Blu-ray 15th July Release

The Bank Job (2008) (Blu-ray)

Lionsgate Home Entertainment / 2008 / 110 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: July 15, 2008

Genres: Action, Crime, Thriller

Starring: Saffron Burrows, Jason Statham
Director: Roger Donaldson

Disc Features:
• Making-of Featurettes
• Deleted Scenes
• Digital Copy


Step Up 2: The Streets (Blu-ray)

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment / 2008 / Rated PG-13
Street Date: July 15, 2008

Genres: Dance, Romance, Urban

Starring: Briana Evigan, Robert Hoffman, Cassie Ventura
Director: Jon Chu

Plot Synopsis: Romantic sparks occur between two dance students from different backgrounds at the Maryland School of the Arts.

Disc Features:
• 3 Featurettes: "Thru Fresh Eyes," "Outlaws of Hip Hop: Meet the 410s," "Robert Hoffman Video Prank"
• Deleted Scenes
• Bloopers
• 5 Music Videos: Flo Rida (featuring T.Pain) 'Low'; Missy Elliott 'Ching-a-Ling'; Cherish (featuring Yung Joc) 'Killa'; Plies (featuring Akon) 'Hypnotized'; Brit and Alex 'Let it Go'


College Road Trip (Blu-ray)

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment / 2008 / 83 Minutes / Rated G
Street Date: July 15, 2008

Genres: Comedy

Starring: Donny Osmond, Raven Simone, Martin Lawrence
Director: Roger Kumble

Plot Synopsis: When senior Melanie Porter (Raven-Symoné) plans a trip with her high school girlfriends to look at colleges, her police chief father (Martin Lawrence) is determined to keep her from straying too far from home. Hoping to convince her to attend a nearby school, he insists on accompanying her on the trip, but his hilariously over-the-top efforts to protect his little girl backfire in a multitude of sidesplitting ways. Add one small stowaway, an over-caffeinated pig and a busload of unexpected encounters and it all adds up to an unforgettably funny journey packed with enough high energy hijinks and humor to keep the entire family laughing.

Disc Features:
• Audio commentary by director Roger Kumble, actress Raven-Symoné, and writers Emi Mochizuki and Carrie Evans
• Deleted scenes with optional director commentary
• Alternate opening and alternate endings
• Featurettes: "On The Set: Double Dutch Bus," "Raven’s Video Diary"
• Gag reel
• Music Video: “Double Dutch Bus”


Shutter (Blu-ray)

Fox Home Entertainment / 2008 / Unrated
Street Date: July 15, 2008

Genres: Suspense thriller, Horror

Starring: Joshua Jackson, Rachael Taylor

Plot Synopsis: Based on a 2004 Thai horror flick, this surprisingly effective Hollywood remake is actually set in Tokyo. That's where newlywed hubby Joshua Jackson has taken bride Rachael Taylor (Transformers) for an ill-advised honeymoon. They hit a woman standing in the middle of a spooky road, after which all sorts of ghosts seem to emerge from Jackson's camera (he's come to Japan for a fashion-photography gig). Can our plucky heroine, a fish out of water in a confusing city, find the answer to this haunted puzzle? Well, yes, but she won't like what she finds. Shutter is distinguished by director Mayasuki Ochiai's compositional eye, which favors the empty, creeped-out spaces in which ghosts might dwell. The movie also gets into the phenomenon of "spirit photography," which suggests that the dear departed make their presence known as white flashes in snapshots. That stuff's kind of fun; unfortunately, Ochiai's ear for dialogue is as clunky as his eye is sharp, and Jackson and Taylor are saddled with some truly unfortunate exposition. The actors don't leave much of an impression either, although Megumi Okina (leading lady of Ju-on: The Grudge) is sufficiently spooky as a woman who will not be ignored. - [Amazon.com]


One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Blu-ray)

Warner Home Entertainment / 1975 / 133 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: July 15, 2008

Genres: Drama, Thriller

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, William Redfield
Director: Milos Forman

Plot Synopsis: One of the key movies of the 1970s, when exciting, groundbreaking, personal films were still being made in Hollywood, Milos Forman's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest emphasized the humanistic story at the heart of Ken Kesey's more hallucinogenic novel. Jack Nicholson was born to play the part of Randle Patrick McMurphy, the rebellious inmate of a psychiatric hospital who fights back against the authorities' cold attitudes of institutional superiority, as personified by Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). It's the classic antiestablishment tale of one man asserting his individuality in the face of a repressive, conformist system--and it works on every level. Forman populates his film with memorably eccentric faces, and gets such freshly detailed and spontaneous work from his ensemble that the picture sometimes feels like a documentary. Unlike a lot of films pitched at the "youth culture" of the 1970s, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest really hasn't dated a bit, because the qualities of human nature that Forman captures--playfulness, courage, inspiration, pride, stubbornness--are universal and timeless. The film swept the Academy Awards for 1976, winning in all the major categories (picture, director, actor, actress, screenplay) for the first time since Frank Capra's It Happened One Night in 1931. - [Amazon.com]

Disc Features:

• Audio Commentary - Director Milos Forman and producers Saul Zaentz and Michael Douglas join in for a strong track. There is considerably more detail here than in the still-fine documentary (see below), particularly many on-set stories involving Jack Nicholson and the cast, as well as the contributions of key creative personnel, including composer Jack Nitzsche. Also delved into at length are the book's still-timely themes (particularly fascinating are Forman's comments on being a foreigner adapting a rather American story), as well as compressions and alterations that needed to be made in adapting Ken Kesey's book. This is an excellent commentary.
  
• Documentary: "The Making of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'" (SD, 47 minutes) - Though edited down from a similar documentary made for a long out-of-print laserdisc release of 'Cuckoo's Nest,' this is still a fine piece. Forman, Zaentz, and both Michael and Kirk Douglas all contribute then-fresh interviews, as do select cast and crew. It's a nod to this doc that even without Jack Nicholson (bummer!) it's informative, particularly the details of an early stage version that the elder Douglas brought to the screen, as well as the actors' recollections of the shoot. There is also a nice wrap-up detailing the film's surprise success and awards windfall. A very nice (if somewhat dated) doc.
  
• Deleted Scenes (SD, 19 minutes) - There are eight scenes in all, and here is the rare collection of snipped footage that is actually as strong as anything in the film. None of these scenes are essential, but all stand tall on their own -- particularly some disturbing material involving further hospital experiments done on McMurphy and the other patients. For once, we have deleted scenes worth watching.
  
• Theatrical Trailer (SD) - Also included is the film's theatrical trailer in mediocre-quality video.
  
• Collectible Booklet - Finally, Warner wraps it all up in "Digi-Book" packaging that includes a nice 32-page, full color booklet. There are some brief production notes, cast bios, many rare photographs, and a well-written (if uncredited) essay on the film's importance.
  

Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks/Bardock: Father of Goku (Blu-ray)

FUNimation / 2005 / 98 Minutes
Street Date: July 15, 2008

Genres: Anime

Plot Synopsis: Two of the most powerful Dragon Ball Z releases remastered and restored on one action-packed DVD!

The History of Trunks

Goku is dead, victim of a deadly virus. Last of the Z Warriors to pass, the Super Saiyan's death has left the Earth far more vulnerable than ever before. With no one left to protect the planet, Androids 17 and 18 arrive to terrorize the great cities, plunging all into darkness where the inhabitants cower in fear. Is there no hope left in this apocalyptic horror? is this the end? Goku's son, Gohan, is now a man, and with an extraordinary young teenager named Trunks by his side, the two determine to face off against the threat. but as tragedy follows upon tragedy, the world around Trunks is fast collapsing and there seems no check to the evil of the Androids. This is the story of the future that never was.

Bardock: Father of Goku

Before there was Golu, tehre lived his father Bardock. A low-class Saiyan soldier under the comand of Frieza, Bardock is attacked by the last of an alien race they are employed in destroying. Healing on his home planet of Vegeta, Bardock discovers he has been blessed with the ability to see into the future. But the blessing soon becomes a curse, as the Saiyan finds himself haunted by visions: The tragic extermination of his own race and the destruction of their beloved planet, all the hands of Frieza. Bardock sets off on a nightmarish race with fate to avert the impending disaster. But as his strength fails and despair sets in, hope will be found in one last vision. This is the story of Bardock, the father of Goku.