This Week on Blu-ray and DVD - August 14, 2012

You’re gonna need a bigger shopping cart.

That is, if you want to bring home the Universal 100th Anniversary Edition of “Jaws” on Blu-ray or DVD combo pack, with Digital Copy and UV Copy. In their review, Movie Met’s Will and John call the new Blu-ray “a must-have for any collection.” But “Jaws” isn’t the only thing that’s going to take a bite out of your wallet this week. A couple other releases might nibble a bit.

If you’re a fan of “The Hunger Games” or want to see what all the hype has been about, the future is now . . . or Saturday, August 18, when Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth star in this sci-fi drama about a young woman who takes her younger sister’s place in the annual fight-to-the-death match between a boy and a girl (trailer). It’s an updating of Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,” and if Jackson were alive I’m sure she’d pass out when she heard how much money author Suzanne Collins was making off the book and movie rights.

I wish I had come up with the idea for “Glee.” Talk about a phenomenon. Any time you have a film property that inspires fans to link themselves to the show by calling themselves a variation of the name—like Trekkies, or Gleeks—you’ve got a gargantuan success on your hands. Season 3 comes out on Blu-ray and DVD this week, and wannabe glee clubbers are already salivating. Or tuning up their pipes to get ready for the sing-along tracks.

If you identify more with the quiet, keep-to-himself neighbor who secretly wants to shut the Gleeks up permanently, then you’re probably looking forward to “Dexter: Season 6,” which also comes out on Blu-ray and DVD this week. The selective serial killer has religious issues this season (a little belated, don’t you think?).

Like last week, the release schedule is full of crime and action films, but none of them stand out. Better to go with a different kind of crime film. If you can stomach subtitles, Criterion’s release of “La Promesse” is worth checking out. The Belgian film is about a man who smuggles immigrants into the country and extorts more money from them once they get here, living in his shambles of apartments and working on his construction projects. He has a son he tries to bring onboard, but the son has a conscience . . . and a dilemma.

For more family dysfunction there’s the Criterion release of “The Royal Tenenbaums,” Wes Anderson’s 2001 subtle comedy about a father and his clan of former child prodigies who reunite when one of them announces he’s terminally ill or that he can’t stand broccoli—I forget which.

Here are select new releases for the week of August 14, 2012:

BLU-RAY

• Assassin’s Bullet (aka Sofia) (2012 drama/thriller)
• Breathless (+ DVD) (2012 thriller)
• Cradle 2 the Grave (2003 Jet Li crime/action)
• Death Wish 3 (1985 vigilante sequel)
• Death Wish II (1982 vigilante sequel)
• Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987 vigilante sequel)
• Dexter: Season 6
• Dexter: Seasons 1-6 collection
• Fallen (1998 Denzel Washington crime drama)
• Father’s Day (4-Disc Limited numbered edition + DVD + CD) (2011 comedy-horror)
• Glee: Season 3
• Hunger Games, The (2-Disc Blu-ray + UV Copy) (2012 sci-fi adventure) (Aug. 18)
• Jaws (+ DVD + Digital Copy + UV) (1975 Spielberg classic)
• Kill List (2011 horror)
• Korczak (Kino Editions) (1990 bio-drama)
• Life and Death of a Porno Gang, The (2009 drama/horror)
• Man Apart, A (2003 crime drama)
• New Jack City (1991 crime drama)
• Promesse, La (Criterion) (1996 drama)
• Raid, The: Redemption (2011 action)
• Romeo Must Die (2000 Jet Li crime/action)
• Rosetta (Criterion) (1999 drama)
• Royal Tenenbaums, The (Criterion) (2001 dramedy)
• Shaft (2000 crime/action) (1996 drama)
• Stallone Collection (Rambo: First Blood / Cop Land / Lock Up)
• Vampires, Les (2-Disc Kino Classics Edition) (1915 crime action)

3D

• Night of the Living Dead Re-Animation 3D (2012 horror)
• Titanic: 100 Years in 3D (History Channel)

RECENT RELEASES

• Hunger Games, The (2-Disc DVD + UV Copy) (2012 sci-fi adventure) (Aug. 18)
• Marvel Knights: Astonishing X-Men – Torn

CATALOG TITLES

• Jaws (+ Digital Copy + UV)

FAMILY/CHILDREN

• Buck Denver Asks: What’s in the Bible?: Vol. 9 – God Speaks!
• Chuggington: Traintastic Adventures
• Fresh Beat Band, The: The Wizard of Song
• Gruffalo’s Child, The (2011 animated sequel)
• Peppa Pig: Muddy Puddles
• Power Rangers Super Samurai: Vol 1 - Super Powered Black Box
• Power Rangers Super Samurai: Vol. 2 - Super Showdown
• Sesame Street: Elmo’s Alphabet Challenge
• Smurfs and the Magic Flute, The (1976 animation)
• Sophie & Sheba (2010 family movie)
• Veggie Tales: The Penniless Princess

TV-ON-DVD

• American Pickers: Vol. 4
• Angry Beavers, The: Season 3, Pt. 2Bigfoot (2012 TV movie)
• Community: Season 3
• Dalziel & Pascoe: Season 6
• Dexter: Season 6
• Dexter: Seasons 1-6 collection
• Doctor Who: Episode 155 – The Greatest Show in the Galaxy
• Doctor Who: Spearhead from Space
• Forsyte Saga, The (2002 mini-series)
• Glee: Season 3
• Happy Endings: Seasons 1-2
• Judge John Deed: Season 6
• Pawn Stars: Vol. 5
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Season 10
• Vegas: Season 3, Vol. 2

SMALL STUDIO/FOREIGN

• Art Is . . . the Permanent Revolution (2012 documentary)
• Assassin’s Bullet (aka Sofia) (2012 drama/thriller)
• August (2011 gay-themed romantic drama)
• Fidel (Castro documentary from Cinema Libre)
• Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995 sci-fi)
• Girl Walks into a Bar (2011 dramedy)
• Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973 sci-fi)
• Inventing Our Life: The Kibbutz Experiment (2010)
• Jay and Silent Bob Get Old: Tea Bagging in the U.K. (2012 podcast)
• Juan of the Dead (2011 horror parody)
• Kill List (2011 horror)
• Korczak (Kino Editions) (1990 bio-drama)
• Leave It on the Floor (2011 musical dramedy)
• Life and Death of a Porno Gang, The (2009 drama/horror)
• Paradise Lost 3 (2011 crime documentary)
• Promesse, La (Criterion) (1996 drama)
• Raid, The: Redemption (2011 action)
• Rosetta (Criterion) (1999 drama)
• Snowtown Murders, The (2011 crime drama)
• Tonight You’re Mine (2011 romantic dramedy)
• Vampires, Les (2-Disc Kino Classics Edition) (1915 crime action)

ANIME/MANGA

• Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror (2009 adventure)
• One Piece: Collection 7