New Release Tuesday (5/10/11)!!!

Another so-so New Release Tuesday.  No Must Buy DVD of the Week! and really no Buys at all if you ask me...well...

Buy!

SOMETHING WILD (CRITERION BLU RAY):  I have never seen this film, but it's always been one of those flicks I've had on the backburner of my mental Netflix cue.  And now that Criterion has put it's seal of approval on Jonathan Demme's screwball comedy I guess I have no excuse.   Plus, watch the video below and tell me Reason #2 doesn't get ya excited, oh Ray Liotta.  Let's hope this blind buy works for me.

Rent!

BLACK DEATH:  This had one midnight showing in Washington DC and, of course, I missed it do to work.  I've heard some mixed reviews about the flick, but how can you not be just a little excited to see Sean Bean as a warrior monk task to investigate an English village untouched by Plague.  The film also stars one of my personal, Top Five Cult Actors David Warner.  Sounds like the perfect double feature with this year's other back death film, Season of the Witch!  

THE ILLUSIONIST:  I absolutely loved The Triplets of Belleville and I will absolutely see anything from director Sylvain Chomet.  And now he's tackling a subject matter that has all was been close to my heart, stage magic.  The story of an out-of-work illusionist on the road of late-bloomer self-discovery just does it for me and I'm sure I'll find lumps in my throat and my heart warmed.

I SAW THE DEVIL:  Watch the trailer below.  This is very close to becoming a Blind Buy and if I wasn't trying to save my hard-earned cash for Comic Con, I'd already have watched this flick a couple times over.  Directed by the mondo genius who gave us last year's epic weird western, The Good The Bad The Weird and co-starring Oldboy himself, Min-Sik Choi!  I Saw The Devil appears to have all the mixings for a savage Korean horror.  Plus, maybe a new entry for our Fistful of Hammers???

CROPSEY:  I'm not so sure about this one.  I've heard lots of good things regarding this "horror" documentary involving the urban legend that surrounds a series of disappearances in upstate New York, but the trailer feels a little too exploitative...and not in an awesome 70s Roger Corman kinda way.  But it's currently on Netflix Instant as well as IMDB.  I'll give it a shot and if it's crap I don't have to finish it.

SLEDGEHAMMER:  Here it is, Mondo Video's first release.  But if you, like me, have a busted VHS player in the closet than you'll just have to settle for the DVD.  Yes, the movie looks like all kinds of terrible but I can always suffer through cheap and or crappy slasher films.  I don't know why.  It's a genre that's completely bankrupt at this point and this looks like bottom-barrel stuff...but I'm down.

NO STRINGS ATTACHED:  Yeah, this should probably be on my Avoid! list but I have a soft spot for romantic comedies...even when they star Ashton Kutcher.  Natalie Portman is doing her damnedest to become a Super Sensation and it looks like it's working.  I accept your mocking.

BLUE VALENTINE:  Gotta see what all the fuss is about.

SCOOBY DOO MYSTERY INCORPORATED SEASON 1 VOLUME 2:  Hey, I've been hearing lots of good things about this reboot of our favorite gang of crime solvers.  Color me curious.  And then I saw the below video of Harlan Ellison (voiced by hisownself!) and HP Lovecraft (voiced by Jeffery Combs!)--MUST HAVE!

Avoid!

JUSTIN BIEBER NEVER SAY NEVER:  Look, I don't care how awesome the 3D in Jon Chu's Step Up 3D was!  Please stay the hell away from this "film."  Thank you.

V.I. WARSHAWSKI (BLU):  I grew up loving-And I Mean Loving-Romancing The Stone.  It's a great romantic comedy rift on Indiana Jones.  And I remember my love of that movie caring me over to VI Warshawski.  Could this movie do for the P.I. genre what Stone did with the Indy Grave Robbing genre?  Answer, no.  It's awkward and not fun.

--Brad