How to Spend $20
By Eric Hughes
December 21, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Pick of the Week
For people who couldn’t follow The Scarlet Letter the first time around: Easy A
Either a few studios are clearly capitalizing on Christmas, or the period between a film’s theatrical and home media release has shortened from what it once was – a year ago even. Easy A was released in U.S. theaters on September 17th, a smidge over three months from its Blu-ray release today. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, which I’ll cover a bit later on, was even quicker. That one came out in late September. So, if you’re following along at home, you’ll realize like I did that that’s less than three months from its domestic release.
Have we all gone insane, or is Hollywood out of touch with its audience? Or have I gone insane?
Man, I’ve been such an advocate for tradition lately, I suppose. I’ve certainly transitioned into crotchety old grandpa a hell of a lot sooner than anticipated. The idea of folks forking over another 20 bucks for a movie they literally just saw baffles me. (This may contradict what I said about Inception. But that, my friends, was Inception). I say why pay 12 bucks now when you can pay more or less double that later – and then keep it? Or better yet, save your dough and rent the thing. The rest of the money can go towards pizza and pop.
Easy A escaped me the first time ‘round, and I have every intention of giving it a watch now that its star, Emma Stone, got a Golden Globe nod out of the deal.
I’ve liked her in everything I’ve seen her in – Superbad, Zombieland – and am as excited as a clown on a pogo stick that she’s currently at work as Gwen Stacy in the Spider-Man reboot. I just hope she steers clear of the Broadway adaptation. We want our pretty 20-something breaking a figurative leg. Not a literal one.
Disc includes: Gag reel, Emma Stone’s Audition Footage featurette, audio commentary, The School of Pop Culture: Movies of the Eighties featurette, Vocabulary of Hilarity featurette, The Making of Easy A featurette, Pop-up Trivia Track
For people who enjoy a gun-totin’ Angelina: Salt
It’d been some time since we last saw Angelina Jolie. After a big 2008 – Wanted, Kung Fu Panda, Changeling – the lady took off the following year (theatrically, at least) to work on all the off-screen things the paparazzi eat up. She was back in cineplexes this summer in an action flick that relied all too heavily on a one-note marketing campaign: Who is Salt? I didn’t care who Salt was from the beginning, so I never imagined I’d see it. And then I didn’t.
The good news for Jolie, though, is she just may have another franchise in her hands after that Lara Croft business proved to be a twice and done business. Salt made close to $120 million Stateside (more than $290 million worldwide), so Columbia would be crazy to not be interested. The film’s director has already said he hopes to have “another one” within a couple years. That’s literally how he worded it in an interview with ContactMusic.com. Spoken like a true Hollywood-ite if I do say so myself.
Anyway, Salt, originally worked as a potential star vehicle for Tom Cruise until he came to realize that he’d be playing Ethan Hunt again with a new name, is about a woman who pulls out the stops to clear her name after being accused a KGB sleeper agent. Live Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor round out the cast.
Disc includes: The Ultimate Female Action Hero featurette, Spy Disguise: The Looks of Evelyn Salt featurette, Radio Interview with Director Phillip Noyce, audio commentary, SALT: Declassified - An Undercover Look at the Secrets of Making Salt featurette, The Real Agents featurette, The Modern Master of the Political Thriller: Phillip Noyce featurette, False Identity: Creating a New Reality featurette, Spy Cam: Picture-in Picture Track featurette
For people who like chunky cell phones: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
Just about anything can be sequeled these days, eh? Pretty soon we’ll get second helpings of, oh I don’t know, The Sound of Music, Jerry Maguire and The Waterboy, and they’re all going to be terrible. You laugh, but then Deadline will be all over it… and then you’ll probably be laughing again. I wanna say Wall Street 2 is about as unlikely a sequel as any. In recent memory, Basic Instinct 2 comes to mind. Wall Street, though, seems more wiley.
In it, Michael Douglas reprises his role that AFI named one of the greatest movie villains of all time. Gordon Gekko, upon failing in his attempt to warn business leaders of an pending bum economy, tries rebuilding a relationship with his estranged daughter (Carey Mulligan).
Disc includes: Audio commentary; A Conversation with Oliver Stone and the Cast of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; Money, Money, Money: The Rise and Fall of Wall Street featurette; deleted and extended scenes; Fox Movie Channel Presents: In Character with Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Carey Mulligan, Josh Brolin and Frank Langella
December 21, 2010
Blu-ray
The Bounty
D.C. Sniper
Devil
Easy A
Family Guy: It's a Trap!
Futurama: Volume 5
Laugh It Up, Fuzzball: The Family Guy Trilogy
The Matador
Orlando (Special Edition)
Salt (Unrated)
Step Up 3
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
DVD
The Andy Griffith Show: 50th Anniversary
The Bounty
Caprica: Season 1.5
D.C. Sniper
Devil
Easy A
Family Guy: It's a Trap!
Futurama: Volume 5
Laugh It Up, Fuzzball: The Family Guy Trilogy
Meet John Doe (Ultimate Collector's Edition)
Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus
Orlando (Special Edition)
Salt (Unrated)
The Secret Life of the American Teenager: Volume 5
Step Up 3
Wall Street 1 & 2 (Back-To-Back)
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps