This Week in DVD & Blu-ray is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD and Blu-ray releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy and Fry's.
WAITING FOR "SUPERMAN"
The impassioned, well-meaning Waiting for "Superman" prods at an important and disconcerting issue: the failure of the American school system. But that's all it really does. It prods and points fingers, blaming unions and funding conflicts, all the while tossing out animated statistics to highlight how severe the problem is. Interspersed between this are heart-on-sleeve stories of five families hoping to gain entry to overcrowded charter schools, the procedure for which requires public school students to take place in a lottery. It's a deeply depressing process, and the film's frustration is justified. So what's the solution? Waiting for "Superman" has some half-hearted ideas about what needs to be done, but very little (if any) emphasis is placed on the importance of the parent's role in a child's education. If you're looking for an introduction to an ongoing crisis that's in desperate need of positive action, Waiting for "Superman" will suffice, but it's strictly that.
Available on Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras: DVD & Blu-ray – Commentary by Director Davis Guggenheim and Producer Lesley Chilcott, Four additional inspiring teacher/student stories, Changing the Odds: A look at innovative programs that are changing public education, Public Education Updates: Changes which have taken place since the making of the film, A Conversation with Davis Guggenheim, The Future Is In Our Classrooms, and The Making of "Shine": the film's title track by musician John Legend.
| BEST DVD PRICE | ||
|---|---|---|
| Target | Best Buy | Fry's |
| $16.99 | $16.99 | N/A |
| Amazon – $17.99 | ||
| BEST BLU-RAY PRICE | ||
|---|---|---|
| Target | Best Buy | Fry's |
| $22.99 | $21.99 | N/A |
| Amazon – $21.99 | ||
KITES
Hollywood and Bollywood converge in this hilariously overwrought action-romance about two ridiculously attractive people who overcome all obstacles in their way (read: they're in relationships with slightly less attractive people) in the name of love, histrionics and being too ridiculously attractive to not end up together. But mostly the latter two. As silly and kind of atrocious as it is, it has a bright-eyed energy to it that's infectious. It's part musical, part western, part film noir, and part Michael Bay. Taken as a pure lavish spectacle, Kites is charmingly daft entertainment.
Available on Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras: None.
| DVD PRICE |
|---|
| Amazon – $18.99 |
| BLU-RAY PRICE |
|---|
| Amazon – $19.99 |
UNSTOPPABLE
Unstoppable features a runaway train on a terrifying course for THE TRAIN TRACKS IN FRONT OF IT. The set path of the train might seem to strip away some of the suspense, but get this: It goes really fast! Well, not really fast… It goes sort of fast, as trains go. It's faster, anyway, than the train in the true story on which the film is based, which was eventually slowed to a speed of 11 miles per hour before an employee hopped aboard and shut it down. That doesn't happen in Unstoppable, because that would be boring and lame. Unstoppable doesn't want to be boring and lame. It wants to be an action movie! A big, loud, crazy action movie! With explosions! And a train that's actually A MISSLE THE SIZE OF THE CHRYSLER BUILDING! OH MY GOD, THERE'S SOMETHING ON THE TRACKS! WATCH OUT TRAIN FULL OF KIDS! WATCH OUT HORSE! WATCH OUT DENZEL WASHINGTON AND CHRIS PINE, WHO ARE IN NO WAY GOING TO RECONCILE THEIR DIFFERENCES IN A TIME OF NEED! If only there were some way to predict where a train on a set path was going,
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