This Week on Blu-ray: September 20, 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 a glorious week for people who love nostalgia&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m not the biggest Disney collector in the world&comma; but I do own my fair share of their films&period; To cut to the point&comma; I won&&num;8217&semi;t be among the many picking up the studio&&num;8217&semi;s second Blu-ray release of <em>Beauty and the Beast&period; <&sol;em>Under the Walt Disney Signature Collection&comma; Disney is celebrating the film&&num;8217&semi;s 25th anniversary with this new release&period; After doing some research&comma; it seems to be that fans are a little miffed that it will be missing one cut of the film on the Blu-ray&period; The work-in-progress cut will be available digitally&comma; but Disney purists are not pleased&period; To offset that&comma; Disney has packed this one with special features&comma; so maybe it&&num;8217&semi;s worth the possible double dip&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And on the other side of the nostalgia train is Sony&&num;8217&semi;s 30th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray of <em>Labyrinth<&sol;em>&period; It seems to be far enough away from the death of music legend David Bowie to reissue the film&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s safe to say that&comma; for being a quick cash grab&comma; they really put love into this release&period; Coming with some fancy artwork&comma; the film is being released on regular Blu-ray in DigiBook packaging&comma; and a standard 4K release with or without a sSteelBook that includes the regular Blu-ray and a special anniversary gift set&period; If for some reason you don&&num;8217&semi;t own it&comma; now&&num;8217&semi;s the perfect time to pick it up&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;113171" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-113171" style&equals;"width&colon; 880px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-113171 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;09&sol;18025527&sol;29906170001&lowbar;4963609041001&lowbar;video-still-for-video-4963537715001&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Free State of Jones&comma; STX Entertainment&rpar;" width&equals;"880" height&equals;"495" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-113171" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Free State of Jones&comma; STX Entertainment&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The three new releases this week are stinkers&comma; to put it as politely as I can&period; With unremarkable slapdash releases&comma; we get Gary Ross&&num;8217&semi; <em>Free State of Jones&comma; <&sol;em>the sequel that nobody asked for&colon; <em>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles&colon; Out of the Shadows&comma; <&sol;em>and <em>Neighbors 2&colon; Sorority Rising&period; <&sol;em>Under full disclosure&comma; I have seen none of these films and have no plans to&period; Neither audience nor critical reception has proven to me that I made a mistake in doing so&period; But I could be just a tad judgmental&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I&&num;8217&semi;ve gotta say it&comma; Criterion is killing it this week&period; Let&&num;8217&semi;s start it off with Val Lewton-produced&comma; Jacques Tourneur-directed horror film&comma; <em>Cat People&period; <&sol;em>This 1942 classic has been given the Criterion treatment with a film that&comma; isn&&num;8217&semi;t quite stacked but&comma; is decently put together in terms of special features&period; Despite the unfortunate new cover&comma; this release comes with a brand new 2K transfer that is sure to impress&period; Just in time for Halloween&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m excited to add it to my collection&comma; and if you&&num;8217&semi;re a horror buff&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s unmissable&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;113170" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-113170" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-113170" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;09&sol;18025519&sol;1024x1024-1024x553&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Blood Simple&comma; Janus Films&sol;Criterion&rpar;" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-113170" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Blood Simple&comma; Janus Films&sol;Criterion&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>To top it off&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;ve got Joel and Ethan Coen&&num;8217&semi;s debut film&comma; <em>Blood Simple<&sol;em>&period; With this director-approved edition&comma; Criterion and Janus Films have put together a packed edition of the breakthrough film from the distinctive filmmakers&period; Featuring new interviews with the filmmakers as well as the cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld&comma; <em>Blood Simple <&sol;em>is sure to get the definitive treatment&period; I had a chance to see the 4K transfer used for this on the big screen&comma; and it looks stunning&period; In the audio and visual department&comma; this one is as close to perfection as we can ever get&period; And the film is pretty damn close to that in quality&comma; too&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>That&&num;8217&semi;s it for This Week on Blu-ray&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m gonna go out on a limb and say the Blu-ray of the week is <em>Blood Simple&period; <&sol;em>Any objections&quest; As always&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;ll be here to read your thoughts and opinions&period; Next week&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;ve got a TON of genre films as well as a candidate for the worst and best movie of the year&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ll let you take a guess as to what they are&period; Until next time &period; &period; &period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;