Home Video: 'The Dark Tower'

Several friends who read Stephen King love the eight-novel Dark Tower series. There's been talk of a movie since the first novel was published in 1982 and, this year, Sony finally brought the tale of sci-fi gunslinger Roland Deschain and his endless showdown with the Man in Black to the screen this year.

Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey star in "The Dark Tower" (out now on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD) and it's terrible. Fans of the books say they deserved an R-rated movie series that highlights both the ruthless spaghetti western stylings and dystopian futurist setting of the novels. What we get instead is something of a kids' movie, a PG-13 flick that seems like it's trying to be "Back to the Future."

There are some bonus features for you hardcore Stephen King fans, made with quite a bit of participation from the great man himself.  The disks include Deleted Scenes, a Blooper Reel, A Look Through the Keyhole and Five Featurettes: “Last Time Around,” “The World Has Moved On…,” “The Man in Black,” “The Gunslinger in Action” and “Stephen King Inspirations.”

Sony's already announced development of a TV series based on the novels. Maybe the show will demonstrate why readers loved the books so much. This movie makes no case for them.