous Pinhead (Doug Bradley). As Pinhead and his band of diabolical demons propagate evil on Earth, three generations of L’Merchants battle the legions of darkness to annihilate Pinhead… permanently.

THE HIT LIST (2011)
Synopsis: Screenwriter brothers Chad and Evan Law penned this gripping action-thriller about a man who bends a stranger’s (Cuba Gooding Jr.) ear during a night of drinking — and accidentally sentences the people he complains about to die. The moral implications are bad enough. But when the people on his theoretical “hit list” start turning up truly dead, a detective gets awfully suspicious.

HOME OF THE BRAVE (2006)
Synopsis: Oscar-winning producer Irwin Winkler takes the director’s seat for this drama about three American soldiers who encounter some tough challenges as they adjust to life after performing a tour of duty in Iraq. Will (Samuel L. Jackson) is a doctor who attempts to return to his practice; Vanessa (Jessica Biel) learns to live with one hand while raising her child alone; and Tommy mourns the loss of his best friend in combat.

THE HORSE SOLDIERS (1959)
Synopsis: John Wayne stars as Union cavalry Col. John Marlowe in acclaimed director John Ford’s dramatic interpretation of real-life Civil War events. Marlowe & his military cohort Maj. Hank Kendall are ordered behind Confederate lines to sabotage enemy war efforts. The action is nonstop as blazing gunfire, battlefield romance & disagreement in the ranks pepper the soldiers’ mission.

I SAW THE DEVIL (2011)
Synopsis: From famed thriller director Ji-woon Kim comes this edgy thriller about secret agent Dae-hoon, who discovers how far over the edge he will go in order to seek revenge after his fiancée is brutally slain by psychopathic serial killer Kyung-chul. With the police baffled by Kyung-chul’s murders, Dae-hoon decides to capture the killer, but his own increasing violence makes him wonder who the monster really is.

MASTER & COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD (2003)
Synopsis: Set off the coast of South America during the Napoleonic Wars, this thrilling maritime drama pits “Lucky” Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe), captain of the HMS Surprise, and his close-knit crew against a French privateer equipped with better weapons. This action-adventure, which won Oscars for Best Cinematography and Best Sound Editing, is based on the novels of Patrick O’Brian.

THE MISFITS (1961)
Synopsis: Arthur Miller’s homage to the Old West stars Clark Gable as Gay Langland, an aging cowboy who works the rodeos with cohorts Guido and Perce. The trio devise a plan to sell some unruly mustangs for dog food, but Gay’s new girlfriend Roslyn (Marilyn Monroe) objects. Disgusted with the plan, she sets out to free the captive horses. Both Gable and Monroe make their final film appearance.

NO STRINGS ATTACHED (2011)
Synopsis: Emotionally unencumbered and sexually satisfied, friends with benefits Emma (Natalie Portman) and Adam (Ashton Kutcher) have an open relationship that suits them just fine. That is, until those pesky little things called feelings enter the picture. Ivan Reitman directs and Kevin Kline and Cary Elwes co-star in this comedy that explores the perks and pitfalls of modern romance.

SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)
Synopsis: When musicians Jerry (Jack Lemmon) and Joe (Tony Curtis) accidentally witness the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, they get out of town the only way they know how — dressed as women. But things heat up on the road when they meet a curvy blonde (Marilyn Monroe) who plays the ukulele.
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SOMETHING WILD: Criterion Collection (1986)
Synopsis: The boring life of businessman Charles Driggs (Jeff Daniels) suddenly changes when free-spirited Audrey (Melanie Griffith) “kidnaps” him for a weekend trip. They pose as a married couple, attend Audrey’s high school reunion and visit her mother. But when Audrey’s ex-husband Ray (Ray Liotta) shows up, freshly out of jail, this romantic comedy (smartly directed by Jonathan Demme) takes a turn into thriller territory.

STRAIGHT TALK (1992)
Synopsis: Unlucky country girl Shirlee Kenyon (Dolly Parton) accidentally becomes Chicago’s newest talk-radio celebrity by winning listeners’ hearts with her down-home advice. (Talk about a tailor-made part for the plain-talking Parton!) James Woods plays the proverbial fly in the ointment as an investigative reporter trying to uncover Shirlee’s mysterious past.
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SUPERCOP (1992)
Synopsis: Hong Kong policeman Chia Chu goes undercover in mainland China to bust a drug-smuggling ring and, with the help of undercover agent Jessica Yang, breaks the drug lord’s brother out of prison to gain the trust of the syndicate. But when Chia accidentally runs into his girlfriend, May, his cover is blown, and he’s forced to help the criminals pull off another jailbreak.

THE VIOLENT KIND (2010)
Synopsis: A tale of rowdy bikers who find their partying cut short by a malevolent force and a gang of equally rough Rockabilly types who may already be dead. Writer-directors the Butcher Brothers have created an instant and utterly original grindhouse classic, a meat-and-potatoes slasher flick sure to satisfy the hungriest gorehounds.

*Source: Synopses courtesy of Netflix. Images courtesy of Amazon.