This Week in Blu-ray / DVD Releases: Transformers 4, Chef, 24,

By John Law

September 29th 2014, 11:42pm

This week: Transformers and 24 return, Jon Favreau whips up a winner with Chef, and the new Leprechaun ain't so charming.

► Look, there’s no point ragging on TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION any more. You all saw it, you don’t need reminding. So for a change, let’s discuss what’s good about the fourth film of the headache-inducing series. Mark Wahlberg is an instant upgrade over Shia Labeouf, right? Skrillex worked on the sound design – all the kids love Skrillex. Kelsey Grammer’s in the house, as a CIA agent who wants to eliminate all Transformers from Earth (which might make him the hero, really). What else…um, the bad robot turns into a Transformasaurus at the end, which is just as stupid and awesome as it sounds. The best news? Another big, dumb Michael Bay ‘Transformers’ movie was trounced by ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ as the summer’s biggest movie. I love a happy ending. If you can’t get enough, there’s also an $80, Amazon-only limited edition with a Grimlock vs. Optimus Prime statue.

► He’s reunited with his Iron Man, but Jon Favreau gets back to basics with the exuberant CHEF. He stars as a cook at a trendy L.A. restaurant who has his “Fuck it, I Quit” moment and heads to Miami, where he starts a food truck business with his ex-wife (Sofia Vergara), best bud (John Leguizamo) and son (Emjay Anthony). Robert Downey, Jr. drops by as Vergara’s first husband, and you also get visits from Dustin Hoffman and Scarlett Johansson. This one should get some love at Oscar time.

► You’ve got to chalk up 24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY as one of TV’s biggest surprises this year. While everyone was dismissing the needless return of Jack Bauer (guilty as charged), it appears four years off worked miracles for the show. Cutting the episodes from 24 to 12 also helped, since the show’s worst seasons were full of ridiculous padding to justify the title. Set four years after Jack goes into exile, he’s lured out of hiding in the UK to help out old pal Chloe, being held captive for her involvement in a hacker group. All the while, a terrorist group gains control of U.S. drones and uses them to attack London. Tight and tense like ‘24’ used to be, with a sad ending to boot.

► Hornswaggle alert! The former WWE Cruiserweight Champion (it’s true, it’s damn true) and Mr. McMahon’s illegitimate son takes over for Warwick Davis in LEPRECHAUN: ORIGINS, a reboot of the pint-size horror franchise. While backpacking through Ireland, some young couples are prompted to stay in a cabin, where they’re in the crosshairs of a creature looking for his gold. Went for a darker tone than the original, and it’s more of a straight-forward monster movie.

► JoBlo’s own John ‘The Arrow’ Fallon gets his grindhouse on for AMERICAN MUSCLE, writing this sordid little tale of an ex-con (‘Chromeskull’s Nick Principe) dishing the goriest payback possible to the dirtbags who screwed him over, including his brother. Fallon also stars as a mute named Tongues and takes one for the team by writing himself a threesome scene. No truth to the rumor he insisted on 20 takes.

► ‘Mad Men’ creator Matthew Weiner took his lumps with ARE YOU HERE, in which Zach Galifianakis inherits his asshole dad’s fortune and joins his friend, a philandering weatherman (Owen Wilson), to fight off a legal claim to the money by his sister (Amy Poehler). Aimless and disjointed, we can only hope this isn’t what Weiner has in store after Don Draper and Co. say see ya.

► “From the director of Crash” just doesn’t have the same oomph it used to. THIRD PERSON gathers the likes of Liam Neeson, Mila Kunis, James Franco and Kim Basinger for three inter-connected love stories going on in New York, Paris and Rome. Just the third thing Paul Haggis has directed since winning the Oscar for that movie everyone’s in denial about ten years ago, and it got blasted as an overlong mope-fest.

► We truly live in a glorious age when a gigantic, 31-year-old turd like KRULL lives on in high-def. Peter Yates’ sci-fi howler was desposited in theatres in the summer of ’83 with all the intentions of being the next ‘Star Wars,’ and was barely the next ‘Flash Gordon.’ It does offer one of James Horner’s earliest scores, and the bloated budget (reportedly $40 to $50 million, in 1983 dollars) pays for some cool visuals, but this one’s as cheesy as the early ‘80s got. Watch for Liam Neeson in just his fifth movie.

Also out this week: