For the period ending October 11, 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

09/24/19 — Released John Beilein: Our Culture and Drills and Transition Offense and Set Plays

10/01/19 — Released 2-Man & 3-Man Game: Offensive Reads & Concepts and All Access Lacrosse Practice with Lars Tiffany: Setting the Tone for a National Championship Season

10/08/19 — Released Zone Offense Concepts & Actions

DreamScape Media, LLC

10/08/19 — Released Highlights: Family Fun and Mister Scrooge to See You!

EWTN

10/01/19 — Released Sunday Best: What We've Learned From Pope Benedict XVI, Women of Grace: Beauty: What it is and Why it Matters - Dr. John-Mark Miraville` and World Over with Raymond Navarro: Most Reverand Joseph Strickland, Most Reverand Michael Sheridan, Jeannie Gaffigan, Bill McGurn

10/08/19 — Released Life on the Rock: Thierry Roch / Presents an Inside Look at the Life of a Swiss Guard, Sunday Best: The Art of Forgiveness and World Over with Raymond Navarro: Father Gerald Murphy, Robert Royal, Sharon Robinson

Essential Magic Collection

10/08/19 — Released Topas and Luis de Matos: Virtuoso (4 disc set)

Film Chest Media Group

11/19/19 — Released Deadline: The Complete Series (3 disc set)

FUNimation

10/08/19 — Released Dragon Ball Super: Part Nine (2 disc set)

Gravitas Ventures (MOD)

10/08/19 — Released Every Time I Die, Shadow of Gold and Wake

Hope of the World (MOD)

09/24/19 — Released Day of the Trumpet

10/01/19 — Released Day of the Prophet

10/08/19 — Released Day of the End and Yom Kippur Beast

Icarus Films

12/10/19 — Sets Rojo (Spanish) (ARR of 151 days; box office: $91,213)

MVD Entertainment Group

12/13/19 — Sets I'll Never Forget You: The Last 72 Hours of Lynyrd Skynyrd

Movie Detective (MOD)

10/01/19 — Released Gigolo (French), Le Destin Fabuleux de Desiree Clary (French), Le Rapace (French), Les Bonnes Causes (French), Love and Death in the Garden of the Gods (Italian), Monelle (French) and Retour a L'aube (French)

10/08/19 — Released False Step (German), Jamais plus Toujours (French), L'amour en Douce (French), L'Imperatore di Capri (Italian), La Tregua (Spanish) and Signe Arsène Lupin (French)

PCN Productions MOD)

10/08/19 — Released PA Books: Gettysburg's Peach Orchard

Rarefilmsandmore.com (MOD)

10/01/19 — Released Die Endlose Nacht (German), Die Ganze Welt Ist Himmelblau (German), Die Grosse Liebe (German), Fire on the Plains (Japanese) Guardias de Roma (Italian), Professor Hannibal (Hungarian) and Rapsodia Satanica (silent-1917)

10/08/19 — Released Anita (Swedish), Double Agents, End of the World (silent-1916), Eugenie,  Film Ohne Titel (German) and Trip to Mars (silent-1918)

Smart Mark Video (MOD)

10/01/19 — Released AAW: Jim Lynam Memorial Tournament: Night 2 - 2019 - Chicago, IL, AAW: Jim Lynam Memorial Tournament: Night 1 - 2019 - Chicago, IL and IWA Mid-South: Lethal Lottery 2019 - Memphis, IN

10/08/19 — Released Best of DJ Z Gone Wild to Orlando - Orlando, FL, Game Changer Wrestling: Beg for Mercy - Asbury Park, NJ, Game Changer Wrestling: Joey Janela's Escape From LA - Los Angeles, CA and H2O Wrestling: Hustlemania 2 - Williamstown, NJ

Solomagia

09/24/19 — Released Daniel Johnson: Mind Over Matter

The Teaching Company, LLC

10/01/19 — Released Great Tours: African Safari (4 disc set), Introduction to the Qur'an (2 disc set), Law School for Everyone: Contracts (2 disc set) and Law School for Everyone: Corporate Law (2 disc set)

Warner Bros. Home Ent. (MOD)

10/15/19 — Sets Mom: The Complete Sixth Season (3 disc set)

10/29/19 — Sets Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: The Complete Fourth Season (3 disc set)

Wild Eye Releasing

12/17/19 — Sets Main Street Meats

Wolfe

12/03/19 — Sets Adam

Blu-ray New Additions

 

 

Archico Productions (MOD)

10/08/19 — Released Sharp Candy: The Complete First Season

Cinedigm Entertainment

10/08/19 — Released Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie

FUNimation

10/08/19 — Released Ai Techi Muyo Shorts, Dragon Ball Super: Part Nine (2 disc set), Tokyo Ghoul: Re, Part 2 (2 Blu-ray/2 DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy) and Tsuredure Children

Grasshopper Film

11/05/19 — Sets Bread Factory (2 disc set)

11/26/19 — Sets Black Mother

Gravitas Ventures (MOD)

10/08/19 — Released Every Time I Die, Shadow of Gold and Wake

HBO Home Entertainment

10/08/19 — Released Deadwood: The Movie (with Digital Copy)

Image Entertainment

10/08/19 — Released Gwen

Kino Lorber

10/08/19 — Released Baby Blood (French), Father Hood, Hercules in the Haunted World (Italian) (2 disc set), Monster (Italian) and My Boyfriend's Back

Lionsgate Home Entertainment

10/22/19 — Sets Strange But True (with Digital Copy)

11/26/19 — Sets Angel Has Fallen (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

MGM Home Ent.

10/08/19 — Released Vikings: Season 5, Part 2 (3 disc set)

MPI Home Video

10/08/19 — Released Wedding Guest

Media Blasters

10/08/19 — Released Phoenix: Perfect Collection (2 disc set)

Mondo Macabro

10/08/19 — Released Woman Chasing the Butterfly of Death (Korean)

Naxos

10/8/19 — Released Carollo: Symphony No. 3 (with bonus CD), Gluck: Orphee et Eurydice and Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer

Smart Mark Video (MOD)

10/08/19 — Released Game Changer Wrestling: Beg for Mercy - Asbury Park, NJ and Game Changer Wrestling: Joey Janela's Escape From LA - Los Angeles, CA

Universal Pictures Home Ent.

10/08/19 — Released American Dreamz, Dudley Do-Right, Electric Horseman, Primary Colors and Sgt. Bilko

12/10/19 — Sets Hustlers (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

VIZ Media

10/08/19 — Released Boruto Naruto: Next Generations, Volume 3 (2 disc set)

Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.

10/08/19 — Released Scarecrow of Romney Marsh

Warner Bros. Home Ent. (MOD)

10/22/19 — Sets Veronica Mars: The Complete First Season (5 disc set)

10/29/19 — Sets Logan's Run: The Complete Series (3 disc set) and Mr. Nice Guy: Extended Original Cut

4K Ultra HD New Additions

 

Lionsgate Home Entertainment

11/26/19 — Sets Angel Has Fallen (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

Universal Pictures Home Ent.

12/10/19 — Sets Hustlers (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

Film Chest Media Group Sets Nov. 19 As The DVD Debut Date For Deadline: The Complete Series

Headline!   Headline!!   Read all about it!!!

The Film Chest Media Group announced this past week that years of both research and ends-of-the-earth searching have finally paid off with the news that all 39 episodes of Deadline will be available for the first time on DVD on Nov. 19.

Back in 1959 Arnold Perl produced a 30-minute episodic series titled simply Deadline.   The gimmick was that each of the episodes was based on headlines (news stories) that appeared in newspapers of the time.   Real stories, only the names of the participants were changed.

Filmed in glorious black and white, the series was hosted by one of the original Mercury Theatre participants, Paul Stewart, he would appear in Citizen Kane as Raymond and go on to have quite the career in both film, television and radio (Twelve O'Clock High, Walk Softly, Stranger, Deadline - U.S.A., Kiss Me Deadly, King Creole, etc. are among his numerous film credits).

The series, once it aired, did not go into syndication, but literally disappeared.   Film Chest finally tracked down the missing elements to a storage facility in New Jersey … all 39 broadcast episodes in pristine condition, unseen since the 1959/60 television season. 

The guest stars in the series reads like a who’s who of actors from the period, many of them were just getting started in their careers.   Example, the opening episode, which aired on Sept. 17, 1959, featured three-time Oscar nominee Diane Ladd in one of her earliest television appearances.   Larry Haines, who would go on to win three Emmys for his portrayal of Stu Bergman on the soap opera Search for Tomorrow, was her co-star and he played the role of a crusading reporter who exposes labor racketeers.

In the episode that aired on Nov. 12, 1959, future TV star George Maharis (the following year, 1960, he would hit it big as Buz Murdock in Route 66) plays a college-age killer with an airtight alibi until a crusading reporter (played by Walter Brooke) cracks the case.

39 complete episodes — the entire run of the series — are included in the collection … other guest stars in series are Robert Lansing, Peter Falk, Frank Sutton (who is perhaps best known as Sgt. Vince Carter on the Gomer Pyle: USMC sitcom) and future two-time Emmy-winner Michael Conrad (as Sgt. Phil Esterhaus on Hill Street Blues).

Bonus features include an interview with Broadcast Journalism Professor Joe Alicastro, the series promotional trailer and an extensive photo gallery.

Documentary Filmmaker Jonathan Braucher’s I'll Never Forget You: The Last 72 Hours Of Lynyrd Skynyrd On DVD From MVD Entertainment Group On Dec. 13

MVD Entertainment Group looks to Friday, Dec. 13 as the DVD debut date for documentary filmmaker Jonathan Braucher’s I'll Never Forget You: The Last 72 Hours of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

On the evening of Oct. 20, 1977, the rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd wrapped up their concert date in Greenville, South Carolina and boarded their charter plane for Baton Rouge, Louisiana … they never arrived.  The plane inexplicably ran out of fuel and an emergency landing was attempted in a densely wooded area near Gillsburg, Mississippi, which proved to be fatal to band members Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines, plus Steve’s sister, Cassie Gaines (a backup singer on tour with the band), assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick and both the pilot and co-pilot, Walter McCreary and William Gray.

Working with security guard and lifelong friend of Ronnie Van Zant, Gene Odom — one of the crash survivors, who wrote the 1983 book, “Lynyrd Skynyrd I'll Never Forget You” and later co-author of the book (2011), “Ronnie Van Zant and Me ... Gene Odom” (with Scott Coner) — Braucher chronicles the last 72 hours leading up to the tragic moment.

Other survivors of the flight, including lead singer Leslie Hawkins and stage manager Craig Reed (roadie, drum and guitar technician), give their firsthand accounts of those fateful hours as well.

Also featured in Braucher’s film are behind-the-scenes footage with band during this period, plus reenactments of the key moments leading up to the crash, including a simulation of the plane crash drawn from the actual NTSB report and interviews with four of the first responders on the scene.

Bonus features include the music video titled “Cold Dark Mississippi Night” by Tennessee Iron (inspired by a poem written by Gene Odom, footage from the 40^th Anniversary Event that took place in Jacksonville, Florida and the featurette titled “Gene’s Fishing Advice.”

Icarus Films Sets Dec. 10 As The Domestic DVD Debut Date For Director Benjamín Naishtat’s Rojo

Icarus Films will be teaming up with Distrib Films on Dec. 10 for the domestic DVD debut of Argentinian filmmaker Benjamín Naishtat’s awarding-winning neo-noir thriller, Rojo. 

After debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival in September of last year, Naishtat’s Rojo went on a globe-trotting journey, pulling in wins for Naishtat (Best Director - San Sebastián International Film Festival, among others) and the film’s star, Darío Grandinetti (Guadalajara International Film Festival, San Sebastián International Film Festival, etc.), and then capped it off with a sweep of the 2018 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Argentina Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and both Best Sound and Best Editing awards.

The film opened theatrically in the United States during mid-summer of this year (and will continue with selected bookings through October and November).   For the record, the ARR comes in at 151 days and box office receipts generated from the film’s arthouse run currently stand at an impressive $91,213.

Before Naishtat could launch into his story, which takes place during the “Dirty War” years in Argentina in the mid-70s, he felt that he needed to get the period and setting just right.    Extensive research was done with a team that he assembled, which included a historian with special focus on the provincial aspects of Argentina during the period.   He also recruited Julieta Dolinsky and her talented crew to handle the production design and cinematographer Pedro Sotero to get the photographic “feel” of the period.

Once Naishtat got the details of Rojo just right, the casting and production followed and the result is a film that feels like it is taking place in 1975 on the eve of the military coup that would result in the “Dirty War” … a period where people simply “disappeared.”

It is here, in a small provincial town, that we are introduced to Claudio (Darío Grandinetti), a noted lawyer.   There is a house, a nice house, it is nearby his home and the owners have seemingly vanished.   That house will become a major “player” in the story, but first there is the incident at the restaurant.   

We find Claudio waiting at a popular restaurant for the arrival of his wife, Susana (Andrea Frigerio).   He has been seated ahead of another customer, who becomes incensed when Claudio just sits there, alone, waiting.   Finally this stranger (played by Diego Cremonesi) becomes so rude that he is tossed out.   Claudio’s wife arrives and that’s that.

Quite the story to share over dinner … and certainly something designed to set the viewer a little on edge and left to wonder what was that all about.   The meal ends and Claudio and Susana soon encounter the stranger outside the restaurant, who has apparently waited for them. 

 

One thing leads to another and the stranger ends up dead.    Report it to the police?   So many questions with that, especially when you add in the incident at the restaurant.   It was an accident, but Claudio decides it might be prudent to simply get rid of the body … and that will be that.

After a drive to the countryside — the sprawling Pampas — a grave is dug and the body disposed of.   Once back in town we are introduced to an “associate” of Claudio by the name of Vives (Claudio Martínez Bel) who has come up with an ingenious plan to “acquire” the vacant property — the locals have been coming and going at regular intervals looting the place.   A shady deal is set in motion.

Dead body, shady real estate deal … you can see how Rojo is building to something, but just exactly what?   

Time will pass, a detective will arrive (played by Alfredo Castro) asking questions about a “missing person,” more people will vanish — some quite deliberately because it can simply be done — and a grave may give up its secret.    Rojo is a suspense thriller that builds and builds … a thriller that works at several levels and certainly foreshadows a dark period in the history of Argentina that waits just over the horizon.

Rojo is presented in Spanish with English subtitles.      

Director Rhys Ernst's Adam On DVD From Wolfe On Dec. 3

Wolfe announced this past week that director Rhys Ernst’s film adaptation of Ariel Schrag’s 2014 novel, Adam, will be making its DVD debut on Dec. 3.

The film opened at Sundance in January of this year and has generated controversy outside of the festival circuit — audiences who have actually had a chance to catch Adam at such venues as Outfest, Provincetown Film Festival, Inside Out, São Paulo International Film Festival, etc., have generated positive responses to the Ernst’s film.

It is 2006 and Adam (played by Nicholas Alexander — Fist Fight) has arrived at the summer of his junior year in high school.   In September he will be a senior, then high school will end and … well, what next?   He’s not sure of anything in his life right now and it is driving his mother crazy.

The solution, go spend the summer with your sister in New York City.   His sister, Casey (Margaret Qualley — who scored big time with her performance as “Pussycat” in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood, plus such films as Strange But True, Native Son … and an Emmy nomination for her performance as Ann Reinking in the Fosse/Verdon mini-series), is an activist lesbian who blends right in with LGBTQ community of the city.   

Adam, a teenager, is a true fish out of water and his sister is a force of nature, which sets the table for what is to come.   What happens when a “mainstream” kid enters the world of the “marginalized” and culturally-appropriates “their world” because he falls in love?

When Schrag wrote her book, based on that conceit, there were calls for boycotts and the backlash was fierce.   It is, however, an age-old concept, an outcast “blends” in with the mainsteam through deceit and then things get very complicated when little lies grow.   Or, similarly, when an outcast finds something in the common culture that puts them at odds with friends and foes alike (example: Blinded by the Light — Javed (Viveik Kalra) discovers the music of Bruce Springsteen and that creates a riff between him and his family, while he is spit-on by his classmates for being a Pakistani-born Brit).

Schrag flipped it around and certain people went crazy.   Ariel Schrag is a terrific writer, who not only has the “Adam” book to her credit, but has written for such series as How To Make It In America and The L Word … and is also a graphic novelist with such works as “Stuck in the Middle: 17 Comics from an Unpleasant Age” and “Ariel and Kevin Invade Everything!”   The attacks, simply, are not warranted.

Should attacks be made upon Tootsie?  Or Mrs. Doubtfire?    What about Victor/Victoria?   A story, a comedy, well-told is just that.   Adam is a well-told story with a flip.

As to the movie itself, we are introduced to Adam, who is straight, a virgin and we learn that the high school girls that move within his circle don’t really interest him.   Once banished to New York City for the summer, his sister, Casey, takes him into her world of political rallies and the LGBTQ club scene and it is here that he finds the young woman of his dreams, Gillian (Bobbi Salvör Menuez/India Menuez — as Toby in the I Love Dick sitcom, plus such films as Nocturnal Animals, The Breakup Girl).

Gillian is a waif-like red head, who is smart, friendly and gay.   She too takes a liking to Adam, but makes the assumption that he is a trans and he makes the leap of going down the rabbit hole by not being honest with her.   It gets better, he also tells her that he is a college student at Berkeley, spending the summer with his sister before heading back to his studies … hey, in for a penny, in for a pound, so to speak.

Casey and some of her friends, including Ethan (Leo Sheng) know of Adam’s “predicament” and he begs them to go along with him being a college student … and more.    

Adam is a fun film as we enjoy the adventures — make that, amazing adventure — of a “fish out of water” … and filmmaker Rhys Ernst manages to not only tell a nice story, but makes some points along the way. 

Wolfe’s timing for the release of Adam on DVD is terrific.   Not only is there the buzz about the book and the movie, which will bring out the curious who have not had a chance to catch the film during its festival run.   Additionally, when Sony Pictures Home Entertainment finally gets around to releasing Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood to the home entertainment marketplace, Margaret Qualley’s performance as Pussycat could have some crossover power here.

Wild Eye Releasing Selects Dec. 17 For The DVD Release Of Writer/Director Jeff Lyon's Main Street Meats

Wild Eye Releasing, with sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has a delightful bit of Christmas-season counter-programming ready for delivery to the DVD marketplace the week-before-Christmas (Dec. 17 to be exact).

This would be writer/director Jeff Lyon’s Main Street Meats.   This award-winning genre film checks all of the right boxes.   Slasher, check.  Black Comedy, check.  Homage, check (Herschell Gordon Lewis would have been proud).   Gore, check.   Tasty Treats, check (hey, the secret’s in the sauce … ).   So if you have a hankering for some alternative viewing action during the Christmas holiday season, this could be the one!!

Two brothers, Floyd (Steve Golla – Psycho Holocaust) and Neddy (Don Markus), along with their sister, “Sis” (Stacey Weber), are up against the wall with their family-run butcher shop.   Mom left it to them, but their skill at running the place has them on the verge of bankruptcy.

Just when it couldn’t get any worse, in walks the customer from hell who goes off on Neddy — we learn in a bit of a backstory that a childhood accident has left him mute — and he blows his top.   Unable to counter her verbal abuse, he does the next best thing … Whack!  Whack!  Whack!   Now what to do with the body?

Of course … inventory.   But when the regular customers take a fancy to the new “meat” selections, business suddenly takes a turn for the better and a steady supply needs to be found.   

A few here, a few there, mainly high school kids that no one will miss and the supply keeps coming.   Even their one employee, Cherry (Morgan Boland — Dead of the Night) comments how much the customers “love this week’s special.”   But when the mayor (Charles Ramsey — Fast Zombies with Guns) asks them to sponsor this year’s “Meat and Raffle Festival” things go into overdrive (one of the great throw-away lines in the history of horror films is delivered by “Sis” without missing a beat, “I sure hope there are enough people to eat all the people”).     

So join the party — or as the mayor says, “Let’s not have a few missing teenagers spoil the fun” — when Main Street Meats arrives on DVD on Dec. 17.

Bonus features include a blooper reel and a “behind the scenes” featurette.