Looking Forward

It’s February now, and this month has some interesting titles although nothing that is the one to own. Aswith every month, let’s begin Looking Forward to this month’s new releases and what’s interesting.

Every month is stacked with recent theatrical films coming to disc and here’s a rundown of February’s bigger films. We have Zack and Miri Make a Porno, W., Madagascar: Back 2 Africa, Blindness, Body of Lies, Changeling, and Choke. That’s a pretty good list although, like I said earlier, nothing that screams out “must have” title (regardless, we here love two of those films and will own them). I think this month’s theme is horror and indie films. Horror is pretty strong this month, probably because the highly anticipated Friday the 13^th remake is scheduled. We got new reissues of the first three Friday the 13^th’s, most notably Friday the 13^th is on Blu Ray and for the first time ever on any home video format, Friday the 13^th Part 3 can be seen in it’s original 3-D presentation. That’s really cool, at least for the novelty factor. Midnight Meat Train also streets. That film was seriously bitch-slapped by Lions Gate for whatever reason. It’s far from terrible and if it wasn’t for the amazing Let the Right One In, I would dare to say it was one of 2008’s better horror films (um, theatrically speaking of course). My Name is Bruce, Quarantine, a new edition of Last House on the Left, and perhaps the horror title to own: Four Flies on Grey Velvet, the long awaited DVD release of Dario Argento’s third picture. Oh, happy day, Argento fans!

On the indie side, we get a strong push with The Guitar, Religulous, Bottle Shock, I Served the King of England, Secret Life of Bees, and the indie film to see: Frozen River. They’re others but these should be added to your queue immediately. DVD is the helping hand most of these films need, since the theatrical market is muddled for these flicks. Frozen River, from what I hear, is a solid thriller and is Oscar nominated for the Lead Actress. Judging by the reviews, it seems to be the one we all missed out on last year. Now, just in time for the Oscars, we will catch.

Blu Ray is odd this month. We get a lot of titles, but are any worth owning? Outside of the bigger studio releases, we get reissues for Napoleon Dynamite, Little Miss Sunshine, Office Space, and I’ll ask this: are those worthy of being in HD? I don’t really think so, but it’s fun to also see Street Fighter, the Jean-Claude Van Damme film hitting the format as well as Boondock Saints, French Connection, The Passion of the Christ, Gandhi, and Amadeus all getting the treatment. Well, let me say that while these aren’t the best catalog titles to release, having something like Raging Bull on Blu Ray should help increase the non-18 to 30 years to buy a Blu Ray player.

Until next month…Press Play.