Toad Road On DVD Dec. 10 From Artsploitation Films

Artsploitation Films has tabbed Dec. 10 as the DVD debut date for writer/director Jason Banker’s Fantasia International Film Festival winner, Toad Road.

A showcase theatrical break is also planned beginning on Oct. 18 to garner media attention and to raise the already electric buzz levels for this film even higher.

On the surface it appears that James (James Davidson) is just a slacker and a druggie destined for an overdose one day or the headliner in one of those bizarre “News of the Weird” stories — you know, “James, wondering if there was any gasoline left in the seemingly empty gas can, struck a match and took a look inside.”   You can fill in the rest it.

Indeed, James would fit right in with the crew of Jackass … “Hit me in the head as hard as you can and let’s see what happens!”   Sure enough, someone will.

But things get weird — deadly; strangely weird — when Sara (Sara Anne Jones), another member of the slacker community, recruits him to take their use of drugs to the next level by mixing in the adventure of exploring the local legend of  “Toad Road.”  

She’s a sweet, attractive young woman, who could be doing more with her life, but this is her big plan of the moment (word is that she actually died of a drug overdose after the film was completed … but we can’t be sure if that is true, or just hype).

Now the “Toad Road” myth revolves around an old nut house out in the woods whose gates — seven of them — are the only thing that remains and word is that as one passes through each of them strange things will begin to happen.   If you pass through the seventh gate, you’ve actually reached a portal to hell.   

Of course it is all a bunch of silly nonsense, but when drugs are involved and the participants in this little trek are both high and bored, anything can happen!

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report:  DVD & Blu-ray Release Report

The Criterion Collection Announces Dec. 2013 Blu-ray Release Slate

The Criterion Collection, with sales and distribution support provided by Image Entertainment, will be anchoring its four-strong December release schedule with a pair of Blu-ray releases from well known auteur filmmakers. 

Up first on Dec. 3 is a newly restored Blu-ray/Double-DVD Combo Pack of director Robert Altman’s 1975 Best Picture/Best Director nominee, Nashville.

Included as bonus goodies are a vintage commentary track from Altman, a newly prepared documentary on the film featuring insights from actors Keith Carradine (Oscar-winner for his song, “I’m Easy”), Michael Murphy, Lily Tomlin and Allan Nicholls, plus scripter Joan Twekesbury and assistant director Alan Rudolph, behind the scenes footage, demos of Keith Carradine singing and a vintage interview with Altman.

The following week, Dec. 10, look for the nine-disc (three Blu-rays and six DVDs), six-film SKU titled Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project.   This intriguing collection showcases six international films that have been restored and brought to the collector’s market under Scorsese’s World Cinema Project (launched in 2007).  

Included in the mix are: Touki Bouki (Senegal, 1973, in Wolof … directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty), Redes (Mexico, 1936, in Spanish … co-directed by Emilio Gómez Muriel and Fred Zinnemann), A River Called Titas (Bangladesh, 1973, in Bengali … directed by Ritwik Ghatak), Dry Summer (Turkey, 1964, in Turkish … co-directed by Metin Erksan and David E. Durston), Trances (Morocco, 1981, in Arabic … written and directed by Ahmed El Maanouni) and The Housemaid (South Korea, 1960, in Korean … directed by Ki-young Kim).

Also heading home on Blu-ray in December from Criterion are Italian filmmaker Elio Petri’s 1970 Cannes Film Festival Grand Prize-winner, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (a Blu-ray/2 DVD Combo Pack release on Dec. 3), and the double-feature presentation of Grey's Gardens and The Beales of Grey Gardens (Blu-ray on Dec. 10).

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report:  DVD & Blu-ray Release Report

Midnight Releasing's Amnesiac Ready For DVD On Nov. 5

There are some things that are best left to distant memories and the past.   Sadly, Kate Faulkner (Gemma Deerfield — Marvin’s Song, The Kindness of Strangers, Breathe) can’t let the trauma of the tragic death of her child go … and that will be her undoing in director Martin Rutley’s Amnesiac, due out on DVD from Midnight Releasing on Nov. 5.

She is basically going off the deep end, so her sister Bec (Edwina Lea) cuts her a deal in a desperate attempt to get her some professional help.   She’s agrees, with her boyfriend Thom (Leon Florentine) in tow, to participate in some mumbo jumbo with a Ouija Board in the dead child’s room — contacting dead spirits — and in exchange Kate will seek out psychiatric help for her out of control depression.

Now you have to imagine that any reasonable person would cut the exact same deal.   Come on, it’s a Quija Board … a little “yes” and “no” crap, spell out a few meaningless phrases and then it’s off to the doctor’s office and a basketful of prescriptions for some much needed meds.   What could go wrong?

In Amnesiac, plenty!   The sister’s bizarre Quija Board session conjures up a malevolent spirit (played by Jon Stoley) trapped in some hellish afterlife.   With the connection made, it is now possible for “it” to crossover and the trio soon learn that they are faced with an entity known as Wyke Wreake, a 17^th Century mass murderer of children!   

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report:  DVD & Blu-ray Release Report

Breaking Glass Pictures Says Nov. 26 For the DVD Release of The Falls: A Testament of Love

Breaking Glass Pictures announced this past week that writer/director Jon Garcia’s The Falls: A Testament of Love, the much anticipated follow up to his 2012 hit, The Falls, will be making its DVD debut on Nov. 26.

RJ (Nick Ferrucci) and Chris (Ben Farmer), the young Mormons who fell in love while on their mission, are back for this sequel.   In the first film their “coming out” is discovered and the two head home to an uncertain future and plenty of things to explain to their respective families.

It’s now five years later and life goes on, but through a series of unexpected events the two suddenly find themselves back together — older and wiser — but still faced with the same difficult issues of sexual orientation, their faith and the feelings of their friends and families.

Bonus features for the DVD release of The Falls: A Testament of Love include deleted scenes, a photo gallery, interviews with filmmaker Jon Garcia and members of the cast, plus a Q&A session from the film’s world premiere at the Portland Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report:  DVD & Blu-ray Release Report

Paramount Home Media Expands December TV-On-DVD Product Offerings

Paramount Home Media Distribution has added two new TV-on-DVD collections to its December release calendar … just in time for the Christmas gift-giving season.

Up first on Dec. 3 is the three-disc set of Hot in Cleveland: Season Four, starring Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, Wendie Malick and Betty White, plus a plethora of guest stars, including the likes of Heather Locklear, William Shatner, Kirstie Alley and Carol Burnett.

Bonus features include the “live” episode titled “It’s Alive” and the “clip episode” titled “Look Who’s Hot Now.”

All 19 episodes of this football-themed spinoff of the Girlsfriends series, The Game: The Sixth Season, will be available the following week, Dec. 10, a three-disc collection.

Bonus goodies include a gage reel and deleted scenes.

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report:  DVD & Blu-ray Release Report

Eagle Rock Entertainment Says Oct. 22 For DVD and Blu-ray Editions of Hugh Laurie: Live On The Queen Mary

Hugh Laurie is perhaps best known as the caustic Dr. Gregory House on the hit television series House.   He’s a damn good actor, with a sharp wit, but he’s also an accomplished musician — piano and guitar — and a singer.

Eagle Rock Entertainment has added DVD and Blu-ray product offerings of his Mar. 2013 live concert — that was staged on the iconic Queen Mary (moored as a tourist attraction in Long Beach, California) — to its Oct. 22 release calendar.   

Titled Hugh Laurie: Live on the Queen Mary, this two-and-a-half hour live concert presentation features an 18-song set that includes the likes of “Staggerlee,” “Day and Night,” “Wild Honey,” “Changes” and “Louisiana Blues.”   

Bonus features include the documentary titled “Copper Bottom Blues” and a video interview with Laurie.

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report:  DVD & Blu-ray Release Report

Mischief Night On DVD From Image Entertainment On Dec. 17

Image Entertainment has a “talk-to-the-screen” thriller planned for a DVD rollout on Dec. 17.   That would be director Richard Schenkman’s Mischief Night.

If a filmmaker does it just right and keeps the suspense building — without padding — you can literally have the audience start offering advice … “No, no, don’t go in there.”  “Look behind you!!”  “Run!!!”   That’s what Mischief Night is … a “talk-to-the-screen” thriller.

For film buffs the references to Wait Until Dark abound.   For those unfamiliar with that film, back in 1967 filmmaker Terence Young crafted a nifty thriller that starred Audrey Hepburn as a blind woman being terrorized by a trio of drug dealers and murderers (Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna and Jack Weston).   She must somehow overcome their brutality — despite her obvious disadvantage — in the confines of her apartment if she is to survive.

With Mischief Night, we are introduced to Emily (Noell Coet — as Beth in the Revelation Road film series), who has gone blind after a traumatic event in her life and finds herself recovering from the ordeal in a large Victorian-style home owned by her father.   On the eve of Halloween (for atmosphere), there is a mysterious intruder who breaks into her home and begins stalking her — we have not a clue as to what this is all about and since she cannot see, she’s oblivious to his presence (but we “see” everything). 

So as Emily moves about the house, the masked and hooded figure begins to pick off family members and friends, while Emily is, initially, unaware of the danger that lurks, often, just outside the hallway door.   The trick here is to keep the suspense building until the final act and both the motives are revealed and the survival instincts of our heroine are put to the ultimate test  … it is all nicely done!   You will find yourself, yelling “Emily, look out!”

A behind the scenes production featurette is the only bonus nugget at this time.

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report:  DVD & Blu-ray Release Report