This week’s new DVD and Blu-Ray releases includes one for Halloween, a sci-fi classic and a new release.

Magic Mike surprised many earlier this year by doing better than expected business at the box-office.  Loosely based on Channing Tatum’s own experience as a male stripper, Magic Mike is the story of a young man (Alex Pettyfer) who finds he can make good money taking off his clothes for an appreciative audience.  Channing Tatum plays the more experienced performer who wants to get out of the industry and into something more challenging and longer lasting.  Look out for the Blu-Ray edition that boasts longer versions of some of the dance sequences, plus, if that’s not enough, you can catch even more dance sequences in the Extras that never made it to the finished film.  There’s also some Oscar buzz surrounding Matthew McConaughey’s performance as the nightclub owner.

This new Blu-Ray edition of Blade Runner is an eye-popper.  The film always looked good with its futuristic look at Los Angeles in the year 2019 – which always seemed so far away, but now we’re nearly there – but now with clarity of hi-def, it looks outstanding.  This special 30^th Anniversary edition – really?  30 years? – contains 3 discs and comes with lobby cards and a movie poster, plus hours of extras.  This isn’t a renter; movie buffs need to have this permanently in their collection.

With Halloween just around the corner the new release of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is certainly timely.  The plot is in the title, that’s all you really need to know. The whole thing is silly, naturally, yet as awful as I feared it was going to be, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter turned out to be fun for the most part.  The widescreen photography looks terrific, and on Blu-Ray it stands out even more, plus it’s good to see Mary Elizabeth Winstead in another adult role as Mrs. Lincoln.

 Look out for more new releases next week.