DISCussion: New on DVD and Blu-ray (11.11.14)

New on DVD this week are some pretty big features including Mood Indigo, Tammy, and Let's Be Cops. Although there is a great Criterion double-feature and an excellent Bruce Lee box set, we did not hesitate to select one of the best animated features of the year as our Recommendation of the Week: How to Train Your Dragon 2. New Release: How to Train Your Dragon 2 – (Blu-ray, DVD and Instant) Mood Indigo – (Blu-ray, DVD and Instant) Let’s Be Cops – (Blu-ray, DVD and Instant) Tammy – (Blu-ray, DVD and Instant) Happy Christmas – (Blu-ray, DVD and Instant) Re-release: The Shooting/ Ride in the Whirlwind (1966) – (Criterion Blu-ray) The Bruce Lee Premier Collection   How to Train Your Dragon 2 – (Blu-ray, DVD and Instant) *Recommendation of the Week* Directed by Dean DeBlois Written by Dean DeBlois and Cressida Cowell (“How to Train Your Dragon” book series) Starring: Jay Baruchel, Cate Blanchett, Gerard Butler The second installment in the How to Train Your Dragon series finds Hiccup (Baruchel) as the most popular resident of Berk. Now that the once-dragon-hating village has adopted the winged reptiles as citizens, industry in the small town has increased drastically. Using his dragon, Toothless, to explore the “globe” Hiccup sets about mapping distant lands. Coming upon a struggle between a “Dragon Rider” and a legendary dragon master, Hiccup and his town must fight for what they believe in. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 92% (Excellent) Metacritic: 76 (Very Good) IMDB: 8.1 (Excellent) Entertainment Fuse: 8.8/10 (Read our Review) DISC DETAILS Amazon: $18.99 (Blu-ray); $14.99 (DVD); $3.99/$17.99 (Instant Rent/ Buy)   Mood Indigo – (Blu-ray, DVD and Instant) Directed by Michel Gondry Written by Michel Gondry (scenario), Luc Bossi (scenario), and Boris Vian (novel) Starring: Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou, Gad Elmaleh A surrealist love story from Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Be Kind Rewind), Mood Indigo features a wealthy inventor who seeks a cure for his girlfriend's strange illness caused by flowers growing in her lungs. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 63% (Fresh) Metacritic: 54 (Okay) IMDB: 6.6 (Good) DISC DETAILS Amazon: $19.99 (Blu-ray); $22.49 (DVD); $3.99/$12.99 (Instant Rent/ Buy)   Let’s Be Cops – (Blu-ray, DVD and Instant) Directed by Luke Greenfield Written by Luke Greenfield and Nicholas Thomas Starring: Jake Johnson, Damon Wayans Jr., Rob Riggle An unfortunate case of a clever premise gone wrong, Let's Be Cops suffers from stilted humor, unoriginality, and a convoluted finale. A disappointment to audiences and critics alike, Let's Be Cops is one of the biggest let downs of the year. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 19% (Awful) Metacritic: 30 (Very Bad) IMDB: 6.7 (Good) Entertainment Fuse: 5.2/10 (Read our Review) DISC DETAILS Amazon: $19.99 (Blu-ray); $14.96 (DVD); $4.99/$12.99 (Instant Rent/ Buy)   Tammy – (Blu-ray, DVD and Instant) Directed by Ben Falcone Written by Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates When Tammy (McCarthy) loses her job and her husband, she takes to the highways with her foul-mouthed grandmother, Pearl (Sarandon). Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 24% (Very Bad) Metacritic: 39 (Very Bad) IMDB: 4.7 (Very Bad – Trifecta!) DISC DETAILS Special Features: Extended Cut; “Tammy's Road Trip Checklist” Featurette; Gag reel; Deleted scenes; “Fun Extras” line-o-rama featurette Amazon: $19.99 (Blu-ray); $14.99 (DVD); $3.99/$14.99 (Instant Rent/ Buy) Score (DVDTalk.com): Content: 2 stars(out of 5); Video: 4 stars; Audio: 4 stars; Extras: 1.5 stars; Replay: 2 stars. Skip It.   Happy Christmas – (DVD and Instant) Directed and written by Joe Swanberg Starring: Anna Kendrick, Melanie Lynskey, Mark Webber When the hard-partying Jenny (Kendrick) moves in with her novelist friend (Lynskey) and her filmmaker husband (Swanberg), their lives are thrown for a loop. Set on a self-destructive path, Jenny must realize that her life needs a change in order for her to achieve happiness. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 78% (Good) Metacritic: 70 (Very Good) IMDB: 5.7 (Okay) DISC DETAILS Amazon: $14.99 (DVD); $4.99/$12.99 (Instant Rent/ Buy)     The Shooting/ Ride in the Whirlwind (1966) – (Criterion Blu-ray) Directed by Monte Hellman Written by Carole Eastman Starring: Millie Perkins, Jack Nicholson, Will Hutchins Two westerns, with overlapping casts were shot back to back in 1966 by director Monte Hillman. The Shooting features a group of men searching for a wanted man, and Ride in the Whirlwind features a group of innocent cowhands perused by bloodthirsty vigilantes. Critics Rating (Rotten Tomatoes): 100%/100% (Perfect at 13/8 reviews) IMDB: 6.8/6.6(Good) DISC DETAILS Special Features: 4K digital restorations of both films, supervised by director Monte Hellman, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-ray; Audio commentaries on both films, featuring Hellman and film historians Bill Krohn and Blake Lucas; Interviews with actors John Hackett, B. J. Merholz, Millie Perkins, and Harry Dean Stanton, assistant director Gary Kurtz, and chief wrangler Calvin Johnson, all in conversation with Hellman; Conversation between actor Will Hutchins and film programmer Jake Perlin; Video appreciation of actor Warren Oates by critic Kim Morgan; PLUS: An essay by critic Michael Atkinson Amazon: $29.99 (Criterion Blu-ray)   The Bruce Lee Premier Collection (Blu-ray Box Set) Four of the martial arts pioneer, Bruce Lee's, finest films. -The Big Boss (1971) -Fist of Fury (1972) -The Way of the Dragon (1972) -Game of Death (1978) DISC DETAILS Amazon: $53.97 (Blu-ray Box Set)