Every week (as part of our new Blu-ray HQ on Rotten Tomatoes) we’re going to pick what we consider the most exciting releases for a particular studio. This week, we’re looking at Warner Bros, and we’re recommending these movies.
This visceral, morally complex crime thriller is exceptional in many ways. But two things particularly stand out: it’s got one of the best shootouts in movie history, as well as one of the best displays of acting firepower — namely, the diner scene between Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Heat is dense and epic, but its army of well-developed characters make it one of the best crime films of the 1990s. The Blu-ray release is loaded with extras, including commentary from Mann and several documentaries, a lengthy making-of featurette, a short doc about the scene between Pacino and De Niro, and a look at the film’s locations.
If you’ve never seen Alfred Hitchcock’s masterful espionage thriller, the North by Northwest (50th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Book) is a great place to start; if you’ve already seen it a million times, this shiny new version will be rewarding all the same. North By Northwest is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most enjoyable thrillers, for reasons that are readily apparent. Featuring the ultra-suave Cary Grant at his wittiest, this espionage caper follows a hero on the run both from the authorities and a sinister cabal; his journey takes him across the country, where danger awaits at every turn. This 50th Anniversary Edition contains documentaries on Hitchcock and Grant, two in-depth looks at the film and its impact, an audio commentary from screenwriter Ernest Lehman, and a music-only track.
One of the most popular movies of all time, for reasons that aren’t hard to fathom: it’s big, bold, sweeping, and romantic, and its cast — which includes Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, and Hattie McDaniel – is as iconic as they come. This 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition is loaded with bonus material such as making-ofs, cast bio documentaries, archive footage of the film’s premiere, trailers, and two books… you’ll never go hungry for this masterpiece again.
Earlier this year, 300 director Zack Snyder dared to bring one of the most beloved graphic novels of the 80s to the big screen, and fans everywhere held their breaths. What resulted was a mixed reaction, with some saying Snyder was as faithful as he could have been to the source material, while others decried this same faithfulness as one of the major failures of the film. Whatever stance you maintained in the debate, you’ll get your chance to see Watchmen “as it was meant to be seen,” in the form of Snyder’s director’s cut. The Ultimate Cut is a 5-disc box set that trumps all the previous editions that have come out this year by including the Tales of the Black Freighter, as well as some of the sacrificed side stories. There’s an entire disc dedicated to a bunch of extra featurettes, as well as two more containing the motion comic version of the story.
“Don’t trust anyone over 30,” the old saying goes. However, in the sci-fi semi-classic Logan’s Run, that isn’t a problem, since everyone over 30 is dead. The film is the story of a future society that offers unfathomable pleasures to its populace, before offing them to prevent overpopulation; however, some try to avoid their fate, and these “runners” attempt to flee to a mythical “sanctuary” outside of the realm. This solid bit of countercultural sci-fi — released a year before Star Wars — gets the Blu-Ray treatment this week, with commentary from director Michael Anderson, star Michael York, and costume designer Bill Thomas, as well as a short making-of doc.
In 1983, National Lampoon’s Vacation earned its spot as a tried and true comedy classic, which made the failure of its follow-up, 1985’s European Vacation, that much sadder. Who knew the franchise would return with a vengeance in 1989 with Christmas Vacation, which saw the Griswold family playing host to their decidedly less classy (is that even possible?) extended family during the holidays. Though critics still found Christmas Vacation inferior to the original, it found its niche as a classic holiday family comedy, sneaking its way into DVD players and onto TV channels every winter. Though this new release, available on both DVD and Blu-Ray, doesn’t offer any new special features, it does come nicely packaged in a nifty collectible tin, along with stocking stuffers like fake snow, a moose figurine, coasters marked with memorable quotes, and Clark’s Santa hat.
