Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol (Two-disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo +Digital Copy) (2011)

Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol (Two-disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo +Digital Copy) 

The second half of the first decade of the 21st century has been kind of tough for Tom Cruise. That's tough in a way over and above the hardship of living the legacy of one of history's top movie stars--a job more demanding than any mere mortal could imagine. But after two fruitful collaborations with Steven Spielberg (Minority Report and War of the Worlds), his stature took a beating from the one-two hits of those wacky PR gaffes and that string of relative box-office disappointments (Lions for Lambs, Valkyrie, Knight and Day), which seemed to start with the third installment of his Mission: Impossible franchise in 2006. It's hard to say with a straight face that taking in only $398 million worldwide is a disappointment, but it was a low for the series, which some later saw as a prelude to his potentially dimming stardom. But on the cusp of turning 50, it looks like Tom Cruise has put the licking behind him and entered a new phase of self-conception with an upcoming array of roles, starting with a more maturely controlled version of superspy Ethan Hunt in the sleek and supercharged Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. The things Cruise has done right in M: I part four include toning down his youthful, arrogant preening and letting his castmates share more of the spotlight (Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton, and Simon Pegg all have some terrifically shiny moments). He also lets the unique creative vision of director Brad Bird shine through in a first live-action outing for the acclaimed helmer of Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille. Still looking much younger than his years (that hair! those pecs! those abs!), Cruise is playing more age-appropriately, letting a little wisdom and grace seep into his charisma so the wattage of his mere presence smolders a little deeper. It's a nice nod to a graying generation that says you can get older and still be cool. All that is not to say he doesn't play up his action-star chops to the max. In a mostly inconsequential narrative arc that has something to do with purloined nuclear launch codes, an important metal briefcase, satellite uplinks, and global annihilation that leaps from Moscow to Dubai to Mumbai, Cruise is as dangerously nimble as he has ever been. He dangles one-handed from the tallest building in the world, bounds off ledges, springs out of speeding vehicles, tumbles and careens up and down the levels of an automated parking garage, and generally sprints and jumps his way across the movie with only a scratch or bruise to show for it. Also on the outlandish upside is a happily stereotypical villain straight out of Connery-era Bond and as many bleeding-edge gadgets as the art department techno-geeks could dream up. A running gag is that many of these electronic fantasy tools fail at just the wrong moment, which is part of a larger wink acknowledging how utterly preposterous yet ingeniously conceived this behemoth of a movie really is. The gadgetry is not limited just to the miraculous props. Ghost Protocol employs CGI fakery of the highest order from the sub-industry of effects contractors that ratchet up the standard of computing power and software design, one-upping each successive action-adventure extravaganza. The loving detail that goes into blowing up the Kremlin or rendering a photo-realistic sandstorm erupting across the enhanced skyline of an Oz-like desert city is nothing short of miraculous. What's more astonishing is that Tom Cruise closes the deal with a selling power that's as new and improved as the laminates on his multi-million-dollar teeth. --Ted Fry

Hanna [Blu-ray] (2011)

 

Hanna has the plot of a Hollywood action blockbuster but the style of a European art movie--and this unholy hybrid is fascinating to watch. Hanna (Saoirse Ronan, The Lovely Bones) has been raised by her father (Eric Bana, Munich), an ex-covert agent, for one purpose: to murder the American agent, Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett), who murdered Hanna's mother. Hanna thinks she succeeds and escapes, but she's actually being followed by Wiegler, who will go to any lengths to exterminate the girl. Hanna could have been little more than a tween reboot of La Femme Nikita, but in the hands of director Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride & Prejudice) the movie spends as much time on Hanna's budding relationship with a girl on holiday in Morocco as it does on Hanna's capacity to kill. Even the action scenes have atypical rhythms (and one violent sequence occurs in a long, sustained shot that will make film geeks squeal with glee). Hanna is visually sumptuous, emotionally delicate, and completely unlike any other action flick you'll see. The ending goes flat as disappointingly banal plot mechanics take hold, but up until then, Hanna combines genuine thrills, unexpected complexity of character, and an unusual electronica soundtrack into an enthralling film. --Bret Fetzer

Raised by her father (Eric Bana), an ex-CIA agent, in the wilds of Finland, Hanna's upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. The turning point in her adolescence is a sharp one. Sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys stealthily across Europe, eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative with secrets of her own (Cate Blanchett). As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence.

Source Code [Blu-ray] (2011)

 

Special Features

Audio Commentary with Jake Gyllenhaal and director Duncan Jones
Cast Interviews
Science Focal Points
Trivia Track
Access: Source Code

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Editorial Reviews

Synopsis:
Item Type: DVD Movie
Item Rating: PG13
Street Date: 07/26/11
Wide Screen: yes
Director Cut: no
Special Edition: no
LanguageENGLISH
Foreign Film: no
Subtitlesno
Dubbed: no
Full Frame: no
Re-Release: no
Packaging: Sleeve Please note: This supplier will be closed on 11/24, 11/25, 12/26, 1/2 for the holidays. The shipping cut off is 12/10 to try and have the products delivered by Christmas.

Limitless (Unrated Extended Cut + Digital Copy) [Blu-ray]

Limitless (Unrated Extended Cut + Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] 

Bradley Cooper (The A-Team) and two-time Academy-Award® winner Robert De Niro, star in this provocative and action-packed thriller with unlimited surprising twists. Eddie Morra (Cooper), a burnt-out writer, discovers a top-secret pill that unlocks 100% of his brain’s capacity. He instantly acquires mind-bending talents and mesmerizing visions that bring him big money, beautiful women and limitless success. But his dream life soon becomes a waking nightmare, as the drug’s brutal side effects take their toll and Eddie finds himself entangled with a cunning Wall Street power broker (DeNiro) who wants everything Eddie has… and more. 

Special Features

Disc 1: Blu-ray
Theatrical Feature
Unrated Extended Cut
Audio Commentary with Director Neil Burger
A Man Without Limits
Taking It to the Limit: The Making of Limitless
Alternate Ending
Theatrical Trailer

Disc 2: Digital Copy

The Other Guys (Two-Disc Unrated Other Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy)

Misfit NYPD detectives Gamble and Hoitz (Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg) are sentenced to life behind the desk. They hate each other and the monotony of their meaningless jobs, as they’re forced to live in the shadow of the two biggest and most badass cops on the force (Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson). But when those guys go down for the count, opportunity knocks for Gamble and Hoitz. Stumbling onto what could be one of the biggest crimes in years, can The Other Guys step up their game to solve the case without killing each other and destroying NYC in the process? From the director of Step Brothers and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

Although the comedy team of Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg does not sound like a threat to Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello, they conjure up consistent laughs in The Other Guys, yet another comedy from Talladega Nights director Adam McKay. Ferrell plays a mild-mannered police accountant partnered with Wahlberg's hothead (recently demoted to desk-jockey duty after shooting a very famous Yankee player during the World Series), and both men must endure the showboating fame of a pair of supercops (Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson) in their New York City precinct house. Along with sending up cop-movie clichés, the movie basically exists to give Ferrell and Wahlberg room to work amusing variations on their characters (with grace notes for Michael Keaton's stereotypical tough captain, too). The loosey-goosey structure works especially well when Wahlberg is needling his partner's squareness or marveling, in wonderfully awestruck tones, at the unbelievable hot-i-tude of Ferrell's wife (Eva Mendes)--a discrepancy made all the more maddening because Ferrell seems indifferent to her charms. Throw in a plot about a billionaire Wall Street crook (Steve Coogan) and the revelation of Ferrell's hilariously dark past, and the movie finds a nice zone of silliness. Of course, any Will Ferrell vehicle must be judged by the opportunities for the star to launch into some borderline-surreal riff--and happily, this film comes through. From the moment Ferrell begins deconstructing Wahlberg's lion versus tuna metaphor, The Other Guys manages to find time for such nonsense, and the film--the world in general, for that matter--is the better for it. --Robert Horton

5.0 out of 5 stars TLC has never been this funny!, August 6, 2010

 

ByJournalStone "Duncan Moron" (CA) -I have not laughed this hard since "The Hangover". This has to be the best comedy I have seen this summer, hands down. I only wish I could think of a TLC lyric to bring it all home. Does anyone remember "Waterfalls"? From the wooden gun to the non-stop one liners, I was rolling in the floor. Will Ferrell has not been this good since "Old School" and Mark Wahlberg was ever bit his comedic equal in this fantastic film. From Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson all the way to Michael Keaton, everyone was amazing. Whoever did the casting for this movie took a second seat to only one person, the writers. The script was drop dead hilarious.

Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg play two down and out cops? Mr. Ferrell seems to be stuck in his rut by his own choice and since I don't want to give anything away, let's just say that Mark Wahlberg made a colossal mistake to have found his way down to the lower levels of hell. Luckily the two of them are partners. Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson are the heroes of New York City but do to some unforeseen circumstances, they quickly relinquish their title. Wanting to seize the opportunity of the new opening for a hero, our two bumbling cops attempt to solve a very big case.

Apparently some guy has been constructing some buildings without getting a scaffolding permit. Are you kidding me? The two losers meander down to arrest him and fall into a very large case of fraud and an attempted robbery, of a very large nature. I am trying very hard not to give away any of the punch lines in this film but admittedly it is difficult to write this review without doing so, since I was laughing the entire movie. From driving the Prius into a bucket full of cocaine, all the way to being disgusted about the four homeless guys using it as a sex toy, I was laughing continually.

Have I said yet it was too damn funny, and this is coming from the guy who only a few months ago said Will Ferrell was washed up. Talk about eating your words. Even Eva Mendes was fabulous as the homely housewife of Will Ferrell that Mark Wahlberg couldn't seem to stop ogling.

With some movies you see all the laughs crammed into the two minute commercial and when you see the full length feature there is nothing left. With this movie the commercial is only the tip of the iceberg. The explosion scene was funny but trust me, if you liked the commercials, you will flat out love the movie. Everyone in the theater was holding their stomachs from beginning to end.