This Week in Blu-ray / DVD Releases: Godzilla, The Fault in Our Stars, Arrow

By John Law

September 16th 2014, 12:29am

This week: Godzilla roars back, Leatherface revs up for his 40th, and fighting itchy eyes with The Fault in Our Stars.

► GODZILLA really was the summer’s misfit blockbuster, refusing to go the ‘Transformers’ route and puke out two hours of CGI monster fights. It was a strangely muted, surprisingly somber remake which stuck close to the environmental spirit of the very first Godzilla flick. Yes, you wait nearly an hour for the star to show up, and when he does it’s glorious. Whatever your misgivings about the other characters – Bryan Cranston as a former nuclear plant supervisor, Aaron Taylor-Johnson as his son in the U.S. Navy – the actual monster component of this tale is intriguing and epic. Fantastic job by director Gareth Evans for taking some risks and not dumbing things down. The shit aftertaste of 1998 is finally gone. Bonus stuff includes a deeper look at the creatures and the story’s conspiracy elements, but no commentary.

► Time to blow snot bubbles again. THE FAULT IN OUR STARS comes to blu-ray with six featurettes, six deleted scenes, the book-to-screen doc ‘The Stars Align’…but not that box of Kleenex every teen girl wished they had while leaving the theatre. Based on the weepy bestseller, Shailene Woodley is a 16-year-old cancer patient who is forced to attend a support group, where she falls for a cancer survivor (Ansel Elgort). Together, they sneak off to Amsterdam to find the reclusive author of a book she loves which doesn’t have an ending.

► The 40th anniversary of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE gets a four-disc special release from Dark Sky Films, and it’s a tough one to resist. Aside from a 4K digital transfer with 7.1 surround sound (seriously, that chainsaw will rattle the neighbor’s windows), there are prime cuts of bonus stuff: Three separate commentaries with Tobe Hooper, Gunnar Hansen and the late Marilyn Burns; the documentary ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Shocking Truth’; a tour of the family home with Hansen; TV and radio spots; virtually everything under the saw. If you want to splurge, there’s also a limited Black Maria edition which comes in a replica of the truck that saved Sally’s ass at the end. It’s available for 30 days at Gorgon Video’s website.

► Season 2 of ARROW finds Ollie squaring off against the League of Assassins, meeting the future Flash, and – best of all – matching wits with Slade Wilson, who we all know better as Deathstroke in the comics. Everything about this show has been a treasure trove for DC fans so far, respecting the books while cleverly adapting them to the TV landscape. We can only hope ‘Gotham’ pulls it off this good. Extras include a much-needed Season 1 recap, the 2013 Comic Con, and a closer look at the show’s effects and wirework.

► On the same day GHOSTBUSTERS gets a 4K remastered re-release on blu-ray, you can grab ‘Ghostbusters II’ for the same price, a combo pack of both films for a couple bucks more, or splurge for the $90 gift set which includes a Slimer figurine and two-disc Digibook. New bonus stuff for the first film includes a roundtable discussion with Ivan Reitman and Dan Aykroyd, which is continued on the sequel. I’d like to say Part II has gotten better with age, but there’s a reason they didn’t bring that one back to theatres last month.

► The gang returns for THINK LIKE A MAN TOO, though this one isn’t based on a Steve Harvey book. All the couples gather for a wedding in Las Vegas, which of course goes awry because no comedy ever set in Vegas went smoothly. Kevin Hart brings his A game again, but this one gets stagnant fast.

► David Lynch tried – oh, how he tried – but he has never out-weirded ERASERHEAD. Nothing ever could. I’ve seen it probably three or four times, and each trip feels like someone put me under and did some awful things to my brain. I’m not sure whether Lynch’s first, freaky movie is a twisted comedy or gothic horror film, but it’s still a fascinating art school experiment you can’t stop watching. And it just happened to be Stanley Kubrick’s favorite movie ever – its influence is all over The Shining. Criterion’s director-approved blu-ray includes the 2001 documentary ‘Eraserhead Stories’ and restorations of six Lynch short films.

► We may be in the Golden Age of TV, but here’s your reminder that THE BIG BANG THEORY is still the top scripted show on TV. The only thing keeping it from #1 overall is football. Season 7 was huge, getting the series’ largest audience ever for the second episode, The Deception Verification, pulling in 20.4 million viewers. I’ve always found it strange that pop culture geeks – the very people this show caters to – are the ones who despise it most. It’ll be around for at least three more seasons.

Also out this week: