This Week in Blu-ray / DVD Releases: Jurassic World, Back to the Future

By John Law

October 20th 2015, 9:21am

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

This Week: Back to the park for the year's biggest movie, all the Back to the Future you could want, and the end of Nurse Jackie.

► Even if JURASSIC WORLD isn’t in the same league as the original classic, it’s far, far better than the first two sequels. Which was enough to make it the year’s biggest movie, whupping ‘Age of Ultron’ by nearly $200 million – anyone who says they predicted that is flat-out lying. Clearly, we missed our dinosaurs. But we also missed the tone and concept of Spielberg’s 1993 classic, which director Colin Trevorrow does a decent job emulating. It felt like a throwback and yet, entirely new after so long. Also, it’s great fun. Decades after the disaster which closed the park, new investors have re-opened it to enormous success. But – in a sly nod to sequels in general – crowds want bigger and better, so the tech guys come up with a vicious new dino which, of course, gets loose and requires the expertise of park trainer Chris Pratt. There are kids in danger, there are sleazy corporate types, there’s the operations manager trying to keep it together (Bryce Dallas Howard). It’s the proper sequel to ‘Jurassic Park’ that took 22 years. Dig in again. Blu-ray includes deleted scenes and minor featurettes. A limited edition includes two figurines from the film’s final battle.

► If you’ve been waiting for Universal to properly mark BACK TO THE FUTURE’s 30th anniversary, your DeLorean awaits. ‘The Complete Adventures’ blu-ray set includes the trilogy, the entire animated series (26 episodes), a 64-page book and flux capacitor packaging. But the bonus disc is the main event here, serving up the new original short ‘Doc Brown Saves the World’ with Christopher Lloyd and a deeper look at the 2012 restoration of the iconic car. There’s also stuff released before, like the awesome 9-part retrospective from 2009. If that’s not enough, the separate documentary BACK IN TIME is also released Wednesday.

► Edie Falco closes the book on NURSE JACKIE with Season 7, and I’ll give this often frustrating show this much – it doesn’t back down from the bad stuff on the way. Jackie (Falco) is a royal mess after her release from jail, ostracized by friends and employers alike for her drug habit. She returns to work at All Saints as news hits it’s being sold, leading to a surprisingly grim series finale. One in which you’re left to guess what actually happened. Falco can’t get away from those.

► About the only redeeming thing about I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE III: VENGEANCE IS MINE, it’s that it ignores the first wretched sequel and is a direct follow-up to the 2010 remake, even bringing back star Sarah Butler. She plays a mentor to another rape victim. By mentor, I mean teaches her how to maim, mutilate and dismember dudes.

► Can’t even begin to describe how weird this is, so I’ll just throw it out there: Last year, convicted rapist, cocaine addict and noted ear biter Mike Tyson starred as himself in an animated series on Adult Swim. MIKE TYSON MYSTERIES has him going all Scooby-Doo, alongside a pot-smoking pigeon (Norm MacDonald) and an adopted daughter (Rachel Ramras) whose name he can’t pronounce. There’s also a flamboyant ghost (Jim Rash) who provides advice. Season 1 includes 10 uncensored episodes. I want footage of the parent who inadvertently buys this for their kids this Christmas.

► It must be part of the contract that every apocalyptic movie has a blue-ish grey blu-ray cover. Z FOR ZACHARIAH has Margot Robbie as a simple farm girl who believes she’s the only survivor of a nuclear Armageddon because of the isolated location of her farmstead. Until two men come along (Chiwetel Ejiofer and Chris Pine) who both believe they should be the ones to restart the human race with her.

► Shout! Factory drops some retro Halloween on us with special edition blu-rays of the two TALES FROM THE CRYPT movies from the mid ‘90s. The loony ‘Demon Knight’ (1995) has William Sadler as a guy who owns the last of seven ancient keys which can unlock a horde of demons. Bad guy Billy Zane holds the other six, and rounds up an army of the undead to retrieve it. Cast includes Thomas Haden Church, CCH Pounder and Jada Pinkett-Smith. Extras have director Ernest Dickerson doing commentary and a making-of featurette. The slightly better ‘Bordello of Blood’ (1996) has Angie Everhart as a vampire queen luring man meat to her bordello. A private eye (Dennis Miller) and reverend (Chris Sarandan) have other plans. Corey Feldman and Erika Eleniak remind you this is from the ‘90s. Blu-ray includes a making-of and commentary from producer A.L. Katz.

Also out this week: