Blu-ray 22nd April Release

National Geographic: Six Degrees Could Change the World (Blu-ray)

National Geographic Video / 2008 / Unrated
Street Date: April 22, 2008

Overall Grade Recommended




Genres: Documentary

Plot Synopsis: In the 2004 eco-thriller The Day After Tomorrow, director Roland Emmerich dramatized the potential consequences of accelerated global warming. By combining stock footage with computer-generated imagery, the National Geographic special Six Degrees Could Change the World serves as a sort of nonfiction counterpoint. As NASA climate scientist James Hansen cautions, even two degrees Celsius represents a tipping point (from which there is no return). Based on Mark Lynas's Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet and narrated by Alec Baldwin, the program roams from the bushfire-ravaged suburbs of Southern Australia to the drought-stricken farmlands of Nebraska to the rapidly melting glaciers of Greenland. In the process, aerospace engineers, marine biologists, and ordinary citizens share their experiences and predictions. In the end, it's the actual events--rather than the speculative scenarios--that prove most alarming, like the 30,000 deaths that resulted from 2003's European heat wave. While a skeptic might dismiss that tragedy as a statistical anomaly, every continent bears the scars of climate change, like the deforestation of the Amazon and the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. In order to inject some levity, Six Degrees detours to look at a British grape grower who has actually benefited from his country's drier environment and the carbon footprint involved in the creation of that all-American favorite, the cheeseburger (suffice to say, it's considerable). While some of the special effects are hokey--Hansen sitting at a floating desk, for example--the preponderance of compelling data helps to compensate for such lapses. --Kathleen C. Fennessy [Amazon.com]

The Orphanage (Blu-ray)

New Line Home Entertainment / 2007 / 105 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: April 22, 2008

Genres: Foreign, Horror

Starring: Roger Príncep, Fernando Cayo, Belén Rueda
Director: Juan Antonio Bayona

Plot Synopsis: The Orphanage, presented by Oscar-Nominee Guillermo del Toro, centers on a Laura (Belén Rueda from The Sea Inside) who purchases her beloved childhood orphanage with dreams of restoring and reopening the long abandoned facility as a place for disabled children. Once there, Laura discovers that the new environment awakens her son's imagination, but the ongoing fantasy games he plays with an invisible friend quickly turn into something more disturbing. Upon seeing her family increasingly threatened by the strange occurrences in the house, Laura looks to a group of parapsychologists for help in unraveling the mystery that has taken over the place.

Disc Features:
• Featurettes: "When Laura Grew Up: Constructing The Orphanage," "Horror in the Unknown: Make-Up," "Rehearsal Studio," "About the Filmmakers"
• Still Gallery
• Theatrical Trailers

One Missed Call (Blu-ray)

Warner Home Video / 2008 / 87 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: April 22, 2008

Genres: Suspense Thriiler
Starring: Shannyn Sossamon, Edward Burns, Ana Claudia Talancón
Director: Eric Valette

Plot Synopsis: Yet more modern technology falls prey to the influence of eeeeevil spirits in One Missed Call, a horror flick following firmly in the footsteps of The Ring, Pulse, and other remakes of Japanese creepfests. Good-looking young people are receiving voice-mails that prefigure their gruesome deaths; Beth (Shannyn Sossamon, 40 Days and 40 Nights) and Jack (Ed Burns) race against time to find the source of this cell-phone curse, leading them to a dark and treacherous burnt-out hospital. Little is fresh here--One Missed Call apes every other Japanese horror remake, using corpse makeup, blurry images at the corner of the screen or just out of sight, lots of ambient rattles and gasps, spooky-looking children, and the slow, trembling turn towards a ringing phone... which stopped being scary about four or five movies ago. But for fans of this particular subgenre, One Missed Call may evoke the warm, enjoyable familiarity that devotees of 1970s horror feel towards the repetitive output of Hammer Films. Ray Wise (Reaper, Twin Peaks) has a bit of fun as a cynical TV producer; comedian Margaret Cho has such a brief, throwaway part as a skeptical cop that one wonders if the rest of her role is on the cutting room floor; and Meagan Good (Brick, Stomp the Yard) gets prominent billing but is hardly in the movie at all. --Bret Fetzer [Amazon.com]

Disc Features: 'One Missed Call' bombed at the box office, so it's no surprise that Warner shows a complete lack of faith in its video release. There is nary an extra here -- not even a trailer. Talk about getting no dial tone...