Coming to DVD this week Beowulf, 30 Days of Night, Awake.

There are a few new releases coming to dvd this week, some of them are awesome blockbusters, and some of them were crap.

First on the chopping block we have the film AWAKE, where a millionaire investor befriends a surgeon following a heart attack at a young age and needs a heart transplant. The real feeling behind this story at first is a love story between Clay (Hayden Christianson) and Sam (Jessica Alba), and then materializes into a plot to kill clay during his heart transplant, in order to obtain his estate. It was hard to figure out how they, the killers, would obtain the right to the estate, but it comes together later in the story. The twists and turns in this film were exciting to watch, however, I felt half of this film was predictable. I will not be talking of the ending since it was interesting to follow the outer-body-experience-mystery-solving Clay around on his journey through his memories to piece the puzzle together. Comparable to other films Jessica Alba has been in recently, this one covered the suspense/drama category. I mean, she was in Good Luck Chuck(comedy), the fantastic 4(action/nerdcore), and most recently to theaters, The Eye (drama).

Next we have the CGI breakthrough, Beowulf. If you didn't see it in theatres, I'd recommend watching this one on an HDTV. The story follows the epic hero Beowulf, slayer of evil, fighter of that which troubles the night. You will forget at points, but not the whole time, that this film is animated. It was still amazing to see how far we have come since the CGI TV series Reboot went off the air. He and his merrymaking men take on the evil demon Grendel in a small kingdom that Grendel terrorizes whenever they townspeople enjoy themselves. A very very very graphic scene ensues during Grendel's visit to this townhall, where the kingdoms population drops dramatically. Beowulf shows up and demands that he fight the demon, and immediately proceeds to get naked and wait for Grendel. The object placement in this scene is hilarious and led me to laugh very loudly each and every time something would cover Beowulf's manly manhood. The film goes on to pursue the downfall of "the hero" and the rise of a new "christ god". To sum the rest of the film up would only give you the same feeling I had when this film ended. "Wow that was quick." I think a few more epic skirmishes between Beowulf and some sort of demon-spawn would have satisfied my craving for awesome.

Lastly in my selection for films coming to DVD this week, I have chosen the film 30 Days Of Night. The sci-fi vampire action thriller that gradually slows down to a sci-fi vampire comedy. The story takes place in an Alaskan town before the sun sets for 30 days and leaves the town in darkness. Many of the townspeople leave for a month and head to where the sunlight will come and go. Left to watch this town are a handful of stragglers led by the small police department in town. Almost immediately, some guy shows up and starts trouble, and then we get our first glimpse of the amazing shadowy powers that these vampires have. they are quick, silent, and very deadly. An investigation begins led by the hometown hero Sherrif Eben (Josh Hartnett) to find out who is killing the sleddogs and a mill worker. Lots of eery shadows and undertones let your imagination run rampant, and then the actual sight of the vampires leads you to believe that anyone and everyone in town has a whole heap o trouble coming. This is where it gets and inkling of a crappy smell, when the vampires no longer lurk in the shadows, but instead run across roof tops. Vampires, running on roof tops. Really? Ok well as long as they are still capable of lurking in the shadows and bringing swift death right? Wrong. They climb down from the roof tops and set up a trap to capture anyone lucky enough to wander into the street. They would then proceed to start punching and kicking the individual until they are unconscious and then have a blood sucking frenzy. Kicking and Punching Jackie Chan style. Really? Ok, well maybe getting shot would kill them, but as it turns out, they cant die from that. Awesome, we are back on the train again! Some small skirmishes around town take place with some beheadings and explosions, and the human numbers dwindle down to a few. And drastic actions must be taken, drastic like calling the lead vampire out old west style and having a fist fight that gets no where quick. The ending of the film was a little lacking and seemed to rely solely on some CGI gore effects and a sunrise. I'm not going to say the story was predictable, it was a good one, but the vampires went from having supernatural abilites to having to wait in line at a bank to open a savings account. That was most disappointing.

Overall, Hollywood has given us some gold and some bags-of-crap. And for all of us to make due with what we have, these three choices would probably be your best bets this week.