Saturday, December 23, 2023

New DVD • Blu-ray • 4K Ultra HD Activity For The Period Ending December 15, 2023

New DVD Additions

 

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey, @dvdblurayreport

2025 Horizon (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released If I Leave Here Tomorrow: A Film About Lynryd Skynyrd

ACTV (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released 2023 - Joint Study Committee on Statewide Animal Control Standards

AMC Networks, Inc. -  Shudder
12/12/23 — Released Bad Things

Acid Bath Productions (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released Mind Melters 21

Asian Cult Cinema (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released Beyond Kilimanjaro: Across the River of Blood, New Year's Eve 1968, Slit (German) and White Crocodile Queen (Indonesian)

BCSN (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released 2023 - Boys' Basketball: Perrysburg vs. Southview, 2023 - Boys' Basketball: St. Francis vs. Central Catholic, 2023 - Boys' Basketball: Waite vs. Maumee and 2023 - Girls' Basketball: Perkins vs. Sandusky

Blue Water Content (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released Sacramento at Current Speed

Bosselistic_5 (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released Bottoms, Candy Cane Lane, Family Plan, Good Burger 2, Killers of the Flower Moon, Memory, Mindcage, Nobody, Northman, Red, White & Royal Blue, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Thing About Harry

Bounty Films (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released Puppetry of the Penis: Live at the Forum

CCX Media (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released 2023 - Brooklyn Center: City Council Meeting, 2023 - Brooklyn Park: City Council Meeting, 2023 - City of Plymouth: City Council Meeting, 2023 - New Hope City Council Meeting, 2023 - Osseo: City Council Meeting, 2023 - Osseo: Economic Development Authority and 2023 - Robbinsdale Economic Development Authority Meeting

Capital Community Media (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released 2023 - Cherriots Board of Directors Meeting, 2023 - City of Salem Council Meeting, 2023 - Marion County Commissioners Meeting and 2023 - Salem-Keizer School Board Meeting

Changing Your World (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released Sunday Service, Wednesday Morning Service and Wednesday Night Service

Cheezy Flicks
12/12/23 — Released Panic and Queen of the Amazons

Christian Worship Hour (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released Christian Worship Hour: The Song of Zachariah - Luke 1: 67-80

Cinedigm Entertainment
12/12/23 — Released Dirty South (ARR of 32 days; box office estimate: $20,000)

Cinema Guild
12/12/23 — Released Walk Up (Korean)

City of Tacoma (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released 2023 - Tacoma City Council Meeting

Classicflix
12/12/23 — Released Complete Hal Roach Streamliners Collection (22 film set: Tanks a Million, Hay Foot, About Face, Fall In, Yanks Ahoy, Here Comes Trouble, Dudes are Pretty People, Calaboose, Prairie Chickens, Brooklyn Orchid, The McGuerins from Brooklyn, Taxi, Mister, All-American Co-Ed, Fiesta, Flying with Music, Niagara Falls, Miss Polly, The Devil with Hitler, Nazty Nuisance, The Fabulous Joe, Curley, Who Killed Doc Robbin?) (4 disc set)

Dark Star Pictures
12/26/23 — Sets Abigail (ARR of 18 days; box office estimate: $20,000)

Dreamscape Media, LLC
12/12/23 — Released Apollo Experience: Apollo 17, Blood Mountain, Follow The Money, Foo Fighters: Then and Now, Hope, I'm a Creepy Crawly, I'm a Fish,  I'm a Monster, Love Destination Courses: Breathing Meditations, Love Spies and Cyanide,  Message to the Stars, Moving The Millers' Minnie Moore Mine Mansion: A True Story, Mr. Johnson, Route 66: The Untold Story Of Women on the Mother Road, Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale,  Skymaster Down and When Jack Came Back

EBTV (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released 2023 - East Brunswick Board of Education Meeting and 2023 - East Brunswick Township Council Meeting

ETV (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released 2023 - Boys' Basketball: Eagan vs. Minneapolis Southwest, 2023 - Boys' Hockey: Eagan vs. Bloomington Jefferson, 2023 - Boys' Hockey: Eagan vs. Prior Lake, 2023 - City of Eagan: City Council Meeting, 2023 - Girls' Hockey: Eagan vs. Farmington and 2023 - Girls' Hockey: Eagan vs. Prior Lake

EWTN
12/05/23 — Released EWTN Live: Kevin Bailey, Journey Home: Matt Gerald - Former Methodist, Women of Grace: Catherine DiNuzzo and World Over with Raymond Navarro: Father Gerald Murray
12/12/23 — Released EWTN Live: Very Rev. Steven Beseau, Journey Home: Deb Scaravilli - Former Protestant and World Over with Raymond Navarro: Dr. Bill Conohue

Elvis DVD Collector & Movie Store (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released Bandit Queen, Black Rider, Cat People, Dalton Gang, Donovan's Brain, Find the Blackmailer, Gay Falcon, Gold of the Seven Saints, I Bury the Living, Island Rescue (aka: Appointment with Venus), Lady Gangster, Man Who Wouldn't Die, Mr. Skeffington, Private Detective, They Met in the Dark and When the Clock Strikes

FilmRise (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series (20 disc set) and That Girl: The Complete Series (17 disc set)

Freestyle Digital Media (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released La Soga 3: Vengeance (Spanish)

Giant Interactive (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released Chick Flick and Soft Liquid Center

Icarus Films
12/12/23 — Released Never Too Late For Love (Italian)

IndiePix
12/12/23 — Released Fifth Thoracic Vertebra (Korean)

Kino Lorber
12/12/23 — Released Radical Wolfe (ARR of 88 days; box office: $39,289) and Story Ave

Las Vegas Video (MOD)
11/28/23 — Released Christmas in Scotland, Dognapped: Hound for the Holidays and Joyeux Noel
Christmas Matchmakers
12/12/23 — Released Haul Out the Holly: Lit Up, Holiday Road, Hometown Christmas, Ice Palace Romance, Meet Me at the Christmas Train Parade, Not So Royal Christmas, Santa, Maybe and World Record Christmas
12/19/23 — Sets Catch Me if You Claus, Christmas Blessing, Christmas Chronicles 2, Magic in Mistletoe, Our Christmas Mural, Round and Round and Secret Gift of Christmas

MGM Home Entertainment
12/12/23 — Released Respect

MGM Home Entertainment (MOD)
12/19/23 — Sets AmericanEast, Cutting Edge: Going For Gold, Eureka and Rachel Papers

MUBI
12/12/23 — Released Passages

Mill Creek Entertainment
01/09/24 — Sets Far Haven

Olive Tree Ministries (MOD)
12/05/23 — Released UFO's: Aliens and the Coming Mass Abduction (7 disc set)

PBS Direct
12/12/23 — Released Baby Animals: The Top Ten (3 disc set), Evolution Earth (2 disc set) and War on Disco
12/19/23 — Sets Groundbreakers

PCN Productions (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released 2023 - PIAA 2A Large Division Competitive Spirit Championship, 2023 - PIAA 3A Large Division Competitive Spirit Championship, 2023 - PIAA 3A Small Division Competitive Spirit Championship and 2023 - PIAA CoEd Division Competitive Spirit Championship

PCSD (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released 2023 - Parma City School District Board of Education Special Meeting

RCN Telecom Services, LLC - ATVN (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released 2023 - Boys Basketball: Allen vs. Emmaus, 2023 - Boys Basketball: Dieruff vs. Liberty, 2023 - Boys Basketball: Freedom vs. Easton, 2023 - Boys Basketball: Notre Dame vs. Saucon Valley, 2023 - Boys Basketball: Pen Argyl vs. Wilson, 2023 - Boys Basketball: Whitehall vs. Parkland and 2023 - Wrestling: Freedom vs. Easton

Real Video Store – Shape Media (MOD)
11/28/23 — Released After Everything, Bottoms, Burial, Expend4bles, Exorcist: Believer, Five Nights at Freddy's, Haunting In Venice, Ice Road, In the Fire, Megladon: The Frenzy, Night of the Hunted (French), No One Will Save You, Royal Hotel, Saw X, Significant Other and Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
12/05/23 — Released Big George Forman, Boudica: Queen of War, Christmas Chronicles 2, Fair Play, Golda, Hustle, Jules, Kill Room, LEGO: Avengers - Code Red, Medea Homecoming, Million Miles Away, Old Dads, Other Zoey, Pain Hustlers, Pod Generation, Quiz Lady, Shrapnel, Warhorse One, Warrant and Warrant: Breaker's Law

SRS Cinema
12/12/23 — Released Galaxy Warriors and Yule Log

Samuel Goldwyn Films
12/12/23 — Released Bitch Slap and Outlaw Johnny Black (ARR of 88 days; box office: $300,064)

Shout! Studios
12/19/23 — Sets Showdown at the Grand

Sony Pictures Home Ent.
12/12/23 — Released Dumb Money (with Digital Copy) (ARR of 88 days; box office: $13,919,484)

Synapse – Impulse Pulse
12/12/23 — Released Strange Diary

Synergetic Distribution
12/12/23 — Released Hand (Korean)

Umbrella Entertainment
12/12/23 — Released Head Count

WWE
12/12/23 — Released WWE: Crown Jewel 2023 (2 disc set)

Well Go U.S.A.
12/12/23 — Released Mercy Road

 

 New Blu-ray Additions

 

88 Films
12/26/23 — Sets Blue Jean Monster (Cantonese) and Inspector Wears Skirts (Cantonese)

2025 Horizon (MOD)
12/19/23 — Sets Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour

Acid Bath Productions (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released Mind Melters 21

Arrow Video
12/12/23 — Released Kinji Fukasaku Collection (3 film set: Street Mobster, Cops vs. Thugs, Doberman Cop) (3 disc set) (Japanese), Shaw Brothers: Basher Box (3 film set: King Boxer, The Boxer from Shantung, Chinatown Kid) (3 disc set) (Cantonese), Shaw Brothers: Chang Cheh (4 film set: Five Shaolin Masters, Shaolin Temple, The Five Venoms, Crippled Avengers) (2 disc set) (Cantonese) and Shaw Brothers: Lau Kar-Leung (4 film set: Challenge of the Masters, Executioners of Shaolin, Heroes of the East, Dirty Ho) (2 disc set) (Cantonese)

Asuka the Disc Dog (Fred the Blu-ray Dog) (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released 30 Monedas: Season 2, Priscilla and Yu Yu Hakusho: Season 1

Bill Zebub Productions
12/12/23 — Released Rape is a Circle

Blue Water Content (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released Sacramento at Current Speed

Bounty Films (MOD)
12/19/23 — Sets Scam and Some Happy Day

Capital Community Media (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released 2023 - Cherriots Board of Directors Meeting, 2023 - City of Salem Council Meeting, 2023 - Marion County Commissioners Meeting and 2023 - Salem-Keizer School Board Meeting

Cinedigm Entertainment
12/12/23 — Released Dirty South

Cinema Guild
12/12/23 — Released Walk Up (Korean)

City of Tacoma (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released 2023 - Tacoma City Council Meeting

Criterion Collection
03/12/24 — Sets All That Money Can Buy and All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
03/19/24 — Sets Runner (Farsi) and Saint Omer (French)
03/26/24 — Sets To Die For

EBTV (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released 2023 - East Brunswick Board of Education Meeting and 2023 - East Brunswick Township Council Meeting

ETV (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released 2023 - Boys' Basketball: Eagan vs. Minneapolis Southwest, 2023 - Boys' Hockey: Eagan vs. Bloomington Jefferson, 2023 - Boys' Hockey: Eagan vs. Prior Lake, 2023 - City of Eagan: City Council Meeting, 2023 - Girls' Hockey: Eagan vs. Farmington and 2023 - Girls' Hockey: Eagan vs. Prior Lake

Encode Productions
12/12/23 — Released Death Athletic: A Dissident Architecture

FUNimation
12/12/23 — Released Couple of Cuckoos: Season 1 Part 2 (2 disc set), I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming The Final Boss (2 disc set) and One Piece: Collection 33 (4 Blu-ray/4 DVD Combo Pack)

Giant Interactive (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released Chick Flick

Immina Films
12/12/23 — Released Simple Comme Sylvain (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (French)

Kino Lorber
12/12/23 — Released House of the Long Shadows, Man Who Wasn't There, Quatermass Xperiment, Running Scared, Story Ave and Suspect Zero

Lifesize Entertainment (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released Distant Tales

MGM Home Entertainment (MOD)
12/19/23 — Sets AmericanEast, Cutting Edge: Going For Gold, Eureka and Rachel Papers

MUBI
12/12/23 — Released Passages

Metrograph Pictures
12/12/23 — Released Goodbye, Dragon Inn (Cantonese)

Mondo Macabro  
12/12/23 — Released Bollywood Horror Collection (6 film set: Aatma, Purana Mandir, Purani Haveli, Tahkhana, Veerana, Bandh Darwaza) (6 disc set) (Hindi)

Movies R USA (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released Candy Cane Lane, Culprits: Season 1, Dampyr, Good Mother, Kenan & Kel: The Complete Series (2 disc set), Killers of the Flower Moon, Killing Kind: Season 1 (2 disc set), One of Us is Lying: Season 1 (2 disc set), One of Us is Lying: Season 2 (3 disc set), Power Rangers Beast Morphers: The Complete Series (2 disc set), Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue: The Complete Series (2 disc set), Power Rangers Zeo: The Complete Series (2 disc set), Riviera: Season 2, Sister Death (Spanish), Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Upload: Season 3 and Your Lucky Day

Music Box Films
12/12/23 — Released Fremont and OSS 117 (2 film set: Cairo, Nest of Spies, Lost in Rio) (French) (2 disc set)

North Metro TV (MOD)
12/05/23 — Released 2023 - Boys' Basketball: Blaine @ Centennial, 2023 - Centerville Planning and Zoning Commission Meeting and 2023 - Girls' Basketball: Blaine @ Centennial
12/12/23 — Released 2023 - Circle Pines City Council Meeting, 2023 - Ham Lake Planning Commission Meeting and 2023 - Lino Lakes City Council Meeting

PCN Productions (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released 2023 - PIAA 2A Large Division Competitive Spirit Championship, 2023 - PIAA 3A Large Division Competitive Spirit Championship, 2023 - PIAA 3A Small Division Competitive Spirit Championship and 2023 - PIAA CoEd Division Competitive Spirit Championship

PCSD (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released 2023 - Parma City School District Board of Education Special Meeting

RCN Telecom Services, LLC - ATVN (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released 2023 - Boys Basketball: Allen vs. Emmaus, 2023 - Boys Basketball: Dieruff vs. Liberty, 2023 - Boys Basketball: Freedom vs. Easton, 2023 - Boys Basketball: Notre Dame vs. Saucon Valley, 2023 - Boys Basketball: Pen Argyl vs. Wilson, 2023 - Boys Basketball: Whitehall vs. Parkland and 2023 - Wrestling: Freedom vs. Easton

Rising Sun Media
12/12/23 — Released Apocalypse Love and World is a Beautiful Place and I Am Not Afraid to Die

Ronin Flix
12/12/23 — Released Lost and There’s Nothing Out There

Seaview Square Cinema (MOD)
12/05/23 — Released Candy Cane Lane

Sentai Filmworks
12/12/23 — Released Carol & Tuesday: Limited Edition (3 disc set) and Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Liselotte: The Complete Collection (2 disc set)

Shout! Studios
12/12/23 — Released Shaun the Sheep: The Complete Series (7 disc set) and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack)
12/19/23 — Sets Masaaki Yuasa: Five Films (5 film set: Mind Games, The Night is Short, Walk on Girl, Lu Over the Wall, Ride Your Wave, Inu-Oh) (Japanese) (6 disc set) and Shaw Brothers Classics, Vol. 4 (12 film set: The Rebel Intruders, Two Champions of Shaolin, Legend of the Fox, Black Lizard, Masked Avengers, The Sword Stained with Royal Blood, Five Element Ninjas, Shaolin Prince, Shaolin Intruders, Holy Flame of the Martial World, Opium and Kung-Fu Master) (12 disc set) (Mandarin) and Showdown at the Grand

Sloppy Seconds (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released Leave the World Behind

Sony Pictures Home Ent.
12/12/23 — Released Dumb Money (with Digital Copy)

Sony Pictures Home Ent. (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released Pollock

UMG – Mac Records
12/12/23 — Released Mac DeMarco: One Way G

Umbrella Entertainment
12/12/23 — Released Monkey Shines and Stigmata

Walai.Limpa (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released ATM (Thai), Bangkok Traffic Love Story (Thai), Brother of the Year (Thai), Extraction, Face Love Go Where (Thai), Fan Day (Thai), Freelance (Thai), Guen Muen Ho (Thai), Hitcher, Juwanna Mann, Layover, Long Weekend, Mr Hurt (Thai), National Lampoon's Adam & Eve, Pee Mak (Thai), Snow Day, Suckseed (Thai) and Summer Rental

Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.
12/12/23 — Released Mandalorian: Complete First Season (2 disc set) and Mandalorian: Complete Second Season (2 disc set)

Warner Bros. Discovery Home Ent. (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released Anna Christie, Gentleman Jim, Great Ziegfeld, Looney Tunes Collector's Choice, Volume 2, Madame Bovary, Midwinter's Tale, Saving Grace and Tarzan, The Ape Man

Well Go U.S.A.
12/12/23 — Released Mercy Road

Wood Dale Collective (MOD)
12/12/23 — Released Ali, Cleaning Lady: Seasons 1 & 2 (4 disc set), Cold Case: The Complete Series (21 disc set), Crown: Season 6 (2 disc set), Family Plan, Fast Charlie, Holdovers, Knokke Off: Season One, Lazarus Project: Season 1, May December, Mercy, Messi Meets America (2 disc set), Night Comes for Us, Rebuild of Evangelion (4 disc set), Satantango (Hungarian) (3 disc set) and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour

 

  New 4K Ultra HD Additions

 

Blue Underground
03/26/24 — Sets Night of the Bloody Judge (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack)

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
12/12/23 — Released School Daze (with Digital Copy)

Well Go U.S.A.
12/12/23 — Released Man From Nowhere (Korean) (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack) and Wailing (Korean) (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack)











Friday, December 22, 2023

Bayview Entertainment's Sci-Fi Thriller Aftermath Makes Its Blu-ray Debut On Jan. 30

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey, @dvdblurayreport
An experiment?   A nightmare?   An extended “Twilight Zone” episode with a twist?   

Perhaps all three, that’s what Bayview Entertainment has in store for genre fans on Jan. 30 with the Blu-ray debut of Aftermath from the directing team of  Gergo Elekes and Jozsef Gallai.

Back in 2019 the two filmmakers delivered a short film titled Aftermath, which won awards and got noticed, so the pair raised the money and turned their short film into a feature-length sci-fi thriller.

They made a significant casting change, shifting the protagonist from male to female (perhaps to raise the vulnerability quotient), with Fruzsina Nagy as Kate, who awakes in a forest with no understanding of how she got there.

Kate is pursued by men in gas masks with guns — who communicate with their “boss” (played by Eric Roberts) through a hologram device — and she quickly learns that there is no escape from her forest prison as it is surrounded by a powerful force field.   It is all very high tech, including robot drones that fly around monitoring her movements. 

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey, @dvdblurayreport
She soon comes across a “benefactor” by the name of Bubba (Edward Apeagyei — The Legend of Tarzan, Christmas with the King, The Quantum Devil), who helps her, but is he what he seems?

Aftermath is a well-paced sci-fi adventure that will keep you guessing.   Why is Kate a “rat in the maze” and will she have to turn to deadly force to escape back into a “real” that she has no memory of?   

Jan. 30 on Blu-ray from Bayview Entertainment to find the answers … and more!

 

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey, @dvdblurayreport

 

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey, @dvdblurayreport

 



Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Readies For Release Blu-ray & DVD Editions Of Journey To Bethlehem (Jan. 16) And Butcher's Crossing (Dec. 26)

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey, @dvdblurayreport
With 2023 rapidly coming to a close, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is closing out its current theatrical inventory with news this past week that director Adam Anders’ Journey to Bethlehem will be available on Jan. 16.

The ARR works out to 67 days and the domestic box office take was $6.4 million.

Planned for release are stand-alone DVD and Blu-ray editions.

Bonus features include a trio of deleted scenes and four featurettes — “The Heart of the Journey to Bethlehem,” “Meet Fig,” “Meet Mary’s Sisters” and “Meet Antipater.”

Also heading home in quick fashion on Dec. 26 is writer/director Gabe Polsky’s film adaptation of John Williams’ novel, Butcher’s Crossing, starring Nicolas Cage.

The ARR is 67 days for the film’s limited theatrical run.

Planned for release are both DVD and Blu-ray editions.



Arrow Films Has Tabbed Mar. 13 As The Release Date For A Blu-ray Limited Edition Of Director Don Siegel's The Shootist

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey, @dvdblurayreport
Don Siegel mentored Clint Eastwood.   Showed him how to tell a story, tell it quickly and bring the film production in on time and under budget.

In 1976, Siegel — between Dirty Harry in 1971 and Escape from Alcatraz in 1979 — teamed up with another silver screen legend in what would prove to be his last film appearance.

The film … The Shootist.   The screen legend … John Wayne.

Arrow Films, with domestic sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has a new 2K film restoration (from the original 35mm camera negative) of director Don Siegel’s 1976 film adaptation of Glendon Swarthout’s 1975 novel, The Shootist, ready for a Limited Edition Blu-ray release on Mar. 13.

The Shootist is blessed with a marvelous cast that not only includes Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart, Harry Morgan, Scatman Crothers, John Carradine and Sheree North, but Richard Boone, Hugh O’Brian and Bill McKinney as the bitter rivals of the legendary “shootist” J. B. Books (John Wayne).   

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey, @dvdblurayreport
And, as expected, Siegel delivers a perfectly crafted film — a turn-of-the-century Western — with a bittersweet ending (both literally, and figuratively in that this was John Wayne’s farewell).

Bonus features include a newly prepared commentary option with film critic Howard S. Berger, the vintage featurette titled “The Shootist: The Legend Lives On,” and three new featurettes — “The Last Day,” “A Man-Making Moment” and “Contemplating John Wayne: The Death of a Cowboy.” 

 

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey, @dvdblurayreport

 

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey, @dvdblurayreport

 

    



Thursday, December 21, 2023

Mill Creek Entertainment Targets Jan. 9 For The DVD Debut Of Director Gary Wheeler's Far Haven

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey, @dvdblurayreport
Traditional Western, Spaghetti Western or faith-based, Dove-Award-winning tale of redemption … take your pick.   That’s what Mill Creek Entertainment has lined up for DVD release on Jan. 9.

This would be director Gary Wheeler’s Far Haven, starring Bailey Chase (Country Roads Christmas, Walk. Ride. Rodeo., Far More … perhaps best known as Branch Connally in the Longmire television series) as Hunter Braddock, a disgrace Civil War soldier — an incident involving the mistreatment of certain captives — who served two years in prison for his actions.

Branded a traitor, but able to hold his head up for what he did, Braddock returns to Far Haven (filmed in around the Tucson area) to find that his wife has died during the war and his two children, Luke (Lev Cameron) and Adele (Livi Birch) are now being raised by his wife’s parents — Ben and Alma Watkins (played by Bruce Boxleitner and Nancy Stafford).

They are hostile to his return, not knowing the full circumstances of his imprisonment.  So are certain elements of Far Haven, which will soon be exposed for what they truly are (murderous outlaws).

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey, @dvdblurayreport
Wheeler’s film can be enjoyed as a traditional Western — an action film with good guys and bad guys.   That’s fine.

Far Haven also has a kinship with the Eastwood Spaghetti Westerns of yore (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More … ), stylish, violent, evil-doers, double-dealing, a lone figure standing against all comers … you name it, the elements are all here, which is refreshing.

Far Haven also works as a faith-based tale of redemption.   Braddock has to stand up against impossible odds (the bad guys), win the love of Lily (Amanda Righetti — as Grace in The Mentalist television series), earn the respect of his children and rally the town’s people to fight against the corruption that threatens to make their community of Far Haven an unlivable hell hole.

Producer/director Gary Wheeler (Christmas in the Pines, Christmas on the Range, The Perfect Summer, etc.) has assembled a terrific cast and delivered a swiftly-paced tale that works on several levels.   Far Haven, on DVD, from Mill Creek Entertainment on Jan. 9 … be sure to check it out!

 

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey, @dvdblurayreport

 

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey, @dvdblurayreport



Blue Underground Will Be Sending Home On Mar. 26 A 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack Edition Of Director Jess Franco's Night Of The Blood Monster

You may know it — or even have it in your collection — as The Bloody Judge.  

That’s great, call it what you will, but you are definitely going to want to see what Blue Underground, with sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has in store for you on Mar. 26.

They have a new 4K film restoration — from various “European” vault elements — of cult filmmaker Jess Franco’s 1970 (1972, dubbed theatrical for domestic consumption) tale of depravity, Night of the Blood Monster (aka: The Bloodly Judge).  Starring legendary horror icon Christopher Lee as the infamous George Jeffrey, a judge in service to King James II, who dealt out harsh punishment to traitors, but came into the public eye for his particularly cruel treatment of Alice Lisle.

What Franco did (along with co-writers Enrico Colombo, Michael Haller) was to take an historical figure, an event — changing the name to Alice Gray (played by Margaret Lee — Venus in Furs, Psycho-Circus, Dorian Gray, etc.) — and then let the blood flow in an over-the-top treatment of the subject.

By the time the film arrived in the United States in May of 1972 it had lost some of the excesses (to put it mildly), but was still quite the horror show.   Blue Underground has restored Franco’s film to its original gory glory!!

Bonus goodies include three — count’em, three — commentary options.   Take your choice of film historians as Troy Howarth and Nathanial Thompson, Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw and David Flint and Adrian Smith each team for one each.   

There are also deleted and alternate scenes and a trio of featurettes — “Bloody Jess,” “Judgement Day” and “In the Shadows.”

 



 
DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey, @dvdblurayreport



The Criterion Collection Reveals It March Slate Of New Film Restorations

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey, @dvdblurayreport
The Criterion Collection announced its March slate of new film restorations this past week and topping the list (which is always a subjective call) is the 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack release of director Gus Van Sant’s 1995 film adaptation of the Joyce Maynard novel, To Die For.

This new 4K restoration of To Die For, starring Nichole Kidman as the self-obsessed local “weather reporter,” will be streeting on Mar. 26.

A masterful satire on fame for fame’s sake stands among the best works directed by Van Sant, which says quite a bit about the film when you consider that he was nominated twice for Best Director — Good Will Hunting (1998) and Milk (2009) — and in addition to those two films delivered Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho and Last Days.

As to bonus goodies, there are deleted scenes and commentary teaming Van Sant with the director of photography Eric Alan Edwards (My Own Private Idaho) and editor Curtiss Clayton (My Own Private Idaho, Drugstore Cowboy, etc.).

Also schedule for release in March is a new 4K film restoration of director William Dieterle’s 1941 film, All That Money Can Buy, starring Edward Arnold as Daniel Webster and Walter Huston as “Mr. Scratch.”   This will be a new Blu-ray edition available on Mar. 12.

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey, @dvdblurayreport
The film was a mess in terms of its initial theatrical distribution.   The name of the film was changed several times (with cuts, etc.) before finally settling on the more familiar title of The Devil and Daniel Webster.    There was the issue with similar The Devil and Miss Jones and objections over “devil” in the title … and more.   In retrospect … just silly stuff.

As part of the bonus selections, the Criterion Collection has comparisons of the differences between 1941 preview version of the film, Here Is a Man, and the film’s 1943 rerelease as The Devil and Daniel Webster.
  Additionally, there is a commentary teaming film historian Bruce Eder with Bernard Herrmann biographer Steven C. Smith, a vintage radio adaptation and more.

Rounding out the March release calendar from the Criterion Collection are: producer/director Laura Poltras’ All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Mar. 12); director Amir Naderi’s The Runner (Mar. 19) and filmmaker Alice Diop’s Saint Omer (available Mar. 26).