Director Gus Van Sant is an auteur capable of dropping an award-winning character-driven film (Good Will Hunting) with big-name actors one year, and small, provocative films where characters barely talk to each other the whole time (Last Days) the next.  No matter which Van Sant flavor is your favorite, the man is great at both of them.  For his latest, Promised Land, he goes the mainstream route – taking A-list actors into a farming community for a fracking debate.  The film was originally supposed to be Matt Damon‘s (School Ties) directorial debut, but scheduling conflicts threw it in Van Sant’s lap with just over a month to prepare.  Despite some solid direction and acting, Promised Land suffers from a few hiccups.  But how does it hold up on Universal’s Blu-ray?  Hit the jump and I’ll tell you all about it.

20 years after its release, it’s impossible to overestimate the impact of Jurassic Park.  It ushered in a new era of cinema technology that melded the greatest aspects of stop-motion and animatronics with CGI breakthroughs in their infant stages.  But more than that, it blew the pants off of audiences around the world.  It’s safe to bet that everyone who saw the film during its initial release remembers what it was like walking out of the theater.  It knocked us all on our asses while also spawning a 1,000 junior archaeologists.  Kids replaced their Bart Simpson posters with ones of T-rexes and raptors, everyday coming in filthy from digging in the backyard all day.

All these years later and Universal did the obvious: they released Jurassic Park 3D.  Shortly after it hit theaters, it was dropped on Blu-ray.  How does it fare in comparison to the mighty 2011 Blu-ray release?  Hit the jump for all of our details on the Jurassic Park 3D combo pack. 

The line between opinion and truth on news outlets has been getting awfully blurry lately.  As corporations dictate the commentaries and presumptions delivered by major media outlets, journalistic integrity seems like a thing of the past.  It’s amidst this cloudy backdrop of subjective news sources that Touchstone releases the Blu-ray of Michael Mann’s critically-acclaimed 1999 drama The Insider – a film that examines the perils of allowing corporations to control the news.  The film, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards, resonates today more than ever as it pulls back the curtain on contemporary journalism and the sleaziness of the tobacco industry.  More on Touchstone’s Blu-ray of The Insider after the jump.

The films of prolific South Korean director Kim Ki-duk have delved into some of the ugliest sides of human nature, as well as some of the divine.  He’s an auteur capable of being both grotesquely controversial (The Isle) and peacefully introspective (Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring).  The sharp divide in style and themes meets head-on in his new film, Pieta, a challenging tale of revenge and motherly love that knows no boundaries.  Not even the gross ones.  The film won the Golden Lion at last year’s Venice International Film Festival and now its hitting the States.  Proceed past the jump for my review of Kim Ki-duk’s Pieta.

In films, alcoholism is rarely treated as the crippling, devastating disease that it is.  It’s oftentimes romanticized or portrayed as some quirk for comedic aspects.  A lot of diseases and mental illnesses are treated this way on screen.  There are some great films about alcoholism that take it seriously, like Lost Weekend and Under the Volcano.  But for the most part films tend to leave out the lies, shame, and heaps of ruin laid on the alcoholic and their family.  James Ponsoldt‘s Smashed manages to find the perfect balance between a romantic comedy and a compelling study of a relationship fueled by booze.  More on Sony Pictures Classics’ Smashed Blu-ray after the jump.

While last week’s “Peace of Mind” felt like a finale, “Ghosts” was like an extended epilogue tying up some loose ends in what was another terrific season of Justified.  And although the season’s Drew Thompson mystery arc was solved four episodes ago, the series continued its greatness until the end as it examined the various burdens a life of crime brings for both sides of the law.  From its tense nursery shootout to Raylan’s sly way of handling Nicky Augustine, up until its haunting final shots, “Ghosts” was a fun and somber send off – with its own fair share of dark humor, of course.  More on the season finale of Justified after the jump. 

Can career criminals change their ways?  Or are they destined for jail or the grave?   These questions were examined in the penultimate “Peace of Mind”, which saw Justified’s finest confronting their various faiths and destinies.  Whether it be their faith in each other or the spiritual kind, several characters found themselves wrestling with who and what to rely on.  Then there’s that sonuvabitch fate that batters into you sometimes – Colt can tell you all about it.  It was a deep episode as well as an arresting one with some surprises and one helluva cliffhanger.  Hit the jump to help us celebrate Everybody Wins Day.

Some of the greatest moments on Justified occur when characters are simply sitting in the same room and talking.  That’s a testament to the sharp writing and stellar cast and it’s a fact that’s been prevalent since episode one.  “Decoy” was filled with these moments, but the scenes were amplified by the fact that a bulk of the characters were holed up somewhere, waiting for the Detroit shit to hit the fan.  Add in several intense stand-offs and two horribly nerve-wracking scenes and you’ve got one of the most entertaining episodes of the season.  More on this week’s Justified after the jump.

Airline pilots, for the most part, are like the mysterious man behind the curtain.  Passengers only get a glimpse of them when exiting the plane and hear their voices  once in a while over the intercom.  These guys have hundreds of lives in their hands and we just take it for granted that they are not drunk out of their minds.  Robert Zemeckis‘ Flight is about a very talented alcoholic pilot who averts a major disaster and winds up nosediving right into his dark inner-demons.  More on Paramount’s Flight Blu-ray after the jump.

After pretty much everyone in KY figured out who Drew Thompson is last week, this episode saw folks on both sides of the law in a mad dash to get to him first.  “Get Drew” is a fitting title as the dragnet tightened and everyone from Raylan to our old friends from Noble’s Holler made their moves on KY’s most wanted.  The question now is who will make it out of Harlan alive?  More on this week’s Justified after the jump. 

More than his refined quick-draw and ability to pull off the hat, what makes Raylan such a grade-A marshal is that his roots run deep in Kentucky.  He was raised around these tumultuous folks – the Crowders, the Mosleys, the Bennetts, and his own flesh and blood, the Givens.  Whether he wants to admit it, Raylan is part of this world.  Like Hunter says to him, “we are who we are.”  This idea of carrying the sins of the father runs throughout “The Hatchet Tour,” one of the best episodes of an already great season.  Oh, and they revealed who Drew Thompson is.  More on this week’s Justified after the jump.

“Outlaw” had some huge moments in it for major and secondary characters alike.  Unfortunately, most of it felt rushed.  Justified has always done a bang-up job of juggling its many players, but sometimes too much gets packed into one hour and some of the impact can be lost and important junctures can get brushed aside.  Regardless, season four continues to be entertaining as hell.  More on this week’s Justified after the break.

Prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike garnered international acclaim in 2011 for the samurai epic 13 Assassins, a remake of the 1963 film of the same name.  It was so successful you can even buy it at Target!  He followed up with another samurai remake, Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai – based on the Masaki Kobayshi 1962 classic Harakiri.  Unlike 13 Assassins, Hara-Kiri is more of a sentimental melodrama than an action epic.  It’s in the vein of classic samurai dramas that examine honor, castes, and revenge.  And holy moly is it a sad and beautiful film. More on the Hara-Kiri Blu-ray after the jump. 

Unless a character on Justified is killed there’s a good chance they’ll be popping up again.  Characters we don’t see for nearly entire seasons can resurface and no one feels like a secondary character.  “Money Trap” saw the return of the old sheriff, the fugitive from episode 1, and some local officials who put Boyd in his place.  Even Raylan’s quick draw also made an appearance!  It was one of the more exciting episodes of the season so far, but it also went to some dark places.  More on “Money Trap” after the jump.

Don’t worry, if you haven’t seen any Death Race movies yet, you won’t have trouble following Death Race 3: Inferno.  But if you haven’t seen the one that started it all, Roger Corman‘s Death Race 2000, then you’re doing something wrong with your life.  Anyways, Death Race 2 director Roel Reiné and writer Tony Giglio are back for part three, as well as actors Luke Goss, Danny Trejo, Ving Rhames, and Tanit Phoenix.  Find out how Universal’s Blu-ray measures up after the jump.