Filmmakers Shauna MacDonald And Kate Johnston’s Award-Winning Tru Love Heads To DVD On Nov. 4 Courtesy Of Wolfe

An unlikely May/September romance blooms in Wolfe’s Nov. 4 DVD debut of filmmakers Shauna MacDonald (who also stars) and Kate Johnston’s award-winning romantic drama, Tru Love.

Tru, short for Gertrude (Shauna MacDonald — Hemlock Grove, Paradise Falls, etc.), disdains relationships, and, for that matter long-term commitments to anything, including anything that might resemble a career.   Filmmakers MacDonald and Johnston are blunt about Tru’s nature … “She’s a bed-hopping lesbian.”   There’s no sugar-coating it.  She’s a user; user of people.

Beautiful; outwardly beautiful that is, Tru is damaged goods on the inside … alone, needy.   When she meets Alice (Kate Trotter — Beyond Borders, Upside Down) it is literally love at first sight.   Her world-outlook will change as a result of this epiphany, right?   Well … there are just a couple of little issues that might be tough to overcome.

First, Alice is old enough to be her mother.   Second, Tru’s friend, Suzanne (Christine Horne) is Alice’s daughter (sure enough, she is old enough to be Tru’s mother) … and Suzanne knows full-well what a trophy-collecting “harlot” Tru is.   So seeing her widowed mother being “seduced” by her does not sit well at all.

On the surface it would seem that Tru is bored, Alice is vulnerable and so why not have just a little bit of fun.  It is, after all, her nature.

The surface glimmer can be deceiving as this bittersweet May/September relationship develops in both sweet and unexpected ways.   For Tru it is a life-shaping experience and for Alice it is so much more!

Bonus features include deleted scenes and the short film titled Stormcloud (written and directed by Kate Johnston).

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

Well Go U.S.A.'s Tabs Oct. 21 For DVD And Blu-ray Editions Of Korean Filmmaker Yoon Jong-bin’s Kundo: Age Of The Rampant

Well Go U.S.A. has selected Oct. 21 for the release of DVD and Blu-ray editions of Korean filmmaker Yoon Jong-bin’s lavish mixed-genre period piece, Kundo: Age of the Rampant.

While the Civil War raged between the Union and the Confederacy, half a world away the Joseon Dynasty was in its death throes in Korea … corruption and political intrigues marked the period.   Among the most ruthless of them all is Jo-Yoon (Dong-won Kang), a noble, but without a birthright, who decides to take matters into his own hands to secure the power that he craves.   He’s basically a homicidal maniac who thinks nothing of murdering in cold blood if it either advances his cause … or gives him pleasure.

Against this tyrant stands a sort of “Magnificent Seven” group of outlaws (think: Spaghetti Western) called Kundo, who’s latest recruit, Dol Moo Chi (Ha Jung-woo), was one of  Jo-Yoon’s hired assassins who could not carry out the deed.   He’s joined the “good guys,” but violence also marks their calling.   Basically, it’s all-out war and there will be only one winner!

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

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Selects Nov. 11 For DVD And Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Editions Of Tammy

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will be delivering laughs aplenty on Nov. 11 with the DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack launch of actor-turned-director Ben Falcone’s Tammy, which just so happens to star his wife, Melissa McCarthy (they teamed for the writing as well).

The ARR comes in at 130 days and box office receipts were a solid $83.8 million.

When you go from being a supporting/sidekick to an Oscar-nominee (for her performance in Bridesmaids) things change big-time, especially if one has both the smarts and talent to take advantage of it.   Melissa McCarthy has both.   

Tammy is her first outing as not only the star, but as writer and co-producer (along with her husband) … she’s arrived and one look at the supporting cast that has been assembled and you get the feeling that all of those years of doing comedy (films, TV and stand-up) has paid off in spades.   Dan Aykroyd, Allison Janney, Kathy Bates, Toni Collette, Sandra Oh, Ben Falcone (that was an easy one) and Susan Sarandon, now that’s a film cast to die for.

It’s a road trip from hell as events conspire against Tammy (Melissa McCarthy) when she takes to the road with her boozing grandmother, Pearl (played by Sarandon), after she catches her husband playing paddy-cake with her next door neighbor.   

Basically, McCarthy and Falcone string together a series of stand-alone comedy skits that are hung on the story arc of her and her grandmother trying to get to Niagara Falls.   It’s not pretty (the things that happen), but it is funny … and that’s what it is all about.

Bonus features for both the DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack SKUs include a gag reel.   Exclusive to the Blu-ray are an extended cut of the film (it was rated R, so that should be interesting), the featurette titled “Tammy’s Road Trip Checklist” and deleted scenes.

In other release news this week from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has added director Roy Rowland’s 1964 Western, Gunfighters of Casa Grande (script and story by Oscar-nominee Borden Chase … Red River, 1948), starring Alex Nicol, Dick Bentley, Phil Posner, Steve Rowland and Jorge Mistral, to its Sept. 16 release calendar.

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

The Film Detective's Next Wave Of Newly Restored DVD Releases Arrives On Sept. 30

The Film Detective has picked Sept. 30 as the release date for its next wave of newly-restored film vault treasures.   

Included in the 11-strong slate of films of restored and remastered classics is iconic filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola’s 1963 horror gem, Dementia 13 (produced by Roger Corman), starring William Campbell, Luana Anders and Patrick Magee, plus writer/director George A. Romero’s 1968 horror masterpiece, Night of the Living Dead (with Duane Jones and Judith O’Dea).

The definitive Sherlock Holmes, Basil Rathbone, and his sidekick Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) are on hand for a trio of cases in Dressed to Kill (1946, with Patricia Morrison) Terror by Night (also 1946, featuring Alan Mowbray) and Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942, co-starring Lionel Atwill as the infamous Professor James Moriarty).

Another famous sleuth is Ralph Byrd as Dick Tracy in the 1947 film release of Dick Tracy's Dilemma, with Jack Lambert as “The Claw” and Kay Christopher as Tess Trueheart.

Rounding out the Sept. 30 package are The Inspector General (1949, Danny Kaye), Kansas City Confidential (1952, John Payne and Coleen Gray), The Terror (1963, Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson) and two featuring Edward G. Robinson — The Stranger (1946, directed by and co-starring Orson Welles) and The Red House (1947).

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

The Film Chest Announces An Oct. 21 DVD Release For The Newly-Completed Restoration Of Writer/Director Robert van Ackeren’s Woman In Flames

The Film Chest’s latest restoration projection, writer/director Robert van Ackeren’s controversial 1983 film, Woman in Flames, will be making its way to the DVD market place on Oct. 21.

Eva (Gudrun Landgrebe — The Berlin Affair, The Cat, etc.) is a student trapped in a miserable relationship.  The university isn’t much better than the loser she’s seeing, so she kicks them both to the curb and embarks upon the unlikely career of being a hooker.   For the money at first, but it turns out that she has a real “feel” for the profession.

She is soon an in-demand dominatrix (kinky up-scale clientele), complete with the appropriate attire and a lust of power (of a sexual nature).

The erotic nature of her career — which she takes great enjoyment in — is soon complicated when she meets and falls in love with a professional like herself.    His name is Chris (Mathieu Carrière — Luther, Young Torless, etc.) and he bills himself as a professional “gigolo.”   

Can this be a relationship that can be maintained — juggled — or will the clients that they attract be the serpent of jealousy that will be their undoing?

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

Universal Studios Home Entertainment Readies The Purge: Anarchy for DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Action on Oct. 21

Universal Studios Home Entertainment will be serving up treats for the Halloween promotional season on Oct. 21 in the form of DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack (with UltraViolet) editions of writer/director James DeMonaco’s The Purge: Anarchy.

The ARR is a swift-to-market 95 days and summer ticket sales came in at $71.1 million.  The sequel out-gunned its predecessor, which finished with $64.4 million … a possible franchise for the studio could be in the making, but the concept is such a downer that even fellow nihilists may grow weary of it.   Certainly worth a triology!

The only bonus nugget is a featurette titled “Behind the Anarchy.” 

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

Virgil Films And Entertainment Selects Oct. 28 For The DVD Debut Of Documentary Filmmaker Barbara Kopple's Running From Crazy

Virgil Films & Entertainment announced this past week that documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple’s Emmy-nominated Running from Crazy, the very intimate look at the life and times of Mariel Hemingway, will be making its DVD debut on Oct. 28.

After working the festival circuit throughout 2013, the film had a brief theatrical arthouse run and now makes the move to the more accessible home entertainment market place … the ARR is a leisurely 361 days and ticket sales from the film’s limited run were $31,761.

Talent and beauty and the genes of a literary giant, Mariel Hemingway would seem to have had it made.   Certainly she has had her fair share of success with a solid film career (among other endeavors) that includes a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her work with Woody Allen in Manhattan.

But for all of this it has not always been the best of times for the Hemingway clan.  History notes that Ernest Hemingway, her grandfather, committed suicide by blowing his brains out in July of 1961 (just months before his granddaughter was born) and her sister, Margaux, ended her life just one day shy of the 35^th anniversary of her grandfather’s death by overdosing on drugs.   Talent, beauty, fame and fortune are sometimes not enough (witness Robin Williams).

Filmmaker Barbara Kopple (two-time Oscar-winner for her documentaries — American Dream (1990) and Harlan County U.S.A. (1976)) deftly blends new footage that includes extensive interview sessions with Mariel and “time-capsule” footage from Margaux’s 1983 planned documentary, which she never finished.

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

22 Jump Street From Sony Pictures Home Entertainment On Nov. 18

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will bring the summer smash comedy, 22 Jump Street, to market on Nov. 18 as DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack editions.

This Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum comedy generated a hot $190.7 million in domestic box office receipts and arrives just prior to Thanksgiving with a slow-to-market (by Sony standards) ARR of 158 days.

Crammed with bonus goodies, there’s commentary from director Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who are joined by Hill and Tatum, deleted scenes and the featurette titled, “The Perfect Couple of Directors.”  Exclusive to the Blu-ray SKU are six additional featurettes and more deleted scenes.

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

Eagle Rock Entertainment Will Release Vikings: Raiders from the North To The DVD Market Place On Oct. 14

Eagle Rock Entertainment has tabbed Oct. 14 for the DVD release of Vikings: Raiders from the North.  

This two-part presentation explores the history of the Vikings from the late 8^th Century to roughly the middle of the 11^th Century with a special focus on their warfare and raiding culture, the trade routes they established, their domestic lives (including their literature) and the daring exploration voyages that have grown to legendary status. 

The two parts are titled “Vikings: The Norse Terror” and “Vikings: The Norse Raiders.”

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