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ON DVD: John Carter, Private Romeo, Bear Nation And More!

By June 6, 2012 at 12:33pm
Space operas and military cadets and bears, oh my! New to DVD and Bluray this week are a slew of vastly different yet highly entertaining films and TV shows: A musclebound warrior in the form of Friday Night Lights‘ Taylor Kitsch wrestles with giant space monsters in John Carter, French film Tomboy features a switch of sexes for a 10-year old girl; homoeroticism lights up at an all-male military school in the Shakespearean Private Romeo (above); and producer Kevin Smith brings the bear community together in documentary Bear Nation.
John Carter ($49.99 3D Bluray, $39.99 Bluray, $29.99 DVD, Disney) Arriving only three months after it failed to meet mighty box office expectations, Disney’s much-ballyhooed John Carter tries to sink its teeth into home viewers. Bad reputation aside, Carter is campy, full of eye candy—there’s no avoiding a half-naked Taylor Kitsch—and packs quite a punch. Blu-ray extras include deleted scenes with commentary by director Andrew Stanton (WALL-E), a making-of featurette, a feature-length commentary by the filmmakers, and a blooper reel. (Of course some might say the whole film is a blooper reel.)
  Bear Nation ($19.95 DVD, Kino Lorber) Producer and bear icon Kevin Smith and director Malcolm Ingram (Small Town Gay Bar) bring us this charming and funny documentary about the community who pride themselves on not looking like every other six-packed, twinkish gay boy in town. A bear himself, Ingram brings a sense of humor and humanity to this doc. Extras includes an interview with Smith and comedian Tracy Morgan, and the film’s original trailer.  
Private Romeo ($19.99 DVD, Wolfe Releasing) Cute high school boys in military uniforms quoting Shakespeare is just one of of the many eyecatching attributes of this modern take on Romeo & Juliet with a Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell twist. When eight unsupervised cadets are left alone to rehearse Shakespeare’s most famous play, the young men find the world of the stage and the real world folding in on each other as Seth Numrich’s Romeo finds himself falling for Matt Doyle’s “Juliet.” Extras include a director’s commentary, a behind-the-scenes featurette, deleted scenes and a trailer.  
War Stories ($19.99 DVD, Uncheckable Films) Led to believe his father died in the Gulf War, small-town teen Tim (Michael Brenton Gordon) is shocked when he discovers that isn’t the case. He and his gay best friend, Austin (Mark Ayesh), decide to what really happened to Tim’s dad and along the way find some secrets that may have been best left undiscovered.  

Tomboy
($19.99 DVD, Wolfe Releasing)

Lesbian director Céline Sciamma (Waterlilies) offers a heartfelt and funny tale about the adventures of 10-year-old Laurie (an amazing Zoé Héran), who, after moving with her family to a Parisian suburb, disguises herself as a boy named Mikael. At home, she’s still Laurie, but as “Mikael,” she quickly draws the attention of a popular girl smitten with the new boy next door.

 

ALSO OUT ON DVD

Breaking Bad: The Complete Fourth Season

Safe House

Machine Gun Preacher

The House of Yes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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9 Comments*

  • MikeE

    I really enjoyed John Carter. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a LOT more fun than many other films that went on to make fortunes *coughtwilightcough*.

    Disney epically erred with their advertising strategy for the film. They are responsible in large part for their own misfortune.

  • Larry McD

    Taylor Kitsch “musclebound”???? You really need to get out more.

  • RK

    Private Romeo – excellently done. Finally a gay film worth watching.

  • patrick Maxcy

    loved John Carter…the story was written at the turn of the century…long before space travel and life on other planets were even talked about…film was much better than critics said…and Taylor Kitsch was great….Disney did a poor job with its advertising strategy…really like this film

  • MikeE

    @patrick Maxcy: Totally agree with you.
    It’s such a shame so few people saw the film, and that those who did didn’t appreciate that they were watching the story that inspired ALL other sci-fi space-opera stories.
    It’s also a crying shame that we probably won’t get the rest of the story (sequels) that COULD have been made.

    I thought Kitsch did a great job. Admittedly, he may not be the greatest actor, but he is certainly convincing enough! And of course, he isn’t too hard on the eyes.

  • Brad007

    Taylor Kitsch = box office poison.

  • Jay

    Bear Nation is a shitty film and it’s embarrassing towards everyone that’s LGBT!

  • Neal

    LMAO of course that closeted bisexual Kevin Smith made Bear Nation, which was a not so good documentary about how cliquey and shitty the whole “Bear” fashion is nowadays and has been for the last two decades.

  • Eric

    I happened to catch War Stories at this past year’s Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.  What a fantastic film!  The cast was quite good and I didn’t see the ending coming (it does a bit of a hard left turn at the end). So happy to see that it’s getting a wider release.

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