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OnVideo's Weekly Guide to Home Video Releases
Cowboys: A Documentary Portrait: This authentic, intimate depiction of the contemporary cowboy straps audiences in the saddle alongside working men and women on some of today’s largest and most remote cattle ranches in the American West. Told through first-hand accounts from cowboys, the documentary illustrates not only the rewards of a cowboy’s lifestyle but also the unvarnished hardships of a celebrated but misunderstood way of life. (Digital, VOD)
The Girls Next Door: The Complete Series: Welcome to the world's most famous and exotic personal palace, the Playboy Mansion. "The Girls Next Door" takes you behind closed doors where you'll meet Holly, Kendra, and Bridget, three gorgeous women with glamorous and hilarious daily lives. Join these lovely ladies as they laugh, love, play, and party, and see why being Hugh Hefner's girlfriends has its advantages. (Digital, VOD)
The New Mutants: Five young people who demonstrate special powers are forced to undergo treatment at a secret institution — allegedly to cure them of the dangers of their powers. But it’s soon clear that their containment is part of a much bigger battle between the forces of good and evil. (DVD, Blu-ray release: Day & date)
1 Night in San Diego: Jenna Ushkowitz ("Glee") and Laura Ashley Samuels ("Modern Family") star as BFFs Hannah and Brooklyn in this raunchy comedy. Hannah, a former reality TV starlet, and Brooklyn, her conscious cuddling best friend, hit the road to San Diego to reconnect with an old high school crush, Christian. When he turns out to be super lame, the pair take back the night and go HAM in San Diego. (VOD: November 24)
Playhouse: The film centers around a notorious horror writer who moves into an ancient castle with his teenage daughter to work on his next play; only to face terrifying consequences when his daughter falls prey to a supernatural evil lurking within the castle walls. (VOD only)
Summerland: Alice is a reclusive writer, resigned to a solitary life on the seaside cliffs of Southern England while World War II rages across the channel. When she opens her front door one day to find she's to adopt a young London evacuee named Frank, she's resistant. It's not long, however, before the two realize they have more in common in their pasts than Alice had assumed. (DVD, Blu-ray release: Day & date)
Unhinged: Russell Crowe stars in this psychological thriller that explores something we've all experienced — road rage — to an unpredictable and terrifying conclusion. Rachel (Caren Pistorius) is running late to work when she has an altercation at a traffic light with a stranger (Crowe) whose life has left him feeling powerless and who now decides to make one last mark upon the world by teaching her a series of deadly lessons. (DVD, Blu-ray release: Day & date)
Blindfire: A white cop responds to a violent hostage call and unjustifiably kills a Black man in his own home. After he learns of the victim’s innocence and suddenly faces repercussions for his actions, he is forced to confront extremely difficult conversations with his partner, as well as the family of the victim, and must examine his own accountability while attempting to find the person who he feels is actually responsible for the tragic chain of events. (Digital, VOD only)
Iron Mask: For the first time ever, screen legends Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan face off against each other in this fantasy-adventure. In order to save his homeland from certain doom, a kung fu master (Chan) must escape from the maniacal James Hook (Schwarzenegger) in order to send his daughter a secret talisman that will allow her to control a massive and mythical dragon. (DVD, Blu-ray release: November 24)
Team Marco: Family film. Young Marco is obsessed with playing video games and hardly leaves the house. But when his grandfather moves in, Marco’s life is turned upside-down and he’s forced ...to go play outside and is introduced to bocce — the world’s oldest game — and to the neighborhood crew of old-school seniors who play daily at the local court. Now Marco finds connection to other people “in real life” and rounds up a team of neighborhood kids to take on his grandfather and his pals. (Digital, VOD only)
Bang! Bang!
(2020) Jordan Knapp, Nicole Fahel, Lucas Mogerley, Antonia Morais, Marlon Samuda, Marcelo Serrado. An extreme interpretation of the phrase “actions have consequences” that follows five lawless teenagers as they execute an armed robbery. Outfitted with guns and masked by hoodies and full-face hockey masks, the group sets in motion a life or death struggle. The film is a story of conflict fueled by alcohol and adolescent naivety that ultimately crumbles friendships, destroys trust and leads to irrevocable mayhem. When one victim survives what should have been a fatal gunshot, the group is divided by one question: whose humanity remains? Formats: DVD, Digital. (Indican Pictures).
Blindspot: The Fifth And Final Season
(2020) Three-disc set with all 11 episodes. In the emotional, action-packed fifth and final season, Kurt Weller (Sullivan Stapleton), Jane Doe (Jaimie Alexander), Edgar Reade (Rob Brown), Tasha Zapata (Audrey Esparza), Patterson (Ashley Johnson ) and Rich DotCom (Ennis Esmer) attempt to carry out a mission with the highest stakes yet. The season begins in the aftermath of the explosion that left Jane watching as a drone targeted the team’s safe house. Now on the run and without the extensive resources of the FBI, Jane and the survivors race against the clock to clear their names in the wake of Madeline Burke’s (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) rise to power. Formats: DVD. (Warner Archive).
The Broken Hearts Gallery
(2020) Geraldine Viswanathan,, Dacre Montgomery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Molly Gordon, Phillipa Soo, Bernadette Peters. What if you saved a souvenir from every relationship you’ve ever been in? Lucy (Viswanathan), a 20-something art gallery assistant living in New York City, also happens to be an emotional hoarder. After she gets dumped by her latest boyfriend, Lucy is inspired to create The Broken Heart Gallery, a pop-up space for the items love has left behind. Word of the gallery spreads, encouraging a movement and a fresh start for all the romantics out there, including Lucy herself.
Formats: DVD, Blu-ray, VOD, Digital. Blu-ray extras: Gag reel, behind-the-scenes vignettes. (Sony).
Death of Me
(2020) Maggie Q, Alex Essoe, Luke Hemsworth. Vacationing on an island off the coast of Thailand, Christine (Maggie Q) and Neil Oliver (Hemsworth) awake hungover and with no memory of the previous night. They find footage on Neil’s camera, and watch, horrified, as Neil appears to murder Christine. With 24 hours until the next ferry and a typhoon threatening the island, Christine and Neil attempt to reconstruct the night’s events -- and are snared in a web of mystery, black magic, and murder. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray, VOD, Digital. Extras: "Island Magic: Conjuring Death of Me." (Lionsgate).
Monstrum
(2018 -- South Korea) Myung-Min Kim, In-kwon Kim, Hyeri Lee. It’s the 22nd year of Jung Jong. A plague has taken over Joseon, and fear runs rampant in the streets. When rumors of a vicious beast roaming Mount Inwangsan – called “Monstrum” by the terrified masses – begin to spread, fear turns into panic. In order to quell the rising panic, Jung Jong brings back his most trusted general Yoon Gyum from retirement. Joined by his daughter Myung, his right-hand man Sung Han, and royal court officer Heo Yoon, Gyum sets out to find the mysterious creature. Is the creature, Monstrum real? Or a figment of the fearful mass’ imagination? Will the people of Joseon ever live in peace again?
Formats: DVD, Blu-ray, VOD, Digital. (RLJE Films).
The New Mutants
(2020) Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, Alice Braga, Charlie Heaton, Blu Hunt, Henry Zaga, Happy Anderson, Mickey Gilmore, Thomas Kee. Another action film based on the Marvel comic series: Five young people who demonstrate special powers are brought to a secret institution to undergo treatments they are told will cure them of the dangers of their powers. Included are Danielle Moonstar aka Mirage, who creates illusions from other people's fears; Rahne Sinclair, who transforms into the werewolf Wolfsbane; Sam Guthrie, who, as Cannonball, can fly at jet speeds protected by a force field; Roberto da Costa aka Sunspot, who absorbs and channels solar power; and Illyana Rasputin aka Magik. The younger sister of Colossus, Magik becomes encased in armor at will and wields a soulsword that amplifies her multiple superhuman and psychic abilities. Invited by Dr. Cecilia Reyes to share their stories about when their powers first manifested, the five "patients" come to understand that they are in a class of people called mutants, who have historically been marginalized and feared. As they relive their origin stories, their memories seem to turn into terrifying realities.Formats: DVD, Blu-ray, 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo, VOD, Digital. Extras: "Origins & Influences," "Meet the New Mutants," deleted scenes, director Josh Boone chats with Marvel Comics artist Bill Sienkiewicz. (Fox).
The New Pope: The Complete Series
(2019) Three-disc set. The follow-up to 2017’s “The Young Pope,” this series dives into the inner workings of the Vatican, while exploring the very human desires, vices and fragilities of those in power and the complexities inherent in faith today. The series picks up where “The Young Pope” left off, with Lenny Belardo (Jude Law), known as Pope Pius XIII, in a coma. Following an unpredictable and mysterious turn of events, Secretary of State Voiello (Silvio Orlando) succeeds in having Sir John Brannox (John Malkovich), a charming and sophisticated moderate English aristocrat, placed on the papal throne, adopting the name John Paul III. The new pope seems ideal, but he conceals secrets and has a certain fragility, and Voiello immediately understands that it will not be easy to replace the charismatic Pius XIII. Hanging between life and death, Lenny Belardo has become a Saint, with thousands now idolizing him, fueling the contrast between fundamentalisms. Meanwhile, the Church is under attack from external threats and scandals striking the symbols of Christianity and risking irreversibly devastating the hierarchies.
Formats: DVD. (Warner Archive).
Relic
(2020) Emily Mortimer, Robyn Nevin, Bella Heathcote. When elderly mother Edna inexplicably vanishes, her daughter Kay and granddaughter Sam rush to the family’s decaying country home, finding clues of her increasing dementia scattered around the house in her absence. After Edna returns just as mysteriously as she disappeared, Kay’s concern that her mother seems unwilling or unable to say where she’s been clashes with Sam’s unabashed enthusiasm to have her grandma back. As Edna’s behavior turns increasingly volatile, both begin to sense that an insidious presence in the house might be taking control of her. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray, VOD, Digital. (IFC Midnight/Scream Factory).
Then Came You
(2020) Craig Ferguson, Kathie Lee Gifford, Ford Kiernan, Phyllida Law, Elizabeth Hurley. Suddenly widowed, Annabelle Wilson (Gifford) makes a sudden decision to sell her home and travel the world. On her first stop, she meets Lord Howard Awd (Ferguson), the weathered inn-owner of the castle she's residing in for the week. As time progresses, Annabelle and Howard find themselves drawn to one another, becoming closer as they share secrets they've never told anyone else. There's only one issue in what seems to be a match made in heaven: Howard is getting married at the end of the week. Formats: DVD. (Lionsgate).
2067
(2020) Kodi Smit-McPhee, Ryan Kwanten. By the year 2067, Earth has been ravaged by climate change and humanity is forced to live on artificial oxygen. An illness caused by the synthetic O2 is killing the worlds’ population and the only hope for a cure comes in the form of a message from the future: “Send Ethan Whyte.” Ethan, an underground tunnel worker, is suddenly thrust into a terrifying new world full of unknown danger as he must fight to save the human race.
Formats: DVD, Blu-ray. Extras: Director's commentary, "Behind-the-Scenes of 2067." (RLJE Films).
Unhinged
(2020) Russell Crowe, Caren Pistorius, Jimmi Simpson, Gabriel Bateman. Psychological thriller that explores something we've all experienced — road rage — to an unpredictable and terrifying conclusion. Rachel (Pistorius) is running late to work when she has an altercation at a traffic light with a stranger (Crowe) whose life has left him feeling powerless and invisible. Soon, Rachel finds herself, and everyone she loves, the target of a man who decides to make one last mark upon the world by teaching her a series of deadly lessons. What follows is a dangerous game of cat and mouse that proves you never know just how close you are to someone who is about to become unhinged. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray/DVD Combo, VOD, Digital. Extras: Audio commentary with director Derrick Borte, cinematographer Brendan Galvin, production designer Fredrick Waff, and costume designer Denise Wingate; “This Side of Rage” featurette. (Lionsgate).
Westworld Season Three: The New World
(2020) Three-disc set with all eight episodes. Following the aftermath of last season’s Westworld massacre, “hosts” Dolores, Maeve, Bernard and Charlotte Hale begin a new chapter – outside of the park – exploring the “real world” and who they will become in the wake of their liberation. Over the course of eight hour-long episodes, Season Three finds Dolores prepared to wage war on humanity and Bernard trying desperately to stop her, while Maeve reunites with familiar faces in a new realm – and all discover that the world outside is as full of deception and predetermination as the one they’ve always known. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray, 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo, Digital. Extras: "We Live in a Technocracy," "Rico," "Westworld on Location," "Escape from Westworld," "Exploring War World," "Creating Westworld's Reality: Parce Domine," "Creating Westworld's Reality: The Absence of Field," "Creating Westworld's Reality: The Mother of Exiles," "Creating Westworld's Reality: Genre," "Creating Westworld's Reality: Decoherence," "Creating Westworld's Reality: Passed Pawn," "Creating Westworld's Reality: Crisis Theory," "Welcome to Westworld: Evan Rachel Wood & Aaron Paul – Analysis," "Welcome to Westworld: Evan Rachel Wood & Aaron Paul - Who Said It?," "Welcome to Westworld: Thandie Newton & Tessa Thompson – Analysis," "Welcome to Westworld: Thandie Newton & Tessa Thompson - Who Said It?" (HBO/Warner).
© 1996 -- 2020 OnVideo. All rights reserved November 15, 2020 (ISSN 1094-3676). |
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Another action film based on the Marvel comic series: Five young people who demonstrate special powers are brought to a secret institution to undergo treatments they are told will cure them of the dangers of their powers. Included are Danielle Moonstar aka Mirage, who creates illusions from other people's fears; Rahne Sinclair, who transforms into the werewolf Wolfsbane; Sam Guthrie, who, as Cannonball, can fly at jet speeds protected by a force field; Roberto da Costa aka Sunspot, who absorbs and channels solar power; and Illyana Rasputin aka Magik. The younger sister of Colossus, Magik becomes encased in armor at will and wields a soulsword that amplifies her multiple superhuman and psychic abilities. Invited by Dr. Cecilia Reyes to share their stories about when their powers first manifested, the five "patients" come to understand that they are in a class of people called mutants, who have historically been marginalized and feared. As they relive their origin stories, their memories seem to turn into terrifying realities.
Vitals: Director: Josh Boone. Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, Alice Braga, Charlie Heaton, Blu Hunt, Henry Zaga, Happy Anderson, Mickey Gilmore, Thomas Kee..
2019, CC, MPAA rating: PG-13, 94 min.,Action, Box office gross: $23.736 million, Fox.
Extras: "Origins & Influences," "Meet the New Mutants," deleted scenes, director Josh Boone chats with Marvel Comics artist Bill Sienkiewicz.
Psychological thriller that explores something we've all experienced — road rage — to an unpredictable and terrifying conclusion. Rachel (Pistorius) is running late to work when she has an altercation at a traffic light with a stranger (Crowe) whose life has left him feeling powerless and invisible. Soon, Rachel finds herself, and everyone she loves, the target of a man who decides to make one last mark upon the world by teaching her a series of deadly lessons. What follows is a dangerous game of cat and mouse that proves you never know just how close you are to someone who is about to become unhinged.
Vitals: Director: Derrick Borte. Stars: Russell Crowe, Caren Pistorius, Jimmi Simpson, Gabriel Bateman.
2020, CC, MPAA rating: R, 90 min., Thriller, Box office gross: $20.794 million, Lionsgate.
Formats: DVD, Blu-ray/DVD Combo, VOD, Digital.
Extras: Audio commentary with director Derrick Borte, cinematographer Brendan Galvin, production designer Fredrick Waff, and costume designer Denise Wingate; “This Side of Rage” featurette.
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
(1999) Jim Jarmusch combines his love for the ice-cool crime dramas of Jean-Pierre Melville and Seijun Suzuki with the philosophical dimensions of samurai mythology for an eccentrically postmodern take on the hit-man thriller. In one of his defining roles, Forest Whitaker brings a commanding serenity to his portrayal of a Zen contract killer working for a bumbling mob outfit, a modern man who adheres steadfastly to the ideals of the Japanese warrior code even as chaos and violence spiral around him. Featuring moody cinematography by the great Robby Müller, a mesmerizing score by the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, and a host of colorful character actors (including a memorably stone-faced Henry Silva), "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai" plays like a pop-culture-sampling cinematic mixtape built around a one-of-a-kind tragic hero.
Formats: DVD, Blu-ray, with new, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Jim Jarmusch, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray. Extras: Alternate isolated stereo music track; new Q&A with Jarmusch, in which he responds to questions sent in by fans; new conversation between actors Forest Whitaker and Isaach De Bankolé, moderated by film scholar Michael B. Gillespie; new interview with casting director Ellen Lewis; new interview with Shifu Shi Yan Ming, founder of the USA Shaolin Temple; new video essay on RZA’s original score for the film; "The Odyssey: A Journey into the Life of a Samurai," a 2000 program on the making of the film; deleted scenes and outtakes; archival interviews; trailer; an essay by critic Greg Tate and quotations from Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai, by the early-eighteenth-century monk Yamamoto Tsunetomo. (The Criterion Collection).
Moonstruck
(1987) A full moon, a New York City night, and love and music in the air ... One of the most enchanting romantic comedies of all time assembles a flawless ensemble cast for a tender and boisterously funny look at a multigenerational Italian American family in Brooklyn, wrestling with the complexities of love and marriage at every stage of life. At the center of it all is a radiant Cher as Loretta, an unlucky-in-love bookkeeper whose feelings about her engagement to the staid Johnny (Danny Aiello) are thrown into question after she meets his hot-blooded brother, Ronny (Nicolas Cage), and one night at the opera changes everything. Winner of the Academy Awards for best actress (Cher), supporting actress (Olympia Dukakis), and original screenplay (by playwright John Patrick Shanley), this modern-day fairy tale is swept along on passionate Puccini melodies, and directed by master storyteller Norman Jewison with the heightened emotion to match.
Formats: DVD, Blu-ray, with new 4K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray. Extras: New interview with screenwriter John Patrick Shanley; new interview with scholar Stefano Albertini about the use of opera in the film; introduction from 2013 featuring Cher; interviews from 1987 with director Norman Jewison and actors Cher, Nicolas Cage, Vincent Gardenia, and Olympia Dukakis; interview from 2002 with actor Danny Aiello; audio interview from 1989 with Shanley about screenwriting and the development of "Moonstruck"; "At the Heart of an Italian Family," a 2006 program about the making of the film; "The Music of Moonstruck,” a 2006 program featuring interviews with Jewison and composer Dick Hyman; audio commentary from 1998 with Cher, Jewison, and Shanley; trailer; an essay by critic Emily VanDerWerff. (The Criterion Collection).
The Nest
(2020) Two-disc set with five episodes. Martin Compston and Sophie Rundle star in this suspenseful five-episode Acorn TV Original Scottish miniseries as a wealthy couple who would do anything to have a baby. When Emily (Rundle) accidentally hits Kaya (Mirren Mack), a down-on-her-luck 18-year-old, with her car, the two make an instant connection. After learning about her desperate situation, Kaya offers to carry Emily’s last embryo as a surrogate. Although Emily’s husband, successful businessman Dan (Compston), warns about the legal and moral implications of such an agreement, the women are adamant. But as buried secrets emerge about Kaya’s past, Dan and Emily start to wonder if they’re the ones being used. Formats: DVD. Extras: Behind-the-scenes featurette. (Acorn Media).
Silent Running
(1972) In 1968, visual effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull ("The Andromeda Strain," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind") contributed to the ground-breaking special photographic effects of Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey." Four years later, he stamped his own indelible mark on the science fiction genre with his mesmerising directorial debut - "Silent Running." In the not-so-distant future, Earth is barren of all flora and fauna, with what remains of the planet's former ecosystems preserved aboard a fleet of greenhouses orbiting in space. When the crews are ordered to destroy the remaining specimens, one botanist, Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern), rebels and flees towards Saturn in a desperate bid to preserve his own little piece of Earth that was, accompanied only by the ship's three service robots. Featuring a captivating central performance by Dern, visual effects that rival anything in 2001 and a powerful ecological message, "Silent Running" is a haunting and prescient sci-fi classic that resonates even more strongly today than it did at the time of its original release. Brand new 2K restoration from the original camera negative, approved by director Douglas Trumbull and produced by Arrow Video exclusively for this release. Formats: Blu-ray. Extras: Brand new audio commentary by critics Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw; original audio commentary by Douglas Trumbull and actor Bruce Dern; isolated music and effects track; "No Turning Back," a new interview with film music historian Jeff Bond on the film’s score; "First Run," a new visual essay by writer and filmmaker Jon Spira exploring the evolution of "Silent Running’s" screenplay; "The Making of Silent Running," an archival 1972 on-set documentary; "Silent Running by Douglas Trumbull" and "Douglas Trumbull: Then and Now," two archival interviews with the film’s director; "A Conversation with Bruce Dern," an archival interview with the film’s lead actor; theatrical trailer; extensive behind-the-scenes gallery; reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Arik Roper; FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Barry Forshaw and Peter Tonguette. (Arrow Video/MVD Entertainment).
We Are Little Zombies
(2019 -- Japan) Keita Ninomiya, Mondo Okumura, Satoshi Mizuno. There is a bond formed when four orphans meet at a crematorium where their parents are being turned to ash and the respective funerals are being held. They are like zombies; devoid of all emotion. With no family, no future, no dreams, and no way to move forward, the young teens decide that the first level of this new existence involves salvaging a gaming console, an old electric bass, and a charred wok from their former homes — just enough to start a band -- and then conquer the world. Tragedy, comedy, music, social criticism, and teenage angst are all subsumed in this eccentric cinematic tsunami. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray. (Oscilloscope Laboratories).
