Jake Gyllenhaal on disc 2011 - Source Code, Donnie Darko and City Slickers to name but three...

I'm very glad to be back! Those dentists might think they can torture me to within an inch of my senses and leave me with little but rice pudding and soup to live on for a month but they can think again! (Although they would be right.) Having got through that, one returns to Blogger to find it's had quite an overhaul. If this post appears upside down, back to front, or in Sanskrit, I will not be surprised.

This post is, therefore, not only experimental, it's also a catch up of some of the DVD and Blu Ray goodness that has happened over the last month. This is because 2011 has been the year of the Jake Gyllenhaal DVD/Blu ray. This is what happens when you make key, landmark films - people want to mark their release with new discs and, I'm sure somewhere, cake and flowers. But first, the newest film that's out there: Source Code. Source Code is now out in the UK and has received a top notch review in Total Film (as well as many other places). Here is their review of the DVD and blu ray from the September issue, courtesy of IHJ.

Source Code is still making pictures in magazines across the pond and so, with thanks to BBMISwear, here is a scan from Entertainment Weekly listing Source Code as among its essential viewing as well as an ad from Blockbuster for its digital release.

2011 is the 10th anniversary of that classic Donnie Darko. I am so proud of Jake's association with this groundbreaking and, despite being fixed in the 80s, timeless piece. I've been wondering what the extras are in the commemorative Blu ray release and thanks to Flix66 we have a good idea. As you'll read, most of the extras (commentaries especially) were on the original or Director's Cut releases, including the oddity of the Richard Kelly and Kevin Smith commentary.

City Slickers is celebrating it's 20th anniversary this year and with it there was a special blu ray release. I'm grateful to BBMISwear for listening to the commentary with Billy Crystal and director Ron Underwood and extracting all things Jake from their banter:

Bill: He had great instincts.  He was a family friend.  His parents were good friends of ours – Naomi and Steve – and we would always be around him at parties and things and he was always performing.  He loved musicals – he would come out with a… a Phantom of the Opera mask and sing with that little high pitched voice {laughter} and he would sing from South Pacific and we’d all go ‘he’s gay, he’s gotta be gay’! {laughter} So I brought him into Ron and Ron had a great meeting with him and came out and said ‘this kids loaded, he’s like amazing’.  And that’s how Jake Gyllenhaal ended up being in the movie.

Ron:  His parents did – they wanted to really craft his career – or not just his career but his life too.

Billy:  He also was a great athlete, still is I’m sure. 

Jake popping his shoulder (I just can't look...).

Billy:  Look at him!

Ron: He would do this! {laughter}

Ron:  I got all these toys and things for him to use in the scene and he said ‘I can…look at…this is what I can do’!  It was amazing what he could just do with his body! 

Of course, I shouldn't forget the other Jake DVD and blu ray that came out in 2011 - Love and Other Drugs. IHJ has posted some new old stills from Jake's movies including this cracker from Love and Other Drugs of Jake and Oliver Platt.