Universal Pictures Home
Entertainment was busy this past week with new announcements for two recent
theatrical releases making the transition to the home entertainment
marketplace.
Leading the charge with
DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack selections is producer/director Baltasar
Kormákur's film adaptation of Tami Oldham Ashcraft’ 2002 harrowing true-life
survival tale, “Red Sky in Mourning: A True Story of Love, Loss and Survival at
Sea.” Titled for the screen as simply Adrift
(and mercifully so), it will be available for those who missed the theatrical
run — or simply wish to enjoy it once again — on Aug. 28.
The ARR is 88 days and
ticket sales were a disappointing $29.1 million.
We say, “disappointing,”
not because Adrift is a mediocre or even bad film, far from it, Shailene
Woodley’s (as Tris in the Divergent films, plus such films as The
Descendants, The Spectacular Now, Snowden, etc.) portrayal of Tami
Oldham as a yacht sailor caught up in a real-life struggle for survival is
nothing short of breathtaking.
Word of mouth was mixed —
Woodley received all sorts of praise, but the gimmick ending was simply a
cheat. And audiences resented that … to
friends it likely went something such as: “Good film, see it if you want,
Woodley is great, but wait until the video comes out.” That was typical.
We won’t tell you what
the twist is, but one glance at the title of Oldham’s book sort of gives it
away. That said, Adrift should definitely
be on everyone’s late-summer viewing calendar.
Also on the move from
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment is the Aug. 21 DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo
Pack presentation of director Raja Gosnell’s family-fun comedy, Show
Dogs.
The ARR comes in at 95
days and mid-May box office receipts were $17.3 million.
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