Best of the Week
Sinister - Summit - Blu-ray and DVD
Director: Scott Derrickson
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Fred Dalton Thompson, James Ransone,Michael Hall D'Addario, Rob Riley. Full cast + crew
Sinister is the kind of genuinely scary horror movie that's so effective you just want to curse at it. It's not only the best horror movie of 2012, but one of the best in years, making excellent use of that rare combination of interesting characters with a creepy premise. There are a handful of movies a year that pull off the latter, but it's rare that they also nail the former, and it's the difference maker between a movie that can freak you out while you're watching it and one that'll pop into your brain and shoot down your spine hours, days, and even months after you've watched it.
Special Features: Audio commentary with Scott Derrickson; commentary with Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill; "True Crime Authors," a featurette on actual true-crime authors; "Living in a House of Death," a featurette on realtors of murder houses; deleted scenes with commentary.
Best Catalog Surprise
Top Gun 3D - Paramount - Blu-ray 3D
Director: Tony Scott
Cast: Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, Tom Skerritt. Full cast + crew
We've now officially hit the point where it's okay to be excited about older movies post-converted into 3D. Sure, it's not right for every movie, but 3D conversions of movies like Titanic and Top Gun prove that it can not only be done, but that it can actually add a lot to the film, and it looks absolutely dynamite here. Yes, there's a lot of noise that comes in during certain sequences, but it's not distracting. Instead the inflated, anachronistic film grain adds to the already dense visual palette that Tony Scott is painting with and the result is a movie with a style that's big and relevant and permanent.
If you have a 3D TV and you're a fan of this magnificent embodiment of '80s machismo, you need to own this disc.
Special Features: All ports from the last 2D Blu-ray, which were themselves SD ports of the last DVD's content, but the two hours and 28 minutes of documentary material are certainly worth watching.
Other Notable Titles
Anna Karenina is my favorite film of 2012 that just didn't seem to register in many end-of-the-year conversations. It's yet another magnificent film from Joe Wright (Hanna, Pride & Prejudice); a creative, playful, energetic, sexy movie that takes some dense source material and finds a new, expectation-defying way to present it. And then there's Argo, which has popped up in seemingly every end-of-the-year conversation. It's a fine film, and certainly recommended, but it's also a little too safe. It's weird to feel like slamming a movie for being good and not OMG, GTFO, AMAZING, but that's what Argo is: a good, but not great movie.
If you're a fan of Syfy's Battlestar Galactica, you're going to want to check out Blood & Chrome, a prequel to the seminal series about Adama's role in the original Cylon War. You're also going to want to find some booze to comfort you, because it's not very good.
Also out this week is the 3D conversion of Monsters, Inc., which still holds up as one of Pixar's best films that doesn't have Toy Story in the title. As with Top Gun above, the 3D conversion here is fantastic and should excite any 3D TV owners. And then there's the often (mis)quoted Marlon Brando classic On the Waterfront, which is getting the Criterion Collection Blu-ray treatment this week.
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