How to Spend $20
By Eric Hughes
May 11, 2010
Welcome to How to Spend $20, BOP’s look at the latest Blu-ray discs and DVDs to hit stores nationwide. This week: Vampires are scary again, Mel Gibson fires a gun and George Banks prepares for the wedding of his (daughter’s) life.
Pick of the Week
For people who think they need to hook a brother up with some True Blood: Daybreakers
Men can’t get into Twilight. Unless they’re me. It’s scientifically proven. So what does Lionsgate do to tap into this potentially profitable market? It distributes a badass vampire movie where vampires don’t want to have sex with humans, but suck their blood and kill them. You know, do the things we imagined vampires did before Stephenie Meyer played a major part in rewriting what we thought we knew about bloodsuckers. Against a budget of $20 million, the vampire/Matrix mashup did profitable business for its studio, grossing $30.1 million domestically and another $7.9 million worldwide.
Starring Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill, Daybreakers takes place in 2019 – or during a time when vampires greatly outnumber humans. As the population of living beings decreases, the need for blood rises. (Simple supply and demand people, come on). A plan is put in place to research a synthetic blood substitute that would curb harmful vampire diets and therefore increase the population of humans to a healthier level.
Disc includes: Audio commentary, Making Of documentary, The Big Picture (directors’ short film), storyboards, script-to-screen featurette, poster art gallery
For people who are surprised to see Mel Gibson doing English-language movies again: Edge of Darkness
Look out, folks… Mel Gibson’s got a gun! Starring in his first big movie since 2002’s Signs, Gibson returned to his bread and butter in Edge of Darkness, a revenge thriller not unlike 2009’s largely well-received Taken. In it, Gibson plays the father of a twentysomething named Emma who dies in his hands after she’s blasted with two shotgun slugs in cold blood. Everyone and their mom suspects Craven (Gibson) to be the intended target. That is until Craven discovers a pistol in his daughter’s former nightstand.
Honestly, it was nice to see a dude like Gibson headline a movie that he very well could have a decade ago during his Ransom/Payback days. Like if Robin Williams were to do a movie today like Mrs. Doubtfire or The Birdcage from the ‘90s. Gibson was certainly in need of an image makeover, too, considering the controversies surrounding The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto. And let’s not forgot that embarrassing DUI in 2006, which later led to a public apology by Gibson due to anti-Semitic remarks he admitted to during the arrest.
As for Edge of Darkness, the flick did decent biz for Warner Bros. Produced for $60 million, the action-thriller based on a 25-year-old BBC television series made $56 million worldwide. It will undoubtedly be in the black once DVD sales and rentals are factored in.
Disc includes: Revising The Edge of Darkness Miniseries featurette, Mel’s Back featurette, Director Profile: Martin Campbell, Boston as a Character featurette, alternate scenes
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