For the period ending July 19, 2019 ... New DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD selections added to the DVD & Blu-ray Release Report's database

 

DVD New Additions

 

Championship Productions

07/16/19 — Released Building a Championship Defense, Hitting System for Success and It All Starts Up Front: Dominating Defensive Line Play

Cinedigm Entertainment

09/03/19 — Sets Canal Street (ARR of 228 days; box office: $247,843)

10/01/19 — Sets Anna and the Apocalypse (ARR of 305 days; box office: $539,092)

Cohen Media Group

07/16/19 — Released Ash is the Purest White (Mandarin) (ARR of 123 days; box office: $415,955)

Criterion Collection

10/08/19 — Sets 3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg (3 silent film set: Underworld (1927), The Last Command (1928), The Docks of New York (1928)) (3 disc set)

10/15/19 — Sets Haxen (silent-1922)

10/22/19 — Sets When We Were Kings (2 disc set)

10/29/19 — Sets Matewan (2 disc set)

DreamScape Media

07/16/19 — Released Sweet Dreams, Sarah

EWTN

07/09/19 — Released @ Home with Jim & Joy: Jim and Joy Pinto Answer Viewer Calls, Questions, And E-Mails Live From the Pinto House, @ Home with Jim & Joy: Walter B. Hoye Ii President And Founder Of The Issues4life Foundation, Called to Communion, EWTN Live: Mother Theodora / Thriving Byzantine Catholic Order After Celebrating 10 Year Anniversary As Nuns Of The Christ The Bridegroom Monastery, J.R.R. Tolkien: An Unexpected Friend, Journey Home: Jessica Ptomey - Former Evangelical Protestant, Life on the Rock: Justin Fatica tells the Friars about the continued success of the Hard as Nails Ministry and World Over with Raymond Navarro: Most Rev. Daniel Jenky, Bonnie Engstrom, Bill Donohue, Fr. Leo Patalinghug

07/16/19 — Released @ Home with Jim & Joy: Jim and Joy Pinto Answer Viewer Calls, Questions, And E-Mails Live From the Pinto House, @ Home with Jim & Joy: John Carmichael The Role Of Our Catholic Faith In Family Relationships, Called to Communion, Charbel, EWTN Live: Father Chris Alar, Mic and Jason Lewis, Suicide and God's Mercy, Journey Home: David Sanborn - Former Non-Denominational Minister, Life on the Rock: Fr. Brett Brannen discusses the Preisthood and discerning the call and Sunday Best: Pessimism & Optimism

07/23/19 — Sets Called to Communion and Life on the Rock: Fr. Mark interviews Cameron Fradd at the 2019 Seek Conference hosted by FOCUS

Get Digital World (MOD)

07/16/19 — Released Blazing WordPress Speed Course, Extreme Twitter Marketing Made Easy, High Powered Webinar Customer Retention, How To Rank YouTube Videos, Surefire Webinar Conversions, Surefire WP Boost, Surefire WP SEO, Survey Funnel Secrets, Survey Funnels Generate Massive Leads, Techie Training For Aspiring Webmasters, Tube Traffic Mastery, Twitter Marketing Excellence, WordPress SEO Made Simple, YouTube Rank Training Program and YouTube Traffic Guide

Gravitas Ventures (MOD)

07/16/19 — Released Breakneck (aka: Ride) and Victims

Hallmark Channel

07/16/19 — Released Crossword Mysteries: A Puzzle to Die For and Signed, Sealed, Delivered: To the Altar

Hope of the World (MOD)

07/09/19 — Released Powers of the Disciple

07/16/19 — Released Song of the Prophets

Kill the Lion Films (MOD)

07/16/19 — Released Bed

Kino Lorber

07/16/19 — Released Grace Quigley, Hello Again and Jefferson in Paris

Lionsgate Home Entertainment

07/16/19 — Released Fast Color (ARR of 88 days; box office: $74,706) and Puppy Swap: Love Unleashed

Magnolia Home Entertainment

07/16/19 — Released Dogman (Italian) (ARR of 95 days; box office: $146,475)

PBS Direct

07/16/19 — Released Garfield and Friends: Season 1 (2 disc set), Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: Would You Be Mine Collection (4 disc set), NOVA: First Horse Warriors and NOVA: Saving the Dead Sea

Paramount Home Media

08/27/19 — Sets Blaze and the Monster Machines: Ninja Blaze

Quiet Dignity & Grace Productions (MOD)

07/16/19 — Released Wissahickon Creek

Reliance

07/16/19 — Released Junglee (Hindi)

Samuel Goldwyn Films

07/16/19 — Released Head Count and Making Babies

Shout! Factory

07/16/19 — Released Abduction

Smart Mark Video (MOD)

07/16/19 — Released Game Changer Wrestling: Backyard Wrestling - Parts Unknown, Game Changer Wrestling: Crushed Up - Philadelphia, PA and Resistance: Blood Feast - Summit, IL

20th Century-Fox Home Ent.

09/17/19 — Sets X-Men: Dark Phoenix (ARR of 102 days; box office: $65,081,358)

Universal Pictures Home Ent.

07/16/19 — Released Family (ARR of 88 days; box office: $186,651)

Warner Bros. Home Ent.

07/16/19 — Released Titans: The Complete First Season (3 disc set)

08/27/19 — Sets Godzilla: King of the Monsters (ARR of 88 days; box office: $109,191,018)

Wild Eye Releasing

07/16/19 — Released Twelve Pole Manor

World Wide Multi Media

07/16/19 — Released 1000 Zombies

Blu-ray New Additions

 

AGFA

07/16/19 — Released Satanis: The Devil's Mass/Satan's Children

Arrow Video

10/29/19 — Sets Man of a Thousand Faces

Artsploitation Fils

07/16/19 — Released Blood Paradise (Swedish)

Criterion Collection

10/08/19 — Sets 3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg (3 silent film set: Underworld (1927), The Last Command (1928), The Docks of New York (1928)) (3 disc set)

10/15/19 — Sets Haxen (silent-1922)

10/22/19 — Sets When We Were Kings

10/29/19 — Sets Matewan

Dark Entity Music, LLC

07/16/19 — Released Last Rites of the Dead

Epic Pictures Group

07/16/19 — Released They're Inside

FilmRise (MOD)

07/16/19 — Released Mountain Rest

FUNimation

07/16/19 — Released Claymore: The Complete Series (4 Blu-ray disc set) (with Digital Copy), Rin Daughters of Mnemosyne (2 disc set) (with Digital Copy) and Witchblade: The Complete Series (4 Blu-ray disc set)

Gravitas Ventures (MOD)

07/16/19 — Released Breakneck (aka: Ride) and Victims

Kino Lorber

07/16/19 — Released Attack of the Robots (French), Grace Quigley, Hello Again, Jefferson in Paris and Mumford

Maiden Japan

07/16/19 — Released Asura Cryin' (3 disc set)

Mill Creek Entertainment

09/17/19 — Adds Duplicity and I-Spy

Motion Picture Video, LLC (MOD)

07/16/19 — Released 3D Print Masters, Real Haunted Mansion and Spirits in the Storm

My Spotlight Independent (MOD)

07/16/19 — Released March of the Gods: Botswana Metalheads

Passion River

07/16/19 — Released Thunder Road

Quiet Dignity & Grace Productions (MOD)

07/16/19 — Released Wissahickon Creek

Scorpion Releasing

07/16/19 — Released Psychic: Special Edition (Italian)

Screen Media

07/16/19 — Released Dennis Miller: Fake News, Real Jokes

Shout! Factory

07/16/19 — Released Abduction, Big Bad Fox and Other Tales (French) (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack), Law and Order, Leopard Man, Space: 1999 - The Complete Series (13 disc set) and Strays

20th Century-Fox Home Ent.

09/17/19 — Sets X-Men: Dark Phoenix (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

Shout! Factory

07/16/19 — Released Behold a Pale Horse, Chairman, President's Lady and Ten North Fredrick

Smart Mark Video (MOD)

07/16/19 — Released Game Changer Wrestling: Backyard Wrestling - Parts Unknown, Game Changer Wrestling: Crushed Up - Philadelphia, PA and Resistance: Blood Feast - Summit, IL

VCI Entertainment

10/29/19 — Sets Human Monster

VIZ Media

07/16/19 — Released Boruto Naruto: Next Generations, Volume 2 (2 disc set)

Warner Bros. Home Ent.

08/27/19 — Sets Godzilla: King of the Monsters (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

10/01/19 — Sets Doom Patrol: The Complete First Season (2 disc set) (with Digital Copy)

Warner Bros. Home Ent. (MOD)

08/13/19 — Sets Riverdale: The Complete Third Season (4 disc set)

08/27/19 — Sets V: The Original Miniseries

4K Ultra HD New Additions

20th Century-Fox Home Ent.

09/17/19 — Sets X-Men: Dark Phoenix (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

Warner Bros. Home Ent.

08/27/19 — Sets Godzilla: King of the Monsters (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

Indican Pictures Preps Director Drew Bolton's Killer Unicorn For DVD On Aug. 06 • Director Simon P. Edwards’ Six Hot Chicks In A Warehouse On Sept. 03

Do you need a break from super heroes?   Sure, those big budget, CGI-infused studio-produced films are wonderful eye candy, but there is a certain sameness about them that plays out like A-to-B-to-C.   Even the good ones can overwhelm the senses.   

Indican Pictures to the rescue this summer, with not one, but two off-the-grid genre films that are akin to a dream vacation away from the main, and well-traveled, theatrical road.  

Up first on DVD on Aug. 6 is director Drew Bolton’s LGBT slasher flick, Killer Unicorn, which achieved instant cult status once it began to make the film festival rounds in October of last year.   Word spread and this indie production quickly found a home at Indican Pictures for both theatrical and home entertainment distribution.

Indican was able to secure five theatrical screens for Killer Unicorn in mid-June (which is a tough thing to do during the summer as the studios rollout their big-budget monsters cobbling up 2,500 to 3,500 screens at a whack).  The average was an impressive $5,000 per screen, including prime-time sellouts on Friday and Saturday evenings!!   

For the record, the ARR is 53 days.

Indeed, the word had spread that Killer Unicorn was a must-see event.   It is, however, the DVD launch that will finally get the film to the wider audience that it deserves.

Bolton’s film plays out at three levels.   First it is a traditional slasher film, with our hero, Danny (Alejandro La Rosa), a wannabe drag queen nearly a victim in the opening prologue.  Attacked by a buff young man in shorts and a Unicorn mask (played by Dennis Budesheim), Danny fails to notice the danger … his eyes are fixated on the heavenly sight before him (more on that in a second).   Sliced and diced, he is left for dead!

We pick up on the action one year later and Danny is ready to venture out again.   He joins a drag queen and party boy party (in slasher film terminology, this is the “victim pool”), where fun elements are introduced.   Screenwriter José D. Álvarez, in various interviews with filmmaker Drew Bolton, spent quite a bit of time with each of the drag queen personas to write specific scenes to showcase their talents … overlapping and snappy dialog — and oh those ladies — gives Killer Unicorn an edge that filmgoers have enjoyed immensely.

The third element is the “Unicorn Killer” himself.   There is a subtle message here from Bolton, eye-candy is all well and good, but if you are going to party, do so with caution.   As with Danny in the opening sequences, several of the victims of the Unicorn Killer seem to almost go willingly to their grisly ends without ever recognizing the obvious danger of a blood-soaked killer with a knife!

Also added to the summer DVD release calendar this past week by Indican Pictures in the Brit-import, director Simon P. Edwards’ fan-funded Six Hot Chicks in a Warehouse.   The DVD street date is Sept. 3.

Writer, director and producer Simon P. Edwards, along with actress Jessica Messenger, worked on getting this film into production for several years, finally with a little help from their fans, production got underway in 2017, it opened at the Unrestricted View Horror Film Festival in November of that same year and then went on a globe-trotting tour of genre-themed festivals all over the world.

At some point Indican Pictures got word of the film’s successes and now here we have the DVD ready for domestic audiences to savor on Sept. 3.

The story centers around a psycho named Adrian (Oliver Malam — Dead Love, This Is Not Happening), who fancies himself a fashion photographer, but along way he became more of a creep to the models than photographer.    His career is going nowhere and guess who he blames (look in the mirror buddy, you are creepy!!!) … the fashion models who shun him.

Giving off that “Norman Bates” vibe, he comes up with a plan to have his revenge.   He talks Mira (Jessica Messenger — Beneath a Neon Tide, Dead Heading) into putting the past behind them and doing a high-paying photo-shoot with him … oh, and by way, could you bring along some of your model friends.

Do you smell a trap?   Of course, the tasty young models arrive — including Sabine Crossen as Ana, Jade Wallis as Sera and Emma Lock as April — and goes through the motions of photographing them.   And then into the electrified cage they go!!! 

Sept. 3, Six Hot Chicks in a Warehouse … find out what happens next!!   No spoilers here!!!

Paramount Home Media Teams With Nickelodeon For The Aug. 27 DVD Release Of Blaze and the Monster Machines: Ninja Blaze

Nickelodeon and Paramount Home Media will be teaming up for animated thrills and adventures on Aug. 27 with the DVD release of Blaze and the Monster Machines: Ninja Blaze.

AJ and Blaze team up for five monster truck episodes featuring their new ninja skills being taught to them by Ninja Master Blackbelt.   They find themselves on an icy adventure in coming to the rescue of Crusher and Pickle, plus there’s a massive hunt for Ninja Soup!

Also in the mix is an Auto MegaVac gone wild and the all-important big Team Truck Challenge … no cheating allowed! And lastly, Blaze needs to earn some extra money so that a good time can be had by all at the Axle City Fair!!

Cleopatra Entertainment Preps Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Of The Life and Times of Steve Marriott For Release On Nov. 8

Cleopatra Entertainment, with sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, announced this past week that fans of Humble Pie will have a lot to look forward to come Nov. 8.    

That’s the street date for documentary filmmaker Gary J. Katz’s 2000 film release of The Life and Times of Steve Marriott, who was the Brit-rocker who gave the world the super star band, Humble Pie. 

What’s super cool about this release, not only will Cleopatra be bringing this documentary to Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack, but they’ve the gone extra mile an included the complete May 6, 1973 Humble Pie concert at San Francisco’s Winterland.

Wait!   Wait!!  There’s more.   The package also includes a bonus CD.

As to documentary, the story of Steve Marriott (Small Faces), Peter Frampton, Gred Ridley, Jerry Shirley and Clem Clempson coming together to form Humble Pie is presented here.   The film includes interviews with Peter Frampton, Jerry Shirley and Greg Ridley (Marriott died in 1991), plus contemporary recording artists, Chris Robinson (Black Crowes), Rick Nielsen and Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick), John Waite (Bad Company) Kevin Dubrow (Quiet Riot) and Marriott historian John Heller (among others).

These are mixed with home movies, photos and performance footage of both Small Faces and Humble Pie — these include “Tin Soldier,” “Itchycoo Park,” “Lazy Sunday,” “Paradise Lost,” “Take Me Back,” “Natural Born Woman,” “Alabama 69,” “Sad Bag of Shaky Jake,” “Stone Cold Fever,” “For Your Love,” “4-Day Creep,” “30-Days In The Hole,” “I Don't Need No Doctor” and “Hot N’ Nasty.”

The bonus 1973 concert present is a nine song set that includes “Up Our Sleeve,” “4-Day Creep,” “C’mon Everybody,” “Blues I Believe to My Soul,” “30-Days In The Hole,” “Road Runner,” “Hallelujah, I Love Her So,” “I Don’t Need No Doctor” and “Hot N’ Nasty.”

Arrow Video Restores Director Joseph Pevney's Man Of A Thousand Faces For Blu-ray Release On Oct. 29

The opening credits say it all.   The entire motion picture industry went quiet on August the 27^th in 1930 to honor the passing of a screen legend, Lon Chaney.   He was the “Man of a Thousand Faces” and in 1957 his career was honored in a film of the same name, Man of a Thousand Faces, directed by Joseph Pevney (Tammy and the Bachelor, Torpedo Run, The Midnight Story … plus 14 episodes of the original Star Trek television series) and starring James Cagney as Lon Chaney.

Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, announced this past week that a new 2K restoration from the original camera negative is planned for distribution on Oct. 29 as a new Blu-ray edition.

This film project was the baby of James Cagney and famed Hollywood publicist Ralph Wheelwright (MGM and the Samuel Bronston Film Company … his career included a stint as a reporter for William Randolph Hearst, which in turned had him assigned to supervise the public relations for Marion Davies, Hearst’s long-time lover and companion).     Wheelwright provided the story (which was nominated for an Oscar) … filmmaker Joseph Pevney came to the project when producer Robert Arthur worked out a deal with fellow-producer Ross Hunter for Pevney to direct Debbie Reynolds in the film adaptation of the Cid Ricketts Sumner novel, Tammy and the Bachelor).

Other production tidbits include Robert Evans as Irving Thalberg, in real life he could have passed for Thalberg’s twin (so said Norma Shearer, Thalberg’s widow) … he would go on to become a major film producer for Paramount Pictures, delivering such gems as Chinatown (nominated for an Oscar as producer), Urban Cowboy and Marathon Man.   And, the film has another one of those little twists, Carrie Chaney, Lon Chaney’s sister, is played by none other than Jeanne Cagney, James Cagney’s real-life sister.

As to bonus goodies, film scholar Tim Lucas (“Mario Bava All the Colors of the Dark”) provides commentary and there is newly-produced featurette featuring film critic Kim Newman that is titled “The Man Behind a Thousand Faces.”

Mill Creek Entertainment Adds Two New Priced-To-Collect Blu-ray Releases To Its Sept. 17 Release Calendar

During all the excitement of last week’s big announcement from Mill Creek Entertainment we misplaced the Blu-ray details for two additional Sept. 17 releases.    

No excuses, except it was a really, really big deal that Mill Creek had pulled off.  The acquisition of the entire Tsuburaya Productions Co., Ltd Ultraman library for distribution — some 50 years worth of programming, which includes over 1,100 broadcast episodes and 20 feature films — and the immediate street date assignments for Blu-ray collections of Ultra Q: Complete Series 01 and Ultraman: Complete Series 02 on Oct. 15.    

We simply got caught up in the buzz of it all and the new Sept. 17 titles fell through the cracks.   So let us fix that oversight right now.

As a reminder, already in place on Sept. 17 are two new Blu-ray additions to the popular “Bullets, Bombs and Boobs” series of eye-candy action films from iconic filmmaker Andy Sidaris … Guns and Do or Die.   Already out on Blu-ray from Sidaris are Picasso Trigger and Savage Beach (July 9) and Hard Ticket to Hawaii and Malibu Express (Apr. 16).

Joining Guns and Do or Die on Sept. 17 are director Betty Thomas’ 2002 buddy action/comedy film, I-Spy, teaming Owen Wilson with Eddie Murphy, and writer/director Tony Gilroy’s 2009 romantic thriller, Duplicity, co-starring Clive Owen and Julia Roberts.

There!   All caught up.

VCI Entertainment's 2K Restoration Of Bela Lugosi's The Human Monster Ready As DVD And Blu-ray Product Offerings On Oct. 29

VCI Entertainment announced this past week that The Human Monster will be available just before Halloween — Oct. 29 — as both newly-prepared DVD and Blu-ray product offerings.  This is a new 2K restoration from a combination of a fine grain print and a duplicate negative.

One of the oddest films in the lexicon of Bela Lugosi films — and the iconic actor certainly has his share of “odd films” — is director Walter Summers’ 1939 (domestic 1940) film adaptation of Edgar Wallace’s 1924 novel, “The Dark Eyes of London.” 

Lugosi’s career had hit the rocks around 1937/38 when he became “typecast” as a strictly horror actor, but during the summer of 1938 a theatrical revival of Dracula and Frankenstein suddenly got his film career going again.   Typecasting tossed aside, he shot Son of Frankenstein later that year under a renewed contract with Universal Pictures, which was released in early 1939.   

It’s a little sketchy, but Lugosi got an offer to shoot a film on location in London shortly after production on the Son of Frankenstein wrapped — which in retrospect seemed a little chancy with the drum beats of war and all.  Nevertheless he made his way across the pond to film The Dark Eyes of London before the year was out in a grueling eleven-days shooting schedule … and then sailed back home. 

The summer of 1939 slips by and there is no theatrical release of the film.   September of 1939 begins and war breaks out in Europe … still no trace of the film.    The Dark Eyes of London finally opens theatrically in November of that year in England.

A distribution deal was cut with Monogram Pictures for a domestic theatrical release.   Somehow the studio got a print across the Atlantic before World War II began … retitled the film to that of The Human Monster and released it nationwide in April of 1940.   In the meantime, Lugosi had appeared in not one, but three films — The Gorilla, Ninotchka and the 12-chapter serial, The Phantom Creeps (in addition to the aforementioned Son of Frankenstein).

Wallace’s original story was about an elaborate insurance scheme involving two brothers who used a blind charity as a front for a series of murders.   The routine Scotland Yard murder mystery is upped several notches to an out-and-out horror tale as Dr. Orloff (Lugosi) has mastered a unique method of “drowning” his insurance victims.

Greta Gynt (The Arsenal Stadium Mystery, Two for Danger, Shadow of the Eagle) plays Diana, the female lead, who lands a job as a “seeing” secretary at the Dearborn Home for the Destitute Blind, which is run by the kindly Dearborn, a blind man himself (guess who).   Hugh Williams (One of Our Aircraft Is Missing) plays a detective hot on the case.

Bonus goodies for The Human Monster include not one, but two commentary options.  The first features Bela Lugosi expert, author and scholar Gary Don Rhodes (“The Perils of Moviegoing in America, 1896-1950,” “Lugosi,” “White Zombie: Anatomy of a Horror Film,” “No Traveler Returns: The Lost Years of Bela Lugosi” and “Tod Browning's Dracula”) and the second teams film historian David del Valle with author Phoef Sutton.