For me, the best part of this week’s assortment of Blu-ray releases is the satisfaction of realizing that we here at The Bonus View have officially been around long enough to have covered most of these movies from the time of theatrical release all the way through the home video cycle. It’s a small accomplishment, but it’s one that we’re pretty proud of all the same. To that end, a lot of this past summer’s big titles are now available on Blu-ray just in time for your holiday wish list and shopping needs.

Here’s the release slate:

• ‘24: Season 8‘ (20th Century Fox)
• ‘The A-Team‘ (20th Century Fox)
• ‘The Black Pirate (1926)‘ (Kino)
• ‘Cyrus‘ (20th Century Fox)
• ‘Dear Mr. Gacy‘ (Starz/Anchor Bay)
• ‘Despicable Me‘ (Universal)
• ‘Despicable Me – 3D‘ (Universal)
• ‘Dragon Ball Z: Kai – Part 3‘ (FUNimation)
• ‘Hard Boiled‘ (Vivendi)
• ‘Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work‘ (MPI)
• ‘Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole‘ (Warner Brothers – December 18th)
• ‘Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole – 3D‘ (Warner Brothers – December 18th)
• ‘Micmacs‘ (Sony)
• ‘Mother and Child‘ (Sony)
• ‘MotoGP Review 2010‘ (Duke Marketing – December 13th)
• ‘Nanny Mcphee Returns‘ (Universal)
• ‘The Other Guys (Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy Combo Pack)‘ (Sony)
• ‘The Other Guys (Single Disc Edition)‘ (Sony)
• ‘The Town‘ (Warner Brothers)
• ‘True Grit (1969)‘ (Paramount)
• ‘Vampire Circus‘ (Synapse Films)
• ‘WWE: SummerSlam 2010‘ (Roc-a-Fella)

Fox’s attempt to revive ‘The A-Team‘ as a mega-budget action movie fizzled pretty badly in theaters this past summer. Part of the problem, I think, was that it arrived dead in the middle of a glut of similar ’80s-style action flicks, such as ‘The Losers‘, ‘The Expendables‘, and the spoof ‘MacGruber‘. In his review here, Drew though it was just sort of OK. This seems like the sort of thing that will fare better on video.

In contrast, the Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg action comedy ‘The Other Guys‘ performed better than expected. It may not have broken any box office records, but was a much-needed solid hit for Ferrell, whose career has been on a downswing lately. Drew loved this one.

I find it pretty interesting the way that Ben Affleck has reinvented himself as a successful director after people got sick of him as a leading man. He proved with ‘Gone Baby Gone‘ that he has some talent behind the camera. In this year’s ‘The Town‘, he both directs and acts. The movie received mostly favorable reviews and did decent business. I didn’t get around to seeing it in theaters (despite the fact that it’s set and was filmed near me in Boston), but am looking forward to catching up with it on Blu-ray.

On the indie side of things, ‘Cyrus‘ generated a fair amount of buzz, and Drew raved about it. I don’t know – somehow I’m still skeptical. The “Mumblecore” movement does nothing for me. I suppose I’d be willing to give it a shot, though.

Personally, my pick for the week is ‘Micmacs‘, the latest surreal French comedy from that demented genius Jean-Pierre Jeunet (director of ‘Delicatessen‘ and ‘Amélie’). The movie is great, great fun.

If you’re looking for something to keep your kids occupied, this week also brings the one-two punch of ‘Despicable Me‘ and ‘Legend of the Guardians‘. I don’t have kids, and will be giving both of these a pass.

The catalog front brings us the John Wayne classic ‘True Grit‘ just in time for the Coen Bros. remake starring Jeff Bridges. We also get John Woo’s ‘Hard Boiled‘, which was previously only available (in crummy quality) as an embedded extra with the PS3 game ‘Stranglehold’. Unfortunately, as a Dragon Dynasty release from The Weinstein Company (via distributor Vivendi), I wouldn’t hold out much hope for the standalone disc to be much better. The entire Dragon Dynasty line has been a disaster on Blu-ray thus far.

Finally, TV fans may find the eighth and final season of ‘24‘ mildly interesting. As I covered during its broadcast run, this final season wasn’t much better than the last couple. It started off badly, seemed to be getting really good for a brief period near the end, and then finished off with an incredibly lame finale. Jack Bauer deserves better.