New DVD Releases This Week: August 26

by Jeff Shannon

The biggest theatrical release this week is What Happens in Vegas, the Ashton Kutcher/Cameron Diaz comedy.

Kutcher and Diaz play a couple who find themselves married after a drunken one night stand.

The rest of the synopsis is from the movie website:  “The road to annulment takes a hilarious turn after Jack (Kutcher) wins a three-million-dollar jackpot while playing Joy’s(Diaz) quarter and a no-nonsense judge (Dennis Miller) sentences them to six months “hard marriage”. What follows is an all-out war of the sexes as Jack and Joy go to outrageous lengths to try and cheat each other out of the money. But in the end, they may learn that when you gamble on love, you just might win, against all odds!” (Once again, I didn’t write this!)

The critics weren’t kind, but it had decent box office numbers.

 The other theatrical releases this week include Redbelt the martial-arts “Karate Kid” type movie with an all-star cast,

and the latest Morgan Spurlock Documentary/Comedy, Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?

The biggest straight to DVD movie this week is the latest sequel from Disney, The Little Mermaid - Ariel’s Beginning.

This is actually a prequel, with Ariel narrating the story of her never-before-seen mother, Queen Athena.

Jodi Benson and Samuel E. Wright retuen as Ariel and Sebastian the Crab, respectively.  Sally Field is also in the cast, but many of the classic characters do not appear, or had their voices replaced.  (I know you can’t resurrect Buddy Hackett, but isn’t Pat Caroll still kicking, or at least breathing?)

Re-released this week is The Nightmare Before Christmas.  This new collector’s edition of the 1993 Tim Burton animated film boasts a completely restored version with more brilliant colors and sharper images.  

The Blu-Ray version also was released this week.

This is a good movie that needed remastering, and it should look awesome in Blu-Ray, but why release a Christmas/Halloween movie in August? 

TV Shows released on DVD this week include “The Shield - The Complete Sixth Season”.  With all of the press surrounding the final season that’s about to begin, it seems right to catch up with Vic and the Strike Team.

Other new TV shows on DVD this week include “Heroes: Season Two”

“One Tree Hill - The Complete Fifth Season”

“Entourage - The Complete Fourth Season”

and the always underrated “NCIS - The Fifth Season”  

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