Paramount Home Media Distribution Will Release A 55-Disc DVD Set Of JAG: The Complete Series On Apr. 14

Paramount Home Media Distribution, in conjunction with CBS Home Entertainment, announced this past week that all 227 episodes of JAG: Judge Advocate General will be available on Apr. 14 as a DVD mega-set (55 discs) titled JAG: The Complete Series.

Launched on NBC in the fall of 1995 by Donald P. Bellisario, the series featured David James Elliott as JAG officer Harmon “Harm” Rabb, Jr. and Tracey Needham as fellow JAG lawyer Lieutenant JG Meg Austin.    

After the first season the series was dropped, re-tooled (with the replacement of Catherine Bell as Elliott’s courtroom partner) and picked up by CBS for nine additional seasons.   

It ran for nine additional seasons and yielded the spin-off series NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service — 11 seasons later it is still going strong!

20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment Adds A Three-SKU Helping Of Director Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings To Its Mar. 17 Release Calendar

In a nicely choreographed one-two announcement move, 20^th Century-Fox Home Entertainment followed-up last week’s announcement for the Mar. 17 release of the Penguins of Madagascar by selecting the same date for a three-SKU helping of director Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings.    

The ARR is a zippy 95 and ticket sales were a ho-hum $64.5 million.

There will be a stand-alone DVD edition, a 2D Blu-ray edition and “Deluxe” Combo Pack featuring both 2D and 3D viewing options, a bonus Blu-ray special features disc and DVD version of the film.   

Bonus features include commentary from director Ridley Scott, nine deleted scenes, a 14-part production documentary titled “Keepers of the Covenant” and the featurette titled “The Lawgiver’s Legacy: Moses Throughout History.”

Front Line Assembly: Kampfbereit On DVD From The MVD Entertainment Group On Apr. 7

Canadian E.I. (Electro-Industrial) rockers, Front Line Assembly, will be heading to the DVD market place on Apr. 7 with the MVD Entertainment Group debut of Front Line Assembly: Kampfbereit, their 2011 live concert at the Kinetik Festival (on tour in support of their Improvised Electronic Device album) in Montreal.

Included in the 12-song set are “Pressure Wave,” “Liquid Separation,” “Angriff,” “Hostage” and their hit single from the Improvised Electronic Device album, “Shifting Through The Lens.”

The bonus goodie on the DVD release is the hidden track, “The Legend of Soy Leeb.”

VCI Entertainment Selects Mar. 24 As The DVD Release Date For Italian Neorealism Filmmaker Alberto Lattuada’s Without Pity

VCI Entertainment has tabbed Mar. 24 for the DVD debut of the ultra-rare 1948 film release of Italian Neorealism filmmaker Alberto Lattuada’s Without Pity.  

The names from this post-war movement read like a who’s who of the greats of Italian cinema … Visconti, De Sica, Rossellini and, of course, Fellini, who provided the script (it would be another two years before he made his debut as a director with the 1950 release of Variety Lights).

The war is over and Jerry (John Kitzmiller — best known as Quarrel in Dr. No), a black G.I., has decided to remain in Italy.   He sees little reason to return to the United States and racial tensions of a Jim Crow south.  An outcast at home, he falls in love with a woman named Angela (Carla Del Poggio — Alberto Lattuada’s wife of 60 years), who is a prostitute … an outcast in her own country.   

Their forbidden love becomes the focal point of tensions between the military, who questions his decision, and the local thugs who “own” Angela.   Harsh and unrelenting!

Presented in Italian with English subtitles.

Paramount Home Media Distribution To Release DVD And Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Editions Of Interstellar On Mar. 31

Paramount Home Media Distribution has tagged Mar. 31 for the DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack debut of writer/director Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar.  

The ARR is 144 and the domestic ticket sales at the local multiplex currently stand at a toasty $185.9 million.

Nominated for five Oscars (Production Design, Music, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Visual Effects), Interstellar is a whole lot more than what the theatrical trailers presented it as.   And there is a good reason for that — wormholes, gravitational distortions and time paradoxes are difficult concepts to convey in a limited amount of time.

To be honest, the trailers (plural) were way off the mark.   These snippets of film portrayed a global warming catastrophe (oh please … that does not sell tickets), political correctness malarkey and some sort of disjointed space thrills that take place on alien landscapes.   Instead, Interstellar is a well-told, if a little complicated, adventure tale, complete with a villain (surprise!) and a series of edge-of-your-seat encounters on planets in a galaxy far, far away.   

Matthew McConaughey absolutely shines as former NASA astronaut Cooper, who is sent on what seems to be an impossible mission to survey three distant planets as a possible new home for humanity.    Joining him on the Endurance are Amelia (Anne Hathaway), Romilly (David Gyasi) and Doyle (Wes Bentley), while his daughter Murphy (variously played by Mackenzie Foy, Jessica Chastain and Ellen Burstyn) is left behind to fend for herself. 

So best advice is to ignore the trailer(s) and join Cooper and crew on an intergalactic adventure that plays as quite nicely as a tribute to films of sci-fi lore.

Bonus goodies here includes 15 production featurettes, some of which are titled: “Plotting an Interstellar Journey,” “The Endurance,” “Across All Dimensions and Time” and “The Simulation of Zero-G.”

Also getting a DVD release date this past week is the Comedy Central series starring Amy Schumer, Inside Amy Schumer - Seasons 1 & 2 (a three-disc set).   This series blends sketch comedy bits with stand-up routines and featured such guests as Paul Giamatti, the incredible Parker Posey, Josh Charles, SNL’s Rachel Dratch and Patrick Warburton.

The street date is Apr. 7.

Bonus nuggets include unaired sketches, Amy Schumer’s stand-up routines and the featurette titled “Behind Amy Schumer.”

May 5 Is The Street Date For Warner Bros. Home Entertainment's Five-Film Blu-ray Promotion Celebrating The Career Of Frank Sinatra

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has announced a tribute to screen and recording legend Frank Sinatra that will take place on May 5.   Planned for delivery on that date are the debut of three new Blu-ray gems and the launch of a five-film Blu-ray collection.

Making its Blu-ray debut is director George Sidney’s 1945 Best Picture nominee, Anchors Aweigh, which teamed Frank Sinatra with Gene Kelly (nominated Best Actor for his performance here) and Kathryn Grayson.   

Of note, the film opened theatrically one month before the end of World War II and would remain as an active theatrical release for the next eight years as world markets reopened … Anchors Aweigh finally making its theatrical debut in Japan almost eight years to the day after its opening in the United States. 

Bonus features here include a pair of vintage short films — “Football Thrills of 1944” and Tex Avery’s 1945 theatrical cartoon, “Jerky Turkey” — there is also a featurette titled “Hanna & Barbera on the Making of  The Worry Song."

Next up as a first time Blu-ray release is the 1949 musical comedy, On the Town, which once again teams Frank Sinatra with Gene Kelly … Ann Miller, Betty Garrett and Vera-Ellen join the fun.

Bonus features include the 1949 Tex Avery theatrical cartoon, “Doggone Tired,” plus the Passing Parade short film titled “Mr. Whitney Had a Notion” (with Lloyd Bridges as Eli Whitney).

The last of the new Blu-ray SKUs starring Frank Sinatra is director Gordon Douglas’ 1964 “rat pack” comedy, Robin and the 7 Hoods.   In addition to Sinatra, the cast of characters includes “rat pack” cohorts Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr., plus Bing Crosby, Peter Falk, Barbara Rush … and such familiar faces as Victor Buono, Jack La Rue and Allen Jenkins.

Bonus nuggets include commentary by Frank Sinatra Jr., the featurette “What They Did to Robin Hood” and three classic theatrical cartoons sporting the Robin Hood theme — “Robin Hood Makes Good,” “Robin Hood Daffy” and “Rabbit Hood.”

As mentioned, these three new Blu-ray releases — along with the previously released Blu-ray versions of Guys and Dolls and Ocean’s 11 — are included in a five-film collection titled The Frank Sinatra Collection.   The SRP for the entire collection is $69.95, while the individual Blu-ray releases are priced at $19.98 each … so it is quite the bargain for those who do not already own either Guys and Dolls or Ocean’s 11.

Also added to the release schedule this week by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is director Jay Oliva’s latest feature-length animated film, Batman vs. Robin.   Both DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack editions will be available for fans to own on Apr. 14.

Robin/Damian Wayne (voiced by Stuart Allen) is seduced to the dark side by the mysterious Talon (voiced by Jeremy Sisto) and secretive Court of Owls.   This places him on a collision course with Batman (voiced by (Jason O'Mara) … will Gotham survive this clash of super heroes?

Bonus features include two production featurettes — “Gotham's City Secret: The Mythic Court of Owls” and “Talons of the Owl” — plus commentary and unspecified cartoons from the DC Comics film vault.

Lastly, a three-disc DVD edition of The Mentalist: The Complete Seventh Season will be released on Apr. 28.

Mill Creek Entertainment Adds Eight Additional DVD And Blu-ray SKUs To Its Mar. 17 Release Slate

Mill Creek Entertainment dramatically expanded its Mar. 17 DVD and Blu-ray release selections with the addition of eight additional priced-to-own selections, including newly-prepared Blu-ray releases for auteur filmmaker Orson Welles’ 1947 film noir thriller, The Lady from Shanghai (starring Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles) and director Laslo Benedek’s 1953 high-tension film masterpiece, The Wild One, starring Marlon Brando, Mary Murphy and Lee Marvin. 

Both of these new-to-Blu-ray cinema treasures are priced at just $14.98 each.

There are also four additional four-film DVD collections streeting on Mar. 17 under Mill Creek Entertainment’s double-disc “Hollywood Legends” promotional banner.   Both Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth are featured here … along with Fred Astaire and Cary Grant.

Hollywood Legends: Orson Welles includes the aforementioned The Lady From Shanghai, plus The Stranger (1946, directed and starring Orson Welles along with Loretta Young and Edward G. Robinson), The Southern Star (1969, Orson Welles is teamed with George Segal and the original Bond Girl, Ursula Andress) and the 1960 biblical epic, David and Goliath.

Hollywood Legends: Cary Grant showcases of his films — His Girl Friday (1940, directed by Howard Hawks and co-starring Rosalind Russell), The Amazing Adventure (1936, Mary Brian co-stars), Penny Serenade (1941, directed by George Stevens and featuring Irene Dunne) and Once Upon a Time (1944, with Janet Blair).

Next up is Hollywood Legends: Fred Astaire, which includes among its four-films You’ll Never Get Rich (1941, his co-star is Rita Hayworth), The Notorious Landlady (1962, teamed with Kim Kovak and Jack Lemmon), Second Chorus (1941, opposite Paulette Goddard) and director Stanley Donen’s 1951 romantic musical, Royal Wedding, which featured Fred Astaire along with Jane Powell and Peter Lawford.

And the last four-film SKU is Hollywood Legends: Rita Hayworth, which includes Music in My Heart (1940 with Tony Martin), Tonight and Every Night (1945), Down to Earth (1947) and Miss Sadie Thompson, which teamed Hayworth with José Ferrer and Aldo Ray.

And last, but not least, Mill Creek Entertainment will be releasing three-disc DVD collections of Bewitched: Season Five and Bewitched: Season Six, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York and Agnes Moorehead as Endora on Mar. 17.  SRP for each set is just $9.98 each.