Yet again, it is Wednesday, which means that home entertainment distributors nationwide have made their bid for your disposable income, with products varying in degrees of quality. You could just make a guess of it or you could approach the subject with an opinion under your belt by checking out the Exclaim! Recently Reviewed section for our take on the latest DVD releases.
To start things off on a high note, Sugar and Half Nelson directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck are back with It's Kind of a Funny Story (pictured), which stars United States of Tara's Keir Gilchrist as a patronizing teenager who has himself committed after extensive thoughts of suicide. Also high on its morality is Republican heteronormative fantasy Life As We Know It. This latest rom-com from perpetual ice queen Katherine Heigl finds her and Josh Duhamel thrust into the American dream when their best friends die in a car accident, leaving them their baby and house.
For something a little less traditionally preachy, maybe the understated Australian thriller Cactus is worth a glance. This one follows two men throughout the expansive outback after down-on-his-luck John (Travis McMahon) kidnaps Eli (David Lyons) for cash and drives him to a far-off destination where his fate likely doesn't involve puppy dogs and kisses. We also have a review of Wes Craven's latest horror entry, My Soul to Take, wherein interchangeable teenagers are picked off sequentially by a faceless killer tied to some overly protracted small-town legend.
On the comedy front, the first season of Funny or Die Presents hits DVD shelves, going the SCTV faux-television network route in format while doling out an abundance of "hit or miss" sketches. We also have a review of Zonad, which is about an obese alcoholic in a red lycra outfit that small town Irish idiots mistake for an alien.
Lastly, Freakonomics covers the documentary side of things, making an anthology film from the seemingly unfilmable bestseller from Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, while Chain Letter fills that crappy straight-to-DVD horror void and takes itself way too seriously in the process.
For more of these DVD releases and more, be sure to check out the Exclaim! Recently Reviewed section.
To start things off on a high note, Sugar and Half Nelson directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck are back with It's Kind of a Funny Story (pictured), which stars United States of Tara's Keir Gilchrist as a patronizing teenager who has himself committed after extensive thoughts of suicide. Also high on its morality is Republican heteronormative fantasy Life As We Know It. This latest rom-com from perpetual ice queen Katherine Heigl finds her and Josh Duhamel thrust into the American dream when their best friends die in a car accident, leaving them their baby and house.
For something a little less traditionally preachy, maybe the understated Australian thriller Cactus is worth a glance. This one follows two men throughout the expansive outback after down-on-his-luck John (Travis McMahon) kidnaps Eli (David Lyons) for cash and drives him to a far-off destination where his fate likely doesn't involve puppy dogs and kisses. We also have a review of Wes Craven's latest horror entry, My Soul to Take, wherein interchangeable teenagers are picked off sequentially by a faceless killer tied to some overly protracted small-town legend.
On the comedy front, the first season of Funny or Die Presents hits DVD shelves, going the SCTV faux-television network route in format while doling out an abundance of "hit or miss" sketches. We also have a review of Zonad, which is about an obese alcoholic in a red lycra outfit that small town Irish idiots mistake for an alien.
Lastly, Freakonomics covers the documentary side of things, making an anthology film from the seemingly unfilmable bestseller from Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, while Chain Letter fills that crappy straight-to-DVD horror void and takes itself way too seriously in the process.
For more of these DVD releases and more, be sure to check out the Exclaim! Recently Reviewed section.
