It's you again! Welcome back to New DVD Releases! Take a look at these great entertainment options: the second season of HBO's guiltiest pleasure is now available in a complete set; Viggo Mortensen walks down
The Road; another weepy Nicholas Sparks novel gets the film treatment; the dudes from Derrick Comedy hit the silver screen; and Josh Lucas stars in a heart-pounding version of Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart." Good stuff! I'll see you next Tuesday, right? Great! Okay, how about those New DVD Releases!
HBO and
Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball scored a wicked and sexy hit with the supernatural horror series
True Blood, which got gorier and funnier in its sophomore season.
True Blood: The Complete Second Season (Starting at $32.80: Up to 45% in Savings) sees both Bon Temps, Louisiana and young psychic waitress Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) fall even more deeply in the sway of the undead. As her relationship with vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) deepens, a new cast of vampires come into her life, including Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard), who enlists Sookie to help him find his 2,000-year-old maker. Meanwhile, Sookie's brother Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) takes the opposite route, becoming indoctrinated by the so-called Fellowship of the Sun, a religious anti-vampire group. Matters become even more complicated when a powerful being named Maryann Forrester (Michelle Forbes) arrives on the scene with an uncanny ability to make the people of Bon Temps do her depraved bidding, which directly impacts the life of lonely shapeshifter Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell). All in all, the second season offers more guilty pleasures than the first, upping the blood, the sex, and the camp to truly magnificent levels.
Viggo Mortensen gives a sensational performance in the gritty and savagely moving film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Cormac McCarthy.
The Road (Starting at $16.99: Up to 39% in Savings) follows a father (Mortensen) and his young son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) as they aimlessly ramble through a horrifying post-apocalyptic America devastated by an unknown catastrophe. A dying landscape devoid of sunlight and vegetation makes their lives a constant desperate search for food and shelter, while roving bands of cannibalistic human predators mean nightmarish peril lurks in every shadow. Their only defenses are a single pistol--with only bullets enough for themselves--and their indomitable optimism. As they trek towards some ambiguous and possibly nonexistent promised land, the father mournfully reminisces about the boy's mother (Charlize Theron), whose life came to a heartbreaking end years prior. While the father focuses every bit of energy and care upon the protection of his boy, the boy does his best to protect his father's soul from succumbing to the unending horrors around them--from losing his humanity. Director John Hillcoat coaxes magnificent performances from his actors--including a brief but astonishing appearance by Robert Duvall--in a film that fearlessly holds faithful to the powerful and sobering McCarthy novel.
Another tear-jerking young love novel from Nicholas Sparks (
The Notebook) hits the bigscreen in
Dear John (Starting at $16.99: Up to 41% in Savings). Our young lovers this time around are Savannah (Amanda Seyfried), a clean-cut college girl, and John (Channing Tatum), a rough-edged Army Special Forces soldier on leave for two weeks. Though they are very different, opposites immediately attract, and they spend a romantic two weeks together. However, John is troubled by his distant relationship with his father Bill (Richard Jenkins), who seems to care only about his beloved coin collection. When Savannah suggests that--like the younger brother of her neighbor Tim (Henry Thomas)--John's father might be autistic, John becomes angry and lashes out at a louse named Randy, accidentally punching Tim. Chagrined, John apologizes to Savannah before heading back overseas. Savannah forgives him, and they begin a relationship through passionate letters. But just as John is about to end his tour, the September 11th attacks force him to consider re-upping with the Army. Though he loves Savannah, and can't bear to be apart from her, his duty calls him to serve. But will their relationship survive the time and distance?
The mega-popular internet comedy sketch group Derrick Comedy present their first feature-length film,
Mystery Team (Starting at $18.99: Up to 32% in Savings). Donald Glover of NBC's
Community wrote the film and stars as Jason, an earnest high school senior who, along with his pals Duncan (D.C. Pierson) and Charlie (Dominic Dierkes), have never seemed to grow up from their innocent days of tree houses and
Hardy Boy-style mysteries. They even have supposed special abilities, like being masters of disguise or genius-level skills of deduction. Mostly, though, they just annoy Oakdale with their do-gooder meddling. This makes matters all the more bizarre when the trio is approached by a neighborhood girl looking for help to solve the real-life double homicide of her mother and father. Despite being beyond naive and lily-white, the Mystery Team takes the case, immediately descending into a hardcore world of drugs, violence, sex and debauchery that would be tough for anyone to stomach, much less three fellows with the virginity level of a 5-year-old. Only through the strength of their friendship and determination to take on any case--no matter how tough--will the Mystery Team get through this one alive.
Josh Lucas stars in a moody thriller loosely inspired by the famous short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe.
Tell-Tale (Starting at $12.99: Up to 35% in Savings) stars Lucas as Terry Bernard, a young single father whose life has been saved by a miraculous heart transplant. While Terry deals with the trials of caring for his gravely ill young daughter Angela (Beatrice Miller), he begins a relationship with Elizabeth Clemson, the beautiful physician (Lena Headey) doing her best to cure her. Yet during a visit to the hospital, Terry's new heart begins involuntarily thundering in the presence of a worker involved in the transplant. He suddenly finds himself battling with hyper-violent urges, as the heart has carried from its previous owner the desire to seek revenge for an untimely death. Before Terry knows it, her has committed unthinkable acts at the behest of his new organ. In desperation, Terry seeks the help of a boozing detective (Brian Cox), who has evidence of foul play in the death of the heart's donor. Yet instead of standing in the way of Terry's bloody vengeance, the detective seems strangely willing to facilitate it. Michael Cuesta directs the film, which was executive produced by Ridley and Tony Scott.
