This Week on Blu-Ray: August 2nd 2016

<p>Welcome to another installment of This Week On Blu-Ray&comma; where I tell you what the big releases are and whether they’re worth getting&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s one hell of a week for physical media if you&&num;8217&semi;re a lover of comics&comma; genre film&comma; and great TV&period; <em><strong>Batman&colon; The Killing Joke<&sol;strong><&sol;em>&comma; one of the seminal graphic novels within the Batman canon&comma; written by Alan Moore&comma; has received the feature length animated treatment&period; Unfortunately for DC comics and all creative talent involved&comma; this year&&num;8217&semi;s Comic-Con panel for the film was dealt a <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;io9&period;gizmodo&period;com&sol;the-killing-joke-movie-is-a-disaster-right-down-to-its-1784176711">controversial blow<&sol;a>&period; Despite all of this&comma; it will be interesting to see how the filmmakers adapted it at the very least&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With a lack of an interesting segue&comma; Key and Peele&&num;8217&semi;s feature length film&comma; <em><strong>Keanu<&sol;strong>&comma;<strong> <&sol;strong><&sol;em>attempted to force itself down the throats of millions of viewers that thankfully caught on that just having a cute kitten in your film doesn&&num;8217&semi;t justify its existence&period; The comedians and their long time director Peter Atencio probably hoped for a little more love&comma; but after blaming the marketing for the film&comma; there seems to be no saving this stinker of a comedy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110960" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110960" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-110960" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;08&sol;02104327&sol;MV5BMTY2ODcwMzcyNl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwOTg4NzUwNjE&percnt;40&period;&lowbar;V1&lowbar;SY1000&lowbar;CR0014991000&lowbar;AL&lowbar;-1024x683&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;The Lobster&comma; A24&rpar;" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"667" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110960" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;The Lobster&comma; A24&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>In modern comedies&comma; acclaimed Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos delivers the scariest and the most subtextual film into relationships since Michel Gondry&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless<&sol;em> <em>Mind<&sol;em>&comma;<em> <&sol;em>with <em><strong>The Lobster&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em>Featuring an absolutely stellar cast headed by Colin Farrell&comma; the premise centers around an involuntary hotel where single people must stay for 30 days to find a mate&period; If they fail to do so&comma; the residents are turned into an animal of their choosing&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m sorry&comma; but if that doesn&&num;8217&semi;t sell you on a movie than I don&&num;8217&semi;t know what will&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This week on blu-ray&comma; Shout Factory&&num;8217&semi;s sub-label Scream Factory has given its love over to the 1978 classic&comma; <em><strong>Invasion of the Body Snatchers&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em> Philip Kaufman&&num;8217&semi;s remake of the original 1956 masterpiece only added more flame to the fire on whether remaking old films from the same language was really worth it&period; With a cast that features Leonard Nimoy&comma; Jeff Goldblum&comma; Donald Sutherland&comma; and Veronica Cartwright&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s hard to argue that this shouldn&&num;8217&semi;t exist&period; This is one that is worth seeking out&comma; even if you&&num;8217&semi;ve already seen it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ben Wheatley has become one of my favorite directors working out of the last 10 years&period; With his track record up to this point including films that&comma; at their worst&comma; could be considered very good&comma; I always thought he could do no wrong&period; His latest film&comma; <em><strong>High-Rise<&sol;strong><&sol;em>&comma; gave me pause to that idea&period; With access to his biggest budget to that point and an A-list cast&comma; Wheatley adapted a book that had been loosely translated to film so many times&comma; that it really loses a lot of its potency and narrative strength&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s disappointing to say the least&comma; but even I have to tell you how visually stunning this film is&period; If heady&comma; thought-provoking films that don&&num;8217&semi;t entirely hit the mark are your thing&comma; this is worth giving a look&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110962" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110962" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-110962" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;08&sol;02104504&sol;MV5BMTYxODQ4MDgxMF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNzYzMjA1NzE&percnt;40&period;&lowbar;V1&lowbar;SX1777&lowbar;CR001777999&lowbar;AL&lowbar;-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;The Girlfriend Experience&comma; Starz&rpar;" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110962" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;The Girlfriend Experience&comma; Starz&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>One more blu-ray I want to highlight this week is the release of the spectacular first season of Starz&&num;8217&semi;s <em><strong>The Girlfriend Experience<&sol;strong><&sol;em>&period; Lodge Kerrigan and Amy Seimetz&&num;8217&semi;s adaptation of Steven Soderbergh&&num;8217&semi;s lackluster exploration of the escort business breathes a dark sense of life and reality to the subject with cold detail&period; Almost every performance is perfection&comma; including the lead role played with stunning determination by Riley Keough&period; This is a series that should be seen&period; You can also buy Soderbergh&&num;8217&semi;s own series&comma; <strong><em>The Knick<&sol;em><&sol;strong>&comma; as the second season has just been released&period; Let&&num;8217&semi;s be honest though&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s not Soderbergh&&num;8217&semi;s best work or the best material he&&num;8217&semi;s gotten to work with&period; Drug-addicted professionals don&&num;8217&semi;t need to be seen again&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Let&&num;8217&semi;s close off this article mentioning the absymal <em><strong>Mother&&num;8217&semi;s Day <&sol;strong><&sol;em>from the late Garry Marshall&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;ve seen <em>Valentine&&num;8217&semi;s Day<&sol;em>&comma; <em>New Year&&num;8217&semi;s Eve <&sol;em>and <em>Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom&comma; <&sol;em>you know what you&&num;8217&semi;re getting yourself into&period; You&&num;8217&semi;re braver than I will ever be&period; Speaking of shit&comma; Nicolas Cage has another film out&period; This time&comma; however&comma; he&&num;8217&semi;s teamed up with Elijah Wood to rob a vault full of drug money in the back of a convenience store in <em><strong>The Trust&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em>Did I mention they were corrupt cops&quest; That&&num;8217&semi;s it for This Week On Blu-Ray&period; Come back next week for a time traveling James Franco and Tom Hanks in Saudi Arabia&period; Until next time&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;