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Blu in Your Face: May 14th 2013


Bu-ray highlights from today’s releases…

CloudAtlas.jpg

Cloud Atlas Lost beneath rather obvious jokes about race/gender makeup switcheroos was the notion of interconnectedness via shared fictions, as the Wachowski siblings explored stories within stories, commenting in a larger sense on the whole of cinema and all its possibilities stemming from shared roots. With less than an hour’s worth of featurettes, don’t expect much illumination on the themes from the people behind the camera; look instead deeper into the film, which deserves more consideration than it got, even if the “Asian” makeups on some of the non-Asian actors look more Romulan than anything.

Anyway, stay tuned because I’m going to give away three copies later today…

Dexter, Season 7 – When Dexter first came out and people started talking about, I swear to God I thought they were going on and on about Dexter’s Laboratory, and was stunned that so many adults not normally into cartoons were raving it up. I haven’t actually ever seen a single episode of this Dexter, though I probably would like it. It’s about another guy with a lab, right?

Texas Chainsaw 3DThis new trend of leaving the numbers off sequels and naming them very similarly to earlier installments is really gonna piss off the teens of the future, and almost makes me sympathize with Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Anyway, this latest Leatherface movie basically ignores not just the two reboot movies but pretty much every other sequel as well. I didn’t see it, but with that kind of respect or lack thereof for the original series (Part 2 FTW, forever – no other answer is acceptable), are you really expecting much?

WrestleMania XXIX – Julia and I order WrestleMania every year…except this year. She forgot to request the day off from work, and I did not care because every match on the card was predictable-sounding and dull…and the results bore (BORE being an operative word) that out. Here’s hoping they finally learn next year that a card of mostly rematches isn’t the way to go – except this somehow was the most successful one ever, so probably not.

Crimewave After Evil Dead but long before Spider-Man, Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell made this darkly comedic spoof of hitman movies. The Blu-ray features a commentary track by Campbell, so it’s as good as pre-ordered for anybody reading this anyhow.

4K – A number of titles are being released remastered for 4K TVs today (though they’re up-conversions rather than true 4K), including the Raimi and Webb Spider-Man films, Ghostbusters, Battle Los Angeles and Total Recall (Remake). If you have the latest super-expensive TV, I guess that’s cool. Wonder if I can claim one of those as a business expense?

Those are my highlights. What are yours?