Warner Bros. Home Entertainment's Game Night On DVD And Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack On May 22

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has tabbed May 22 as the street date for the directing team of John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s winning adult-themed mystery comedy, Game Night.

The ARR is 88 days and the box office take was a stellar $67.9 million.

Planned for release are a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack edition and a stand-alone DVD SKU.

Jason Bateman has hit his stride as both a dead-pan, even snarky, comedy leading man — not quite a Bob Hope yet, but a few more Game Night-like films and he’ll be right there — and film producer (which means he controls the future of his career).    He produced this winner and teamed up with fellow actor and filmmaker John Francis Daley and his producing/directing/writing partner Jonathan Goldstein (co-writers on both of the Horrible Bosses films and the writing/directing team of Vacation … among other writing and production credits) and the result is a near perfect 100 minutes of comedy merriment.

And, the inclusion of Rachel McAdams (Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actress in Spotlight, plus such films as Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, etc.) as Bateman’s wife and fellow game player was inspired (Bateman and McAdams were both in director Kevin Macdonald’s 2009 thriller, State of Play).

Max (Bateman) and Annie (McAdams) and their neighborhood friends have game night, which is more of an excuse to have a friendly wine and cheese party every week.   It’s fun and everyone seems to enjoy it.   However, Max’s over-achieving brother (played by Kyle Chandler) — an all around pain-in-the-ass — interjects himself into their latest game night, invites them over to his fancy digs and changes the rules.   

It will be a “real” game … sort of like Michael Douglas and Sean Penn, the Van Ortons, trying to figure out what is real and not real in director David Fincher’s 1997 thriller, The Game.   And no sooner does he lay all of this out when a couple of thugs break in and abduct him.   Max, Annie and their guests think that it is part of the game and enjoy the violence and commotion as part of the play-acting … this is going to be great fun!

Game Night quickly turns into a real-life scavenger hunt as the couples gleefully try to solve Max’s brother’s game challenge, which includes his fancy car as a prize.   What they don’t realize — at first — is that the game is real and that the game is rigged … and there is more going on within the game than meets the eye.  In short, Game Night is a hoot!

As to bonus goodies, there is a gag reel and a making-of featurette titled “An Unforgettable Evening: Making Game Night.”

Wild Eye Releasing Selects June 12 For The DVD Debut Of Milko Davis' The Jurassic Dead

Wild Eye Releasing, with sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, will be delivering dino-bites (or chomps, as the case may be) of their own on June 12 with the DVD debut of director Milko Davis’ Jurassic Dead.

 

It goes head-to-head with Universal Pictures June 22 theatrical rollout of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which will be a summer blockbuster.   So there is no comparison between the two, right?   

It is sort of a yes and no answer.   On the surface Jurassic Dead — a story about a crazed scientist who has developed a zombie-like dinosaur (and things far worse) — and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom are worlds apart, but when you look at the production budget for each film you will see something that is scaring the hell out of the studios; driving them crazy with fear.   

Director J.A. Bayona’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom likely has a film budget well in excess of $200 million, while Davis’ Jurassic Dead is probably somewhere south of $75,000.   So?  What’s the big deal?   

It goes like this, back in the 1920s and ‘30s, stop-motion was state-of-the-art (King Kong and The Lost World are great examples) for creature features; monsters … dinosaurs, T-Rex and the like.   Sci-fi films of the 1950s were fun and delivered what was promised, but the special effects were often wanting (Tarantula is a terrific film, by 1955 special effects standards, but today the big spider looks cheezy).   The ‘70s saw Alien and Star Wars … things were getting better, but still nothing like today’s standards.

Skip ahead to the current world of CGI and f/x and for under $100,000 an independent filmmaker like Milko Davis — and his co-director Thomas Martwick — get an on-screen T-Rex that is pretty damn good.   Indeed, indie filmmakers are methodically mastering the film technology that was once reserved for the big-budget studio players … Jurassic Dead is a marvelous example of just how far indie filmmakers have come.

For genre fans, while they wait to queue up for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, they will be well-served to check out Wild Eye Releasing’s Jurassic Dead … 82 minutes of non-stop action, with a damn good-looking dinosaur at the heart of it.

VCI Entertainment Preps Aug. 14 For The Blu-ray Release Of Grindhouse Double Feature From Cult Director S. F. Brownrigg

VCI Entertainment made a long-lead announcement this past week that will have genre-fans salivating and counting the summer days until mid-August arrives.   

While the Hollywood studios are currently working on their May and June product offerings, VCI Entertainment has gotten out in front of the big boys with an Aug. 14 street date for new 2K restorations (from the original 35mm film negatives) of two horror classics from iconic ‘70s filmmaker S.F. Brownrigg.

Titled Grindhouse Double Feature From Cult Director S. F. Brownrigg (that’s a mouthful), this double-disc Blu-ray collection features both his September of 1973 drive-in classic, Don’t Look in the Basement (aka: The Forgotten) and the Blu-ray debut of his 1974 follow-up, Don’t Open the Door.

Make no mistake, even after forty years (and then some) Brownrigg’s nut house tale — oops, make that the insightful story of Dr. Stephens (Michael Harvey) and the patients at Stephens Sanitarium — still packs a wallop.   The “guests” (patients) are allowed to be themselves in the theory that they will drive themselves so crazy that they will eventually “snap out of it.”   Good luck with that!!!  Charlotte (Rosie Holotik) is the new nurse, hired (spoiler here) ironically by one of the crazy patients (an over-the-top performance by Annabelle Weenick … who also appears as Annie in Brownigg’s Don’t Open the Door), who is well on her way to going crazy herself after a day or two at Stephens Sanitarium.

Bonus goodies include commentary for Don’t Look in the Basement by film historian and journalist, David Del Valle and filmmaker David Decoteau (Puppet Master III: Toulon’s Revenge), plus outtakes and a collection of grindhouse and gore theatrical trailers from the period.

Arrow Video Tags June 26 For The Release Of The Definitive Spaghetti Western Blu-ray Collection Titled The Complete Sartana

The definitive Sartana film collection, oh hell, make that the definitive Spaghetti Western collection — if you are not a big fan, but feel the need to have at least some examples from this unique genre in your film library (and Eastwood, while good, doesn’t count … and you should have those anyway) — then this is the one.

Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has targeted June 26 for the Blu-ray collection titled simply, The Complete Sartana.

All five films in the series have new 2K restorations — and all with the original Italian language tracks (with English subtitles), or the English-dubbed versions.

Included in the mix are: If You Meet Sartana ... Pray for Your Death (1968, starring Gianni Garko (aka John Garko) and directed by Gianfranco Parolini (aka: Frank Kramer); I Am Sartana … Your Angel of Death (1969, Garko and Parolini are back … and yes, that is Klaus Kinski as “Hot Dead”); Sartana's Here ... Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin (1970, Giuliano Carnimeo (aka: Anthony Ascott) handled the direction with George Hilton doing a one-off as Sartana); Have a Good Funeral My Friend ... Sartana Will Pay (1970, three months later and Carnimeo teams with Garko) and lastly, Light the Fuse ... Sartana is Coming (Christmas of 1970 and Carnimeo and Garko bid farewell to Sartana).

This collection from Arrow Video comes loaded with bonus goodies, including commentary tracks for If You Meet Sartana ... Pray for Your Death, I Am Sartana … Your Angel of Death and Have a Good Funeral My Friend ... Sartana Will Pay and a score of featurettes and video sessions.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Looks To June 19 For Home Entertainment Of Pacific Rim: Uprising

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment announced this past week that a four-SKU helping of writer/director Steven S. DeKnight’s Pacific Rim Uprising will be ready for action on June 19.

The ARR comes in at just 88 days and domestic ticket sales were $57.6 million — a little more than half of the original Pacific Rim box office haul from the summer of 2013.  

Planned for release are a stand-alone DVD edition of Pacific Rim Uprising, two Blu-ray Combo Packs (one being a standard Blu-ray/DVD configuration and the second featuring two Blu-ray discs, one of which is a 3D presentation of the film) and lastly, a 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack.

Although the ending (sorry, no spoilers) leaves it open for a third film in the series, it may be some time before there is any production news on the film franchise front.   When the production budget is in the stratosphere and the box office take for the sequel is roughly half that of the original, it does give the studio pause on pushing ahead.

In any case, the action takes place ten years after the initial encounter with the Kaiju, which means we have new heroes to pilot the Jaegers — those giant machines that are Earth’s last line of defense against the alien invaders.   One of these is Jake Pentecost, played by John Boyega (as Finn from Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: The Force Awakens … and the Christmas of 2019 as yet untitled Star Wars film), who is the son of Stacker (Idris Elba) from Pacific Rim … he died in the climatic battle with the first wave of Kaiju.   

Others include Scott Eastwood as Nate Lambert and Cailee Spaeny (in her film debut) as Amara Namani, who are new Jaeger pilots, and who must overcome internal piloting corps conflicts as well as internecine corporate tussles before once again taking on the next round of Kaiju invaders.  

Bonus goodies include commentary by filmmaker Steven S. DeKnight (making his feature film directing debut here … extensive producing and series writing credits for the likes of Spartacus: War of the Damned and Spartacus: Gods of the Arena cable series — among others), who also provides commentary for a series of deleted scenes.   Additionally, there are a whopping ten production featurettes — “Hall of Heroes,” “Bridge to Uprising,” “The Underworld of Uprising,” “Becoming Cadets,” “Unexpected Villain,” “Next Level Jaegers,” “I Am Scrapper,” “Going Mega,” “Secrets of Shao” and “Mako Returns.”

The Criterion Collection Sets Its July DVD And Blu-ray Release Calendar

The Criterion Collection announced its July release calendar of new 2K and 4K film restorations that are destined for DVD and Blu-ray during the month this past week.

There are all different ways to go with this group … the deep dive into the history of cinema (a couple of releases on that front), an arthouse staple or a romantic story about baseball.   They are all on the list during the month of July.

Let’s go with writer/director Ron Shelton’s summer of 1988 Oscar-nominated screenplay about a fan with a mission, a catcher on the downswing and an up and coming prospect … Bull Durham of course. 

A new 4K restoration is the offing and both Blu-ray and DVD editions of Bull Durham will be available on July 10 (the All Star game will be in Washington D.C. this year on July 17, so the timing is a home run).

A quick trivia question … which film came first?   Bull Durham or Field of Dreams, both starring Kevin Costner … tick tock, tick tock, tick tock?

Minor league veteran Ron Shelton’s Bull Durham hit theatres in June of 1988 and Field of Dreams arrived the following April.   Both films, by the way, were hits at the box office.

In Bull Durham, we are introduced to Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon), a baseball fan, who selects one of the new players to have a season-long love affair with … sort of an introduction to the sport (ah-hem).   Her selectee this season is Ebby LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) — or just Meat … and soon to be “Nuke.”   He is raw and oh so not ready for the big leagues despite having an arm like a cannon. 

The final player in this mix is “Crash” Davis (Costner), a veteran catcher — with 21 days at “The Show” — who has been assigned Ebby as his mentoring and training mission for the summer.    

Annie has her way with “Nuke,” but it is clear that the real action will be between her and “Crash” when the season ends.

As to bonus goodies, there are two commentary options, both vintage, one featuring Shelton and the other teaming “Nuke” with “Crash,” plus there is a newly prepared video session with Ron Shelton and film critic Michael Sragow.

There are also two vintage featurettes — “Between the Lines: The Making of Bull Durham” and “The Greatest Show on Dirt” — and more.

For film buffs, Criterion bookends the month with the July 3, six-film/six-disc collection (on both DVD and Blu-ray) titled Dietrich & Von Stenberg in Hollywood (a mix of 2K and 4K restorations).   Included in the collection — each starring Marlene Dietrich and directed by Josef Von Sternberg — are Morocco (1930, with Gary Cooper and Adolphe Menjou … Von Sternberg was nominated Best Director and Marlene Dietrich received her only Best Actress nomination), Dishonored (1931, with Victor McLaglen and Warner Oland, who would also take on the Charlie Chan persona for the first time the same year in Charlie Chan Carries On and for 15 additional films in the series), Shanghai Express (1932, Warner Oland is joined by Clive Brook and Anna May Wong … nominated Best Pictures and Von Sternberg second Best Director nomination), Blonde Venus (1932, with Herbert Marshall and a relative newcomer to theatre screens, Cary Grant), The Scarlet Empress (1934, with Louise Dresser and Sam Jaffe) and The Devil is a Woman (1935, with Lionel Atwill).

Bonus features with the Dietrich & Von Stenberg in Hollywood include two newly prepared documentaries about the career of Marlene Dietrich, a 1935 short film titled The Fashion Side of Hollywood (featuring Dietrich), a vintage television interview (circa 1971) and more.

Closing the month on July 24 is another film buff entry, a 4K restoration of the 1946 film release of A Matter of Life and Death (aka: Stairway to Heaven) from the writing and directing team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

David Niven stars as a RAF pilot by the name of Peter, who is in a tough spot on the way back from a bombing raid over Germany as the film opens.   His plane is going down, he has ordered his crew to bail out, but he has no parachute for himself.   So he spends his last few minutes in conversation with an American radio operator by the name of June (Kim Hunter) and becomes enamored with her voice, but he knows that his time has run out.

He jumps to a certain death, but Conductor 71 (Marius Goring), who is supposed to guide his soul to the “Other World,” is a little inept — and with the thick English fog and all — he fails to make the connection.   Peter awakes on the beach, finds June and they fail in love … end of story.   Not quite, Peter must follow the rules and move on.  He, of course, objects and a mesmerizing trial of life and death follows.

 

Bonus nuggets include a vintage commentary with film scholar Ian Christie, a newly prepared video sessions with co-director/co-writer Michael Powell’s widow, film editor Thelma Schoonmaker (seven Oscar nominations for Best Film Editing, with wins for Raging Bull, The Aviator and The Departed … all three by director Martin Scorsese) and film historian Craig Barron, plus the 1998 short film, The Colour Merchant.

Rounding out the July DVD and Blu-ray selections from The Criterion Collection are sex, lies, and videotape (July 17) and Dragon Inn (July 10).

20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment Bring Direcotr Jason Matthews’ Red Sparrow To Market On May 22

Jennifer Lawrence is, as we all know, the greatest actress of the 21^st Century … four Oscar nominations, including a Best Actress win for her performance as Tiffany in Silver Linings Playbook, makes this so.  

But the crown wears heavy after being exposed in Passengers as simply a ride-along — that was Chris Pratt’s movie, with Michael Sheen as Arthur stealing every scene.  This was followed by the disaster of filmmaker Darren Aronofsky’s Mother!.  You would only need a couple more films like Mother! to make Jennifer Lawrence box office poison.

Red Sparrow, while a step in that direction, is not that film, yet.   Sure, Jennifer Lawrence can be Mystique in the X-Men movies and Katniss Everdeen of Hunger Games until the cows come home, but evidence seems to indicate that her range as the greatest actress of the 21^st Century might be getting defined as limited.

20^th Century-Fox Home Entertainment announced this past week that director Francis Lawrence’s (no relationship to Jennifer) film adaptation of the Jason Matthews’ spy thriller, Red Sparrow, will be arriving in the home entertainment marketplace on May 22 as a three-SKU array of product offerings.

The ARR is a zippy-quick 81 days and domestic receipts currently register a disappointing $46.5 million.

 

Planned for release are a stand-alone DVD edition and Combo Packs for Blu-ray/DVD and 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray configurations.

Jennifer Lawrence is a Russian ballerina named Dominika Egorova, who is recruited by her uncle (played by Matthias Schoenaerts) to become a Russian “sex-bot” agent named Sparrow … whose skill-set will be to charm and seduce targets and then eliminate them.  

You can’t help but think about Angelina Jolie’s performance in Salt when watching Red Sparrow … Jolie is simply more seductive than Jennifer Lawrence, sorry.  And with Red Sparrow coming so soon on the heels of Atomic Blonde, you realize that Charlize Theron is simply more kick-ass than Jennifer Lawrence will ever hope to be.

Does this mean that Red Sparrow is a bad movie?   Absolutely not … 20^th Century-Fox Home Entertainment will have no problem moving units and those who missed the film theatrically will have few, if any complaints about this evening’s viewing choice.    

Red Sparrow is, in fact, a good, solid action film that will seem familiar … Angelina Jolie and Charlize Theron are simply better at it.   Bottom line, a red light is now flashing for Jennifer Lawrence … Dominika Egorova/Sparrow is not her next franchise character, just a one-off.   Hollywood can be cruel to ingénues as there is always the next new star waiting in the wings.

Bonus features common to all three release SKUs are commentary by director Francis Lawrence (Water for Elephants, I Am Legend … and who directed Jennifer in the final three Hunger Games films) and deleted scenes with optional commentary from Francis Lawrence.

Exclusive to the Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD is a five-part look at the production of Red Sparrow titled “A New Cold War: Origination and Adaptation.”