The warm light from a Fort Lauderdale sunset glows on the beautiful Nora. She was such a great model to work with and we’ll always remember this pretty blonde from our early Bullz-Eye days.

There’s not as much variety this week compared to the rest of July, nor are there any titles that can be deemed must-see material, but today’s batch of new releases still boast a few Blu-rays that movie and TV fans should at least consider checking out, including Starz’s latest original series and yet another gem from the guys at Criterion.

Unless you’re really interested in politics, you likely won’t find much to enjoy about the Starz drama “Boss,” because while the show is a good idea in theory (it’s essentially a modern-day take on “King Lear” with a dash of “Citizen Kane”), it never amounts to more than a low-rent version of much better TV series. The storylines feel stale and melodramatic, the characters are mostly one-dimensional, and the shooting style is so distracting (with lots of extreme close-ups and bad camera work) that it takes you out of the story. Kelsey Grammer does some solid work as the crooked mayor struggling with a debilitating brain disorder, but it hardly warrants the Golden Globe that he won over more deserving actors like Bryan Cranston. And while the audience is asked to empathize with his character, he’s such a scumbag that you find yourself rooting against him more often than not. You don’t have to be a good guy to be engaging (see: “The Shield” or “Breaking Bad”), but it helps if your characters are at least likeable, and that’s something that “Boss” is really lacking.

Blu-ray Highlight: The two audio commentaries by creator Farhad Safinia are worth a listen, but the included featurette “The Mayor and His Maker” is even better, because it pairs Kelsey Grammer with Safinia for an interesting discussion about the show’s origins, how the monologues serve as the centerpieces for each episode and more.

If the psychological thriller “Silent House” had actually been filmed in one continuous take like the directors originally claimed, it definitely would have earned a little bit of my respect, even though it wouldn’t have necessarily made the movie any better. As it stands, however, this ill-fated remake of the 2010 Uruguayan import of the same name is just plain boring. The one-take gimmick loses its allure as soon as you realize it’s all a big lie (the cuts aren’t even hard to spot if you’re looking for them), while the story falls back on the same generic horror tropes that have plagued the genre for decades. Not even the twist ending is much of a surprise, and with the exception of a clever sequence later in the film where Elizabeth Olsen uses a Polaroid camera as a makeshift flashlight, it’s completely devoid of suspense. The actress just barely holds the film together thanks to another strong performance, but it’s not enough to make “Silent House” as effective as it probably could have been.

Blu-ray Highlight: Directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau (who also penned the script) are a little more forthcoming about how they filmed the movie on the disc’s audio commentary, explaining the logistics behind shooting the extended scenes (each one about 12 minutes in length) and then piecing them together to look like one long take.

I wasn’t aware of Whit Stillman prior to the release of his new film, “Damsels in Distress” (most likely because it’s his first movie since 1998), but Criterion has taken advantage of the writer/director’s long-awaited return by releasing two of his early features on Blu-ray for a new generation to discover. For those unfamiliar with Stillman’s debut, “Metropolitan” can be best described as a bourgeois Woody Allen comedy of manners, or even a Bret Easton Ellis novel minus all the sex, drugs and paranoia. The dialogue is sharp and witty, and although the cast is comprised of a bunch of unknown actors (most of whom never did anything else of note), they do a pretty good job considering their obvious lack of experience. And though Stillman’s own inexperience shows in his failure to give certain scenes room to breathe, the unconventional, montage-like narrative structure actually grows on you as the movie progresses. It doesn’t make its upper-crust characters any easier to relate to, but Stillman’s whip-smart script manages to hold your interest in spite of that.

Blu-ray Highlight: Though it’s a bit light on bonus material for a Criterion release, the all-new audio commentary with writer/director Whit Stillman, editor Christopher Tellefsen, and actors Christopher Eigeman and Taylor Nichols offers an interesting look back at making the movie, including casting, filming in New York City and more.

Blonde bombshell Carra shows off her impressive figure here while wearing only her lacy lingerie bottoms. The Hooters waitress was quite a find!

We all know what Comic-Con is supposed to be: Cannes for Geeks. Still, aside from the fetishization of all things genre-related and the increasingly Hollywood-ized atmosphere, there’s something else it’s about: drinking! But one can grab a $12.00 martini or a $3.00 shot anytime in an upscale yet funky city like San Diego. It takes a Comic-Con for the dipsomanical masses to be able to slurp their way to oblivion with a Captain America, a Spicy Hulk, or drinks saluting the warring dynasties from George R.R. Martin’s “Game of Thrones.”

Which is not to say that the search for the great themed cocktails to be found in Comic-Con’s backyard was an easy one. At times I and my photographing buddy, Rodney Reynaldo, feared we might not have enough drinks to really make this piece sing but, as we trudged through what seemed like every bar in San Diego’s downtown Gaslamp district, we found plenty. Admittedly, we sometimes found ourselves making the news as much as we reported on it; some of these drinks are on the spot creations from some of the area’s more spontaneous mixologists. Still, most of these were created with plenty of forethought, most of them tasted good, and some were downright terrific.

The Captain America

I have to admit that I pretty much knew somebody would come up with an extremely sweet red, white and blue themed salute to good ol’ Cap. I never imagined it would induce near terminal brain freeze while tasting far better than this cocktail snob would have ever expected.

The Captain America, as crafted by Andrea of the Hard Rock Cafe on 4th Avenue, is actually three drinks. The blue is a pina colada featuring Blue Curacao; the red is a raspberry pina colada featuring Bacardi rum; and the white, and possibly the best tasting of the three, was an exceedingly sweet frozen daiquiri made with Bacardi’s Dragon Berry Rum. A million miles away from a classic daiquiri like I’d make, but what would I expect from a red, white and blue cocktail?

The Dark Knight

The Tivoli, which proclaims itself the oldest bar in San Diego, sticks to its old school image by an affinity with a certain reactionary-leaning caped crusader. The Dark Knight, crafted by the bar’s redoubtable Rosie (pictured uptop), was as dark as any black knight but it’s flavor might have pleased a fruit bat with it’s surprisingly refreshing combination of vodka, blue curacao, raspberry liqueur, and a splash of Rumple Minze 100 proof peppermint schnapps.

The Spicy Hulk

There are any number of green drinks named in honor of Bruce Banner’s ill-tempered alter-ego. Yet, it’s hard to imagine any would ever be tastier than this concoction. Whipped up on the spot by the very skilled Oscar Avila of El Vitral, the Spicy Hulk reflected our location just a few miles from the Mexican border with healthy dashes of cucumber, cilantro, serrano peppers, tomatillo, lime juice, agave nectar and, of course, blanco tequila. Nothing puny about this one.

The Marble Room Trilogy

We came to the Gaslamp in search of themed cocktails. We found our first themed bartender in Harlo Stompro of the brothel-esque 5th Avenue watering hole and restaurant. The man might be a joker, but he certainly took the time to come up an assortment of con-friendly libations.

The Alien Secretion contains vodka, both Rose’s Lime Juice and fresh lime, and triple sec. The bright green Romulan Ale might please Trek fans with a yen for another slight twist on a Kamikaze with blue curacao, vodka and fresh lime.  The Darth Vader is an homage to a Long Island Ice Tea with vodka, gin, rum, sour mix, and Chambord sitting in for the traditional triple sec. Since I kind of hate Long Islands, I found the taste appropriately evil.

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Unfortunately, the much anticipated climax to the latest Batman trilogy was marred by the senseless killings of 12 innocent people and the wounding of countless others all at the hands of a deranged gunman in Aurora, Colorado. Our thoughts go out to the victims and their families.

Mike Furci’s latest fitness column focused on building your back, and we made sure to point out his four workout principles in our weekly fitness blog post. Fight the flab and start reading his columns!

Nate Kreichman started his new “Hidden Netflix Gems” series with a look back at “Trailer Park Boys,” the hilarious mockumentary “following the exploits of Julian (John Paul Tremblay), Ricky (Robb Wells), and Bubbles (Mike Smith), lifelong friends and serial criminals living in a Nova Scotia trailer park.” Check it out and you’ll be hooked.

Ezra Stead was on hand in New York City as legendary band War returned for a performance at the SummerStage. Ezra also checked out “Smart Girls at the Party” in his weekly web series review.

Will Harris checked out the new TBS series “Sullivan & Son” and wasn’t very impressed.

Paul Eide had a review this week of Dreadnought Shaving Products for those of view who view shaving as a hobby.