Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Blu-ray Highlights: Week of September 16th, 2018 – Fallen from Grace

The dinosaur franchise originally started by Steven Spielberg continues to stomp all over the worldwide box office. Will its reign of terror last forever, or will it eventually go extinct?

Which Blu-rays Interest You This Week (9/18/18)?

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New Releases

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are back in a follow-up to 2015’s box office behemoth Jurassic World. The twist this time is that they return to the island to save the dinos from a volcanic apocalypse. Growing fan dissatisfaction with the last movie couldn’t stop this one from gobbling up another $1.3 billion of its own. Not even the lousy trailers or awful reviews could slow it down. Audiences really just love watching dinosaurs on the big screen. Did anyone actually like the movie, though? Nobody I’ve met. Personally, I lost interest in this franchise about halfway through watching The Lost World. If you’re still on board, Fallen Kingdom is available in a plethora of options, including 2D, 3D, Ultra HD, an ugly SteelBook at Best Buy, and another packaging exclusive at Target. It’s also part of a 5-Movie Collection for the entire franchise, in case you didn’t already buy the 25th Anniversary 4-Movie Collection earlier this year.

That’s pretty much it for new releases of note this week. In fact, Fallen Kindgom and the 5-movie set are the only titles being released on UHD. The SteelBook for the latter is a truly hideous monstrosity.

Catalog Titles

The Criterion Collection serves up the classic screwball comedy My Man Godfrey, with William Powell and Carole Lombard.

Nearly as esteemed in its cinematic reputation is the beloved naval farce Cabin Boy, starring Sir Christopher Elliott. Kino was graced the opportunity to bestow this legendary picture with a Special Edition befitting its legacy.

This year’s remake of the prison drama Papillon didn’t find much of an audience. (Were you even aware of it?) Nevertheless, it inspired Warner Bros. to reissue the original film with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman as part of the Warner Archive label. I’m not sure whether the disc itself actually differs at all from the copy released in 2011 or if it’s just the same thing in new packaging.

Also coming out of the Warner Archive is Looker, Michael Crichton’s 1981 sci-fi thriller about TV advertising, professional modeling, cosmetic surgery, and early Computer Graphic Imagery. I haven’t seen this in years, but I don’t recall it being very good.

Shout! Factory has licensed Oliver Stone’s Oscar-winner Platoon for a Special Edition SteelBook that promises a new director-approved video transfer and a bunch of bonus features.

New limited editions from Twilight Time include John Ford’s 1958 political drama The Last Hurrah, the Gregory Peck Western The Bravados (also 1958), the 1977 adaptation of the Sidney Sheldon melodrama The Other Side of Midnight, and John Boorman’s 2004 Apartheid drama In My Country.

Well Go USA breaks out standalone editions of Phantasm III and Phantasm IV from last year’s franchise collection box set.

The latest giallo offering from Arrow Video is 1977’s The Pyjama Case Girl. Meanwhile, its Arrow Academy label resurrects Peter Fonda’s long-neglected directorial debut, the 1971 Western The Hired Hand.

Television

The TV scene is really buzzing this week. Notable releases include the second season of Fox’s Lethal Weapon (the last with Clayne Crawford), the third season of Supergirl, the seventh season of American Horror Story (“Cult”), the eleventh season of X Files, the Murdoch Mysteries: Home for the Holidays Christmas special, HBO’s Fahrenheit 451 remake (which is not very good, sadly), and Hulu’s 9/11 miniseries The Looming Tower.

My $.02

My Man Godfrey will be on my list for the next Criterion sale. I’d also like to pick up the Platoon SE to replace my old Blu-ray.

The latest season of The X Files really only had two truly good episodes, but they’re both really great and may actually be enough to justify owning the whole set. However, I said something similar about Season 10 and that one’s still not on my shelf yet. I’m not in a hurry for this either, I guess.

I also have some interest in The Bravados and The Hired Hand, but they’ll probably sit on my wish list for a while.

What’s your take on the week?

13 comments

  1. Csm101

    I actually enjoyed Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom more than Jurassic World upon its theatrical run. I look forward to seeing this in 3d tomorrow after I pick it up.

      • Csm101

        Exactly, the end was like an old school monster movie and I loved that. The setting was a welcome change from the jungle as well.

        • njscorpio

          I feel like the Jurassic Park series should steer a bit more toward variety, even if that means more toward campiness, and taking itself less seriously.

          For example…if we are now going into a “Jurassic World”, then aside from the primary struggle of the main characters to “fix” what happened, you’ll have struggles of regular folks in regular places dealing with dinosaurs.

          What if, the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park ended up invading an ACTUAL theme park? A generic Disney World/Six Flags of sorts, with rollercoasters, a fun house, giant ferris wheel, river raft ride, etc., and all the guests have to survive/escape. They could actually utilize Universal Studio’s theme park, and have raptors jumping out of the Back to the Future or Mummy rides. Or they trap people within a mall, Dawn of the Dead style. Have fun with it!

          Or…and this is my big dream…while the Jurassic World events are taking place, so are the events of Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011). Fast forward a few years, and we have a world full of intelligent apes oppressing humans, while also fighting against dinosaurs. Or riding them.

    • Pedram

      I actually felt the exact opposite. I thought the first Jurassic World was fun in theatres (much better than parts 2&3 at least), but then things went full Transformers, with the sequel being really dumb and emphasis being on action over originality, and removing the charm its characters had in the first one. Don’t even get me started on what makes the ending occur.
      I really hope the next one can make up for it.

      • Csm101

        I very much enjoyed Jurassic World and felt it was the second best of the franchise just as you did, but this one was even cooler. I’m hoping I’ll love it just the same at home viewing.

        • Pedram

          I find that surprising, but hey, good for you!
          Let’s hope that the next one can best them both.
          I’m really curious to see where they take it from here.

  2. Deaditelord

    I’m detecting a little sarcasm regarding the prestige status afforded to Cabin Boy by Kino Josh. How can you besmirch Sir Christopher Elliott’s magnum opus? 🙂

    All kidding aside, I plan on renting Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom at some point (along with Jurassic World, which I still haven’t seen yet), but otherwise nothing really interests me this week.

      • Deaditelord

        It’s dreadful. If Josh was telling the truth he would have said:

        “Reviled in its cinematic reputation, Kino apparently lost a bet and was forced to bestow the craptastic Cabin Boy with a Special Edition it doesn’t deserve.”

          • Bolo

            I would’ve thought the lame sitcoms that ‘Get A Life’ was mocking would be out of date by now, but they still make new shows like that. The laugh track was something that should’ve become extinct at least 30 years ago, yet new sitcoms are still employing it.

            So who knows, maybe ‘Get A Life’ holds up better than one might expect.

  3. DaMac80

    I got Jurassic World UHD just for the dinos, I admit it. Hopefully it’s at least dumb fun. Also got Bat 21 kind of by accident, don’t you hate it when you pre-order something “just in case” and then forget about it until it ships? Gotta stop that. Also got X-Files Season 11 because I’m a big fan of the show and even a few good episodes are worth getting.

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