Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Preps DVD And Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Editions Of Creed (Mar. 1) And In The Heart Of The Sea (Mar. 8)

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has select Mar. 1 for home entertainment launch of director Ryan Coogler’s triumph return of the venerable Rocky film franchise with the release of DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack editions of Creed.

The ARR is a quick-to-market 95 days and domestic box office receipts currently stand at an impressive $108.2 million.   

That’s not bad for Sly Stallone’s aging Rocky Balboa, who is nominated for Best Supporting Actor and was also nominated in 1976 for the same character in the Best Actor category (plus Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen).

Both the DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack editions will feature deleted scenes and a pair of production featurettes —  “Know The Past, Own The Future” and “Becoming Adonis.”

In other release action, director Ron Howard’s big-budget story about the origins of Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick” saga, In the Heart of the Sea, will follow Creed on Mar. 8 with a three-SKU array of home entertainment product offerings.

The ARR is a very-fast-to-market 88 days and box office receipts were a very disappointing $24.7 million.   

With a reported $100 million as the product budget, plus another $15 to $20 million in P&A for the domestic theatrical launch, this tale of the seas has turned into an ocean of red ink for Warner Bros.   That’s pretty sad when you consider that this is a Ron Howard film.

On that point, 2015 was a record-setter at the box office, that is, in terms of the overall numbers, but it was also a year marked by a sharp decline in the number of films grossing in excess of $25 million.  Some very prestigious films utterly failed to attract an audience ... and that includes films with multiple Oscar nominations.   

The VOD monster is certainly beginning to take its toll and “Hollywood” better start paying attention before the goose that has laid so many golden eggs is choked to death with a digital necktie.   Either the windows need to be adjusted or the pricing needs to be reviewed to discourage consumers from abandoning theatrical venues.   Something needs to change and change quickly!!

As to the SKU configuration for In the Heart of the Sea, there will be a stand-alone DVD edition and a pair of Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack product offerings — one with and without a 3D viewing option.  The 3D viewing premium is nine dollars.

As to bonus goodies, all three SKUs will include the featurette titled “Chase & Pollard: A Man of Means and A Man of Courage.”   Exclusive to the Blu-ray editions are deleted and extended scenes, plus five additional featurettes, including one titled “Ron Howard: Captain’s Log.”    

Lionsgate Home Entertainment Tabs Mar. 22 For DVD And Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Editions Of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2

The final installment in Lionsgate Home Entertainment’s mega-hit film franchise series, The Hunger Games: Mockingjaw – Part 2, will be making its way to the home entertainment market place on Mar. 22 as DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack editions.

The ARR works out to 123 days and the box office haul was a very solid $280.3 million, which brings the domestic box office total for all four films in the series to a whopping $1.45 billion.   That’s a monster number, so any concern that The Hunger Games has run its course — simply because it has burned through the trio of books that marked the series — is probably premature.   

As to bonus features, director Francis Lawrence (Constantine, I Am Legend, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, etc.) is joined by producer Nina Jacobson (The Hunger Games film series and Diary of a Wimpy Kid series) for commentary, plus there are three production featurettes — “The Hunger Games: A Photographic Journey,” “Cinna’s Sketchbook: Secrets of the Mockingjay Armor” and “Panem on Display: The Hunger Games: The Exhibition.”

Exclusive to the Blu-ray SKU are the eight-part “documentary” titled “Pawns No More: Making The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2” and the additional featurette, “Jet to the Set.”

Also slated for release on Mar. 22 are DVD and Blu-ray collections of all four films in The Hunger Games series.

Bonus goodies here include a dozen never-before-seen deleted scenes from The Hunger Games, a half-dozen deleted scenes from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, nine more from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 and a pair of newly-created featurettes — “Picturing Panem” and “Capitol Cuisine.”   All previously released bonus features are also included in these complete collections on DVD and Blu-ray.

Wolfe's DVD Debut Of Portrait Of A Serial Monogamist Will Take Place On Feb. 9

Wolfe has selected Feb. 9 for the DVD debut of the writing and directing team of John Mitchell and Christina Zeidler’s romantic comedy, Portrait of a Serial Monogamist.

Elsie (Diane Flacks — Take This Waltz, Too Much Sex, etc.) has an itch that she can’t seem to scratch.   She has had a series of very intimate relationships and they all seemed so perfect … and then she just took off.   She doesn’t cheat; doesn’t play around … she just up and leaves.   In fact, she’s got it down to a routine, complete with rules (based on experience).

Robyn (played by writer Carolyn Taylor) is her latest “victim.”  They seem like the perfect couple, but Elsie has that itch and blindsiding Robyn isn’t personal; that’s just how Elsie rolls.  Robyn is both surprised and crushed.   

So there’s your set-up.   A loving couple in a wonderful relationship with a self imposed expiration date — like a carton of milk — only one member knows and the other hasn’t a clue that there’s a date certain when things just end.

You’ve got to be thinking that Elsie is a jerk, or a female version thereof.   She is, and that’s the dilemma that filmmakers John Mitchell and Christina Zeidler were faced with … how do you get the audience to like Elsie, even though her behavior is destructive and rude?  

This is where the casting of Diane Flacks comes into play.  She is nothing short of amazing in her comic timing and the flashbacks that have been created by the filmmakers to tell her backstory are well constructed and also very funny.   So even though she is not very nice, you can’t help but like her.

Robyn is kicked to the curb and now Elsie is free to zero in on her next loving relationship, which takes the form of a younger beauty by the name of Lolli (Vanessa Dunn).   There’s just one little problem.   It appears to be perfect, but it isn’t … and her family and friends don’t help.   

Portrait of a Serial Monogamist rises or falls with the performance of Diane Flacks.   With the smart, very witty script, she nails it, this is a keeper.   But does it have a happy ending — for that, you’ll have to find out for yourself on Feb. 9.

Bonus goodies are limited to deleted scenes. 

Wild Eye Releasing Serves Up Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla On DVD From Aussie Filmmaker Stuart Simpson On May 24

Wild Eye Releasing has gone down under for the May 24 DVD debut of Aussie filmmaker Stuart Simpson’s Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla.

The film opened in September of 2014 at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, where it cleaned up with wins for Best Actor (Glenn Maynard) and Best Screen Play (Addison Heath) and then hit Monster Fest two months later in Melbourne where it scored both rave reviews and the coveted Crystal Monster award for Best Picture.

More festival play followed, more awards, but now it is time, at last, for genre fans to be able to enjoy this sweet black comedy on DVD!!!

Warren (Glenn Maynard) is an awkward, lonely man, who spends his days parked on some side street in Melbourne, Australia peddling ice cream (hence the title).   He appears to have only one interest in life, soap queen Katey George (Kyrie Capri), the star of Round the Block … no, wait, let’s change that from “interest” to obsession.   There, that’s better, he is obsessed with the star of Round the Block, Katey George.

It’s not exactly clear why he has picked this particular venue to set up shop each day.  Perhaps it is just his nature do to the same thing over and over and over again.

If our boy Warren had half a brain he’d pick a different spot as a pimp, street hustler and low life drug dealer named Rocko (Aston Elliot) has taken notice of Warren’s little business.   He likes ice cream, he doesn’t pay and he enjoys beating up on the hapless Warren.  

One bright day Katey is standing at the head of the line ordering ice cream — apparently taking a break from a location shoot — and Warren has the courage to at least strike up a conversation with her.   His dream has come true.   

If you believe that, then you believe in unicorns and pots of gold at the end of rainbows.   Between the constant torments from Rocko and this chance meeting with Katey, the wheels have now been set in motion for our this otherwise friendly ice cream peddler to become unhinged … and unhinged he is (hint: he appears to have seen Taxi Driver a time or two)!

Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla is one of those guilty pleasures this is part black comedy; part psycho thriller.   A message film too: You can only put the heat on ice cream man for so long before there’s a meltdown!

Vinegar Syndrome Announces Four New DVD Releases For Feb. 23

Vinegar Syndrome announced a four-strong selection of new DVD releases that will be retail-ready on Feb. 23.

Leading this hit parade is the next edition in the company’s popular Drive-In Collection line of DVD guilty pleasure double-features.   At the top of the bill is director James Bryan’s 1984 action thriller The Executioner, Part II, teaming Christopher Mitchum with Renee Harmon as a police detective and reporter respectively who are trying to figure out the identity of the killer of local criminals.   It’s not hard to root for them to take their time in uncovering the identity of this particular serial killer.

Teamed with The Executioner, Part II is director Frank Roach’s 1975 Frozen Scream, starring Renee Harmon in a lurid tale about murder victims who are resurrected as zombie killers.

Next up on the Feb. 23 DVD release schedule is the newest addition to Vinegar Syndrome’s “Peekarama” promotional banner.   This particular tantalizing double feature showcases the curvaceous talents of Hyapatia Lee, Kay Parker and Shauna Grant in the 1983 film release of The Young Like It Hot and the alluring Ms. Lee is back in Sweet Young Foxes (also released in 1983) — both of these adult delights were directed by Bob Chinn.

Also on the classic adult front — from the golden era when these temptations were actually shot on film — are both director Matt Cimber’s 1971 adult film release of Sex and Astrology and director Richard Kanter’s 1978 all-star gem, Sensual Encounters of Every Kind, featuring the talents of Georgina Spelvin, Leslie Bovee and Serena.   Both films are new 2k transfer from original film elements.

The Criterion Collection Announces Its April 2016 Line Up Of New DVD And Blu-ray Film Releases

The Criterion Collection has set its April release calendar and once again there are film delights planned that will certainly please a wide spectrum of film tastes.   So let’s get right to it.

The release celebration begins on Apr. 12 with a new 4K restoration of iconic filmmaker Howard Hawks’ 1939 romantic adventure, Only Angels Have Wings, teaming Cary Grant with Jean Arthur (who was very busy during this period with starring roles in You Can't Take It With You and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) … others in this all-star cast include Rita Hayworth, Sig Ruman, Thomas Mitchell, Richard Barthelmess, Noah Beery Jr. and Western legend Don 'Red' Barry.

Bonus goodies for both the DVD and Blu-ray editions include segments of a 1972 video session featuring Howard Hawks and auteur filmmaker Peter

Bogdanovich, a newly-prepared video session with author, historian and film critic David Thomson, the Lux Radio adaptation of the film featuring Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Rita Hayworth, Richard Barthelmess, and Thomas Mitchell and hosted by director Cecil B. DeMille and lastly, film scholars Craig Barron and Ben Burtt are featured in “Howard Hawks and His Aviation Movies.”

A newly restored 2K transfer of director Whit Stillman’s 1994 film release of Barcelona will be available as both DVD and Blu-ray product offerings on Apr. 19.   Additionally, Criterion will also be packaging the Barcelona as a box set titled A Whit Stillman Trilogy: Metropolitan, Barcelona, The Last Days of Disco.

Bonus nuggets include a vintage commentary option featuring Whit Stillman and the film’s stars, Chris Eigeman and Taylor Nichols, plus there deleted scenes and an alternate ending (both include commentary Stillman, Eigeman and Nichols), the featurette titled “The Making of Barcelona” and a newly-prepared video session with film critic Farran Smith Nehme.

Closing out the month — Apr. 26 — are a trio of DVD and Blu-ray releases.   First up is the Blu-ray and double-disc DVD releases of The Kennedy Films of Robert Drew & Associates, which showcases a collection of three documentaries — “Primary,” “Adventures of the New Frontier” and “Crisis” — and the short film titled “Faces of November.”

As bonus features, there’s an alternate cut (shorter version) of “Primary,” there’s a commentary option for the extended version of “Primary” featuring Robert Drew and D. A. Pennebaker and a newly prepared video session featuring D. A. Pennebaker and Robert

Drew’s daughter-in-law, Jill Drew.

Next up on Apr. 26 is a new hi-def transfer of director David Lean’s 1945 (domestic release was 1946) romantic drama, Brief Encounter.   The DVD and Blu-ray editions include a vintage commentary track featuring film historian Bruce Eder and two short documentaries — “A Profile of Brief Encounter” and “David Lean: A Self Portrait.”

Lastly, Apr. 26 brings to DVD and Blu-ray one of the more interesting films of the month, German director Christian Petzold’s Phoenix.

The ARR for this arthouse and film festival circuit favorite is 277 days and domestic ticket sales for this German-language import were an outstanding $3.2 million (that is a very impressive number of a foreign language film).

In post-war Germany we are introduced to Nelly Lenz (Nina Hoss — A Most Wanted Man, Barbara, etc.), the survivor of both an unforgivable betrayal and stint in a Nazi concentration camp.   Her face was shattered as the result of a bullet meant to kill her and after reconstruction surgery she returns to the real world.   She has a small inheritance that affords her the opportunity to leave Germany, but she desperately wants to know if it was her husband (played by Ronald Zehrfeld) who betrayed her to the Nazis.   

That’s the short version of Petzold’s clever thriller — she finds him, he doesn’t recognize her and she agrees to help him — are you ready for this? — teach her how to pass for his dead wife so that the two of them can collect her inheritance!!  It is a race against time — her uncovering his betrayal and him finally figuring out that the impostor he is training is actually his wife!!  Intense!

Bonus features for Phoenix are various video sessions with Christian Petzold and Nina Hoss; as well as Hans Fromm and an on-set session with Petzold, Hoss and actors Nina Kunzendorf and Ronald Zehrfeld, plus production designer Kade Gruber.

Oscilloscope Laboratories Sets March DVD Debut Dates For Director Alice Rohrwacher's The Wonders And Filmmaker David Evans’ What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy

Oscilloscope Laboratories announced this past week that the surprise 2014 Cannes Film Festival winner of the Grand Prize of the Jury, filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher for her coming-of-age drama, The Wonders, will be making its domestic DVD debut on Mar. 8.

The ARR is 130 days and the film’s limited arthouse showcase generated ticket sales of $69,236.

Set against the beautiful backdrop of Tuscany, we are introduced to 12 year-old “queen bee” Gelsomina (Maria Alexandra Lungu), her three sisters, an “aunt” named Coco (Sabine Timoteo), her mother (Albe Rohrwacher) and her father, Wolfgang (Sam Louwyck) — he’s the patriarch of the family, but Gelsomina is the glue that holds things, however tenuously, together.   Her mother, Angelica, is a go-along, get-along type of person … she’s not happy with Wolfgang, but does little to change things.

They are like a family stuck in time.   The world drifts by, they raise honey, Wolfgang barks orders, but like a certain Shakespearean character of yore, his “sound and fury” signifies very little … he barks, no one pays much attention; nothing changes.

Rohrwacher has structured the family, their dwelling and their business of tending to the bees without either a timeframe or much detail as to how this group of Italian-speaking, French-speaking and German-speaking family members came to live in Tuscany.   It’s hinted at that there was something more complex in the past, but that has long since been forgotten.  It’s not important.

Like an idyllic pastel painting, quiet; serene, this country setting would continue on from one day to the next were it not for two events crashing in at the same time.   A juvenile delinquent named Martin (Luis Huilca) has arrived for work-rehabilitation, which gives Wolfgang someone to hold dominion over.  

And, Gelsomina has allowed the outside world in by entering the family’s business into some whacky reality television competition — “Countryside Wonders” — hosted by Milly Catena (Monica Bellucci), a wonder in herself, who is seemingly from another planet (or, perhaps she wandered away from the set of a Fellini film long ago).

These elements play out in bittersweet fashion as Wolfgang’s frustrations hide deeper issues and Gelsomina begins to feel the world around her change … it will never be the same again.

Bonus features include deleted scenes, a photo gallery prepared as a short video and the 1951 short film from producers Paul F. Moss and Thelma Schnee titled “Bee City.”

Also announced this week, Oscilloscope Laboratories has selected Mar. 15 for the domestic DVD debut of documentary filmmaker David Evans’ What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy.

The question is: Are the sins of the fathers visited upon their children? 

The sins under the microscope here — as the title implies — are mass murders (ethnic cleansings) committed by high-ranking Nazi officials during World War II.   Documentary filmmaker David Evans teamed with political activist and human rights lawyer Philippe Sands to recruit the sons of two such officials to revisit the same areas where over 60 years earlier mass exterminations took place and counted among the dead were Sands’ relatives.

Agreeing to be part of this “experiment” were Horst von Wächter, the son of Otto von Wächter, governor of Krakow (among other things) and Niklas Frank, the son of Hans Frank, Hitler’s personal attorney, governor-general of Polish territories occupied by the Nazis, who was convicted at Nuremberg and executed.

The trio, with Evans documenting their travels and interactions, set out to revisit the areas where their father’s ruled.   It is an interesting “therapy” session, with Niklas Frank reconciled to the evil that his father had committed, while Wächter understands full-well the gravity of what took place, but retreats into defending his father with the old “just following orders” justification.

What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy is a fascinating exercise and one well worth a look-see when it arrives on DVD on Mar. 15.  

Bonus features include commentary by Evans and Sands, a newly prepared video session with Philippe Sands, deleted scenes and an extended scene featuring the trio in conversation at the Purcell Room in London.