Year: 2001
Running Time: 104 minutes
Rated: R
SRP: $39.99 Single $89.99 Kevin Smith 3-Pack
Studio(s): Miramax
Release Date: November 17, 2009 (Kevin Smith 3-Pack) Original Released on Blu-Ray 2006

Film/Feature: C+
After making four unique films that stood on their own, Kevin Smith decided he had enough pull at Miramax to make the biggest inside film in American film history. To get the most out of Jay & Silent Bob Strikes Back, one had to see Clerks, Marllrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma previously, as it was originally thought to be the closing chapter on the View Askewniverse (only to be thwarted by Clerks II). Strikes Back feels like a denouement, a hybrid of a Looney Tunes cartoon, a Wayans Brothers parody film, and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. It was as if Smith wanted to prove he could make another comedy in the vein of Mallrats, (which was picture-perfect) but let’s be honest, as rare as it was to have a film hit gold like Clerks, it was just as rare to have a film like Mallrats (eventually) find its audience as well.

Year: 1994
Running Time: 92-minute Theatrical; 104-minute First Cut
Rated: R
SRP: $39.99 Single $89.99 Kevin Smith 3-Pack
Studio(s): Miramax
Release Date: November 17, 2009

Film/Feature: A

Its cultural influence includes one of the earliest modern explorations of bromantic relationships, honest and vulgar, sexual conversations that were spoken everywhere except on camera, and observations from a geek’s view-master of popular culture. Kevin Smith paved the way for Judd Apatow, Todd Phillips, and continues to influence others, be ripped off, or paid homage to in film festivals around the world. Clerks marked the return of the vulgar comedy that disappeared in the late 80′s. He did for as much for the comedy film as much as Quentin Tarantino did for the genre film. Clerks didn’t hold back. Clerks was a fearless skydive into the bottomless pitt of the unknown; not just in the effort by its green filmmakers, but in the type of story it told, that would reach audiences to that point, had not been established. His voice was one that was distinct, loud and clear.

Year: 2009
Running Time: 96 Minutes
Rated: PG
SRP: $45.99
Studio(s): Disney Pixar
Release Date: November 10, 2009

Feature/Film: A
Instead of sequels like Toy Story 3 and Cars 2, I’ve preferred the more recent Pixar projects like Ratatouille and Wall-E for their “big picture” concepts and experimental narrative devices. Their latest release, Up has all of those things, and something no other Pixar film has, an lasting emotional effect that will bore into your heart. Co-drected by Pete Docter and Bob Peterson, the Monsters Inc. tandem returns to showcase the full life of Carl Fredricksen voiced by Ed Asner, a lonely and retired balloon salesman who jumps into adventure to honor a promise he made to his late wife.

Up’s opening is like a complete film all by himself, Carl’s life unfolds before us as a young boy who meets a girl named Ellie, brought together by their love of explorers and adventurers, one in particular, Charles Muntz (Chistorpher Plummer) who seeks out new worlds in his zeppelin. Muntz is accused of being a phony and gets in his dirigible and goes to South America to bring back proof of his findings. Next is a montage assembly of important scenes of their Carl and Elli’s life together is done without dialogue, just big band music behind a sweet love story playing out from their friendship into boyfriend and girlfriend, then husband and wife who renovate the old abandoned house they used to play in as children. Then his entire world was taken away from him.

Year: 1999
Running Time: 139 Minutes
Rated: R
SRP: $34.99
Studio(s): 20th Century Fox
Release Date: November 17, 2009

Film/Feature: A+
Fight Club was heralded by modern and contemporary critics and masculine film buffs alike, as a modern American classic, ten years ago for its relevance and its harsh comment on this country’s way of life. With the 10th Anniversary blu-ray release, it was a proper time to revisit Fight Club to see whether or not that kind of immediate reaction aged well over time.

Year: 2008
Running Time: 91 minutes
Rated: PG
SRP: $34.98
Studio(s): Magnolia Home Entertainment
Release Date: November 3, 2008

Film/Feature: A+
The arrival of the golden arches signaled a change that farmers had to produce food fast and cheap. Once the demand was in place, so too did the system arrive that would supply it. With the help of government subsidization, unhealthy food is now more affordable than a pound of fresh produce. When you’re counting pennies, ingredients that would be used for a homemade meal isn’t as convenient as fast food. What’s the cost of that convenience? Your health? Your career? Your life?

Food Inc. takes a look at farming conditions, the companies who control the farmers, the dependency of corn and its contribution to E. Coli pandemics, the struggle to get said companies to label their food, mistreatment of laborers who work at the slaughterhouses, and the controlling of the seeds which basically puts the farmer under a dictatorship. That’s a lot, but Food Inc. is clear in presenting informative facts and testimonials that should provoke the viewer to consider what it is they’re putting on their plates and take the time to be a better informed consumer.

Year: 2009
Running Time: 106 Minutes
Rated: R
SRP: $39.95
Studio(s): Sony Pictures
Release Date: November 3, 2009

Film/Feature: B
Taking of Pelham 123 is a remake of the 1974 film, Taking of Pelham One Two Three. In the original film, Walter Matthau plays a New York City Transit cop who tries to stop four men from hijacking a subway train. The leader of the hijackers is played by Robert Shaw, and the film was a damn good one. I’d be the first one to criticize Hollywood in rehashing a perfectly good film–if it was bad.

Year: 2009
Running Time: 99 Minutes
Rated: PG-13 Theatrical/Unrated Director’s Cut
SRP: $39.98
Studio(s): Universal Studios

Film/Feature: B+
Remember when filmmaker Sam Raimi didn’t have Spider-Man attached to his name? It was a long time ago, and for those who don’t know or remember or don’t know your film history, Raimi was the mastermind behind the Evil Dead Trilogy (Evil Dead I & II, Army of Darkness) and in this world where geeks have taken over the entertainment world, Raimi is as American as baseball and apple pie. Surely stuck in big studio and corporate character suffocation, Raimi cleanses his palette with something new. After ten years with Peter Parker, we get a sample of our old Sam back, sans Bruce Campbell, in Drag Me to Hell, a simple and casual trip back down memory lane for his most ardent of fans.

Year: 2009
Running Time: 77 minutes
Rated: R
SRP: $34.99
Studio(s): Magnolia Home Entertainment
Release Date: September 29, 2009

Film/Feature: A+

“If they wanted to be yourself, they wouldn’t be paying you.”

Adult film actress, Sasha Grey makes her debut in a straight film in The Girlfriend Experience, directed by Steven Soderbergh who has gone back to his independent roots, makes a film that puts the magnifying glass on his star, reminiscent of Sex, Lies, and Videotape. Soderbergh shot it chronologically and then went to the editing room to put his nonlinear spin on it. The result is an immersive little triumph, that’s both haunting and enchanting.

Year: 1994
Running Time: 102 Minutes
Rated: R
SRP: $39.99
Studio(s): Dimension
Release Date: September 2009

Film/Feature: A
The importance of the Legend of Drunken Master is that it was the film that launched Jackie Chan in to world-wide stardom. Yes Chan was in other films before this 1994 blockbuster semi-sequel to Yuen Woo-Ping’s Drunken Master (1978), but it established his stamp on the martial arts genre: a mixture of acrobatic street brawling kung fu, inventive uses of everyday objects as weapons, and a Charlie Chaplin-esque humor.

Chan portrays Chinese folk hero, Wong Fei Hung who finds himself in the middle of the British consul smuggling the ancient artifacts of his fellow Chinese. He stands up to the thieves and shows of his style of kung fu–inspired by whatever tasty beverage is at arm’s length–called Drunken Boxing. It’s a stock story that follows the recipe for martial arts films at the time, but the last half hour of the film defined Chan’s contribution to the genre. It’s full of creative Yuen Woo-Ping fight choreography, over-the-top stunts that you’re certain Jackie had spent days in the hospital recovering from, and had that “top this” attitude attached to it.

Year: 2002
Running Time: 99 minutes
Rated: PG-13
SRP: $39.99
Studio(s): Miramax
Release Date: September 2009

Film/Feature: A

For the first time on blu-ray comes Zhang Yimou’s first foray into the martial arts genre, having made a name for himself with beautiful and tragic dramas starring Gong Li (Red Sorghum, Raise the Red Lantern, Ju Dou). Hero is about a Nameless warrior (Jet Li) who plots with two other warriors, Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) and Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) to dethrone the King of Qin (Chen Daoming) who desires to be the first emperor of China. Two other characters help move the story along, Sky (Donnie Yen) an outlaw and first casualty of Namless, and Moon (Zhang Ziyi) who serves as Broken Sword’s apprentice. The story is told through flashbacks placed in the middle of a conversation between Nameless and the King. The assassins want China to remain separate entities, the King hopes to connect the divisions under one nation. The debate over whether or not the film supports the autocracy of China’s first emperor still rages on, and the film will split viewers one way or the other. I’m aware of that but to me this was a story more driven by love, hope and sacrifice through martial arts than it is to depict a documentarian look at history.

Hero is not the straight-forward chop-saki flick that many are accustomed to, and that too is why I like it. It a story of perspective and perception based on which character is telling the story. Yimou’s use of color is unparalleled and creates fantastical atmosphere never attached to the genre, and in Hero he gives some of the most memorable scenes ever to grace a martial arts film.