Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "42nd Street" (1933)

This week I'm recommending a movie that's also listed in our January movie month, but now that it's finally out on blu-ray it deserves another boost. The 1933 Busby Berkeley extravaganza set the template for the backstage musical, and has some of the most spectacular numbers ever seen on film. It also benefits from its pre-production code era by being able to address some of the more serious issues of the early days of the Depression. It's a fantastic, dark musical that still holds up more than 80 years later, and there's not many you can say that about. Look for an early appearance by Ginger Rogers in the ensemble cast.

Original 1933 trailer:

Chris Pratt Tracks Dinos in New Look at 'Jurassic World'

There's a couple of callbacks to the original in this new trailer for Jurassic World, but mostly it looks kinda silly. I still think the novelty factor is completely gone for this series- once you've seen three Jurassic Park movies, what more can you do with it, really? Unless you go for something totally wacky, like humans teaming up with intelligent dinosaurs to go after wild ones or something, but that'd just up the silliness even more.

Batman and Superman Square Off in New Trailer for 'Dawn of Justice'

Well, that looks...dark. And I mean that in the literal sense, like someone forgot to turn on the lights. Okay, I hated Man of Steel a lot, so I admit I am not primed to like this movie, especially with the untalented hack that is Zack Snyder once again at the helm, but frankly this looks just as awful as I thought it would look, and kind of like a chore to sit through. I'm hoping it's a glorious mess, but I get the feeling that it's more likely to be simply a grim, unpleasant one. Ugh. And Ben Affleck as Batman? Not feeling it.

First Look at Tarantino's 'Hateful Eight'

Okay, so this isn't really a first look. No, instead it's an all animated teaser that gives us the premise of the movie and the character names in nifty typeface. It's a very Tarantino "cool' thing to do, but it's also a bit of a cheat. Then again, the movie just wrapped filming, so I guess it'd be unfair to expect footage so early. I always look forward to his movies, even though they all tend to be in kinda the same vein, no matter which genre he's playing with. This time it's a western (although Django Unchained was more or less of a western too, wasn't it?) It's coming out in November.

Luke Skywalker and Han Solo Return in New 'Star Wars' Trailer

Well, here it is guys! At long last, the first trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens has arrived, and it's mostly pretty cool, right? We hear Mark Hamill narrating, some of the new characters appearing, and the best is saved for last, with the pop up of Harrison Ford as the one and only Han (with Chewie by his side), and John Williams' music to boot. The only thing that bugs me is how fan service-y this whole thing seems. This is obviously a slavishly devoted fan's tribute to what he loved about the old ones rather than something new entirely- I could almost see this whole trailer as a fan-made Youtube video. But for what it is, I'm sure it's going to satisfy the fans, because what more could they ask for, right? I mean seriously, is that Darth Vader's burned helmet? What Star Wars fanboy hasn't dreamed of being able to buy that for his personal memorabilia collection?

George Clooney and Brad Bird on Disney's 'Tomorrowland'

For some reason I hadn't quite noticed that Tomorrowland was actually based on the Disneyland attraction, but I guess what else would it be, right? Does that make it seem like just another commercial for Disney product? At least it has an original screenplay, but can Disney be inspired to produce anything completely original at this point? This featurette goes into the history of Tomorrowland with appearances from Walt Disney himself, as well as the people involved in the film.