NEW to DVD JULY 15, 2008

New to DVD Tuesday July 15

Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
THE BANK JOB-R for sexual content, nudity, violence, and language-Starring Jason Statham. Crime/Action/Suspense. You know how I love a good heist film. And you know I love Jason Statham. And of course there is the "based on a true story" element. And then throw in a little violence and action…. And you have my favorite movie of the week. You know how I feel about box office revenue. The masses so often see the movies I would never bother to spend a dime on, and they skip the ones they should be seeing. For example, here are the box office revenue earnings for the DVD releases this week:

STEP UP 2: THE STREETS $58M
COLLEGE ROAD TRIP $43M
THE BANK JOB $30M
SHUTTER $26M
PENELOPE $10M

It's actually quite rare to have 5 releases in a single week that have brought in over $10M in the box office. But back to the movies and their corresponding revenue—you couldn't have paid me to watch college road trip. You might have persuaded me, at gunpoint, to watch step up 2. If you could have convinced me the gun was loaded at a range that would prove to be lethal. Shutter looked eerie, but not necessarily bad. Just a movie that perhaps you wouldn't want to watch right before bedtime and quite honestly, I just didn't feel the need to subject myself to such torture. I would have been amused, I'm sure, but would have paid for it by being unsettled or disturbed later (no cracks about me already being disturbed). Penelope looks simply silly, and the only reason people are renting this movie from me so far is to see the Twilight preview that is included on the disc. I might have seen this if my kids would have begged me to take them. However,
thankfully they did not ask, and instead they have asked to see Kung Fu Panda (which was cute), Iron Man (oorah!), Hulk (SOOOOO much better than the first one), Hancock (very very good, Mr. Smith), Wall-E (cute and politically/satirically motivated—I was very amused), Indiana Jones, and they saw the new Narnia without me. I think there were others recently but that's all I remember at the moment.
So back to The Bank Job. This is based on a true story, but as usual, how much of it is true remains unclear. This is because the story itself was classified (the crazy UK people call this "D-noticed") by the government for reasons of national security shortly after it happened. A few days after the incident, the intense media coverage stopped completely as a result. Why was this DA-notice issued? Well, the producers say their inside source, made executive producer, claims it was because a safety deposit box, ravaged at the robbed bank, contained compromising photos of Princess Margaret. The safety deposit box belonged to murder suspect, Michael X (a black civil rights activist of the 60s). The story goes that MI5 knew Michael X had the compromising photos of Little Miss Margaret, and while he had them in his possession, he was untouchable. That is the part that is not confirmed. Michael X's government file is still scheduled to be sealed well into 2050. Coincidentally, Michael X was convicted and hanged for murder shortly after the robbery.
And although much of the story seems entirely implausible, a lot of the story is quite true. The locations (down to the chicken shack), the massive drilling, and the radio ham operator's overhearing of the thieves' conversations (made public again just recently). Some of these conversations are word-for-word.
DOES IT GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS? Everyone loves a conspiracy. Personally, I think the illuminati were involved…
Critics agree with me on this one, folks… this one is a must see.
Really, the others just pale in comparison.