Black Sheep's Blu-Tuesday

As it turns out, I'm a little blue this Tuesday.  It should be fitting considering but it's really just distracting.  Fortunately, there aren't too many films coming out today to get excited about.  And perhaps even more importantly, what is coming out is pretty funny stuff.  First off though, the following films have been announced on Blu-ray this week: SEX AND THE CITY 2 comes home on October 26 ... The incredibly gorgeous, I AM LOVE, will wow you on October 12 ... If you like French film and fashion, be sure to see COCO CHANEL AND IGOR STRAVINSKY on September 28 ... WINTER'S BONE, one of the most understated films of 2010, will impress on October 26 ... And one of my favorite films from my childhood, TREMORS, comes out from the underground on November 9.  Now, let's get back to the present ...

DATE NIGHT

20th Century Fox and director, Shawn Levy (NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM) have discovered a new comedy pairing that is certain to give everyone who watches a laugh, whether they have a date with them or not.  The premise is silly - suburban couple get mistaken for thieves while on a date and spend the rest of the night in NYC running for their lives - but Steve Carrell and Tina Fey bring depth and urgency to it regardless.  We've seen the perils of a stale marriage plenty of times before but Carrell and Fey fight just as hard to save their marriage as they do their lives on this particular night because it truly feels as though it is hanging by a thread.  More importantly, they bring the laughs and the couple that laughs together, stays together.  Click here to read the original Black Sheep review of DATE NIGHT.

DEATH AT A FUNERAL

Three years after the original Frank Oz film of the same name became a cult hit,  Sony Pictures and once promising director, Neil LaBute have decided that a remake for American audiences is a matter of life and death.    Having seen both versions, I can certainly say that this 2010 version is nowhere near as funny or poignant but it still does the trick mostly, thanks to a strong  cast, including Chris Rock, James Marsden, Zoe Saldana, Martin Lawrence , Tracy Morgan and Luke Wilson.  It doesn't deviate much from the original - even the opening credit sequence is pretty similar - so, aside from making some more dough stateside, I can't really see a need for the film.  At least it doesn't kill the life the original honoured so well.

ALSO NEW THIS WEEK: If you aren't through laughing after these two films, both NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION and EUROPEAN VACATION are available through Warner Bros.  Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal yuck it up in WHAT'S UP DOC?  And Terry Zwigoff's 1994 documentary about Robert Crumb, CRUMB, gets the Criterion treatment.

Source: Blu-ray.com