This Week in Blu-ray / DVD Releases: Aug. 28

By John Law

August 28th 2012, 12:12am

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

This week: Four boffo boxed sets, one baffling Battleship. and another creepfest from the Blair Witch director:

► August is always boxed set season, and this week sees four biggies:

– Up to its confounding cop-out of a finale, Season 4 of SONS OF ANARCHY saw the show peaking. After the prolonged trip to Ireland last season, SAMCRO gets out of prison and starts fracturing from within. Clay (Ron Perlman) starts transitioning into the show’s villain, and things don’t end well for two series regulars. A crackling campaign derailed by a weirdly anticlimactic finale, but the Hamlet-like vibe made this the show’s best season by far. And as always, screw the Emmys for ignoring Katey Sagal yet again.

– Unlike SOA, Season 2 of BOARDWALK EMPIRE didn’t have a cop-out ending. This was the exact opposite of a cop-out ending, doing what few shows ever have the balls to do: Kill a main character. An even more brilliant season than the first finds Atlantic City treasurer Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) clinging to power as family, allies and enemies alike chip away at him. All of the cast get storylines which broaden their characters, some in ways you aren’t ready for. Come for the gangsters, stay for the incest.

– Last year’s best new show, Showtime’s HOMELAND had the intrigue of early ‘24’ with twice the intelligence, as the audience was kept guessing all season long whether an American prisoner of war (Damian Lewis) has been turned by Al Queda and is plotting a terrorist attack on American soil. Trying to unravel it all is a CIA operations officer (Claire Danes), and her performance as the season progresses is a revelation. No matter how good you think she is, you never knew she was this good. A near perfect season of television. Good luck topping it, Season 2.

– I didn’t think a weekly zombie show could be hated by so many people, but the fan reaction to Season 2 of THE WALKING DEAD was livid. That is, until it kicked ass down the stretch. Taken in one gulp on Blu-ray, the season-long stint on the farm will flow much better, and despite the backlash there’s still plenty going on this season, from Rick’s newfound bad-assery, to Carl nearly checking out, to Shane’s slow descent to the dark side. The incredible finale washed away any gripes, and raised the bar for Season 3 in grand style. Bring on the prison, The Governor and Michonne.

► Aside from the awesome amount of tail he must get every night, has anyone had a worse year than Taylor Kitsch? He was front and center for two of the year’s biggest disasters, and while ‘John Carter’ got a raw deal (it wasn’t that bad), few are defending BATTLESHIP: It was a top-to-bottom howler. The fact this came from director Peter Berg is baffling – he and Kitsch were part of one of TV’s all-time greatest shows in ‘Friday Night Lights.’ Perhaps they were distracted by Minka Kelly, because this ridiculous attempt to turn the board game into an alien invasion movie comes off as a dumbed down ‘Independence Day’ (if that’s even possible). Kitsch isn’t the only culprit here: Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgard and especially Rihanna (??) are painful to watch. Neeson may pull off a rare feat, starring in both the year’s best movie (‘The Grey’) and the worst.

► Eduardo Sanchez, co-director of ‘The Blair Witch Project,’ gets back in the game with LOVELY MOLLY. A cut above most recent haunted house flicks, it finds a former drug addict freaking out when left alone in her childhood home, unsure whether it’s the drugs or something else coming back to torment her. Some of Sanchez’s ‘Blair Witch’ tricks still work.

► With diminishing returns, the Starship Troopers series has now gone animated with the CGI STARSHIP TROOPERS: INVASION. And by all reports, it’s a more worthy sequel than the wretched second and third films. Director Shinji Aramaki (who did the awesome ‘Appleseed’) brings back some of the first film’s gory excess, though the political satire in Paul Verhoeven’s original is long gone.

► You know how you look back at what people watched decades ago and silently mock them, content in your superiority as a more refined, intelligent TV viewer? Like, how your parents watched ‘Fantasy Island’ and ‘Knight Rider’ and you wonder how they ever gave birth to such an intellectually superior creature? Some day, your kids will ask how your generation ever allowed JERSEY SHORE to make it to five seasons, and you will not have an answer for them. Moral of the story: Don’t have kids. For you hopeless souls still watching, Season 5 has lots of backstabbing, stereotypes and Snooki being a slutty bitch.

Also out this week: