DRAFT DAY Highlights this week in Blu-ray, DVD and VOD Releases

By PETER BROWN / Contributing Editor

Posted: September 7th, 2014 / 12:07 PM

Your time is short. We know this. So in order to expedite your buying and Netflix decision making, we provide you with a list of the cool and not-so-cool titles coming out for movies, television and everything in-between. So put your feet up, grab some popcorn and check out this week’s selections.

Movies:

DRAFT DAY | © 2014 Lionsgate Home Entertainment

DRAFT DAY – Just in time for the start of the regular season of the NFL, you’d think a story about the NFL draft would be about as boring as paint drying. How interesting could watching a bunch of guys drafting sports athletes be beyond just looking their college numbers or how they fit a need for a team? Luckily, DRAFT DAY doesn’t do that. It focuses instead on a beleaguered general manager for the Cleveland Browns that gets put in a hole when the owner threatens to fire him if he doesn’t make a splash on draft day. So he makes a bad decision to trade for the No. 1 overall pick in order to land the hottest quarterback prospect. This doesn’t go over well with the coach and it doesn’t sit well with the GM (played by Kevin Costner). So he drafts someone that shouldn’t be the overall No.1 pick and things go crazy. What follows is his attempt to save his job and return the Browns to glory (which here is a bit of a stretch considering the new franchise has been anything but successful).

While DRAFT DAY appeals to a larger audience than just sports fans (or specifically football fans), those in the know about the draft and the game will be more informed watchers than someone just looking for a drama about sports. Costner does a decent job and Jennifer Garner is still crazy gorgeous after all these years and also does a serviceable job. In the end, a good, albeit somewhat predictable, drama with a good sports hook for anyone excited about the upcoming season of football.

JERSEY SHORE MASSACRE | © 2014 Attack Entertainment

JERSEY SHORE MASSACRE – For anyone wanting to see the cast of JERSEY SHORE get eviscerated in some of the most brutal ways, this one is for you. With producer JWow in tow, the film is a stereotypical slasher flick with a host of stereotypical jersey goons and overly tan women with way too much drama. The good news is that there is a sufficient amount of gore and some pretty good special effects to negate the really, terrible acting and B-movie storyline that seemingly goes nowhere. The movie is really bad, so bad, that it ups itself on the bad scale over and over again. When you think you’ve seen and heard the worst of it, it does a great job of proving it wants to be utterly terrible in more ways than one. Now, that said, the kills are good, the gore is good and if you hated the series on MTV, you can really get a kick out of the whole seeing the same sort of characters taken out one by one.

REVELATION TRAIL | © 2014 Entertainment One

REVELATION TRAIL – The interesting thing about zombie movies is that they come in all shapes and sizes these days. Zombie comedies, zombies in the hood, zombies in the Soviet bloc, Nazi zombies and, naturally, zombies in the Old West. REVELATION TRAIL is the latter with a sheriff and a preacher battling against the undead that seemingly crop up out of nowhere and everyone tries to figure out where they come from and how to defeat them. While it plods along at different times and there is really not a lot of gore for a zombie movie (not that it is surprisingly given how low-budget this film is), it has its moments especially when the duo must enter into a battle of wills with an army soldier that rules with an iron fist. If you have exhausted all your other zombie fare, this is one to check out when you have time.

SLEDGE – A horror comedy that is all too weird. Supposedly some sledgehammer wielding dude has been roaming the woods in some random state picking off poor souls while uttering crazy one-liners the whole way. The movie flip-flops between what it wants to be and what it shows. On one hand, it infuses comedy in the form of one dude that constantly makes fun of his friends – you probably have the same type of guy, you like him, but he’s a pain in the ass. He joins his other friends on a camping trip where they become the latest victims. Now all the kills are off camera with a sploog of bloody or brain matter being tossed after Sledge does the deed. That’s one problem. The other problem is that part of the film focuses on a bitch of a chick watching a movie called “Sledge” all the while being harassed by some guy obsessed with her. It serves as a self-deprecating point of view but it is incredibly random in its delivery. Now, SLEDGE isn’t bad and some of the one-liners are amusing but whoever edited the film needs to find a new job because it is horrifically bad, jumping from one scene to literally cutting the movie to another without a proper transition. If you are interested, it’s on VOD now.

Other titles available this week:

THE POSSESSION OF MICHAEL KING – An emotional documentary filmmaker goes on a quest to find the supernatural only to have himself be the subject. A bad idea as he is confronted by an evil force that now he must fight against.
BARBIE AND THE SECRET DOOR – While the TV series about Barbie is something that should be avoided by families because it is everything you don’t want your kids to be, the movies are the complete opposite and present humble characters that also have fun.
SANCTUARY: QUITE A CONDUNDRUM – A low-budget horror flick about a group of friends that get together for a party only to have it all come crashing down when the infidelity of one of the group turns the party into a grim fight for survival. Not bad, not great, but all low-budget.

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