Disc Deals and Steals of the Week: Stardust, MacGruber, and TV on DVD

In a new feature at Inside Pulse Movies, we compile all the best deals on new DVD and Blu-ray releases, as well as report on some that are so good they’re criminal. Brick-and-mortar stores include Target, Best Buy and Fry’s Electronics. Amazon sales are also in the mix.

In between Layer Cake and Kick-Ass, Matthew Vaughn adapted this best-selling novel from Neil Gaiman. Unfortunately, when it was released in theaters in August 2007, it didn’t make a huge dent at the box office. Being saddled between the releases of The Bourne Ultimatum and Superbad didn’t help. Stardust still made its money back, but the fantasy film would do better on home video, developing a cult following as a result. In the film, Tristan (Charlie Cox) ventures through a breech and enters the fantasy kingdom of Stormhold in pursuit of a fallen star. He does this to prove his love for the village beauty, Victoria (Sienna Miller). But it turns out that the star is no star at all; it’s a young maiden named Yvaine (Claire Danes). However, Tristan isn’t the only party looking for her: three witches, led by Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer), want her heart to make them young; and, the sons of the dead king of Stormhold want her because she holds a ruby that will give one of them title to the throne. Helping Tristan and Yvaine along the way and to safe passage is an eclectic supporting cast including Robert De Niro as the transvestite pirate of the skies. Will Tristan manage to get Yvaine to his beloved Victoria, who has promised to marry him if he accomplishes this goal, or does fate have something bigger in store? At the time of its release studios were trying to capture the magic of The Lord of the Rings success and most productions failed. However with Stardust it is light fantasy, like Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride, which it draws comparison. It’s a gem of a movie that is only enhanced on Blu-ray. Fantasy, action, comedy, Stardust has got it all.

Notable Extras: Commentary by Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman; Crossing the Wall (Five-Part Making-of Feature) (HD); Nothing is True: Behind the Scenes with Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess (SD); Bloopers; Deleted Scenes; Theatrical trailer (HD)

BEST PRICE
Target – N/A
Best Buy – $24.99
Fry’s – $21.99
Amazon – $19.99

It’s been a decade since we’ve had a new movie based on a Saturday Night Live sketch. This year Lorne Michaels and the gang released MacGruber, based on the recurring sketch featuring Will Forte as a MacGyver-like hero who’s forever unsuccessfully trying to stop a bomb from exploding. After strong buzz when it premiered at South by Southwest, the hard-R comedy dropped in May and failed. MacGruber wasn’t enough to diffuse this bomb. Costing $10 million and only grossing $9.2 million, this parody of ’80s and ’90s action films couldn’t illicit much laughter in theaters. But on DVD and Blu-ray, it may play better. Co-starring Ryan Phillipe, Val Kilmer and Forte’s SNL cast mate Kristen Wiig and directed by Lonely Island member Jorma Taccone, MacGruber is probably the raunchiest of all the Saturday Night Live movies – a celery stick sticking out the wrong hole, among other things – the movie experience would probably be enhanced with a stiff drink.

Notable Extras: On DVD & BD – Commentary by director/co-writer Jorma Taccone, co-writer/star Will Forte and co-writer John Solomon, Deleted Scene, Gag Reel

BEST DVD PRICE
Target – N/A
Best Buy – $18.99
Fry’s – N/A
Amazon – $17.99

BEST BLU-RAY PRICE
Target – N/A
Best Buy – $26.99 (Exclusive Blu/DVD combo pack)
Fry’s – N/A
Amazon – $26.99

In case you didn’t already know, Michael Douglas is the man. He won an Oscar for producing One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and won another for playing one of the most iconic roles of the ’80s as Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street. With that role he coined the phrase that many Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs’ executives would take as sound advice: “Greed is good.” Twenty-three years after that Oscar-winning role, Douglas will reprise that character in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. And while that film is getting a lot of publicity, you should check out his performance in Solitary Man, an indie drama from Brian Koppelman and David Levien, who previously penned the film Rounders and wrote and directed Knockaround Guys. The film is about Douglas’s descent into destitution. A hotshot car magnate who gets some untimely news at the height of his success, his personal and professional life hit the skids because of his business and romantic indiscretions. He divorces his wife (Susan Sarandon), sleeps with the daughter of his current girlfriend, and eventually winds up working in a small deli with Danny DeVito – their first collaboration since The War of the Roses. Douglas plays a despicable protagonist from beginning to end, but he speaks his mind and only half believes the advice that he dispenses. It’s a character study about a man going through a mid-life crisis as someone who is cynical about everything and is unwilling to grow up. The cast may include Susan Sarandon, Mary-Louise Parker, Jenna Fischer, newcomer Imogen Poots, and Jesse Eisenberg, but support they offer can’t overshadow Michael Douglas’s Ben Kalmen character. I wouldn’t say Solitary Man is an automatic buy, but would be a solid rental. Watch it with Wall Street and Wonder Boys to you have yourself a trifecta of great Michael Douglas roles.

Notable Extras: On DVD & BD – Commentary by Brian Koppelman, David Levien and actor Douglas McGrath; a making-of featurette; theatrical trailer

BEST DVD PRICE
Target – $19.99 (Save $5 if purchased with Wall Street – $9.99)
Best Buy – $19.99
Fry’s – $19.99
Amazon – $17.99

BEST BLU-RAY PRICE
Target – N/A
Best Buy – $24.99
Fry’s – $26.99
Amazon – $23.99

Other noteworthy DVD (and Blu-ray) releases this week…

Killers [DVD / BD] – Chuck: The Complete Third Season [DVD / Blu-ray] – Supernatural: The Fifth Season [DVD / Blu-ray] – Smallville: The Complete Ninth Season [DVD / Blu-ray] – The Office: Season Six [DVD / BD] – That Evening Sun [DVD / BD – The Norm Show (Complete Series)

Noteworthy Blu-ray-specific releases this week…
The Player – Forbidden Planet – THX 1138 (The George Lucas Director’s Cut) – Mars Attacks! – It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown – A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving – Hatchet – Lost in Space – Tommy

Retailer Specials

Exclusive: Supernatural (Season 5) – Includes bonus disc with 100th Episode featurette
Exclusive: The Office (Season 6) – Includes bonus disc containing two extended episodes

Exclusive: Free limited-edition collectible ironpack case w/pre-order of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast – Diamond Edition Combo Pack (avail. 10/05)
Exclusive: The Office (Season 6) – Includes exclusive T-shirt & bonus disc
Exclusive: Smallville (Season 9) – Includes exclusive T-shirt
Exclusive: Supernatural (Season 5) – Includes exclusive Key chain
$7.99 Blu-rays: 3:10 to Yuma, Trick ‘R Treat, Freddy vs. Jason, Tango & Cash, The Forbidden Kingdom, The Omega Man, Logan’s Run, The Wild Bunch, Crank, Reservoir Dogs
$9.99 Blu-rays: Do the Right Thing, Galaxy Quest, South Park: BLU, Ghostbusters, Big, Starship Troopers, Superbad, The Prestige, Hard Candy, The Blair Witch Project
$14.99 Blu-rays: Law Abiding Citizen, Moon, Julie & Julia, Armored, The Stepfather