SPEND YOUR MONEY!

NEW RELEASES

*Blu-Ray prices are in BOLD
BLUE
  
The Losers                            $19.99       (DVD & Blu-Ray)
Cop Out                                $19.99       (DVD
& Blu-Ray)
The Runaways                        $19.99    
Jersey Shore: Season 1          
$14.99

TV on DVD sale

$24.99

Mad Men: Season 1
Mad Men: Season 2
Two and a Half Men: Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Entourage: Season 6

$34.99

Mad Men: Season 3

$39.99

True Blood: Season 1
True Blood: Season 2

$9.99 BLU-RAY sale

Kung-Fu Hustle
Speed
Speed Racer
Super Troopers
Major League
The Terminator
Bram Stoker’s Dracula

———————————————–

NEW RELEASES

*Blu-Ray prices are in BOLD
BLUE

The Losers                        $19.99   $25.99   
Cop Out                            $17.99  $26.99 
The Runaways                   $17.99   $22.99   
Hot Tub Time Machine      $14.99    
Jersey Shore: Season 1      $12.99
The Book of Eli                  $29.99 

BLU-RAY
sale

$9.99

The Express
Dark City
The Perfect Storm
Paris Je’Taime
A Clockwork Orange
2001: A Space Odyssey
Sukiyaki Western Django

2 for $20

Duplicity
The Last House on the Left (2009)
Wanted
Taking Woodstock
Bruno
The Unborn
A Perfect Getaway

TV on DVD Sale

Family Guy: Volume 7                                 $19.99  
American Dad: Volume 4                            $19.99 
The Simpsons: Season 20                            $29.99 
Hung: Season 1                                           $22.99   $26.99   
Entourage: Season 6                                    $22.99  $26.99 
True Blood: Season 2                                  $41.99   $50.99   
Band of Brothers                                         $47.99   $62.99   

Video Game
Sales Update

Target

*Nothing major

Best Buy

Save $30 when you purchase this PS3, ONE Controller, and ONE of these
select games

• LittleBigPlanet GOTY
• Uncharted Drake’s Fortune
• God of War Collection

Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands $29.99
Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands $19.99
Grand Theft Auto Episodes from Liberty City $29.99
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 $49.99
Transformers War on Cybertron $49.99
Green Day Rockband $39.99
Skate 3 $39.99
Battlefield Bad Company 2 $39.99
Final Fantasy XIII $39.99
Buy ANY two PSP games at $9.99 each and get a 3rd PSP game of equal or
lesser value FREE

• Twisted Metal Head-On $9.99
• SOCOM Fire Team Bravo $9.99
• Hot Shots Golf Open Tee $9.99

TOYS R US

DJ Hero (PS3, X360, Wii) – $39.99
Get a $20 gift card when you buy Wii Fit Plus w/ balance board.
Save $30 when you buy the following DS Bundle:
Buy any DS (Lite, DSi, DSi XL) + Hori Multi Pouch + 1 game from the
following:
Club Penguin: Herbert’s Revenge
Transformers War for Cybertron: Autobots
Transformers War for Cybertron: Decepticons
Lego Harry Potter
Backyard Baseball Sandlot Sluggers
Dragon Quest IX
Free Wii Sports Resort Accessory Kit when you buy a Wii.

The offer is buy one game get a $10 gift card, buy two games and get a
$50 gift card:

• Transformers War for Cybertron
• Tiger Woods 11
• Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
• Shrek Forever After
• The Last Airbender
• Blur
• Rock Band Green Day
• Crackdown 2
• Split Second
• NCAA Football 11
• Toy Story 3
• Modnation Racers

K-Mart

*Nothing major

THIS
WEEK’S DVD REVIEWS at CHUD

Did
you miss a review this week? A lot of titles go unnoticed during the
hectic news days around the site.

Click
here to discover some of the latest DVD reviews.

THE REST OF
THE DVDs THIS WEEK

Air: The
Motion Picture (S.A.V.E. Edition)
Altitude
Falling
The
Bannen Way
Barking
Dogs Never Bite
Being
Human: Season One
Black
Narcissus (The Criterion Collection)
Bleach,
Vol. 30: The Arrancar
The Bong
Joon-Ho Collection
The
Collective
Cop Out
Courage
The Cowardly Dog: Season One
Crush
(2010)
Degrassi:
The Next Generation – Season Nine
Desperate
Romantics (BBC)
Entre
Nos
Forbidden
World (Roger Corman’s Cult Classics)
La
Fragilidad De Los Segundos AKA The Fragility Of Seconds
Galaxy
Of Terror (Roger Corman’s Cult Classics)
I Do And
I Don’t
Jersey
Shore: Season One
Just
Another Day
Kevin
Hart: Seriously Funny
Legends
Of The Dark King: A Fist Of The North Star Story – New English Language
Complete Collection
Look
Around You: Season One
The
Losers
Matlock:
The Fifth Season
The Most
Dangerous Man In America: Daniel Ellsberg And The Pentagon Papers
Mother
My Boys:
The Complete Second And Third Seasons
My Bride
Is A Mermaid, Pt. 1
Ninja’s
Creed
Nollywood
Babylon
The
Outside
The
Professional (1981)
The Red
Shoes (The Criterion Collection)
The
Runaways
Shuffle!
The Complete Collection
Super
Friends! Season One, Vol. 2
Sutures
Tenderloin
A Town
Called Panic
2001
Maniacs: Field Of Screams (Theatrical Cut)
2001
Maniacs: Field Of Screams (Unrated Cut)
UFC
Presents: Aldo Vs. Faber
Ultimate
Heist
Vampire
Knight, Vol. 1
Where
You From
White
House Revealed (Smithsonian Networks)
World’s
Toughest Fixes: Season Two
The
Wronged Man
WWE:
Fatal 4 Way 2010
Yoga
Evolution

BLU-RAY: IT’S
GETTING CHEAPER

Being
Human: Season One
Best Of
Europe: The Great Cities Of Europe (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack)
Best Of
Europe: Music Lover’s Europe (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack)
Best Of
Travel: San Francisco/Seattle/Vancouver (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack)
Black
Narcissus (The Criterion Collection)
Cats And
Dogs
Cop Out
(Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack)
Evil
Aliens
Forbidden
World (Roger Corman’s Cult Classics)
Galaxy
Of Terror (Roger Corman’s Cult Classics)
Just
Another Day
Last
Chance To See
Legends
Of The Dark King: A Fist Of The North Star Story – New English Language
Complete Collection
The
Losers (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack)
The Most
Dangerous Man In America: Daniel Ellsberg And The Pentagon Papers
Mother
The Red
Shoes (The Criterion Collection)
Rin:
Daughters Of Mnemosyne – The Complete Series
The
Runaways
Tin Man
UFC
Presents: Aldo Vs. Faber
Uncle
Nino (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack)
WWE:
Royal Rumble 2010

VIDEO GAMES

section by: Justin
Clark and SCOTT!

NO NEW RETAIL TITLES THIS WEEK

Go outside. You’re too goddamn pale.

OOOHHHHH: ON THE DLC TIP

LIMBO
Playdead
XBox Live Arcade
7/21
1,200 MS points

There’s going to be a portion of gamers that will pass this off as Braid with a lack of color palette. There are others still that will call this goth, emo, art school, whatever.

Fuck those people. Everything about Limbo screams of simplicity and ambition, a dark little labor of love that’s managed to make anyone who’s played more than 5 minutes of it ravenous for more. It’s the crown jewel of Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade, which is a huge show of faith for a title that’s definitely going to become another one of those titles that gets brought up the next time Roger Ebert gets a bug up his ass about games being art, but may not translate to blockbusting sales. Games like this deserve all the attention in the world, but whether its earned it for more than 5 minutes remains to be seen.

ROCK BAND TUESDAY

The Stooges Pack 01 ($5.49/440 MS points)

• 1969 +
• I Wanna Be Your Dog +
• No Fun +

Bad Religion – New Dark Ages
Bad Religion – No Control +

+ – Available for Lego Rock Band

$1.99/160 MS pts each

HEY LOOK GUYS, IT’S PUNK MUSIC. REMEMBER WHAT THAT SOUNDED LIKE?

I could raise a bit of a funk over Bad Religion’s Infected being one of the few Guitar Hero 1 tracks still trapped on that PS2 disc, but that’s muted over how elated I am that The Stooges are getting the love they should’ve gotten through DLC a long time ago.

Also, hey, remember when Iggy Pop didn’t look like a reanimated pork rind? Good times, good times.

MUSIC

Section By Jeb D.

100 MILES FROM MEMPHIS

Sheryl Crow

BUY IT FROM AMAZON!

Here’s another reminder that you sometimes have to separate the artist from the art: for a hot millionaire rock star, Crow’s actually known her share of tough times, from initial rejection of her music to being a cancer survivor. Combine that with her time spent singing with Michael Jackson and The Rolling Stones, and you’d expect the woman to be a natural with the grit and emotional intensity needed to put across a batch of soul music, some originals and some covers; unfortunately, this is a well-intentioned album of near-misses. Crow may have grown up loving the music of Otis and Aretha, but that’s not the same thing as understanding how it works: substituting her laid-back seduction for the urgency that drives the best R & B has the effect of Muzak-ing the sound, and while Crow may have grown up near Memphis, her band sounds like they’d need a road map to get near the place. Songs like “Summer Day” and “Peaceful Feeling” drift away without leaving an impression, and “Say What You Want” is an awfully confused-sounding statement on patriotism from an activist as prominent as Crow. Keef shows up, but you wouldn’t know it if it wasn’t in the press release, and she goes out on a cover of “I Want You Back” that is so lifeless it makes it hard to believe that she ever listened to Jackson, let alone sang with him. 

FUNSTYLE

Liz Phair

BUY IT FROM HER WEBSITE

The question is not whether this is an act of commercial suicide: that’s already established; Phair’s determination to release this music has already cost her her label and management. Of course, when you call out one of your label execs in one of the songs… well, what can you expect? I’ve seen the album characterized as a giant middle finger in the direction of several groups: music biz execs, which I can certainly see, though the infantile jokes on songs like “Smoke” and “U Hate It” aren’t going to outrage anyone: they’d have to be funny for that to happen. She’s also supposed to be flipping off M.I.A. for being “pretentious” (“Oh Bangladesh”), and music critics (“You Should Know Me”), and I guess those are at least open to personal interpretation. But why are some critics gleeful to claim that she’s extending a middle digit to her fans, as well? I mean, she probably is: most of the funk here is half-assed, her rapping is flat and without much style, and even songs like “Satisfied” and “Bang Bang” rely on the kind of rock and roll cliches she once tried to subvert. But why’s she pissed off at her fans? Let’s face it, any Phair fan who bought a copy of Somebody’s Miracle has already gotten a good slap in the face: why she needs to toss them the bird, too, is beyond me. Actually, what Phair is reminds me of more than anyone else is Frank Zappa at his most curmudgeonly. There’s a big difference, though: Zappa may have been an old crank who hated his audience, but he was a formidable musician to balance that out. Phair’s principal gifts have never been as lofty: more than anything, she used her confessional introspection to invite us to identify with her, not push us away. But not even honest sentiment can redeem a lyric like “I think I’m a ge-ni-us /  I think you’re a pe-ni-us… colada”. For all that, though, I’d suggest you give it a try: the album’s only six bucks, and pretty much all of that goes straight to the artist when you order it from her website: no middlemen, no label taking their skim. Even bad art can have a positive effect on the business side of things.

IT’S A GOOD DAY

Asleep At The Wheel With Leon Rausch

BUY IT FROM AMAZON!

If you’re Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel, the question is: how do you follow up one of the best albums of your 40-year career: 2009’s collaboration with Willie Nelson, Willie
and the Wheel? You go back to the source, and dig up legendary Bob Wills frontman Leon Rausch, who anchored the final version of Wills’ Texas Playboys for a couple of decades. Now 83, Rausch has lost a step or two, but he was never in Willie’s class in the first place in terms of nuance or phrasing. What he brings to the party is the easy knowledge of the material, inside and out, a sense of having been there at the creation. Things like “Route 66” and the title song are the obvious meat here, but the sly fun of “Mean Woman With The Green Eyes” and “Sugar Moon” are the kind of treat that only comes when the music’s in your bones. And when he actually duets with Willie on “Truck Driver’s Blues”, it’s the sound of a couple of kids having one helluva time with the music. Highly recommended to fans of country, jazz, Western swing… and just plain fun.

ROCKSTEADY 

Bighead Todd and the Monsters

BUY IT FROM AMAZON!

Summer’s the perfect time for light, disposable pop music,
and about half this album would sound great coming out of your radio at the beach. But given its Jamaican connotations, the word “rocksteady” seems an odd way to describe anything about this band, and it evidently confused them enough to attempt a cover of “Smokestack Lightnin’.” Fellas, we’ll
happily groove our summer away to “Beautiful” or I Hate It When You’re Gone”, but from now on, let’s leave Howlin’ Wolf to the professionals.

Other Noteworthy 7/20 Music Releases

Rick Ross, Teflon Don. You know, John Gotti was a damned unpleasant human being, but he made a lot of dough, which I guess is as good a reason as any for Ross to cop his nickname.  Jay-Z, Kanye West, Chrisette Michele, and Raphael Saadiq join in the fun.

Paul Hardcastle, Jazzmasters VI. I had no idea that Hardcastle was “BILLBOARD Magazine’s 2008 Smooth Jazz Artist of the Year.” Entirely believable; I’m only surprised it wasn’t spelled “Smoove.”

Brian Setzer Orchestra, Don’t Mess With A Big Band: Live. Enough, already– what is this, live album number fourteen?

Lillian Axe, Deep Red Shadows. Says here that “Deep Red Shadows contains five brand new Steve Blaze written songs along with four acoustic versions of fan favorites from the vast Lillian Axe catalog of songs…”  Or maybe they mean “half-vast”?

David Garrett, Rock Symphonies. More entertaining than Sting’s recent marriage of rock and symphonic music, but only because it’s funnier. Helps that he doesn’t sing. Honestly, wasn’t “Master of Puppets” always meant to sound like this?

Impending Doom, There Will Be Violence. I’m fairly certain these guys are not In This Moment or Vanden Plas. The question is: would it make any difference if they were?

Emerson Lake & Palmer: A Time and A Place. Four (count ’em, four!) disks of previously unreleased live bombast from the prog-rock kingpins. Haven’t we all just been waiting for another version of “The Enemy God Dances With The Black Spirits”?

Honor Bright, Action! Drama! Suspense!. I suppose if Vegas can produce its own brand of heartland rockers in The Killers, there’s no reason that Syracuse, New York, can’t do the same. Plus, these guys are funnier: “Welcome To New York, Now Get A Job.”

THE WEEK OF JULY 20th 2010

GROUP EDITED by: TROY ANDERSON

DVD/BR
SECTION by: Troy Anderson

THE LOSERS
Director: Sylvain White
Warner Brothers

CLICK HERE TO BUY IT AT AMAZON!

Special Features

 

The Losers was a decent flick that had an average theatrical bow. I feel that most of its potential audience will be discovered on Home Video, as most people saw it just to see a flick in the Spring season. The original comic work from Andy Diggle and Jock is handled pretty well by Sylvain White and company. Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Chris Evans steal the show, as both actors are showing increasing promise as action leads. However, the same can’t be said for Jason Patric. I can’t think of a mainstream Hollywood villain that has been as full of fail as Patric was in this flick. If you pick up the flick this week, Target is advertising the Blu-Ray combo pack as a 19.99 featured buy. Seeing as how Warner Brothers is starting to package a DVD copy in with their Blu-Ray offerings, it’s a value. I’d recommend giving it a shot. If you’re more into the E-tailer thing, Amazon is sporting a similar deal.

BLACK NARCISSUS: CRITERION COLLECTION
Director: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

CLICK HERE TO BUY IT AT AMAZON!

Special Features

Black Narcissus is
about Catholic nuns and their intolerance to local religion. It’s also about Jack Cardiff nailing shots that belong in the realm of Old World Art, rather than Post-War cinema. Hell, it’s also about Deborah Kerr working against all sense of what is to be expected and offering up something beautiful. Shot entirely in a British studio, the Archers take the viewer to another world. A world where the weary British are starting to lose their grasp on the Empire, while the natives rise up. But, they’re not aggressively rising up. The local prince a.k.a. Black Narcissus stands up against these authority figures and reminds them of their failings. Christ was a man, not a perfect figure. The prince wants these nuns to forget about their ties to the Western world and open their minds to the truths found in the forgotten corners of an Old Palace.

THE RUNAWAYS
d.
Floria Sigismondi

CLICK HERE TO BUY IT AT AMAZON!

SPECIAL FEATURES

The Runaways is this weird sort of white-washing that people have come to expect from rock bio-pics. Still, no one could’ve prepared me for how well Michael Shannon nailed his performance as Kim Fowley. Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Maeby Funke and the others did well as the titular band. But, it’s not like I’m going to head out and buy CDs from the girls. It’s really kind of hard to put a finger on the movie. It was full of these semi-cool moments that never really went anywhere. Elvis’s granddaughter also shows up as Dakota Fanning’s twin sister. I found to be quite distracting, as any descendant of Elvis is never going to resemble Dakota Fanning. It would be like putting a Lincoln impersonator in blackface and calling them 19th Century Obama. It doesn’t work.

THE RED SHOES: CRITERION COLLECTION
d. Michael Powell and Emeric
Pressburger

CLICK HERE TO BUY IT AT AMAZON!

Special
Features

• New high-definition master from the award-winning 2009 digital
  restoration (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  edition)
• Introductory restoration demonstration with filmmaker Martin
  Scorsese
• Audio commentary by film historian Ian Christie, featuring
  interviews with stars Marius Goring and Moira Shearer, cinematographer
  Jack Cardiff, composer Brian Easdale, and Scorsese
• Profile of “The Red Shoes,” a documentary on the making of
  the film, featuring interviews with members of the production team
• Video interview with director Michael Powell’s widow, Thelma
  Schoonmaker Powell, from the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, in which she
  discusses Powell, the film, and the restoration
• Audio recording of actor Jeremy Irons reading excerpts from Powell
  and Pressburger’s novelization of The Red Shoes
• Collection of rare publicity stills and behind-the-scenes photos
• Gallery of items from Scorsese’s personal collection of The Red
  Shoes memorabilia
• The “Red Shoes” Sketches, an animated film of Hein
  Heckroth’s painted storyboards, with the Red Shoes ballet as an
  alternate angle
• Audio recording of Irons reading the original Hans Christian
  Andersen fairy tale “The Red Shoes”
• Theatrical trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by
  critic David Ehrenstein and a description of the restoration by UCLA film archivist Robert Gitt

The Red Shoes was one of the first Criterion DVDs that I ever bought. Now, they have decided to revisit the older title with a Blu-Ray edition. Gone is the non-anamorphic transfer and slight edge enhancement from the past disc. I’m a huge fan of the Archers, so I’m quite familiar with the love shown to The Red Shoes. However, I still feel that The Tales of Hoffmann is the better directed movie. A lot of the special features are ported over from the DVD, but there’s still some new material. A lot of it has to do with the Scorsese efforts to remaster the film and his personal connection to Thelma Schoonmaker Powell. If you haven’t seen the film before, I can’t recommend running out to blind buy it. The ballet sequences require a lot from the casual viewer and I feel it might be too taxing on the B-Movie Action crowd.

NETFLIX INSTANT
VIEW (POURING THE DIRT INTO BLOCKBUSTER’S
GRAVE)

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