BluTuesday - February 4, 2014
Good day, ProFans! Joseph here, and I’m taking a break from ogling over the trailer for Captain America: The Winter Soldier to bring you the latest in home media releases for February 4, 2014. In this week’s episode, we discuss the continuing strengthening of Matthew McConaughey’s career, the return of the 80s action movie, a time-traveling romcom, and the DC Animated Universe. All set? Let’s run with this.
Dallas Buyers Club (R)
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 93%
Matthew McConaughey gives the performance of his career in this uplifting and powerful film inspired by true events. Texas cowboy Ron Woodroof (McConaughey) sees his free-wheeling life overturned when he’s diagnosed as HIV-positive and given 30 days to live. Determined to survive, Woodroof decides to take matters in his own hands by tracking down alternative treatments from all over the world by means both legal and illegal. After finding an unlikely ally in Rayon (Jared Leto), he establishes a hugely successful “buyers’ club” and unites a band of outcasts in a struggle for dignity and acceptance that inspires in ways no one could have imagined. Co-starring Jennifer Garner, Dallas Buyers Club is “deeply moving. A livewire of a movie!” (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone). This movie comes in both a two disc Bluray/DVD + Digital Copy and a single disc DVD version. I don’t know what impressed me more: the performance of McConaughey, or the performance of Leto. It’s too difficult to decide, so I’m not gonna even bother to try, instead just saying this is my pick of the week and leaving it at that.
Escape Plan (R)
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 49%
No one breaks out alone. One of the world’s foremost authorities on structural security agrees to take on one last job: breaking out of an ultra-secret, high-tech facility called “The Tomb.” Deceived and wrongfully imprisoned, Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) must recruit fellow inmate Emil Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to help devise a daring, nearly impossible plan to escape from the most protected and fortified prison ever built. Escape Plan is the first pairing of action legends Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in leading roles, and co-stars Jim Caviezel, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Vinnie Jones and Vincent D’Onofrio. This movie comes in a three disc Bluray/DVD + Digital Copy version and a single disc DVD version. This movie would’ve been great…about 30 years ago. Even still, it’s fun to see that the old guys still got it, and I wouldn’t say anything derisive about them for fear of getting my teeth kicked in. So, good job, guys!
About Time (PG-13)
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 69%
The night after another unsatisfactory New Year party, Tim’s (Domhnall Gleeson) father (Bill Nighy) tells his son that the men in his family have always had the ability to travel through time. Tim can’t change history, but he can change what happens and has happened in his own life - so he decides to make his world a better place…by getting a girlfriend (Rachel McAdams). But as his unusual life progresses, Tim finds out that his unique gift can’t save him from the sorrows and ups and downs that affect all families, everywhere. From filmmaker Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral), About Time is a comedy about love and time travel, which discovers that, in the end, making the most of life may not need time travel at all. This movie comes in both a two disc Bluray/DVD + Digital Copy version and a single disc DVD version. I’ve always liked Rachel McAdams and Bill Nighy, and it’s good to see one of those Weasley boys do good. So, I have no qualms in recommending this one.
Justice League: War (NR)
In Gotham City’s shadows lurks a mysterious figure, a silent guardian known only as the Batman. While battling crime and an ever-growing public distrust, he faces the injustices of the night alone. During a criminal pursuit, the Batman crosses paths with the arrogant intergalactic cop Green Lantern, and the unlikely duo uncovers an impending threat bigger and more deadly than anything the Earth has faced before. For the Earth to have a chance to survive, it will be a race to forge an uneasy alliance of its greatest super powers, including the Kryptonian alien, Superman; the Amazonian envoy, Wonder Woman; and the Scarlet Speedster, the Flash. Along with newcomers Cyborg and teen super hero Shazam, this awesome assembly of the world’s finest are prepared to meet evil head-on and offer mankind its only hope, it they don’t self-destruct first. This movie comes in both a two disc Bluray/DVD + Digital Copy version and a single disc DVD version. I’ve always been a fan of the DCAU; from Batman: The Animated Series to Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, they have been knocking them out of the park. This will be no different.
Well, that’s all I have for this week. Got any questions or comments? Did I miss anything you wanted to discuss? Please feel free to hit me up in the comments section below.
Until next time…
