JBO: Joystiq Box Office, July 13 - July 17
We can't be gaming all the time, despite our best efforts, and from time to time we'll actually take advantage of the movie-playing abilities on our gaming systems. JBO features our top picks for XBL, PSN, Netflix's Watch Instantly and Blu-ray each week.
Recommendation of the Week:
(Blu-ray: $39.98 SRP):Quite possibly one of the most beautiful and touching Blu-ray discs you'll ever own. We're right in the middle of the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing, and this Criterion Edition Blu-ray of For All Mankind is full of gorgeous, mostly unseen footage brought back from the Apollo missions. It's backed by quotes from the astronauts involved, and a fantastic Brian Eno score. If you watch this and don't tear up at least once, then you're dead inside.
Read for the full list on a system-by-system basis just after the break. As usual, we'll see you at the popcorn st ... well, actually we won't see you at all. But you catch our drift. Plus, be sure to tell us what you'll be watching, or what you've seen recently that bowled you over.
Xbox Live Video Marketplace
Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone
(360
to rent HD, 240
to rent SD)
I saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince earlier this week, and frankly I didn't expect it to be that good. But it really is. Really, it's fantastic. It's the first time Hogwart's has felt like a real school, the characters are definitely fully fleshed out, and there's real fear and danger in this one. Granted, it's a bit like The Empire Strikes Back, what with the ending and all, but that's my favorite of the Star Wars bunch too. Check out where it all started, in HD to boot.
Netflix Watch Instantly (PC or Xbox Live)
The Wackness (PC or Xbox Live, subscription required: starts at $4.99 per month)
This movie won the audience award at Sundance in 2008, and is a semi-autobiographical story about coming of age in New York City while alternating between selling drug and seeing a shrink. Everyone can relate to that, right? The psychiatrist is Ben Kingsley, and the movie is set in 1994, before the internet, cell phones and Joystiq. Killer soundtrack, and a surprisingly good movie from young writer/director Jonathan Levine.
PlayStation Store
Warehouse 13
($2.99 HD or $1.99 SD to own per episode)
Imagine if that gigantic warehouse from the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark that Indy revisits in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was real. How would you keep all of that stuff safe and under wraps? That's what the SciFi Channel's (we balk against their SyFy label, ugh) series Warehouse 13 is all about. Sure it's an X-Files ripoff when you factor in the two sexy leads, but Saul Rubinek excels as the warehouse curator, and the objects themselves are fun: a tea kettle that grants wishes, an unreleased record that brings extreme joy to anyone who hears it, and a camera that turns people into black and white 2D cutouts. I wonder if they have the Ark stashed somewhere in there.
Blu-ray Disc
($49.99 SRP)
You never would have expected one of the best shows on television to come from AMC, especially since it's not a premium pay channel like Showtime or HBO. Yet, Mad Men proves in it's second season that you don't need those networks with a show like this. It's almost like stepping into a time machine back into the 1960s, and Jon Hamm's Don Draper is smoother than James Bond. Working in advertising never looked like so much fun.
What will you be watching?
