New on DVD this week:
The Lego Movie
If you haven’t been singing the catchy refrain from “Everything is Awesome,” get ready: there’s a sing-along on the DVD and Blu-ray, out now. From directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, 22 Jump Street) the story is built around ordinary guy Emmett (voiced by Chris Pratt), hailed as the one person who can oust evil President Business (Will Ferrell). Along the way he meets superheroes (Will Arnett, Jonah Hill), Abraham Lincoln (Orville Forte), a love interest (Elizabeth Banks) and a white-haired wizard (Morgan Freeman, who else?). Smart, funny, bright and engaging from start to finish, with tons of special features.
Walk of Shame
Elizabeth Banks finds herself on the wrong side of L.A. after a one-night stand with a cute bartender/author (James Marsden) and must make her way back to civilization before 5 p.m. if she wants to land her dream cable-news job. With no purse and no cell phone Meghan is on her own among junkies, prostitutes and angry bus drivers. Angelenos may quibble about how their city is portrayed but there’s no arguing that Banks gives it all in an otherwise uninspired storyline.
Masters of Sex, Season One
Picking up where Mad Men leaves off is the titular true story of Masters and Johnson, pioneers at the cusp of the sexual revolution, whose studies of sexual behavior and response was considered “smut” and “pornography” in the buttoned-up 1960s. The research threatened the career of Dr. William Masters (Michael Sheen), a prominent Ob-Gyn, and the reputation of Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan), a former nightclub singer hired as secretary, then assistant, then partner in the studies. Fab set and costume design complement well-crafted storytelling. Plenty of special features accompany season one including a making-of extra, commentary with Sheen, Caplan, cast and crew, a featurette on BAFTA-winner Sheen, deleted scenes and more.
