Godzilla (2014) (Warner, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, Digital HD, Cable VOD), the second American attempt to bring the cinema’s lizard king of giant monsters stateside, succeeds (mostly) where Roland Emmerich’s misguided 1998 remake floundered. It is surprisingly faithful to the classic Godzilla monster mashes of the sixties and seventies, when giant creatures would attack mankind and Godzilla would rise from the ocean to smite them. Clear out the backstory, the family drama, the military response, and the scientific mumbo jumbo, and that’s what this story really comes down to. It’s simply executed as an American disaster spectacle rather than a Japanese kaiju spectacle.
Gareth Edwards, who showed remarkable ingenuity and imagination in the low-budget Monsters, gives us a Godzilla that looks like the fabled atomic dinosaur of the Japanese films and retains the majesty and dignity of the monster as a ferocious force of nature who rises to take on ancient enemies (called M.U.T.O.s in the film) roused from dormancy. The human framework of the story is the weakest part, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson taking leading man heroics without much defining personality and a supporting cast that includes Juliette Binoche, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins and Bryan Cranston all but wasted in weak roles, but at least it establishes the gravity of the situation. They become more important as witnesses, providing Edwards with a human perspective to the spectacle. Most of the giant monster battles are shot from ground level and human POV, which helps instill the film with a refreshing sense of awe missing from so many CGI spectacles.
Let’s just say for the record that this is a dark movie, lots of night and murky atmosphere from which the threats emerge, and the Blu-ray handles the darkness well, with the important details standing out of the dark. All disc editions include a collection of featurettes, most on the light, snacky side. “The Legendary Godzilla” provides the production side, with the almost 20-minute “Godzilla: A Force of Nature” walking us through the film from inspiration to execution and three shorter pieces focusing on key effects, including the creation of the M.U.T.O.s. “MONARCH Declassified” offers three mock-historical featurettes from the world of the film. The Blu-ray includes bonus DVD and Ultraviolet Digital HD copies of the film.
Read Jeff Michael Vice’s review on Cinephiled here.
Burning Bush (Kino Lorber, DVD), Agnieszka Holland’s almost four-hour political thriller, tackles one of the most harrowing events of Czech social history: On January 6, 1969, college student Jan Palach doused himself in gasoline and lit himself afire in downtown Prague to protest the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Originally created as a three-part cable film for HBO Europe, it played festivals and some theaters in the U.S. but never made it to stateside HB, so disc and streaming is the only way most of us will have a chance to see it. And it is well worth seeing, a return to form for Holland, whose great films of the eighties and nineties (Angry Harvest, 1985, Europa Europa, 1990) combined the political, social and personal with a fiery volatility. Holland directed episodes of American cable dramas The Wire, The Killing, and Treme, and the expansive, multi-character storytelling seems to have inspired a new approach to her political work. She uses the experiences of numerous characters in the orbit of Jan and his act in the aftermath to give us a portrait of life and the political / social atmosphere in Prague in the year after the Soviet Invasion.
Holland’s film begins with Palach’s immolation and follows the long court case of libel against a Soviet-collaborator politician who told an audience that he had evidence that proved Jan was tricked into the action by a right-wing conspiracy. Why libel? Because that’s pretty much the sole legal action the family of the boy can take in Soviet-occupied Prague. The emotional, social, and political fallout of the ordeal—it all takes place in the space of nine months and every chapter (it was shown in three parts) opens with the date and the time elapsed since the death of Jan Palach—is woven into a rich (and at times tragic) portrait of resistance and complicity and the high cost of one family’s fight for the truth in the face of Soviet oppression.
Three parts adding up to four hours spread across two discs, in Czech with English subtitles. Supplements limited to stills and a trailer.
It is also available to stream from Fandor, a service that specializes in independent and foreign films.
Also new and notable: 
The Fault in Our Stars (Fox, Blu-ray, DVD), the adaptation of John Green’s bestselling YA novel, stars Shailene Woodley as teenage cancer patient who, despite her emotional defensiveness, falls in love with a boy (Ansel Elgort) from her cancer support group. Laura Dern, Sam Trammell and Willem Dafoe co-star. Both Blu-ray and DVD editions feature the original theatrical version and an extended edition, plus six short promotional featurettes.
The Blu-ray edition also features commentary by director Josh Boone and author John Green, six deleted scenes with optional commentary, the exclusive featurette “The Stars Align: Book to Screen,” and bonus DVD and Digital HD editions of the film.
Think Like a Man Too (Sony, Blu-ray, DVD, Cable VOD) sends the friends and lovers of the original Think Like a Man for a wedding if Vegas. Kevin Hart, Terrence J, Regina Hall, Taraji P. Henson, Michael Ealy, Jerry Ferrara, Gabrielle Union, Meagan Good, Romany Malco, and Jenifer Lewis star.
The German Doctor (First Run, DVD) of this Argentine drama, based on director Lucia Puenzo’s novel, is Joseph Mengele, who (hidden under a false identity) befriends and Argentine family and is welcomed into their household. Spanish with English subtitles.
More foreign releases this week: Ilo Ilo (Film Movement, DVD), the story of a family in Singapore struggling through the Asian financial crisis of 1997, and Friend 2: The Legacy (CJ Entertainment, DVD) from Japan.
Casting By (First Run, DVD) turns the documentary lens around to profile casting director Marion Doughterty and explore the history and art of the casting director, a position that arose during the collapse of the studio system.
More non-fiction releases this week: Evergreen: The Road to Legalization (First Run, DVD), which looks at the campaign to legalize recreational marijuana in Washington State, and Burt’s Buzz (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD), about the founder of Burt’s Bees.
Digital / VOD / Streaming exclusives:
Arriving on Cable VOD in advance of disc is The Grand Seduction (eOne, Cable VOD), a Canadian comedy with Brendan Gleeson and Taylor Kitsch. And on Friday, September 19, the documentary A Life in Dirty Movies (Film Movement, Digital and Cable VOD), about Joe Sarno, and the thriller Reclaim (Lionsgate, Cable VOD) with John Cusack, premiere on VOD.
Available on Digital video-on-demand: the documentaries Ivory Tower (Paramount, Digital HD, Digital VOD) and D**k: The Documentary (IndiePix, Digital VOD) and the drama From Above (Vertical, Digital VOD) with Danny Glover.
Transformers: Age of Extinction (Paramount, Digital HD) is available for digital purchase two weeks before disc. The iTunes release features three hours of special features.
More releases:
Honour (Olive, DVD)
Armed Response (Lionsgate, DVD, Digital HD, VOD)
Thomas and Friends: Tale of the Brave – The Movie (Universal, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD)
Barbie and the Secret Door (Universal, Blu-ray+DVD Combo, Digital HD)
The Battery (Shout Factory, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Dead 2 (Anchor Bay, Blu-ray, DVD)
Disaster L.A.: The Last Zombie Apocalypse Begins Here (Warner, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital)
Warrior Princess (Lionsgate, Digital HD, Digital VOD)
Evil Feed (Screen Media, DVD)
Telephone World (Cinema Epoch, DVD)
TV on disc:
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (PBS, Blu-ray, DVD)
Sleepy Hollow: The Complete First Season (Fox, Blu-ray, DVD)
From Dusk Til Dawn: Season One (eOne, Blu-ray, DVD)
Arrow: The Complete Second Season (Warner, Blu-ray+DVD Combo)
Hannibal: Season Two (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD)
The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Seventh Season (Warner, Blu-ray+DVD Combo)
Castle: The Complete Sixth Season (ABC, Blu-ray, DVD)
Grimm: Season Three (Warner, Blu-ray, DVD)
Bones: The Complete Ninth Season (Fox, DVD)
About a Boy: Season One (Warner, DVD)
South Park: The Complete 17th Season (Paramount, Blu-ray, DVD)
Awkward: Season Three (Paramount, DVD)
Prisoners of War: Season Two (Shout Factory, DVD)
Father Brown: Season One (BBC, DVD)
Petals on the Wind (Lionsgate, DVD)
DCI Banks: Season Two (Acorn, DVD)
Death in Paradise: Season Two (Acorn, DVD)
Scot & Bailey: Season Two (Acorn, DVD)
Spartacus: The Complete Series (Anchor Bay, Blu-ray, DVD)
Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever (StarVista/Time Life, DVD)
Walter’s War (PBS, DVD)
Secrets of Her Majesty’s Secret Service (PBS, DVD)
James McNeill Whistler and the Case of Beauty (PBS, DVD)
Royal Paintbox (PBS, DVD)
Slugterra: Return of the Elementals (Shout Factory Kids)
Classics and Cult:
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: 40th Anniversary (Dark Sky, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: 40th Anniversary Collector’s Edition (Dark Sky, Blu-ray+DVD Combo)
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: 40th Anniversary Black Maria Limited Edition (Dark Sky, Blu-ray+DVD Combo) Exclusively through Gorgon-Video.com
Beyond Borders Box Set (A Bottle in Gaza / Arranged / Foreign Letters) (Film Movement, DVD)
Eraserhead (Criterion, Blu-ray, DVD)
Hangmen Also Die (Cohen, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Party (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Great Train Robbery (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD)
Meteor (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD)
Avalanche (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD)
Dreamcatcher (Warner, Blu-ray)
Congo (Warner, Blu-ray)
Ghostbusters / Ghostbusters II (Sony, Blu-ray)
Short Eyes (Scorpion, DVD)
Eternals Motion Comic (Shout Factory, DVD)
Calendar of upcoming releases on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital, and VOD