Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - (Page 24) REVIEWS BLU-RAY SPOTLIGHT I POSTAL Street 8/26 Vivendi, Comedy, $26.99 DVD, $34.99 Blu-ray, Available in ‘R’ and unrated versions. Stars Dave Foley, Zack Ward. www.homemediamagazine.com I GENGHIS KHAN: TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH AND SEA Street 9/2 Funimation, Adventure, $24.98 DVD, ‘R’ for some violence. Stars Takashi Sorimachi, Rei Kikukawa, Mayumi Wakamura. In Japanese with English subtitles. T he Postal video game has been banned, due to its violence and stereotypes, in countries around the globe, but not in the United States. However, director Uwe Boll’s very loose adaptation of the game was practically banned in America this summer because of the opening sequence, which focuses on the 9/11 World Trade Center bombing. I actually thought this short sequence, which has absolutely nothing to do with the game, was the funniest part of the film. The movie focuses on Zack Ward (Transformers), who plays the Postal dude, and his adventure through an Arizona trailer park. There’s really no plot to speak of, but the story also features Dave Foley (“NewsRadio”) as a cult leader who dislikes wearing clothes, and Verne Troyer (“Austin Powers”), who plays himself. Boll also plays himself in the film, and seems to have a good time making fun of himself. In the film, Boll’s using the money he makes from bad video game adaptations to create a Little Germany theme park, and in one sequence, the makers of the Postal game try to kill him for making a crappy movie. This marks the first Boll release to get the Blu-ray treatment, and the film looks good in high-definition. But of all of Boll’s films, this is the one that benefits least from high-definition. I’d think In the Name of the King would have been a better choice for Blu-ray. In the extras department, the unrated version gets an extra two minutes of nudity and dark comedy. Both the ‘R’-rated and unrated DVDs come with the same extras as the BD. It’s become a tradition for Boll to package games with the films that are based on them. He’s done this with both BloodRayne movies and now with Postal. All versions of the film come with a free PC version of Postal 2: Share the Pain. The other extras include “Raging Boll,” a featurette made from the online payper-view fight between Boll and a quartet of very young critics. – John Gaudiosi G enghis Khan: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea is a monumental biopic detailing the rise to power of the man responsible for building one of the world’s largest empires. Spanning 45 years, from 1161 to 1206, the film follows the passionate emperor’s battle to tear down borders and unite the nomadic Mongol tribes under one ruler: himself. This $30 million production, which was filmed over four months and featured more than 27,000 extras and 5,000 Mongolian Army soldiers, is loaded with spectacular fighting sequences reminiscent of those in The Last Samurai. But the real focus of the film is what happened off the battlefield, which prepared a man named Temüjin (Sorimachi) to become a great warrior, and one of the world’s most feared and respected leaders. The film portrays Genghis Khan as a hero — determined to bring his countrymen together, never backing down from a fight, and refusing to pillage the tribes he defeated. It was this noble, brave and altruistic ideology that made him so beloved by his followers and despised by his enemies. This sounds like a lot of ground to cover in two hours, but the filmmakers do a phenomenal job creating a beautifully crafted masterpiece that will be praised by history buffs and enjoyed by anyone who loves a legendary epic. In fact, the filmmakers put such great detail into everything from the weapons to the costumes to the breathtaking cinematography, including recruiting an exceptional cast led by Sorimachi as Genghis Khan, that when Temüjin is named Genghis Khan at the end of the film, you wish this was only part one in a saga. The film, which was released as a JapaneseMongolian co-production commemorating the 800-year anniversary of the founding of the Mongol Empire, also has been featured as an official selection at film festivals worldwide and saw a limited theatrical release in the United States earlier this year. – Matt Miller I COPYCAT Prebook 8/27; Street 9/23 Lionsgate, Horror, $26.98 DVD, NR. Stars Chloe Snyder, Mark Hengst, Andreas Beckett. ne of the points that is reiterated throughout director Andy Hurst’s Copycat is that, in the twisted mind of serial killers, once they have committed a murder, they fall into a pattern, a particularly vicious cycle of almost compulsive behavior where the need to kill becomes insatiable, only relieved by more and more killing. Given the public’s ongoing — maybe media-driven — interest in serial killers and films about them, it almost begs the question whether the consistent stream of entries into O this genre reflects or inspires the audience’s seemingly insatiable taste for films of this nature. Hurst and writer Ellis Walker aim high here. Perhaps they had in mind visions of David Fincher’s accomplished, provocative and compelling Zodiac, which also explored the complex intellectual processes of the people involved in the hunt for a killer, those who can become almost victimized themselves, psychologically as opposed to those who are physically affected by the criminal. The film, originally titled Diary of a Serial Killer (referring to the pages of the journal the killer leaves as clues) bears only a passing resemblance to 1995’s Copycat, starring Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter. The story involves a vulnerable investigative journalist (Snyder) drawn into a game of cat and mouse with the serial killer. Relentlessly grim, gory and unpleasant, the film is actually less of a conventional narrative and more of an excuse to produce gratuitously extended re-enactments depicting the exploits of some of the most notorious serial killers in our nation’s history. – David Greenberg 24 Home Media Magazine August 24–30, 2008
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 Contents News High-Def News Electronic Delivery News TV DVD Fourth Quarter/Holiday Reviews Pipeline Research Top 20 DVD Sellers Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts Just Announced Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 (Page Cover1) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 (Page Cover2) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 (Page 1) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 (Page 2) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 (Page 3) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 (Page 4) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 (Page 5) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 (Page 6) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Contents (Page 7) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Contents (Page 8) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Contents (Page 9) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - News (Page 10) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - News (Page 11) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - News (Page 12) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - News (Page 13) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - High-Def News (Page 14) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - High-Def News (Page 15) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Electronic Delivery News (Page 16) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - TV DVD (Page 17) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Fourth Quarter/Holiday (Page 18) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Fourth Quarter/Holiday (Page 19) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Fourth Quarter/Holiday (Page 20) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Fourth Quarter/Holiday (Page 21) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Reviews (Page 22) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Reviews (Page 23) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Reviews (Page 24) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Reviews (Page 25) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Reviews (Page 26) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Reviews (Page 27) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Pipeline (Page 28) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Pipeline (Page 29) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Top 20 DVD Sellers (Page 30) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts (Page 31) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts (Page 32) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts (Page 33) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Just Announced (Page 34) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Just Announced (Page 35) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Just Announced (Page 36) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Just Announced (Page Cover3) Home Media Magazine - August 24, 2008 - Just Announced (Page Cover4)
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