This week’s got something for everyone – a bat-shit crazy asian-western, straight-up Shakespeare, comedy/drama set in the 70s, one of the best seasons of any TV show you’ll see this year, all topped off by another stellar release from The Criterion Collection! Who could blame you for not knowing where to start this week?

1. BLACK ORPHEUS

Get ready to experience one of the most colourful, gorgeous transfers you’re bound to see all year on Blu-ray! Black Orpheus is truly a feast for the senses, updating the classic Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice for the 20th Century, setting the story during the carnival in Rio de Janeiro, and steeping it in the amazing bossa nova sounds of Antonio Carlos Jobim! There’s a reason that Marcel Camus’ film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and the Academy Award for best foreign film. Don’t miss it in this incredible Blu-ray edition from Criterion!

Special Features:

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• Archival interviews with director Marcel Camus and actress Marpessa Dawn
• New video interviews with Brazilian cinema scholar Robert Stam, jazz historian Gary Giddins, and Brazilian author Ruy Castro
• Looking for “Black Orpheus,” a French documentary about Black Orpheus’s cultural and musical roots and its resonance in Brazil today
• Theatrical trailer
• Optional English-dubbed soundtrack
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Michael Atkinson

Amazon: $29.49

2. DEXTER: THE FOURTH SEASON

I can’t even begin to tell you how much this fourth season of Dexter is like crack! Once you stop, you just can’t start. I was really averse to checking this show out for quite a long time. I just really didn’t dig the premise – cop moonlights as serial-killer/vigilante. I know it sounds like so much junk on the surface but the characters are rich and fully realized and the plotting is absolutely fearless. I can’t accentuate that word enough when describing this show and particularly this season – FEARLESS! The Blu-ray is balls-to-the-wall awesome in its technical presentation but lacks much in the way of special features. But who cares when the show itself kicks so much ass! Start watching now if you’re not hooked already.

Amazon: $39.99

3. CEMETERY JUNCTION

I fully understand that this won’t be a very popular sentiment, but Cemetery Junction is one hell of a great little film. One of the most enjoyable I’ve watched all year, in fact! It’s a light, comedy-infused drama from the brilliant minds of The Office creative team of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (who both wrote and directed the film!), both of whom turn up on screen in smaller yet brilliant roles. Aside from being a brilliant film about growing up in 1970s England, the Blu-ray is so packed full of amazing bonus features, you’ll feel like you’re getting two entire, extremely entertaining packages for one price!

Cemetery Junction comes to Blu-ray today with my highest recommendation!

Amazon: $22.99

4. THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD

Wow. We just finished watching Ji-Woon Kim‘s absolutely insane The Good, The Bad, The Weird and it’s totally done my head in. What did I just see there up on screen?! A western? An Indiana Jones-style adventure film? Or some bat-shit nuts asian pop-culture mash-up? Any way you slice it, the film is boat loads of fun and you won’t regret giving a couple hours of your time over to it. It looks stellar on Blu-ray, with tons of great extras. My only gripe comes in the form of a complaint about the lack of proper English subtitles on the E1 release I screened. It’s French or “English for the hearing impaired” or nothing on that disc. And lemme tell you, you’ll get a bit tired of reading about how the wind is blowing or that there is a train whistle in the distance pretty quickly. Sigh…

Amazon: $19.99

5. HAMLET

I’ve still never had an opportunity to see Kenneth Branagh‘s epic, and mostly unabridged take on the Danish Prince play. I’m excited to finally check it out, and get my hands on Warner‘s new deluxe Blu-ray edition of Hamlet, complete with nice, hardcover digi-book packaging. I’m hearing mixed reviews about the transfer at the moment but without seeing it firsthand I can’t speak to the concerns about the image one way or the other. But rest assured, I’ll pop it in and let you know how it comes across the moment my screener arrives!

Amazon: $23.99

ALSO AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY THIS WEEK
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