Monday 2 August 2010

DVD & Blu-ray Round Up - Shutter Island


Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island grabs the coveted POPSICULTURE DVD and Blu-ray Release of the Week(TM) this week. It's okay Marty, you don't have to come over to pick up the award. The thriller starring Leo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo divided opinion at the time of its cinema release, seen by some as a glorified B-movie unworthy of its director, and by others as a chilling psychological masterpiece.

The truth, as always, is somewhere in between. Shutter Island a slow-slow-fast movie, full of lingering suspenseful scenes, interspersed with the occasional burst of action to keep you on your toes. DiCaprio and Ruffalo play charmingly named US Marshals, Teddy and Chuck, who are sent to the eponymous island to investigate mysterious goings on at a hospital for the criminally insane. It’s hard to get away from the B-movie connotations in that plot, but there are enough twists and turns throughout the two-hour running time to hold our attention. Suffice to say nothing, and no one, on the island is what it seems.

Elsewhere, the latest instalment of Doctor Who is released this week. Another three episodes of Doctor Who that is, starting with 'Amy's Choice' (the one with Toby Smith as the 'Dream Lord'), and then the two-parter 'Hungry Earth'/'Cold Blood' (the one with Meera Syal and the Silurians). The format of releasing three episodes at a time is still pretty annoying to be honest, but these are three of the better episodes in Series 5, as they begin to set up the finale.

Jackie Chan vehicle The Spy Next Door gets a release this week, a modern day Kindergarten Cop...wait, wasn't that The Pacifier? While John Travolta's From Paris With Love is a pretty run-of-the-mill action thriller, and I Love You Phillip Morris starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor is a good enjoyable caper.

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