By Chris Kavan - 02/14/12 at 03:46 PM CT
The release dates are a little scary this week. Tuesday Feb. 14th, 2012 brings us a collection of horrors - mostly intentional.
1) Johnny Depp proved he's not 100% infallible after the quirky nature of The Rum Diary
failed to capture much interest at the box office. Still, like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, this film caters to a much more limited audience than, say, Pirates of the Caribbean.
2) Another film that caters to a limited audience is the depraved Human Centipede II: Full Sequence
. The original brought a whole new level of perversion to cinema as Tom Six managed to find a way to create something both revolting and yet oddly compelling. The sequel sounds like it goes too far into the bizarre side of things as Full Sequence goes for full-on grotesque. I might watch this out of sheer curiosity, but I'm not expecting too much.
3) Finally Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain deliver a one-two punch of apocalyptic proportions in Take Shelter
. Shannon plays a family man plagued by visions of an impending disaster that drives him to build a storm shelter - but is he saving his family or simply going mad? The premise sounds fascinating and I'm willing to take a chance on this simply to see how things turn out.
On the Blu-Ray front, war films don't get much more classic than the WWI tale All Quiet on the Western Front
. Based on the book by Erich Maria Remarque that, far from portraying war as patriotic or heroic, paints a much more sobering reality of death and disillusionment. A must for any fan of war films. Criterion continues to update their library with the release of Three Outlaw Samurai
in high definition. Hideo Gosha crafts a tale that fits right in with Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and Yojimbo films as a trio of men (a wandering ronin and two renegade guards) find themselves helping out a group of peasants against an overwhelming force. If you're a fan of these kind of classic samurai films, it sounds like a worthy addition.
You can check out these new 2012 DVD releases and more on the FilmCrave New DVD Releases and FilmCrave New Blu-Ray Releases pages today.
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