This Week in Blu-ray / DVD Releases: Mad Men, Sex Tape, The Purge: Anarchy

By John Law

October 21st 2014, 12:00am

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

This week: The final days of Don Draper…Part 1. Also, Sex Tape could use more lube, the summer's hidden gem in Snowpiercer, and get used to a Purge every year.

► Oh AMC, be better than this. Rather than wait for MAD MEN’s entire seventh and final season to end, here we go with another ‘half season’ boxed set. Mind you, these are seven excellent episodes, as the show’s end game finds Don slowly reclaiming his mojo after last season’s meltdown. It puts him at legal odds with his own company. Mid-season finale is both triumphant and tragic, much like the late ‘60s it takes place in. One of the greatest shows ever is not wavering down the stretch. Seven more episodes to go, airing some time next year.

► You know why ‘Purge’ is going to be the new ‘Saw?’ Because THE PURGE: ANARCHY cost just $9 million, and made $109 million. Yes, that’s more than the original, and yes another one is coming next summer. For Part 2, we get out of Ethan Hawke’s house and onto the streets where circumstances leave a group of people exposed during the one night a year murder and anarchy are legal. But this time, an anti-Purge resistance lends a hand. Blu-ray includes deleted scenes.

► Jake Kasdan’s SEX TAPE might have been one of the biggest comedies of 2004. By 2014, its premise felt a bit flaccid. Cameron Diaz and Jason Segal make a sex tape, accidently download it onto a bunch of iPads they gave away, and have to get them all back. Then YouPorn gets ahold of it. Watchable enough, and I don’t know what universe Cameron Diaz isn’t still hot in, but this one’s a bit long in the tooth.

► In a just world, something like Bong Joon-ho’s SNOWPIERCER would have gotten plenty of attention this summer, but we live in a Transformers world so pass the beer nuts. Now’s the time to make amends as this taut little sci-fi action flick awaits your love on blu-ray and DVD. Chris Evans (yes, Captain America) leads a revolt of the lower class citizens in a constantly moving train which contains Earth’s survivors from an ice age. A rare sighting of something original and visionary during summer. Tilda Swinton and Octavia Spencer co-star.

► I wish I could say ‘Shaun of the Dead’ was the last ever zombie comedy – because it rendered the rest of them obsolete – but no, they keep coming our way. LIFE AFTER BETH at least has Aubrey Plaza going for it. She gets bit by a snake, dies, comes back, but denies she’s a zombie. John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon and Dane Dehaan add some laughs.

► By shitting out five direct-to-DVD sequels, the ‘Wrong Turn’ series has become one of modern horror’s most productive franchises. For WRONG TURN 6: THE LAST RESORT, a dude with issues inherits a backwoods hotel, where he learns his troubles may be related to the hillbilly cannibals killing his friends. Stars pretty much no one you know. Are they even asking Eliza Dushku any more?

► VH1’s CRAZYSEXYCOOL: THE TLC STORY was last year’s highest-rated TV movie. Co-produced by the two remaining members, it traces this legendary trio’s shitty roots in Atlanta to becoming one of the biggest-selling female acts in music history, along with the legal headaches that came with it (after selling a million records they were still essentially poor). More a celebration of the group than a ‘tell all,’ though the death of Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes is still a gutpunch.

► Shout! Factory’s second volume of THE VINCENT PRICE COLLECTION brings seven more of the sardonic legend’s favourites to blu-ray for the first time, including ‘House on Haunted Hill,’ ‘The Raven,’ ‘The Last Man on Earth’ and ‘Dr. Phibes Rises Again.’ Five of the seven flicks have new commentaries. Not quite the stellar line-up of Vol. 1, but certainly some classic Price here.

Also out this week: