This Week on Blu-Ray: September 27th 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; This is a week definitely worth getting excited about&period; After all the garbage releases that included <em>Free State of Jones<&sol;em> and <em>Now You See Me 2&comma;<&sol;em> we&&num;8217&semi;ve got something to look forward to&period; Unfortunately&comma; I have to inform you of the release of one of the worst films of the year&comma; <em>Warcraft<&sol;em>&period; On Blu-Ray and 4K Ultra HD&comma; Duncan Jones&&num;8217&semi; misfire lands with a standard release&period; Let&&num;8217&semi;s just all happily forget that it exists and pray to the movie gods that his next film&comma; <em>Mute<&sol;em>&comma; is a return to form&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I&&num;8217&semi;ve only got more bad news&period; Seth Gordon&&num;8217&semi;s latest &&num;8220&semi;comedy&&num;8221&semi;&comma; <em>Central Intelligence <&sol;em>is making its Blu-Ray and 4K debut&period; Starring Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart&comma; the joke should be fairly obvious if you&&num;8217&semi;re aware of them in the slightest&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s sad to know that Gordon started out so strong with his documentary <em>The King of Kong&colon; A Fistful of Quarters&comma; <&sol;em>and he just decided to follow-up bad comedy after bad comedy&period; It isn&&num;8217&semi;t so much that promise was wasted&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s that promise may never have existed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>We&&num;8217&semi;ve also got the bizarrely well-received Jaume Collet-Serra film&comma; <em>The Shallows&period; <&sol;em>Another release under Blu-Ray and 4K&comma; you can see Blake Lively surf on a remote beach until she&&num;8217&semi;s attacked by a horribly rendered CG shark&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ll admit that it&&num;8217&semi;s refreshing for a film to focus on one event and take its time&comma; but it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t make up for the fact that Lively is a really bad actress&period; You&&num;8217&semi;d think it wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t be so hard to pretend you&&num;8217&semi;re being attacked by a shark&comma; Lively goes out there to prove us wrong&period; Have I <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;the-shallows-review&sol;">mentioned<&sol;a> how little I care for Collet-Serra&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;113598" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-113598" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-113598" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;09&sol;26194617&sol;neon-demon-1050x467-1024x455&period;png" alt&equals;"&lpar;The Neon Demon&comma; Amazon Studios&rpar;" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"444" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-113598" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;The Neon Demon&comma; Amazon Studios&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Let&&num;8217&semi;s move on to something surprisingly decent with <em>Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates&period; <&sol;em>I detail my thoughts in this <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;mike-and-dave-need-wedding-dates-review&sol;">review<&sol;a>&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s a pretty crude and fun 90 minutes&period; Nothing I&&num;8217&semi;ll remember years from now&comma; but it was an entertaining diversion from the self-seriousness of the early summer movie season&period; It helps that Adam DeVine just knows how to make me laugh and his jokes aren&&num;8217&semi;t always of the intelligent variety&period; But it works on a sheer immediate comedic level&period; Sometimes that&&num;8217&semi;s all I ask&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After the disappointing <em>Only God Forgives&comma; <&sol;em>Nicolas Winding Refn scared me and many others in thinking he may have just got lucky with <em>Drive<&sol;em>&period; It had been over 10 years since his acclaimed <em>Pusher <&sol;em>trilogy had been released&period; Did Refn have what it takes to still make a great movie&quest; The answer to that question is Hell Yes&excl; I&&num;8217&semi;m slightly more positive than our <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;neon-demon-review&sol;">review<&sol;a> on <em>The Neon Demon<&sol;em>&comma; but Refn pulled out all the stops for a film that takes the greatest parts of his latest era and smashes them all in an exaggerated look into the fashion industry&period; Not just one of the best films of the year&comma; but one of the best looking films as well&period; Definitely worth the purchase&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Next up is John Landis&&num;8217&semi; 1981 horror&sol;comedy classic&comma; <em>An American Werewolf in London<&sol;em>&period; You may remember a few years back&comma; Universal released a standard catalogue Blu-Ray for the film under the &&num;8220&semi;Full Moon Edition&&num;8221&semi; title&period; That edition wasn&&num;8217&semi;t particularly well received in terms of picture quality&comma; amongst other things&period; For the 35th anniversary&comma; Universal decided to give the fans a new restoration &lpar;no word on whether it&&num;8217&semi;s 2K or 4K&rpar; as well as an exclusive slipcover&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ll admit that I&&num;8217&semi;m not the biggest fan of this film &&num;8211&semi; the tone tends to waver all over the place and never seems to find its narrative footing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;113599" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-113599" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-113599" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;09&sol;26194653&sol;28661id&lowbar;137&lowbar;w1600-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Dekalog&comma; Janus Films&rpar;" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-113599" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Dekalog&comma; Janus Films&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The beloved Shout Factory has given us two big releases&period; We&&num;8217&semi;ll start with Bill and Ted&&num;8217&semi;s Most Excellent Collection&excl; Part of their Shout Select label&comma; this release is stacked with an entire disc dedicated to bonus features&comma; a &&num;8220&semi;Wyld Stallyns&&num;8221&semi; guitar pick&comma; random vinyl stickers&comma; etc&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t think Excellent Adventure is a great film by any means&comma; but Bogus Journey is absolutely fantastic&period; Anything that centers a 30 minute sequence around a reference to <em>The Seventh Seal <&sol;em>is alright by my book&period; As part of the Scream Factory line-up&comma; Shout released the 1988 cult classic&comma; <em>Lady in White&period; <&sol;em>Despite this film not being labelled a Collector&&num;8217&semi;s Edition Blu-Ray&comma; this film has 3 separate cuts on 2 Blu-Ray&&num;8217&semi;s as well as some ported special features from previous releases&period; No matter how you feel that it might not look like love was put into it&comma; from the look of things&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;d beg to differ&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I know that I said <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;week-blu-ray-september-20th-2016&sol;">last week&&num;8217&semi;s Criterion line-up<&sol;a> was stellar&comma; and I didn&&num;8217&semi;t lie&comma; but this line-up is right up there with it&comma; if not better&period; These next two films have reportedly been rumored for the collection for over 20 years&comma; all the way back to their Laserdisc days&period; Now we no longer have to wait for <em>Valley of the Dolls<&sol;em> and its sequel by name only&comma; <em>Beyond the Valley of the Dolls<&sol;em>&period; The former is mostly known as the film that put Polanski&&num;8217&semi;s wife and Manson victim&comma; Sharon Tate onto the map&comma; as well as being incredibly campy under the modern lens&period; Under a new 2K restoration&comma; <em>Valley<&sol;em> gets the stunning Criterion treatment&comma; getting some new interviews and video essays along with them&period; The latter of the two is a film that defies modern narrative convention for an intentionally campy and sex-ploitative vision&period; And it&&num;8217&semi;s hard to turn down buying it when you see there&&num;8217&semi;s a brand new John Waters interview about his appreciation for the film&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Despite having only seen 4 of his films&comma; I feel comfortable saying that Krzysztof Kie&sacute;lowski is one of my favorite filmmakers&period; Mostly known for his final three films&comma; <em>The Three Colors Trilogy<&sol;em>&comma; Kie&sacute;lowski continues to impress arthouse audiences and film fans alike&period; At long last&comma; Criterion and Janus Films give us the <em>Dekalog<&sol;em>&period; This box-set features all 10 films and extended versions of the 5th and 6th films with a brand new 4K transfer&period; Drawing inspiration from the Ten Commandments&comma; these films look into the lives of the residents of a housing complex in late-Communist Poland&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m rarely as excited for something as I am to see these for the very first time&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s it for This Week on Blu-Ray&period; If there&&num;8217&semi;s anything I missed or if I made you upset&comma; as always&comma; let us know in the comments&period; Until next time&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;