This week on home video, we’ve got an award-winning drama, an acclaimed musical biopic, and a critically panned thriller to kick things off. But then, we’ve got a ton of smaller films — a couple of which are most definitely worth your time — and some great TV as well. Read on for details:
If this is your first time on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s conceivable that you haven’t heard much about Boyhood, Richard Linklater’s quite literal coming-of-age drama filmed over the course of a dozen years with the same cast. If you’ve spent any amount of time on our site over the past couple months, though, you’re probably aware that the film is racking up awards left and right and is one of the frontrunners for the Best Picture Oscar. Boyhood‘s narrative is simple enough, focusing on a young boy named Mason (Ellar Coltrane) as he enters adolescence and following his growth into an adult. Critics were positively smitten by the film, which could easily have come off as a gimmicky feat but succeeded due to its sensitive, intimate portrait of family life and some consistently powerful performances from its actors. There are only a couple of extras on the Blu-ray, but they’re both fairly extensive; one is a 19-minute look at the making of the film, and the other is a nearly hourlong Q&A session with Richard Linklater.
Maybe Chadwick Boseman should focus on portraying real life people in biopics, because he’s had pretty great success with that so far, first in 2013’s 42 and then with last year’s Get on Up, in which he portrays Motown legend James Brown. The film depicts the life of the Godfather of Soul, beginning with his childhood years and leading up to his mainstream success as one of the 20th century’s most iconic figures in music. Critics offered lavish praise for Boseman’s performance, which helped center a narrative that sometimes felt a bit disjointed, and honored the film with a Certified Fresh 80 percent on the Tomatometer. Special features on the release include deleted, extended, and alternate scenes; a commentary track with director Tate Taylor; song performances; and lots more for you to chew on.
It’s always unfortunate to see talented stars wasted in a subpar film, but it happens from time to time. In the case of No Good Deed, the stars in question are Taraji P. Henson and Idris Elba. Henson plays Terri, a wife and mother of two who makes the mistake of allowing a stranger named Colin (Elba) to enter her home when he shows up at her door claiming he’s experienced some car trouble. Once inside, Colin reveals a darker motive to his intrusion and begins terrorizing Terri and her family. Though director Sam Miller previously worked with Elba on the acclaimed BBC crime drama Luther, critics largely considered No Good Deed a huge misfire, full of derivative, predictable thrills and ridiculous plot contrivances, and punished the film with a 10 percent Tomatometer. Elba and Henson are pretty watchable in anything they do, but the rest of the film may have you squirming in your seat, for all the wrong reasons.
Adam Wingard’s Certified Fresh The Guest (90 percent), starring Dan Stevens in a thriller about a mysterious man who inserts himself into the lives of a grieving family.
Dinosaur 13 (72 percent), a documentary chronicling the controversy that followed the monumental discovery of the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever found in 1990.
Horns (41 percent), starring Daniel Radcliffe in a horror dramedy about a man suspected of murdering his girlfriend who wakes up one day to discover a pair of horns growing on his head.
Two Night Stand (32 percent), starring Miles Teller and Analeigh Tipton in a comedy about two New Yorkers who find themselves snowed in and trapped together after a one-night stand.
The Longest Week (11 percent), starring Jason Bateman and Olivia Wilde in a comedy about a wealthy playboy who is cut off from his family’s wealth and suddenly falls in love with a woman he meets on the train.
Left Behind (2 percent), starring Nicolas Cage in an adaptation of the Christian novel about the people who remain on Earth after the Rapture takes place.
Atlas Shrugged: Who Is John Galt? (zero percent), the third chapter in the critically panned trilogy based on Ayn Rand’s novel.
One new Criterion release this week: Kihachi Okamoto’s samurai adventure The Sword of Doom (71 percent), about a merciless wandering warrior who is pursued by the brother of a man he killed in combat.
Season five of FX’s animated comedy Archer (100 percent) is available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Season three of Lena Dunham’s Certified Fresh HBO series Girls (89 percent), which centers on a quartet of young women living in New York, is available on DVD and Blu-ray.
The Certified Fresh first season of another HBO comedy, Looking (89 percent), about a group of single gay men navigating their lives in San Francisco, is also available on DVD and Blu-ray.
The Certified Fresh second season of FX’s crime drama, The Bridge (86 percent), about two detectives — one from Texas and one from Mexico — working together to hunt down a serial killer, is available on DVD.
The debut season of Starz’s pirate drama Black Sails (64 percent) is also available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Season Five of Fox’s musical high school comedy Glee (40 percent) is available on DVD.
