New to Blu Ray DVD the Last 2 Weeks (June 28, 2011 & July 05, 2011)

Released June 28, 2011

  Sucker Punch

Rated: R

Starring: Emily Browning, Vanessa Hudgens and Abbie Cornish

Director: Zack Snyder

Synopsis from IMDB: A young girl is institutionalized by her abusive stepfather. Retreating to an alternative reality as a coping strategy, she envisions a plan which will help her escape from the mental facility.

Trailer:

Pac’s Take: Chris and I both passed on seeing this movie in theaters due to a lot of negative reviews, but given Zack Snyder’s track record and visionary style, it is worth at least a look on Blu Ray.

Season of the Witch

Rated: PG-13

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman and Claire Foy

Director: Dominic Sena

Synopsis from IMDB:14th-century knights transport a suspected witch to a monastery, where monks deduce her powers could be the source of the Black Plague.

Trailer:

Pac’s Take: Nicolas Cage, what else is there to say.  Back with his Con-Air style haircut, this film suffered at the box office due to poor reviews and negative audience feedback.  If you like medieval films or Nicolas Cage then you may want to rent this; I’ll pass.

Barney’s Version

Rated: R

Starring: Paul Giamatti, Rosamund Pike and Jake Hoffman

Director: Richard J. Lewis

Synopsis from IMDB: The picaresque and touching story of the politically incorrect, fully lived life of the impulsive, irascible and fearlessly blunt Barney Panofsky.

Trailer:

Pac’s Take: This is the type of role I like to see Paul Giamatti portray.  Though this is labeled as a drama, there seems to be a lot of comedic elements in the film. Barney’s Version jumps to the top of my queue for this week.

Beastly

Rated: PG-13

Starring: Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Hudgens and Mary-Kate Olsen

Director: Daniel Barnz

Synopsis from IMDB: A modern-day take on the “Beauty and the Beast” tale where a New York teen is transformed into a hideous monster in order to find true love.

Trailer:

Pac’s Take: Though I have a soft spot for Vanessa Hudgens, there is no way I’m seeing this film.  Fortunately for me, Hudgens is in two of this week’s releases so I’ll definitely opt for Sucker Punch instead.

July 5, 2011:

Hobo with a Shotgun

Rated: UR

Starring: Rutger Hauer, Pasha Ebrahimi and Robb Wells

Director: Jason Eisener

Synopsis from IMDB: A homeless vigilante blows away crooked cops, pedophile Santas, and other scumbags with his trusty pump-action shotgun.

Trailer:

Pac’s Take: Hopefully this turned out better than the last fake trailer-turned-movie from Grindhouse.  This is probably worth a viewing, but given it’s nature I’ll have to be in the right mood.

13 Assassins

Rated: R

Starring: Kôji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada and Yûsuke Iseya

Director: Takashi Miike

Synopsis from IMDB: A group of assassins come together for a suicide mission to kill an evil lord.

Trailer:

Pac’s Take: My list of foreign films to see, especially from the continent of Asia is continuing to grow.  13 Assassins looks like a welcome addition and I’m looking forward to seeing it, hopefully I’ll get to it before the inevitable Hollywood remake.

Of Gods and Men

Rated: R

Starring: Lambert Wilson, Michael Lonsdale and Olivier Rabourdin

Director: Xavier Beauvois

Synopsis from IMDB: Under threat by fundamentalist terrorists, a group of Trappist monks stationed with an impoverished Algerian community must decide whether to leave or stay.

Trailer:

Pac’s Take: This French import looks very well made, and given its accolades I’m sure it is.  It really isn’t my type of fare, however, so I doubt I’ll see it anytime soon.

Bloodrayne: The Third Reich

Rated: R

Starring: Natassia Malthe, Clint Howard and Michael Paré

Director: Uwe Boll

Synopsis from IMDB: Rayne fights against the Nazis in Europe during World War II, encountering Ekart Brand, a Nazi leader whose target is to inject Adolf Hitler with Rayne’s blood in an attempt to transform him into a dhampir and attain immortality

Trailer:

Pac’s Take: A director’s cut of a Uwe Boll film, this is probably all sorts of terrible.

 

 

Thanks Christopher Nolan for giving us something to talk about…

It is common knowledge to the frequent readers of this page that both Chris and I are fans of Christopher Nolan’s work, and The Dark Knight Rises can’t come soon enough.  So of course I am going to jump at any opportunity to wet my fanboy appetite and talk about rumors, reports, speculation, and anything else associated with this film.  Film Shaft reported today the Christopher Nolan may use unseen footage of Heath Ledger as the Joker as well as CGI to incorporate the character into his film for one last hoorah. 

Oh, you. You just couldn't let me go, could you?

I was incredibly excited to hear this rumor and hope that it is true for a couple of reasons:

1. Including the Joker in the final installment of the trilogy brings more continuity to the story.  The Joker is Batman’s greatest adversary and it would be a shame to ignore him in the third film.
2. It is a nice continued acknowledgement of the performance that Ledger produced for TDK and a continued homage to him.
3. It gives me greater confidence in my speculation that Harley Quinn will be the female villain and Arkham Asylum will be included.  Couple that with the rumor that Hugo Strange will be a character as well and I’m looking pretty smart as of now.

In other Nolan news, there may be an Inception video game on the horizon.  Christopher Nolan has expressed his interest in exploring this form of media and has stated that there is so much more to explore in the inception world that this story would be perfect for a gaming experience.  I am skeptical about this news, but hope that Nolan’s hot streak can carry over to video gaming.  There are plenty of reasons why the video game and film worlds do not mix well, rarely do we see a good movie based video game, and even more rarely (or never) do we see a good video game based movie.

This is what Uwe Boll thinks of your favorite video game

There are a lot of concepts within Inception that could be adapted well to a video game and having the filmmaker involved in the development of the game also allows the game to be faithful to the film.  However, it is also possible that Nolan’s game tries to stay too faithful to the film to the point that it sacrifices the gameplay.  Regardless, video games take just as long, if not longer than a film to be made so any Inception video game is a long way off. 

What do you think about the Batman news?  Would you like to see Heath Ledger’s Joker on-screen for a scene in the next film?  And would you be interested in playing an Inception video game?