This Week in Blu-ray / DVD Releases: Man From UNCLE, We Are Your Friends

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

This Week: A mostly groovy Man From U.N.C.L.E., the DJ disaster of We Are Your Friends, and the Hobbit trilogy gets even longer.

► Guy Ritchie brings the same cheeky humor of his Sherlock Holmes movies to THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., and it’s enough to keep you amused through a pretty thin script (spies sent to retrieve a gadget from bad guys). Henry Cavill is the American, Arnie Hammer is the Russian, and Alicia Vikander is the wildcard – a chop shop mechanic in East Berlin whose dad, a former Nazi scientist, is sought by a new generation of Nazis to build a nuclear bomb. The film’s swanky early ‘60s look is a nice throwback to the show, and the two stars play up the fun (but not campy) aspect of the series’ early years. But this isn’t ‘Mission Impossible,’ and anyone expecting wall-to-wall action was left underwhelmed. Blu-ray includes a featurette on recreating the ‘60s.

► Because of its flimsy budget, WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS can’t be considered a catastrophic bomb. That title is reserved for movies which cost so much, their failure threatens to bankrupt the studio. What sets it apart is the massive indifference that earned it one of the worst opening weekends ever for a film showing in at least 2,000 screens. And it wasn’t alone – ‘Jem and the Holgrams’and ‘Rock the Kasbah’ performed equally bad later in the year, which can only ensure more movies like this will simply go straight to video-on-demand in the future. An eye-opener, because it wasn’t so long ago movies like this would mop up at the box office by catering to teens. Zac Efron plays a DJ who comes under the wing of an older DJ (Wes Bentley), but things fall apart when he falls for Bentley’s girlfriend (Emily Ratajkowski). The one hilarious extra shows how Efron prepared “for his role as a world-class DJ!” Cue the training montage!

► The book is finally (we mean it this time) closed on Peter Jackson’s Middle Earth saga this week with the blu-ray release of the extended HOBBIT TRILOGY. Meaning, you can finally cue up all six extended cuts in high-def and have at it. The Hobbit flicks got unfairly maligned in the mighty shadow of The Lord of the Rings, but they were perfectly fine prequels which allowed us to revisit that world. Plus, they actually got better as they went along, leading to the robust ‘Battle of the Five Armies’ which crammed more action into the shortest running time. It gets an extra 30 minutes in this edition, which is also released separately Tuesday. Massive set with more than 27 hours of extras.

► THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT is the true story of an ill-fated project in 1971 in which 24 volunteers agree to become mock prisoners and guards in a simulated prison. Within days the prisoners became hapless victims while the guards became abusive sadists. It was shut down after six days, but its results created ripples still felt today (Abu Ghraib had huge similarities). Billy Crudup and Ezra Miller star. Includes commentary with the professor who originally conducted the experiment.

► Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s 1995 dark fantasy THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN has gained plenty of luster over the years. On an ocean rig, a deranged scientist kidnaps kids from a nearby port city in order to steal their dreams. Ron Perlman is the carny who sets out to rescue his adopted little brother and encounters a bizarre world of dwarves, clones, and some jarring nightmarish imagery – and Ron Perlman has seen plenty in his day. This is the movie that got Jeunet the ‘Alien: Resurrection’ gig. 20th anniversary blu-ray includes commentary, a making-if, and a new HD master.

► Also celebrating its 20th anniversary this year is the fantastic LIVING IN OBLIVION, a painfully funny look at the making of an indie movie which puts Steve Buscemi through every floor of hell. He’s the hapless director dealing with, among many mishaps, his leading man having a one-nighter with his female lead, a mom wandering onto the set, and a dwarf (Peter Dinklage) who feels his dream sequence scene is a cliché. Catherine Keener and Dermot Mulroney, though it’s funny how 20 years later Dinklage gets the biggest play on the blu-ray cover.

► Criterion edition of IN COLD BLOOD includes a wealth of archival goodies, including author Truman Capote’s 1966 visit to Holcomb, Kansas, where the four members of the Clutter family were murdered seven years prior. There’s also a 1968 interview with star Robert Blake, and new features on the film’s groundbreaking editing and score by Quincy Jones. The film hit a raw nerve in 1967 by using actual locations, including the Clutter residence and penitentiary where the killers were executed.

► The documentary MERU follows three men attempting to reach the summit of a mountain in the Himalayas, after failing in 2008. The mountain’s unique shape – like a shark fin shape near the top, requiring a 4,000 foot climb up solid rock – makes it especially dangerous. Will not dispute any theory that mountain climbers are basically insane.

Also out this week: