Blu-ray highlights for the week of April 22, 2008

The title for this week’s entry might as well be “Three Horror Movies I Haven’t Seen, or: The Probably-Good, the Maybe-Bad, and the Almost-Certainly-Ugly”.

Let’s start with the probably-good: The Orphanage (El Orfanato), the first film from Spanish director J.A. Bayona. This movie is being marketed with the line “Guillermo del Toro presents” much in the same way that Eli Roth’s Hostel was with “Quentin Tarantino presents”. It is not surprising, then, that The Orphanage has been drawing favorable critical comparisons to del Toro’s own The Devil’s Backbone. That’s reason enough for me to give it a rental.

The lesser two of this week’s Blu-ray releases after the break.

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Twenty-four hours in the life of an aspiring filmmaker.

As a big fan of producer/writer/director Judd Apatow (Freaks and Geeks, Knocked Up, Superbad), I was really looking forward to seeing Forgetting Sarah Marshall on opening night, and then reviewing it on this site. Yes, the movie met my raised expectations, but ultimately ended up being just one highlight of a long, strange day. It all started with an earthquake.

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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.

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Blu-ray highlights for the week of April 8, 2008

Without a doubt, the crown jewel of this week’s Blu-ray release lineup, for me, is the 20th Anniversary Edition of Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (also available on DVD). Munchausen has long held the top spot on my list of all-time favorite movies, but don’t take that to mean that I consider it the ‘best’ film ever made. Rather, it is a flawed masterpiece whose missteps only serve to make it more endearing. More on that later in the week when I review the disc.

The rest of the Blu-ray highlights after the break.

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