Blu Monday: Muppets, Bowling Balls, and Lots of Guns!

By Movie Geeks | August 14, 2011

Your Weekly Source for the Newest Releases to Blu-Ray

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

AGENT 8 3/4 (1964)

Directed by: Ralph Thomas

Starring: Dirk Bogarde, Sylva Koscina, Robert Morley

Synopsis: Unemployed Czech-speaking writer Nicholas Whistler thinks he’s got a job visiting Prague for a bit of industrial espionage. In fact he is now in the employ of British Intelligence. His pretty chauffeuse on arrival behind the Iron Curtain, Comrade Simonova, is herself a Czech agent. Just as well she’s immediately attracted to 007’s unwitting replacement. [highdefdigest.com]

Special Features: Unknown.

ARMED AND DANGEROUS (1986)

Directed by: Mark L. Lester

Starring: John Candy, Eugene Levy, Meg Ryan, Robert Loggia

Synopsis: Dooley, a cop wrongly sacked for corruption, teams up with a useless defense lawyer in their new careers… as security guards. When the two are made fall guys for a robbery at a location they are guarding, the pair begin to investigate corruption within the company and their union. They soon make enemies of everyone, but can the unlikely duo save the day? [highdefdigest.com]

Special Features: Unknown.

ASSASSINS (1995)

Directed by: Richard Donner

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Antonio Banderas, Julianne Moore

Synopsis: Robert Roth is the best hit-man around, but the code and sense of duty that once were a part of his deadly career are lost in a post-Cold War world of free-lance guns. He wants out. Not so Miguel Bain, a driven killer who knows how to claim the top spot of his shadowy profession: eliminate Roth. Julianne Moore turns up the heat as a wily hacker swept into the duo’s running battle. Co-written by the Wachowski Brothers (The Matrix) and Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential) and directed by Richard Donner (the Lethal Weapon series), this awesome action tale plunges you into a world where what counts isn’t making the first move, but surviving the last. [highdefdigest.com]

Special Features: Theatrical trailer.

THE BANG BANG CLUB (2010)

Directed by: Steven Silver

Starring: Malin Akerman, Ryan Phillippe, Taylor Kitsch

Synopsis: A drama based on the true-life experiences of four combat photographers capturing the final days of apartheid in South Africa. [highdefdigest.com]

Special Features: Unknown.

THE BIG LEBOWSKI: Limited Edition DigiBook (1998)

Directed by: The Coen Brothers

Starring: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, John Tuturro

Synopsis: When “The Dude” Lebowski is mistaken for a millionaire Lebowski, two thugs urinate on his rug to coerce him into paying a debt he knows nothing about. While attempting to gain recompense for the ruined rug from his wealthy counterpart, he accepts a one-time job with high pay-off. He enlists the help of his bowling buddy, Walter, a gun-toting Jewish-convert with anger issues. Deception leads to more trouble, and it soon seems that everyone from porn empire tycoons to nihilists want something from The Dude. [IMDb.com]

Special Features:

• Featurettes
• Introduction
• Interactive Map
• Photo Gallery
• U-Control (Picture-in-Picture and Text)
• Interactive Pop-Up Trivia Game
• Digital Copy
• BD-Live Functionality
• My Scenes
• pocketBLU app
• News Ticker

BREAKING GLASS (1980)

Directed by: Brian Gibson

Starring: Phil Daniels, Jonathan Pryce

Synopsis: 1980s London punk scene is captured in the gritty new wave musical with poignant rags to riches story of a talented and rebellious young singer-songwriter. Kate is the lead singer of the rock group Breaking Glass. Kate’s socialist ideals are juxtaposed to her pragmatic rock manager’s, Danny, a streetwise hustler who discovers her and develops her into a star. The energetic singer, whose talent and sanity are jeopardized by the music business’ power structure, struggles for artistic recognition . Hazel O’Connor wrote and performs 13 captivating and provocative songs for the film. [highdefdigest.com]

Special Features: Unknown.

CAMPBELL’S KINGDOM (1957)

Directed by: Ralph Thomas

Starring: Dirk Bogarde, Stanley Baker, Michael Craig

Synopsis: Adapted from the novel of the same name by Hammond Innes. Bruce Campbell (Dirk Bogarde) inherits “Campbell’s Kingdom” in the Canadian Rockies on the death of his grandfather. He has been diagnosed with an unspecified terminal illness and decides to see if he can find the oil that his grandfather believed was present on his land, and to clear his family name; his grandfather had wrongly been found guilty of fraud when his oil exploration company went broke. Owen Morgan (Stanley Baker) is the boss of a company that is constructing a dam that when complete will flood the “Kingdom”. It’s a race against time to prove that the oil is there before the dam is completed. [highdefdigest.com]

Special Features: Unknown.

COBRA (1986)

Directed by: George P. Cosmatos

Starring: Sylvester Stallone

Synopsis: Like Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky and Rambo, the hero of Cobra is another original: Lt. Marion Cobretti, a one-man assault force whose laser-mount sub-machine gun and pearl-handled Colt .45 spit pure crime-stopping venom. Director George P. Cosmatos (Rambo: First Blood Part II, Tombstone) rejoins Stallone for this thriller pitting Cobretti against a merciless serial killer. The trail leads to not one murderer but to an army of psychos bent on slashing their way to a “New Order” – and killing the inadvertent witness (Brigitte Nielsen) to their latest blood spree. Fortunately, Cobra is her protector. And full-throttle screen excitement doesn’t get any better. [highdefdigest.com]

Special Features:

• Director’s commentary.
• Making of featurette.
• Theatrical trailer.

THE CONSPIRATOR: Deluxe Edition (2011)

Directed by: Robert Redford

Starring: Robin Wright, James McAvoy, Kevin Kline, Danny Huston, Evan Rachel Wood, Justin Long, Tom Wilkinson

Synopsis: In the wake of the assassination of President Lincoln in 1865, a country mourns its leader, and eight people are charged with conspiring to kill the President, Vice President and Secretary of State. The lone woman accused, Mary Surratt (Wright), owns the boarding house where the attack was planned. Faced with a certain death, Surratt’s only hope comes in the form of a newly minted lawyer and Union war hero, Frederick Aiken (McAvoy), who reluctantly agrees to defend Surratt before a military tribunal. As the courtroom trial unfolds, Aiken realizes his client may be innocent and that she is being used as bait in order to capture the only conspirator to have escaped a massive manhunt, her son (Johnny Simmons, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World). [highdefdigest.com]

Special Features:

• Feature-length documentary about the plot to kill Lincoln.
• Interviews with the cast and crew.
• Numerous featurettes on the making of the film and the true story behind it.
• Photo galleries.
• Video commentary with Robert Redford.

CUL-DE-SAC: The Criterion Collection (1966)

Directed by: Roman Polanski

Starring: Donald Pleasence, Françoise Dorleac, Lionel Stander

Synopsis: Roman Polanski orchestrates a mental menage a trois in this slyly absurd tale of paranoia from the director’s golden 1960s period. Donald Pleasence and Françoise Dorleac star as a withdrawn couple whose isolated house is invaded by a rude, burly American gangster on the run, played by Lionel Stander. The three engage in role-playing games of sexual and emotional humiliation. Cul-de-sac is an evocative, claustrophobic, and morbidly funny tale of the modern world in chaos. [Criterion.com]

Special Features:

• Two Gangsters and an Island, a 2003 short documentary about the making of Cul-de-sac, featuring interviews with Polanski, producer Gene Gutowski, and cinematographer Gil Taylor.
• Theatrical trailers.
• Interview with Polanski from 1967.
• A booklet featuring an essay by film critic David Thompson.

DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY: Special Edition (1967)

Directed by: Jim McBride

Starring: M. Kit Carson, Eileen Dietz, Robert Lesser

Synopsis: David Holzman’s Diary is one of the most influential films of the 1960s, an “ingenious puzzle movie” (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader) that charts the self-destruction of a media-saturated youth. As news from the Vietnam War and social unrest blares over the radio, David Holzman (L.M. Kit Carson) unloads comic-neurotic monologues to his 16mm camera. When his relationship with Penny (Eileen Dietz) goes south, he retreats further into moving images, secretly recording his pretty neighbor and even turning his lens to the TV shows he watches. No longer able to deal with life outside celluloid, all of his ties to the real world begin to erode. The “totally delightful satire” (NY Times) of a narcissistic artist is also a well-crafted fiction about the deceptions of cinematic illusionism. Early on, Holzman quotes Jean-Luc Godard’s famous dictum that “the cinema is truth 24 frames-per-second.” As director Jim McBride teaches and Holzman soon learns, it lies just as often. [Kino.com]

Special Features:

• My Girlfriend’s Wedding (61 minutes)
• Pictures from Life’s Other Side (45 minutes)
• My Son’s Wedding to My Sister-In-Law (8 minutes)

DEMOLITION MAN (1993)

Directed by: Marco Brambilla

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock

Synopsis: Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes go at it amid a dazzling cyber-future in this explosive hit. In 2032 arch-criminal Simon Phoenix (Snipes) awakens from a 35-year deep freeze in CryoPrision to find a serene, non-violent Los Angeles ready for the taking. Unable to deal with Phoenix’s brutal 1990s style, officials seek an old-fashioned cop to fight old-fashioned crime. They revive Sgt. John Spartan (Stallone), unjustly serving a CryoPrison sentence because of his last encounter with Phoenix. Sandra Bullock, Benjamin Bratt and Denis Leary also play rough and tough in this “terrific mix of action and humor” (Joel Siegel, Good Morning America/ABC-TV). [highdefdigest.com]

Special Features:

• Commentary by Director Marco Brambilla and Producer Joel Silver.
• Theatrical trailer.

FRIDAY THE 13TH (2009)

Directed by: Marcus Nispel

Starring: Jared Padalecki, Amanda Righetti, Derek mears

Synopsis: College kids seeking a weekend of kicks have made a horrible mistake. They’ve come to party at eerie Crystal Lake, the deadly domain of machete-mad killer Jason Voorhees. Terror goes to extremes in this reimagining of the Jason legend for today’s horror fan. Enter for the first time the subterranean lair that is Jason’s den of torture and fear. See him discover the mask that hides his deformed face. Experience a whole new level of fright. And try to remain calm. The intense violence, the unique kills, the jolting scares: live them all in the all-new Friday The 13th. [highdefdigest.com]

Special Features: Unknown/TBA.

HOODWINKED TOO! HOOD VS. EVIL 3D (2011)

Directed by: Mike Disa

Starring: Glenn Close, Hayden Panettiere, Bill Hader

Synopsis: The good… the bad… the Twitchy. HOODWINKED TOO! HOOD VS. EVIL finds our heroine, Red (Hayden Panettiere), training with a mysterious covert group called the Sisters of the Hood. But Red is forced to cut her training short when she gets an urgent call from NickyFlippers (David Ogden Stiers), the head of the super secret Happily Ever After Agency, aka the HEA. A wicked witch (Joan Cusack) has abducted two innocent children, Hansel (Bill Hader) and Gretel (Amy Poehler), and Nicky needs the whole Hoodwinked gang – Red, Granny (Glenn Close), the ever-clueless Wolf (Patrick Warburton) and his over-caffeinated little partner, Twitchy (Cory Edwards) – for the search and rescue mission. [highdefdigest.com]

Special Features:

• “I Can Do It Alone” Music Video Featuring Hayden Panettiere.
• “You Know It” Music Video Featuring Lavay Cole.
• “Perfect Two” Music Video Featuring CEEJ.
• The Voices of Hoodwinked Too!: Featurette.
• Storyboards.
• Production Artwork.
• Video Game Applications.

HUSH (1998)

Directed by: Jonathan Darby

Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Lange, Hal Holbrook

Synopsis: Helen is the young girlfriend of good-looking Jackson Baring. When Helen gets pregnant and marries Jackson, they decide to move to his hometown, Kilronan, and have a baby there. But his mother Martha, who lives there, starts to do weird things, and obviously she’s not too friendly to Helen. [highdefdigest.com]

Special Features: Unknown.

JANE EYRE (2011)

Directed by: Cary Fukunaga

Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Jamie Bell

Synopsis: Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland), Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds) and Academy Award winner Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love) star in acclaimed director Cary Fukunaga’s daring new adaptation of the timeless romance. When orphaned governess Jane Eyre (Wasikowska) arrives at imposing Thornfield Hall, she’s intrigued by her brooding wealthy employer, Rochester (Fassbender). His dark moods and the strange occurrences in the house lead her to discover a terrible secret that he had hoped to hide from her forever. Critics proclaim this captivating, sensual film is “Beautiful. A splendid example of how to turn a beloved work of classic literature into a movie.” (A.O. Scott, The New York Times).
[highdefdigest.com]

Special Features:

• Audio Commentary.
• Featurettes.
• Deleted Scenes.
• My Scenes.
• pocketBLU app.
• News Ticker.
• BD-Live Functionality.

THE KILLING: The Criterion Collection (1956)

Directed by: Stanley Kubrick

Starring: Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards

Synopsis: Stanley Kubrick’s account of an ambitious racetrack robbery is one of Hollywood’s tautest, twistiest noirs. Aided by a radically time-shuffling narrative, razor-sharp dialogue from pulp novelist Jim Thompson, and a phenomenal cast of character actors, including Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Timothy Carey, Elisha Cook Jr., and Marie Windsor, The Killing is both a jaunty thriller and a cold-blooded punch to the gut. And with its precise tracking shots and gratifying sense of irony, it’s Kubrick to the core. [Criterion.com]

Special Features:

• New video interview with producer James B. Harris.
• Excerpts of interviews with actor Sterling Hayden from the French television series Cinema cinemas.
• New video interview with film scholar Robert Polito about writer Jim Thompson and his work on The Killing.
• Restored transfer of Stanley Kubrick’s 1955 noir feature Killer’s Kiss.
• New video appreciation of Killer’s Kiss with film critic Geoffrey O’Brien.
• Theatrical trailers.
• A booklet featuring an essay by film historian Haden Guest and a reprinted interview with Marie Windsor on The Killing.

MARLY & ME: THE PUPPY YEARS (2011)

Directed by: Michael Damian

Starring: Travis Turner, Donnelly Rhodes, Merrilyn Gann, Chelah Horsdal, Sydney Imbeau, Grayson Russell

Synopsis: Marley is back for more tail-wagging fun, and this time he speaks! That’s right, “the world’s worst dog” has a frisky voice and and an attitude to match. Join Marley for his mischievous puppy years, as he and his summer pal, Bodie Grogan, wreak havoc on a neighborhood dog contest. Marley outwits Dobermans, Shepherds and Collies, while stealing hearts in his own unique and lovable way. Get your paws on “Marley & Me: The Puppy Years” and fetch big laughs for the whole family. [highdefdigest.com]

Special Features:

• Marley & Me: The Puppy Years Goes to Training Camp.
• Part of the Family.
• My Favorite Moments.

MEET MONICA VELOUR (2010)

Directed by: Keith Bearden

Starring: Kim Cattrall, Dustin Ingram, Brian Dennehy

Synopsis: When an awkward teen meets his favorite porn star, whose career peaked in the ’80s, an unexpected friendship follows as the young man gets a glimpse inside Monica Velour’s current life as a single mom struggling to make ends meet. [highdefdigest.com]

Special Features: Audio Commentary, Deleted Scenes.

THE MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN: 2-Disc Blu-Ray/DVD Combo (1984)

Directed by: Frank Oz

Starring: Jim Henson, Frank Oz

Synopsis: Kermit and his friends go to New York to get their musical on Broadway only to find it’s a more difficult task than they anticipated. [IMDb.com]

Special Features:

• Jim Henson Interview.
• Muppetisims: Fozzie Bear.
• Muppetisms: Miss Piggy & Kermit the Frog.
• Muppetisms: Pepe.

MUPPETS FROM SPACE: 2-Disc Blu-Ray/DVD Combo (1999)

Directed by: Tim Hill

Starring: Dave Goelz, Bill Barretta, Jerry Nelson

Synopsis: Gonzo is contacted by his alien family through his breakfast cereal. He is kidnapped and it’s up to Kermit and the gang to rescue Gonzo and help reunite him with his long-lost family. [IMDb.com]

Special Features:

• Outtakes.
• Music Video: “Shining Star” by The Dust Brothers Featuring Jeymes.
• Original Trailers.

PRIEST: Unrated 3D (2011)

Directed by: Scott Charles Stuart

Starring: Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q

Synopsis: Set in a world ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampires, Paul Bettany is Priest, a legendary warrior priest during the last Vampire War, who now lives in obscurity among the other human inhabitants in walled-in dystopian cities controlled by the Church. But when his 18-year-old niece is abducted by a murderous pack of vampires in the desolate wastelands outside, Priest breaks his sacred vows and ventures out to find her and seek vengeance upon those responsible, especially their brutal leader (Karl Urban). Priest is joined on his crusade by his niece’s boyfriend, Hicks (Cam Gigandet), a local outpost sheriff, and Priestess (Maggie Q), a member of his former legion of vampire-killers who has otherworldly fighting skills. [highdefdigest.com]

Special Features:

• Commentary with Director Scott Charles Stewart, Writer Cory Goodman, Paul Bettany and Maggie Q.
• Deleted & Extended Scenes.
• The Bloody Frontier: Creating the World of Priest.
• Tools of the Trade: The Weapons and Vehicles.
• Bullets and Crucifixes: Picture-in-Picture Experience.
• PS3 Trailer for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (in 3D)
• PS3 Trailer for Twisted Metal (with downloadable Priest car skin)

SOMETHING BORROWED (2011)

Directed by: Luke Greenfield

Starring: John Krasinski, Colin Egglesfield

Synopsis: Rachel, a talented attorney at a top New York law firm, a generous and loyal friend is, unhappily, still single… as her engaged best friend Darcy is constantly reminding her. But after one drink too many at her 30th birthday party, Rachel unexpectedly ends up in bed with school, Dex, the guy she’s had a crush on since law school, who just happens to be Darcy’s fiance. Meanwhile, Ethan, Rachel’s constant confidante and sometimes conscience, has been harboring a secret of his own, and Marcus, an irrepressible womanizer, can’t keep his mind out of the gutter or his hands off any girl within reach. [highdefdigest.com]

Special Features: Unknown/TBA.

THE SPECIALIST (1994)

Directed by: Luis Llosa

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, James Woods, Eric Roberts

Synopsis: May Munro (Sharon Stone) is a drop-dead beauty with a fatal past. She’s sworn death to the mobsters who murdered her parents and she also knows the right man for the job: ex-CIA explosives expert Ray Quick (Sylvester Stallone). Miami’s playground of the rich becomes an incendiary slay-ground as May lures the killers and Ray ingeniously detonates them into ashes. But a vicious mob boss (Rod Steiger), his brash son (Eric Roberts) and a psychotic hired gun (James Woods) with a lethal grudge against Quick won’t go without a fight. And the feverish passions shared by the two avengers can’t hide an ominous question from Ray. Is May falling for him…or is she setting him up too? [highdefdigest.com]

Special Features: Theatrical trailer.

SUBSPECIES: 20th Anniversary Edition (1991)

Directed by: Ted Nicolau

Starring: Angus Scrimm, Anders Hove, Irina Movila

Synopsis: Deep within the heart of Transylvania, a dark power from the past has resurfaced, Now, three beautiful young research students are caught in a supernatural battle for control of the vampire kingdom. [highdefdigest.com]

Special Features: Trailers, First Subspecies “Video Zone!”

THE TENANT (2010)

Directed by: Ric La Monte

Starring: J. LaRose, Michael Berryman, Bill Cobbs

Synopsis: A simple man, Dr. Walter Newman, has high aspirations to cure all disease through genetic manipulation. His obsession with his mission draws him deeper into his own dark world, distracting him from his wife Olivia and from his responsibilities to his patients at the Edgewood Asylum. The doctors loyal but diabolical nurse, Ms. Tinsley, decides to take matters into her own hands and in secret she conducts her own experiment. When Dr. Newman realizes what has been done, a deformed creature that defies nature is created. Part human, part nightmare. Dr. Newman knows what he must do, but is it already too late? [highdefdigest.com]

Special Features: Unknown/TBA.

TWO CAN PLAY THAT GAME (2001)

Directed by: Marc Brown

Starring: Vivica A. Fox, Morris Chestnut, Anthony Anderson, Gabrielle Union, Mo’Nique

Synopsis: An arrogant career woman plays a series of heartless mind-games with her boyfriend to “put him in line,” only to discover that he has a few tricks up his own sleeve. [highdefdigest.com]

Special Features: Unknown.

THE WARD (2010)

Directed by: John Carpenter

Starring: Amber Heard, Lyndsy Fonseca, Mamie Gummer

Synopsis: The Ward is an intense psychological thriller set in a mental institution where a young woman, Kristen, is haunted by a mysterious and deadly ghost. As danger creeps closer, she comes to realize that this ghost might be darker than she could have imagined. Kristen, who is in her early 20’s, wakes to find herself bruised, cut, drugged, and held against her will in a remote ward of Chamberlain Psychiatric Hospital. She is completely disoriented with no idea why she was brought to this place and no memory of her life. The other patients in the ward, four equally troubled girls, offer no answers, and Kristen quickly realizes things are not as they seem. The air is heavy with secrets, and at night, when the hospital is dark and foreboding, she hears strange and disturbing sounds. It appears they are not alone. One by one the girls disappear, and Kristen must find a way out of this hellish place before the ghost comes for her, too. As she struggles to escape, she will uncover a truth far more dangerous and horrifying than anyone could have imagined. [highdefdigest.com]

Special Features: Unknown.