Days of Thunder Blu-ray Review

Tom Cruise reprises one of his most prominent early roles in the December 30th Blu-ray release of Days of Thunder from Paramount Pictures and Director Tony Scott. Talented and overzealous young race car driver Cole Trickle (Cruise) is discovered by a businessman, Tim Daland (Randy Quaid), who teams him with legendary crew chief and car-builder Harry Hogge (Academy Award winner Robert Duvall). The racing team works to prepare Cole to race for the Winston Cup at the Daytona 500. However, a terrible crash nearly ends Cole’s racing career. Cole’s fortunes change when the crash turns into several blessings in disguise. He is aided in his recovery by a beautiful doctor, played by soon-to-be-wife Nicole Kidman in their first early acting partnerships. The beautiful doctor helps Cole regain his nerve and find courage, discipline and other qualities he needed to win, and to survive.

Days of Thunder is classic Cruise. He plays a character very similar to arguable his best role at Top Gun’s Maverick. He is ambitious, cocky, and assertive with women. It is interesting to see Kidman in an early role that helped catapult her career and led to her eventual marriage to Cruise. Days of Thunder is intense, action-filled and has several compelling elements. We get to see Cruise display his endearing traits that appeal to fans of his early work, but we also get to see his character exposed to struggle and humility.

The Blu-ray release of Days of Thunder includes many great features:

• Actors: Tom Cruise, Robert Duvall, Dennis Quaid, Nicole Kidman
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating:
• Studio: Paramount
• DVD Release Date: December 30, 2008
• Run Time: 107 minutes

Surfer, Dude Blu-ray Review

Matthew McConaughey is the longboarding soul surfer Steve Addington in the December 30th Blu-ray movie release Surfer, Dude. Addington is the face of surfing and he returns to Malibu for the summer to find that his cool hometown has been corrupted by the business demands of the industry. Unwilling to compromise his laid back surfer mentality, Addington draws the ire of new sponsors who want him to move into Virtual Reality Video Games and Reality TV.

Addington would rather stick to his real waves and is willing to sacrifice big bucks and commercial entertainment to stick to his waves. He is aided by his manager (Woody Harrelson), his mentor (Scott Glenn), his guardian angel (Willie Nelson), and summer lover (Alexie Gilmore). The question becomes, can Steve overcome the demands of big business and entertainment and still manage to surf the waves.

Surfer, Dude has received plenty of criticism from the press. I certainly see the challenge. The movie poses some big names in McConaughey, Harrelson, and Nelson, but the plot and drama are modest at best. There is some conflict, a little bit of romance, but otherwise, the movie lacks much power and captivating elements. McConaughey is the main focus of the movie as Harrelson’s role is simply odd. He appears in the beginning and the end, with little other involvment.

I would like to be able to say that Surfer, Dude is a good fit for surfing enthusiasts, but there really is not much in the way of active surfing. There is just not much to offer in this new Blu-ray release from Anchor Bay.

Special features in the 2-disc special edition of Surfer, Dude on Blu-ray include:

-Surfer, Dude: The Real Story Feature exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Footage
-Deleted Scenes
-The Complete Surfer, Dude 12-Webisode Series
-Audio Commentary with Matthew McConaughey
-Disk 2: Digital Copy of Surfer, Dude for portable media players

• Actors: Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Willie Nelson, Scott Glenn, Sarah Mason
• Directors: S.R. Bindler
• Producers: Matthew McConaughey, Gus Gustawes, Mark Gustawes
• Format: Color, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby TrueHD 5.1)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 2 (Includes Digital)
• Rating:
• Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
• DVD Release Date: December 30, 2008
• Run Time: 85 minutes

Ghost Blu-ray review

Ghost is one of the most popular romantic tragedy movies of all time. Directed by Jerry Zucker, the 1990 theatrical release won two Academy Awards and is available on Blu-ray as of December 30th. Sam (Patrick Swayze) is murdered abruptly and dies not knowing who killed him, what happened to him, and why. He has come back as a ghost to learn what really happened.

Molly (Demi Moore) is “haunted” by the death of her young love. Molly is unaware that Sam is back to watch over her. Enter a skeptical psychic (Oscar Winner Whoopi Goldberg) who is approached by Sam, despite her attempts to avoid her supernatural abilities.

Ghost is a supernatural mystery-thriller that pulls at your heart strings. Demi Moore is at her best and she and Patrick Swayze are sensational as a young couple in love. This movie features some classic movie scenes including the often spoofed romantic molding of the pot scene with Moore and Swayze.

Ghost is a clever and unique movie. Though sometimes duplicated, the movie themes were certainly original when initially released. The Blu-ray release of Ghost features many great special features to go along with the movie, including:

-Commentary by Director Jerry Zucker and Writer Bruce Joel Rubin
-Ghost Stories: The Making of a Classic
-Inside the Paranormal
-Alchemy of a Love scene
-Cinema’s Great Romances
-Theatrical Trailer HD
-Photo Gallery

• Actors: Rick Aviles, Gail BoggsVivian Bonnell, Susan Breslau, Angelina Estrada
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating:
• Studio: Paramount
• DVD Release Date: December 30, 2008
• Run Time: 126 minutes

Reviewed by Neil

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