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OnVideo's Weekly Guide to Home Video Releases
Backtrack
(2015) Adrien Brody, Sam Neill, George Shevtsov, Robin McLeavy. Psychologist Peter Bower's life is thrown into turmoil when he discovers that the patients he has been seeing are ghosts. Risking his own sanity, Peter delves into his past to uncover a terrifying secret
which only he can put right. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray Disc, VOD, Digital, UltraViolet (cloud). Extras: Extras: "The Psychology of Backtrack" featurette. (Lionsgate).
Brief Encounter
(1945) After a chance meeting on a train platform, a married doctor (Trevor Howard) and a suburban housewife (Celia Johnson) begin a muted but passionate, and ultimately doomed, love affair. With its evocatively fog-enshrouded setting, swooning Rachmaninoff score, and pair of remarkable performances (Johnson was nominated for an Oscar for her role), this film, directed by David Lean and based on Noel Coward's play "Still Life," deftly explores the thrill, pain, and tenderness of an illicit romance, and has influenced many a cinematic brief encounter since its release. High-definition digital transfer of the BFI National Archive's 2008 restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray.
Formats: DVD, Blu-ray Disc. Extras: Audio commentary from 2000 by film historian Bruce Eder; interview from 2012 with Noel Coward scholar Barry Day; "A Profile of Brief Encounter," a short documentary from 2000 on the making of the film; "David Lean: A Self Portrait," a 1971 television documentary on Lean's career; trailer; an essay by historian Kevin Brownlow. (The Criterion Collection).
Death Becomes Her BLU-RAY DEBUT
(1992) Dir.: Robert Zemeckis; stars: Goldie Hawn, Bruce Willis, Meryl Streep, Isabella Rossellini. Extras: New "The Making of Death Becomes Her" featuring interviews with director Robert Zemeckis, writer David Koepp, director of photography Dean Cundey, production designer Rick Carter and special effects artists Lance Anderson and David Anderson; vintage "Behind-the-scenes" featurette; photo gallery;
original theatrical trailer. (Scream Factory).
Dolemite
(1975) Rudy Ray Moore, D'Urville Martin, Lady Reed, Jerry Jones, John Kerry. Emerging in the U.S. in the early 1970s, Blaxploitation films – the first to regularly feature soundtracks of funk and soul music and primarily African-American casts – were originally made specifically for a Black, urban audience. However, the genre’s appeal soon broadened across racial and ethnic lines. Dolemite (Moore), the baddest pimp in town, has just been released from prison, ready to take revenge on notorious gangster Willie Green (Martin), who set him up on a phony drug charge and stole his club, The Total Experience. With the help of his friend Queen Bee (Lady Reed) and their bank of Kung Fu fighting vixens, Dolemite takes on every "rat soup eatin' mother#%$*er" in South Central. Formats: Blu-ray/DVD Combo. Extras: "I, Dolemite" making-of documentary; "Lady Reed Uncut" featurette; "Locations: Then & Now" featurette; historical commentary track from Moore's biographer Mark Jason Murray, featuring interviews with Moore as well as co-stars Jerry Jones, Lady Reed and John Kerry and cinematographer Nick Von Sternberg; original theatrical trailers; original cover artwork by Jay Shaw; reversible cover artwork. (Vinegar Syndrome).
The Driftless Area
(2015) Anton Yelchin, Zooey Deschanel, John Hawkes, Aubrey Plaza, Frank Langella, Alia Shawkat,Ciaran Hinds. Bartender Pierre (Yelchin) returns to his hometown after the death of his parents and falls under the spell of the enchanting, mysterious Stella (Deschanel). As their relationship deepens, Pierre finds himself in a dangerous situation with a volatile criminal (Hawkes) who abruptly altered the course of Stella's life.
Formats: DVD, Digital. Extras: " Making The Driftless Area." (Sony).
The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour Country Special
Features a pair of episodes from Glen Campbell's classic variety series, filled with music, laughter, and a roster of guest stars including Johnny Cash, June Carter, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Mel Tillis and Minnie Pearl. Includes performances of "Folsom Prison Blues," "I Saw The Light," "Act Naturally," "When You're Hot, You're Hot," "I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am" and many others. Formats: DVD. (Shout! Factory). Due April 26.
Hot in Cleveland Season Six
(2014-15) Three-disc set with all 24 episodes of the final season of the TV Land series that stars Valerie Bertinelli Jane Leeves, Wendie Malick and Betty White. Formats: DVD. (Paramount).
Hot in Cleveland Complete Series
(2010-15) Seventeen-disc set with all 128 episodes from the series' six seasons, $89.99.
Formats: DVD. (Paramount).
Inspector Rex: Season One: Vienna
(1994-95 -- Austria/Germany) There's a new crime-fighter in town: the international sensation, police dog Inspector Rex. The crime series that became one of the most successful franchises in the world revolves around amazing German Shepherd Rex, with his unerring instinct and phenomenal intelligence. He may have four legs but he puts them all to use: unlatching doors, pushing trolleys, disarming criminals, and even charming the ladies when necessary. After his handler is killed in an explosion, Rex gets paired up with the handsome, recently-divorced Inspector Richard Moser to investigate crimes and clean up the streets of Vienna. Along with Moser's two-legged partner, Ernst Stockinger, they become the meanest crime-fighting team to hit the streets of Vienna, tracking down a serial teddy bear bomber, an old-lady killer and even Beethoven's head. Formats: Four-disc DVD, $39.95. (MHz Home Entertainment).
Jane Got a Gun
(2016) Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton, Ewan McGregor, Noah Emmerich, Rodrigo Santoro, Boyd Holbrook. Young and pretty with a soul of pure steel, Jane Hammond (Portman) is a good girl married to one of the worst baddies in town. When her husband Bill turns against his own gang, the vicious Bishop Boys, and returns home barely alive with eight bullets in his back, Jane knows it’s time to ditch the dress for a pair of pants and strap on her own gun. As the relentless leader John Bishop gears up for revenge, Jane’s best hope for her family's survival rests with her old love Dan Frost – a gunslinger whose hatred for Bill is only slightly overshadowed by his love for Jane. Together Jane and Dan spring clever traps, luring Bishop’s men to certain death just as their old feelings for each other resurface amidst the flying bullets. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray Disc. (The Weinstein Company).
The Kennedy Films of Robert Drew & Associates
Seeking to invigorate the American documentary format, which he felt was rote and uninspired, Robert Drew brought the style and vibrancy he had fostered as a Life magazine correspondent to filmmaking in the late fifties. He did this by assembling an amazing team -- including such eventual nonfiction luminaries as Richard Leacock ("Louisiana Story"), D. A. Pennebaker ("Don't Look Back"), and Albert Maysles ("Grey Gardens") -- that would transform documentary cinema. In 1960, the group was granted direct access to John F. Kennedy, filming him on the campaign trail and eventually in the Oval Office. This resulted in three films of remarkable, behind-closed-doors intimacy -- "Primary" (1960), "Adventures on the New Frontier" (1961) and "Crisis" (1963) -- and, following the president's assassination, the poetic short "Faces of November" (1964). Collected here are all four of these titles, early exemplars of the movement known as Direct Cinema and featuring the greatest close-up footage we have of this American icon. New 2K digital restorations of all four films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-ray. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray Disc. Extras: Alternate, 26-minute cut of "Primary," edited by filmmaker Richard Leacock; audio commentary on the Leacock edit of "Primary," featuring Leacock and filmmakers Robert Drew and D. A. Pennebaker, recorded in conversation with film critic Gideon Bachmann in 1961; "Robert Drew in His Own Words," a new documentary featuring archival interview footage; new conversation between Pennebaker and Jill Drew, Robert Drew's daughter-in-law and the general manager of Drew Associates; outtakes from "Crisis," along with a discussion by historian Andrew Cohen, author of "Two Days in June"; new conversation about "Crisis" featuring former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder and Sharon Malone, Holder's wife and the sister of Vivian Malone, one of the students featured in "Crisis"; new interview with Richard Reeves, author of "President Kennedy: Profile of Power"; footage from a 1998 event at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, featuring Drew, Pennebaker, Leacock, and filmmaker Albert Maysles; an essay by documentary film curator and writer Thomas Powers. (The Criterion Collection).
Krampus
(2015) Adam Scott, Toni Collette, Allison Tolman, David Koechner, Conchata Ferrell. A boy who has a bad Christmas ends up accidentally summoning a Christmas demon to his family home. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray/DVD Combo, VOD, Digital, UltraViolet (cloud). Extras: Gag reel, "The Naughty Ones: Meet the Cast," galleries, commentary with director/co-writer Michael Dougherty and co-writers Todd Casey & Zach Shields. Blu-ray adds "Krampus and His Minions" special effects featurette, "Practical Danger" stunts featurette, "Inside the Snowglobe: Production Design" featurette, "Dougherty's Vision" behind-the-scenes featurette with the director and cast and crew, "Behind the Scenes at WETA Workshop: Krampus." (Universal).
Phoenix
(2014) This evocative and haunting drama, set in a rubble-strewn Berlin in 1945, is like no other film about post–World War II Jewish identity. After surviving Auschwitz, a former cabaret singer (Nina Hoss, in a dazzling, multilayered performance), her face disfigured and reconstructed, returns to her war-ravaged hometown to seek out the gentile husband who may or may not have betrayed her to the Nazis. Without recognizing her, he enlists her to play his wife in a bizarre hall-of-shattered-mirrors story that's as richly metaphorical as it is preposterously engrossing. Revenge film or tale of romantic reconciliation? One doesn't know until the superb closing scene of this marvel from Christian Petzold (the Oscar-nominated "Barbara"), perhaps the most important figure in contemporary German cinema. New 4K digital master, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray.
Formats: DVD, Blu-ray Disc. Extras: New conversation between director Christian Petzold and actor Nina Hoss; new interview with cinematographer Hans Fromm; new documentary featuring on-set interviews from 2013 with Petzold, Hoss, actors Nina Kunzendorf and Ronald Zehrfeld, and production designer Kade Gruber; trailer; an essay by critic Michael Koresky. (The Criterion Collection).
Ride Along 2
(2015) Kevin Hart, Ice Cube, Ken Jeong Olivia Munn, Benjamin Bratt, Sherri Shepherd, Tyrese Gibson. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray Disc, VOD, Digital, UltraViolet (cloud). Extras: Deleted scenes, gag reel, "Ride Along With Us" police recruitment video, "Behind the Scenes of Ride Along With Us," "Kevin & Cube: Brothers-In-Law," "Inside Black Hammer Vision" Miami car chase scenes, commentary with director Tim Story. Blu-ray adds The Ride Along Roundtable, "The Ride Diaries" behind-the-scenes featurette, "The New Recruits" (Olivia Munn and Ken Jeong), "Ride Along With Kevin Hart," "Cori's Wedding Commercial." (Universal).
Son of Saul
(2015 -- Hungary) Geza Rohrig, Levente Molnar, Urs Rechn, Todd Charmont. In the horror of 1944 Auschwitz, a prisoner forced to burn the corpses of his own people finds moral survival upon trying to salvage from the flames the body of a boy he takes for his son. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray Disc, Blu-ray/DVD Combo, VOD, Digital, UltraViolet (cloud). Extras: Commentary with director Laszlo Nemes, actor Geza Rohrig and cinematographer Matyas Erdely, Museum of Tolerance Q&A with director Nemes, Rohrig and cinematographer Erdely, deleted scene. (Sony). Pre-order "Son of Saul" here.
That's Sexploitation!
(2013) From director Frank Henenlotter ("Basket Case," "Brain Damage") and co-producer Mike Vraney (the late founder of Something Weird Video) comes this documentary that is an eye-popping expedition through the world of pre-code peekaboos, stags, sex-hygiene films, goona-goonas, nudie-cuties, roughies, druggies, white-coaters and more, featuring thousands of spicy, steamy and downright sleazy clips from the SWV archives. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray Disc,. Extras: Over 3 1/2 hours of sexploitation shorts from The Something Weird Archives, audio commentary with director Frank Henenlotter and Something Weird's Lisa Petrucci, trailer. (Severin Films).
Wabbit: A Looney Tunes Production Season 1 Part 1
(2016) Two-disc set with 26 episodes of the new animated series starring Bugs Bunny. The classic Looney Tunes receive an updated look with cutting-edge animation, clever storylines and new characters. "Wabbit's" premiere on Cartoon Network ranked #1 in its time slot
across all Kids' networks with Boys 6-11 and ranked #2 with kids 6-11. The series was the #1 original kids program on basic cable with Boys 6-11. Formats: DVD. (Warner).
What?
(1972) Sydne Rome, Marcello Mastroianni, Hugh Griffith, Roman Polanski, Romolo Valli. Roman Polanski described it as the ribald adventures of an innocent girl. Critics called it an amoral, depraved disaster. More than four decades after its controversial release, it remains the most butchered, debated and least-seen film of the Oscar-winning director's entire career. The succulent Sydne Rome stars as an oft-naked American girl lost inside a Mediterranean villa inhabited by priests, pianists, perverts and a syphilitic pimp (a deliciously bizarre performance by Marcello Mastroianni) while indulging in madcap acts of gang rape, sodomy and ping-pong. Hugh Griffith ("Tom Jones"), Romolo Valli ("Boccaccio '70") and Polanski himself co-star in this surreal and sexy comedy, now finally restored to its original running time from a vault print reportedly stolen from the wine cellar of producer Carlo Ponti. Formats: Blu-ray. Extras: Three featurettes: "Sydne In Wonderland" interview with star Sydne Rome, "Memories of a Young Pianist" interview with composer Claudio Gizzi, "A Surreal Pop Movie" interview with cinematographer Marcello Gatti, theatrical trailer. (Severin Films).
Ride Along 2
As his wedding day approaches, Ben (Kevin Hart)heads to Miami with his soon-to-be brother-in-law James (Ice Cube) to bring down a drug dealer who's supplying the dealers of Atlanta with product. Sequel to the 2014 hit.
Vitals: Director: Tim Story. Stars: Kevin Hart, Ice Cube, Ken Jeong, Olivia Munn, Benjamin Bratt, Sherri Shepherd, Tyrese Gibson.
2015, CC, MPAA rating: PG-13, 102 min., Comedy, Box office gross: $82.661 million, Universal.
Extras: Deleted scenes, gag reel, "Ride Along With Us" police recruitment video, "Behind the Scenes of Ride Along With Us," "Kevin & Cube: Brothers-In-Law," "Inside Black Hammer Vision" Miami car chase scenes, commentary with director Tim Story. Blu-ray adds The Ride Along Roundtable, "The Ride Diaries" behind-the-scenes featurette, "The New Recruits" (Olivia Munn and Ken Jeong), "Ride Along With Kevin Hart," "Cori's Wedding Commercial."
Son of Saul
October 1944, Auschwitz-Birkenau. Saul (Geza Rohrig) is a Hungarian member of the Sonderkommando, the group of Jewish prisoners forced to assist the Nazis. While working, Saul discovers the body of a boy he takes for his son. As the Sonderkommando plans a rebellion, Saul decides to carry out an impossible task: save the child's body, find a rabbi to recite the mourner's Kaddish and offer the boy a proper burial. Academy Award-, Golden Globe- and Independent Spirit-Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film.
Vitals: Director: Laszlo Nemes. Stars: Geza Rohrig, Levente Molnar, Urs Rechn, Todd Charmont.
2015 -- Hungary, CC, MPAA rating: R, 107 min., Drama, Box office gross: $1.666 million, Sony.
Extras: Commentary with director Laszlo Nemes, actor Geza Rohrig and cinematographer Matyas Erdely, Museum of Tolerance Q&A with director Nemes, Rohrig and cinematographer Erdely, deleted scene.
Pre-order "Son of Saul" here.
Krampus
When his dysfunctional family clashes over the holidays, young Max is disillusioned and turns his back on Christmas. Little does he know that this lack of festive spirit has unleashed the wrath of Krampus: a demonic force of ancient evil intent on punishing non-believers. All hell breaks loose as beloved holiday icons take on a monstrous life of their own, laying siege to the fractured family's home and forcing them to fight for each other if they hope to survive.
Vitals: Director: Michael Dougherty. Stars: Adam Scott, Toni Collette, Allison Tolman, David Koechner, Conchata Ferrell.
2015, CC, MPAA rating: PG-13, 99 min., Horror, Box office gross: $42.592 million, Universal.
Extras: Gag reel, "The Naughty Ones: Meet the Cast," galleries, commentary with director/co-writer Michael Dougherty and co-writers Todd Casey & Zach Shields. Blu-ray adds "Krampus and His Minions" special effects featurette, "Practical Danger" stunts featurette, "Inside the Snowglobe: Production Design" featurette, "Dougherty's Vision" behind-the-scenes featurette with the director and cast and crew, "Behind the Scenes at WETA Workshop: Krampus." 
The Beverly Hillbillies: The Official First Season
(2015) Five-disc set with all 36 episodes. This special collection not only includes digitally remastered episodes with upgraded picture and sound, but also features the original extended pilot episode. Rarely seen, this episode offers a special glimpse into TV history with an unfamiliar intro to the new series, "The Hillbillies of Beverly Hills," extended scenes, and staged vignettes featuring as-yet unseen characters destined to become one of America's most favorite TV families. The debut season follows the Clampetts -- Jed (Buddy Ebsen), Granny (Irene Ryan), Elly May (Donna Douglas), and Jethro (Max Baer Jr.) -- as they accidentally strike oil on their land and move from their backwoods cabin to a Beverly Hills mansion. On their journey to fulfill their dreams of swimming pools and movie stars, their humorous hillbilly lifestyle clashes with the "city folk" of Beverly Hills. Formats: DVD. (CBS/Paramount).
Dillinger
(1973) The runaway success of "Bonnie and Clyde" in 1967 proved massively influential: It made stars of Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, introduced a new form of violence to the movies, and inspired a stream of imitators, including "Bloody Mama," Martin Scorsese's "Boxcar Bertha "and the directorial debut of John Milius, "Dillinger." Milius presents John Dillinger as an almost mythical figure, tracing the rise and fall of the Depression era's Public Enemy Number One as he takes on the banks and the G-men, led by the infamous Melvin Purvis. Starring Sam Peckinpah favorites Warren Oates and Ben Johnson as Dillinger and Purvis, and with a supporting cast including Harry Dean Stanton, Richard Dreyfuss and Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas, "Dillinger" is a top drawer gangster picture: explosive, stylish and hugely entertaining. Brand new 2K restoration of the film from original film materials. Formats: Blu-ray/DVD Combo. Extras: Audio commentary by Stephen Prince, author of "Savage Cinema" and "Screening Violence"; "Shooting Dillinger," a new interview with director of photography Jules Brenner; "Original Gangster," a new interview with producer Lawrence Gordon; "Ballads and Bullets," a new interview with composer Barry De Vorzon; stills gallery; theatrical trailer; reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sean Phillips; collector's booklet containing new writing by Kim Newman on fictional portrayals of John Dillinger, plus an on-set report containing interviews with writer-director Milius and others, illustrated with original production stills. (Arrow Video/MVD Entertainment).
The Zero Boys
(1986) From cult director Nico Mastorakis, the man behind such eclectic offerings as the controversial "Island of Death" and the Oliver Reed-starring actioner "Hired to Kill" comes "The Zero Boys," a genre-bending '80s classic with gruesome sequences that anticipate the torture porn horrors of "Hostel" and "Saw." For a group of young friends, a weekend of survival games in the wilderness turns into a genuine battle of life and death when one of their number turns up dead. Finding themselves hunted by a bloodthirsty band of maniacs intent on slaughtering them one-by-one, the self-styled "Zero Boys" must now play their war games for real. Featuring an early score from the legendary Hans Zimmer ("Inception," "The Dark Knight Trilogy"), "The Zero Boys" mixes action, survival and all-out slasher movie elements in a thrilling horror yarn that falls somewhere between "Friday the 13th" and "Deliverance." New 2K restoration of the film, approved by writer-director Nico Mastorakis. Formats: Blu-ray/DVD Combo. Extras: Audio commentary with star Kelli Maroney, moderated by Shock Till You Drop's Chris Alexander; "Nico Mastorakis On … Nico Mastorakis " new interview with Mastorakis on the making of "The Zero Boys"; new interview with star Kelli Maroney; new interview with star Nicole Rio; original theatrical trailer; stills gallery; reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys; fully-illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing by critic James Oliver. (Arrow Video/MVD Entertainment).
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April 25, 2016
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