It's a great week for DVD. Yesterday, Play All bemoaned the overwhelming quantity of titles this week and covered the TV releases for 7/29/08. Today, we've had a chance to go through the film titles of the week and we can tell you, it's one of the best in a long time. Of course, everything this week (and maybe even this year) starts with Dark City: Director's Cut and we'll get to Stargate: Continuum soon, but there are more than a dozen other titles out there today that weren't there last week that you might be interested in. You're probably already done with Witchblade. Come back down to Earth and hit Play All...again...

Barrio
Studio: Lionsgate
Starring: Crispulo Cabezas, Timy, Eloi Yebra, Marieta Orozco, Alicia Sanchez, Enrique Villen, Francisco Algora, and Chete Lera
Features: None

"3 Bored Teens. One Deadly Hot Summer." We've said it before and we'll probably have to say it again, but it seems like there's a disconnect between what the rest of the world thinks of their cinema and not just what Americans think but their ability to see acclaimed films from other countries. I'm sure that people in major cities think that they're getting all of the hit films from major countries like Spain, Japan, and France. And I'm sure that foreign language fans in small cities think that their Netflix account is filled with all the acclaimed international flicks. Then how does a movie like Barrio fall through the cracks? The Goya Awards are the Spanish equivalent of the Oscar and Barrio was nominated for six of them back in 1998, including Best Picture. It WON Best Director, Best New Actress, and Best Original Screenplay. Are winners of three Oscars not getting international DVD releases for a decade?!? Maybe not, but it seems like someone's falling down on the job. At least Barrio is here better late than never.

Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin' With the Godmother
Studio: Magnolia
Directed by: Billy Corben
Features: "The Making of Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin' with Charles Cosby", Filmmaker's Commentary, Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery, Archival Photo Gallery, Art Gallery, Deleted Scenes

"This is the true story of the cocaine queen." Griselda Blanco was a major part of the controversial documentary Cocaine Cowboys and she must have caused quite a sensation because now she gets her own vehicle, Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin' With the Godmother. When drugs were at their peak in Miami, Florida in the '80s, Blanco was a major player. That's right - the Tony Montana of South Beach was actually a woman. According to the documentary about her life, she reportedly trafficked 300 tons of cocaine, was responsible for the murder of dozens of people, and even plotted the kidnapping of John F. Kennedy Jr. This film focuses on Charles Cosby, a man who became the 'King' of this Queen's empire until he betrayed her. I think these documentaries, while brutal, kind of glorify these real murderers a little bit, but they're still riveting cinema and proof that anyone who tells you that movies are too violent or too over-the-top has no idea what actually has gone down in the dangerous world of drugs and money.

Extasis
Studio: Lionsgate
Starring: Javier Bardem, Daniel Guzman, Silvia Munt, and Federico Luppi
Features: None

"Robbery. Fraud. Betrayal. He's just getting started." When someone wins an Oscar, anything they made that has been sitting on the shelf suddenly comes to DVD. Case in point - the 12-year-old, not-too-critically acclaimed, and previously unavailable Extasis, which just happens to star a young Javier Bardem, the most recent Oscar winner for No Country For Old Men. Bardem rules and there are a number of his Spanish-language performances that those of you who have just caught on to this international star should really see (start with Sea Inside and Mondays in the Sun), but Extasis is probably just for hardcore fans. Bardem plays Rober, a 25-year-old, who concocts a scheme with his friend and girlfriend to rob their families and hometown. The friend gets arrested and Rober ends up sort of stealing his identity. Nearly everything Bardem has ever done has had something about his performance that makes it worth seeing. It's just funny that it essentially took the Coen Brothers to get one of his lesser-known films to DVD in the States.

Puzzle
Studio: Genius Entertainment
Starring: Ju Jin-Mo, Hong Seok-Chun, Kim Hyun-Sung, and Park Jun-Seok
Features: Actor Interviews, Behind-the-Scenes Featurette, Making of the Music Score

"Get a piece of the action!" This week's installment of Asian cinema comes from writer/director Kim Tae-Kyung, a South Korean man who made his feature film debut with what was reportedly kind of a bomb in its home country. According to Wikipedia, Puzzle was produced, completely shot without a single word written about it online or on TV. The idea was sort of a sneak attack of a film. How would a movie do with no build-up? Not well. But the film does have some fans and people looking for an Asian action movie this weekend are likely to be satisfied by Puzzle. In the action flick, five perfect strangers who happen to all be criminals are all brought together by a mysterious boss to pull off a daring bank robbery. Kind of sounds like The Usual Suspects to us. After the head of the team is found burned to death, the rest of the member start to suspect the others of betrayal. The case calls it a mind-bending crime thriller. There aren't enough of those.

Surfwise
Studio: Magnolia
Directed by: Doug Pray
Features: Commentary with Doug Pray, Matt Weaver, and Salvador Paskowitz, Doc on Health, A Walk on Water: Surfer's Healing, Dave Homcy Surfing Cinematographer, Outtakes and Breaks

"Reject normal." The best documentary of the week is the critically acclaimed Surfwise. How critically acclaimed? Surfwise scored a nearly unheard-of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes with 33 out of 33 critics recommending the film. Doesn't that make you want to see it automatically? Surfwise is about the legendary surfer Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, who basically dove off the grid to follow his dream. He had a successful medical practice one day and was completely withdrawn from the lifestyle of mainstream America the next day. Hundreds of men go off the grid every day from teenagers who drop out of high school to men in the midst of mid-life crises, but Paskowitz was a little different - he took his family with him. Doc had a wife and nine kids and all eleven of them lives in a 24-foot camper as they searched for the perfect wave. Surfwise tells the amazing, true story of this very unusual family, one that definitely rode a wave to their own beat.