Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Selects Dec. 9 For DVD And Blu-ray Combo Pack Editions Of Filmmaker Charles Martin Smith's Dolphin Tale 2

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment announced this past week that actor-turned-filmmaker Charles Martin Smith’s Dolphin Tale 2, the successful follow-up to his feel-good 2011 hit, Dolphin Tale, will be available as DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack (with UltraViolet) selections on Dec. 9.

The ARR is a zippy 88 days and the box office take was a very nice $40.8 million.

This particular street date came as a something of a surprise as Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment had laid claim to this prime bit of pre-Christmas real estate several weeks ago with the summer blockbuster, Guardians of the Galaxy.

That was like a big “Keep Off of the Turf” warning sign.   And indeed, just a few years ago elbowing in on the action once the so-called “Disney” brand had selected a prime Christmas-selling season date by any other studio would have been a fool’s game.  

But sadly, the home entertainment crew just down the street from Warner Bros. these days has lost quite a bit of its former marketing snap and savvy … so for this speedy dolphin this will be pretty much like making circles around a beached whale (metaphorically-speaking) as it takes in more than its fair share of the sales pie on this lucrative December date.

Only some bureaucrat could come up with a reason to toss the scrappy Winter — the tailless dolphin rescued by Dr. Haskett (Harry Connick, Jr.) in the first film — out of its safe harbor at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.   So it falls to her friends to find a companion to satisfy USDA rules … and that quest is the focus of this heartfelt sequel.   

Bonus features include a blooper reel, a pair of music videos and five featurettes — “Underwater Magic,” “Dolphin Tale 2: True Story,” “Look Who's Running the Show,” “Bethany Hamilton Meets Winter” and “The Mission.”

The following week, Dec. 16, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is back with director Shawn Levy’s film presentations of the Jonathan Tropper novel (who also wrote the screenplay), This is Where I Leave You.   DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack (with UltraViolet) editions are planned.

The ARR is also just 88 days and domestic ticket sales currently stand at $33.2 million.

This “dramedy” stars Jason Bateman as Judd, who has to come to terms with a cheating wife (Abigail Spencer), the burial of his recently deceased father and the battles that have raged over the years with his siblings.   It only makes it all the worse for him that his mother (played by Jane Fonda) wants her children (Corey Stoll, Adam Driver and Tina Fey) to spend a week with her to celebrate the life of their late father.   There is a lot of history to overcome!!!

Bonus features for This is Where I Leave You include commentary with Shawn Levy and Jonathan Tropper, deleted scenes and two featurettes — “The Gospel According to Rabbi Boner” and “Points of Departure.”

Director Kim Hong-seon's Terrifying Traffickers On DVD And Blu-ray From Well Go U.S.A. On Dec. 23

It could easily be plucked from the headlines.   Dealers in human flesh who think nothing of abducting just the “right” person for their “unique characteristics,” which is nothing more than a euphemism for the thugs who deal in human organs (genetic matches).   

Harvest what is needed and then dispose of the lifeless carcass.   Nothing personal, it is just business.

That’s the premise behind Korean filmmaker Kim Hong-seon’s Traffickers, which is set to be released as both DVD and Blu-ray product offerings from Well Go U.S.A. on Dec. 23.

Yeong-gyoo (Lim Chang-jung — Sex is Zero, Greatest Expectations, Miracle on 1st Street, etc.) has blood on his hands and seems to be just the right sort of amoral individual to transport the illicit cargo (and other things).   

Through circumstances, he finds himself in need of the very “items” that he’s been trafficking in and to make matters worse (for him) he finds himself on the very passenger ship that has been cleverly disguised as just that, a passenger ship, but is in actually equipped with a hidden operating room where the organs are harvested (fresh) from drugged passengers and the bodies are then tossed into the sea.   

Chae-hee (Jeong Ji-yoon — I Saw the Devil) is the victim, snatched under the very nose of her husband, Sang-ho (Daniel Choi — High Kick!), who then begins a frantic search for her as the ship sails towards its destination and Chae-hee to her fate.   

Will he find her in time?  Will Yeong-gyoo have a change of heart?   And who is the mastermind behind this very clever “meat processing” scheme!?

Traffickers is presented in Korean with English subtitles

Mill Creek Entertainment Announces Massive Wave Of New DVD And Blu-ray Product Offerings For Delivery During The First Two Weeks Of Januayr 2015

Mill Creek Entertainment has announced its first wave of new DVD and Blu-ray selections for ‘Q1 2015.   The first two street-date Tuesdays of the year (Jan. 6 and Jan. 13) will be loaded with film collectibles.

Kicking off the proceedings on Jan. 6 are four, double-disc “4-In-1” DVD SKUs.   These are: 4-In-1 Action Collection, which includes S.W.A.T., Basic, Maximum Risk and Stealth; 4-In-1 Horror Collection, this set features the likes of Hostel, Hollow Man, When a Stranger Calls and I Know What You Did Last Summer); 4-In-1 Suspense Collection contains Flatliners, Panic Room, Perfect Stranger and Freedomland and the fourth collection is titled 4-In-1 Urban Collection and it showcases You Got Served, Stomp the Yard, Gridiron Gang and Finding Forrester.

Jan. 6 also has two volumes of Bill Cosby’s sitcom, The Cosby Show — The Cosby Show: Season Five and The Cosby Show: Season Six — plus the Robin Williams double-feature, Jakob the Liar, which is teamed with Moscow on the Hudson and three additional TV-on-DVD collections, Married with Children: Season Seven (2 disc set), Married with Children: Season Eight (both are two disc sets) and Party of Five: The Complete Second Season (a four-disc set).

Jan. 6 also brings an Elvis birthday celebration (the King was born on Jan. 8, 1935) with the DVD release of Finding Graceland (with Harvey Keitel as Elvis) and the Blu-ray debut of writer/director Chris Columbus’ 1988 film release of Heartbreak Hotel (with David Keith as Elvis).   Both films honoring Elvis Presley are priced at just $9.98 each.

Up next is Jan. 13 and the massive 15-disc, 60 film collection titled Terror Theater Movie Collection.   This horror-fan package includes a winning mix of vintage classics — King of the Zombies, The Ape Man and White Zombie — must-owned mainstays of horror — Night of the Living Dead, House on Haunted Hill and Don’t Look in the Basement — plus hard to find gems such as The Curse of Blanchard Hill, By the Devils Hands: The 666 Killer and Zombie Genocide: Legion of the Damned.   And more … much more!!!

Also on Jan. 13 are At Death's Door, a three-disc/13-film collection (The Murder Mansion, Tormented and The Screaming Skull can all be found here), Scared Silly, which is also a three-disc/13-film collection (included here are such films as My Mom's a Werewolf, One Body Too Many and A Bucket of Blood) and the Sci-Fi Double Feature: Krull/Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone.

Last, but not least, Jan. 13 marks the double-disc Blu-ray debut of Mill Creek Entertainment’s seven-part documentary on the history of Slavery, Emancipation Road.

Anchor Bay Entertainment Selects Nov. 25 For DVD And Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Editions Of Director Phillip Noyce's The Giver

Anchor Bay Entertainment will be issuing DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack (with UltraViolet) editions of director Phillip Noyce’s film adaptation of the Lois Lowry Orwellian-esque novel about a not-so “perfect” future society, The Giver, on Nov. 25

The ARR comes in at 102 days and the domestic box office haul was a nice $44.5 million.

Bonus features include three featurettes, a reading of the original script by Jeff Bridges and a study guide.   

Exclusive to the Blu-ray SKU is a bonus DVD disc featuring a press conference with the cast and filmmakers.

Icarus FIlms' Master Of The Universe Arrives On DVD This Coming Nov. 18

Icarus Films, in association with KimStim, has tabbed Nov. 18 for the domestic DVD release of German documentary filmmaker Marc Bauder’s Master of the Universe, a systematic dissection of the international financial markets. 

If you want an insiders view of the world of finance, which is, quite frankly, a mystery to most, then there is none better than former German investment banker Rainer Voss.    Filmmaker Bauder set down with Voss — in a cavernous shell of a former financial house of power (it’s all a façade, get it) — to talk about the real “wolves of Wall Street.”   The culture, the greed … the manipulation are all fair game for discussion.   

It could be a dull viewing, but filmmaker Bauder captures the surroundings and trappings of power (stunning cinematography), which is counter-balanced against Voss’ almost mechanical detailing of his rise and fall.

Presented in German with English subtitles.

Cinema Libre's French Affairs Makes Its Domestic DVD Debut On Dec. 16

Actor, writer and now director, Pierre-Loup Rajot’s romantic comedy, French Affairs, will be making its domestic DVD debut courtesy of Cinema Libre on Dec. 16.

When does the therapist need therapy?   That’s the question at the forefront — with lots and lots of complications — in French Affairs.

Do you suppose that time comes when she, Astrid (Maria Caldera — My Stars), the therapist in this case, starts bedding the clientele (Eric Bonicatto)?   Does it come when her secret is unveiled to her son (Yoann Denaive — Opium), who, as luck wouldn’t have it, crosses path with the wife, Céline (Céline Rajot), and reveals what nasty things dear old mom has been up to?

If this little sexual intrigue seems complicated, we are only getting started.   Throw in Céline’s past (ooo la la la), mother-son issues and a man who needed therapy, but got a whole lot more … and will now likely need more professional help.  Oh those French!!!

Presented in French with English subtitles.

Olive Films Prepares Seven Blu-ray Titles For Release On Dec. 23

Olive Films has announced a crowd-pleasing selection of seven new Blu-ray SKUs that are primed for delivery to retail on Dec. 23 … just in time for Christmas!!!

To make the news even sweeter, four of the seven planned Hi-Def releases are film noir treasures, while the other three are from auteur filmmaker Otto Preminger!   So let’s get to the film noir first (in alphabetical order)!!!

Alan Ladd teams with Phyllis Calvert, Paul Stewart, Jan Sterling and the future Dragnet team of Jack Webb and Harry Morgan (who play the antithesis of their future selves here) in director Lewis Allen’s 1951 film noir thriller, Appointment with Danger.

Dark City, directed by William Dieterle and released in October of 1950, is next up and it teams Charlton Heston with Lizabeth Scott (and yes, Jack Webb and Harry Morgan are both included in the cast as “bad” apples again).   Heston runs a “sucker’s game” with a group of thugs and Scott spends her time trying to get him to go straight, but when one his marks (played by Don DeFore) kills himself things take a dark turn as his brother (played by Mike Mazurki) sets out to avenge his death.

Next in line we find another entry from director William Dieterle, his 1949 noirish adventure Rope of Sand, which toplines Burt Lancaster in one of his early screen roles (fresh from Criss Cross, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands and Sorry, Wrong Number).   Joining him are Casablanca veterans Claude Rains, Paul Henreid, and Peter Lorre … Corinne Calvet (On the Riviera, What Price Glory, etc.) is the femme fatale here.

The last of the film noir selections heading to Blu-ray on Dec. 23 is the crime thriller/film noir, Union Station.   Directed by Rudolph Maté, this gem opened theatrically two months after Sunset Blvd. and between the two films William Holden went from just being a leading man to the top of Hollywood’s A-list (he was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for Sunset Blvd.) … Nancy Olson, Barry Fitzgerald, Lyle Bettger (Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, The Greatest Show on Earth, etc.) and Jan Sterling join Holden as the key cast members.

The other three new Blu-ray releases are all from director Otto Preminger: Hurry Sundown (1967, starring Michael Caine, Jane Fonda, Diahann Carroll, Faye Dunaway, Burgess Meredith and John Phillip Law), which has been remastered from original 35mm source materials, the cult comedy Skidoo (1968, an all-star cast topped off by none other than Groucho Marx as God!!!) and Such Good Friends (1971, teaming Dyan Cannon with James Coco, Jennifer O'Neill, Ken Howard, Burgess Meredith and Louise Lasser).

VCI Entertainment Preps Three Mexican Cinema Classics For DVD In December

The month of December brings three additional DVD releases from VCI Entertainment showcasing the popular Mexican horror adventures from the 1950s that the company has been delivering to eager fans of late.

Streeting on Dec. 9 is director Rafael Portillo’s 1957 wrestling superhero thrillers, La Momia Azteca (aka: Attack of the Aztec Mummy) and La Maldicion de la Momia Azteca (aka: Curse of the Aztec Mummy), both starring Crox Alvarado as the masked El Ángel.   

He not only must battle “The Bat” (Luis Aceves Castañeda), who is also known as the evil Dr. Krupp, to save his fiancée Flor (Rosa Arenas) time and again from his evil clutches, but El Ángel also has avoid death from such things as snake pits and when not otherwise distracted he must also overcome a revived Aztec warrior (mummy) known as Popoca (Ángel Di Stefani) who guards a vast treasure.   

This is one busy superhero!

The following week, Dec. 16, VCI Entertainment returns with legendary Mexican filmmaker René Cardona’s 1965 film, Las Lobas del Ring (aka: She-Wolves of the Ring).   This is one of those guilty pleasures where one ignores the plot and just enjoys the various female wrestlers going at it non-stop for a winner-take-all prize of $1,000,000.

All three films are presented in Spanish with English subtitles.