Blu-ray Highlights: Week of April 7th, 2013 – Exterminate All Rational Thought

So far, April has turned out to be a pretty slow time for new Blu-ray releases. While this week doesn’t have a whole lot going on, fans of cult movies may find something of interest.

Which Blu-rays Interest You This Week (4/9/13)?

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New Releases

Despite casting Bill Murray as a philandering Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and despite reuniting the actor with his ‘Rushmore‘ costar Olivia Williams, the lighthearted (and frankly leightweight) period comedy ‘Hyde Park on Hudson‘ failed to generate any of the critical acclaim or awards recognition that it was obviously designed for. Most reviews ranged from tepid to scathing, and the film’s box office take was practically non-existent. Sadly, this is the only major day-and-date title of the week.

Catalog Titles

As far as I’m concerned, the most exciting title this week is the Criterion Collection’s release of David Cronenberg’s ‘Naked Lunch‘. Less an adaptation of William Burroughs’ unadaptable drug-trip freakout novel, the film is really a surreal depiction of the author’s own slide into insanity. With no thematic connection that I’m aware of, Criterion has paired this with the Oscar-winning 1953 samurai film ‘Gate of Hell‘, which also sounds pretty interesting.

Quentin Tarantino so loves the 1977 revenge thriller ‘Rolling Thunder‘ that he named his own production company after it. That should give you some clue to its splatter-schlock sensibility. Shout! Factory brings it to Blu-ray.

After his success with the Oscar-winning drama ‘Chariots of Fire‘, director Hugh Hudson made the curious career decision to follow that up with a Tarzan movie. Naturally, the movie he made (with the long-winded title ‘Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes‘) attempts to take the pulp character seriously and present a realistic version of how his story might play out. Amazingly, the film was well received and pretty popular. This one comes from the Warner Archive Collection.

Finally, in anticipation of this summer’s new sequel, Universal offers up reissues of all five previous ‘Fast & Furious‘ flicks.

Television

Over on the TV front, Lionsgate brings us the second season of Kelsey Grammer’s political drama ‘Boss‘, while Image breaks out the first season of ‘The Dick van Dyke Show‘ (which was previously collected in a huge complete series box set) to a separate release. At current prices, the big box set makes a much better value.

‘Naked Lunch’ is a definite pick-up for me this week. Which titles catch your eye?

12 comments

  1. William Henley

    Just ordered Aloha Fluffy! Can’t wait to watch that.

    I had been waiting for the individual seasons of Dick Van Dyke, but, OUCH! 1 season for $50, or all of them for $125. Hmmm! I was expecting the individual seasons to be $30-$40 each. No, I am sorry, I am not paying $50 a season (although I could argue that I just paid $64 for season 1 of Enterprise).

    • EM

      At $125 for all 5 seasons of DVD on Blu, that’s just $25 per season. And Dick Van Dyke is a much better show than Enterprise—probably a funnier one, too.

      • William Henley

        This is true. It is just easier to justify pluckind down $60 or $70 at a time than $125. Too bad Amazon doesn’t have a layaway plan!

  2. Barsoom Bob

    Greystoke: Legend of Tarzan is a damn fine movie. I don’t know why you find it amazing that it could be popular. Edgar Rice Burrough’s tapped into a very special place in the imagination and created what could arguably be called the second most iconic literay character ever created. I would give top honors to Sherlock Holmes. I don’t know if it still holds up, but in his day he was the most succesful writer on the planet with more books in print in more languages than anybody else.During his time he outsold Faulkner, Hemmingway and Fitzgerald combined.

    Hollywood never got the character down right as created in the books, which made it to 22 volumes. This movie, much to it’s credit, came the closest to representing the true character. Plus, it was a very handsomely made production, with a good cast except that Andie MacDowells lines had to be dubbed by Glen Close, of all people, to make her sound properly British.

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      What I meant is that I find it interesting that audiences accepted a serious take on such a pulp character. Regardless of what the original Edgar Rice Burroughs books may have been like, by 1984, most viewers’ only knowledge of Tarzan was through TV reruns of the corny old Johnny Weissmuller movies, “Me Tarzan, you Jane,” and other pop culture baggage.

      • Tom L.

        Did you like Greystoke Josh? If not, maybe you can rip it to shreds like you did with Prometheus. 🙂

        Personally, I didn’t really like it that much, fell asleep a few times while watching it. But I saw it when I was very young, maybe I’ll change my mind if I watch it again.

  3. JM

    Aaron persuaded me to abandon ‘Boss’ – unless there’s secret nudity I won’t waste my time on politics.

    ‘Naked Lunch’ is a must!

      • JM

        Kathleen Robertson’s secret sex plot in S1 was the only character arc I connected with. Urban Romance is my catnip. I thought she left the show?

        Krybaby Grammer and Ghetto Girl wouldn’t survive one hour in ‘House of Cards.’

        ** Actually (re: tits free) once I heard who wrote it, I added ‘Veep’ to the Q.

        • Robertson is still there in season 2, she’s just left Kane’s office because she’s SPOILER WARNING!!!!!! — prego. Urban lovin’ without protection has consequences.