MVD Launch Marquee Collection Blu-ray Line On Aug. 14 With Dwayne Johnson's Walking Tall

MVD Entertainment Group’s popular “Rewind Collection” — which is the company’s specialty label for “classics and more from the video store” — has a new promotional banner in the works with the launch of the “Marquee Collection.”   

The Blu-ray and DVD product offerings under the “Marquee Collection” will feature a mix of studio and indie films that are a little too new to be cult, but just old enough to be “catalog” … that middle area; solid and entertaining films that are certainly worth a second look among collectors and film aficionados.

A great example — and the first release under MVD’s “Marquee Collection” on Aug. 14 — is director Kevin Bray’s 2004 theatrical hit, Walking Tall, starring Dwayne Johnson.

This all-action crime thriller is an update version of filmmaker Phil Karlson’s 1973 film release of Walking Tall, which was based on actual events surrounding the life of Sheriff Buford Pusser (played by Joe Don Baker).   This 2004 version changes some of the names, places and events, but it is basically the same story of a small town sheriff — Dwayne Johnson as Chris Vaughn — who takes on the local gambling, drug and even law enforcement problems after winning a rigged trial and becoming the new sheriff.   Johnny Knoxville and Ashley Scott co-star.

Bonus goodies include two commentary options.  The first features Dwayne Johnson and the second includes director Kevin Bray (All About the Benjamins), film editor Robert Ivison and director of photography Glen MacPherson.

There are also deleted scenes, a blooper reel, an alternate ending and the featurette titled “Fight the Good Fight.”

Paramount Home Media Announces First Wave Of TV-On-DVD Products For Delivery In August • Tom Clancy Goes 4K On Aug. 21

It is that time of year once again.   The broadcast seasons are wrapping up and late summer/early fall home entertainment launch dates are being announced … the new crop, so to speak, heads home.

That was the news this week from Paramount Home Media with DVD collections for three long-standing series getting August street dates and the debut of a new series on DVD … also in August.

Returning on Aug. 21 is one of the CBS mainstays, Blue Bloods: The Eighth Season (all 22 episodes), which was a good-news/bad-news season for fans — Danny’s wife, Linda (Amy Carlson), died in a rescue chopper crash, but Jamie and his partner, Eddie Janko (Vanessa Ray), finally took it to the next level and got engaged.

Also streeting on Aug. 21 is another CBS franchise, NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service - The Fifteenth Season (24 complete episodes), which finished a thrilling cliffhanger and the very sad news for fans that Abby (Pauley Perrette) was wrapping up her career as the NCIS Forensic Specialist.   The good news for fans is that Gibbs (Mark Harmon) has re-upped for two more seasons!

One week earlier, Aug. 14, is the new David Boreanaz action series, SEAL Team: Season One … it will be making its DVD debut with all 22 first-season episodes.   

Bravo Team is after the bad guys no matter where they go or where they try to hide!

Also on Aug. 14 is NCIS: New Orleans: The Fourth Season … all 24 episodes featuring the crime-fighting efforts of Dwayne Cassius Pride (Scott Bakula), Christopher LaSalle (Lucas Black) and their New Orleans-based team. 

In other release news from Paramount Home Media this week, there will be five new 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack releases on Aug. 21.   This time it is the late Tom Clancy and the film adaptations of his best-selling Jack Ryan novels that Paramount will be promoting.

These are: The Hunt for Red October (1990, directed by John McTiernan, with Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin and Scott Glenn), Patriot Games (1992, direction by Phillip Noyce, with Harrison Ford, Sean Bean and Anne Archer), Clear and Present Danger (1994, Phillip Noyce again handles the direction, with Harrison Ford and Anne Archer returning), The Sum of All Fears (2002, Ben Affleck takes over the role of Jack Ryan with Phil Alden Robinson behind the camera) and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014, directed by Kenneth Branagh with Chris Pine as Jack Ryan … he joined by Kevin Costner, Keira Knightley and Kenneth Branagh).

Arrow Video Picks Aug. 14 For The Release Of A Blu-ray Edition Of Herschell Gordon Lewis' The Gore Gore Girls

Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has selected Aug. 14 for the next stand-alone Blu-ray special edition release showcasing the talents of iconic filmmaker Herschell Gordon Lewis.

Back in October of 2016 Arrow Video released the Herschell Gordon Lewis Feast, which may have been out of the price range of some fans, so during the past year the various components of that 14-film collection have been broken out as stand-alone presentations.   The latest, on Aug. 14, will be a Blu-ray presentation of director Herschell Gordon Lewis’ 1972 splatter/horror/mystery, The Gore Gore Girls. 

When the body count begins to mount at the local strip club (run by none other than Henny Youngman) — Suzie Cream Puff, Candy Cane and the lovely Pickles all meet horrible deaths at the hands of a masked killer — a hot-shot reporter by name of Nancy (Amy Farrell), from the tell-all rag, “The Globe,” thinks that the gruesome crimes might be a terrific story and a great photo spread.   

To make this happen, she recruits Abe Gentry (Frank Kress), a sleazy and in-your-face PI, to get to the bottom of it … and to be her personal guide into the lurid world of strip clubs and these violent murders.

With Herschell Gordon Lewis as the filmmaker you know that the killings will be blood red and controversial (meaning: “let’s ban this”) and The Gore Gore Girls does not disappoint.   The film is also a bit of a mystery, with plenty of “obvious” suspects in the mix … a nice twist at the end, with poor Nancy as bait, gives us both the killer and a happy ending (time to go home)!

Included with The Gore Gore Girls is director Herschell Gordon Lewis’ 1971 film, This Stuff'll Kill Ya! … plus there are commentary options for both films — The Gore Gore Girls is a vintage commentary from Lewis and This Stuff'll Kill Ya! features camera operator and Lewis biographer Daniel Krogh.

There are also three featurettes — “Author Stephen Thrower on The Gore Gore Girls,” “Regional Bloodshed” and “Herschell Spills His Guts.”

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Announces A July 24 Home Entertainment Launch Date For Director Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has tabbed July 24 as the home entertainment street date for director Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of the Ernest Cline 2011 sci-fi novel, Ready Player One.

The ARR is 116 days and box office receipts are solid at $135.2 million … whether Ready Player One becomes Warner Bros. counterpoint to Fox’s successful Maze Runner film franchise remains to be seen (Spielberg may have to hand sequels, if any, off to other filmmakers).

Planned for release are a stand-alone DVD edition, two Blu-ray Combo Pack presentations — one a Blu-ray/DVD configuration and the other is a double disc Blu-ray set with 2D and 3D viewing options — and, lastly, there is a 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack.

Ready Player One is a beautiful, even spectacular film — you’d expect nothing less from Spielberg — but it is relentlessly depressing.   In the near future (circa 2045) the United States — specifically, Columbus, Ohio (go Bucks!) — has been reduced to an over-crowded third world slum (it numbs the mind to even imagine what the rest of the world must be like).   

To avoid the reality of a country, much less a planet, with no future, the younger generation (who might be better served in seeking solutions, but that would be a different movie) retreat into a world of virtual reality known as the OASIS.  It is an imaginary world where, if you were actually super rich, instead of just surviving from one day to the next, you could do pretty much anything that you might imagine just to entertain yourself.   

OASIS is basically a drug … it’s the current generation’s fascination with digital devices (texting, etc.) taken to the next level, or even beyond the next level.  If the poor kids, living in hastily fashioned tenements, have access to the high-tech world of OASIS, we can only imagine what the rest of the world must be like … perhaps living in the hell envisioned by Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium.

Basically, Ready Player One is a “Wizard of Oz … don’t look behind the curtain” kind of movie.   Enjoy the ride; the thrill of it, the visuals … enjoy the adventures of the avatar Parzival (Tye Sheridan — Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, X-Men: Apocalypse, etc.) and the life and death game being played for the control of OASIS.   Just don’t ask too many questions of how OASIS continues to function … real-world issues like electricity, food supplies, clean drinking water, trash pick-up, etc. are best left ignored.   Who is doing the heavy lifting in 2045 if the Neo-Millennials are busy with OASIS?   

All SKU configurations include the featurette titled “The '80’s: You’re the Inspiration.”   Exclusive to the Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD editions are five additional production featurettes — “Game Changer: Cracking the Code,” “Effects for a Brave New World,” “Level Up: Sound for the Future,” “High Score: Endgame” and “Ernie & Tye's Excellent Adventure.”

Cinema Libre Picks June 5 For The DVD Debut Of Genetically Modified Children

Cinema Libre announced this past week that Genetically Modified Children will be making its domestic DVD debut on June 5.   Documentary filmmakers Stephanie Lebrun and Juliette Igier deliver a horror show of frightening proportions with the release of this film … it might just be a wake-up call that growers everywhere need to examine!   

Monsanto’s Roundup (Glyphosate) has been around since 1974 and been the subject of numerous studies, which pretty much come back as “it’s safe, but avoid prolonged exposure, etc., etc., etc.”   Maybe so, but Lebrun and Igier have discovered a potential nightmare anomaly in the tobacco producing areas of Argentina that looks to be the beginning of an epidemic of childhood mutations, cancer and skin diseases that have the local medical community baffled.

There are issues raised … is Glyphosate and genetically-modified tobacco a deadly combination, and if so, what other combinations might be about to manifest themselves.   Oh sure, there are claims that the Chinese are dumping inferior blends of Glyphosate around the world (they indeed have a history of mass-producing defective products … lead-laced toys are a great example), but is that just “deflection” from Monsanto?   

There are more and more reports that Roundup is producing resistant “weed” strains … which raises the specter, is Monsanto secretly modifying the basic formula of Glyphosate to increase the potency?   Is Lebrun and Igier’s film the smoking gun?   

Is exposure a generational thing?   So many questions … Genetically Modified Children combines plenty of examples of this “new plague” in Argentina with interviews with local academics and medical officials to create a powerful case that something horrible is taking place in the here and now.

Genetically Modified Children is presented in English and Spanish with English subtitles.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Taps July 17 For The DVD And Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Debut Of Amy Schumer's I Feel Pretty

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has selected July 17 as the street date for the directing team of Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein’s I Feel Pretty, starring Amy Schumer as the most beautiful woman in the world.

I Feel Pretty arrives in the home entertainment marketplace as both DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack selections and with a quick-to-market ARR of 88 days.   Box office receipts currently stand at $46.6 million.

The premise of the film is just fine and Amy Schumer is capable in the lead as a woman with self-esteem issues, but why PG-13?   Let her rip, you’ll likely end up with an even funnier film.   

And what was with the apology tour by Schumer?   A “black woman” should have been cast in her role … huh?   Promote your film, get out there and sell it, and stop the whining (just a thought).  

In any case, Schumer plays a New Yorker by the name of Renee, who — for the sake of argument — is not a size 4.   She feels that she is capable of working at a big cosmetic firm that she manages a web site for, but feels that her body type wouldn’t fit their public image.   

Fair enough, it makes her something of a “victim,” which is a larger societal issue, but you can understand her thinking.   This all changes when, while working out to keep her weight in line, she has an accident that knocks her cold.   When she awakes and looks in the mirror she sees the most ravishing woman in the world.   Which, of course, is the whole point of the comedy.   You see the world as you see yourself.  

This newfound confidence lands Renee a job at the beauty firm, where she quickly rises from receptionist to management and finds love along the way.   Happy ending … well, almost. 

 

Bonus features include a gag reel, deleted scenes and the featurette titled “Being Pretty.”

In other release news from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, director José Padilha’s 7 Days at Entebbe has been added to the July 3 release schedule and will be available as DVD and Blu-ray product offerings.

The ARR works out to 109 days and box office receipts were a modest $2.9 million.

Bonus features include a pair of production featurettes — “The Entebbe Team” and “Inside the Raid.”

Director John Curran's Chappaquiddick Arrives As DVD And Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Offerings On July 10 From Lionsgate Home Entertainment

The Entertainment Studios production of director John Curran’s Chappaquiddick will be guided home by Lionsgate Home Entertainment on July 10 as DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack product offerings.   

The ARR for this tell-all about Ted Kennedy’s (played by Jason Clarke) “auto accident” involving Mary Jo Kopechne (Kate Mara) in July of 1969 works out to 95 days.   Box office receipts were a disappointing $17.2 million.

Bonus features include a pair of production featurettes — “A Reckoning: Revisiting Chappaquiddick” and “Bridge to the Past: Editing the Film.”