Paramount Home Media Readies Four DVD Movie Collections For Delivery To Retail On Jan. 24

Paramount Home Media announced this past week that a quartet of action-laced hit film collections — that are priced to own on DVD — will be available at retail this coming Jan. 24.

Leading the way is the three-film, three-disc collection titled The Ultimate Warrior Collection.    Featured here are Best Picture-winners Braveheart (1995), directed by and starring Mel Gibson (don’t be surprised if his latest, Hacksaw Ridge, surfaces about this time as well) and Gladiator (2000, directed by Ridley Scott), starring Russell Crowe, are joined by director Brett Ratner’s 2014 film release of Hercules, starring Dwayne Johnson, the mythological son of Zeus.

And speaking of Dwayne Johnson (notice the segue here), Paramount has him featured in the collection titled Dwayne Johnson: 3 Movie Action Pack, which features the aforementioned Hercules along with director Jon M. Chu 2013 film release of G.I. Joe: Retaliation and director Michael Bay’s film Pain & Gain (also from 2013) teaming him with Mark Wahlberg. 

This leads us nicely to The Mark Wahlberg Collection — a four-film pack — that features Pain & Gain, plus director Antoine Fuqua film adapatation of Stephen Hunter’s novel “Point of Impact,” — titled for the screen as Shooter — director F. Gary Gray’s 2003 remake of The Italian Job (opposite Charlize Theron) and director John Singleton’s 2005 film release of Four Brothers. 

Round out the Jan. 24 DVD selections is the collection simply titled Samuel L. Jackson, which includes William Friedkin’s Rules of Engagement (with Guy Pearce and Tommy Lee Jones), director John Singleton’s 2000 reboot of Shaft, the 2005 biopic, Coach Carter and director Roger Michell’s road-rage thriller, Changing Lanes (teamed with Ben Affleck).

Bseenmedia Teams With MVD Entertainment Group For The Dec. 9 DVD Launch Of Jim Florentine: A Simple Man

Bseenmedia, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, will be bringing Jim Florentine’s latest comedy standup DVD presentation, Jim Florentine: A Simple Man, to fans everywhere on Friday, Dec. 9.

Jim Florentine is the man who became the nightmare contact for every telemarketer and the hero of everyone plagued by unwelcomed dinner hour interruptions.   He’s also the co-host of “The Metal Show” and a voice talent for characters (Special Ed and Bobby Fletcher) featured on Crank Yankers. 

His latest hour-long set of comedy routines was filmed live at New Brunswick, New Jersey’s famed George Street Playhouse Theatre earlier this year and features a look as his nerd neighbors, the subject of “man caves,” how to use the word “Redskin” (trust us, Jim Florentine is not politically-correct) and much more.   Remember, he’s just a “simple man” … 

SMART: Specialized Mobile Animal Rescue Team On DVD From Cinema Libre On Dec. 6

Cinema Libre has selected Dec. 6 as the DVD debut date for documentary filmmaker Justin Zimmerman’s SMART: Specialized Mobile Animal Rescue Team, a heart-warming tale of love, kindness and dedication to animals in need of help on the streets of Los Angeles.

Filmed over a course of three years, Zimmerman tracks Armando Navarrete and his team of highly skilled animal-rescue workers — really superheroes! — as they put their life-saving techniques into action on a daily basis in the “City of Angels.”    

From family pets in trouble to wild animals that have wandered — often terrified — into neighborhoods, it is their job to come to their rescue!  

VCI Entertainment To Release The 1941 Sky Raiders Serial On DVD On Nov. 29

VCI Entertainment will be bringing in for a DVD landing on Nov. 29 the directing team of Ford Beebe and Ray Taylor’s 1941 — pre-war — 12-chapter espionage serial, Sky Raiders.

War rages in Europe and World War I flying ace Capt. Bob Dayton (Donald Woods — The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Corregidor, Anthony Adverse, etc.) knows what horrors that could bring to America if it finally reaches our shores.   So he, and his flying buddy from the war, Lt. Ed Carey (Robert Armstrong — King Kong, Man of Conquest, Adventures of the Flying Cadets), run Sky Raiders, Inc., an aviation research and production plant.   

As the story unfolds, we find that they are feverishly at work on a new fighter for the Army, which has come under the purview of “foreign interests.”

Veteran villain Eduardo Ciannelli — Guru in Gunga Din, the High Priest in The Mummy’s Hand and many others — plays Felix Lynx who has, naturally, come up with a diabolical plan to steal the aircraft in question.   This involves a perfect doppelgänger of Dayton by the name of John Kane (also played Donald Woods).    

Lynx is ably assisted by Innis Clair (Jacqueline Dalya), while Kathryn Adams co-stars as Mary Blake, Dayton’s love interest … “Dead End Kid”/”East Side Kid” Billy Halop is also on hand as Dayton’s flying protégé.

12 thrill-pack cliffhangers featuring planes crashing, automobile wrecks and impossible escapes are featured in this vintage serial adventure.  

Artsploitation Films Tabs Dec. 13 For The DVD Debut Of Director George Moïse’s Counter Clockwise

Movie time travelers have traditionally been leading men.   Handsome dudes, you know Rod Taylor (The Time Machine), Malcolm McDowell (Time After Time), Michael J. Fox (Back to the Future), Bruce Willis (Looper) and on and on … it’s a long list, even Bill Murray is in there with Groundhog Day.   

So when it comes to the protagonist in director George Moïse’s Counter Clockwise, whose name is Ethan (played by Michael Kopelow — The Stoned Age), we get the decidedly unexpected; a nebbish.

Artsploitation Films has tabbed Dec. 13 as the domestic DVD debut date for Counter Clockwise.   

Ethan is science whiz who is hard at work with some sort of teleportation gizmo (think: Vincent Price and The Fly) — you know, transporting an object from point A to point B — when we are introduced to him and his lab partner, Ceil (Alice Rietveld).   The backstory has him married to Tiffany (no offense Ethan, but she seems way out of your league), has a sister named Fiona (Kerry Knuppe) and a one-eyed dog named Charlie. 

Without telling Ceil, he decides to try out the machine on Charlie.   Poof, Charlie’s gone!    The little pooch doesn’t go from point A to point B like a Fed-Ex delivery, but simply vanishes.   It is just about that moment in time that you’re thinking that the ASPCA needs to be called in on this rat of a human being when Charlie reappears.   

   

So what does any good scientist do when something scary like that happens?   That scenario would bore you to tears, so Ethan does what any good “mad scientist” would do … he tries the machine out on himself!   Poof!  Ethan is gone!

This is where Counter Clockwise become inventive, a sci-fi mystery if you will.  Ethan arrives in the future, at his lab, which has been shut down.  He quickly discovers that he is wanted for the murders of both his wife and his sister and to make matters worse, he’s got two crazed killers out to do him in (he has no clue as to who they are).   He and Ceil haven’t invented a teleportation device, but a time machine.

The only good news is that he is able to find Ceil — the future Ceil — and she too is   And she realizes that they’ve invented a time machine and that device will be Ethan’s salvation.

convinced that Ethan didn’t murder his wife or sister.

If you are familiar with Tom Cruise’s character in Edge of Tomorrow, he goes back in time (over and over again) and gets smarter each time, learns new things and is finally able to solve the puzzle that he is faced with.   Ethan, sadly, is no Tom Cruise.   He has to go back in time, undo the murders, find the real killer and not get killed by the assassins that are after him or captured by the police.   Good luck Ethan!

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Preps Director Jay Oliva's Latest DC Animated Adventure — Justice League Dark — For A Home Entertainment Launch On Feb. 7

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment announced this past week that DC Entertainment’s animation special-products filmmaker Jay Oliva’s latest feature-length creation, Justice League Dark, will be making its home entertainment debut as both DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack product offerings on Feb. 7.   

Counted among Olvia’s previous animated features are Batman: Bad Blood, Justice League: War and Batman: Assault on Arkham.

Bonus goodies include a trio of featurettes — “The Story of Swamp Thing,” “Did You Know?” and “2016 NY Comic Con Panel” — a sneak peek look at Teen Titans: The Judas Contract and a pair of bonus episodes from Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

The Film Detective Unearths The New Howdy Doody Show For A DVD Collection On Nov. 29

It’s Howdy Doody time once again as The Film Detective has unearthed 20 ultra rare episodes from Buffalo Bob Smith and his trusty sidekick, Howdy Doody, the 1976 reincarnation of the classic kid program that ran from 1947 through 1960 (in various forms).   

Titled The New Howdy Doody Show, which will be available as a four-disc collection on Nov. 29, reunited Buffalo Bob Smith, Howdy Doody and Clarabell (Lew Anderson) for a year’s worth of memories, and of course, fun for the entire family. 

 

The Film Detective has broken the 20-episode collection down into four theme-groups … there’s are “Glory Grits,” “Grab Bag,” “Peanut Parade” and “Doodyville Documentary.”

We’re not done yet, The Film Detective also has ten new film restorations ready for the DVD market place on Nov. 22.  

So let’s get to it … John Wayne has two of his pre-Stagecoach Westerns in the mix.  These are director Robert N. Bradbury’s 1934 film release of The Lucky Texan (co-starring Gabby Hayes, Yakima Canutt and Barbara Sheldon) and director Harry L. Fraser’s release of 'Neath the Arizona Skies (co-starring Sheila Terry).

Other Western classics to be found in the Nov. 22 restoration mix are director John English’s 1948 Gene Autry Western, Loaded Pistols (co-starring Barbara Britton and Chill Wills) and the 1953 Allen “Rocky” Lane entry, Marshal of Cedar Rock (directed by Harry Keller and co-starring Phyllis Coates (as the first Lois Lane in the Adventures of Superman television series).

On the classic film front a restored edition of director Frank Capra’s 1941 Oscar-nominated Meet John Doe (for Best Writing), teaming Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck is to be found in the Nov. 22 priced-to-collect DVD release mix.   So too is Meet Dr. Christian (1939, starring Jean Hersholt as the iconic physician) and the 1938 Dead End Kids entry, Little Tough Guy, starring Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell and Billy Halop (sans Leo Gorcey).

The 1934 theatrical version (cut-down) of the 12-chapter Mascot Pictures serial, The Lost Jungle (starring Clyde Beatty and Cecilia Parker) is also counted in the mix.   This was a common practice, the serial would appear in installment form and then be condensed down to a feature-length presentation and reissued for those who missed the serialized version.

Rounding out the Nov. 22 DVD selections are writer/director Oscar Micheaux’s  1939 murder mystery, Lying Lips (starring Edna Mae Harris) and the 1971 MOW mystery, Murder Once Removed, starring John Forsythe.