They said it couldn’t be done. They said that Magic Mike didn’t need a sequel. They said that a sequel devoid of Magic Mike‘s social commentary would suck. And they were wrong. If you were one of the poor individuals who missed Magic Mike XXL when it hit theaters, there’s no better time than the present to check it out, now that it’s the headlining title of this week’s DVD slate. It’s so chock full of Soderberghian goodness that it should hold you over for the week and a half before The Knick returns.
As for other new releases, you can check out what Scott Tobias called “a gleaming shrine to adolescent narcissism” by purchasing Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, or you can check out what Keith Phipps called “simultaneously overwrought and curiously slight” by purchasing Manglehorn. There’s also the Scientology expose Going Clear, based on Lawrence Wright’s excellent book of the same name, which is essential if only for the wealth of clips Alex Gibney digs up for it, namely a music video for the Church which has to be seen to be believed.
As for catalog titles, this week, Universal finally redoes its awful original Spartacus Blu-Ray with a brand-spanking new 4K restoration (although don’t sell your Criterion DVD of it so fast, that still has many exclusive features), as does Sony with Bram Stoker’s Dracula. And Criterion finally upgrades Gus Van Sant’s gorgeous My Own Private Idaho to Blu-Ray.
American Horror Story: Freak Show (Fox)
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Sony)
Burnt Offerings (Kino Lorber)
Dark Places (Lionsgate)
Escobar: Paradise Lost (Anchor Bay)
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (FilmRise)
Hammer Horror Classics, Volume One (The Mummy / Dracula Has Risen from the Grave / Taste the Blood of Dracula – 95 Minute Uncut Version / Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed!) (Warner Bros.)
Insidious: Chapter 3 (Sony)
Jackie Chan’s First Strike (Warner Bros.)
Last Shift (Magnolia)
The Leftovers: The Complete First Season (Warner Bros.)
Magic Mike XXL (Warner Bros.)
Manglehorn (MPI)
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Fox)
My Own Private Idaho (Criterion)
Penny Dreadful: The Complete Second Season (Paramount)
Rumble in the Bronx (Warner Bros.)
Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! (Asylum)
South Park: The Complete Eighteenth Season (Paramount)
Spartacus (Universal)
Tremors 5: Bloodlines (Universal)
Tut (Paramount)
We Are Still Here (MPI)
When Marnie Was There (Universal)
(Incidentally, I want you to appreciate my restraint in not making Joe Manganiello’s water bottle ejaculation the header image.)