RA: Renters Anonymous - September 2nd, 2008

Posted by Trevor

September 2, 2008

This Week: September 2nd, 2008

New Releases

The Promotion - 6.7/10 - Trailer
Starring John C. Reilly, Seann William Scott, Gil Bellows, Masi Oka
John C. Reilly and Sean William Scott play two assistant managers that are both up for promotion at a corporate grocery store. Now the two must fight each other for the new position. This could be a decent office comedy, but it’s doubtful that it will be of the same caliber as Office Space.

Special Features:

Anamorphic widescreen with 5.1 Dolby Digital
Outtakes and deleted scenes
Writer/Director and Producer Commentary
Making the Promotion
The Promotional webisodes

Recommendation: Rent

The Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow
Starring Noah Crawford, Aidan Drummond, Tom Kane, Brenna O’Brien, Dempsey Pappion, Adrian Petriw
Feature length animated film about the teenage children of Marvel’s Avengers.

Whenever the forces of evil threatened mankind, Earth’s mightiest heroes the Avengers were there to stop them - until they made the ultimate sacrifice in their final fight with the indestructible robot, Ultron. But all was not lost for Tony Stark (Iron Man) kept the children of the Avengers safe and raised them to become the teenage heroes of tomorrow. Now James (Son of Captain America and Black Widow), Torunn (Daughter of Thor), Azari (Son of the Black Panther), and Pym (Son of Wasp and Giant Man) must finish the fight their parents started. Soon the arrow-slinging son of Hawkeye will join their ranks but it will take more than five teens to destroy the machine that defeated their parents. If these young heroes have any hope of winning they must find the missing Hulk and come together as…the Next Avengers!

Special Features:

Legacy: The Making of Next Avengers
Kid Power: Next Gen Marvel
First Look: “Hulk vs Wolverine”
First Look: “Hulk vs Thor”

Blu-ray:

Same features as the DVD release

Recommendation: Rent (If you are a fan of comic books and animated films, otherwise Pass)

Re-Releases

This week we have a slew of Blu-ray releases of past films.

Transformers - 7.5/10
Starring Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Rachael Taylor, Jon Voight, Peter Cullen, Hugo Weaving
High-school student Sam Witwicky buys his first car, who is actually the Autobot Bumblebee. Bumblebee defends Sam and his girlfriend Mikaela Banes from the Decepticon Barricade, before the other Autobots arrive on Earth. They are searching for the Allspark, and the war on Earth heats up as the Decepticons attack a United States military base in Qatar. Sam and Mikaela are taken by the top-secret agency Sector 7 to help stop the Decepticons, but when they learn the agency also intends to destroy the Autobots, they formulate their own plan to save the world.

Finally Michael Bay can stop whining because his film is now finally on his favored Blu-ray format.

Special Features:

2 Brand New DVD Cases - Single Disc Edition with Optimus Prime Mask, Two-Disc Transforming Megatron

Single Disc:

Anamorphic Widescreen with 5.1 Dolby Digital
Director commentary with Michael Bay

2-Disc:

Same features as single-disc edition, plus:
Story Sparks with Steven Spielberg
Featurettes: “Human Allies”, “I Fight Giant Robots”, “Battleground”, “Rise of the Robots”, “Autobots Roll Out”, “Decepticons Strike”
From Script to Sand: The Skorponok Desert Attack
Concept Sketches
Trailers

Blu-ray Special Features:

Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby TrueHD 5.1, PCM 5.1 (uncompressed)
Director commentary with Michael Bay
Story Sparks with Steven Spielberg
Featurettes: “Human Allies”, “I Fight Giant Robots”, “Battleground”, “Rise of the Robots”, “Autobots Roll Out”, “Decepticons Strike”
From Script to Sand: The Skorponok Desert Attack
Concept Sketches
Trailers
BD-Live Features
Eastereggs (Michael Bay Cameo, Girl in Dress, Bay Bot, Casting Mojo)

Recommendation: BUY!!

Eraser (Blu-ray) - 6/10
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vanessa Williams, James Caan, James Cromwell, James Coburn, Robert Pastorelli
John Kruger is a U.S. marshal who is assigned to protect Lee Cullen, who works for the Cyrez Corporation, a company that manufactures top secret weapons for the military. Lee knows about a scam going on within Cyrez Corporation, and the man behind it is determined to silence Lee, because without Lee, the FBI has no case against the Cyrez Corporation. After taking Lee to New York City to hide her, John discovers that his friend, U.S. Marshal Robert Deguerin, is the mastermind behind the scam!

Blu-ray Special Features:

2.40:1 Widescreen Transfer (1080p)
Audio: Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1

Recommendation: Pass

Outbreak (Blu-ray) - 6.6/10
Starring Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Cuba Gooding Jr., Donald Sutherland
A lethal virus is transported to the United States via an African monkey host. The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infections Diseases and the Centre for Disease Control are two Federal agencies headed by an ex-husband and his former wife rush to stop its deadly spread. Will they succeed?

Blu-ray Special Features:

1.85:1 Widescreen Transfer (1080p)
Audio: Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1

Recommendation: Rent

Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (Blu-ray) - 5/10
Starring Steven Seagal, Eric Bogosian, Katherine Heigl, Morris Chestnut, Everett McGill
A US battleship on its way to be decommissioned is the target for a ruthless gang of terrorists. Fortunately, there is a hero, and he’s the cook. Single handed, (well almost, he’s helped by a beautiful woman) he makes life difficult for the terrorists.

Blu-ray Special Features:

1.85:1 Widescreen Transfer (1080p)
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Steven Seagal Trailer Gallery

Recommendation: Rent (for super cheezy Seagal action)

The Invincible Iron Man (Blu-ray)
Starring Mark Worden, Rodney Saulsberry, Elisa Gabrielli, Gwendoline Yeo
Past and present collide in this epic adventure that reveals the origin of Iron Man. While raising the ruins of a long buried Chinese kingdom, billionaire inventor Tony Stark digs up far more than he bargained for. He unleashes an age-old prophecy that foretells the resurrection of the Mandarin, the emperor of China’s darkest and most violent dynasty. In order to confront the destructive force, Tony creates an armored suit infused with high-tech weaponry. To stop the evil that he himself has raised form the earth, Tony must become his greatest invention ever–Iron Man! The newly born champion must travel to the four corners of the earth to battle the Mandarin’s henchmen, the Elementals– four magical warriors who harness the power of the elements–earth, water, wind, and fire–withdeadly chemistry. But is the Iron Knight, as he his known in the prophecy, strong enough to defy fate and turn back the malevolent forces hell-bent on earth’s destruction?

Blu-ray Special Features:

Alternate opening
Origin of Iron Man Featurette
First Look: Hulk vs Wolverine
First Look: Hulk vs Thor

Recommendation: Pass

The Unrated Blogger’s Cut

I am very very tempted to repurchase Transformers with the transforming Megatron case, I already have the transforming Optimus Prime case and it’s one of my pride and joys of my dvd collection, I just don’t know if I want to own the same movie twice just to get a fancy case, but I’ll probably grab it anways. Other than that, I’ll be renting The Promotion because I really enjoy both actors and I’ve heard that the film itself is decent.

What is everyone grabbing this week?

Coming up next week:
New: Baby Mama*, The Forbidden Kingdom*
Re-releases: Day Watch**, Night Watch**, The Big Lebowski (10th Anniversary Edition)
* denotes separate DVD and Blu-ray releases
** denotes Blu-ray only release