Blu-ray reviews: Taken 3 and Inherent Vice

Here are are reviews of some of the latest titles in Blu-ray home entertainment.

Taken 3 (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Unrated, $39.99) — Former covert operative Bryan Mills found another perfect opportunity to dish out his brand of justice with the help of action film director Olivier Megaton earlier this year.

The latest “Taken” is now on Blu-ray, and Liam Neeson returns as Mr. Mills (in fine gravely voice) while managing to repeat a methodical approach to severely incapacitating enemies while his family pays the price.

After our hero gets unjustly accused of murdering his former wife (the brief performance by Famke Janssen), he ends up in a “Fugitive”-style adventure with a police detective (played by Forest Whitaker) in hot pursuit.

Mr. Mill’s will need to find the real killer and stop the bad guys with bad skin looking to, again, cause his daughter harm.

The explosive special effects and complex cartoony car chases come alive with depth and sharp color from the clean digital transfer and give reason as to why audiences originally flocked to theaters to see the potential final film of the franchise.

For fans that must own the Blu-ray to complete their “Taken” collection, the extras include an unrated version of the film (adding an extra 7 minutes to near 2-hour movie), a few wispy featurettes and a 3-minute, digitally animated look at the famed Mr. Mills’ buddies hide-out/ bunker nicknamed the Rabbit Hole.

The later is an odd addition but interesting as it breaks out some of the high-tech devices used by our hero as well as his firepower including a data extractor, micro lapel camera and Beretta M9 92FS. It could have been pretty cool with a bit more interactivity and detail.

Inherent Vice (Warner Home Video, Rated R, $35.99) — An Academy Award-nominated, slightly comedic crime drama from 2014 seeps its way onto home theater screens to offer an atmospheric adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s famed 2009 novel.

Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation stars Joaquin Phoenix as Larry “Doc” Sportello, a pot-headed hippie private detective in a heap of trouble courtesy of a missing former girlfriend, a heroin cartel and a repressed cop nicknamed Bigfoot.

I’ll call it a sophisticated Cheech and Chong movie set in Los Angeles in 1970 and loaded with colorful characters and a noirish plot so complex in minutia that it will give viewers a brain freeze.

The ensemble cast includes Reese Witherspoon as a feisty Deputy District Attorney, Josh Brolin as Detective “Bigfoot” Bjornsen, Martin Short as a predatory dentist, Owen Wilson as an undercover musician/agent, Benicio del Toro as a shady lawyer and Katherine Waterston as the earthy girlfriend.

Those screen-munching appearances help focus the high jinks, but I’ll admit to being slightly lost in a psychedelic mash-up for most of the 2.5-hour event. Viewers will need repeated viewings to sort though the nuances.

The Blu-ray transfer allows fans to truly appreciate Mr. Anderson’s grainy vision with a film stock presentation looking plucked from the era.

Extras are near nonexistent, a total of 11 minutes worth of trailers and such, making “Inherent Vice” a rental at best and ingested by only the most avant-garde of cinema connoisseurs.