This Week in Blu-ray / DVD Releases: Amazing Spider-man 2, Boardwalk Empire

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

This week: Is Spidey starting to wear out his welcome? Also: The annual August boxed set bonanza is upon us.

► Marvel releases three major movies this year…and Spider-man is the least interesting? Who saw this day coming? Sure enough, the excitement over THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 was nothing compared to the previous four movies in the franchise, as fatigue appears to be setting in. Despite a solid first outing, director Marc Webb stuffs the sequel with too many villains (didn’t ‘Spider-man 3’ kill that temptation?), with subplots tripping over each other and a far-too-crammed ending. On the good side, Andrew Garfield is settling into the character better than Tobey Maguire ever did, and the special effects are still astounding when you’re not overdosing on them. This made the least money of the five Spidey flicks, which makes Sony’s decision to spin off more movies from this universe puzzling. The $100 three-disc Electro Collector’s Edition offers a nice replica of Jamie Foxx’s blue mug, along with, filmmaker commentary and plenty of deleted scenes.

► As BOARDWALK EMPIRE heads into the home stretch, it went darker than ever in Season 4, pitting pretty much everyone against each other. Nucky branches out into Florida while being pursued by J. Edgar Hoover, Chalky meets a well-versed new nemesis in Narcisse (Jeffrey Wright), and Nucky’s sibling Eli (Shea Whigham) deals with a gangster-wannabe son while being pressured by the feds to rat on his brother. A particularly rough finale (say goodbye to another regular) leaves you with a gut punch while waiting for the final season, which starts Sept. 7.

► The phenomenal fifth season of THE GOOD WIFE makes a solid case this is the best show on network TV. With Alicia (Julianna Margulies) and Cary (Matt Czuchry) finally leaving Lockhart/Gardner to start their own firm, four seasons worth of tensions come out in the instant classic episode appropriately titled ‘Hitting the Fan.’ That’s just a primer – the season’s real stunner comes later, when a departing cast member forced the writers into a corner. They respond with a devastating episode that changes the show in a heartbeat. The show continues to buck formula, hitting its high point when middle age sag should be setting in.

► Jim Jarmusch making a vampire movie sounds like a ridiculous concept, until you watch the Jim Jarmusch vampire movie. ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE has Tom Hiddleston as a brilliant, reclusive Detroit bloodsucker who has made a fortune as a musician but is starting to realize the world is screwed. Just as he’s about to kill himself, he reconnects with his wife (Tilda Swinton) living across the pond. Just when they’re getting cozy again, her deranged sister visits to muck things up. Droll and romantic like the best of Jarmusch’s stuff, with plenty of things to say about modern America behind its vampire veneer.

► We all may as well brace for the inevitable news the upcoming 7th season of PARKS AND RECREATION will be the last. This killer cast – and those crappy ratings – cannot be sustained. At the same time, it’s a damn miracle the show made it this far, and it was still humming in Season 6. Pregnancies abound, along with cast departures, new appointments for the Pawnee gang, and a rude awakening for Leslie on council. It leads to a ballsy season finale, making Season 7 much more intriguing. Which has to be the last one. Don’t ‘Office’ this thing, NBC.

► Things I felt after seeing ‘Jarhead’ in 2005: Disappointment, boredom, underwhelmed. What I didn’t feel: The overwhelming urge to see a sequel. But here’s the ridiculous JARHEAD 2: FIELD OF FIRE anyway, having nothing to do with the original, and certainly not based on a memoir. This one ups the action – because clearly director Sam Mendes didn’t have enough explosions in the first – for the tale of a Navy SEALS team helping an Afghan woman escape the Taliban. Cole Hauser and Stephen Lang show they’ll star in anything. When you see stuff like this, you realize how close we actually came to a ‘Raging Bull’ sequel.

► And speaking of headscratchers, here’s NBC’s ROSEMARY’S BABY miniseries. What was already a bloody perfect horror film slides Zoe Saldana into the Mia Farrow role as a woman who suspects the tenants in her new apartment building have dire plans for her upcoming baby. Part of what made the original a masterpiece is that, like Rosemary, we were never quite sure what was going on until that classic ending. This version leaves little doubt. Add plenty of gore, and it’s just another modern mangling. Patrick J. Adams is the husband, Carole Bouquet is the not-quite-right neighbour in the role that won Ruth Gordon an Oscar.

Also out this week: