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Welcome to How to Spend $20, BOP’s look at the latest Blu-ray discs and DVDs to hit stores nationwide. This week: Denzel Washington slows a freight train, Woody Allen shoots another one in London and a ‘70s classic undergoes the Blu-ray treatment.

Pick of the Week

For people caught on runaway vehicles: Unstoppable

I’m thinking the next time I take the El and it so happens to get hijacked by a disgruntled Cubs fan, I’d sure as hell hope Denzel Washington were aboard the train to help keep the peace. Two years ago the guy starred in a remake of The Taking of Pelham 123, a film that has him playing a remarkably attractive Metropolitan Transportation Authority employee who re-captures a New York City subway train seized by none other than John Travolta. Flash forward a couple of years to Unstoppable, and he’s attempting to stop a runaway freight car alongside his young protégé, Chris Pine.

Not sure what it is about Denzel and fast-moving locomotives. But skew him on this side of safety, and apparently good will prevail.

For an action movie - or any movie, really - Unstoppable reviewed extremely well. Additionally, it marked the umpteenth time Tony Scott paid Denzel big money to star in one of his movies. I want to say Denzel and Tony have worked together about as much as Johnny and Tim, and yet the latter duo are the ones who garner all the buddy-buddy attention.

Disc includes: N/A

For people who enjoy fortune cookies: You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

Still consistently busy at 75 years of age, Woody Allen certainly gets the pass when an idea of his doesn’t stick. For whatever reason, he can go from a high like Vicky Cristina Barcelona and then hardly make any money at all with a production like You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. And it’s been that way for much of his career - at least, the later bit I’m more familiar with. There’s a fascinating inconsistency about him that rings true again and again and again. The Curse of the Jade Scorpion followed Small Time Crooks. Scoop followed Match Point. Whatever Works or You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger - take your pick - followed Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Anyway, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger seemed to garner a good amount of pre-production press in a post-VCB world. It’d be another Spanish-American co-production. It would star Antonio Banderas, and then Naomi Watts and Josh Brolin. Its title would be a collection of one and two syllable words. Man, the pact of secrecy surrounding the project was like the Seinfeld finale or, really, any episode of Lost.

Like a lot of Woody Allen movies I’ve seen, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger revolves around the lovely relationships between lovely people. Besides Banderas, Watts and Brolin, the film stars Anthony Hopkins, Gemma Jones, Freida Pinto and Lucy Punch - most of whom are guilty of lustful infidelity.

Disc includes: N/A





For people who aren’t going to take it anymore: Network [Blu-ray]

Some time ago - within the past year I’d say - a friend of mine and I got together over a weekend and knocked out a couple of movies that had, shall we say, been on our to-do lists. You know, the types of movies that elicit strange stares from the persons standing opposite you when you’ve got the balls to admit that, alas, you still haven’t seen X. “Whhat? You haven’t seen My Cousin Vinny?! What the frick is the matter with you?!”

Yes, My Cousin Vinny was one of the movies we checked off that weekend. And yes, I still re-run in my head the many ways Vinny gets prematurely roused awake in the pre-dawn light.

But enough about Vinny. I’ll save that discussion for when it goes Blu-ray or something. The point is we also watched Network, and man, what an insightful movie. I had my reservations on some of it, but its commentary on the business of television - the role of broadcast news, the balance between quality, ethical product and generic programs that claim huge audience shares, and so on - becomes absorbing material for a feature-length movie.

Disc includes: Audio commentary

February 15, 2011

Blu-ray
All The President's Men
Big Daddy
Chaplin
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
Dr. Who: A Christmas Carol
Dungeons & Dragons / Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath Of
Game of Death
Glorious 39
Hoodwinked
Kansas City Confidential
Kites
Last Tango In Paris (Uncut)
Moonstruck
Mr. Deeds
Needless Collection 1
Network
Rain Man
Stag Night
The Stranger
Summer Wars: The Movie
Top Gear: The Complete Season 14
Top Gear: The Complete Season 15
Twilight Zone: Season 3 (The Definitive Edition)
Unstoppable
Waiting for 'Superman'
Web of Death
White Lion
WWE: The John Cena Experience
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

DVD
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (New Packaging)
Dr. Who: A Christmas Carol
Drive-By Truckers: The Secret to a Happy Ending
Dungeons & Dragons / Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath Of (Double Feature)
The Fugitive: The Fourth and Final Season, Vol. 1
The Fugitive: The Fourth and Final Season, Vol. 2
Game of Death
Glorious 39
Kites
Murphy's Law: Series 3
National Lampoon's Dirty Movie (Widescreen)
Network
New Year's Eve Concert 2010
Spin City: The Complete Fourth Season
Stag Night
Unstoppable
Waiting for 'Superman'
Web of Death
White Lion
William S. Burroughs: A Man Within
Working Girls
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger