Mill Creek Entertainment Sets Nov. 12 As The DVD Debut Date For Director Marco Deufemia's Dove Award-winning A Bluegrass Christmas

Mill Creek Entertainment is getting into the Christmas spirit with the early-in-the-season Nov. 12 DVD debut of director Marco Deufemia’s A Bluegrass Christmas. 

If you have music-lover on your Christmas list, or a romantic … or someone who enjoy wholesome family entertainment, then this Dove Approved winner will be the perfect stocking-stuffer!!

Singer, songwriter and actor, Amanda Jordan (Rush for Your Life, Holly Hobbie, Christmas in Maple Hills), stars as Katie Pendleton, a young woman who has devoted her life to caring for abandoned and injured horses at her “Fields of Blue” sanctuary.   It’s a touch-and-go operation that gets by with the help of horse racing enthusiast Jim Breckenridge (Mike Shara), who has placed one of his prized horses in her care.

He wants to race the horse and she says it is not ready.   That becomes a bone of contention and since Breckenridge doesn’t like to be told what not to do, he not only ignores her advice, but he also pulls his funding.

His son, Grant (David Pinard — Country Hearts Christmas, The Heiress of Christmas, May the Best Wedding Win), tries to intercede on Amanda’s behalf, but his father refuses to change his mind.   That puts Grant and Amanda on the same side … a mutual attraction begins to grow.

Meanwhile, Amanda turns to her famous grandfather, Ben (Shaun Johnston — best known as Jack Bartlett in the Heartland television series, plus such film as: In Plainview, Christmas in Big Sky Country, A Frosty Affair, etc.), a legendary Bluegrass recording artist for help.   He too says no … too painful, after losing his wife he turned his back and walked away from the music scene.   

His old band member step up and offer to help Amanda put together a Christmas-season benefit concert, but without a lead singer things look bleak.   It looks like “Fields of Blue” will be shutting down unless there’s a Christmas miracle!

We won’t give away the third act here, but we can say this much, A Bluegrass Christmas is a wonderful feel-good movie (a Dove Award-winner to boot) … and it comes loaded with a strong soundtrack featuring the likes of “Poor Wayfaring Stranger,” “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” “O Come All Ye Faithful” and more.

Be sure to check out Marco Deufemia’s A Bluegrass Christmas when it makes its DVD debut on Nov. 12 from Mill Creek Entertainment … the perfect stocking stuffer!!

Arrow Video's 4K Ultra HD Edition Of Director Tarsem Singh's The Cell Debuts In The New Year (Jan. 21)

Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has new a 4K restoration — no wait, two new 4K restorations — of director Tarsem Singh’s 2000 serial-killer thriller, The Cell, starring Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn and Vincent D’Onofrio as the infamous Carl Rudolph Stargher.

We say two new restorations because Arrow has both the original theatrical cut and Singh’s “director’s cut” of the film ready for a 4K Ultra HD rollout in the New Year (Jan. 21 to be exact).

The original theatrical cut clocked in at 107 minutes, while the “director’s cut” has a running time of 109 minutes.

The 4K Ultra HD disc includes both cuts plus four separate commentary options — two newly-prepared featuring film scholars Josh Nelson and Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and film critic Kay Lynch teams with screenwriter Mark Protosevich … plus two archived commentaries with director Tarsem Singh and a tag-team option featuring director of photography Paul Laufer, production designer Tom Foden, makeup supervisor Michèle Burke, costume designer April Napier, visual effects supervisor Kevin Tod Haug and composer Howard Shore.

There are also two new featurettes included on the 4K Ultra HD disc — “Projection of the Mind’s Eye” and “Between Two Worlds.”'

The companion Blu-ray features an “unseen” theatrical cut prepared by the director of photography Paul Laufer.   Also included are three new featurettes — “Paul Laufer Illuminates,” “Art is Where You Find It” and “The Costuming Auteur” — plus eight deleted or extended scenes and the archival featurette titled “Style as Substance: Reflections on Tarsem.”

Severin Films To Release A Blu-ray Edition Of Director Ray Dennis Steckler’s The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Crazy Mixed-Up Zombies On Dec. 3

Severin Films, with sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has a new 2K scan of producer, director and actor Ray Dennis Steckler’s micro-budget 1964 horror classic, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Crazy Mixed-Up Zombies, which be delivered to genre fans on Dec. 3 as a bonus-packed Blu-ray release.

Los Angeles in 1963 (including shots of the famed Angels Flight) is the backdrop for Steckler’s lurid tale about Madam Estrella (Brett O’Hara) — a fortune-teller — her hunchbacked dwarf assistant by the name of Ortega (Jack Brady) and her sister, Carmelita (Erina Enyo — also in Steckler’s The Thrill Killers), who have a carnival sideshow populated by deformed freaks.  It is the “source” of Estrella’s freaks that is the heart of Steckler’s incredible tale.

With a mirco-budget, Steckler’s film had limited prints and was “bicycled” around the country beginning in March of 1964 on a market-by-market basis.   To get some extra mileage out of his film, it was renamed and released as Teenage Psycho Meets Bloody Mary!   And get this, the film even had its own soundtrack release and was billed as “The First Monster Musical!”   

So enjoy the chills or a rock out to the likes of “Mixed-Up Zombie Stomp” and “It’s Incredible” on Blu-ray on Dec. 3 from Severin Films.

Bonus goodies include an introduction by Joe Bob Briggs, two commentary options — one featuring Briggs and the other with Steckler — deleted scenes and archival video sessions with filmmaker Ray Dennis Steckler and actor Carolyn Brandt (as Marge Neilson … also as Cee Bee Beaumont in Stecker’s 1966 comedy, Rat Pfink a Boo Boo).

Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment Tabs Dec. 17 For The Full-Spread Physical Media Launch Of Writer/Director Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie À Deux

Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment has selected Dec. 17 as the street date for a full-spread physical media launch of writer/director Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie À Deux (literal translation: “Joker: Madness for Two”).

The ARR comes in at 74 days and the domestic box office take currently stands at $58 million.
Planned for distribution are stand-alone editions for the DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD formats, plus a limited edition 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack SteelBook purchasing option.

A premium VOD window opened up 25 days into the theatrical run (Oct. 29), which affords the “Helper” community seven full weeks to move their own Blu-ray editions (check out eBay if you doubt that … which begs the question, is eBay in business with China to steal copyrighted product?).

As to bonus features, which are limited to the 4K and Blu-ray SKUs, there’s a four-part making-of documentary titled Everything Must Go and four additional featurettes — “The Character of Music,” “Live! With the Joker,” “Colors of Madness” and “Crafted with Class.”

The Criterion Collection Opens The New Year With Five New 4K Ultra HD Releases Toplined By Director Stephen Frear's The Grifters (Jan. 21)

The Criterion Collection will ring in the New Year with five new 4K film restorations.   These will be delivered during each of the four street-date Tuesdays during the month of January.

It is, of course, always a subjective call when reporting on the lead title for the month.   There is much to be admired in Criterion’s January release slate, so selecting director Stephen Frear’s 1990 film adaptation of the Jim Thomson’s 1963 novel, The Grifters, was a difficult choice.

This is a new 4K film restoration approved by the director of photography, Oliver Stapleton, and it will be available on Jan. 21 as both 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack and stand-alone Blu-ray product offerings.

The rights to Thomson’s novel were originally shopped to Martin Scorsese as project for him to direct, but he ended up being the producer instead of directing.   Frears had just scored with Dangerous Liaisons and was approached by Scorsese to take on the directing chores.

There were a number of actors mentioned in the trades during the period as potential cast members, including Cher, Geena Davis and Melanie Griffith, but for various reasons they all dropped out.   Angelica Huston and Annette Bening landed the female leads as Lilly and Myra respectively … and were rewarded for their efforts with Oscar acting nominations.    John Cusack, as Lilly’s son Roy Dillon was always the first choice.

As to bonus features, commentary is provided by Frears and screenwriter Donald E. Westlake, who are joined by actors Cusack and Huston, plus there is a new video session with Bening, a making-of documentary and two featurettes — “Seduction, Betrayal, Murder: The Making of The Grifters” and “The Jim Thompson Story.”

Also on the January release calendar from the Criterion Collection are: Two Samurai Films by Akira Kurosawa (featuring Yojimbo and Sanjuro … Jan. 7); The Mother and the Whore (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack, plus double-disc DVD and stand-alone Blu-ray selections … Jan. 14); Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack, also Blu-ray … Jan. 14) and Winchester '73 (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack, also Blu-ray … Jan. 28).