Another week, another edition of The Digital Wire here at Geeks of Doom. Try not to look so enthusiastic. Major Blu-ray/DVD release announcements were scant this week, but news of some interesting titles soon to make their way to multiple home viewing platforms wasn’t, so I’ve compiled the best of the odds ‘n’ ends. We’ve got undead girlfriends, some Southern-fried slaughter, mismatched cops tearing up the Windy City, salacious studio hilarity, and one of the best-reviewed motion pictures of 2014. So I guess that last one is a pretty major announcement. My bad.
Below you’ll find info on several future home video releases complete with technical specs, release dates, and links to pre-order at Amazon. We would greatly appreciate it if you use those links to order because a small percentage of each order helps keep this website running at max power.
The Counselor: Unrated Extended Cut Blu-ray l DVD Directed by Ridley Scott Screenplay by Cormac McCarthy Starring Michael Fassbender, Penelope Cruz, and Cameron Diaz 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Release Date: February 11, 2014
Of all the highly anticipated films released last year I don’t think any of them received the critical blanket party that greeted the opening of The Counselor, the pulpy drug world thriller that united influential filmmaker Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) and Pulitzer Prize-adorned author Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men, Blood Meridian), the latter having penned his first original feature screenplay. To say that expectations were high for this film is an understatement on the level of the scene in Easy Rider where Peter Fonda tells Dennis Hopper, “We blew it.”
People hated this movie, man. Hated it. Obviously The Counselor had its share of defenders amongst the filmgoing public and the shadowy agents of the blogosphere, but they were mostly silenced or shouted down as the star-studded noir plummeted to a 34% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a massively disappointing fourth opening at the box office. Scott has had his considerable share of theatrical flops that were later vindicated on home video in the form of extended and rejiggered director’s cuts. Not surprisingly, his latest film has received the same treatment and The Counselor may yet find the audience that either berated or ignored it on the big screen as twenty minutes have been added to this exclusive “unrated extended cut.”
Do these previously deleted scenes elevate Scott and McCarthy’s lurid, languid potboiler to the status of an underrated masterpiece? Is it possible that maybe, just maybe, the haters were hopelessly misguided? Well, let’s see…
Directed by Ridley Scott (Prometheus), The Counselor stars Michael Fassbender (Shame) as a nondescript lawyer whose one-time dalliance with the dangerous world of drug trafficking spirals out of control.
With a screenplay by Cormac McCarthy, the novelist who wrote No Country for Old Men and The Road, The Counselor is a chronicle of destruction – a bleak and brutal story of greed and the inevitability of suffering and violence.
Fassbender’s character, simply known as Counselor, gets mixed up with Reiner (Javier Bardem), a charismatic businessman who moonlights as a drug lord. Reiner lives an extravagant life complete with exotic clothes, high-end sports cars, and a ultra-modern villa populated with buff bodyguards and gorgeous women in bikinis.
Among those women is his girlfriend, Malkina (Cameron Diaz), a femme fatale who is in control at all times. Malkina is a hunter – a predator – with an affinity for watching her two pet cheetahs chase jackrabbits across the Chihuahuan Desert. Reiner knows he isn’t the smartest man and begins to suspect that the cunning Malkina will be his undoing.
A new trailer has been released for The Counselor, the new movie from director Ridley Scott and No Country For Old Men author Cormac McCarthy, who makes his feature screenwriting debut.
The movie tells the story of a lawyer who becomes involved in the dangerous world of drug trafficking, which quickly leads to everything spiraling out of control. It stars Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Dean Norris, Rosie Perez, John Leguizamo, Natalie Dormer, and Goran Visnjic.
You can check out the new trailer for The Counselor, which will be released on October 25th, below.
The first teaser trailer for director Ridley Scott‘s next movie, The Counselor, has found its way online. The movie is written by Cormac McCarthy, the author behind books like No Country For Old Men and The Road—his first produced original screenplay.
The movie stars Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem (complete with his new crazy hair), Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Dean Norris, Rosie Perez, John Leguizamo, Natalie Dormer, and Goran Visnjic. It tells the story of a lawyer (Fassbender), who gets in way over his head when he becomes involved in the dangerous world of drug trafficking.
You can check out the first trailer for The Counselor, which will be released on October 25th and is dedicated to Ridley’s late brother, Tony Scott, below now.
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press
