New on DVD & Blu-Ray: Chappie, Run All Night, and More

South African director Neill Blomkamp loves his brainy sci-fi, but as his first three feature films now demonstrate, he doesn’t always know what to do with his big ideas. Set in the near future, Chappie centers on a police enforcement droid gone rogue after his creator (Dev Patel) uploads new artificial intelligence programming that causes the droid to become self aware. Christened “Chappie” by his adoptive parents — a couple of common criminals (played by hip hop duo Ninja and Yolandi Visser of Die Antwoord) — he learns quickly that not everyone is happy to see his transformation come to fruition. Co-starring Hugh Jackman, Sigourney Weaver, and Blomkamp regular Sharlto Copley as the voice of Chappie, the film boasted a strong cast and seamless visual effects, but critics felt it was too derivative and tonally inconsistent for its message to resonate. The Blu-ray comes with several featurettes on everything from a profile of Johannesburg to a look at the weaponry to an examination of real A.I., as well as an alternate ending, an extended scene, and concept art.

Liam Neeson furthers his late career badass cred in Run All Night, his third collaboration with director Jaume Collet-Serra after Unknown and Non-Stop. When retired mob hitman Jimmy Conlon (Neeson) kills the son of his former boss (Ed Harris) during an altercation, his own son (Joel Kinnaman) becomes the new target, and Jimmy fights to protect him at all costs. The bottom line for Run All Night is that there’s hardly anything new here, but Neeson’s performance and a propulsive storyline make it a passably entertaining revenge thriller. Disc features include two featurettes — on shooting the film and on Liam Neeson as a gritty action hero — and a handful of deleted scenes.