What's new on DVD this week?

Finally, after what seems like weeks stuck in a wasteland of new DVD releases, we've hit the jackpot. Several new major films are new on Blu-ray and DVD this week, including one of the biggest grossing films worldwide of 2013: Brad Pitt's zombie movie World War Z. If you missed this one in theaters, here's your chance to finally see it for yourself and decide what all the fuss is about.

When World War Z first hit theaters, I saw it almost immediately. I'd read Max Brooks' book, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, and really enjoyed it. I expected great things from the film adaptation. Unfortunately, we don't always get what we want.

Overall, I found the World War Z movie disjointed, overly chaotic and at times, utterly ridiculous. Gone were some of my favorite plot points from Brooks' book - replaced instead with a plethora of CGI effects designed, I suppose, to distract me from the fact that overall, the film falls flat. Once I got out of the theater and my eyes adjusted to normalcy, I realized that no, there was no epic Battle of Yonkers (one of the best parts of the book).

As we drove home after seeing World War Z, I got more and more irritated. I've linked to my original review above, but since then, I've gone back to re-read World War Z and become rather bitter. You've got to hand it to The Oatmeal, they sure summed this up nicely here.

But hey, you should at least give World War Z a spin in the DVD player. If you disagree with me and think it's awesome, that's totally cool. To each his own - especially where zombie films are concerned.

The other major DVD release of the week is Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring, a movie I skipped seeing in the theater. It only played here for a couple of weeks, and at the time I had to prioritize. I loved Lost in Translation though, so I'll have to check this film out. In short: It's based on the real-life story of a "gang" of young women who go around robbing some of Hollywood's most elite. The Bling Ring boasts a pretty impressive ensemble cast, including Emma Watson, Taissa Farmiga, Leslie Mann, Katie Chang and Israel Broussard. Reviews for this one were kind of mixed, so just know that going in and you'll be fine.

Hope we all wind up loving whatever new DVD release we decide to get this week!

Photo courtesy of Eonline.com