Lots of new releases in the Blu-ray Cover Art Gallery for the week, though few are high profile.

Perhaps the highlight for the week is the release of Lost: The Complete Sixth Season, rounding out the popular series on Blu-ray Disc.

Also on TV we have The Simpsons: The Thirteenth Season, which seems like an unusual choice given that we are 20 seasons in on this show.

The day and date release of Jennifer Lopez in The Back-up Plan is one of the few studio movie releases for the week.

Fans of  Bob Hoskins may want to check out Image Entertainment releases Mona Lisa and The Long Good Friday.

Other British notables from Image include Withnail and I and Time Bandits, though Time Bandits has a 1080i encode for some weird reason.

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The latest Asian movie release from Magnolia Home Entertainment is the film Mother, released on Blu-ray Disc July 20th, 2010.

This Korean drama delves into the sacrifices and lengths a mother will go in an effort to save her only son.

Do-joon is the rather simple minded young Korean man who gets pushed around a lot, though occasionally stands up for himself with the help of his friend Jin-tae.

After a night out drinking, Do-joon ends up being the last person to see a murdered schoolgirl alive.

Do-joon is eventually charged with the murder and his mother can’t believe that it is possibly true.

After the Police close the case, his mother decides that she has to prove her son’s innocence and starts her own investigation into the death and who might have really killed the girl.

Her investigation leads her to discover many unseemly facts that feed her drive to do whatever it takes to free her son.

The film has many excellent qualities, including amazing cinematography, strong themes of family and excellent performances from the cast.

Hye-ja Kim was superb in the role of the mother and the supporting cast including Bin Won as Do-joon and Jin Goo as Jin-tae also came across as natural and realistic characters.

Mother was directed by Joon-ho Bong, the man behind a number of Korean movies including The Host and also a segment for Tokyo!

The movie was very well received by critics - it earned a Rotten Tomatoes score of 94% and IMDb score of 8.1/10.

The video on the disc is an AVC 1080p encode at 28 Mbps, and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1.

This high bitrate transfer helps to preserve the intriguing style and cinematographic choices of the film makers.

You will find full resolution PNG screen captures taken directly from the disc at the details page for Mother.

The main audio is lossless Korean DTS-HD Master Audio with 5.1 channels - 24 bits resolution at 48 kHz.

On this release there is no English audio, though there are of course English subtitles.

The disc is a dual layer BD50, with 42.0 GB used and is coded for All Regions.

Supplements for this title include the usual BD Live Network features in addition to a wide range of behind the scenes featurettes, which are all subtitled Korean audio.

The main Making Of featurette runs a massive 90 minutes and is loaded with behind the scenes footage and interview material from the cast and crew.

The main focus of this program is the discussion of the themes of the movie and many of the film makers discuss their personal relationships with their own mother, as well as the mother/son relationship we see in the film.

There are also a number of shorter segments that cover specific areas of the film’s production.

The lead actress who portrays the titular Mother is studied in A Look At The Actress Kim Hye-Ja, while a second segment covers the supporting cast.

Further featurettes focus on the production design, cinematography and musical score aspects of the production.

There is an additional teaser Behind The Scenes featurette that covers the basics of the production.

All in all there is a lot of coverage - it is apparent that this film was a fairly big deal over in Korea, and as such the production has been well documented.

Mother is powerful drama with strong performances and story and is beautifully photographed - I don’t hesitate to recommend it fans of foreign cinema or people who just like a well acted drama, though the subtitles may be a negative for some.

Magnolia Home Entertainment has gone the extra mile with this Blu-ray Disc release, offering a high bitrate transfer and hours of behind the scenes coverage on a dual layer disc.

The retail price is $29.98, or order it right now at Amazon for $26.49, saving 12%

Extras:

• Making Of
• A Look At The Actress Kim Hye-Ja
• Behind The Scenes
• Production Design
• Supporting Actors Featurette
• Cinematography Featurette
• Music Score Featurette

Synopsis:

Mother is a devoted single parent to her simple-minded twenty-seven-year-old son, Do-joon. Often a source of anxiety to his mother, Do-joon behaves in foolish or simply dangerous ways. One night, while walking home drunk, he encounters a school girl who he follows for a while before she disappears into a dark alley. The next morning, she is found dead in an abandoned building, and Do-joon is accused of her murder. An inefficient lawyer and an apathetic police force result in a speedy conviction. His mother refuses to believe her beloved son is guilty and immediately undertakes her own investigation to find the girl’s killer. In her obsessive quest to clear her son’s name, Mother steps into a world of unimaginable chaos and shocking revelations.

There are quite a few titles of note in the Blu-ray Cover Art Gallery this week, including the kick ass action film Kick-Ass.

Other Day and Date releases include Heroes: Season 4  and the Sony Pictures foreign language release A Prophet.

There are also a few notable catalog releases, including Sam Mendes directed Road to Perdition, cult classic Piranha, Disney’s animated James and the Giant Peach , eighties classic The Breakfast Club and Elvis documentary movie Elvis on Tour from Warner.

Additionally MGM has a number of their movies being released with DVDs included with titles like Escape from New York, Kalifornia, Bull Durham and Fargo.

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Magnolia Home Entertainment continues its run of quality Asian films with its release of The Warlords on June 29th, as part of the 6 Shooter series from Magnet.

The Warlords is a  Hong Kong/Chinese war epic set in the 1860’s - the time of the Taiping Rebellion against the Ching Dynasty.

When the Ching Army’s General Pang is the only survivor from a vicious confrontation with the rebels, he takes refuge with some bandits.

When the bandit’s village is raided and left without food, Pang and the two bandit leaders take a oath of brotherhood and rejoin the Army in order to earn money to help the village survive.

While General Pang has a strong drive to face the rebels in battle, he does not get the reinforcements he needs from the Ching leaders.

Regardless of the decisions of the Ching Lords, the three ‘blood brothers’ persist in their efforts to drive the rebels out and retake the cities that they occupy.

As the film plays out the story, subtextual themes including love, war and honour flow though the film.

The film is largely a historical epic that contains fairly graphic fight scenes, though perhaps less gory battle scenes compared to some of the films in this genre.

There is also a romantic back story that persists throughout the film, and overall I think it is one of the better war epic movies out of China.

The film swept the top categories in the 27th Hong Kong Film Awards  and also took Best Film and Best Director in the 45th Golden Horse Awards.

Most notably the cast includes Jet Li in the role of General Pang, along with chinese film favourites Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro, with Xu Jinglei in the role of the love interest.

While Jet Li was an expensive cast member, consuming more than a third of the film’s budget, his participation was seen as key to get international distribution.

The Warlords was directed by Peter Chan, who is better known for his romance movies like Perhaps Love.

The movie received a pretty decent critical response, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 62% and IMDb score of 7.2/10.

The Warlords also had a small run in the domestic cinema, earning $124k at the US box office.

The video on the disc is an AVC 1080p encode at 26.5 Mbps, and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1.

For full resolution PNG screen captures taken directly from the disc, check out the details page for The Warlords.

The main audio is lossless DTS-HD Master Audio with 5.1 channels - 16 bits resolution at 48 kHz.

Both English and original Chinese language sound tracks are available, though I found the subtitle options to be confusing and ended up using the English for hard of hearing, which seemed to be the only option that covered all of the dialogue - at least with my player.

The disc is a dual layer BD50, with 43.0 GB used and is coded for All Regions.

The selection of deleted scenes is fairly extensive and runs for almost an hour, though the scenes just run back to back with no explanations or commentary.

The Making Of featurette is in fact made up of as many as 15 different segments covering production aspects such as the movie’s themes, specific scenes, production challenges and the cast and crew.

The production journal featurette presents chronological coverage of the 117 days of movie production in a video diary type format.

The Warlords Behind The Scenes Special runs 17 minutes and is essentially a trailer followed by more behind the scenes footage and cast/crew interviews.

Like most Magnolia titles, the disc includes the HDNet: Look At The Warlords segment.

The international trailer for the movie is included, and the disc also features Magnolia’s BD Live Network connectivity features.

The Warlords is pretty entertaining and well made, and certainly comes recommended for fans of the genre.

Magnolia Home Entertainment’s Blu-ray release is has more extensive features than most of their releases and is one of the few of their titles to be authored on a BD50 dual layer disc.

All in all I think this Blu-ray release will be well enjoyed by fans of these epic Chinese action movies.

The retail price is $29.98, or order it right now at Amazon for $21.49, saving 28%!

Extras:

• Deleted Scenes
• Making Of
• Production Journal
• Behind The Scenes Special
• HDNet: Look At The Warlords
• International Trailer

Synopsis:

Set in the midst of the Taiping Rebellion of the 1860s, The Warlords stars Jet Li as General Pang, who barely survives a brutal massacre of his fellow solders by playing dead, and then joins a band of bandits led by Er Hu (Andy Lau) and Wu Yang (Takeshi Kaneshiro). After fighting back attackers for a defenseless village, the three men take an oath to become “blood brothers,” pledging loyalty to one another until death. However, their lives quickly derail as they become embroiled in a web of political deceit and a love triangle between Pang, Er Hu and a beautiful courtesan (Wu Jing-Lei).

Magnolia Home Entertainment continues their run of excellent foreign releases with Irish movie The Eclipse, on Blu-ray June 29th, 2010.

The film defies a single label or genre, being part drama, part romance, part ghost story and part thriller.

While ’scares’ certainly aren’t the main intention in this film, there are a number of moments in the movie that make the audience jump.

The film also features striking cinematography - in fact I would say it is worth watching The Eclipse solely for the beautiful images and intriguing lighting choices.

In many ways the shooting style is like a modern Film Noir.

The film largely follows the story of an Irish widower who occasionally sees the ‘ghost’ of his father in law in unusual situations.

While helping out with a local literary festival he spends time with an author who writes ghost stories and the two become friends as they discover shared interests and experiences.

Matters are somewhat complicated by the presence of a popular American author who had a brief affair with the ghost story writer and is aiming to rekindle the spark.

The movie deals with a number of themes including love, life, death, grief and the supernatural.

While this all sounds like a bit of a jumble, it comes across very truthfully, largely due to the strong performances.

With solid performances and excellent photography, the film is a very worthwhile experience in my book.

The cast includes European actors Ciaran Hinds and Iben Hjejle, along with Aidan Quinn in the role of the American.

The Eclipse was directed by Conor McPherson with his third feature film.

The movie received a strong critical reception, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 75%, though a less impressive IMDb score of 6.4/10.

The Eclipse had a small run at the cinema, earning $133.4k at the US box office.

The video on the disc is an AVC 1080p encode at 18 Mbps, and is presented in an unusual aspect ratio of 2.00:1.

The striking cinematography in this film has been presented well on this high definition transfer.

For full resolution PNG screen captures taken directly from the disc you can check the details page for The Eclipse.

The main audio is lossless DTS-HD Master Audio with 5.1 channels - 16 bits resolution at 48 kHz.

The disc is a single layer BD25, with 17.5 GB used and is coded for All Regions.

While the bitrate and the disc space used are somewhat low, I didn’t notice any encoding artifacts while watching the movie.

The disc contains a couple of behind the scenes featurettes, and the usual Magnolia BD Live network features.

The main feature is a Making Of featurette that  runs roughly half a hour and presents behind the scenes footage and interviews with the cast and crew.

The disc also includes the HDNet: A Look at The Eclipse coverage.

The Eclipse is a nice little movie that I truly enjoyed, with a European sense of style though with an English language soundtrack.

While the Blu-ray release is not huge on extras, this Blu-ray release from Magnolia Home Entertainment is a competent presentation of the movie.

The retail price is $29.98, or order it right now at Amazon for $24.49, saving 18%!

Extras:

• Making Of
• HDNet: A Look At The Eclipse

Synopsis:

Michael Farr (Ciaran Hinds), a teacher raising his two kids alone since his wife died two years earlier, has been seeing and hearing strange things late in the night. He isn’t sure if he is having nightmares, or if he’s experiencing a haunting. Working as a volunteer for an international literary festival, he is assigned to Lena Morelle (Iben Hjejle), an author of books about ghosts and the supernatural. Establishing rapport with one another, Michael opens up and shares his terrifying experiences with her. However, Lena’s attention is distracted by another novelist, Nicholas Holden (Aidan Quinn), with whom she had a brief affair. The trajectories of these three people lead them into a life-altering collision where the challenges of love, fear of the unknown, and a release from the burden of grief are explored.

I see quite a few releases in the Blu-ray Cover Art Gallery for the week, though again I doubt that any will be huge sellers.

Warner seems to be one of the few big studios that is releasing Day and Date Blu-rays this month, with Kevin Smith’s latest film Cop Out and also The Losers, along with the family catalog release Cats & Dogs.

Sony also has the Joan Jett story The Runaways coming out this week, and Magnolia has the Asian thriller Mother.

The Criterion Collection adds a few titles today, including Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes, and the BBC debuts a new television series Being Human: Season One.

Fans of B movies might also consider Forbidden World and Galaxy of Terror.

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Looking at the Blu-ray Cover Art Gallery for this week I see a lot of new titles.

New studio releases include the comedy Hot Tub Time Machine and the fantasy movie Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.

Fox has a new ‘Ultimate Hunter Edition’ for Predator, Sony Classics has The White Ribbon and Anchor Bay has the recent horror release The Crazies.

Criterion also has a couple of new releases today with Everlasting Moments and The Leopard, and Magnolia continues its independent releases with The Eclipse and the Jet Li film The Warlords.

One the documentary side we get a new BBC series How the Earth Changed History and National Geographic’s A Traveler’s Guide to the Planets.

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180° South: Conquerors of the Useless is the latest documentary release from Magnolia Home Entertainment, on Blu-ray June 8th, 2010 release.

The movie follows the journey that Jeff Johnson took to South America to Patagonia in order to climb the peak of Cerro Corcovado.

The journey mimics that made by his heroes Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins back in the sixties.

However instead of driving down South America he  joins the crew on a boat that is sailing that way.

The journey does not go entirely as expected and Jeff finds himself spending significant time on Easter Island and eventually making his way down Chile’s coastline through whatever means he can.

The story of the journey is inter-cut with with messages of conservation, revealing the changes in the cultures on Easter Island and Chile that are adversely affecting the ecological balances.

Along with Jeff Johnson, the film features Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins, the founders of the Patagonia and North Face respectively, who have come to dedicate their lives and fortunes to conservation efforts in South America.

The men have bought up millions of acres of land in Chile and Argentina in order to protect the land and create privately owned conservation parks.

The movie is essentially a blend of conservation messages and the adventure lifestyle of surfing, climbing and sailing.

It is certainly an intriguing film that is well made and documents unusual journeys and adventures in the unknown - certainly one I would recommend to fans of outdoor sports and the wilderness.

In fact the cinematography in the movie is particularly striking for a documentary film, with some especially impressive shots in the mountains and in the surf.

180 South: Conquerors of the Useless was directed by Chris Malloy, who is behind a number of surfing documentary films.

The movie has been well received by critics, with an IMDb score of 8.1/10.

The video on the disc is a VC-1 1080p encode at 22 Mbps, and is presented at 1.78:1 aspect ratio, filling the HDTV screen.

The content is a mix of high definition video and old 16mm film footage, and as such is not reference quality.

For full resolution PNG screen captures taken directly from the disc, check out the details page for 180 South: Conquerors of the Useless.

The main audio is lossless DTS-HD Master Audio with 5.1 channels - 24 bits resolution at 48 kHz.

The disc is a single layer BD25, with 22.7 GB used and is coded for All Regions.

Supplements for this title include the standard Magnolia BD Live Network features.

The Making Of featurette runs almost half an hour and looks at many aspects of the genesis and production of the movie.

There is also a two minute version called A Look At…

The disc includes a selection of deleted scenes with additional surfing footage, climbing footage and a number of other sequences that didn’t make the shot.

The Music feature allows direct access to the large number of songs present in the film, and original trailer is also included.

180 South: Conquerors of the Useless is an impressive look at the unspoiled wilderness of South America that will appeal to fans of outdoor sports as well as those concerned about conservation.

The Blu-ray release from Magnolia Home Entertainment is a competent effort with a good selection of supplemental features.

The retail price is $29.98, and that price right at Amazon currently, however you can find it at DVD Empire for only $23.68.

Extras:

• The Making Of
• A Look At
• Deleted Scenes
• The Music
• Trailer

Synopsis:

180° South: Conquerors Of The Useless follows Jeff Johnson as he retraces the epic 1968 journey of his heroes Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins to Patagonia. Along the way, he gets shipwrecked off Easter Island, surfs the longest wave of his life - and prepares himself for a rare ascent of Cerro Corcovado. Jeff’s life turns when he meets up in a rainy hut with Chouinard and Tompkins who, once driven purely by a love of climbing and surfing, now value above all the experience of raw nature - and have come to Patagonia to spend their fortunes to protect it.

The Blu-ray Cover Art Gallery for this week shows a bit of a slow week, with Shutter Island and From Paris with Love being the notable studio releases.

On the catalog releases side, Warner has the classic Caddyshack and Fox has Edward Norton in The Illusionist hitting Blu-ray this week.

Magnolia continues with its special interest releases with the documentary film 180 South: Conquerors of the Useless and on the TV side we have Ice Road Truckers: The Complete Season 3.

Click on any cover to see the details for the title.

This week’s Blu-ray Cover Art Gallery sadly doesn’t have much in the way of big name movies.

Warner has Mel Gibson’s latest thriller Edge of Darkness in a DVD + Digital Copy Combo pack, and Daybreakers from Lionsgate also features a Digital Copy.

Sony has Legion day and date with DVD and classic catalog titles The Karate Kid and The Karate Kid, Part II.

Magnolia has a couple of asian action movies with Legend of the Tsunami Warrior and Tidal Wave.

Fox has split out some of The Mel Brooks Collection box set into individual releases including Robin Hood: Men in Tights, High Anxiety and History of the World: Part I, along with catalog titles The Edge and Marked For Death.

Also out today a new Criterion Collection title - the early Fritz Lang thriller M.

Click on any cover to see the details for the title.