Like most weeks, this time around we’ve got another bunch of new movies and TV shows hitting DVD and Blu-ray. Some of them are new, some are old and some are hitting Blu-ray for the first time.

Of the ones hitting stores today, we’re most interested in the Blu-ray release of The Last Station, the extra fun and campy Death Race 2000, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Afro Samurai: The Complete Murder Sessions, Riverworld and the action film Green Zone (pictured above with Amy Ryan and Matt Damon).

Movies

A Star Is Born (Blu-ray Book) ~ Judy Garland (Blu-ray)

Close-Up (The Criterion Collection) ~ Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Abolfazl Ahankhah (Blu-ray)

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs ~ Bill Hader, Anna Faris (Blu-ray and DVD)

Death Race 2000 (Roger Corman’s Cult Classics) ~ David Carradine, Sylvester Stallone (Blu-ray)

Fireball ~ Ian Somerhalder, Lexa Doig (Blu-ray and DVD)

Green Zone ~ Matt Damon (Blu-ray and DVD)

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It looks like Fox’s long in development reboot of the classic Sci-Fi film Fantastic Voyage may be closer to getting a director attached. According to THR, Paul Greengrass, late of the Matt Damon starrer Green Zone and United 93, is in talks to take on the project.

The pic, which is being produced by James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment, tells the story of a team of scientists who are shrunk to atomic size and sent on a minature submarine to save the life of a defecting Soviet scientist who holds the key to stabilizing the shrinking process. Once inside the scientist, the team struggles to perform surgery to save the man’s life and also must battle to save themselves from his body’s defensises and a traitor in their midst.

The reboot will reportedly stick close to the original story and will, of course, up the ante with state of the art visual effects as well as eventual delivery in 3D. Color me surprised about that last development. Gotta say I’m a fan of Greengrass’s work so him taking on a reboot of Fantastic Voyage is not the worst thing that could happen.

No word yet on a start date or potential casting for the film (especially who’s taking on the roles made famous by Raquel Welch and Donald Pleasence) but when their is, we’ll bring it to you.

Wow.  I’ve got to say that it was a pretty tepid weekend at the movies. We had a couple of new releases that I thought would just rake it in this weekend, but instead, they barely registered a blip on the radar screen.

How to Train Your Dragon actually won the throne this weekend, but I have to think the $43.3 Million opening was a disappointment for Dreamworks. This movie has family appeal and enjoyed stellar critical reviews, but had an underwhelming opening.  I have seen the budget reported at between $165 Million and $180 Million, either of which will ensure an uphill battle for the movie to recoup its costs.

Remember last week when I hinted that How to Train might have difficulty getting booked on 3D screens because Alice in Wonderland is still going strong? Well, it may be entirely coincidence, but when the husband and I tried to find a theater nearby to take our kids to see How to Train Your Dragon, we couldn’t find one.

It was no big deal to drive to one a bit out of our neighborhood, but I wonder if this happened nationwide?  I have lived in my city 15 years, and I have never had to drive out of my little five mile radius to find a movie, especially such a big release.

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With The Flickcast’s own Shannon Hood covering all the excitement at SXSW this week yours truly is stepping in to take over box office duty. Don’t worry all you Hood fans, I have no doubt that she’ll be back next week, which means I’m only here for one week. That’s something that can’t be said about Alice in Wonderland, however.

Even with mixed reviews, Alice took the top spot again over the weekend. While it dropped 46% drop from last week, the 3D fantasy took in another $62 Million, bringing its total to $208 Million in only two weeks. As Shannon noted last week, this is Tim Burton’s biggest opening and the film is certainly finding an audience.

One concern from reviewers was whether or not audiences would be somewhat disappointed by the 3D aspect of Alice in comparison to Avatar. While Avatar was quite an immersive experience Alice in Wonderland presented more of your traditional 3D environment. It seems movie goers don’t mind the difference and are eager to see Johnny Depp and cast as they romp through Wonderland.

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Green Zone is the third collaboration between director Paul Greengrass and actor Matt Damon.  Previously, the two brought us The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum.  If you are hoping for another adrenaline laced conspiracy drama, this movie will meet you half way.  There is conspiracy in excess, but the adrenaline-not so much.

The first half hour does a great job of depicting how unstable conditions in Baghdad were early on in the Iraq war. Greengrass ratchets up the tension and dread much like Kathryn Bigelow did in The Hurt Locker, by merely giving us a glimpse into everyday life after the initial destabilization of Iraq.  Soldiers wear heavy uniforms in blistering conditions, and crowded city streets could easily be harboring suicide bombers or other dangers.  Everyone is constantly and understandably on edge.

Unfortunately, during the second half of the movie much of the action takes place at night.  Greengrass elected to film these scenes with his signature hand-cam, and these scenes are grainy, jarring and indecipherable.

I don’t mind watching documentary style film, and fortunately I don’t get sick from shaky cam (heed my warning, if you have any tendency to get nauseous during this type of camera work, this movie will do you in), but it is really annoying when you cannot see anything that is going on.  I found my mind wandering to my mental list of chores during some really crucial chase scenes, because I just kind of gave up on trying to figure out what is going on.

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