Blu-ray 19th August Release

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - The Complete First Season

Warner Home Video / 2007 / 392 Minutes / Unrated
Street Date: August 19, 2008

Genres: Action, Science Fiction

Starring: Summer Glau, Lena Headey, Thomas Dekker
Plot Synopsis: The mother of all destiny. Her son, the future leader of mankind. Their protector, a terminator from the future. Together they must take back the future as Sarah Connor (300’s Lena Headey) prepares her son to fight the war against machines determined to annihilate the human race. The clock is ticking. Can they stop Judgment Day? The man-vs-machines tale that has thrilled millions gets a reboot with this popular series, set after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Will John Connor (Dekker) seize his destiny? Will a cell phone salesman’s chess program evolve into Skynet? Can the sweet but deadly cyborg (Glau) be trusted? Answers – and the fight for the future – are here and now!

Disc Features:
• Audio Commentaries with executive producers Josh Freidman & John Wirth, cast members Summer Glau & Thomas Dekker, and more
• Featurette: "Creating the Chronicles" (HD)
• Terminated Scenes
• Gag Reel
• Cast Audition Tapes (Lena Headey, Thomas Dekker, and Richard T. Jones)
• Storyboard Animatic
• Summer Glau Dance Rehearsal
• Extended Director’s Cut of Episode 7, The Demon Hand


Street Kings (Blu-ray)

Fox Home Entertainment / 2008 / 109 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: August 19, 2008

Genres: Action, Crime, Drama

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Common
Director: David Ayer


Prom Night (2008) (Blu-ray)

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / 2008 / 88 Minutes / Unrated
Street Date: August 19, 2008

Genres: Suspense, thriller

Starring: Brittany Snow, Scott Porter (III), Jessica Stroup
Director: Nelson McCormik (II)

Product Description
An attractive cast of young performers lead by Brittany Snow (Hairspray) is the main selling point for Prom Night, a remake of the 1980 Canadian slasher film starring Jamie Lee Curtis. Snow makes for a capable lead as the sole survivor of her family's massacre at the hands of an obsessed teacher (Jonathan Schaech), who returns three years later to finish his campaign on the eve of her senior prom. While no one's idea of a classic horror film, the Paul Lynch-directed Prom Night offered viewers a modest whodunit angle in between the killings; here, the villain's identity is known from the get-go, and what's left is a string of mechanical stalkings (which feature a surprisingly modest amount of blood) and reams of turgid teenspeak, which is handled as best as possible by Snow and her cast mates. The end result is a dull, suspense-free chiller that manages to make its mediocre source material seem inspired by comparison.

Disc Features:

• Audio Commentary - Director Nelson McCormick is joined by screenwriter J.S. Cardone and (phoned-in) star Brittany Snow. It's a congenial track, with the trio fairly engaging as they discuss their appreciation of the original 'Prom Night' (seriously), and get way pretentious about the remake's characters and story "intricacies." The praise lavished on Jonathon Schaech is also dispiriting, as he's the weakest aspect of a film filled with missed grips on fun ideas. As much as I liked all the folks on this track, the film they have made is still awful.
  
• Featurettes (SD, 28 minutes) - Typical of marketing-happy studios, Sony has simply taken a short making-of featurette and chopped it up into a bunch of smaller parts. "A Night To Remember: The Making of Prom Night" (8 minutes) gives us the basics on the film's conception, it's casting, and lots of dull plot recap. (Sadly, there is no footage from the original 'Prom Night.') "Profile of a Killer" (6 minutes) is pretty silly, the cast and crew really expect us to take its generic villain at all seriously. "Gothic Spaces: Creating the Pacific Grand Hotel" (6 minutes) is yet another misstep for the movie, turning a potentially interesting location into a big, glossy and unscary setting for a horror movie. Finally, "Prom Night Photo Album: Real Prom Stories From the Cast" (7 minutes) is a cute vignette where the stars talk about their own real-life prom experiences, with some of them quite amusing.
  
• Deleted Scenes (SD, 8 minutes) - There's six in all, including an alternate ending. All are uninteresting character bits and scene extensions, and just as vapid as the main feature. The alternate ending is typical of such things, offering a few different shots but nothing really major to differentiate it.
  
• Gag Reel (SD, 2 minutes) - Wrapping it up is this short outtake montage of goof-ups, but it's not really that funny.

The Life Before Her Eyes (Blu-ray)

Magnolia Home Entertainment / 2008 / 90 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: August 19, 2008

Genres: Drama

Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Uma Thurman
Director: Vadim Perilman

Product Description
Based on the novel by Laura Kasischke this powerful drama starring Uma Thurman unfolds in out-of-sequence flashbacks. Recklessly hedonistic teenager Diana (Evan Rachel Wood) and her best friend a Christian virgin (Eva Amuri) come face to face with a machine-gun-wielding classmate one morning at school in a situation reminiscent of Columbine. Thurman plays the grown-up version of Diana who has a perfect life in the same small town 15 years after the tragedy. On the anniversary of the shooting unpleasant flashbacks haunt her as she takes her daughter to school lectures on Gauguin to a bored art history class and possibly spots her older professor husband out with a younger woman. As the events cohere and time collapses one realizes nothing is certain and life renews and ends on a moment-by-moment basis. Under the helm of Vadim Perelman (HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG) a spiritual presence is imbued in lovingly photographed close-ups of flowers dirty dishes cats ants spiders bees on flowers leaves and Wood diving in and out of a swimming pool in slow motion. The dialogue is peppered with believably offhand philosophical inquiry and if the film does nothing else it makes one reevaluate one's perspective on the sanctity of every life decision--and to feel a degree of awe and reverence for the acting skills and beauty of both Thurman and Wood who meld believably into the same complex character.

Hannah Montana And Miley Cyrus: Best Of Both Worlds Concert Tour
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment / 2008 / 82 Minutes / Rated G Street Date: August 19, 2008

Overall Grade






Genres: Musical concert
Starring: Miley Cyrus

Product Description
The sold-out concert event that rocked the nation is bursting onto Disney DVD and Blu-ray Disc for a limited time only in a two-disc extended edition with a 3-D concert experience so real it's like having a backstage pass! "Make Some Noise" and get ready for the year's most eye-popping dance-in-your-seat music experience with HANNAH MONTANA & MILEY CYRUS BEST OF BOTH WORLDS CONCERT MOVIE! For the first time ever Miley performs as herself and Hannah in the same epic show! With a special appearance by the Jonas Brothers and exclusive bonus features including a sing-along mode additional songs and a rare inside look into the rock star lives of Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers this movie sensation is "as close as you'll come to achieving the best of both worlds"

Disc Features:

• Featurette: "The Ultimate Personal Tour" (SD, 11 minutes) - Short but sweet, this "video diary" is really just an interview with Miley Cyrus an during one day on the tour. It's just as whitewashed as the flick, but it's kinda fun to see the extensive preparation and hard work that goes into being a pop star -- you almost feel bad for this poor, overworked girl. Almost.
  
• Sing-Along (HD) - I'm not really sure if this is a real "bonus feature," as its just big pink lyrics plastered over all the songs in the movie so you can sing-along with Miley. Um, aren't these called "subtitles?"
  
• Bonus Songs (HD) - Two tunes are included, "Good And Broken" by Miley Cyrus and "SOS" (not the ABBA tune) by the Jonas Brothers. The quality is excellent, with video and audio matching the main feature.

Camp Rock (Blu-ray)

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment / 2008 / 90 Minutes / Unrated
Street Date: August 19, 2008

Genres: Drama, Musical

Starring: Jonas Brothers
Director: Matthew Diamond

Product Description
This summer is gonna ROCK! Get ready to sing and dance like never before with the electrifying Disney Channel Original Movie CAMP ROCK! Disney's exclusive DVD and Blu-ray disc explode with "Too Cool" bonus features including an extended never-before-seen ending and "How To Be A Rock Star" a sensational series full of tips and secrets from the CAMP ROCK cast to help make your real-life rock star dream come true! When Mitchie scores a job as a cook at Camp Rock her life takes an unpredictable twist and she learns just how important it is to be true to yourself. Join the platinum-selling Jonas Brothers and the hottest cast of performers at the coolest summer camp anywhere! Experience CAMP ROCK in a whole new way in this Extended Rock Star Edition packed with hit music hip dance moves and bonus features that will have your family singing dancing and rocking over and over again.

Disc Features:

• Featurette: "How to Be a Rock Star" (HD, 28 minutes) - The heftiest of the supplements, this is a series of interview vignettes with the cast, who share both their real-life musical stories as well as discuss their characters and the movie. It's a bit haphazard and clearly didactic (all the messages are squeaky-clean, as if the ghost of Walt Disney was hovering over these kids' shoulders telling them what to say), but oddly poignant -- it would be interesting to the see these young actors watch this footage thirty years from now, knowing full well that most of them most likely won't end up fulfilling all the dreams they express here. Or maybe I'm just cynical?
  
• Featurette: "Jonas Brothers: Real-life Rock Stars" (HD, 16 minutes) - This extended interview and behind-the-scenes video diary with the Jonas Brothers is my favorite extra. Yes, they are really brothers, and yes, they are really a band -- we learn of how dedicated they really were to making it, practicing five hours a day in their rooms and going on grueling multi-city tours where they'd sometimes hit a dozen locations in a week. I've always wanted to hate the Jonas Brothers, but they come off here as down-to-Earth and quite likable.
  
• Featurette: "Introducing Demi Lovato" (HD, 7 minutes) - An introduction to rising star Lovato, whom many are pegging as the next Miley Cyrus. I like her, but I dunno -- she comes off here as a bit bland and manufactured. Time will tell...
  
• "From Rehearsal to Final Jam" (HD, 8 minutes) - Just what the title implies, there are clips for two songs, "Hasta La Vista" and "Too Cool."
  
• Still Gallery: "Camp Memories" (HD, 6 minutes) - A few dozen behind-the-scenes and publicity photos, animated as a montage and set to two different tunes.
  
• Music Video (HD) - Two clips are provided, for "We Rock" and "Start the Party." (Unfortunately, the Jonas Brothers' cover of Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up" is not included.)
  
• Camp Rock Karaoke (HD, 7 minutes) - Finally, we have a few clips from the movie, only with bright animated subtitles so you can sing-along in your underwear. The songs are: "This is Me," "What it Takes," "Start the Party," "Too Cool," "Gotta Find You" and "Who Will I Be?"
  

Nixon: Director's Cut (Blu-ray)

Walt Disney Home Entertainment / 1992
Street Date: August 19, 2008

Genres: Drama, Political

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Joan Allen
Director: Oliver Stone


Justice League: Season One (Blu-ray)

Warner Home Video / 2001 / 575 Minutes / Unrated
Street Date: August 19, 2008

Genres: Action, Adventure, Animated, Comic Book

Disc Features:
• Audio Commentaries on 3 Episodes
• 2 Featurettes: "Storyboards: The Blueprints of Justice," "The Look of the Justice League"
• "Inside Justice League" creators' panel discussion
• "Justice League: The First Mission" never-before-seen promo
• Blackhawk Theme music video.