Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Preps Will Ferrell's Get Hard For DVD And Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack On June 30

Let’s be honest, Will Ferrell is either funny or rotten.   Old School, funny; The Producers, rotten; Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, funny; Land of the Lost, dear lord that was awful … Elf, genius.

It’s clear that you never know what you are going to get.   So when it was announced that Ferrell would be teaming with Kevin Hart for writer-turned-director Etan Cohen’s directorial debut, Get Hard, you had to have high hopes that FUNNY would be in cards, but fingers were nevertheless crossed.

With a box office haul of $87.8 million and reviews that savaged it for being too racial and too over-the-top for its gay bashing we can report that Ferrell, Hart and Cohen achieved exactly what they set out to do!   And that is … make a very funny movie that goes out of its way to be offensive.

We can also report that Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has targeted June 30 as the street for both DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack editions of Get Hard … with the Blu-ray SKU featuring an “unrated” cut of the film.   

Ferrell plays James King, a white bread financial whiz with a potential trophy bride (Alison Brie — as Trudy in the Mad Men comedy series) who suddenly finds himself being charged — and quickly convicted — of embezzling millions from a hedge fund that he’s been running with his future father-in-law (Craig T. Nelson).   

With 30 days to get his affairs in order before heading off to a ten-year stint at San Quentin, he turns to a black entrepreneur named Darnell (Hart) who runs a car wash service — of which James is a customer — and because he is both black and washing cars James assumes that he must have a rap sheet.   With an offer of cash for a quick course in prison survival, James enters into a deal with Darnell to get him “hard” … there’s just one problem, James is clean.   But the cash, that’s too much to turn down.

Everything that follows spins off of this “misunderstanding.”   Which is damn funny!!!   Chalk up Get Hard in the funny Will Farrell column.

As to bonus goodies, which are exclusive to the Blu-ray SKU (with the sole exception of a gag reel), there are ten featurettes and deleted scenes.

Well Go USA's Kung Fu Killer Arrives On DVD And Blu-ray This Coming July 21

It will be non-stop action on July 21 when Donnie Yen takes to the streets of Hong Kong in a nifty blend of urban parkour stunts and brilliantly staged martial arts sequences (fists, legs, swords, staffs … you name, this film has it) as the star of director Teddy Chen’s Kung Fu Killer.

Well Go USA has both DVD and Blu-ray editions planned for release on that date … the current domestic box office stands at $116,700 and the ARR is a swift-to-market 88 days.

Although the title of the film sounds like one of those ‘70s chop-socky film entries, Kung Fu Killer is anything but that.  This is a big-budget, very slick action film that finds our hero, Hahou Mo (Yen), serving a five-year prison jolt after accidentally killing someone with his fists.   It is here that he learns of a series of martial arts masters who have been recently killed in a series of one-on-one fights and quickly deduces who the killer is.

No one in authority will listen to him so he gets their attention (ouch)!  Once he has that focus, and a half-dozen of his cellmates in the infirmary, he proposes a deal.   Hahou Mo is willing to trade that information — and his skills — to help capture Hong Kong’s latest serial killer.

We know early on who the killer is, it’s a chap named Fung Yu-Sau (Wang Baoqiang), who was born with a birth defect that should have prevented him from ever becoming a skilled martial artist (and also a very capable parkour practitioner).   After a tragedy in his life leaves him very much alone — and demented — he decides to take on as many masters (with very different styles) as he can in one-on-one death duels to prove his mettle.   

With Fung taking on one master after another — and with the police and Hahou Mo in hot pursuit — we know that it is only a matter of time before the final showdown will take place.   It’s no secret who will be the contestants in that final one-on-one match to the death!!!

Well Go USA’s Kung Fu Killer is presented in Cantonese with English subtitles.   No word just yet on any bonus features. 

Mill Creek Entertainment Adds To July 21 DVD Release Calendar

Mill Creek Entertainment has added four event mini-series — all priced at just $9.98 — to its July 21 DVD release calendar.

Already in place on that date are Classic Horror, a double-disc, four-film set featuring The Mad Magician, Five, The Man Who Turned to Stone and The Terror of the Tongs and Vintage Sci-Fi Movies, also two-discs, but showcasing a half-dozen sci-fi flicks — The 27th Day, The Night the World Exploded, The H-Man, Twelve to the Moon, Battle in Outer Space and Valley of the Dragons.

The four mini-series in the group kick off with director Allan Eastman’s 1987 bio-tale, Ford: The Man and the Machine, starring Best Actor Oscar-winner Cliff Robertson as automobile icon, Henry Ford, with Hope Lange as his wife Clara. 

    

Son of the Dragon is a 2006 release from director David Wu (Brotherhood of the Wolf, Snow Queen, etc.) and starring David Carradine in a re-telling of The Thief of Bagdad.

Next up is political action thriller, The Summit.  Set against the backdrop of the G8 Summit, a seemingly beneficial drug could actually become a terror weapon and only a grieving mother (Rachelle Lefevre) and would-be documentary filmmaker could be the only ones capable of stopping this potential worldwide calamity.

Lastly, Mill Creek Entertainment will release The Fire Next Time.  Directed by Tom McLoughlin and starring Craig T. Nelson, Jürgen Prochnow, Bonnie Bedelia and Richard Farnsworth … the Earth has reached the tipping point as the greenhouse effect is sending the planet into an end-times cycle of massive floods and blasting heat waves. 

Eagle Rock Entertainment Picks Friday, July 10 As The Street Date For DVD And Blu-ray Editions Of Black Veil Brides: Alive and Burning

Eagle Rock Entertainment has tabbed Friday, July 10, as the street date for the Black Veil Brides’ 18-song live concert set filmed at the Wiltern Theatre in November of last year.  

Titled Black Veil Brides: Alive and Burning, Eagle Rock has revealed that both Blu-ray and DVD editions will be available for fans to savor again and again … crank it up and rock on!

Following in the metal/glam tradition of Kiss and the like, with a nod to Aussie rockers Pendulum and Canadian progressive rocker Joel Zimmerman (aka: deadmau5), the Black Veil Brides could have been nothing more than a parody rock group  — quickly gone from the rock scene — but talent won out and coupled with an ever-growing fan base the group has been able to put together an impressive set list.

This live concert, filmed during the Black Veil Brides’ 2014/2015 Black Mass Tour, will certainly please followers of the group.   From early classics like “Knives and Pens” and “Fallen Angels” to their current hits, “Heart of Fire” and “Faithless” — and everything else in between, including a surprise or two — and topped off with a knock-out rendition of “In the End.”   

Breaking Glass Pictures To Release Director Larry Clark's Marfa Girl On DVD This Coming June 23

Larry Clark, a film festival favorite, as well as a renowned photographer and independent filmmaker extraordinaire, will see his award-winning slice-of-life drama, Marfa Girl, released (at last) on DVD from Breaking Glass Pictures on June 23.

A limited theatrical release was launched in late March, but no box office tallies have been reported as of yet.

Marfa, Texas is famous, in film lore, as the shooting location for the 1956 film release of Giant, starring James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson.   Other than that it is nothing more than a speck on the West Texas map, populated by less than 2,000.   Interstate 10 (between El Paso and San Antonio) passes to the north — you literally have go out of your way to get to Marfa.

 That’s the symbology that Clark was likely looking for in selecting both the location and the title of his tale about Adam (Adam Mediano), a pot-smoking slacker teen whose only skill in life appears to be skateboarding.   

He has other interests, sex, and for a 16-year-old he’s managing to juggle a couple of “relationships” — but that “skill” makes it just a matter of time before someone ends up barefoot and pregnant.

The arrival of the new girl in town (Drake Burnette), an “artist,” who seems more a cross between a sex therapist, a seducer of willing boys and a budding porn starlet, quickly complicates things for Adam … in Marfa, everyone knows what everyone else is doing in no time at all and that means the ever-present U.S. Border Patrol.   Conflict, boredom, sex and drugs … like we said, you have to go out of your way to get to Marfa.

B2MP, Inc. Releases A Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Edition Of Moonlighting

With a short pre-book window, B2MP, Inc. released this past week (street date: May 12) a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack edition of writer/director Jerzy Skolimowski 1982 film, Moonlighting, starring Jeremy Irons (in only his third feature film).   

 Filmmaker Skolimowski was the Cannes Film Festival winner for Best Screenplay (among other honors).

Bonus features include an isolated music track and newly prepared commentary track featuring Jeremy Iron.

20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment Preps July Street Dates For Both Home And The Longest Ride

20^th Century-Fox Home Entertainment will be releasing the DreamWorks Animation production of director Tim Johnson’s animated film adaptation of Adam Rex’s kid fable, “The True Meaning of Smekday” — retitled for its theatrical release as simply, Home — on July 28 as a three-SKU selection. 

Fans can enjoy a stand-alone DVD edition or one of two Blu-ray/DVD Combo Packs (with or without a 3D viewing option).

The ARR comes in at 123 days and the box office take was an impressive $162.2 million (there is definitely a new franchise in the offing with this one). 

Bonus features — exclusive to the Blu-ray SKUs — include deleted scenes, a music jukebox, the Jennifer Lopez sing-a-long, “Feel the Light,” interactive features, tutorials and an array of featurettes, including one titled “This is Being Boov.”

Also added to the release calendar this week by 20^th Century-Fox Home Entertainment is  director George Tillman Jr.’s film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ 2013 romance novel, The Longest Ride.   It will be available as both DVD and Blu-ray product offerings on July 14 … be sure to have a box of Kleenex handy.

The ARR works out to 95 days and ticket sales were a nice $35.3 million.  

The lives of an elderly car crash survivor named Ira (Alan Alda and Jack Huston at various ages) and the couple who rescue him, Sophia (Britt Robertson) and Luke (Scott Eastwood), become inner-connected with their stories becoming the source of both smiles and tears.   Yes, this is pure Nicholas Sparks … he has his way of making the same pattern seem different and fresh.  The Longest Ride is no exception.

Bonus features, all exclusive to the Blu-ray SKU, commentary by director George Tillman, Jr. (Faster, Men of Honor) and actress Oona Chaplin, five production features and both deleted and extended scenes.