Paramount / 2011 / 112 Minutes / Rated PG-13
Street Date: November 22, 2011
Overall Grade 
Highly recommended Genres: Sci-fi, thriller, suspense
Starring:Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler, Joel Courtney and Ryan Lee
Director: JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg
Plot Synopsis: JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg join forces in this extraordinary tale of youth, mystery, and adventure. Super 8 tells the story of six friends who witness a train wreck while making a Super 8 movie, only to learn that something unimaginable escaped during the crash. They soon discover that the only thing more mysterious than what it is, is what it wants. Experience the film that critics rave is, “filled with unstoppable imagination and visual effects to spare. It will put a spell on you.”
Disc Features:
- Audio Commentary – Abrams is joined by cinematographer Larry Fong and producer Bryan Burk. I really wish some of the kid actors would have been brought in to give the commentary a bit of levity. As it stands, Abrams is a rather dull commentator with a herky-jerky cadence that may lull you to sleep. It doesn't help that the trio of them share only a sparse number of funny anecdotes mixed in with a lot of technical stuff about the shooting itself. Abrams does explain that apparently Spielberg doesn't do audio commentaries so he wasn't going to be on this one either. Abrams points out which scenes were actually shot on RED cameras as opposed to the ones that weren't and which scenes were filmed in L.A. and which scenes were filmed in Weirton. All in all, it's a pretty boring commentary really. I thought it was going to be fun to listen to, but Abrams almost seems disinterested in the whole proceedings.
- Featurettes (HD, 1 hr. 37 min.) – There are several different featurettes included in this section of the disc menu, but when using the Play All feature you essentially start up an hour and a half long making of documentary which really covers just about everything you'd want to know about the movie.
"The Dream Behind 'Super 8'" introduces us to the idea of the movie and discusses Abrams and Fong creating their own Super 8 movies way back when. We even get to see bits and pieces of their old amateur movies.
"The Search For New Faces" is a casting featurette where the casting directors talk about the arduous journey they went through, seeing hundreds of auditions, before they were set on the two no-name actors who finally ended up getting the parts.
"Meet Joel Courtney" is a day in the life of the young actor as he finds his way around the set, visits the craft service trucks, and eats catering. There's actually some really candid stuff from here too, as he talks about his aspirations and what it was like working on his first film with such a famous director.
"Meet Joel Courtney" is a day in the life of the young actor as he finds his way around the set, visits the craft service trucks, and eats catering. There's actually some really candid stuff from here too, as he talks about his aspirations and what it was like working on his first film with such a famous director.
"The Visitor Lives" is a visual effects featurette where Abrams and his VFX crew from ILM talk about the design of the movie's creature and the different ideas that went into its creation. Concept art is shown so we can see the evolution of the alien. We also get to see the difference between Abrams' original thoughts about the alien contrasted against Spielberg's original ideas. It's pretty interesting to see the difference between the two.
"Scoring 'Super 8'" deals completely with the movie's soundtrack which was created by popular composer Michael Giacchino. We get to see Giacchino's process while Abrams and even Spielberg get in on the action discussing the movie's original orchestral sounds.
"Do You Believe In Magic?" is a short featurette which features Larry Fong's apparently famous magic tricks. He has an endless repertoire of tricks up his sleeves and even fakes out Tom Cruise (who is on set at one point for some unexplained reason) with a card trick.
"The 8mm Revolution" caps off the featurettes section with more nostalgia from Abrams, Fong, and Burk talking about their old 8mm movies. We also get to see a comparison of 8mm film side-by-side with 16mm and 35mm.
- Deleted Scenes (HD, 13 min.) – There are 14 deleted scenes in all.
- Deconstructing the Train Crash (HD min.)
Lionsgate / 2011 / 113 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: November 22, 2011
Genres: Epic, fantasy, adventure, action
Starring: Jessica Alba, Danny Trejo, Antonio Banderas
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Plot Synopsis: You think your childhood was rough? Check out the opening 20 minutes of Conan the Barbarian, a bone-cracking coming-of-age prologue that fully explains the "Barbarian" part of the name. The film gets off to a ripping start, including li'l Conan's lethal dispatching of a crowd of restless natives (it's not every lad that returns from camp with the decapitated heads of his enemies dangling from his shoulders) and a great deal of hoo-hah about the forging of swords. As the character grows into manhood, played by Jason Momoa (Game of Thrones), the cascade of brutality continues: boiling oil, nose trauma, death by metal fingernails--you name it, the movie has it. The "origin story" plot is a workable way into the world of pulp writer Robert E. Howard's hero: Conan seeks vengeance for the death of his father (Ron Perlman) and pursues power-hungry Khalar Zym (Stephen Lang, enjoying the fruits of Avatar), who in turn seeks the final piece of a many-tailed magic mask, which will give him untold power. Rose McGowan is all spooky as Khalar's daughter (she's got the fingernails) and Rachel Nichols is an innocent slated to be sacrificed by the evildoers. Director Marcus Nispel rolls out the tech hardware for this relentless action picture, pumping up every sound with a digital whammy that might make your head feel it has been split in two by Conan's mighty sword (that is, if you didn't already feel that from the chaotic cutting--since the movie was originally released in uninspired 3-D, this visual unpleasantness was enhanced in theaters). The movie's not a complete bust, but it is a fairly punishing experience. As for Momoa, he's got the pectorals, and generally comes across as a likable sort. Of course, Conan isn't supposed to be a likable sort, so his casting will likely trigger an unexpected response in viewers familiar with the 1982 version of the character. You will miss Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Disc Features:
- Audio Commentaries — Director Marcus Nispel starts off this pair of commentary tracks by pretty much narrating his way through the whole thing.
- The Conan Legacy (HD, 18 min) — As one would expect from the title, the short piece discusses the history, evolution and admiration of Robert E. Howard's Conan and the filmmakers' effort to be faithful to the material.
- Robert E. Howard: The Man Who Would Be Conan (HD, 11 min) — Another brief segment, this time focused on the short life of the author, tracing the beginnings of his writing career and his unfortunate end.
- Battle Royal: Engineering the Action (HD, 10 min) — With lots of BTS footage showing the various stunts performed, this closer look on the fight and stunt choreography is a decent, easy-to-digest overview.
- Staging the Fights (HD, 6 min) — A brief text explains this collection of videos was made by the stunt team as pre-visualization storyboards with minor alterations added on actual shooting days.
- Trailers (HD) — Along the movie's theatrical preview, trailers include 'Highlander 2,' 'Warrior,' 'The Expendables,' 'Set Up' and a promo for the Epix movie channel network.
Anchor Bay/Weinstein / 2011 / Rated PG
Street Date: November 22, 2011
Genres: Family, adventure, action
Starring: Jessica Alba, Danny Trejo, Antonio Banderas
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Plot Synopsis: The action packed franchise is backwith the next generation of Spy Kids! Marissa Cortez Wilson (Jessica Alba) has it all: married to a famous spy-hunting television reporter (Joel McHale), with a new baby and intelligent twin step kids, Rebecca (Rowan Blanchard) and Cecil (Mason Cook). When maniacal Timekeeper (Jeremy Piven) disrupts her domestic bliss--threatening to take over the planet--Marissa comes out of retirement as a top secret agent. With Armageddon quickly approaching, Rebecca and Cecil are thrust into action! With a little help from some familiar Spy Kids friends, Carmen (Alexa Vega), Juni (Daryl Sabara), and their faithful dog Argonaut (Ricky Gervais) and some mind-blowing gadgets, they just may be able to save the world!
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