This Week in Blu-ray / DVD Releases: July 16

By John Law

July 17th 2012, 1:02am

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

This week: Mel Gibson goes full gringo, Will Ferrell and the Stooges get a rough ride, and another round of Storage Wars.

► Mel Gibson follows up his beaver puppet movie by basically saying ‘fuck it’ to the box office. GET THE GRINGO didn’t even go to U.S. theatres, debuting instead on Video On Demand. “I think it’s the future,” Gibson said. Well, for now the future seems kind of weird: The Oscar-winning icon of ‘Braveheart,’ returning to his action roots in a movie about a veteran crook trying to bust out of a hardcore Mexican prison. Fifteen years ago, this movie would have made $100 million easily. Now, it doesn’t even go to theatres. You are missed, Mel.

► Face it, THE THREE STOOGES are only awesome in that part of the brain reserved for nostalgia. We love them because we grew up with their stupid antics and they bring us back to our childhood. Even when they were around, the Stooges didn’t get much respect – there was no Oscar campaign for Moe. So what happens when they make a movie that’s remarkably close to the spirit of those zany black and white shorts? It gets panned for being stupid and juvenile. Folks … that is The Three Stooges! Anyway, here’s the Farrelly Bros. flick everyone crapped on but probably laughed at more than they’ll admit. It could have been better, of course, but it was supposed to be a LOT worse. This is an homage, not a reinvention.

► At first glance, FRIENDS WITH KIDS looks like some sort of sequel to ‘Bridesmaids.’ Four of the stars appear on the cover, and everything about it looks modeled after last summer’s surprise smash. But the focus is mainly on Jennifer Westfeldt and Adam Scott as friends who agree to have a kid, without the burden of marriage, because they feel left out. While raising the little brat, they each start dating other people … and you can figure out where this is heading. Westfeldt also wrote and directed.

► That ‘Anchorman’ sequel can’t come soon enough for Will Ferrell after CASA De Mi PADRE. A spoof of telenovelas (basically Spanish soap operas), it has Ferrell as a Mexican rancher’s son trying to save his family business against a Mexican drug lord. The fact Ferrell isn’t Mexican is part of the joke, but fans weren’t interested. It opened on less than 400 screens in March and made just $5.9 million at the box office.

► The inherent flaw in a show like STORAGE WARS is that the more famous the stars get, the less likely they need to loot abandoned storage lockers for a living. Are you telling me Dave Hester needs to keep digging through other people’s crap to pay his bills at this point? Or that Jarrod and his hot little hussie Brandi are still struggling to make ends meet? The worst thing to happen to this A&E show is that it became a hit, and the success makes for a less convincing Volume 2 on DVD (does Barry Weiss even care what he finds? He’s clearly auditioning for his own show at this point). And fans are sure to be irked this isn’t the actual second season, it’s only 16 episodes … minus the last three. Why? Because screw you, that’s why.

► Clive Owen makes a rare foray into horror with INTRUDERS, about two kids in separate countries – one in Spain, one in Britain – each being visited by a dark figure trying to take possession of them. Owen plays the dad of a 13-year-old girl being tormented, and it goes without saying there’s a twist involved. It’s just not a ghost story without one any more. Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, whose sequel to ’28 Days Later’ had its moments.

► Can someone please put an end to the slow, sad decline of Guy Pearce? The guy is simply too good to be in sci-fi knockoffs like LOCKOUT, which swipes ‘Escape From New York’ so blatantly it’s daring John Carpenter to do something about it. Pearce plays a CIA agent falsely arrested for murder. To get his freedom back, he must rescue the U.S. president’s daughter from an orbiting prison. And Snake Plissken shrugged.

► Ready for more ‘very special episodes?’ Season 3 of DIFF’RENT STROKES has Mr. Drummond hit by a drunk driver, Kimberly’s friends thinking she’s pregnant, Willis gettin’ nasty with a young Janet Jackson, and Mr. Drummond coming to the awkward realization that his ancestor was a slave trader. All this and Dudley, too. Fans were starting to give up on ever seeing this show on DVD again – Season 2 was released six-and-a-half years ago.

Also out this week: