This week on home video, we’ve got the latest installment of Michael Bay’s Transformers franchise, Jon Favreau’s indie hit, and the complete series of a hit Fox show that came back to television for a limited run earlier this year. On top of that, we’ve got a bunch of smaller releases starring the likes of Amy Poehler, Aaron Paul, Sam Shepard, Liam Neeson, Mila Kunis, and more. Read on for details:
If you don’t know what you’re getting into when you set out to watch one of Michael Bay’s Transformers movies, it may help to start with a little context. Long story short: they’re loud, chaotic, sometimes racist, sometimes misogynistic, and poorly reviewed. They’re also extremely popular worldwide, and extremely profitable, which is why it should surprise few people that, despite an 18 percent Tomatometer score, Age of Extinction earned more than $1 billion in global box office receipts. Leading a “rebooted” cast that includes Nicola Peltz, Stanley Tucci, and Kelsey Grammar, Mark Wahlberg stars as down-on-his-luck inventor Cade Yeager, who comes into possession of a broken-down Optimus Prime and finds himself and his daughter wrapped up in a government conspiracy to hunt down all Autobots. While critics largely dismissed the film as a noisy, jumbled barrage on the senses, a few also conceded that those looking for a bombastic, effects-driven spectacle will probably get what they’re looking for. The Blu-ray comes with an entire disc of bonus features, which include an extensive series of making-of featurettes, a tour of the Hasbro facility where the toys are created, and a ten-minute interview with Bay about his approach to the film and his filmmaking style.
Though Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Cowboys & Aliens) is also no stranger to big, CGI-heavy popcorn movies, he nevertheless found time to sneak in a smaller, character-driven comedy this year and managed to earn some rich praise for it. In his latest feature, Chef, Favreau plays Carl Casper, the head chef at a swanky Brentwood restaurant who, stifled by his boss’s old school ways, quits his job in a fit of anger that goes viral. Reluctantly, Carl accepts an invitation from his ex-wife Inez (Sofia Vergara) to move back home to Miami to help raise their son, and in the process, he starts a food truck business and rekindles his passion for cooking. Critics found Chef to be a breath of fresh air, a charming respite from the summer season of action-packed blockbusters, thanks to a clever script and a formidable supporting cast that also included Scarlett Johansson, John Leguizamo, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Downey Jr. and more. The only special features included are a commentary track and some deleted scenes, but this should make a worthy rental or purchase based on the film’s merits alone.
When Fox debuted 24 back in 2001, it would have been easy to dismiss it as a gimmick show. Each season unfolded more or less in “real time,” with episodes that covered a single hour — complete with a ticking clock — in the span of an extremely eventful day for Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), an anti-terrorist agent tasked with addressing all manner of threat to our national security. The show proved to be a critical and commercial success, and it aired successfully for eight seasons, notching dozens of nominations and awards, including 20 Emmys, before it ended its initial run in 2010. Back in May of this year, Jack Bauer returned to TV when Fox aired a 12-part series titled 24: Live Another Day, and this week, the studio is re-releasing the complete series — including Live Another Day — on DVD. It carries all of the special features available on the previous release, however, so if you already own that, you can also simply pick up Live Another Day, which is individually available on Blu-ray.
