Blu-ray 21st July Releases

Watchmen (Director's Cut) (Amazon Digital Bundle + Digital Copy and BD-Live) [Blu-ray]

Warner Home Video / 2009 / 186 Minutes / Unrated
Street Date: July 21, 2009

Overall Grade Highly recommended




Genres: Super hero, Fantasy, Action

Starring: Billy Crudup, Malin Akerman, Patrick Wilson
Director: Zack Snyder

Plot Synopsis: Everybody's favorite graphic novel comes to the screen (after years of rumors and false starts), less a roaring work of adaptation than a respectful and faithful take on a radical original. Watchmen is set in the mid-1980s, a time of increased nuclear tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, as Richard Nixon is enjoying his fifth term as president and the world's superheroes have been forcibly retired. (As you can probably tell, the mix of authentic history and alternate reality is heady.) Things begin with a bang: the mysterious high-rise murder of the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a masked hero with a checkered past, puts the rest of the retired superhero community on alert. The credits sequence, a series of tableaux that wittily catches us up on crime-fighting backstory, actually turns out to be the high point of the movie. Thereafter we meet the other caped and hooded avengers: the furious Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), the inexplicably naked Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup, amidst much blue-skinned, genital-swinging digital work), Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman), Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson), and Ozymandias (Matthew Goode). The corkscrewing storytelling, which worked well in the comic book, gives the movie the strange sense of never quite getting in gear, even as some of the episodes are arresting. Director Zack Snyder (300) doesn't try to approximate the electric impact of the original (written by Alan Moore--who declined to be credited on the movie--and illustrated by Dave Gibbons) but retains careful fidelity to his source material. That doesn't feel right, even with the generally enjoyable roll-out of anecdotes. Even less forgivable is the blah acting, excepting Jeffrey Dean Morgan (lusty) and Patrick Wilson (mellow). Watchmen certainly fills the eyes, although less so the ears: the song choices are regrettable, especially during an embarrassing mid-air coupling between Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II as they unite their--ah--Roman numerals. In the end it feels as though a huge work of transcription has been successfully completed, which isn't the same as making a full-blooded movie experience.

Disc Features:

• Featurette: "The Phenomenon: The Comic That Changed Comics" (HD, 29 min) - Featuring interviews with the cast and crew, execs at DC Comics, John Higgins, Dave Gibbons, and others, this entertaining short doc examines the comic book's creation and its impact. At times, some comments come across as shallow, but overall, this is an enjoyable featurette as each person offers their thoughts and opinions of the novel and its relevance.
  
• Music Video (HD, 3 min) - My Chemical Romance performs their song "Desolation Row".

• Featurette: "Maximum Movie Mode" - This very cool feature enhances the best parts of the In-Movie Experience (IME) found in many of Warner's Blu-ray titles to create an entirely new experience. The assortment of timeline sequences, comic-to-screen and storyboard comparisons, links to a still gallery and pop-up trivia are only half of the fun, as the film seamlessly branches into a Picture-in-Picture commentary that's immersive and provides an incredible wealth of information. Director Zack Snyder stands in between two screens, where one sees the film in real-time and the other shows behind-the-scenes footage, and he talks us through a variety of details while comparing them as before-and-after shots. Most impressive is the fact that none of this comes off as some kind of parlor trick or even a distraction from the film's enjoyment. This is really one of the best interactive features Warner Home Video has to offer on the Blu-ray format and I hope to see more innovations like it.
  
• Featurette: "Focus Points" (HD, 37 min) - For fans not in the mood to re-watch the entire film with Maximum Movie Mode, many of those informative featurettes are also included here separately as brief standalone segments. The segments are "The Minutemen", "Sets & Sensibility", "Dressed for Success", "The Ship Has Eyes", "Dave Gibbons", "Burn Baby Burn", "Shoot to Thrill", "Blue Monday", "Attention to Detail", "Girls Kick Ass", and "Rorschach's Mask".
  
• Featurette: "Real Super Heroes: Real Vigilantes" (HD, 26 min) - Arguably the most interesting doc of the bunch, this is an extensive look at real-life vigilantes and people who take matters into their own hands. It examines the ways in which people romanticize the idea of protecting society from crime and how their behavior leaves them walking the very thin line of being criminals themselves.
  
• Featurette: "Mechanics: Technologies of a Fantastic World" (HD, 17 min) - Another interesting featurette (especially if you're a science geek like myself), this interview with Dr. James Kakalios, Professor of Physics at the University of Minnesota, gives fans of the 'Watchmen' comic a fascinating opportunity to think of the science in the book as a plausibility. The professor also joined the film crew as an advisor to the production and set design, ensuring that everything Doctor Manhattan worked on had a reality base.
  

Coraline (Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy w/ 3D) [Blu-ray]

Universal Studios Home Entertainment / 2008 / 100 Minutes / Rated PG
Street Date: July 21, 2009

Genres: Animated, Family, Fantasy

Starring: Teri Hatcher
Director: Henry Selick

Plot Synopsis: The story of a young girl who unlocks a mysterious door in her new home and enters an adventure in a parallel reality.

Disc Features:
• Audio commentary with director Henry Selick and composer Bruno Coulais
• Featurettes: "Making of Coraline," "Voicing the Characters," "Creepy Coraline"
• Deleted scenes
• Digital Copy

HD Exclusive Content:
• Picture-in-picture
• Featurette
• My Scenes Sharing
• BD-Live

Prison Break: The Final Break [Blu-ray]

Fox Home Entertainment / 2009 / 88 Minutes / Unrated
Street Date: July 21, 2009

Genres: Action, Crime, Drama, Television

Starring: Wentworth Miller, Dominic Purcell
Plot Synopsis: The shocking series conclusion was just the beginning! Secrets revealed and mysteries resolved. The truth will blow you away!

Disc Features:
• Featurette: "The Old Ball and Chain & Free"

Back Catalogue/ Other Blu-ray Releases: