Blu-ray 12th August Release

Prison Break: Season Three (Blu-ray)

Fox Home Entertainment / 2007 / Unrated
Street Date: August 12, 2008

Genres: Action, Crime, Drama, Television

Starring: Wentworth Miller, Dominic Purcell
Disc Features:
• Featurettes: "Orientation," "Breakout Episode"
• Behind-the-scenes footage
• "Director's Takes" deleted footage
• Bonus episode of "The Unit"


Felon (Blu-ray)

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / 2008 / 104 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: August 12, 2008

Genres: Crime, Drama

Starring: Anne Archer, Stephen Dorff, Val Kilmer
Director: Ric Roman Waugh

Plot Synopsis: A family man convicted of killing an intruder must cope with life afterward in the violent penal system.

Disc Features:
• Featurette: "The Shark Tank"


Smart People (Blu-ray)

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment / 2008 / Rated R
Street Date: August 12, 2008

Genres: Comedy, Drama

Starring: Thomas Hayden Church, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page, Dennis Quaid
Director: Noam Murro

Disc Features:
• Audio Commentary • Featurette: "Smartest People"
• Deleted Scenes
• Outtakes

CJ7 (Blu-ray)

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / 2008 / 88 Minutes / Rated PG
Street Date: August 12, 2008

Overall Grade





Genres: Comedy, Family

Starring: Stephen Chow
Director: Stephen Chow


xXx: State of the Union (Blu-ray)

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / 2005 / Rated PG-13
Street Date: August 12, 2008

Genres: Action

Starring: Willem Dafoe, Samuel L. Jackson, Ice Cube
Director:

Disc Features:

• Subtitled Cast and Crew Commentary -- This lively, amiable audio commentary is helmed by director Stephen Chow, but also includes plenty of anecdotes from actors Shing-Cheung Lee and Chi Gung Lam and writers Lam Fung and Kan-Cheung Tsang. The group discusses the production, screenplay, casting, the shoot itself, and all the various special effects. Granted, anyone who hasn’t sat through a subtitled commentary before may lose track of who’s speaking at any given moment, but fans will find a lot to love in this informative feature.
• The Story of CJ7 (SD, 14 minutes) -- Like the commentary, this primary EPK is elevated by Chow and his fun-loving cast and crew. While the featurette mainly focuses on the director and his on-set methodology, there are plenty of other details about the production to be had.
• CJ7 TV Special (SD, 22 minutes) -- While this featurette doesn’t seem to be the intended draw in the supplemental package, it happens to be one of the disc’s best video supplements. It still hobbles along like a typical EPK, but it hones in on the alien effects, the different pre-production incarnations of the creature, and its continued development after the practical shoot.
• Anatomy of a Scene (SD, 7 minutes) -- This all-too-brief short documents the ins and outs of blocking and shooting a difficult bathroom scene involving Dicky and the alien.
• CJ7 Profiles (SD, 7 minutes) -- This kid-centric featurette details the film’s main characters, as well as their strengths and personality traits. However, unless you have a young filmfan in the house, this one isn’t worth much attention.
• How to Bully a Bully (SD, 4 minutes) -- I’m not sure what this odd featurette is trying to accomplish with its tongue-in-cheek tone, but it explains how to deal with a bully. It would be a cute addition for kids if it provided anything other than half-hearted, comical advice.
• How to Make a Lollipop (SD, 2 minutes) -- Another dull and aimless tack-on that teaches kids how to make giant prop lollipops out of clay.
• Mission Control -- An interactive game that challenges young players to guide the film’s alien to a spaceship.
• Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2 minutes)

Half Past Dead (Blu-ray)

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / 2002 / Rated R
Street Date: August 12, 2008

Genres: Action

Starring: Nia Peeples, Ja Rule, Steven Seagal
Director: Don Michael Paul

Disc Features:
• Audio Commentary
• Featurette
• Deleted Scenes


Maximum Risk (Blu-ray)

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / 1996 / 106 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: August 12, 2008

Genres: Action

Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme
Director: Hector Babenco

Disc Features:
Theatrical Trailer (HD) - The only extra is the film's original theatrical trailer, presented in decent-quality 1080.

Kiss of the Spider Woman (Blu-ray)

City Lights Home Entertainment / 1985 / Rated R
Street Date: August 12, 2008

Genres: Drama

Starring: Raul Julia, William Hurt
Director: Hector Babenco

Plot Synopsis: Kiss of the Spider Woman starts out simply enough, hemmed in by the narrow walls of a Latin American prison cell. Molina (William Hurt) is telling his new cellmate, Valentin (Raul Julia), his favorite story. Molina is a delicate homosexual imprisoned for seducing a minor; Valentin is a bearded revolutionary still bleeding from his interrogation. If their film unfolded into the typical prison buddy plot, it'd still be a good movie. But this is a great movie. There are stories twisting within stories, each drawing a new, surprising level of difference between the two heroes: escapism versus realism, romance versus politics, gay versus straight, hero versus coward. As their unstable friendship grows more real, their stories become more vivid--whether Molina's fondly remembered Nazi propaganda noir, Valentin's tortured romantic history, or a tropical island fable told merely to pass the time. (Each substory stars Sonia Braga, a neat bit of casting that further blurs the line between fantasy and reality.) By the end, each man has changed just enough to taste the other's tragedy--a transformation that gives each the strength to define freedom on his own terms, despite the brutality of the prison and the bleak world beyond its walls.

Disc Features:
• Documentary: "Tangled Web: Making Kiss of the Spider Woman"

The Doors (Blu-ray)

Lionsgate Home Entertainment / 1991 / 138 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: August 12, 2008

Genres: Drama
Starring: Val Kilmer
Director: Oliver Stone

Plot Synopsis: Thanks in large part to its meticulous re-creation of the late-1960s and early-'70s rock scene and the uncannily authentic performance by Val Kilmer as legendary Doors frontman Jim Morrison, Oliver Stone's hypnotic film biography is standing the test of time. Capturing the carefree mood of the Age of Aquarius, the film charts the meteoric rise of the Doors on the California club circuit (including a memorable scene showing the creation of the hit "Light My Fire"), and chronicles the band's exploits with hallucinogenics and Morrison's battles against charges of public indecency on stage. Kilmer's performance is hauntingly perfect, and performances by Meg Ryan, Kathleen Quinlan, and Kyle MacLachlan are similarly impressive. The movie doesn't fully probe the depths of Morrison's character, but as a portrait of excess it is vividly true to the spirit of the self-destructive poet known to his fans as "The Lizard King."

Disc Features:

• Director’s Commentary -- Oliver Stone sits down for a surprisingly dull commentary about his subject, his film, and the well-publicized discrepancies between the two. Sleepwalking from one scene to the next, the director explains his reasons for changing characters and altering events, all while pointing out the facts that did make it to the screen. The best bits involve the casting process, the way Kilmer caught Stone’s attention, and a detailed history of the troubled production. Unfortunately, the seemingly surface-level information he delivers isn’t engaging enough to keep fans of the real Jim Morrison pushing through the stretches of silence that dominate the latter half of the track.
• Jim Morrison: An American Poet in Paris (SD, 52 minutes) -- One of the best and most unexpected treats on the disc is this French made documentary (with English subtitles) about the end of Morrison’s career and his life in Paris. It investigates his death, interviews those who knew him, and details the mistakes that led to his demise.
• The Road to Excess (SD, 38 minutes) -- This secondary documentary explores Morrison’s life as well, but also touches on the film’s production, its cast, and the work and research of its director.
• Deleted Scenes (SD, 44 minutes) -- Fourteen scenes will keep fans busy for nearly an hour with plenty of tidbits and character beats that flesh out Stone’s vision of Morrison’s life. An all-too-short introduction from the director generally leaves his reasoning for their exclusion to the imagination, but the collection still boasts a fascinating series of cuts that shouldn’t be missed.
• The Doors in LA (HD, 19 minutes) -- In this reflective featurette, Oliver Stone has a rather cordial conversation with original band members Robby Krieger and John Densmore. Sadly, the trio does not delve into the more controversial changes the director made in his Jim Morrison biopic. Ah well, at least it’s presented in high definition.
• Vintage Featurette (SD, 6 minutes) -- This bland and predictable EPK from 1991 will make completists happy, but it's far too promotional and congratulatory to offer fans any real insight into the film or its production.
• Trailers and TV Spots -- The disc also includes the film’s theatrical trailer (SD), five original TV spots (also SD), and a collection of HD previews for ‘Belly,’ ‘Rambo,’ ‘3:10 to Yuma,’ ‘Step Into Liquid,’ and ‘Crank.’