RA: Renters Anonymous – November 17th, 2009
New Releases
Star Trek – 8.1/10 – Trailer
Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Eric Bana, Bruce Greenwood, Winona Ryder, Ben Cross
On the day of James Kirk’s birth, his father dies on his ship in a last stand against a mysterious alien vessel. He was looking for Ambassador Spock, who is a child on Vulcan at that time, disdained by his neighbors for his half-human nature. Twenty years later, Kirk has grown into a young troublemaker inspired by Capt. Christopher Pike to fulfill his potential in Starfleet even as he annoys his instructors like young Lt. Spock. Suddenly, there is an emergency at Vulcan and the newly commissioned USS Enterprise is crewed with promising cadets like Nyota Uhura, Hikaru Sulu, Pavel Chekov and even Kirk himself thanks to Leonard McCoy’s medical trickery. Together, this crew will have an adventure in the final frontier where the old legend is altered forever even as the new version of it is just beginning.
Special Features:
- 2.40:1 Widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1
- Commentary with JJ Abrams, Bryan Burk, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof and Roberto Orci
- Featurette: “A New Vision”
- Gag Reel
2-Disc Special Features:
- All of the features of the Single Disc DVD, plus:
- Featurettes: “To Boldly Go”, “Aliens”, “Score”, “Casting”
- Additional Scenes
- DVD Rom: Star Trek D-A-C Free Trial Game for Xbox 360, PC, PS3
Digial Copy of the Film
Blu-ray Features:
- 2.40:1 Widescreen 1080p with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1
- All of the features of the 2-Disc DVD, plus:
- Featurettes: “Starships”, “Planets”, “Props and Costumes”, “Gene Roddenberry’s Vision”, “Ben Burt and the Sounds of Star Trek”
- Starfleet Vessel Simulator
- BD Live – NASA News
- Digital Copy of the Film
Special Editions:
Steelbook (DVD and Blu-ray) (Available at FYE/Coconuts/Suncoast and Futureshop)
Blu-ray Badge Pins Giftset (Available at Best Buy USA and HMV Canada)
Starship Enterprise Packaging (DVD and Blu-ray) (Available at Target and Best Buy Canada)
Star Trek Limited Edition Replica Gift Set (Blu-ray) (Amazon.com)
Recommendation: Buy
Bruno – 6.3/10 – Trailer
Starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Gustaf Hammarsten
Brüno is a gay Austrian fashion guru. He has his own fashion based television show, Funkyzeit, the most popular German-language show of its kind outside of Germany. After he disgraces himself in front of his Funkyzeit fan base, he is ruined in German speaking Europe. He decides that in his quest for worldwide fame, he will move to Los Angeles and reinvent himself. Accompanying him to the US is Lutz, his former assistant’s assistant. Lutz is the only person left in his circle that still believes in Brüno’s greatness. Brüno goes through one reinvention of himself after another, ultimately straying to areas far removed from his own self. Perhaps when Brüno finds an activity that he truly does love, he will also find that über-fame he so desperately desires.
Special Features:
- 1.85:1 Widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1
- An hour of Alternate, Deleted and Extended Scenes
- Commentary with Sacha Baron Cohen and Larry Charles
- Interview with Lloyd Robinson
Blu-ray Features:
- 1.85:1 Widescreen 1080p with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- All of the features of the DVD release, plus:
- Video Commentary with Sacha Baron Cohen and Larry Charles
- BD-Live
- Digital Copy of the Film
Recommendation: Buy on Blu-ray (for the commentary showing who was in on it)
My Sister’s Keeper – 6.8/10 – Trailer
Starring Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Sofia Vassilieva, Alec Baldwin, Jason Patric, Emily Deschanel, Joan Cusack
In Los Angeles, the eleven year old Anna Fitzgerald seeks the successful lawyer Campbell Alexander trying to hire him to earn medical emancipation from her mother Sara that wants Anna to donate her kidney to her sister. She tells the lawyer the story of her family after the discovery that her older sister Kate has had leukemia; how she was conceived by in vitro fertilization to become a donor; and the medical procedures she has been submitted since she was five years old to donate to her sister. Campbell accepts to work pro bono and the obsessed Sara decides to go to court to force Anna to help her sister.
Special Features:
- 2.40:1 Widescreen and 1.33:1 Fullscreen with Dolby Digital 5.1
- Additional Scenes
Blu-ray Features:
- 2.40:1 Widescreen 1080p with Dolby TrueHD 5.1
- All of the features of the DVD release, plus:
- Behind the Scenes Featurette
- Featurette: “From Picoult to Screen”
- Digital Copy of the Film
Recommendation: Rent
Re-Releases
Fight Club (10th Anniversary Edition) (Blu-ray) – 8.3/10
Starring Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter
A lonely, isolated thirty-something young professional seeks an escape from his mundane existence with the help of a devious soap salesman. They find their release from the prison of reality through underground fight clubs, where men can be what the world now denies them. Their boxing matches and harmless pranks soon lead to an out-of-control spiral towards oblivion.
Blu-ray Features:
- 2.40:1 Widescreen 1080p with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- Commentary with David Fincher, Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter, Chuck Palahniuk, Jim Uhis, Alex McDowell, Jeff Cronenweth, Michael Kaplan and Kevin Haug
- A Hit in the Ear: Ren Klyce and the sound design of Fight Club
- Welcome to Fight Club
- Angel Faces Beating
- The Crash
- Tyler’s Goodbye
- Insomniac Mode: Jack’s Index, Commentary Index, Topic Search
- 2009 Spike TV’s Guy Choice Award
- Work: Production, Visual Effects, On Location
- Deleted and Alternate Scenes
- TV and Internet Spots
- PSAs
- Music Video
- Galleries
- Edward Norton Interview
- BD-Live
Recommendation: Buy
Leon: The Professional (Blu-ray) – 7.9/10
Starring Jean Reno, Natalie Portman, Gary Oldman, Danny Aiello
Leon is a first-class hit man, but is also a sensitive guy who loves his potted plants. He is moral: “No women, no children” is his professional motto. He is sympathetic to his neighbor, Mathilda, a typically rebellious twelve-year-old who has trouble with her family. But when her father runs afoul of drug kingpin Norman Stansfield, Mathilda turns to Leon for assistance.
Blu-ray Features:
- 2.35:1 Widescreen 1080p with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- Both the Theatrical (109mins) and Extended (133mins) cuts
- 10 Year Retrospective: Cast and Crew Look Back
- Jean Reno: The Road to Leon
- Natalie Portman: Starting Young
- Fact Track
- BD Live
Recommendation: Rent
Gone with the Wind (70th Anniversary) – 7.4/10
Starring Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, Hattie McDaniel
Scarlett is a woman who can deal with a nation at war, Atlanta burning, the Union Army carrying off everything from her beloved Tara, the carpetbaggers who arrive after the war. Scarlett is beautiful. She has vitality. But Ashley, the man she has wanted for so long, is going to marry his placid cousin, Melanie. Mammy warns Scarlett to behave herself at the party at Twelve Oaks. There is a new man there that day, the day the Civil War begins. Rhett Butler. Scarlett does not know he is in the room when she pleads with Ashley to choose her instead of Melanie.
Special Features:
- 1.33:1 Fullscreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 1.0
- Commentary with Rudy Behimer
Ultimate Collector’s Edition:
- All of the features of the regular DVD release, plus:
- The Making of a Legend Documentary
- Restoring a Legend
- Dixie Halls Gone with the Wind
- 1940 MGM Historical Short “The Old South”
- Atlanta Civil War Centennial 1961 premiere newsreel
- International prologue
- Foreign language version sample scenes
- Trailers
- Melanie Remembers: Reflections by Olivia de Havilland
- Cast profile: Gable: The King Remembered
- Cast profile: Vivien Leigh: Scarlett and Beyond
- Cameo portraits of an unforgettable ensemble
- Warner Bros Presents 1939: Hollywood’s Greatest Year
- Gone with the Wind: The Legend Lives On
- Moviola: The Scarlett O’Hara Wars 1980 WBTV Special
- Trailers
- 70th Anniversary velvet keepsake box
- 20 pg reproduction of the original and complete 1939 souvenir program
- 40 pg Production History book with photos and production notes
- Eight frameable 5×7 Art Prints
- CD soundtrack sampler
Blu-ray Ultimate Collector’s Edition:
- 1.33:1 Fullscreen 1080p with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Dolby Digital 1.0
- All of the features of the DVD Ultimate Collector’s Edition, plus:
- MGM: When the Lion Roars Documentary
Recommendation: Buy
Chasing Amy (Blu-ray) – 6.8/10
Starring Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Lee, Dwight Ewell, Jason Mewes
A pair of comic book painters named Holden McNeil and Banky Edwards, who live in New Jersey, have been best friends since 20 years. They spend their time working in their studio, and in the evenings they are going out. But their friendship is about to be disputed for the first time in their life, when a beautiful young lesbian woman named Alyssa Jones enters their life and Holden falls in love with her. Now Holden has to deal with Banky’s jealousy, and with his new girlfriend’s very rich past.
Blu-ray Features:
- 1.85:1 Widescreen 1080p with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- “Tracing Amy: The Chasing Amy Doc”
- “Was It Something I Said?”
- 10 Years Later Q & A
- Commentary with Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier
- Deleted Scenes
- Outtakes
- Trailer
Recommendation: Rent
Clerks (15th Anniversary) (Blu-ray) – 7.5/10
Starring Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Lisa Spoonhauer, Jason Mewes
Dante Hicks is a clerk at a local convenience store in New Jersey. On one particular Saturday morning, he gets called in on his day off. Once there, he must deal with multiple problems. The shutters outside won’t open. His ex-girlfriend, whom he is still in love with, is getting married. His girlfriend, who bugs him about starting college, has revealed certain, uh…stuff about her past. His boss hasn’t come in to take his place. He has a hockey game at 2 o’clock. Another ex has died, and today’s the last day he can go to her wake. He must deal with customers that aren’t so intelligent. His friend, Randal, a clerk at the video store next door, is even less dedicated to his job than Dante, and is always bothering Dante’s customers. And the biggest problem of them all: HE’S NOT EVEN SUPPOSED TO BE THERE TODAY!! Can Dante manage it all?
Blu-ray Features:
- 1.85:1 Widescreen 1080p with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- “Oh, What a Lovely Tea Party”
- Intro by Kevin Smith
- Classic Commentary
- Enhanced Playback Track
- Intro to the First Cut 2004 Commentary
- 2004 Commentary
- Clerks Lost Scene
- The Flying Car
- MTV Spots with Jay & Silent Bob
- Trailer
- Soul Asylum’s “Can’t Even Tell” Music Video
- Clerks Restoration
- Original Auditions
- Snowball Effect
- Outtakes from Snowball Effect
- Mae Day: The Crumbling of a Documentary
- 10th Anniversary Q & A
Recommendation: Rent
TV on DVD/Blu-ray
- 7th Heaven (Complete 9th Season) – DVD
- Andy Barker, PI (Complete Series) – DVD
- Drawn Together (Complete Series) – DVD
- Farscape (Complete Series) – DVD
- It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (A Very Sunny Christmas) – DVD
- Rome (Complete Series) – DVD & Blu-ray
- Scrubs (Complete 8th Season)
- The Sopranos (Complete Series) – DVD (new box)
Coming Soon:
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