The Curious Case of Benjamin Button [Blu-ray]
Paramount Home Entertainment / 2008 / 165 Minutes / Rated PG-13
Street Date: May 05, 2009
Genres: Drama, Fantasy
Starring: Tariji P. Henson, Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt
Director: David Fincher
Plot Synopsis: A thrilling adventure and captivating story of one man’s unusual and enchanted life, director David Fincher’s Academy Award®-winning film THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON debuts as a two-disc DVD and two-disc Blu-ray on May 5, 2009 from Paramount Home Entertainment. Called “a monumental achievement” that “must be experienced” (Rex Reed, New York Observer), the film stars Academy Award nominee Brad Pitt who “does his best work ever” (Lou Lumenick, New York Post) and Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett who “is simply dazzling” (Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal) in an exhilarating adventure that takes viewers on a breathtaking journey filled with romance and redemption. Nominated for 13 Academy Awards and winner for Best Visual Effects, Art Direction and Makeup, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON also stars Academy Award nominee Taraji P. Henson (Hustle & Flow), Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton) and Julia Ormond (Legends of the Fall)) in a grand tale of a not-so-ordinary man and the people and places he discovers along the way, the loves he finds, the joys and romance of life and what lasts beyond time.
Disc Features:
• Audio Commentary by director David Fincher
• Four-Part Documentary
Incendiary [Blu-ray]
ThinkFIlm / 2008 / 100 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: May 05, 2009
Genres: Drama, Thriller
Starring: Ewan McGregor, and Michelle Williams
Director: Sharon Maguire
Plot Synopsis: London is rocked by a shocking terrorist bombing in this dramatic thriller starring Michelle Williams (Wendy and Lucy, Brokeback Mountain) and Ewan McGregor, (Trainspotting, the Star Wars trilogy). Williams delivers a riveting and heart-felt performance as a young wife and mother who suffers a devastating loss in the attack...which occurs while she's meeting her secret lover (McGregor). Wracked with guilt and trying to piece her shattered life back together, she becomes embroiled in the police investigation of the attack - and discovers that the authorities will do anything to cover up the terrifying truth behind it.
Last Chance Harvey [Blu-ray]
Anchor Bay Entertainment / 2009 / 92 Minutes / Rated PG-13
Street Date: May 05, 2009
Genres: Drama, Romance
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson
Plot Synopsis: New Yorker Harvey Shine (Dustin Hoffman) is on the verge of losing his dead-end job as a jingle writer. Warned by his boss (Richard Schiff) that he has just one more chance to deliver, Harvey goes to London for a weekend to attend his daughter's wedding but promises to be back on Monday morning to make an important meeting -- or else. Harvey arrives in London only to learn his daughter (Liane Balaban) has chosen to have her stepfather (James Brolin) walk her down the aisle instead of him. Doing his best to hide his devastation, he leaves the wedding before the reception in hopes of getting to the airport on time, but misses his plane anyway. When he calls his boss, he is fired on the spot.
Disc Features:
• Audio commentary with writer/director Joel Hopkins and Hoffman and Thompson
• Featurette: "An Unconventional Love Story"
Saturday Night Fever [Blu-ray]
Paramount Home Entertainment / 1977 / 118 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: May 05, 2009
Genres: Musical
Starring: John Travolta, Karen Lynn Gorney, Barry Miller
Director: John Badham
Plot Synopsis: Saturday Night Fever is one of those movies that comes along and seems to change the cultural temperature in a flash. After the movie's release in 1977, disco ruled the dance floors, and a blow-dried member of a TV-sitcom ensemble became the hottest star in the U.S. For all that, the story is conventional: a 19-year-old Italian American from Brooklyn, Tony Manero (John Travolta), works in a humble paint store and lives with his family. After dark, he becomes the polyester-clad stallion of the local nightclub; Tony's brother, a priest, observes that when Tony hits the dance floor, the crowd parts like the Red Sea before Moses. Director John Badham captures the electric connection between music and dance, and also the desperation that lies beneath Tony's ambitions to break out of his limited world. The soundtrack, which spawned a massively successful album, is dominated by the disco classics of the Bee Gees, including "Staying Alive" (Travolta's theme during the strutting opening) and "Night Fever." The Oscar®-nominated Travolta, plucked from the cast of Welcome Back, Kotter, for his first starring role, is incandescent and unbelievably confident, and his dancing is terrific. Oh, and the white suit rules.
Disc Features:
- Audio Commentary - Director John Badham provides a solo commentary that balances nicely with the retrospective documentary. On a low-budget film with few expectations, Badham and his often beleaguered cast and crew showed great ingenuity in covering up the cracks, stringing up aluminum foil to spruce up the Odyssey 2001 and shooting around New York traffic.
- Documentary (HD, 75 minutes)
The documentary segments are: "A 30-Year Legacy (15 minutes), "Making Soundtrack History" (12 minutes), "Platforms and Polyester" (10 minutes), "Deejays and Disco" (10 minutes), "Spotlight on Travolta" (4 minutes), "Back to Bay Ridge" (9 minutes), "Dance like Travolta with John Cassese" (10 minutes) and "Fever Challenge" (4 minutes). - Trivia Track
- Deleted Scenes (HD)
Grease [Blu-ray]
Paramount Home Entertainment / 1978 / Rated PG
Street Date: May 05, 2009
Genres: Musical
Starring: Olivia Newton-John, John Travolta
Director: Randal Kleiser
Plot Synopsis: Riding the strange '50s nostalgia wave that swept through America during the late 1970s (caused by TV shows like Happy Days and films like American Graffiti), Grease became not only the word in 1978, but also a box-office smash and a cultural phenomenon. Twenty years later, this entertaining film adaptation of the Broadway musical received another successful theatrical release, which included visual remastering and a shiny new Dolby soundtrack. In this 2002 DVD release, Grease lovers can also now see it in the correct 2:35 to 1 Panavision aspect ratio, and see retrospective interviews with cast members and director Randal Kleiser. All these stylistic touches are essential to the film's success. Without the vibrant colors, unforgettably campy and catchy tunes (like "Greased Lightning," "Summer Nights," and "You're the One That I Want"), and fabulously choreographed, widescreen musical numbers, the film would have to rely on a silly, cliché-filled plot that we've seen hundreds of times. As it is, the episodic story about the romantic dilemmas experienced by a group of graduating high school seniors remains fresh, fun, and incredibly imaginative. The young, animated cast also deserves a lot of credit, bringing chemistry and energy to otherwise bland material. John Travolta, straight from his success in Saturday Night Fever, knows his sexual star power and struts, swaggers, sings, and dances appropriately, while Olivia Newton-John's portrayal of virgin innocence is the only decent acting she's ever done. And then there's Stockard Channing, spouting sexual double-entendres as Rizzo, the bitchy, raunchy leader of the Pink Ladies, who steals the film from both of its stars. Ignore the sequel at all costs.
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