This week, Ryan Gosling puts the pedal to the medal, Transformers kick Shia’s ass (again), and The Next Generation gets a digital facelift ... oh, and all of your dirty Star Wars fantasies come true.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Drive (DVD & Blu-ray)
You know about this one already, right? Nicholas Winding Refn’s deconstructed action film with less actual action than 10 minutes of The Expendables but 20 times more meaning? With Ryan Gosling doing his best Steve McQueen-meets-Paul Newman impression. With Carey Mulligan and Christina Hendricks as characters that are neither incidental nor ornamental? The movie with that dumb-ass scorpion jacket that somehow gets willed into coolness? Yeah, that movie. It’s on DVD. Get to it.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Blu-ray, DVD, 3D)
Given that this threequel made more than a BILLION dollars at the box office, some of you went to see it. Now, whether you’ll want to see it again is a matter between you and your god.
The Thing (2011) (DVD & Blu-ray)
Prequel, reboot, whatever: There’s something shape-shifty stirring in the frozen, barren wasteland, and it falls to some pretty people to investigate. (And, hey, you’ll always have John Carpenter’s film, safe on your shelf. No need to cry heresy.)
Star Trek: The Next Generation - Next Level (Blu-ray)
You know how sometimes, these video companies will expect you to buy the same thing over and over again, with little to no difference between versions? Yeah, this isn’t that. The restoration that Paramount’s done on The Next Generation is astounding. This is merely a teaser — featuring three episodes, “Encounter at Farpoint,” “Sins of the Father” and “The Inner Light” — but if your Blu-ray player’s been hungering for some steamy Picard action, engage.
In Time (DVD & Blu-ray)
It’s a little slight, this Andrew Niccol sci-fi-romance-thriller, but the one thing it gets right is the world building: A society that uses lifespan as currency is a fascinating idea, one that In Time takes advantage of. The generic thriller elements, though, are less fascinating. Still, Amanda Seyfried isn’t hard to look at for a couple of hours (and neither is Justin Timberlake, if he’s your brand of vodka).
Dream House (DVD & Blu-ray)
What’s that? A horror movie with Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts, and Rachel Weisz directed by In the Name of the Father’s Jim Sheridan? Where have you been all my life? Oh, yeah...learning how to suck.
Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking (Blu-ray)
If you’re going to watch Transformers: Dark of the Moon, then you’re hereby required to wash it down with this. SCIENCE!
Star Wars XXX: A Porn Parody
I’m remiss in mentioning this release, which came out last week. But if you want the incest inherent in Lucas’ saga that only became manifest in the sequel (no one should’ve let Luke and Leia share a smooch) to be ALL UP IN YOUR FACE, then go to town.