DVD News: This Week’s Release’s – Elegy, Punisher: War Zone, JAG: Season 8

By Kevin Coll • March 17, 2009 • 4 Comments

Here are some of the big releases today March 17, 2009 on DVD. Also Check our Blu-ray Report out for the latest Blu-ray releases to hit store shelves near you. It is not really a great week for DVDs but as a pick I would suggest buying JAG because it is a cool show and should be apart of anyone’s collection and renting Punisher: War Zone and Elegy.

Reminder: Twilight comes out on DVD Saturday March 21, 2009. We will have a review up for it then.

Elegy

Rated: R

Release Date: March 17, 2009

Genre: Drama

Studio: Samuel Goldwyn

Director: Isabel Coixet

Cast: Penelope Cruz, Ben Kingsley, Patricia Clarkson, Dennis Hopper

Driven by Isabel Coixets (My Life Without Me) visually assured and deeply observant direction, ELEGY charts the passionate relationship between a celebrated New York college professor, David Kepesh (Kingsley) and a young Cuban-born woman, Consuela Castillo (Cruz) whose beauty both ravishes and destablises him. As their intimate connection transforms them more than either could imagine a charged sexual contest evolves into an indelible love story. With humanistic warmth, wry wit and erotic intensity ELEGY explores the power of beauty to blind, to reveal and transform.

With extraordinary performances by Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz, the film is based on Pulitzer Prize-winner Philip Roths short novel The Dying Animal. On the one hand a shattering, heartfelt romantic drama, ELEGY is also a complex, intelligent and unflinchingly honest meditation on lust, mortality, family, male friendship, intimacy and commitment. Its a refreshing film in its ability to deal with adult issues while remaining an invigorating cinematic experience.

Punisher: War Zone

Rated: R

Release Date: March 17, 2009

Genre: Action, Crime

Studio: Lionsgate

Director: Lexi Alexander

Cast: Ray Stevenson, Dominic West, Julie Benz, Kurt Sutter, Wayne Knight

From Amazon - “Punisher: War Zone cannot be adequately described as “over the top”–it’s a relentless catalogue of brutal mayhem punctuated, here and there, with outrageous sentimentality. Frank Castle, a.k.a. The Punisher (Ray Stevenson, Rome) has dedicated his life to killing the kind of gangsters who murdered his family. But when he unknowingly kills an undercover FBI agent, Castle falls into a crisis of conscience and decides to lay down his guns. Unfortunately, one of the last gangsters he thought he’d killed survived, albeit horribly disfigured, and seeks revenge on the wife and daughter of that slain FBI agent–so Castle has to go one last spree of vigilante justice! But this plot summary will not prepare you for the jolting violence of Punisher: War Zone; rarely do more than a few minutes go by without startling physical savagery, particularly to people’s heads, which get blown apart with numbing frequency. This violence somehow goes hand in hand with dizzyingly saccharine moments when a young girl gazes at Castle with trusting eyes, knowing in her heart that he’s the only one who can protect her. The dialogue goes beyond cliche into tough guy baroque. Stevenson underplays Castle to good effect, because everyone else in the movie–including Dominic West (The Wire), Doug Hutchison (The Green Mile), and Wayne Knight (Seinfeld)–chews the scenery like it’s slathered with gravy. Some viewers will find this movie revolting; others will worship it like a golden calf. You probably know where you stand.”

Jag: The Complete 8th Season

Rated: Unrated

Release Date: March 17, 2009

Genre: TV Series, Action/Drama

Studio: Paramount

Cast: David James Elliott, Catharine Bell, Karri Turner, Patrick Labyorteaux

The series depicts JAG officers, though heavily romanticized, applying the stipulations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and international law as well as providing conventional television melodrama. In its initial phase, the show relied much on Hollywood military-prop suppliers and existing stock footage from other well-known naval and military films, including Top Gun, The Hunt for Red October and Clear and Present Danger. The Department of Defense later recognized the series as positive for its public image and therefore granted official support, providing the producers access to military installations and equipment. It is so far the only television show to have been officially endorsed by both the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. From the beginning, the show regularly incorporated elements of real-life military actions into its storylines, e.g. the aftermath of the Bosnian War, the attack on the USS Cole (DDG-67), the events of the September 11, 2001 attacks and the subsequent War on Terrorism. In the wake of the above attacks the show experienced a boost in ratings and became a fixture on Nielsen’s top 10.

Other Releases on today - The Velveteen Rabbit, Married With Children: The Complete 10th Season, Barney Hill: The Complete Third Season