New DVD Releases This Week – 11/6/12

Not very many new DVDs being released this week, but deserve mentioning nonetheless.

Your Sister’s Sister

Leading the way this week is a movie that I went expecting a cute, whimsical indie. While still cute, this movie was much more hilarious than I had ever thought it would be. It’s not very quotable, but the comedic timing of all the lines and their awkwardness had me laughing quite a bit. Mark Duplass has always been very hit or miss with me, but overall he worked in the central role of a guy who gets into a bit of a mess with a pair of sisters. Those sisters are played by Emily Blunt and Rosemarie DeWitt, two ladies who absolutely steal my heart by simply coming onto the screen, let alone being very solid actresses. This is a movie that I very much enjoyed, and apart from a pretty big plot hole in the beginning that I had problems with, the final 20 or so minutes were pretty disappointing and hold this film back from being even better. For a full review, check out Nick had to say about it.

Verdict: Watch It

The Amazing Spider-Man

While I know this film had its fair share of haters, this was a film that I thoroughly enjoyed. Not as good as the second one (of which I consider to be one of the best superhero films every made), but I would put it on par with the first, and definitely better than the third, but let’s try to forget that one. For me, the first half of this movie is really what does it for me. The development of Peter Parker was done quite well, and I absolutely loved the back and forth dialogue between Garfield and Martin Sheen. Rhys Ifans was serviceable as the villain, but was a bit of a letdown considering how much I had really looked forward to him getting a chance to shine. I thought Marc Webb did a pretty good job with his first big budget film, although some of the action needs cleaned up a little (it had its positive moments, however) and the big moment right before the final fight was a bit too cheesy for me. Oh, and Emma Stone. What else can I say but Emma Stone? That should be enough, right? Let’s just reaffirm that by once again saying, Emma Stone. A solid foundation into what will hopefully be a exciting franchise featuring Garfield and company.

Verdict: Watch It

Arthur Christmas

The handling of this movie is awfully confusing. Released nearly a year ago around Thanksgiving (huh?), they decided to wait nearly a year before releasing the DVD. So instead of five weeks ahead of Christmas, they wait all year only to release it seven weeks before Christmas? People get paid to make these type of decisions? Anywho, let us not get away from the fact that this is actually a pretty good film. The movie is very creative in showing Santa’s delivery process, most notably how the elves go about doing their work. Fast, funny, and logistical, the elves are what provide most of the entertainment throughout the movie, but the heart of the story obviously lies with the title character Arthur, who enjoys Christmas as much as anybody, and must prove his worth to his father and older brother. And the voices brought in for this were top notch, including James McAvoy, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, and Laura Linney. And there’s plenty of beautiful animation to boot. This is a movie that caught me completely off guard, and something that parents will enjoy almost as much as their children.

Verdict: Watch It

360

Ah, the essential “Do I or don’t I?” film. Essentially a straight-to-DVD release, this is a film that stars Rachel Weisz, Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, and Ben Foster, yet this currently sits at a paltry 19% on Rotten Tomatoes and has that generic DVD cover that considers its self creative, but tells you to avoid the movie completely. Want to add more confusion? This was directed by the guy who did City of God. Just adds to the indecision, doesn’t it?

Verdict: Watch It If You Dare

And sadly, that’s it for this week. What will you be watching? What did you think of the latest entry for Spidey?