SanLuisObispo.com: Video/DVD

Redbox's Top 10 DVD rentals

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:05 PST

These were the Top 10 DVD rentals at Redbox kiosks from Nov. 10-16:

1. Kung Fu Panda (DreamWorks)

2. Get Smart (Warner)

List of DVD movie release dates for Nov. 25 and beyond

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:30 PST

Following is a partial schedule of coming movies on DVD. Release dates are subject to change:

NOVEMBER

25: Meet Dave - Fox

Blockbuster's DVD sales and rental charts

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:05 PST

RENTALS

The Top 10 renting, selling and online DVD titles at U.S. BLOCKBUSTER stores for the week that ended Nov. 16.

1. KUNG FU PANDA

New video game releases

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:54 PST

The following games are scheduled for release this week, according to GameSpot.com:

Nov. 16:

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (X360 and PS3, genre: 3D, rated T)

Jack Black gets black and blue for ‘Tropic Thunder'

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:59 PST

By By RICK BENTLEY -- LOS ANGELES - Jack Black discovered the painful part of acting through his role in the action movie spoof "Tropic Thunder."

The work that left him bruised now can be seen on DVD.

In the film within the film, Black plays one of a group of actors filming a big budget war movie. An attempt by the director to give the production more of a real feel puts the actors in a real battle for their lives.

‘Tropic Thunder,' ‘The Universe' top list of latest Blu-ray titles

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:29 PST

By By DOUG NYE -- A marvelously zany comedy, "Tropic Thunder" (DreamWorks, 2008, $39.99), and a dazzling documentary series, "The Universe: Season One" (A&E, 2007, $79.95), lead this week's new releases arriving on Blu-ray.

Ben Stiller stars, directs, co-writes and who knows what else for "Tropic Thunder," the hilarious spoof of moviemaking and just about anything else you can think of. Stiller plays Todd Speedman, an actor whose career is on the decline.

But he has comeback on his mind when he joins a group of other actors who are making a war film on location in a thick jungle. Or at least they think they are. Suddenly they find themselves involved with a group known as the Flaming Dragon gang, whose "game" is manufacturing heroin. The gang believes Speedman and his friends are DEA agents and ... well ... the humor comes fast and furious.

He's just a love machine — and he'll break your heart

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:04 PST

By By HOWARD COHEN -- Can a robot garbage compactor without a mouth in a movie without dialogue for its first 20 minutes - except for the tinny background strains of a song from the old "Hello, Dolly!" movie - break your bleepin' heart?

You betcha.

"Wall-E," now available as a "3-Disc Special Edition" (Disney Pixar DVD; $39.99; G), is a wondrous work for kids and adults from the director and storytellers behind other Pixar projects, "Ratatouille," "Finding Nemo" and "Cars." Wall-E is a Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class, i.e. a robotic trash can that scours Earth for the detritus we've left behind. That's all he does, for 700 years into the future, as humans, grown obese because robots do all the work for them, float about in a space station many miles above their discarded home. Wall-E packs and stuffs junk into his metal belly and pops it out into tidy piles that he stacks into skyscrapers of junk.

DVDs to be released Tuesday

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 06:34 PST

By By JIM CARNES -- Robot love. Is there anything sweeter? Not in "Wall-E," there isn't. This charming film, which will be released Tuesday, is almost as much for adults as it is for kids. Wall-E is the last robot left on Earth - outlasting all the other Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class gizmos dropped 700 years before to clean up our mess. He's dutifully gone about his job all this time, alone except for a pet cockroach, until a sleek search robot named EVE arrives, and he is immediately smitten.

A funny, romantic robotic comedy awaits, made magical by Pixar animation that creates views of a sweeping universe peopled by fascinating characters. It also has a message about human greed and waste and the threat they pose to real people on the real Earth right now.

The video will be available in several editions, from a one-disc version to a three-disc special edition that comes with a digital copy that can be downloaded onto a computer or laptop for viewing. DVD extras include "Presto," the animated short that preceded the film in theaters, and a new animated short, "BURN-E."

Picks and Pans: Guitar Hero: World Tour and more

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 08:08 PST

By By JUSTIN HOEGER -- GUITAR HERO: WORLD TOUR

4 stars

"Guitar Hero" was left playing catch-up last year when "Rock Band" introduced drums and vocals into the music-game mix. Well, consider "Guitar Hero" caught up, and then some.

‘Red Alert 3': This past is prologue

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 08:08 PST

By By JUSTIN HOEGER -- All "Command & Conquer" games are campy in the extreme, but where the main "Tiberium" series half-pretends to be serious with its devastated future world and sneering villain, the "Red Alert" sub-series openly winks at players.

After all, when a game features armored bears, psychic schoolgirls and James Bond clones as units, there isn't much else that can be done.

The game flips the premise of the original "Red Alert," in which Albert Einstein travels back in time to eliminate Adolf Hitler before his rise to power, preventing World War II but sparking an open war between the Allies and the Soviet Union.

Capsule reviews of new DVD releases

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:13 PST

HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY 2.5 stars (Universal Studios, '08) $29.98. 120 mins. Red - or Hellboy - and his cohorts from the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense are called upon to save humans from an elf prince hoping to end the truce between mankind and the mythical world. With Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones. PG-13 (violence, mayhem, scary monsters, profanity, adult themes)

THIS CHRISTMAS 3 stars (Sony Pictures, '07) $28.96. 119 mins. It's been years, but the six Whitfield children are going home to spend the holiday with Ma'Dere - bringing lots of baggage with them. With Delroy Lindo, Idris Elba, Loretta Devine, Chris Brown. PG-13 (comic sexual content and some violence)

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS 2 stars (Warner Home Video, '08) $28.98. 98 mins. Light-saber fights and explosions are non-stop as the Separatists attack the Republic in this animated continuation of the George Lucas saga. Voices of Matt Lanter, Ashley Eckstein, James Arnold Taylor. PG (sci-fi action violence, brief profanity and momentary smoking)

Blockbuster's Top 10 video game sales and rentals

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:04 PST

RENTALS

These are the Top 10 renting video-game titles at U.S. BLOCKBUSTER stores for the week that ended Nov. 9.

GEARS OF WAR 2 - X360

Redbox's Top 10 DVD rentals

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:56 PST

These were the Top 10 DVD rentals at Redbox kiosks from Nov. 3-9:

1. Get Smart (Warner)

2. Journey to the Center of the Earth (Warner)

List of DVD movie release dates for Nov. 18 and beyond

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:49 PST

Following is a partial schedule of coming movies on DVD. Release dates are subject to change:

NOVEMBER

18: Bones: Season 3 - Totally Decomposed - Fox

Blockbuster's DVD sales and rental charts

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:39 PST

RENTALS

These are the Top 10 renting DVD titles at U.S. BLOCKBUSTER stores for the week that ended Nov. 9.

1. GET SMART

New DVD offers fresh look at the Kennedys

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:34 PST

By By DOUG NYE -- When filmmaker Robert D. Kline decided to do a piece about the Kennedy family, he set out to make sure it wouldn't be a rehash of previous documentaries.

"I didn't want to see the same old footage of Bobby (Kennedy) on the floor with Rosie Grier bending over him," Kline said during a recent telephone conversation.

That famous horrific scene and many others that have become so familiar to Americans won't be found in Kline's "The Kennedys: America's Emerald Kings" (Warner, 2008, $19.98) which arrives on DVD this week.

‘Hellboy,' that's one monster set

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:19 PST

By By RENE RODRIGUEZ -- "The Dark Knight" may have ruled the box office this summer, but for sheer imagination and adventurousness, no comic-book adaptation could top "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" (Universal Home Entertainment, $30 single-disc DVD, $35 three-disc DVD, $40 Blu-ray). Writer-director Guillermo Del Toro"s follow-up to 2004"s "Hellboy" makes the first movie feel like a trailer.

You don"t need to have seen the original to plunge right into the sequel, which takes the characters from Mike Mignola"s comics - the red-skinned titular demon (Ron Perlman), his human-torch girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair) and the amphibian Abe (Doug Jones) - and plops them into a wild fantasy adventure that feels like a natural progression from Del Toro"s previous film, the Oscar-nominated "Pan"s Labyrinth."

"Hellboy II" is overrun with man-eating tooth fairies and sword-wielding elves and an endless assortment of trolls and ghouls and monsters, each more outrageous and distinctive than the last. Both the Blu-ray and special edition DVD versions include a 2 {-hour documentary, "In the Service of the Demon," that takes you through the making of the film, beginning with Del Toro"s first meeting with his staff of artists and special-effects wizards.

‘Hellboy II,' ‘Band of Brothers' lead newest Blu-ray parade

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:51 PST

By By DOUG NYE -- An enthralling fantasy inspired by a comic book and a riveting war saga inspired by real life top this week's list of impressive Blu-ray releases.

The fantasy is "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" (Universal, 2008, $39.98) based on the Dark Horse character created by Mike Mignola. He might not look it, but Hellboy (played by Ron Perlman) is one of the good guys. The film is filled with an assortment of odd-looking creatures/characters and climaxes with an epic battle sequence, courtesy of CGI.

For those who missed the 2004 original, Hellboy was "created" by the Nazis in the waning days of World War II. He was supposed to serve the forces of evil but instead ends up fighting for good.

Buster Keaton classic heads list of vintage films coming out on DVD

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 08:56 PST

By By BRUCE DANCIS -- Vintage films - from a silent screen classic to some of the best romantic comedies of the 1950s - highlight this week's DVD releases.

"The General" (1926): Buster Keaton's silent Civil War action-comedy about a Confederate railroad engineer who chases after a locomotive abducted by Yankee spies is out in a visually stunning two-disc edition from Kino International ($29.95, not rated). The high-definition print cleans up and corrects some deterioration in the original film negative.

Many movie experts, including Orson Welles in an introduction to this film on the DVD, have noted that Keaton's imagery more closely resembles the renowned Civil War photographs of Matthew Brady than any other film about the period. Concentrating on the railroad chase and a battle between Union and Confederate forces, Keaton avoids any references to slavery in his film. In some ways this makes "The General" more watchable today than either "The Birth of a Nation" or "Gone With the Wind," where racist portrayals of African-Americans severely mar both films.

Doug Jones is the busiest film star that most people would never recognize

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 07:47 PST

By By RICK BENTLEY -- LOS ANGELES - Doug Jones has an impressive acting resume. He has had memorable roles on "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer," "Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer," "Pan's Labyrinth" and "Hellboy."

He played three roles in this summer's comic book-inspired action film "Hellboy II: The Golden Army." You can see that work Tuesday when the film is released on DVD.

And yet, Jones can walk down most streets and never get recognized. That's because the 48-year-old Indianapolis native tends to get cast in roles that put him under tons of makeup and costuming. He's a thin 6-feet-4-inches tall, which allows for lots of character possibilities with the help of makeup and costumes. Toss on some extra padding and he can be bulkier and menacing. Use his lanky frame as is and he can play a thin, slippery character.