Christmas is over, you've got those rubbish gadgets and books that you’ll never read and all you can think about is that ?20 voucher that your Gran threw at you.
Here are a few home video releases that you may have missed during the holidays:
Family Guy: Something Something Something Dark Side (Blu-ray): Following the success of Blue Harvest ? their previous escapade in Star Wars lampooning ? Dark Side aims its satirical sights on The Empire Strikes Back. Some jokes hit, some jokes miss so hard it hurts. You may wonder how a cartoon fares in high definition; the show looks great, bringing out the colours and settings in as much detail as you can get from a drawing without actually poking a pencil into your eye.
Still, it's the humour you want and plenty of that you\’ll get. All the characters appear in some guise and, as you would expect, the humour takes on all manner of incarnations that bear no relevance to the plot. Still, this is one of the finest Star Wars parodies out there and trumps all over the previous effort like a Wookie farting on a 3ft Ewok.
Extras are a mixed bunch: We get a short table read of the third installment in their Star Wars trilogy, struggling to prove there is still mileage in fart jokes (We proved how easy it was above). Elsewhere a table read for Darkside and some scene-to-scene animatic comparisons. The highlight of the package being the Family Guy fact-ups; useful pop-up facts during the movie that you never needed to know.
‘Spray Rating: 4/5
The Hurt Locker (DVD):
Blowing away the winter blues is arguable the most enjoyable war drama of the last few years. The Hurt Locker follows bomb disposal expert Sgt. James in Iraq, going about his tour of duty.
What follows is a tour de force of nerve-shredding action, mixed with male bravado and adrenaline. Nothing is clear cut, nothing is a clich? and the action scenes revolve around characters, not explosions (although there are plenty of the latter).
Jeremy Renner gives an edgy performance that captivates throughout. He is supported by Anthony Mackie who matches his intensity and the two play off each other as men who are both affected very differently by war. Ralph Fiennes and Guy Pearce pop up in small roles as well offering a bit of star wattage to a film that doesn't need it.
The extras a bit disappointing on this disc, only featuring some interviews, but this is one of the finest films of the year and one you do not want to miss.
‘Spray Rating: 5/5
District 9 (Blu-ray):
Probably the best alien based mockumentary we've ever seen, but look past the effects and the gloriously gory action sequences and this is a film about a performance. Sharlto Copley as Wikus van de Merwe is an electric debut and one made all the better given that his dialogue is completely improvised.
District 9, if you haven't heard, is about stranded aliens in Johannesburg, South Africa, who are segregated into a small community called District 9. We follow Wikus as he goes about his daily duty but things ago awry when he comes across some alien technology.
What we get is one of the most startlingly original debuts from an actor and director and proves to be one of the most ferociously original (containing the odd homage here and there) sci-fi films of the decade.
Extras are a so-so? bunch with some behind the scenes bits, a commentary and a completely pointless Blu-ray exclusive map feature, enabling you to track the action. Still, it shits on ALF.
‘Spray rating: 4/5
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