Sony / 2011 / 116 Minutes / Rated PG-13
Street Date: June 14, 2011
Overall Grade 
Superb on Blu-rayGenres: Sci-fi, Action packed
Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Bridget Moynahan
Director: Jonathan Liebesman
Plot Synopsis: Battle: Los Angeles is a war movie first, science fiction second. It's got it all: a burned-out retiring sergeant who gets drawn back in because, dammit, the Marines need him; the guy who's about to get married; the guy who's still a virgin; the guy suffering from shell shock and who just might crack; the newbie officer with a lot of book learning who you just know is going to freeze under pressure and have to be shepherded by that burned-out sergeant, who learned his lessons on the battlefield… and so much more. There's not a moment in this movie you haven't seen before--the only twist is that the enemy is alien, so whatever shred of concern you might have for raining heavy artillery on a fellow human being can be cheerfully cast aside. But clichés are clichés because they are efficient and effective, and despite the profound familiarity of Battle: Los Angeles, there's no denying the movie rips along (though two-thirds of the way through you may have forgotten who was the virgin and who was the shell-shocked guy--but really, does it matter?). The look owes a debt to District 9, a hand-held, vérité grittiness, with most of the CGI carefully given a dingy, dirty look so that it meshes with the urban landscape. Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight) does an impressive job of spitting out ham-fisted dialogue like he really, really means it, while the rest of the cast is suitably generic. This is an unrepentant love letter to the military; many viewers, faced with the unsettling chaos and moral ambiguities of real wars, will find this mythologizing not only soothing, but even moving.
Disc Features:
- Behind the Battle (HD, 7 min) — A faux making-of short which interviews cast and crew. With behind-the-scenes footage playing in the background, talks are mostly on the plot and the movie's documentary style.
- Aliens in L.A. (HD, 18 min) — A focused look at the influence and creation of the alien creatures, from CGI animation to physical props on the set. With more revealing behind-the-scenes footage playing throughout, the cast and crew also discuss the mix of on-location shoots versus green-screen optical effects.
- Preparing for Battle (HD, 5 min) — The cast offers their thoughts on the physically demanding roles and the challenges certain stunts presented.
- Creating L.A. in LA (HD, 6 min) — Just as the title reveals, filmmakers explain how various locations of Baton Rouge were renovated to look like Santa Monica after the alien invasion.
- Trailers — Theatrical previews include 'Priest,' 'Das Boot,' 'Insidious,' 'Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown,' ' The Green Hornet,' 'Beastly' and a promo for 3D products.
Warner Brothers / 2011 / 100 Minutes / Unrated
Street Date: June 14, 2011
Genres: Drama, Thriller, Fantasy
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Plot Synopsis: This is not your grandmother's Red Riding Hood. There's a basket of goodies (not exactly the edible kind), a sweet grandma, a winsome young lass in a beautiful red hood, and a Big Bad Wolf. But there the similarity ends. This Red Riding Hood is shot through the lens of the Twilight films--for wide appeal to the tween and teen audiences, and definitely not a bedtime story for the little ones. Helmed by Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke, Red Riding Hood bears a lot of the moody trademarks of the vampire series. Valerie (Amanda Seyfried), the plucky girl in the stunning cape, lives in a tiny medieval village whose geography is not specified--it's just very mountainous and remote. Valerie's heart belongs to her childhood friend Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), but as Red Riding Hood opens, she learns she has been betrothed to Henry (Max Irons). As if that love triangle weren't enough, it seems a dangerous wolf--or is it werewolf?--has been terrorizing the town for years, and its killing sprees have intensified. When the townsfolk kill a wolf, they think they have finally freed their town from tyranny, and throw a giant bacchanal--like Burning Man in the snow. But then Father Solomon (Gary Oldman, in wickedly good form) appears on the scene to tell the villagers they've killed only a gray wolf--not, in fact, the werewolf he knows is the true villain. So the romantic pulls of Valerie, Peter, and Henry play out with a backdrop of true chills and mystery. The atmosphere created by Hardwicke, along with production designer Thomas E. Sanders and cinematographer Mandy Walker, is perfect for a goose-bumpy horror story with teen hearts caught in the balance. The set design of the village, especially, is rich with detail--even the trees in the surrounding forest seem to have branches made of threatening spikes. Seyfried is willful, passionate, and perfect as Valerie, and easily anchors a film that could have spun out. Other standouts include Virginia Madsen, Valerie's mother who has a dark secret in her own past, and Julie Christie as Valerie's rather peculiar grandmother. All Twilight fans, and those who love a good tale of star-crossed (or perhaps full-moon-crossed) lovers will enjoy Red Riding Hood. Just don't go walking in those big bad woods alone.
Disc Features:
"Secrets Behind the Red Cloak" PIP w/ C. Hardwicke, A. Seyfried, S. Fernandez and M. Irons
"Reinvention of Red Riding Hood"
"Red Riding Hood's Men"
"Making of the Score"
"Before the Fur...Making of the CG Wolf"
"Casting Tapes - Casting Shiloh Fernandez"
"Casting Tapes - Casting Max Irons"
"Casting Tapes - Shiloh Fernandez and Max Irons"
"Rehearsals - The Dance"
"Rehearsals - The Festival"
"Rehearsals - The Wolf Attack"
"The Wolf - Music Video by Fever Ray"
"Just a Fragment of You - Music Video by Anthony Gonzalez of M8"
"Red Riding Hood in 73 seconds"
"The Wolf Goes to a Hamlet Audition" Easter Egg
Gag Reel
Deleted Scenes
Warner Brothers / 2011 / 105 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: June 14, 2011
Genres: Comedy
Starring: Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis and Christina Applegate
Director: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly
Plot Synopsis: Anyone familiar with the work of writer-directors Bobby and Peter Farrelly, especially There's Something About Mary, will be neither surprised nor shocked by the raunchy, gross-out gags that permeate Hall Pass. But what Farrelly fans might not expect is what comes at the other end of the spectrum--namely, a tender, even sentimental point of view in which marriage is sanctified and even a couple of delusional doofuses end up on the right side of righteousness. Buddies Rick (Owen Wilson) and Fred (Jason Sudeikis) have attractive, loving wives (Maggie and Grace, played by Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate, respectively) and, in Rick's case, a couple of cute kids. But boys will be boys, and after catching their husbands eyeing other women's butts, making rude remarks in front of friends, and so on, the ladies decide to offer them "hall passes"--an entire week during which they can pretend they're not married and do whatever they want, no questions asked, while the wives head for Cape Cod. Rick, for one, is nonplussed; here is a decent guy who refuses to buy beer for his underage babysitter (not to mention resisting her flirtatious come-ons) and generally tries to do the right thing, and he suspects there's more than meets the ear to Maggie's offer (Fred, on the other hand, expects to spend the week scoring young hotties with lines like "You must be from Ireland, 'cos when I look at you my penis is Dublin"). But while Maggie and Grace find themselves courted by some studly minor-league baseball dudes, Rick and Fred mostly just strike out. Their shenanigans are accompanied by a parade of typically sophomoric Farrelly gags: penis jokes (and a couple of real penises), masturbation jokes, scatological jokes, "I'm so stoned" marijuana jokes, and sexual terms (like "eye banging" and "fake chow") that can't be explained on a family website. Some of this is funny, most merely dumb; some viewers will think the humor goes too far, others not far enough. But the overriding impression is that a decade or more past their biggest hits, the Farrellys, who are now in their 50s, have grown up--at least a little.
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