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Casablanca [Blu-ray]

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 02/02/2010 Run time: 116 minutes Rating: G

Independence Day [Blu-ray]

One of the biggest box office hits of all time delivers the ultimate encounter when mysterious and powerful aliens launch an all-out invasion against the human race. The spectacle begins when massive spaceships appear in Earth's skies. But wonder turns to terror as the ships blast destructive beams of fire down on cities all over the planet. Now the world's only hope lies with a determinded band of survivors uniting for one last strike against the invaders - before it's the end of all mankind.System Requirements:Run time: 147 minutesFormat: BLU-RAY DISC Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY/ALIEN INVASION Rating: PG-13 UPC: 024543444237 Manufacturer No: 2244423

In Independence Day, a scientist played by Jeff Goldblum once actually had a fistfight with a man (Bill Pullman) who is now president of the United States. That same president, late in the film, personally flies a jet fighter to deliver a payload of missiles against an attack by extraterrestrials. Independence Day is the kind of movie so giddy with its own outrageousness that one doesn't even blink at such howlers in the plot. Directed by Roland Emmerich, Independence Day is a pastiche of conventions from flying-saucer movies from the 1940s and 1950s, replete with icky monsters and bizarre coincidences that create convenient shortcuts in the story. (Such as the way the girlfriend of one of the film's heroes--played by Will Smith--just happens to run across the president's injured wife, who are then both rescued by Smith's character who somehow runs across them in alien-ravaged Los Angeles County.) The movie is just sheer fun, aided by a cast that knows how to balance the retro requirements of the genre with a more contemporary feel. --Tom Keogh

Jesus of Nazareth

A REVERENT DEPICTION OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST USING THE GOSPEL ACCOUNTS.

Originally made for TV in 1977, this in-depth (six hours plus) version of Jesus' life is so thorough that the first hour is devoted solely to the story of his birth. The film doesn't skimp on some of the other landmark events of this famous story either. Director Franco Zeffirelli gives more than 12 minutes screen time each to the Last Supper and the Crucifixion. Passages of the Bible are quoted verbatim, the locations have a Palestine-like authenticity, and, aside from some of the principals (Robert Powell as Jesus, Olivia Hussey as Mary, and Stacy Keach as Barabbas), many of the non-Roman characters are actually played by Semitic-looking actors. Zeffirelli diligently provides the sociopolitical background that gave rise to Jesus' following and the crisis in belief it caused for the people of Israel (and one or two Romans). While not graphic by today's standards, some of the scenes--baby boys being ripped from their mothers' arms and slaughtered, nails being driven into Jesus' hands--may disturb young and/or sensitive children. --Kimberly Heinrichs

Annie (Special Anniversary Edition)

The story of a plucky red-haired orphan girl who dreams of a life outside her dingy orphanage.
Genre: Feature Film Family
Rating: PG
Release Date: 2-AUG-2005
Media Type: DVD

Charmless and dull, this adaptation of the Broadway hit stars Aileen Quinn as the depression-era moppet, Albert Finney as Daddy Warbucks, Carol Burnett as the cruel headmistress at an orphanage, and Tim Curry as a villain. The film never gets its legs, and there is no sense of setting; it's almost as if the whole thing is happening in a void. John Huston nominally directed--no doubt to make money between his smaller, cheaper masterpieces--but one would have thought he would invest something of himself in here. --Tom Keogh

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (Two-Disc Edition + Digital Copy) [Blu-ray]

The Rise of Cobra is not your grandfather's G.I. Joe. It's more like C.G.I. Joe with explosive special-effects action sequences that provide the film with a surplus of "Boom Boom Pow" (to quote the Black Eyed Peas song that drives the end credits). This blast from the summer past is very much like the metal-munching nano-mite missiles a (literally) mad Doctor (Joseph Gordon-Levitt cashing in some of his indie cred) and McCullen, a Scottish weapons dealer (Christopher Eccleston), threaten to unleash upon the world. It never stops. Ever. The original G.I. Joe action figure was an all-American hero. These Joes are--all together now--"the best of the best," an elite multi-national squad. Two soldiers, Duke (a buff Channing Tatum), an "on the ground, in the fight" kind of guy, and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans), his wisecracking best friend, are rescued by the Joes after they are ambushed while transporting the missiles. These are no ordinary Joes. Snake-Eyes (Ray Park) is a silent ninja, Stella (Rachel Nichols) a bodacious brainiac, Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) the imposing weapons specialist, and Breaker (Said Taghamaoui) the techie. They are led by gruff Gen. Hawk (Dennis Quaid), who barks out lines like, "When all else fails, we don't," with polish. Duke and Ripcord are recruited to join the classified unit after Duke discovers that Ana (Sienna Miller), his former fiancée, is in cahoots with McCullen and now sports the sinister moniker the Baroness, not to mention killer cleavage-enhancing latex outfits. This being the first in a budding franchise, there is much backstory to cover. Flashbacks date back to 1641! But the order of the day is underground military command centers, underwater evil lairs, gleaming high-tech weaponry, breakneck chases, and cool gadgets, such as a speed-accelerating hydraulic suit. It's enough to make you want to dust off your original Hasbro action figures or, the studio no doubt hopes, buy the new ones. --Donald Liebenson

Stills from G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (Click for larger image)

Paramount G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (Blu-ray)From the Egyptian desert to deep below the polar ice caps, the elite G.I. JOE team uses the latest in next-generation spy and military equipment to fight the corrupt arms dealer Destro and the growing threat of the mysterious Cobra organization to prevent them from plunging the world into chaos.

The Day After Tomorrow [Blu-ray]

Supreme silliness doesn't stop The Day After Tomorrow from being lots of fun for connoisseurs of epic-scale disaster flicks. After the blockbuster profits of Independence Day and Godzilla, you can't blame director Roland Emmerich for using global warming as a politically correct excuse for destroying most of the northern hemisphere. Like most of Emmerich's films, this one emphasizes special effects over such lesser priorities as well-drawn characters and plausible plotting, and his dialogue (cowritten by Jeffrey Nachmanoff) is so laughably trite that it could be entirely eliminated without harming the movie. It's the spectacle that's important here, not the lame, recycled plot about father and son (Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal) who endure an end-of-the-world scenario caused by the effects of global warming. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the awesome visions of tornado-ravaged Los Angeles, blizzards in New Delhi, Japan pummeled by grapefruit-sized hailstones, and Manhattan flooded by swelling oceans and then frozen by the onset of a modern ice age. It's all wildly impressive, and Emmerich obviously doesn't care if the science is flimsy, so why should you? --Jeff Shannon

The effects of global warming and the greenhouse effect has caught up with the Earth. The polar ice caps are melting and the world's weather patterns are all out of sync. The next ice age is upon us. A scientist that specializes in historical extreme weather changes must fight his way north to New York where his son is caught in the clutches of mother nature.

Pandorum

Studio: Starz/sphe Release Date: 12/22/2009 Rating: R

Largely dismissed as yet another Alien carbon, the science-fiction/horror hybrid Pandorum exceeds the limits of that critique with an agreeable mix of atmospherics and high-voltage scares. Ben Foster and Dennis Quaid--two consistently watchable actors, and both well used here--are top-billed as a pair of space travelers who awake from lengthy hibernation with no idea who they are or how they got aboard a vast and seemingly empty spacecraft. Their exploration of the ship uncovers not only a handful of fellow humans, among them martial arts champ Cung Le and French scientist/requisite eye candy Antje Traue, but a host of feral mutants with unpleasant designs on them. Director Christian Alvert, who gained international acclaim among genre viewers with his thriller Antibodies, keeps viewers engaged and unsettled with shadow-steeped cinematography and elaborately creepy production design, though his own attention span, which can be charitably described as blink and you'll miss it, obscures the clashes between the human and monster cast. However, Alvert has a few twists up his sleeve for the finale--one inspired, the other, less so--which not only helps to smooth over any of Pandorum's rougher edges, but also indicates that he's a genre director to watch. --Paul Gaita

Stills from Pandorum (Click for larger image)

Pandorum [Blu-ray]

Largely dismissed as yet another Alien carbon, the science-fiction/horror hybrid Pandorum exceeds the limits of that critique with an agreeable mix of atmospherics and high-voltage scares. Ben Foster and Dennis Quaid--two consistently watchable actors, and both well used here--are top-billed as a pair of space travelers who awake from lengthy hibernation with no idea who they are or how they got aboard a vast and seemingly empty spacecraft. Their exploration of the ship uncovers not only a handful of fellow humans, among them martial arts champ Cung Le and French scientist/requisite eye candy Antje Traue, but a host of feral mutants with unpleasant designs on them. Director Christian Alvert, who gained international acclaim among genre viewers with his thriller Antibodies, keeps viewers engaged and unsettled with shadow-steeped cinematography and elaborately creepy production design, though his own attention span, which can be charitably described as blink and you'll miss it, obscures the clashes between the human and monster cast. However, Alvert has a few twists up his sleeve for the finale--one inspired, the other, less so--which not only helps to smooth over any of Pandorum's rougher edges, but also indicates that he's a genre director to watch. --Paul Gaita

Stills from Pandorum (Click for larger image)

PANDORUM (BR)

Practical Magic (Snap Case)

Actor Griffin Dunne improves a bit on his first film as a director, Addicted to Love, with this drama-comedy about a family of witches. Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock play spell-casting sisters of different temperaments: the former is a high-living, free-spirited sort, while Bullock's character is a homebody who can't get around a family curse that kills the men in their lives. A widowed single mom, Bullock gets into a jam with an abusive Bulgarian (Goran Visnjic) and is helped out by her sibling, but the result brings a good-looking, warm, inquisitive cop (Aidan Quinn) into their lives. The film has a variety of tonal changes--cute, scary, glum--that Dunne can't always effectively juggle. But the female-centric, celebratory nature of the film (the fantasies, the sharing, the witchy bonds) is infectious, and supporting roles by Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing as Kidman and Bullock's magical aunts are a lot of fun. --Tom Keogh

If a broom falls company is due. When a circle rings the moon trouble looms Should you misplace your broom sorry; a hand vac can't be used in an exorcism rite. Fun and excitement abound in the Owens family of wily witches. One problem though: the men the Owens women fall in love with are doomed to an untimely death. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman bring a sparkling screen magic to Practical Magic adapted from Alice Hoffman's bestseller and directed by Griffin Dunne (Addicted to Love). They play Sally and Gillian Owens sisters hexed by a centuries -old curse...and coping with a witches brew of events involving a possible love match (Aidan Quinn) for one a zombie (Goran Visnjic) for the other and a need to resume the age-old witchcraft taught by two doting Owens aunts (Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest). Sit for a spell and enjoy.Running Time: 110 min.System Requirements:Starring: Sandra Bullock Nicole Kidman et al. Director: Griffin Dunne Edition Details: Region 1 encoding (for use in US and Canada only) Color Closed-captioned Widescreen Dolby Number of discs: 1 Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 085391632221 Manufacturer No: 16322

The Searchers [Blu-ray]

A favorite film of some of the world's greatest filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, John Ford's The Searchers has earned its place in the legacy of great American films for a variety of reasons. Perhaps most notably, it's the definitive role for John Wayne as an icon of the classic Western--the hero (or antihero) who must stand alone according to the unwritten code of the West. The story takes place in Texas in 1868; Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a Confederate veteran who visits his brother and sister-in-law at their ranch and is horrified when they are killed by marauding Comanches. Ethan's search for a surviving niece (played by young Natalie Wood) becomes an all-consuming obsession. With the help of a family friend (Jeffrey Hunter) who is himself part Cherokee, Ethan hits the trail on a five-year quest for revenge. At the peak of his masterful talent, director Ford crafts this classic tale as an embittered examination of racism and blind hatred, provoking Wayne to give one of the best performances of his career. As with many of Ford's classic Westerns, The Searchers must contend with revisionism in its stereotypical treatment of "savage" Native Americans, and the film's visual beauty (the final shot is one of the great images in all of Western culture) is compromised by some uneven performances and stilted dialogue. Still, this is undeniably one of the greatest Westerns ever made. --Jeff Shannon

A favorite film of some of the world's greatest filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, John Ford's The Searchers has earned its place in the legacy of great American films for a variety of reasons. Perhaps most notably, it's the definitive role for John Wayne as an icon of the classic Western--the hero (or antihero) who must stand alone according to the unwritten code of the West. The story takes place in Texas in 1868; Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a Confederate veteran who visits his brother and sister-in-law at their ranch and is horrified when they are killed by marauding Comanches. Ethan's search for a surviving niece (played by young Natalie Wood) becomes an all-consuming obsession. With the help of a family friend (Jeffrey Hunter) who is himself part Cherokee, Ethan hits the trail on a five-year quest for revenge. At the peak of his masterful talent, director Ford crafts this classic tale as an embittered examination of racism and blind hatred, provoking Wayne to give one of the best performances of his career. As with many of Ford's classic Westerns, The Searchers must contend with revisionism in its stereotypical treatment of "savage" Native Americans, and the film's visual beauty (the final shot is one of the great images in all of Western culture) is compromised by some uneven performances and stilted dialogue. Still, this is undeniably one of the greatest Westerns ever made. --Jeff Shannon

Bluray Disc