Blu-Ray Holiday Gift Guide!!

It's time to start shopping for the holidays and we've got some titles here to satisfy those movie fans in your life. All on the beautiful High Definition of Blu-ray. We have seven titles for you this time and there is sure to be something for almost anyone on your list. This round is for the adults so nothing on the list is going to be for the kids!

Click the Rawr! for our thoughts on Say Anything, Rocky: The Undisputed Collection, Paper Heart, Angels & Demons, Fight Club, Two Girls and a Guy and The Negotiator!





Paper Heart
Starring: Charlene Yi, Michael Cera, and Jake Johnson
Special Features: Paper Heart Uncut, The Making of Paper Heart, Live Musical Performances by Charlene Yi, "Heaven" Music Videi by Charlene Yi and Michael Cera, Love Interviews with The Comedians, Deleted Scene and a digital copy for portable media players.

This is probably the hipster event of the year but don't let that scare you off. Paper Heart is a charming psuedo-documentary about a girl, Charlene Yi, who doesn't believe in love but finds her beliefs challenged when she meets Michael Cera.

Paper Heart is a mocumentary that is really quite funny. The real strength lies with its leads Charlene and Michael. Apart they're instantly likable and charming. Together, well, look out.

I don't want to go into too much details here as I don't want to spoil anything in the film. There are a lot of great interviews with comedians and kids and more. It's not exactly enlightening and it's not a world changing film but it is a sweet little story that I really enjoyed watching.

The disc has some great features as well making it well worth a buy. It's a great gift idea for anyone with indie sensibilities and especially for fans of the cast. I wanted to feature this first because I enjoyed it the most out of all the flicks on the guide.

Rocky: The Undisputed Collection
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Carl Weathers, Burt Young, Dolph Lundgren, Brigitte Nielsen, Sage Stallone, Tommy Morrison, Antonio Tarver, and Burgess Meredith

Includes: Rocky, Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, Rocky V, and Rocky Balboa
Special features include trailers, tributes, behind the scenes, and much more.

This set is a must have for all the sports guys and dads out there. For everyone else, well it's Rocky so it depends on what you think of that franchise. Personally, I can take it or leave it.

The set includes all six films collected together for the first time on the format and a disc dedicated to bonus features.

The blu-rays leave a bit to be desired. The pictures are grainy and a little muddled for the first couple of films. Each one gets better but they are in need of a restoration, especially the original which being such an iconic film deserves some special treatment.

I'm including this set on the list simply because it is such an iconic franchise and for the money it's a nice set. Experience the entire journey of Rocky Balboa from beginning to end.

Fight Club: 10th Anniversary Edition
Starring: Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter

Special Features: behind the scenes, deleted and alternate scenes, trailers, tv spots, PSAs, music video, promotional galleries, art galleries, commentaries and exclusive to Blu-ray featurettes and search index.

David Fincher's masterpiece Fight Club has just been released in a gorgeous blu-ray set that features a little secret bonus for fans of the film.

You know the story so you know what the first rule is. That aside, Fox has given a great release here. It really puts Fight Club in a new light with stunning sound and pristine visuals.

The set is jammed with features giving you everything you could want here but the real treat is the riveting performances by the cast. The work here from the three leads, and even the supporting cast, is simply brilliant.

The film is haled as an American Classic for a reason and this set makes for a fantastic gift this year.

Just don't talk about it.

Angels & Demons
Starring: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgard, and Armin Mueller-Stahl
Special Features: Featurettes, behind the scenes, cinechat, movieIQ, digital copy, Theatrical and Extended Editions of the film.

Angels & Demons is the second film featuring symbologist Robert Langdon, originally made famous in massive best selling book, and subsequent lackluster film, The DaVinci Code. Truth be told, the novel Angels & Demons was released prior to The DaVinci Code but the film is presented as a sequel, including making reference to the original film.

Confused? It's not really that important. What is important is that Angels & Demons is a far better film that its predecessor. That doesn't make it a perfect film by any means, but it is an interesting at times exciting film.

This time, Langdon is on the trail of an ancient secret society who has kidnapped several candidates for Pope and plans to murder them on the hour leading up to a catastrophic explosion that will lay waste to Vatican City. Quite the task for a Professor, but it stays pretty believable.

Some of the dialogue falls extremely flat ("feels like I'm scuba diving...with the wrong mixture.") but the fascinating historical information more than makes up for that.

Tom Hanks really is the perfect Robert Langdon and he really does a fine job this time around. there's no denying that these films feel like 007 for nerds but Angels & Demons is still quite fun to watch.

The Blu-ray is full of great featurettes that shine more light on the story, the characters and the history of Angels & Demons.

Perfect gift for fans of the books, tom hanks, or interesting historical fiction.

Two Girls and a Guy
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Natasha Gregson Wagner, and Heather Graham
Special features: Theatrical Trailer, both the R-rated and NC-17 rated versions of the film, A Conversation with James Toback, Commentary featuring James Toback, Robert Downey Jr., and Natasha Gregson Wagner

It goes to show just how restrictive the MPAA can be when they slapped this film with an NC-17 rating for a rather tame sex scene. The story revolves around two women who discover they have the same "perfect" boyfriend, played wonderfully (as usual) by Robert Downey Jr.

This one certainly isn't for everyone but it is a pretty great, if often overlooked, film. It's a wonderful study of sex and sexuality, fidelity and relationships.

Robert Downey Jr. is fantastic here as usual as is Heather Graham who I normally am not a fan of. Natasha Gregson Wagner is great as well. It's a shame we don't see more of her but this film is a fine example of her talents.

The set is a little light on special features with basically just a commentary and a trailer but an all new conversation with the director James Toback.

This is a gift for fans of interested subject matter and Robert Downey. Jr.

The Negotiator
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, JT Walsh, David Morse, John Spencer and Ron Rifkin

Special features: Featurettes on making of the film and stories from real negotiators, theatrical trailer

The Negotiator is probably my favorite Samuel Jackson movie. It's a taught thriller about a police negotiator who is framed embezzlement and murder forced to take hostages to prove his innocence who is up against another negotiator in a battle of wills.

What we have here are two phenomenal performances from the leads in one my my favorite thrillers in years. It's tense and smart from start to finish. Certainly, it's director F. Gary Gray's best film.

The unfortunate thing here is that the disc is nearly devoid of bonus features. It's basically a couple of featurettes and a trailer. Granted, the feature on Real Negotiators is rather interesting it still leaves on disappointed that such a great film isn't better supplemented.

I don't think they make thrillers like this anymore which is a shame. It's smart, exciting, and entertaining to the last shot. Definitely keep this one on your holiday list.

Say Anything
Starring: John Cusack, Ione Skye, and John Mahoney
Special features: Commentary, featurettes, A Conversation with Cameron Crowe, Trivia Track, alternate, deleted, and extended scenes, vintage featurette, photo gallery, theatrical trailers and TV spots

Finally, we have the 80's classic Say Anything from one of my favorite directors Cameron Crowe. This is probably one of the best teen films of the decade. The story is about a guy who wants to date a girl who is way out of his league. She agrees to go out with him and they spark a romance that she ultimately ends after being convinced to do so by her overprotective father.

It's a film that speaks to an entire generation, even generations, about love and choices, and taking the chance to go after what you want. It's an iconic film not just for its fantastic soundtrack but for one of the most recognizable scenes in film history, that of Cusack holding that boombox over his head.

Full of great performances, including one of Cusack's best, and wonderfully directed, Say Anything is sure to please even the most jaded of film fans.

The 20th Anniversary Blu-ray has tons of features including numerous featurettes, deleted, extended, and alternate scenes, and much more.

It is one of the best films of the 80's and will make a great gift this year!

That's it for this Blu-ray holiday guide. The films are all worthy of gifting to friends and family. All are great examples (with the exception of a couple of the rocky films) of the amazing clarity of the picture and gorgeous sound that Blu-ray provides. It's gonna be hard to choose just one to give this year!

Paper Heart, Rocky: The Undisputed Collection, Say Anything, The Negotiator, Two Girls and a Guy, Angels & Demons and Fight Club are all available now.