««« out of four stars

The original Magic Mike (2012) was a bit of downer. Supposedly a semi-autobiographical telling of Channing Tatum’s early days as a stripper (or Male Entertainer as the boys prefer), the film focused on a young man on cusp of growing up and reaching his potential. The moral to the story was that stripping is bad and leads to soulless one-nighters, drugs and excessive tanning.

While Magic Mike was a rare case when Hollywood actually objectified men instead of women, many who went the theaters to see some attractive hunks slink around in a G-string were disappointed. Why so serious?

Fortunately Magic Mike XXL gets it right this time and fans will be dancing in...

Welcome once again to another article detailing the week’s highlights on Blu-ray and DVD. As always, there’s plenty to choose from. So if you can’t make it out to the movies this week, be sure and give one of these titles a try!

Big New Releases!

Danny Collins - An aging, self-deprecating rocker decides to make amends and change his ways after discovering a letter written to him by the late John Lennon. Believe it or not, this independent comedy/drama is loosely based on a true story. The movie received decent reviews from the press, stating that the strong work of the cast helped buoy the otherwise predictable story. Its impressive cast includes Al Pacino, Jennifer...

Although the second season of True Detective on HBO has a lot of the same names attached to it behind the camera, the new iteration of the title which just premiered bears scant resemblance to last year’s bravura bayou noir mini-series.

Season one was strikingly original – set in hazy, humid and swampy Louisiana – a venue unfamiliar to most Americans, it starred a Southern tag team so captivating that even if Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson had Confederate Stars and Bars license plates viewers still would have loved them. McConnaughey and Harrelson played incredibly intense, driven and seriously flawed police detectives and human beings. Awash in cheap bourbon, cheap...

Rating: «« 1/2 out of 4 Stars

Running Time: 115 min.

While Ted was one of the biggest surprise hits of 2013, it managed to slip under the radar of a few critics... or maybe just me. Regardless, this review is coming from the perspective of a complete newcomer who knows next to nothing about the foul-mouthed talking bear from Boston or his best pal. Taken on its own merits, Ted 2 is a scattershot comedy with a few big laughs that works in spells, but begins to sag as it wears on.

The main arc follows the newly married supermarket clerk Ted (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) going through a major crisis with his wife - namely, they fight all the time. Learning from a fellow employee that...