New DVD Releases This Week – 7/3/12

Evidently Hollywood believes that nobody watches new DVDs during the week of Independence Day. This is the fewest amount of new releases that we’ve seen in quite some time, and the quality of the movies isn’t ideal either. None of them received a wide release at the cinema, which is the first time that’s happened since September of last year. Next week isn’t too promising either, so my suggestion would be spend your entertainment money at the cinema and hit up the new Spider-Man or Oliver Stone’s Savages. You can try one of the movies below, but under my new four-tier suggestion system (Watch It, Give It a Try, Watch It If You Dare, Skip It), this will be one of those rare weeks when I have nothing rated higher than ‘Watch It If You Dare’. But if you must…

God Bless America

The trailer for this one was pretty exciting, even if it’s ceiling always appeared to be ‘B’ movie status. But if you watch the trailer, you pretty much capture the entire movie. A old man gets pissed off at society for focusing on the wrong things in life, adds a teenage girl as a sidekick, and the two go on a killing spree. They offer up a monologue at the end that is supposed to give the film a deeper meaning, but at the end of the day its a film of random shootings that fails to make a commentary on anything we didn’t know already. Yes, some people are mean, annoying, spoiled, ignorant, etc., but this movie offers up no realistic reaction or solution. That could’ve been overlooked had the movie been fun, comedic, or even slightly entertaining. But nay, none of that could be achieved. Under any other week, I would be telling you to skip this altogether.

Verdict: Watch It If You Dare

Jesus Henry Christ

At first, this seemed like it could be an interesting mix of Wes Anderson/Little Miss Sunshine style dark comedy. The movie focuses on a couple of dysfunctional families, with the majority of the focus on a genius 10-year-old who gets kicked out of a catholic school within five minutes of the film. You achieve boredom after ten, however. Toni Collete and Michael Sheen try their best to keep this afloat, but ultimately this feels like a Wes Anderson rip-off that never makes a voice of its own.

Verdict: Skip It

The Hunter

Willem Dafoe is the obvious attraction here. Now, that’s not gonna make a ton of money, but the last film that I watched in which Dafoe was a central character was Melancholia, which I absolutely loved, as did many others. Dafoe is hired to travel to Tasmania to track down an animal long thought to be extinct. Instead of giving us a story about a man who struggles and then grows because of the situation he was thrown into (which is what I’m sure the first draft looked like on paper), but instead the movie is overflowing with inorganic conflicts and storylines that prevents the film (and audience) from obtaining any kind of focus.

Verdict: Skip It

Will you be giving any of these films a chance? If not, what other movies will you be watching?