New DVDs: Buy, rent or ignore?

This week: 'Duplicity,' 'Adventureland' and 'Fighting'

By Paul Semel

Posted August 24, 2009

Special to Metromix

You loved the movie, what about the DVD?

Find out as we examine the extras on this week's best movie DVDs...

“DUPLICITY”
Stars: Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Tom Wilkinson
Director: Tony Gilroy (“Michael Clayton”)
Format: DVD, Blu-ray
What we said: "A cinematic lark that's leaden where it should be light ... suffers from lukewarm chemistry between Roberts and Owen."

Extras: DVD: Commentary by Gilroy and editor/co-producer John Gilroy.
Blu-ray: The above commentary plus BD-Live functions that include scene sharing.

Worth watching: The commentary, because it's not like there’s much to choose from.
Worth skipping: Maybe a 13-year-old girl would want to share her favorite scenes with her BFF, but since this isn't a movie for 13-year-old girls….
Worth adding: The original trailer, a making-of featurette, the cast in the commentary and a second commentary by some real spies.

Buy, rent or ignore: Ignore.


“ADVENTURELAND”
Stars: Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg, Ryan Reynolds
Director: Greg Motolla (“Superbad”)
Formats: Single-disc DVD, Two-disc DVD, Blu-ray
What we said: "Provides the opportunity to spend time with two very smart, likable characters played by two smart, likable actors—more than enough reason to check it out."

Extras: Single-disc DVD: None.
Two-disc DVD: Commentary by Motolla and Eisenberg; deleted scenes with commentary by Motolla; “Just My Life: The Making of ‘Adventureland’” featurette; Picture Music Selection.
Blu-ray: All of the two-disc DVD extras plus “Frigo’s Taps” and “Lisa P’s Guide to Style” featurettes; “Welcome to Adventureland,” which includes Adventureland commercials, operational training video and the park’s drug policy; digital copy.

Worth watching: “Welcome to Adventureland.” We always appreciate it when movie makers go that extra mile to perpetuate the fiction.
Worth skipping: “Frigo’s Taps,” an instructional video on testicular attacks. Has it occurred to anyone what would happen if Al-Qaeda rented this movie from Netflix and got their hands on this information?
Worth adding: A guide to the country’s best amusement parks hosted by Hader. That way, when Al-Qaeda come to attack our testicles, they’ll know where to go afterwards to relax.

Buy, rent or ignore: Rent the two-disc DVD or Blu-ray; Ignore the single-disc.


“FIGHTING”
Stars: Channing Tatum, Terrence Howard, Zulay Henao
Director: Dito Montiel (“A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints”)
Formats: DVD, Blu-ray
What we said: "The film's a watchable and forgettable cliché stack, with a cherry on top."

Extras: DVD: Deleted scenes.
Blu-ray: The above deleted scenes plus BD-Live functions and a digital copy.

Worth watching: So much to choose from…the deleted scenes, I suppose.
Worth skipping: The BD-Live functions, as if you had to guess.
Worth adding: The original trailer, a making-of featurette, commentary by Tatum, Howard and Montiel, and a featurette in which the makers of this and the “Duplicity” DVD discuss why a movie DVD/BD release should never be so bare bones.

Buy, rent or ignore: Ignore.


Other DVDs out this week:
— Conversation in a cab leads to friendship in “Goodbye Solo”
— Billy Bob Thorton, Kim Basinger and Winona Ryder remind us why the book was better with the adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ “The Informers” (also on Blu-ray)
— “Y tu mamá también” co-stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna reunite as brothers for the dramedy “Rudo y Cursi” (also on Blu-ray)
— Amy Adams and Emily Blunt clean up crime, literally, in “Sunshine Cleaning” (also on Blu-ray)
— See footage of hurricane Katrina captured by a couple who survived the storm in the documentary "Trouble the Water"
— Nihilism goes multimedia with “Natural Born Killers: The Director’s Cut” (also on Blu-ray)

Also on Blu-ray:
“Children of the Corn”
"How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days"
“Thais”

Also released:
“Criterion Collection: Eclipse Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir”
“Criterion Collection: Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai Du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles”
“Criterion Collection: The Last Days of Disco”
“Green Street Hooligans 2: Stand Your Ground”
“Grindhouse Greats Collection”
“Horror Classics 50 Movie Pack: Anniversary Edition”
“The Lee Strobel 3-Disc Film Collection: The Case for Christ, The Case for the Faith, The Case for a Creator”
“Mushi-shi: The Movie”
“Screwballs”
“The Spirit Killer Trilogy Collection”