Well Go U.S.A. Announces Busy August Blu-ray And DVD Release Slate

Step right up folks!   The midway is hot with attractions!

That’s the carnival-like atmosphere that Well Go U.S.A. has planned for the month of August.  Every single street-date Tuesday during the month (all four of them) are booked with new Blu-ray and DVD releases.  

Yowser! Yowser! Yowser!  Step right up folks and let the festivities begin.

First up is the Aug. 6 DVD and Blu-ray debut of the all-action mixed martial arts thriller, The King of the Streets (in Mandarin, with English subtitles).

This is “old school” chop-socky action as newcomer Yue Song (who also co-directed and is a real-life MMA fighter) plays the roll of street punk Feng, who is an undisciplined, unschooled brawler who accidently kills an opponent as a teenager and served an eight-year prison jolt.    

He looks to make amends for his past, but quickly runs afoul of the local underworld … the only thing he knows is to fight!  And fight … and fight … and fight he does against ten of the world’s best MMA contenders!

Up next and streeting on Aug. 13 is lavish period piece (Qing Dynasty) from filmmaker Andrew Lau (aka: Andrew Lau Wai-Keung), The Guillotines (also in Mandarin with English subtitles, plus Well Go U.S.A. has included an English dubbed version as well).

Emperor Yong Zheng (Lau in a bit of cameo) created a secret “hit” squad of assassins known as the Guillotines; ruthless and effective killers.  But their days are numbered as a new emperor has ascended to the throne and is looking to the West for new ideas. 

These Guillotines are nevertheless an effect killing force — having never failed a mission — so they are “repurposed” by the new ruler to serve his needs.   Loyal to the core, the five warriors that comprise the Guillotines soon realize that they have become expendable and must not only fight those they’ve been assigned to eliminate, but take on the secret police that look to replace them.   

Shifting to Aug. 20, we find writer/director Yim Ho’s Hong Kong-based historical drama, Floating City.   In Cantonese with English subtitles.

While Aaron Kwok (Divergence, Til Death Do Us Part, After This Our Exile, etc.) shines as Bo Wah Chuen, a mixed-race descendent of Tanka fishermen (literally living on junks in the harbor of Hong Kong and neighboring Macau), who rises to the position of Taipan within the British East India Company, this fascinating drama is really about the city of Hong Kong and how it became such an economic power.  

Despite all of his power — and the trappings and privileges that go with it — Bo Wah Chuen remains conflicted throughout.   There’s that “why me” question asked time and again.

Closing out the month on the run up to the Labor Day weekend is the Aug. 27 Blu-ray and DVD release South Korean filmmaker Lim Sang-Yoon’s A Company Man.  In Korean with English subtitles.

Hyeong-do (So Ji-sub — Rough Cut) is seemingly a low-level businessman in a mega corporation.   He’s just another white collar worker filling a niche, but not is all as it seems.

He is actually a trained hitman, who does “assignments” on order and then goes back to his seemingly normal routine.   

This could go on forever — a nice career — but Hyeong-do falls in love with a woman — worse yet, she’s married — named Su-yeon (Lee Mi-yeon — Typhoon, Addicted) and decides to call it a day.   Silly boy … hitmen don’t resign from the company!

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report:  DVD & Blu-ray Release Report

Breaking Glass Pictures' Amelia's 25th Debuts On DVD Aug. 6

Breaking Glass Pictures announced this past week that Aug. 6 will be the DVD debut date for director Martín Yernazian’s romantic comedy, Amelia’s 25^th. 

You never know what the day will bring, but for Amelia (Electra Avellan — Machete, The Black Waters of Echo's Pond), a struggling actress in Los Angeles — a city full of struggling thespians — the day of her 25^th birthday proves to be one that she will never forget.

We follow her through the course of one day as her path crosses the full gamut of tinsel town denizens — sex shop entrepreneurs, casting directors, a cross-dressing neighbor, a psychic, and more — as she looks for an acting gig to pay the rent.   So of like Dorothy in Oz … what an adventure!  What a birthday!!

For a first time filmmaker, Yernazian seems well-connected as counted among his cast members are the likes of Jennifer Tilly, comedian Margaret Cho, cult filmmaker Robert Rodriquez and the great character actor, Danny Trejo.   

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report:  DVD & Blu-ray Release Report

June 4 For DVD And Blu-ray Editions Of The Doobie Brothers: Live at Wolf Trap

Heading to DVD and Blu-ray from Eagle Rock Entertainment on June 4 is The Doobie Brothers: Live at Wolf Trap.  Eagle Rock is reissuing the DVD edition and making it available for the first time on Blu-ray.

This July 2004 concert (the last for drummer Keith Knudsen) features an amazing 23 song set … included are: “China Grove,” “Long Train Runnin’” “Black Water” and “Jesus is Just Alright.”

Bonus goodies include three bonus tracks — “Dangerous,” “Takin’ it to the Streets” and “Without You” — outtakes, “Doobie-aoke” and a pair of “Back Stage Pass” featurettes — “The Dropped Pick” and “The Family.”

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report:  DVD & Blu-ray Release Report

Evil Dead Remake On Blu-ray And DVD From Sony Pictures Home Entertainment July 16

If Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell are on board with producer credits, then it must be OK for a remake of Raimi’s 1981 horror classic — starring Bruce Campbell, of course — Evil Dead.   Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has tabbed July 16 for director Fede Alvarez’s update (not half bad as remakes go).    

The ARR for DVD and Blu-ray editions is 102 days and the box office take was $54.1 million.

Bonus features include a trio of production featurettes … exclusive to the Blu-ray SKU is commentary from Alvarez, who is joined by actors Jane Levy, Lou Taylor Pucci and Jessica Lucas, plus screenwriter Rodo Sayagues.

 
To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report:  DVD & Blu-ray Release Report

Midnight Releasing's Beast: A Monster Among Men To Be Released On DVD This Coming Aug. 20

Val Lewton taught filmmakers back in the 1940s that you didn’t have to show the monster right away to make an effective horror film.  It appears that first time filmmaker Mike Lenzini has pulled a page — and a trick or two — from Lewton’s playbook with his creature feature, Beast: A Monster Among Men.

Midnight Releasing has tabbed Aug. 20 as the DVD debut date for this chiller about five friends who ignore warnings about campers going missing in the Six Rivers National Forest (filmed in around Duck Creek, Utah) and head off into the wilderness for a weekend of relaxation.   

During the course of the night one by one they go missing until only two remain — can they trust each other, or is there something else lurking in the woods?

Bonus features include a film commentary option.

 
To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report:  DVD & Blu-ray Release Report

Bullet To The Head From Warner Home Video On July 16 As Blu-ray /DVD Combo Pack

Warner Home Video will bring the Dark Castle Entertainment film production of Bullet to the Head — teaming legendary action director Walter Hill with screen icon Sylvester Stallone — to the home entertainment market place on July 16 as a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack (complete Ultraviolet).

This pulp fiction adaptation of Alexis Nolent's graphic novel follows the unlikely alliance of mob hitman James Bonomo (Stallone) and D.C. detective Taylor Kwon (Sung Kang — best known to domestic audiences as Han in the Fast and Furious film series) as they join forces in New Orleans to take down those who have betrayed them.  All action … non stop!

Bonus features include the featurette titled “Bullet to the Head: Mayhem Inc.”

Also added to the Blu-ray release calendar this week from Warner Home Video on Sept. 9 are the two Jim Carrey detective comedies, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.

 
To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report:  DVD & Blu-ray Release Report

Green Apple Entertainment's God Don't Make The Laws To Make Its Debut On DVD July 16

For 34 years nothing has changed in the seemingly peaceful hamlet of Rockville, Ohio.  No one has aged a day.  No one has died.   No one has gotten sick.  It is a perfect picture of a picture perfect town.

That’s the premise of Green Apple Entertainment’s July 16 DVD release of writer/director David Sabbath’s God Don’t Make the Laws.   But like any stopped clock, with the inner mechanisms wound way too tight, what may seem peaceful on the surface could come apart at any moment.   A Twilight Zone episode on steroids!

The catalyst for change occurs when a mysterious teen named Hawk Kodiak (Lucas Salvagno) arrives in town.   Everyone connected to the past (including the likes of screen veterans Paul Sorvino and Bruce Davison) — an event that happened in 1977 — begin to talk about what his arrival might foretell — an enigma; a mystery to solved for the better … for the worse.

 
To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report:  DVD & Blu-ray Release Report
  

Virgil Films Has Tabbed Aug. 13 As The DVD Debut Date For The Deep

It is not often that Iceland has an official entry for Oscar consideration, but this past year writer/director Baltasar Kormákur’s The Deep was such a film.   

This tightly wound drama tells the true story of Gulli (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson — 101 Reykjavík, Beowulf & Grendel, etc.), a hulking fisherman who miraculously survived the sinking of the fishing boat he was a crewmember of while trolling off the coast of Iceland.

Virgil Films & Entertainment has tabbed Aug. 13 as the domestic DVD release date for this award-winning film.

It’s 1984, the nets of their fishing boat snag and quickly sink the small vessel.   The Westman Islands off the southern coast of Iceland were visible in the distance, but the waters of the North Atlantic were frigid and his boatmates quickly perished, but somehow Gulli was able to find the strength to eventually reach shore.   

To keep the action moving, Kormákur cuts between Gulli bobbing up and down in the cold blue water and the dreams/visions he has of his life, family, friends as he drifts in and out of consciousness.   It is quite effective.

The aftermath of his survival brings both celebration and questions … a bittersweet tale seems to divide the tightly knit fishing community.   Some look for miracles.   Some question, “why you?”

The Deep is presented in Icelandic with English subtitles.

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report:  DVD & Blu-ray Release Report
 

Elementary: The First Season On DVD From Paramount Home Media On Aug. 27

Paramount Home Media Distribution has 24 Sherlock Holmes mysteries planned for a DVD rollout (a six-disc affair) on Aug. 27.   What?  How can this be?  New cases featuring the master detective and, of course, his sidekick Dr. Watson??

That’s exactly correct.  Producer Robert Doherty has taken Sir Arthur Donan Doyle’s famous creation and updated it to contemporary times … and it works marvelously well.

Elementary: The First Season, featuring Jonny Lee Miller (Melinda and Melinda, Æon Flux … and as Jordan Chase in the Dexter cable series) as Sherlock Holmes, a former consultant to Scotland Yard, now transplanted to New York City (in rehab).   It is here that he meets Dr. Joan Watson (Lucy Liu), his “sober” living companion ... a perfect match.   

The game is afoot with bonus features that include newly-minted cast and crew interviews, a gag reel and deleted scenes.

Also on the TV-on-DVD release front in August from Paramount are three new editions of popular, well-tested series — all six-disc sets and all streeting on Aug. 20.   These are: The Good Wife: The Fourth Season, NCIS Los Angeles: The Fourth Season and NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigation Service - Season Ten.

Lastly, Aug. 20 also marks the arrival of a six-disc Blu-ray collection of Star Trek: Enterprise - Season Two.

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report:  DVD & Blu-ray Release Report