'The Amazing Spider-Man 2'? Nothing new in this web

‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’? Nothing new in this web

By Noel Murray

Aug. 17, 2014 5 AM PT

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Sony, $30.99; Blu-ray, $45.99

Available on VOD on Tuesday

Director Marc Webb’s 2012 revamp of Sony’s “Spider-Man” franchise introduced a well-cast Andrew Garfield as the hero — and an equally apt Emma Stone as his love interest, Gwen Stacy — but otherwise, the film’s return to square one didn’t offer anything that the Sam Raimi “Spider-Man” movies didn’t do better a decade earlier. Even though it partly adapts one of the most famous comics stories of all time, Webb’s film is also pretty standard-issue as a superhero movie, piling up too many villains (including Jamie Foxx as Electro, Paul Giamatti as Rhino and Dane DeHaan as Green Goblin) and too many plot lines while trying to force emotion into any remaining spaces. “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” isn’t bad, but it feels pointless, especially in comparison to what Marvel Studios has been doing with superheroes lately. The DVD and Blu-ray are nicely filled out, though, with hours of behind-the-scenes material, plus deleted scenes and commentary tracks.

Only Lovers Left Alive

Sony, $30.99; Blu-ray, $35.99

Available on VOD on Tuesday

American independent film legend Jim Jarmusch’s unique take on the vampire film stars Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton as a long-undead couple who’ve settled into a life of comfortable ennui in their crumbling Detroit home. Jarmusch squeezes a lot of humor and poignancy out of his depiction of two people who’ve seen it all and done it all and now enjoy cultural refinement and domesticity. And then Jarmusch gradually introduces a plot, when Mia Wasikowska shows up as a younger vampire who challenges the couple’s way of life. The DVD and Blu-ray include deleted scenes and a featurette.

The Quiet Ones

Lionsgate, $19.98; Blu-ray, $24.99

Available on VOD on Tuesday

The recently revived British studio Hammer Films makes a modern-style horror picture starring Jared Harris as a professor who leads a secret cabal of grad students on a mission to probe a psychologically unstable woman (played by Olivia Cooke) until her subconscious unleashes a ghost. Though the movie is set in the 1970s, director John Pogue uses a 21st century style, mixing shock-cuts, special effects, eerie filters and even some found footage elements. It’s all effectively scary, if not exactly original. The DVD and Blu-ray come with deleted scenes, featurettes and a Pogue commentary track.

Y Tu Mamá También

Criterion, $29.95; Blu-ray, $39.95

Director Alfonso Cuarón had a decade’s worth of interesting films under his belt before making an astonishing creative leap forward with this 2001 film, which he co-wrote with his brother Carlos. Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna play best friends, each from well-to-do Mexican families, who take a road trip to the beach with an older woman (played by Maribel Verdú) and have an adventure that teaches them about privilege, masculinity and sexuality. Showing the same sense of style and scope that he’d later bring to “Children of Men” and “Gravity,” Cuarón tells this seemingly simple story with thrilling camera moves and poetic digressions, putting this love triangle in the context of an entire nation in transition. Criterion’s special-edition DVD and Blu-ray add deleted scenes, featurettes and a Carlos Cuarón short film.

And…

Boardwalk Empire: The Complete Fourth Season

HBO, $59.99; Blu-ray, $79.98

Fading Gigolo

Millennium, $28.98; Blu-ray, $29.98

Available on VOD on Aug. 19

Manakamana

Cinema Guild, $29.95

Rosemary’s Baby (2014)

Lionsgate, $19.98; Blu-ray, $19.99

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

Criterion, $29.95; Blu-ray, $39.95