Blu-ray 10th February Release

Miracle at St Anna [Blu-ray]

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment / 2008 / Rated R
Street Date: February 10, 2009

Genres: Drama, War

Starring: John Leguizamo, Kerry Washington, John Turturro, Derek Luke
Director: Spike Lee

Plot Synopsis: From Touchstone Pictures and A Spike Lee Joint comes the powerful and uplifting World War II epic Miracle At St. Anna, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Spike Lee (Inside Man). Stationed in Tuscany, Italy, four members of the U.S. Army's all-black 92nd Infantry Division, the Buffalo Soldiers, are trapped behind enemy lines after one of them risks his life to save a traumatized Italian boy. Separated from their unit, they find themselves in a remote Tuscan village where they experience the tragedy and the triumph of war. Based on the highly praised novel by James McBride, and filled with exceptional battle scenes and action, it's a gripping and inspiring story drawn from a real incident that will touch the goodness within us all and never let go.

W. [Blu-ray]

Lionsgate Home Entertainment / 2008 / Rated R
Street Date: February 10, 2009

Genres: Drama, Political

Starring: Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks, James Cromwell
Director: Oliver Stone

Plot Synopsis: Oliver Stone’s W. is similar to his other movies about American presidents (JFK, Nixon), which is to say these films are much more about Stone’s imagined versions of reported events than they are alleged reenactments. As such, W. is Stone’s case for what he sees as the absurdity of George W. Bush’s ascendance to the White House and especially the arrogant blunder of the Iraq War. Josh Brolin is very good as the miscreant son of George H. W. Bush (James Cromwell), Vice President to Ronald Reagan and 41st president of the United States. Adrift in a sea of booze and squandered opportunities, the younger Bush is largely driven by a need for his disapproving father’s love and respect, which never truly arrives. Becoming a hatchet man for Bush Sr.’s administration, “W” (as his wife, Laura--played by Elizabeth Banks--call him) meets Karl Rove (Toby Jones) and heads toward the Texas governorship, despite his father’s preference that the more golden son, Jeb, get all the family’s support in his Florida gubernatorial bid. Told in broken chronology, W. focuses on Bush’s post-9/11 path to waging a “preventive war” in Iraq despite no hard evidence of weapons of mass destruction to justify it. The major players in W’s administration--Rove, Colin Powell (Jeffrey Wright), Condoleeza Rice (Thandie Newton), and especially Dick Cheney (Richard Dreyfuss)--all participate in closed meetings that look and sound like every investigative account by the New York Times or Bob Woodward about the administration’s inner workings leading up to the war. Much of this is quite fascinating if a little weird (Newton’s performance is indeed strange), but the drama is often powerful, particularly around Powell’s resistance to the rising tide for a supposedly slam-dunk war. A number of the film’s key performances, besides Brolin’s, are very strong, especially Cromwell, Jones, Wright, Dreyfuss and Bruce McGill as George Tenet.


Nights in Rodanthe (+ BD-Live) [Blu-ray]

Warner Home Video / 2008 / 97 Minutes / Rated PG-13
Street Date: February 10, 2009

Genres: Romance, drama

Starring: Richard Gere, Diane Lane
Director: George C.Wolfe

Disc Features:

• Featurette: "The Nature of Love" (HD, 21 minutes) - This is your typical making-of featurette, that is highly promotional and quite pretentious.
  
• Featurette: "In Rodanthe with Emmylou Harris" (HD, 12 minutes) - The legendary singer-songwriter here spends a few dozen minutes discussing with Wolfe her work on the film, as well as her music composed for the movie.
  
• Featurette: "Keeping in Touch with Nicholas Sparks" (HD, 7 minutes) -
  
• Deleted/Alternate Scenes (HD, 7 minutes) - There are four scenes here, all with mandatory audio comments from Wolfe.
  
• Music Video (HD) - Finally, the video extras end with a clip for the Gavin Rossdale tune "Love Remains the Same."
  

• BD-Live
  
• Digital Copy - Rounding out the extras, we have a bonus disc with a Digital Copy of the film (in standard-def). It's compatible with PCs, PSP, and iTunes.

Soul Men [Blu-ray]

Weinstein Co. / 2008 / 103 Minutes / Rated PG-13
Street Date: February 10, 2009

Genres: Comedy

Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Bernie Mac
Director: Malcolm D. Lee

Plot Synopsis: Twenty years since they have spoken with one another, two estranged soul-singing legends agree to participate in a reunion performance at the Apollo Theater to honor their recently deceased band leader.

Chocolate [Blu-ray]

Magnolia Home Entertainment / 2008 / Rated R
Street Date: February 10, 2009

Genres: Action, Drama

Starring: Hiroshi Abe, Ammara Siripong, JeeJa Yanin
Director: Prachya Pinkaew

Plot Synopsis: An autistic woman with powerful martial art skills looks to settle her ailing mother's debts by seeking out the ruthless gangs that owe her family money

The Boondock Saints [Blu-ray]

Fox Home Entertainment / 1999 / 110 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: February 10, 2009

Genres: Crime, Drama

Starring: Willem Dafoe, Norman Reedus, Sean Patrick Flanery
Director: Troy Duffy

Plot Synopsis: Encouraged by the public's praise, Catholic brothers Conner and Murphy MacManus bring a bloody brand of vigilante justice against Boston's Russian mafia and crimelord Yakavetta.

Amadeus (Blu-ray Book) [Blu-ray]

Warner Home Entertainment / 1984 / 180 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: February 10, 2009

Genres: Biography, Drama, Music

Starring: Elizabeth Berridge, F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce
Director: Milos Forman

Plot Synopsis: Amadeus. The man. The music. The magic. The madness. This is the incredible, mostly true story about the relationship between two composers in 18th century Vienna -- Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham), the successful court composer for Emperor Joseph of Austria, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce), a child prodigy who, while vulgar and irritating, writes the greatest music the world has ever heard. The film unfolds in a series of flashbacks, as Salieri is consumed with jealously by Mozart’s natural talent, and is unable to accept the knowledge that he will never possess the genius of a man he cannot stand.

Disc Features:
• Audio Commentary with director Milos Forman
• Documentary
• CD Sampler
• Digital Copy


Pretty Woman [Blu-ray]

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment / 1990 / 120 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: February 10, 2009

Genres: Romance, comedy.

Starring: Julia Roberts, Richard Gere, and Jason Alexander
Director: Garry Marshall

Disc Features:

• Director's Commentary
  
• Blooper Reel (SD, 3 minutes)
  
• Live from the Wrap Party (SD, 4 minutes)
  
• LA: The 'Pretty Woman' Tour (SD, 9 minutes)
  
• 1990 Production Featurette (SD, 4 minutes)
  
• Music Video (SD, 4 minutes)
  
• Theatrical Trailer (SD)
  
• Sneak Peeks (HD) - Trailers for 'earth,' 'Blindness,' 'Miracle at St. Anna,' 'Lost: The Complete Fourth Season,' and Miramax Films.

Back Catalogue Blu-ray: