Our Picks
Uncategorized Wednesday, February 8th, 2012‘Drive’ DVD Review
Ryan Gosling plays double-crossed stuntman in gripping crime drama
Blu-ray Combo Pack ($30.99)
Ryan Gosling is top-notch in this crime drama as a loner Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver for hire. Carey Mulligan plays his new neighbor, a young mother, who triggers his involvement in a botched job that threatens both their lives. But the real revelation here is comedian Albert Brooks as a very bad, very un-funny gangster who’ll do anything to protect his crooked business interests. The spasms of bloody violence may test the mettle of some viewers, but the gripping story and the powerhouse performances pack a gutsy, visceral punch lacking in most other mainstream Hollywood movies last year. Bonus materials include four behind-the-scenes documentaries.
‘Great American Cereal’ Book Review
Celebrating America’s long love affair with milky morning manna
By Marty Gitlin & Topher Ellis
Hardcover, 368 pages ($19.95)
Just about everyone remembers Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, Wheaties and Rice Krispies. But what about Cheyenne Corn, Breakfast With Barbie and Fruit Brute? Anyone who’s ever spooned into a bowl of milky morning manna will love this cool collection of vintage ads, trivia and history celebrating America’s long love affair with breakfast cereals, the memorable, iconic brand characters that have become part of our pop culture, and the spectrum of lesser-known, shorter-lived grocery-shelf hopefuls that faded into sugary obscurity.
‘Apollo 18’ DVD Review
Sci-fi faux documentary depicts NASA mission gone horribly wrong
Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy ($39.99)
History recalls 1972’s Apollo 17 as America’s last manned mission to the moon. But was it really? Not according to this spooky drama, which asks viewers to believe there was a top-secret follow-up that went horribly, catastrophically wrong. Most viewers will realize their chain is being yanked by yet another “found-footage” faux documentary, which creatively blurs the line between truth and tall tale. But it’s a fanciful, convincing-looking concoction that, like all good sci-fi, asks you to reconsider what might be out—or, in this case, up—there.
‘Midnight In Paris’ DVD Review
Owen Wilson stars in magical tale from director Woody Allen
Blu-ray ($35.99), DVD ($30.99)
Owen Wilson stars in director Woody Allen’s critically acclaimed 2011 romantic- comedy, in which a disillusioned Hollywood writer finds himself living a time-tunnel fantasy in an enchanted city glowing with iconic poets, writers and artists from the past. Can F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway convince him to walk away from his lucrative career and follow a more fulfilling creative dream? Co-starring Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates and Adrien Brody, the DVD/Blu-ray versions are light on bonus features, but the movie itself is 94 minutes of luminous escapist magic.
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