Blu-ray highlights for the week of April 15, 2008

Diablo Cody’s Oscar-winning screenplay and a slew of fantastic performances make Juno one of the best movies of 2007, and probably the best movie being released on Blu-ray this week. The film’s off-beat comedy lies somewhere between Napoleon Dynamite and Knocked Up, but with a more sympathetic main character, played by Ellen Page. (Though I must admit I do sympathize with Seth Rogen, perhaps a little too much.) By the time Juno reached wide release, it had become a victim of its own hype, leading many late-comers to cry “overrated!” So, if you haven’t seen it yet, lower your expectations and prepare yourself for the “the best movie of the year” (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times).

After the break, Governor Schwarzenegger has not one but two of his classic action movies given the high definition treatment, this week.

Many of Arnold’s movies actually have intriguing plots (in particular Total Recall and Terminator). Commando is, um, not such a movie. He plays John Matrix (seriously), an ex-military badass whose daughter (a young Alyssa Milano) is kidnapped by the Bad Guys™. If you’ve ever seen more than five minutes of an American action movie, you can probably guess what happens next.

Predator, on the other hand, holds up pretty well as a genre classic. A pre-Die Hard John McTiernan directed this action-packed sci-fi flick about an alien that comes to Earth to hunt future United States governors (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura). Unfortunately it spawned a mediocre sequel and the excruciatingly bad Alien vs. Predator films.

And lastly, on a non-Arnie note, there’s Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. I haven’t yet had a chance to see octogenarian director Sidney Lumet’s latest film, but I’d say it’s an overall good bet based on his past work (12 Angry Men, Network, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico) and the noteworthy cast which includes Phillip Seymor Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, and Albert Finney.