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4K Ultra HD Blu-ray & Blu-ray Release Guide - February 13, 2022 - February 19, 2022No doubt when this article goes live, many of you are doing something Super Bowl related. According to an old episode of The Simpsons, The Bengals will win it. There are a bunch of exciting announcements happening in the home video disc market. Keep watching our main page every day for updates, as well as the final section of these weekly articles. Welcome to Volume 2 Episode 39 of our weekly release guide. A look at the highlights of what's coming to disc this week, as well as a look at announcements from last week. 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Releases- Slight reprieve from last week, just a few titles to ponder. In the new releases category, Marvel's The Eternals, and just like last week, a slew of choices. Available in a Standard Edition, Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook, Target Exclusive Art Edition and a Walmart Exclusive edition. Moving on to catalog releases, first from Sony Pictures, action/sci-fi film Looper. You can thank me for this release, I held out as long as I could on the UK release and then very recently bought it, sure enough, this gets announced literally after my purchase was shipped. Sony is claiming this one has a better transfer with more accurate color, meaning I might have to double dip. Aaaand, on to another one that I took a hit for the team, The Howling gets a Scream Factory release. I had (of course) recently bought the StudioCanal release from the UK and just like Looper, no sooner did my copy ship did Scream Factory announce this release. Any other titles I need to buy so that a U.S. release gets announced? I did get the Turbine Media 4K release for An American Werewolf in Paris, and finally broke down and got True Lies (Spain release), will that be next? Blu-ray releases- Compared to last week, this category has fewer releases too. Just like we do every week, getting the blu-ray counterpart of the way first, Marvel's The Eternals gets a blu-ray + digital sku. Paramount has a few more catalog titles on the docket, 200 Cigarettes, Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (previously only available in the Crocodile Dundee box set), Eurotrip (this one was initially listed as the unrated edition, and it still might be, Amazon has relisted it as the same theatrical release previously available, wait and see I guess), Hey Arnold! The Movie, In Dreams, Intersection, Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy, Nick of Time and Spontaneous. This week's Criterion Collection appearance is a 1939 drama/romance titled Love Affair. Warner Archive Collection has one title this week, The Three Musketeers (1948). Outside of animated, this is probably the best known version when it comes to the film. Anime highlights include By the Grace of the Gods - Season 1, available as a standard edition and as a limited edition, Dr. Stone: Season 1 [SteelBook], My Hero Academia - Season 4 Complete Collection, Samurai Girls / Samurai Bride - Complete Series and Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon - Season 1, Part 1, which is available as a standard edition and as a limited edition. Mentioned in the recent Disney Movie Club article, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers - The Complete Series can be bought from Amazon, as well as other favorite merchants this week. Honorable Mention: Want some more Charles Bronson action? Kino Lorber presents Murphy's Law and Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins to blu-ray disc. Notable announcements from last week: Scream (2022) now has an official street date, April 5th. The slew of choices, 4K standard, 4K SteelBook, blu-ray, two-film collection 4K and two-film collection blu-ray. Discotek's April releases consist of KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!: The Complete First Season + OVA [SteelBook], Cat's Eye - The Complete First Season, Lupin the 3rd: Episode 0 - First Contact, City Hunter '91 - The Complete 1991 Series and Mrs. Pepperpot - Complete Series. Universal Televisision will be releasing Young Rock: Season One on blu-ray on March 29. Kino Lorber has revealed that they are working on a 4K disc release of The Usual Suspects. Expect it sometime during 2022, most likely this Summer. Also revealed is that A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More will be getting 4K discs with a tentative date of May 31st. It is likely they will have 4K SDR, but no doubt it will be the best these films have ever looked! West Side Story (2021) appears to be on track for a March 15th release. There should be a 4K, blu-ray and a DVD release, as well as a Best Buy Exclusive 4K SteelBook edition with a rather blah cover art. Sony Pictures has announced the animated release of Heavy Metal for 4K SteelBook release, which also comes with a bonus blu-ray of Heavy Metal 2000. See our article here for details. Warner Bros. appears on track to be releasing Singin’ in the Rain to a 4K Collector's edition with a tentative date of April 26th, no official announcement as of yet. 4K Release Calendar 2K/BD Release Calendar Which titles are you buying this week? Which ones are on your wishlist, be it to buy as an impulse buy or to wait for the right price?Posted Sun Feb 13, 2022 at 12:00 PM PST by: -
Is It Still Worth Joining The Disney Movie Club?If streaming on Disney+ isn't your thing, you can find many of your old favorites on Blu-ray exclusively at the Disney Movie Club I have always liked the concept of "instant gratification," and it's a concept that works for just about any sort of retail therapy. Be it clothes, shoes, toys and collectibles, movies discs, nothing compares to browsing and picking up objects, finding a treasure, and leaving with it that very day. With dwindling support for physical media at brick and mortar stores, many are shifting shopping habits to online venues. In the past six months, my local Best Buy cut their movie selection by 90%, Target by 50%, and Walmart by 33% or more, it certainly sends a signal loud and clear, it might be time to shop elsewhere for titles that are not new releases. Customer feedback to these stores' corporate offices will likely go unanswered, their decisions have already been made and it is doubtful anything will change that. You still have smaller boutique shops that may suit your needs, but many of us are not lucky enough to live close to one. How does Disney Movie Club work? With all the online shopping choices available, why join the Disney Movie Club (DMC) in this day and age? What sets it apart from other merchants? For starters, the club is a membership, so it does require a purchase commitment, but it is relatively easy to complete. The initial out-of-the-box introductory offer is that you purchase 4 movies for $1, be it 4K, Blu-ray, or DVD, with free shipping. The standard offer requires the purchase of an additional five movies at the regular price (starting usually at around $19.95 per title) over two years. As a bonus, you can opt to purchase your first commitment title at a reduced price with that first introductory order. After the initial order, shipping is $3.95 for the first title and $1.49 for each additional. About every 4 weeks you get a physical mailer in your mailbox or an email with the current featured title with a response by date. If you do not respond, it will automatically be sent and billed to your account. If you don't want that title, you can mail it back for a refund. How much do Blu-rays at Disney Movie Club cost? Let's touch on price first because to some, that is the single most important factor. New releases almost always have the same price (within a couple of bucks) as other online or physical shops. What's different here is when you buy a regular title, not only does it count as one unit towards your membership commitment, there is almost always an option to buy additional titles at reduced prices. Sometimes you even get new releases a week or two earlier than the normal street date. There is no limit to the number of additional titles you can buy at the reduced price, they just do not count towards the final membership commitment. If you factor in the initial order of five titles (four for $1, plus the first commitment title at a reduced price) and the bare minimum prices of the four titles to fulfill your membership obligation, you still come out ahead financially. Once you've completed the membership commitment you gain VIP Member status. VIP members get offers throughout the year and some don't require a regularly priced purchase. In the past, one such offer was 50% off all TV Series, no additional purchase required. This is how I completed my Once Upon a Time collection. As an extra bonus, featured titles usually include a lithograph or charm trinket of some sort, and the additional title discount can go as high as 60% off the list price. Disney Movie Club isn't just for new releases. There are Club exclusive titles too! Disney Movie Club exclusives are the biggest reason I have maintained my membership over the years. DMC offers movies with exclusive slipcovers on them, and there are also titles that are only available from DMC's store. Similar to what Warner Archive Collection releases, these are smaller, less popular movies and shows made in smaller batches of discs. These titles also usually have minimal extras, what we consider barebones releases, but the only other way to see these shows in HD is on Disney+ and sadly usually at a lower quality. Classic favorites exclusive to Disney Movie Club Disney is best known for its animated titles. Here are some exclusive highlights of the Disney Movie Club you might not know are on Blu-ray. Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure: The Complete Series Valiant Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin Melody Time Black Cauldron Disney is best known for its animated output, but how about a live-action family comedy to brighten the day? Freaky Friday (1976) and (2003) Jungle 2 Jungle Holes George of the Jungle Do you remember as a kid sitting down to the Wonderful World of Disney broadcast on ABC TV or going to the theater in the eighties? Here are some true classics that you can't find in stores on Blu-ray. Something Wicked This Way Comes The Black Hole Treasure Island Flight of the Navigator Escape to Witch Mountain / Return from Witch Mountain Do you love exclusive packaging? Or do you have the need to own every release of a favorite title? Here's a sample of a couple of the exclusive slipcovers available from DMC. New releases often arrive with exclusive DMC slipcovers so check them out before you run off to Best Buy or check out Amazon. Club exclusives initially were not very different from your normal store releases, just editions of movies that included a digital code while the same movie bought from Best Buy or Amazon did not have it, then they evolved to a random classic Disney movie. Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure: The Complete Series on Blu-ray marks the first "modern" TV series release from DMC. Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers - The Complete Series was initially announced as DMC's second animated series blu-ray release, but that one has now been updated to be a standard release available everywhere. Just don't expect to see Song of the South any time this century as a DMC exclusive. I would lean towards never, but there is still a vast trove of movies and TV shows within the Disney vault that could potentially make it to Blu-ray. I still remember an obscure series titled The Wuzzles from the eighties that will probably never see the light of day, but I do have them on SVHS somewhere as well as the stuffed animals themselves. There are so many others that are begging the be put on Blu-ray. From Duck Tales to Darkwing Duck to the Aladdin TV Series, Talespin, Gargoyles, Timon & Pumbaa, Disney Junior titles like Lion Guard, Doc McStuffins, Sofia the First, and Elena of Avalor - there's some great stuff that would make awesome additions to the collection. Bottom line, whether you're looking for the lowest prices or club exclusives, DMC is sure to satisfy both desires. Be aware though, if you look around you might find a promo code that entitles you to an even better deal for your initial order. If you are a member and refer a friend, there's a deal for that too. A few months ago the 20th Century Fox library was also added to DMC's catalog drastically increasing their selection of titles. Disney might be trying to prop up their Disney+ service, but as long as there is a market for discs, there's little doubt they will continue to produce them and DMC may just be the best - or only - place to buy them. Click the $4 movies for $1 banner to be directed to DMC.Posted Thu Feb 10, 2022 at 06:39 AM PST by: -
4K Ultra HD Blu-ray & Blu-ray Release Guide - February 6, 2022 - February 12, 2022With a continuation of last week's Super Bowl/Superb Owl comments, looks like the actual game is between the Bengals and the Rams. Kind of nice to have some different teams in there in my opinion. Cinedigm has already planned a blu-ray for this game, like they have for past games, tentative street date is March 29th. Welcome to Volume 2 Episode 38 of our weekly release guide. A look at the highlights of what's coming to disc this week, as well as a look at announcements from last week. 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Releases- It kind of looks like a busy week for 4K releases, and it really is. But when counting actual individual titles, the total does not look as overwhelming and wallet-busting. First from Disney/Buena Vista, Encanto makes it to 4K with a standard release and three retailer exclusives. Retailer exclusives include a Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook, a Target Lithograph Edition and a Walmart Exclusive that includes a collectible pin. The standard release is actually available for preorder from Amazon this time, and it looks like Walmart is starting to make exclusives of their 4K releases, which seems like almost yesterday they were still stuck in the DVD world. I have heard good things about the soundtrack on this movie, hopefully the Atmos track has a bit of fidelity and range. Relatively last minute street date update, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City gets a standard release, and a SteelBook with a little bit o'swag to go with it. From DC Animation and Warner Bros comes Catwoman: Hunted, available as a standard release and as a Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook. Also from Warner Bros, the biography King Richard starring Will Smith gets a release. From Kino Lorber, Some Like It Hot starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. This title gets a fresh Dolby Vision HDR remaster. The last two releases are reissues, La La Land gets a slipcover edition Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook, and Star Trek: Original 4-Movie Collection. Not sure what the latter brings, perhaps the first release sold out and this is just another pressing. Blu-ray releases- Looking like another huge week for quantity of titles coming to blu-ray disc. Without further adieu, the blu-ray counterparts first, Encanto, Catwoman: Hunted and King Richard and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City are available for your consideration. Warner Archive Collection releases Gold Diggers of 1933 to blu-ray. The standard Warner Bros label is releasing Stargirl: The Complete Second Season. From Sony, 2021 drama Show Me the Father. Criterion Collection's release this week is a Coen Brothers Gangster film titled Miller's Crossing. Paramount's next catalog batch includes Foul Play and Murder on the Orient Express (1974). Anime highlights include Gintama: The Very Final, High School of the Dead: Complete Collection and Princess Tutu: Complete Collection as SteelBook releases, Higurashi: When They Cry GOU - Season 1 Part 2 and Josee, the Tiger and the Fish. Again Kino Lorber is delivering a lot of releases every week. The 1997 version of 12 Angry Men featuring a lot of big names streets this Tuesday. Honorable mention: Somewhere in my laserdisc stash is a movie titled Dragonworld (1994), it can now be retired for a blu-ray release by Full Moon Features. As I remember from my childhood, the ending is pretty sad but it's still a decent movie. Poor old Yowler. Friday releases? There are a few including a fantastic John Williams feature: >Alan Parsons: One Note Symphony - Live In Tel Aviv >John Williams: The Berlin Concert >Mozart: Don Giovanni >Zandonai: Francesca Da Rimini Notable announcements from last week: Disney's release of The Beatles: Get Back has been delayed due to an audio issue. New date to be announced. Some stores were shipped the product before a decision was made to delay this release, so if a recall doesn't happen, a disc replacement will most certainly be in order. Shout/Scream Factory has announced a couple of titles for April, with no doubt more coming. Thus far we can expect Night Creatures, Cursed (Wes Craven), The Ice Demon, Happy Death Day 4K and Happy Death Day 2U 4K. The GKIDS partner label will be releasing SteelBook editions of Only Yesterday and The Tale of The Princess Kaguya. Vinegar Syndrome and its parter labels have announced their February slate, all with a February 22 street date. The biggest surprise release to me is Drop Dead Fred. It was going to be a Severin release last year. As always, these releases are available direct from the VS store and our links currently bring you there. Standard releases usually follow, often times the same release but without the slip cover. 4K Release Calendar 2K/BD Release Calendar Which titles are you buying this week? Which ones are on your wishlist, be it to buy as an impulse buy or to wait for the right price?Posted Sun Feb 6, 2022 at 12:00 PM PST by: -
4K Ultra HD Blu-ray & Blu-ray Release Guide - January 30, 2022 - February 5, 2022It's a couple more weeks until Super Bowl Sunday... since I really don't care about Football, I will likely be following Superb Owl Sunday instead, hoot hoot! But the (sporting) event certainly generates millions of dollars of revenue for many entities and people. Welcome to Volume 2 Episode 37 of our weekly release guide. A look at the highlights of what's coming to disc this week, as well as a look at announcements from last week. 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Releases- Last week the A24 shop released the 2021 horror film Lamb to 4K disc and to blu-ray disc. We had not known the release date prior to this, they had teasers on social media, but that's it. Follow our links for more info and to purchase from their shop directly. If there's one 4K title that is going to be ranked number one this week, it would be Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Critics and audiences alike enjoyed it, now, it's time to bring it home to physical media. Alternately, GB1, GB2 and Afterlife come in a fancy triple feature giftset. It sold out early, but it could open back up. Also a Zavvi Exclusive SteelBook would also be available on Monday, who knows if Best Buy might get the North American version later. The other new release this week is titled The Spine of Night, and it comes in a SteelBook edition. I do sort of dig the cover art of both this version and of the standard blu-ray. Now on to reissues, first from Paramount, Almost Famous now gets a standard package release. And next, Warner Bros reissues both Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and Mad Max Anthology, do these releases correct the audio issue? If Warner Bros says end of February for fixed discs for those that bought the original set, I have to wonder. Blu-ray releases- Alright then, just like we do every week, let's link you to the blu-ray counterparts of the featured 4K releases above. Ghostbusters: Afterlife gets a standard release, and the triple feature gets a standard package release as well (no fancy gift set like above for the triple feature). The Spine of Night also gets a standard blu-ray release. Overall title volume this week is a bit light for blu-ray disc, here's the highlights on everything else. Paramount is bringing the live action film Clifford the Big Red Dog to disc this week. Wayne's World gets a SteelBook repackage, not a 4K, and a double feature release too. Shout Factory brings a remake release, Slumber Party Massacre (2021). Anime highlights include Adachi and Shimamura - The Complete Season, Log Horizon: Destruction of the Round Table and Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle - The Complete Season. Criterion Collection's title release this week is Written on the Wind starring Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack. Honorable mentions: Kino Lorber is bringing us the F/X double feature, F/X & F/X2. If you opted not get the 4K release last November, this week you can get the blu-ray release of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Notable announcements from last week: There are a few big upcoming announcements coming, official and unofficial. Unofficially, Singing in the Rain gets a 4K release on April 26th. Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro) looks to be getting a March 22nd release date on blu-ray and 4K discs. Candyman (1992) is being prepped for 4K disc for sometime in April. Panic Room is getting a 4K disc in Canada in late March, a likely U.S. release to follow. Official Releases: Warner Archive has a couple of titles coming in March, Captains of the Clouds, A Star Is Born (1937) and The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm so far. The latter has some interesting features including the option of viewing it in the 2.85:1 Smilebox format. Matrix Resurrections 4K, blu-ray, 4-movie collection 4K and blu-ray have all been officialy slated for March 8th, bonus features have been listed as well. In the Heat of the Night 4K special features have been finalized and it is coming via Kino Lorber on April 19th. This project was underway before the passing of Sidney Poitier. The King's Man blu-ray/4K gets a February 22nd street date. Expect a SteelBook collection from Best Buy as well. Arrow Video's April slate of titles for North America include The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter, Twisting the Knife: Four Films by Claude Chabrol (Limited Edition), Rogue Cops and Racketeers: Two Crime Thrillers from Enzo G. Castellari and 12 Monkeys - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. If you're OK with importing, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer - 4k Ultra HD Blu-ray is also available in April. 4K Release Calendar 2K/BD Release Calendar Which titles are you buying this week? Which ones are on your wishlist, be it to buy as an impulse buy or to wait for the right price?Posted Sun Jan 30, 2022 at 12:00 PM PST by: -
4K Ultra HD Blu-ray & Blu-ray Release Guide - January 23, 2022 - January 29, 2022A few weeks ago I mentioned how few preorders there were on Amazon for discs. Well, a positive step in the right direction, it's now up to just a few pages more than 15. All we can keep saying is, continue to buy em up, the studios will continue to produce em. Welcome to Volume 2 Episode 36 of our weekly release guide. A look at the highlights of what's coming to disc this week, as well as a look at announcements from last week. 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Releases- Let's call this week a slowish week for 4K releases. But there are a few appealing titles here, so don't fret. Tuesday has got all catalog titles, which is fine. First from Severin (maybe finally?) comes Blood for Dracula. This one has been kicked back multiple times over several months. We did a review last fall actually so it's likely all replication delays. From The Criterion Collection, The Piano deputs in 4K glory. This next one has silently come to us from MPI/Capelight Pictures, it's titled The Lover, and it comes as a media book package. If I'm not mistaken, this makes MPI's first 4K release and it's a media book to boot! I'm curious to know what's inside it. The Punisher (2004) is getting a reissue as a Best Buy Exclusive slipcover SteelBook. In a semi-rare Friday 4K music release, Bob James Trio: Feel Like Making LIVE! comes to disc. Nowhere on the listing does it say this is a 4K release, but the photos of the package clearly illustrate that it is. Blu-ray releases- The listing for blu-ray this week looks pretty hefty, even when you exclude the reissues and B titles it still looks like an above average menu to look at. Surprisingly no LionsGate releases this week though. Because we always get the blu-ray counterpart(s) first, look for The Piano on blu-ray if 4K isn't your thing. Severin has another big release to ponder this week (in case you missed it on Black Friday Weekend on their site), All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror gets a wider general release at most major merchants. From what I read though, expect this to be delayed a week or two as they replicate more. A smaller Folk Horror set titled Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched also streets the same day. Severin has a few other releases this week too, but the one that probably will get the most attention is Eyes of Fire. From Paramount, The Bad News Bears (2005) was supposed to get release the same day as the original 1976 movie, but for some reason got yanked without explanation. You can buy it now, 10 months later. Other Paramount Releases include Nickelodeon's animated feature Barnyard, along with more catalog titles including Clockstoppers, Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story and Going Ape. Warner Archive Collection brings us Stage Fright. No, not stagefright literally, but rather the movie. An additional Criterion Collection release this week is titled Dick Johnson Is Dead, a documentary/drama that I won't even pretend to know what it is about, but maybe you do! Arrow Video releases Sleep, a German horror film that comes with a few nice looking goodies. Follow our link and click on the goodies picture to see more. Anime Highlights include Appleseed: The Original 1988 OVA, Case Closed: Sunflowers of Inferno, Kakegurui: Season Two Collection, Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple - The Complete Second Season, Maesetsu! Opening Act - The Complete Season and Ninja Robots Tobikage: The Complete Series. Friday releases are of all three categories, Ballet, Opera and Concert/Music. >Baranowski & Watkins - Kes Reimagined >Beethoven: Fidelio >Jethro Tull: The Zealot Gene (Limited Deluxe Artbook Edition) >Jethro Tull: The Zealot Gene (Limited Deluxe White Vinyl Edition) >Moniuszko: Halka >Sibelius: The Complete Symphonies >Weber: Der Freischutz Notable announcements from last week: FUNimation has revealed their April titles. Some highlights include Dragon Goes House-Hunting, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen: Season 2, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Season Two Part 01, LBX Girls - The Complete Season, KING's RAID: Successors of the Will - Part 2, One Piece - Collection 29 and Wonder Egg Priority (as both a standard and limited edition). Discotek has also revealed their March titles, the only one I am really familair with is Street Sharks. Blue Underground will be bringing Uncle Sam to 4K this year. I call this one a surprise hit. Criterion's April slate has been revealed, the 4K title will be For All Mankind. Read the article and say welcome back to Tom Landy! 4K Release Calendar 2K/BD Release Calendar Which titles are you buying this week? Which ones are on your wishlist, be it to buy as an impulse buy or to wait for the right price?Posted Sun Jan 23, 2022 at 12:00 PM PST by: -
The Criterion Collection Dates and Details April 2022 Blu-ray Slate including For All Mankind on 4K Ultra HD Blu-raySix titles will be available from The Criterion Collection this April featuring a 4K upgrade of "the best moon movie ever made". First up on the 4K front, For All Mankind - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray will be getting a 4K/Blu-ray combo release on April 26th. In July 1969, the space race ended when Apollo 11 fulfilled President John F. Kennedy’s challenge of “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” No one who witnessed the lunar landing will ever forget it. Twenty years later, Al Reinert constructed a documentary that imparts the unforgettable story of the twenty-four astronauts who participated in the Apollo mission to land on the moon—told in their words and in their voices, using the images they captured. With its awe-inspiring, otherworldly footage and a haunting atmospheric soundtrack by Brian Eno, For All Mankind stirs us with a profound sense of compassion for the “pale blue dot” that is our home, and it is still the most radical, visually dazzling work of cinema that has been made about this earthshaking event. 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES In the 4K UHD edition: New 4K digital restorations of the original 1.33:1 framing and the alternate 1.85:1 theatrical presentation, with 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features In the Blu-ray and DVD editions: High-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by producer-director Al Reinert, with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack on the Blu-ray Audio commentary featuring director Al Reinert and Apollo 17 commander Eugene A. Cernan, the last person to set foot on the moon An Accidental Gift: The Making of “For All Mankind,” a documentary featuring interviews with Reinert, Apollo 12 and Skylab astronaut Alan Bean, and NASA archive specialists Selection of excerpted interviews with fifteen of the Apollo astronauts Program about Bean’s artwork, accompanied by a gallery of his paintings NASA audio highlights and liftoff footage Optional on-screen identification of astronauts and mission-control specialists PLUS: Essays by film critic Terrence Rafferty and Reinert The other five titles are Blu-ray only starting with the rock-and-roll 1950s musical The Girl Can't Help It starring Jayne Mansfield on April 19th. In 1956, Frank Tashlin brought the talent for zany visual gags and absurdist pop-culture satire that he’d honed as a master of animation to the task of capturing, in glorious DeLuxe Color, a brand-new craze: rock and roll. This blissfully bonkers jukebox musical tells the story of a mobster’s bombshell girlfriend—the one and only Jayne Mansfield, in a showstopping first major film role—and the washed-up talent agent (Tom Ewell) who seeks to revive his career by turning her into a musical sensation. The only question is: Can she actually sing? A CinemaScope feast of eye-popping midcentury design, The Girl Can’t Help It bops along to a parade of performances by rock-and-roll trailblazers—including Little Richard, Fats Domino, Julie London, Eddie Cochran, the Platters, and Gene Vincent—who light up the screen with the uniquely American sound that was about to conquer the world. BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray Audio commentary featuring film scholar Toby Miller New interview with Eve Golden, biographer of actor Jayne Mansfield New video essay by film critic David Cairns Interview with filmmaker John Waters New conversation between WFMU DJs Dave “the Spazz” Abramson and Gaylord Fields about the music in the film On-set footage Interviews with Mansfield (1957) and musician Little Richard (1984) Episode of Karina Longworth’s podcast You Must Remember This about Mansfield Trailer English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: An essay by critic Rachel Syme and, for the Blu-ray, excerpts from director Frank Tashlin’s 1952 book How to Create Cartoons with a new introduction by Ethan de Seife, author of Tashlinesque: The Hollywood Comedies of Frank TashlinNew cover by Jaffa the Unknown Also on the 19th comes the fantastical comedy Miracle in Milan from director Vittorio De Sica. Renowned filmmaker Vittorio De Sica followed up his international triumph Bicycle Thieves with this enchantingly playful neorealist fairy tale, in which he combines his celebrated slice-of-life poetry with flights of graceful comedy and storybook fantasy. On the outskirts of Milan, a band of vagabonds work together to form a shantytown. When it is discovered that the land they occupy contains oil, however, it’s up to the cherubic orphan Totò (Francesco Golisano)—with some divine help—to save their community from greedy developers. Tipping their hats to the imaginative whimsy of Charles Chaplin and René Clair, De Sica and screenwriter Cesare Zavattini, adapting his own novel, craft a bighearted ode to the nobility of everyday people. BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray New interview with neorealism expert and film scholar David Forgacs Audio interview from the late 1960s in which director Vittorio De Sica looks back on his career, conducted by film critic Gideon Bachmann Interviews with actor Brunella Bovo and Manuel De Sica, the director’s son Feature-length documentary from 2019 on screenwriter Cesare Zavattini Trailers New English subtitle translation PLUS: An essay by film critic Christina Newland and, on the Blu-ray, “Totò il buono,” a 1940 short story by Zavattini and stage actor Totò that is the earliest version of the narrative on which Miracle in Milan is basedNew cover by Manule Fior On the 26th, the directorial debut of twins Arie and Chuko Esiri Eyimofe (This Is My Desire) is set for a Blu-ray release. This revelatory, award-winning debut feature from codirectors (and twin brothers) Arie and Chuko Esiri is a heartrending and hopeful portrait of everyday human endurance in Lagos, Nigeria. Shot on richly textured 16 mm film and infused with the spirit of neorealism, Eyimofe (This Is My Desire) traces the journeys of two distantly connected strangers—Mofe (Jude Akuwudike), an electrician dealing with the fallout of a family tragedy, and Rosa (Temi Ami-Williams), a hairdresser supporting her pregnant teenage sister—as they each pursue their dream of starting a new life in Europe while bumping up against the harsh economic realities of a world in which every interaction is a transaction. From these intimate stories emerges a vivid snapshot of life in contemporary Lagos, whose social fabric is captured in all its vibrancy and complexity. BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 2K digital transfer, approved by directors Arie and Chuko Esiri, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray New conversation between the directors, moderated by filmmaker Bette Gordon Interview with producer Melissa O. Adeyemo Deleted scenes featuring audio commentary by the directors Three short films: Goose (2017), directed by Arie and Chuko Esiri; Besida (2018), directed by Chuko Esiri; and Because Men in Silk Shirts on Lagos Nights (2018), directed by Arie Esiri Trailer PLUS: An essay by writer and filmmaker Maryam KazeemNew cover by Diana Ejaita Next, Bertrand Tavernier directs Dexter Gordon in the critically-acclaimed jazz film ’Round Midnight which will be released on Blu-ray on April 26th. ’Round Midnight is a love letter from director Bertrand Tavernier to the heyday of bebop and to the Black American musicians who found refuge in the smoky underground jazz clubs of 1950s Paris. In a miraculous, sui generis fusion of performer and character that was nominated for an Oscar, legendary saxophonist Dexter Gordon plays Dale Turner, a brilliant New York jazz veteran whose music aches with beauty but whose personal life is ravaged by addiction. Searching for a fresh start in Paris, Turner strikes up an unlikely friendship with a struggling single father and ardent jazz fan (François Cluzet) who finds his life transformed as he attempts to help the self-destructive musician. Herbie Hancock’s evocative, Oscar-winning score sets the mood for this definitive jazz film, a bittersweet opus that glows with lived-in, soulful authenticity. BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack on the Blu-ray Alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack, supervised by composer Herbie Hancock and presented in DTS-HD Master Audio New interview with jazz and cultural critic Gary Giddins New conversation with music producer Michael Cuscuna and author Maxine Gordon, widow of musician Dexter Gordon Before Midnight, a 1986 behind-the-scenes documentary Panel discussion from 2014 featuring director Bertrand Tavernier, Cuscuna, Maxine Gordon, and jazz scholar John Szwed, moderated by jazz critic and broadcaster Mark Ruffin Performance from 1969 of “Fried Bananas” by Dexter Gordon, directed by Teit Jørgensen New English subtitle translation and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: An essay by scholar Mark Anthony NealNew cover by F. Ron Miller Finally, Alex Cox's blistering biopic Walker leads off the month on April 12th. A hallucinatory biopic that breaks all cinematic conventions, Walker, from British director Alex Cox, tells the story of nineteenth-century American adventurer William Walker (Ed Harris), who abandoned a series of careers in law, politics, journalism, and medicine to become a soldier of fortune and, for many months, the dictator of Nicaragua. Made with mad abandon and political acuity—and the support of the Sandinista army and government during the contra war—the film uses this true tale as a satirical attack on American ultrapatriotism and a freewheeling condemnation of “manifest destiny.” Featuring a powerful score by Joe Strummer and a performance of intense, repressed rage by Harris, Walker remains one of Cox’s most daring works. BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES Restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Alex Cox, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray Audio commentary by Cox and screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer Dispatches from Nicaragua, a documentary about the filming of Walker On Moviemaking and the Revolution, reminiscences about the production twenty years later from an extra on the film Walker 2008 and On the Origins of “Walker” (2016), two short films by Cox (Blu-ray only) Behind-the-scenes photos Trailer (Blu-ray only) English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: Essays by film critic Graham Fuller, Wurlitzer, and Linda SandovalBlu-ray cover by Paul Mavrides (pictured); DVD cover by Marc English These titles aren't available for pre-order yet but we will post an update when they are ASAP. As always, thank you for your support and pre-orders!Posted Fri Jan 21, 2022 at 09:16 AM PST by: -
4K Ultra HD Blu-ray & Blu-ray Release Guide - January 16, 2022 - January 22, 2022Mid way through January already, how are your New Years Resolutions working for ya? I try not to go into anything unrealistic myself! Welcome to Volume 2 Episode 35 of our weekly release guide. A look at the highlights of what's coming to disc this week, as well as a look at announcements from last week. 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Releases- Just like last week, it looks like a pretty busy week considering it is January. Getting the new release first, Last Night in Soho comes to us via Universal Pictures. There appears to be no SteelBook domestically at this time. Zavvi UK has one, and HMV has a variant slip-case release. Everything else this week are catalog titles. Be grateful for the smaller labels. Criterion Collection's A Hard Day's Night sees a 4K upgrade. Blue Underground's release of The Toolbox Murders debuts on 4K disc this week. All other 4K discs this week are reissues of some sort. Requiem for a Dream gets a fancy sleeved package Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook release. Akira gets a less elaborate package, 4K/Blu-ray combo release. Deep Red also gets a disc only, swag-less release. Lastly, Tobey Maguires Spider-Man Trilogy gets a standard / non-Digibook release as well. Blu-ray releases- Just like every week, let's get the blu-ray counterparts posted first. Only one this week, from Universal, Last Night in Soho. Also from Universal, The Addams Family 2 (animated) gets a blu-ray only release. And, TV's Annie Live! comes to physical release. The next Vestron Video release comes via LionsGate, Candyman 3: Day of the Dead. From Warner Archive Collection, Edge of Darkness (1943) and Song of the Thin Man. Criterion's blu-ray release this week is a documentary type film titled Time. From Arrow, Red Angel and Shock are on track to be released on Tuesday, don't be surprised by last minute changes though. Powerhouse Films / Indicator Series releases for January are this week and include The Blockhouse, The Brute, Girl Stroke Boy and Hoffman. Anime highlights include Assault Lily BOUQUET - The Complete Season, Grenadier: The Beautiful Warrior, Taisho Baseball Girls (Season 1) and Tower of God. Honorable Mention: ClassicFlix Restorations delivers The Little Rascals: Volume Four this week. Thus far they have done a good job on this series. Notable announcements from last week: Anyone that bought Jack Frost 2 (myself included) a few weeks back be aware there will be a replacement disc in the works soon, stay tuned for more info. The copy you have is fine, but apparently an unedited 16:9 full stereo mix was unearthed and will be coming our way. Some Like It Hot 4K gets pushed back to February 8th. Additional Paramount catalog titles for the next couple months are Spontaneous, Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, 200 Cigarettes and Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy. There is word that Disney will be preparing a 4K disc release for Tombstone towards the 4th quarter 2022, but that's just a rumor. I'm still hoping to see Heat in the next few months, on a BD100 disc please. There is also word that the original Candyman is getting a 4K disc later this year. Saved the best news for last. Paramount Home Video is releasing The Godfather Trilogy on 4K disc. Read the news story here for more details. 4K Release Calendar 2K/BD Release Calendar Which titles are you buying this week? Which ones are on your wishlist, be it to buy as an impulse buy or to wait for the right price?Posted Sun Jan 16, 2022 at 12:00 PM PST by: -
4K Ultra HD Blu-ray & Blu-ray Release Guide - January 9, 2022 - January 15, 2022In looking at upcoming releases, this is probably the slowest I have seen it in a very long time. Pre-orders on Amazon currently occupy 13 pages, not too long ago there were 30 pages worth. But hey, it's 1st quarter, so at the moment, no reason for alarm. Your best course of action is to continue to buy discs that you want to keep the medium alive. Just like any business, if you still got the demand, you make the product. Welcome to Volume 2 Episode 34 of our weekly release guide. A look at the highlights of what's coming to disc this week, as well as a look at announcements from last week. 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Releases- Considering it is January, this week is uncharacteristically (I think I made up a word) huge for 4K disc releases. New releases first: The 2021 Sci-Fi epic Dune arrives as both a standard edition and as a Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook. Hope my SteelBook arrives intact because preorders are sold out as procuring a replacement could get expensive. A sequel has been green-lit so expect more greatness in the future. What's touted as part of the 'new trilogy,' Halloween Kills also gets a double release, a standard edition and a Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook. This release also includes an alternate ending. On to back catalog titles, first from Paramount, 1992 action/drama Juice, available as a standard edition and as a wide-release SteelBook edition. Finally, from Kino, The Great Escape gets a 4K disc release. Previously, Criterion had released a 4K scan blu-ray edition. Blu-ray releases- Just like every week, let's get the blu-ray counterparts done first. Dune gets a standard release, a Walmart Exclusive release and a 3-D release. It would be nice if the Walmart Exclusive were a 4K combo, that's a handsome package in its own way. I feel that that is Walmart's decision, not Warner Bros. Halloween Kills also gets a standard blu-ray release via Universal Pictures. Anime highlights include A3! Season Autumn & Winter, El-Hazard: The Alternative World Collection, Heaven's Lost Property The Movie: Eternally My Master and Strike Witches: Road to Berlin Season 3. Criterion Collectors look for The Celebration this week. Kino Lorber brings us war film The 7th Dawn starring William Holden. Burt Reynolds 'safe cracker' film Breakin In gets a nod as well. Not done with Reynolds yet, Impasse also gets a disc release. I've never seen Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine in the same film, but Kino shows us they were in Gambit. Partner label Scorpion Releasing delivers Dario Argento's The Card Player. Friday releases? All Arts/Opera. >Abrahamsen - The Snow Queen >Casablancas: L'enigma di Lea >Nuit Erik Satie: Nicolas Horvath / Live at the Philharmonie de Paris >Purcell: Dido & Aeneas Notable announcements from last week: We did expect it to be a dead week last week, but we do in fact have some buzz. Warner Bros. has slated a domestic release for The Green Mile on February 22nd. See our news story here for the details. Looks like if you don't need the digital streaming code then the Zavvi Exclusive version is the ultimate experience. Kino also added details for their 4K release of The Apartment, March 8th specifically. It will be 4K SDR, but you can still bet it is going to look stunning. There will also be a blu-ray release as well. Paramount Pictures has a handful of catalog titles recently added for February - April, more will probably be added this week as well. In no particular order look for Hey Arnold! The Movie, In Dreams, Nick of Time, Intersection, Orange County, Soapdish, The Rugrats Trilogy Movie Collection, EuroTrip (Unrated Editrion) and Let It Ride. The next Paramount Presents release will be Ordinary People on March 29th. From Peter Jackson and via the Disney label, The Beatles: Get Back gets a 3-disc blu-ray collector's edition on February 8th. We have also got order links up for all the various skus for Disney's Encanto. With a release date of February 8th, a standard blu-ray release will be overshadowed by a multitude of 4K skus that include a standard edition, Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook, Target Exclusive Lithograph Art Edition as well as a Walmart Exclusive that includes a pin. 4K Release Calendar 2K/BD Release Calendar Which titles are you buying this week? Which ones are on your wishlist, be it to buy as an impulse buy or to wait for the right price?Posted Sun Jan 9, 2022 at 12:00 PM PST by: -
4K Ultra HD Blu-ray & Blu-ray Release Guide - January 2, 2022 - January 8, 2022Welcome to 2022 (officially). Are we looking forward to anything specific this year (movies or otherwise)? There's another recent story about The Abyss getting a new 4K scan, with a wishful disc release coming sometime sooner than later, which we kind of alluded to in August. At this point every time every time I read such a story I'm like 'yeah yeah yeah, blah blah blah,' we've had our hopes up so many times before. Welcome to Volume 2 Episode 33 of our weekly release guide. A look at the highlights of what's coming to disc this week, as well as a look at announcements from last week. 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Releases- Another slow week on the 4K disc front, but that's to be expected. In an odd Sunday release date, Disney brings us Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. We've already reviewed it, do take a look. Overseas the entire collection is available in 4K, so we can bet the remaining films will get there eventually in the U.S.. And from Shout! Factory/GKIDS, Weathering With You gets a simpler more basic release this go round. If the disc is the same as the previous release, it is region A locked to boot. What were they thinking to lock this disc? Blu-ray releases- For blu-ray, we actually have more titles this week than next, albeit many are from small indie houses, which is quite OK. From 20th Century Studios (Disney) comes horror film Antlers. Already looking like it's hard to find. Screen Media (maybe) releases Black Friday, the horror / comedy with Bruce Campbell. RLJ/Image entertainment releases The Djinn. The trailer made it look pretty good, then again, don't most of them? Though, another cool looking cover that's a victim of the Rotten Tomatoes logo. Weekly anime highlights include Canaan (Season 1) Complete Collection, My Next Life as a Villainess, All Routes Lead to Doom! (Season 1) Complete Collection and One Piece: Season Eleven - Voyage Six. Y'all didn't think we would go a week without a LionsGate release did ya? In the thriller category, Zeroes and Ones starring Ethan Hawk. Honorable Mentions: Kino Lorber digs deep for a big of film-noir starring Edward G. Robinson and Burt Lancaster, titled All My Sons. Also this week from Kino, Alfred Hitchcock's Rich and Strange. There are no Friday releases this week. Notable announcements from last week: Warner Archive's next batch of titles has been revealed. The titles are Edge of Darkness (1943), Gold Diggers of 1933 and The Three Musketeers (1948). Look for them late January and in to February. Also from Warner Bros., the 2021 Will Smith film King Richard will be released both on blu-ray and 4K combos on February 8th. Warner Bros. overseas is prepping The Green Mile as a Zavvi Exclusive deluxe 4K SteelBook giftset, with a March 7th street date. Will the (rumored) 2/22 release for the U.S. also include a deluxe giftset like that one? Warner Bros has done U.S. giftsets before for 4K releases before but they did not look so inclusive. 4K Release Calendar 2K/BD Release Calendar Which titles are you buying this week? Which ones are on your wishlist, be it to buy as an impulse buy or to wait for the right price?Posted Sun Jan 2, 2022 at 12:00 PM PST by: -
4K Ultra HD Blu-ray & Blu-ray Release Guide - December 26, 2021 - January 1, 2022As we close out the year, we hope you've had a good 2021 overall, despite some of the issues that are out there, including a stressful pandemic. What will 2022 bring from a home video perspective? Very hard to say, but as long as we continue to purchase the discs we want, so far it looks like it could be a promising year. I bought in to the Vinegar Syndrome subscription for 2022 and so far their line up has a few excellent titles in the works. With other labels on board with 4K, I look forward to seeing where it takes us. Welcome to Volume 2 Episode 32 of our weekly release guide. A look at the highlights of what's coming to disc this week, as well as a look at announcements from last week. 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Releases- There is one, single solitary release this week. It is the week between Christmas and New Years day so that is kind of expected. Discotek offers up Robot Carnival this week. It probably is the best this collection of animated films has ever looked. We reached out to Discotek about the specs of this title because they indicated 'region A' locked, which sounds like an error, but they had not responded. There are several other previously released 4K titles out there that are region-locked. So if you're looking at importing, verify first or make sure your player has region-free BD capability (which is how a 4K region lock is enforced apparently). Blu-ray releases- Just like the 4K category, the blu-ray category is just as slow. Under the Shout! Factory label, action film Castle Falls starring Dolph Lundgren and Scott Adkins. 20th Century Studios releases The French Dispatch this week, a comedy/drama with a few names we should be familiar with. Twilight Time movies has transformed a little bit, previously you could only buy direct from them or SAE. SAE bought out the label and distributed them exclusively going forward. This week however they are offering a few titles via Amazon. They are Messalina, The Man from Hong Kong, Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye and Venom aka The Legend Of Spider Forest. For Anime, Goblin Slayer: Season One (SteelBook) gets a general release - it was previously a Best Buy Exclusive. Also from Discotek, Samurai Troopers: The Complete Collection. If you've watched Arrow Video's release of Shawscope Volume One get pushed back multiple times, the wait *might* be over. At press time, it is indeed on track to come out Tuesday. The Shaw Brothers set up their own brand of movies in the 1970s that still hold up today. Notable announcements from last week: Mill Creek Entertainment will be releasing Magnum PI: The Complete TV Series (1980-1988) on Blu-ray, with an ETA of March 22nd. FUNimation's March slate of anime releases have been added to the release calendar. With the exception of Dr. Stone Season 2, I am unfamiliar with the titles, but I'm sure anime fans will see a few others they know. Eastern Promises will be getting a 4K disc release from Kino Lorber on March 22nd as well. It looks like March might be the month to start feeling 4K wallet fatigue with all the titles one must get to keep up! 4K Release Calendar 2K/BD Release Calendar Which titles are you buying this week? Which ones are on your wishlist, be it to buy as an impulse buy or to wait for the right price?Posted Sun Dec 26, 2021 at 12:00 PM PST by:
