The most notable new Blu-ray release this week is the classic 1963 Ray Harryhausen movie “Jason and the Argonauts” — a Blu Pick — featuring tribute interviews and audio commentaries by directors such as Peter Jackson and John Landis.
Two other notable Blu-ray releases this week:
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2.) Brooklyn’s Finest (Anchor Bay, $39.98 with digital copy) is loaded with top-notch actors/stars, beginning with Richard Gere and Don Cheadle and including Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, and Ellen Barkin. I can’t think of a poor performance by any of them in their careers. This is another cop character study from Antoine Fuqua, the director of “Training Day,” which will likely appeal to the same audience that enjoyed that tough, fairly violent, and mostly grim movie. This time there are three cops dealing with ethical, personal, and professional challenges in this 2-hour, 15-min. feature.
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— Typical but still compelling collection of behind-the-scenes extras and filmmaker audio commentary, including learning about first-time writer Michael C. Martin.
3.) “A Single Man” (Sony, $34.95) is one of those movies that may not appeal to the masses but features strong characters and performances by Colin Firth as a college professor in Los Angeles in the early 1960s who is depressed and near suicidal after the death of his young male partner of 16 years, and one of Julianne Moore’s many recent TV and movie roles as his longtime friend who is equally lonely.
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— Limited bonus features include a typical making-of featurette and an audio commentary by first-time director Tom Ford who mostly describes what is visually obvious but does provide a few anecdotes, such as redressing the same single room to look like multiple rooms in the professor’s beach house.
— By Scott Hettrick