Jurassic World (Universal, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, VOD) is really what every summer spectacle aspires to be. It’s fleet, it wows audiences with special effects creations that are spectacular and inspired, it delivers romance and humor with the action and suspense, and it sends the audience on a fast and furious ride. It’s not an experience that necessarily sticks with you, but it sure is fun while you’re in it.
It’s been almost 15 years since the last Jurassic installment and World picks up on that gap. By now the real-life-dinosaur theme park is not just up and running but on the verge of becoming too familiar to a public demanding bigger thrills and more spectacular sights (a sly comment on summer tentpoles and franchise sequels?). So the park geneticists, with the blessing of the owner and the conspiratorial collaboration of defense contractors, start brewing up their own creations, mixing and matching DNA until they create something that is outsmarts them. That’s when Owen (Chris Pratt), who is (no joke) training velociraptors, becomes the great white hunter to save the two nephews (Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins) of all-business park administrator Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), who gets to evolve from coldly efficient corporate player to hysterical damsel in distress to (for a very brief moment) plucky partner in heroism. Otherwise, she’s forced to rely on that hunky Owen, the dinosaur whisperer.
There really isn’t much personality to these characters, and even less to the creatures, who are simply exhibits or threats, but director Colin Trevorrow manages to bring a sense of awe to the journey even as he recognizes the whole world of franchising, merchandising, and promotion behind the project. There’s a Dr. Frankenstein aspect to the genetic meddling and a Pandora’s Box theme about unleashing power that you can’t control, carried over from previous films. “These people never learn,” remarks Owen, which the audience is surely thinking. It never rises to the level of actual satire but that self-awareness is still a smart little bonus to the adrenaline experience.
And it is a lot of fun, part mindless two-hour theme park ride, part self-aware sequel where supposedly smart people make a cascade of bad decisions. Which, depending on your perspective, makes it either totally unbelievable or a sad commentary on our doomed race. Trevorrow, who was virtually unknown before Steven Spielberg tapped him to helm the revival, came from the offbeat indie Safety Not Guaranteed (2012), a quirky character piece in a time travel story (or is it?), and he makes the jump in scale with a confidence and control that you can see on the screen. And that’s enough for the most part in this variation on a theme.
Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and DVD with the entertaining interview featurette “Chris and Colin Take on the World” (with director Colin Trevorrow and star Chris Pratt), the production featurette “Dinosaurs Roam Once Again” (on the special effects), and deleted scenes.
Exclusive to the Blu-ray editions are “Welcome to Jurassic World,” which features Trevorrow in conversation with Steven Spielberg, the behind-the-scenes “Jurassic World: All-Access Pass,” and the “Innovation Center Tour with Chris Pratt,” plus bonus DVD and Digital HD editions of the film. The Blu-ray 3D edition features a standard Blu-ray as well.
Z for Zachariah (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD) is at the opposite end of the science fiction movie spectrum: small, intimate, limited to three characters and played out with nary a spectacular special effect. It’s in the tradition of low-budget post-nuclear films like Five and The World, the Flesh and the Devil: the last survivors of a world devoid of people learning that human nature is still the most dangerous threat.
Margot Robie is Anne, the last woman on Earth (as far as she knows) living in a valley protected from the radioactive fallout that has poisoned the rest of the world. Then one man in a radiation suit (Chiwetel Ejiofor) stumbles through, checking radiation levels, and she nurses him, an engineer named John, to health. And then, after their awkward but affectionate co-existence evolves to greater intimacy, a second man arrives. Handsome and younger, Chris Pine’s Caleb, a miner who survived underground for months before desperation drove him out, is an immediate competitor for Anne. From John’s perspective, he’s the snake in his Eden, scheming something behind his blue-collar drawl. But turn the perspective around and it’s John whose seething jealousy drives suspicion to the point of paranoia. That ambiguity, and the film’s portrait of human co-existence in terms of wolf pack politics (there’s only room for one alpha here), is what’s most interesting, and Ejiofor’s performance gives John’s decency a dark edge. Race and class and sex are all wound up here, not mentioned but definitely weighing heavy on the triangle.
This is quite the Eden, a little too perfectly preserved, like a Norman Rockwell vacation cabin in a pristine hollow in the woods (New Zealand subbing for the American South) where the soil is rich and the local waterfall, while poisoned, could ultimately provide electricity. What actually happened to unleash the radiation is only talked about in vague terms, which I guess is appropriate for a film that is more parable than character drama. It’s well acted and beautifully shot and the storytelling restraint allows us to fill in the gaps with our own observations and interpretations of the tensions. That kind of invitation to the audience is rare enough even in independent films like this.
Blu-ray and DVD, with a featurette, extended interviews, and deleted scenes.
The success of the 1990s HBO anthology series Tales From the Crypt led to two feature films. Both of them make their respective Blu-ray debuts in collecctor’s editions from Scream Factory
Director Ernest Dickerson injects a hearty dose of dark humor in Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight (Scream Factory, Blu-ray), a tight, modestly budgeted little thriller that stars William Sadler is an intense stranger who arrives at a run down boarding house in flight from the Collector (a cocky, droll Billy Zane). The Collector is after an item in the stranger’s possession, which turns out to be a holy relic, and when his efforts end in failure he explodes in a demonic fury that reveals his evil origins, laying siege to the house with an army of zombies and infiltrating the minds of each the boarders with insidious fantasies.
It’s a seedy Grand Hotel by way of The Exorcist as a siege thriller, cooked up with plenty of gore and a smattering of sex, and served with dry wit. Sadler, in a rare heroic role, gives his part a genuine poignancy, Zane brings a sneering theatrical flair to his role as a seductive demon, and a solid supporting cast all gets their respective moments to shine: CCH Pounder as the hotel manager, Thomas Haden Church as a redneck coward ready to sell out anyone to save his own skin, Brenda Bakke as a sad small town hooker, Dick Miller as a drunk with a generous nature but a serious weakness for the hooch, and especially Jada Pinkett (before she added Smith) as a tough girl with real strength and commitment. Dickerson effectively balances the horror and the humor, maintaining a surprising intensity and an unforced mythic dimension within lurid B movie conventions. It’s not deep but it’s clever, well designed, beautifully lit, and has a blast with its old-school monster effects, and it plays by its own rules right up to the satisfying ending. It looks terrific on Blu-ray.
The same can’t be said for Tales From the Crypt: Bordello of Blood (Scream Factory, Blu-ray), with Dennis Miller as a private detective who wanders into a funeral home with an unusual nightlife. Erika Eleniak, Angie Everhart, Corey Feldman, and Chris Sarandon co-star.
Demon Knight features two newly-recorded audio tracks—one by director Ernest Dickerson, the other by Make-up Effects Creator Todd Masters, Visual Effects Supervisor John Van Vliet, Special Effects Coordinator Thomas Bellissimo, and Demon Performer Walter Phelan—and the new 40-minute documentary “Under Siege: The Making of Tales From the Crypt presents Demon Knight,” as well as a panel discussion from the American Cinematheque featuring director Ernest Dickerson, actor Dick Miller and Special Effects maestro Rick Baker.
Bordello of Blood features new commentary by co-writer and producer A.L. Katz and the 35-minute “Tainted Blood: The Making of Tales From the Crypt presents Bordello Of Blood.”
Back to the Future: 30th Anniversary Trilogy (Universal, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD) will be reviewed in an upcoming feature, along with the new restorations of Diary of a Lost Girl (Kino Classics, Blu-ray, DVD) and Kwaidan (Criterion, Blu-ray, DVD).
Also new and notable:
Testament of Youth (Sony, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD, VOD), based on the memoir of Vera Brittain, is a portrait of World War I from the perspective of a young woman (played by Alicia Vikander. Kit Harrington, Emily Watson, Hayley Atwell, Dominic West, and Miranda Richardson co-star in the British drama. With commentary by director James Kent and actor Kit Harrington, a featurette, and deleted scenes.
Northern Limit Line (Well Go, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD) is a Korean military drama about the real-life North Korean attack on Battleship 357 in 2002, what is now remembered as the Battle of Yeonpyeong. Korean with English subtitles.
Digital / VOD / Streaming exclusives:
Available on Cable On Demand same day as select theaters nationwide is Bone Tomahawk, a western with Kurt Russell and cannibal cave dwellers, and the drama Meadowland with Olivia Wilde and Luke Wilson.
Also new this week: Tokyo Tribe (XLrator, VOD, iTunes).
Available for digital purchase in advance of disc:
The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies – Extended Edition (Warner, Digital HD)
Terminator Genisys (Paramount, Digital HD)
Trainwreck (Universal, Digital HD)
We Are Your Friends (Warner, Digital HD)
Classics and Cult:
Back to the Future: 30th Anniversary Trilogy (Universal, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD)
Diary of a Lost Girl (Kino Classics, Blu-ray, DVD)
Kwaidan (Criterion, Blu-ray, DVD)
Full Moon in Paris (Film Movement, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Marquise of O… (Film Movement, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Larry Fessenden Collection (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)
The Benoit Jacquot Collection (The Disenchanted, A Single Girl, Keep it Quiet) (Cohen, Blu-ray, DVD)
Requiscant (Arrow /MVD, Blu-ray+DVD)
The Oblong Box (Kino Lorber Studio Classics, Blu-ray, DVD)
Slam Dance (Kino Lorber Studio Classics, Blu-ray, DVD)
Modern Girls (Kino Lorber Studio Classics, Blu-ray)
A Bucket of Blood (Film Detective, Blu-ray)
The Bat (Film Detective, Blu-ray)
TV on disc:
Peaky Blinders (BBC, Blu-ray, DVD)
Mike Tyson Mysteries: The Complete First Season (Warner, DVD)
The Making of the Mob: New York (Anchor Bay, Blu-ray, DVD)
Olympus: Season One (Shout! Factory, Blu-ray, DVD)
Chasing Shadows (Acorn, DVD)
My Favorite Martian: The Complete Collection (MPI, DVD)
Mr. Warmth! Don Rickles: The Ultimate TV Collection (Time Life, DVD)
Nurse Jackie: Season Seven (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, DVD)
King of the Hill: The Complete 13th Season (Olive, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Facts of Life: Season Seven (Shout! Factory, Blu-ray, DVD)
Thérèse Raquin (Acorn, DVD)
French Village: Season 1 (MHz, DVD)
Camilla Läckberg’s Fjallbäcka Murders: Set 1 (MHz, DVD)
Camilla Läckberg’s Fjallbäcka Murders: Set 2 (MHz, DVD)
The Bomb (PBS, DVD)
DC Comics Starter Kit: The First Seasons of Arrow, The Flash, and Gotham (Warner, Blu-ray, DVD)
Arrow: Seasons 1 – 3 (Warner, Blu-ray, DVD)
More new releases:
Paper Towns (Fox, Blu-ray, DVD, VOD)
Selfless (Universal, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Exorcism of Molly Hartley (Fox, Blu-ray, DVD)
Güeros (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD)
Amour Fou (Film Movement, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Vatican Tapes (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD, VOD)
My Last Year With the Nuns (Blu-ray, DVD, Skookum Pictures) (direct from filmmakers here)
Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas (Warner, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Wolf Pack (Magnolia, Blu-ray, DVD)
Hungry Hearts (IFC, DVD)
Rotor DR1 (Cinema Libre, Blu-ray, DVD, VOD)
Capital C (Kino Lorber, DVD)
Seeds of Time (Alive Mind, DVD)
The Forgotten Space (Icarus, DVD)
I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance is Mine (Anchor Bay, Blu-ray, DVD)
Calendar of upcoming releases on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital, and VOD