New Release: Lost in Translation and Backdraft Blu-ray

2003 Academy Award winner Lost in Translation (Best Original Screenplay by writer/director Sofia Coppola) and 1991 action thriller Backdraft was released on Blu-ray on Jan. 4, 2011, from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

Starring Bill Murray (Charlie’s Angels) and Scarlett Johansson (Iron Man 2), Lost in Translation follows two Americans who are out of place in Tokyo. Murray plays a movie star who’s shooting a whiskey commercial, and Johansson is a young woman tagging along with her workaholic photographer husband (Giovanni Ribisi of Avatar). The two have a chance meeting and strike up a friendship as they explore Tokyo together.

As well as winning an Oscar, the R-rated drama was nominated for three other Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director and Murray as Best Actor.

Backdraft stars Kurt Russell (Death Proof) and William Baldwin (TV’s Dirty Sexy Money) as feuding brothers who must work together as firefighters while an arsonist is loose. Robert De Niro (Meet the Parents) plays the investigator trying to find the arsonist, Donald Sutherland (The Pillars of the Earth) the Hannibal Lector-type expert criminal De Niro seeks help from, Rebecca DeMornay (Lords of Dogtown) as Russell’s estranged wife, Scott Glenn (Nights in Rodanthe) a fellow veteran firefighter and Jennifer Jason Leigh (Greenberg) as Baldwin’s girlfriend. The R-rated movie was directed by Ron Howard (Angels & Demons).

The 20-year-old Backdraft was released as an Anniversary Edition on Blu-ray and includes these special features:

• introduction by Howard
• featurette “Bringing Together the Team”
• featurette “Explosive Stunts”
• featurette “Creating the Villain: The Fire”
• featurette “Real-Life Firemen, Real-Life Stories”
• and Universal’s U Control, My Scenes and Pocket Blu smartphone app.

The introduction and featurettes were on the Two-Disc Anniversary Edition DVD released in 2006.

The special features on the Lost in Translation Blu-ray also were on the movie’s earlier DVD except one new one, the promotional featurette “On the Set of Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere,” the director’s newer film. The other previously available extras are:

• “A Conversation With Bill Murray and Sofia Coppola”
• “Lost on Location”
• “Matthew’s Best Hit TV”
• the music video for Kevin Shield’s “City Girl”
• and Universal’s My Scenes and Pocket Blu.

The Blu-ray releases are not the high-definition debut for either movie, as both were released on HD DVD when that format was still active. And the HD DVD versions included the same special features.

Buy or Rent Lost in Translation
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Buy or Rent Backdraft
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