This Week in Blu-ray / DVD Releases: The Shallows, Central Intelligence

By John Law

September 27th 2016, 10:19am

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

This Week: Gossip Girl vs. Shark in The Shallows, Kevin Hart and The Rock tag team Central Intelligence, and hitting reset on Warcraft.

► Sometimes, simple works best in summer. Against the usual onslaught of overdone spectacles, THE SHALLOWS was like comfort food – a scary, straight-forward survival thriller with one basic hook: Whether surfer girl Blake Lively can outwit a Great White Shark and make it 200 yards back to shore. She’s stranded on a rock with high tide approaching, and the fun is second-guessing everything she does while scratching your brain about what you’d do instead. Lively is solid here, the CGI shark is effective, and while the ending stretches things a bit, it’s as tense as any movie got this summer. Extras include ‘How to Build a Shark,’ deleted scenes, and shooting on the perfect beach.

► CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE was the summer’s dark horse comedy, far from great but good enough to keep you smiling for two hours. And its all due to the bang-on chemistry between Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson, who pump up a tired plot with amusing banter throughout. It’s basically two funny guys who know they’re in a clichéd action comedy and just run with it. Hart is a former high school jock who grew up to be a miserable accountant. Johnson is the flabby dweeb who grew up to be…well, The Rock, and is now a bad-ass (on the outside) CIA agent who recruits his high school alumnus for a mission. Unrated blu-ray adds nine minutes. Extras include the standard gag reel (these dudes do have fun) and commentary from director Rawson Marshall Thurber.

► The consensus was WARCRAFT was one of the summer’s biggest bombs. But was it really? Though it underperformed in North America with $47.2 million, it raked it in overseas, making it the highest-grossing video game film of all time at $433.5 million. And despite getting blasted from critics out of the gate, Duncan Jones’ maligned movie has gotten a positive second glance lately. It comes to blu-ray with a boat load of extras, including a look at World of Warcraft fandom, the ILM effects, extended scenes and an origin story.

► One of the best reviewed comedies of the year, HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE is the second straight gem from Taika Waititi after ‘What We Did in the Shadows.’ Filmed in New Zealand, it has Julian Dennison as a city brat sent by child welfare to live with his foster mother and her husband (Sam Neill). When she dies, he runs off into the woods with a reluctant Neill in pursuit, which sets off a manhunt by authorities who believe it’s a child abduction. The highest-grossing New Zealand movie ever. Extras include commentary from Waititi, Neill and Dennison.

► Among this year’s slate of dumb buddy comedies, you could do a lot worse than MIKE AND DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES. Zac Efron and Adam DeVine are irresponsible brothers and alcohol salesmen (love that opening scene in the bar) who are banned from their sister’s upcoming wedding unless they bring dates. Which they do by placing a Craigslist ad answered by slacker girls Aubrey Plaza and Anna Kendrick, who just want a free vacation to Hawaii. It’s all about the interaction from a great comic cast here, especially Plaza who has mastered the whole bad-girl-trying-to-be-good thing.

► Nicolas Winding Refn follows up ‘Drive’ and ‘Only God Forgives’ with the pseudo horror flick THE NEON DEMON. Elle Fanning stars as a youthful model who earns the scorn of other older models as she rises up in the industry, especially as her beauty never seems to fade over the years. It doesn’t take long for things to go completely David Lynch, with a few stomach-churning scenes near the end to leave a lasting impression. Jena Malone, Keanu Reeves and Christina Hendricks co-star.

► It opened 35 years ago as just the ‘other’ werewolf movie of 1981, after ‘The Howling.’ But John Landis’ AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON has become one of the seminal horror movies of the ‘80s, and surely one of the most influential. It gets souped up for its anniversary with an HD restored edition that includes the feature length documentary ‘Beware the Moon,’ commentary with cast members David Naughton and Griffin Dunne, a chat with Landis, outtakes, and of course a deeper look at Rick Baker’s classic make-up effects.

► I was feeling old when HIGHLANDER had its 15th anniversary DVD. So here’s the 30th anniversary blu-ray to really kick me in the Kurgan. To go with the goofy cult classic you get commentary from director Russell Mulcahy, both old and new interviews with star Christopher Lambert, deleted scenes, and a making of featurette. Alas, no Sean Connery.

Also out this week: