Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Image Entertainment's Aberration Heads To DVD On Sept. 17
With the Halloween
promotional season clearly in mind, Image Entertainment has selected Sept. 17
as the DVD debut date for Douglas Elford-Argent’s ghostly horror tale, Aberration.
Pity Christy (Gwendolyn
Garver — The Brazen Bull, Meeting a Bullet, etc.), not because
she is sexy and beautiful, those are assets, especially for a high school
student, but they do her little good these days. It seems that she is literally caught
between the world of the living and the realm of the dead.
Her personal hell — dreaming
while awake; much akin to being tuned into a late night horror channel with no
off switch — is manifesting itself as visions of her friends and classmates
meeting grisly ends. A glimpse here, a
vision there … a bump in the night.
And
always present is the ghostly aberration of a young boy. She can’t make heads or tails of it, but the
body count is mounting and the terror is unrelenting!
For more details: Click Here
For more details: Click Here
Film Chest Has Six-Disc Collection Of Classic Cisco Kid Adventures Ready For DVD On Aug. 27
The Film Chest is teaming
up with Topic Entertainment on Aug. 27 to deliver 26 digitally restored
episodes of the classic television Western series, The Cisco Kid, as part of
a six-disc DVD collection.
Based loosely on the O.
Henry short story from the turn of the century, “The Caballero's Way,” the
Cisco Kid and his sidekick Pancho became part of America lore with a series of
films that stretched all the way back to the silent era. Included in the mix was the 1928 film release
of In
Old Arizona, with Warner Baxter winning Best Actor laurels for his
portrayal of the Cisco Kid.
The television series,
one of the first to take advantage of the new format with a launch in Sept. of
1950 (and filmed in color, even though TV sets at the time were black and
white), starred Duncan Renaldo as Cisco and Leo Carrillo as Pancho (the first
Hispanic television stars — beating Desi Arnaz (and Lucy) to the smallbox by a
full season.
To download this week's
complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report
Breaking Glass Pictures Says I Do On Sept. 3
Legal, illegal, married,
not-really-married and in love. That’s
the set up for director Glenn Gaylord’s I Do, due out on DVD from Breaking
Glass Pictures this coming Sept. 3.
OK, we will be the first
to admit that some of the twists and turns seem a bit contrived, but that aside
I
Do is a delightful bit of soap about a gay man named Jack (David W.
Ross — boy band member of Bad Boys, Inc.), a 30-year-old Brit who has been
living here since being a teenager, but who never got around to applying for
citizenship.
During those 16-odd years
his brother got married, had a daughter and then got killed in an auto accident,
leaving him to help out his sister-in-law and niece with the daily grind. That could have gone indefinitely, but the
INS has come calling about his green card status and now he has to make some
decisions. All of which, as things turn
out, to be bad.
He’s got a lesbian pal
named Ali (Jamie-Lynn Sigler — best known as Meadow on The Sopranos television
series), who agrees to help him out with a sham marriage, but no sooner does he
tie the knot when he meets up with Mano (Maurice Compte) and then things
quickly go downhill.
Mya (Alica Witt — Wiener
Dog Nationals and as Cheryl on Friday Night Lights), his
sister-in-law is none too happy with her dependence on Jack — why not him
instead of her husband, she reasons.
Which makes him miserable, especially since he has grown attached to
Tara (Jessica Tyler Brown), his brother’s child.
With Mano in the picture
— who has issues that he has to deal with back home in Spain — Ali suddenly
gets nervous that the INS will discover that a wicked web has been weaved and
jail time could be her fate … which, of course, makes Jack miserable.
The timing for I Do
couldn’t be better … with the same-sex marriage issue both in the courts and on
the front page, but then if Jack could just marry Mano, we wouldn’t have I Do!
To download this week's
complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report
Paramount Home Media Sets Release Date Of Sept. 10 For Star Trek Into Darkness
As we move through the
weeks of summer we can expect to see at least one blockbuster announcement each
week for the post-Labor Day release period.
$100 million-plus box office monsters on the march from their multiplex
venues to home entertainment (and beyond).
This week’s heavyweight
comes knocking courtesy of Paramount Home Media Distribution … and that would
be director J. J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness, which has
been given a Sept. 10 release date.
The ARR works out to 116
days and ticket sales this summer for this second installment in the Star Trek
reboot currently stand at an impressive $223.1 million in the domestic market.
Paramount has a three-SKU
product offering planned. There will be
a stand-alone DVD edition and two Blu-ray/DVD Combo Packs — one with a 3D
presentation of the movie and one without (both feature UltraViolet).
The gamble of reinventing
the original Star Trek series, with Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto),
by introducing an alternate timeline is now beginning to payoff. With fans knowing the “passion play” of the
original Star Trek adventures (even if they were from the 1960s) it was
all but impossible to get all that creative with a narrative that was already
pre-set. But with the alternate
timeline introduced by Nero, the time-bending Romulan from the 2009 reboot,
that problem is neatly tucked away.
Indeed, after this
installment Abrams — and those who follow — will be able to crank out three or
four sequels that can boldly go where Kirk, Spock and the rest of the Star
Trek crew have never been before.
It’s just a question of how long Pine and Quinto want to play the
roles. Fans have accepted them … just
look at the numbers!
What was also nice about Star
Trek Into Darkness is that Abrams — with a screenplay that featured
input from Roberto Orci (Mission: Impossible III, the Alias
television series) and Alex Kurtzman (Cowboys and Aliens, Transformers),
who collaborated on the Star Trek reboot, plus Damon
Lindelof (Prometheus, the Lost television series) — was able
to work the legendary superhuman Khan (aka: Khan Noonien Singh as portrayed by
Ricardo Montalbán in both the original TV series and in the 1982 feature film
release of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) into the new timeline.
Although quite different
in appearance and mannerism, the new Khan (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) was
still a nice touch for what is clearly a transition film. With the new characters firmly established,
future screenwriters will have free reign to add, subtract (crew members) and
prepare new challenges for the crew of the Enterprise.
As to bonus goodies, all
seven production featurettes are exclusive to the Blu-ray SKUs. These are: “Creating the Red Planet,” “Attack
on Starfleet,” “The Klingon Home World,” “The Enemy of My Enemy,” “Ship to
Ship,” “Brawl by the Bay” and “Continuing the Mission.”
In other release news
this week from Paramount Home Media Distribution, scheduling for TV-on-DVD
product offerings has now moved into the month of October.
Oct. 1 will see the
four-disc debut of the Ashley Rickards’ teen angst comedy series, Awkward:
Seasons 1 & 2. Also on the
same first Tuesday in October release date look for the six disc launch of the
revamped Beauty and the Beast: The First Season (all 22 episodes)
starring Jay Ryan as Vincent and Kristin Kreuk as Catherine.
The following week, Oct.
8, Paramount has the five-disc DVD release of 90210: The Complete Fifth Season
planned.
On the kidvid front, Oct.
1 marks the arrival of double-disc/12-adventure DVD release of Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles: Ultimate Showdown.
To download this week's
complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Warner Home Video To Bring The Best Years Of Our Lives To Blu-ray On Nov. 5
Warner Home Video will be
giving two films from the venerable Samuel Goldwyn library the hi-def treatment
on Nov. 5 with attractively priced Blu-ray product offerings of both director
William Wyler’s 1946 Best Picture winner, The Best Years of Our Lives and
director Henry Koster’s 1947 Best Picture nominee, The Bishop’s Wife.
The war is over and
Hollywood is back to making motion pictures in a big way. Theatres are crammed to the gills with
attendance records that will never be broken (television hadn’t kicked in just
yet) and one “classic” after another is released — all with stars, stars and
more stars.
Not only did The
Best Years of Our Lives win Best Picture, but William Wyler took home
his second Oscar for direction (he won for Mrs. Miniver in 1942 and would bag
his third Oscar in 1960 for Ben Hur — 12 nominations in all),
plus Fredric March and Harold Russell took home Best Actor and Best Supporting
Actor Oscars respectively … and three-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert E.
Sherwood added an Oscar to his collection for his screen play adaptation of
MacKinlay Kantor’s novel (he would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1956 for
his sprawling Civil War novel, “Andersonville”).
Beyond the terrific story
of war vets returning to civilian life and the heap of awards the film
received, The Best Years of Our Lives features an amazing cast — included
are: Dana Andrews, Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, Steve Cochran, Ray
Collins and Hoagy Carmichael (and more).
As to bonus nuggets,
there is an introduction by Virgina Mayo, vintage interviews with both Virginia
Mayo and Teresa Wright and the original theatrical trailer.
The Bishop’s Wife — starring Cary Grant, Loretta Young and David
Niven — was also adapted to the screen by Sherwood. As mentioned the film was nominated Best
Picture (losing out to Gentleman’s Agreement) and director
Henry Koster, known for such films as Harvey, The Robe and Flower
Drum Song, received his only Oscar nomination for his work here.
No bonus features are
planned at this time.
Ariztical Entertainment's Waterberry Tears Makes Its DVD Debut On Sept. 24
Ariztical Entertainment
will be bringing director Adrian Aldaz’s Waterberry Tears, the insightful
story of a gay high school student named Goyo (Raul Rodriguez) growing up in
the tightknit farming community of Coachella, to the home entertainment market this September.
The DVD debut date for this winner of the 2011 Silver Palm Award at the Mexico International Film Festival will be Sept. 24.
The DVD debut date for this winner of the 2011 Silver Palm Award at the Mexico International Film Festival will be Sept. 24.
Drawing upon his own
experiences growing up in the Coachella Valley, filmmaker Aldaz (with a script
from his former school mate, Jamie Soria) expertly blends the culture,
lifestyles (mores) and tough working conditions of the Mexican immigrants of
the area with the personal story Goyo’s forbidden sexual leanings — a no-no in
his father’s eyes and a source of deep family conflict.
As if the tension wasn’t ratcheted-up
high enough, it soon reaches a boiling point when a newly arrived farmhand
named Lucio (Daniel Lugo) moves into the area and manages to have relationships
with both Goyo and Goyo’s twin sister, Rosa (Mayra Gil) … love, betrayal and both
the fabric of family and of the community as a whole will be tested in this
heartfelt drama.
To download this week's
complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report