New on Blu-Ray/DVD – Dec. 17, 2013 – Elysium, The Lone Ranger, The Family, Prisoners

You can stuff your stockings full of coal or any of these lousy offerings for this week. There’s a lot of new releases, but unfortunately, none are any good.

Elysium – Matt Damon stars in this sci-fi action/political commentary piece by “District 9” Director Neil Blomkamp. There’s a decent plot here that gets bogged down under a tedious script and is ultimately a little too boring to get invested in.

Kick-Ass 2 – Completely lacking any of the charm and fun of the original, this terribly mean-spirited and ugly film gets points for sticking more faithfully to its source material, but little else.

The Lone Ranger – Johnny Depp’s stock took a hit this summer as he failed to get audiences interested in his latest summer blockbuster. Keep it in the saddle and don’t bother checking this one out.

Prisoners – Hugh Jackman (“The Wolverine”) is gives an Oscar nomination-worthy performance in this drama about two families’ worse nightmare coming to pass when their daughters are kidnapped. The cast is excellent, but the slow pace bored me something fierce.

The Family – The concept of a mob family entering a witness relocation program and struggling to abandon their former ways had potential, but the Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer comedy/drama underwhelmed in every possible manner.