Every week we dive into the cream of the crop when it comes to home releases, including Blu-ray and DVDs, as well as recommended deals of the week. Check out our rundown below and return every Tuesday for the best (or most interesting) films one can take home. Note that if you’re looking to support the site, every purchase you make through the links below helps us and is greatly appreciated.
Jurassic World (Colin Trevorrow)
As all good sequels must learn, the key to success is delivering on the promise set forth by the original while also providing something fresh and improved. Just ask James Cameron, a master at the task, who injected action-packed life into both Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgment Day without negating or watering down the mythology still relevant beneath those newfound popcorn blockbuster sensibilities. Neither The Lost World nor Jurassic Park III did it. They decided to both reinvent the wheel and forget what the appeal of Jurassic Park was. Hint: its humanistic characters with relatable, authentic wonder in their eyes at seeing a living, breathing dinosaur. Take away the theme park attraction setting and you strip away the childlike glee necessary for an audience member to step inside its science fiction and experience its adventure. – Jared M. (full review)
Kwaidan (Masaki Kobayashi)
After more than a decade of sober political dramas and socially minded period pieces, the great Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi shifted gears dramatically for this rapturously stylized quartet of ghost stories. Featuring colorfully surreal sets and luminous cinematography, these haunting tales of demonic comeuppance and spiritual trials, adapted from writer Lafcadio Hearn’s collections of Japanese folklore, are existentially frightening and meticulously crafted. This version of Kwaidan is the original three-hour cut, never before released in the United States. – Criterion.com
Z For Zachariah (Craig Zobel)
At the opening of Craig Zobel’s Z For Zachariah, it’s the end of the world and there is a woman surviving on her own. That woman’s name is Ann (Margot Robbie), and she lives on what was her father’s farm in a valley that has somehow avoided the radiation that has caused this apocalypse. It’s when the men enter the picture that things start getting complicated. First we meet Dr. John Loomis, played by a brooding Chiwetel Ejiofor. Loomis is a man of science, determined to rebuild by any means necessary. And while his staunch scientific stance clashes with Ann’s deeply religious views (her farmer father was also a preacher), the two become fast friends and lingering romantic partners. After all, who else is there? – Dan M. (full review)
Also Arriving This Week
Alex of Venice (review)
Gueros
Paper Towns
Testament of Youth
Recommended Deals of the Week
(Note: new additions are in red)
Adaptation (Blu-ray) – $7.99
A Clockwork Orange (Blu-ray) – $6.99
A Most Wanted Man (Blu-ray) – $8.99
A Separation (Blu-ray) – $9.11
A Serious Man (Blu-ray) – $7.79
The American (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Amelie (Blu-ray) – $8.99
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Blu-ray) – $9.69
Beginners (Blu-ray) – $7.01
Black Swan (Blu-ray) – $6.69
The Brothers Bloom (Blu-ray) – $8.24
The Cabin in the Woods (Blu-ray) – $6.78
Captain Phillips (Blu-ray) – $7.52
Casablanca and The African Queen (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Casino (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Children of Men (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Cloverfield (Blu-ray) – $9.04
Collateral (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Damsels in Distress (Blu-ray) – $8.39
Drive (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Edge of Tomorrow (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Gangs of New York (Blu-ray) – $7.50
Goodfellas (Blu-ray) – $7.50
Good Will Hunting (Blu-ray) – $6.99
The Graduate (Blu-ray) – $7.99
The Grandmaster (Blu-ray) – $8.99
A History of Violence (Blu-ray) – $9.69
Hot Fuzz (Blu-ray) – $7.82
Inglorious Basterds (Blu-ray) – $9.61
Jane Eyre (Blu-ray) – $8.29
Kingdom of Heaven 10th Anniversary (Blu-ray) – $8.66
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Blu-ray) – $9.69
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Lady From Shanghai (Blu-ray) – $7.49
Laura (Blu-ray) – $9.96
Looper (Blu-ray) – $9.96
Lost In Translation (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Magic Mike (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Magnolia (Blu-ray) – $9.69
Margaret (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Martha Marcy May Marlene (Blu-ray) – $4.99
Michael Clayton (Blu-ray) – $9.65
Mother (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Never Let Me Go (Blu-ray) – $6.49
Observe & Report (Blu-ray) – $7.49
Pariah (Blu-ray) – $6.74
Persepolis (Blu-ray) – $6.49
Public Enemies (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Pulp Fiction (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Reality Bites (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Rear Window (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Road to Perdition (Blu-ray) – $9.69
The Secret In Their Eyes (Blu-ray) – $6.46
Seven (Blu-ray) – $7.50
Seven Psychopaths (Blu-ray) – $7.99
The Shining (Blu-ray) – $9.99
A Single Man (Blu-ray) – $6.14
Snowpiercer (Blu-ray) – $10.49
Stoker (Blu-ray) – $7.43
Synecdoche, NY (Blu-ray) – $6.25
There Will Be Blood (Blu-ray) – $8.69
The Tree of Life (Blu-ray) – $6.84
The Truman Show (Blu-ray) – $7.84
True Grit (Blu-ray) – $9.99
This is the End (Blu-ray) – $7.39
Under the Skin (Blu-ray) – $7.99
We Own the Night (Blu-ray) – $6.89
Where the Wild Things Are (Blu-ray) – $7.99
The Wrestler (Blu-ray) – $7.36
Zero Dark Thirty (Blu-ray) – $9.99
What are you picking up this week?