Mill Creek Entertainment's Next Retro VHS Blu-Ray Promotion Set For Mar. 09 • Includes Director Michael Apted's Gorillas In The Mist

Word arrived this past week from Mill Creek Entertainment that four new priced-to-collect Blu-ray releases will be ready on Mar. 9 as part of the company’s popular Retro VHS Blu-ray promotional line of products.

Topping the list is the late Michael Apted’s 1988 biopic, Gorillas in the Mist, starring Sigourney Weaver as primatologist Dian Fossey.

In 1983, Fossey wrote the best-selling novel, “Gorillas in the Mist,” and almost immediately there were attempts to transition the book to the screen.   After two years, the first production folded up shop.   Enter producer Arnold Glimcher, who traveled to Rwanda to meet with Fossey about resurrecting the project … just hours after their meeting she would be murdered.

For the next two years there would be competing interest trying to bring Fossey’s story to the screen, with her murder making it all the more important that her story be told.   Eventually, two studios, Universal and Warner Bros., would combine their efforts.

Who would portray Dian Fossey?   That was the big question.   Jane Fonda?  Vanessa Redgrave?   Diane Keaton?  Really, Diane Keaton?   Even Jessica Lange’s name surfaced in the trades as a possible candidate (after all, she was familiar with giant apes).   Sigourney Weaver got the part … ironically, 1988 would be a very good year for her, nominated as Best Actress for her performance in Gorillas in the Mist and also nominated Best Supporting Actress for Working Girl.

Other Blu-ray releases in this Mar. 9 Retro VHS Blu-ray promotion from Mill Creek Entertainment are director Kevin James Dobson’s 1995 family-themed adventure, Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain (with Christina Ricci and Anna Chlumsky), director Arthur Hiller’s 1992 baseball biopic, The Babe, starring John Goodman as Babe Ruth, and also from 1992 we have directorRoger Spottiswoode’s action/comedy, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, teaming Sylvester Stallone with Estelle Getty.

Also heading to Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment on Mar. 9 is the double-feature of director Howard Zieff’s 1991 family-themed blockbuster, My Girl, starring Anna Chlumsky (the future six-time Emmy nominee for her role as Amy Brookheimer in the Veep television series) and Macaulay Culkin (who had just rocketed to stardom as Kevin in Home Alone).

The movie proved to be so successful that in 1994 filmmaker Howard Zieff and Anna Chlumsky (along with parents Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis) reunited for My Girl 2.

 

 

 

 

Artsploitation Films Tabs Feb. 9 For The Release Of Director Michael Mayer's Happy Times On Both DVD And Blu-ray

Oh my, what a dinner party Artsploitation Films has lined up for fans of deep, dark and very black comedies to enjoy on Feb. 9!!

That’s the street date for both DVD and Blu-ray editions of director Michael Mayer’s film festival favorite, Happy Times, which has sort of a double-entendre meaning, happy not, but hilariously funny in a “happy” sort of way.

It’s the annual Shabbat dinner at Sigal (Liraz Chamami) and Yossi’s (Ido Mor) home in the Hollywood Hills.  The dinner, the tradition, is a bit of a pretense to show off their digs … to rub it in, so to speak.   Their friends and family members are invited, but at this particular dinner it will be more than just wine, challah bread and Gefilte fish served.

Michael (Michael Aloni — Out in the Dark) is a struggling actor who has elected to bring a guest, Aliyah (Stéfi Celma), and he can’t even make it to the front door before he has a run-in with Maor (Daniel Lavid), who secretly has the hots for Sigal.  How dare Michael bring Aliyah to the dinner … she’s black and she’s not Jewish.

More guests arrive and the meal finally begins, but it doesn’t go well.   Michael and Maor go at it again, Michael gets the worst of it and Maor uses the confusion of the moment to hit on Sigal, which doesn’t sit well with her husband who nearly beats him to death.   It the middle of all this chaos Michael returns, licking his wound, but now he has a gun!!

OK, OK, everyone needs to settle down.   This is getting out of control.   Calm.  BANG!!  One dead Maor, but it was an accident … let’s just move on.  Move on, HAH!   One thing leads to another and pretty soon it is absolute bedlam in the Hollywood Hills home of Sigal and Yossi.

Who survives the night?   To find the answer to that question out, you’ll need to pick up a Blu-ray or DVD edition of Artsploitation Films’ Happy Times on Feb. 9.   Presented in a mix of English and Hebrew with English subtitles.

Bonus features include a blooper reel, deleted scenes and an alternate cut scene.   

 

 

 

Paramount Home Media Targets Mar. 02 For The Blu-ray Debut Of She's The Man: 15th Anniversary Edition

Paramount Home Media announced two new Blu-ray promotions for the first quarter this past week.   The first of these is the Mar. 2 Blu-ray debut of director Andy Fickman’s 2006 high school comedy, She’s the Man: 15^th Anniversary Edition, starring Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum.

Bonus features include two separate commentary options, the first featuring cast members Amanda Bynes, Channing Tatum, Laura Ramsey, Robert Hoffman and Alexandra Breckenridge, who are joined by director Andy Fickman (Playing with Fire, Race to Witch Mountain) and writer/producer Ewan “Jack” Leslie, and the second features Leslie with co-producer Lauren Shuler Donner.

There are also nine deleted scenes, a gag reel, the David Lichens’ music video titled “Let Go” and three featurettes — “Making the Man,” “The Troupe” and “Inspired by Sharkespeare’s … Twelfth Night.”

The other Blu-ray promotion added to the ‘Q1 release calendar by Paramount Home Media this past week is a 13-strong slate of Miramar Productions returning to the home entertainment marketplace (Paramount acquired the library last April).   The street date is Feb. 23 (all include Digital Copy).

The mix includes director Anthony Minghelia’s 1996 Best Picture-winner, The English Patient (Best Director, Best Supporting Actress for Juliette Binoche and six additional Oscar wins); director John Dahl’s 1998 film release of Rounders (with Matt Damon, John Malkovich, Edward Norton and Gretchen Mol), Billy Bob Thornton’s 1996 drama Sling Blade (he wrote, directed and starred … winning the Oscar for adapting his stage play) and writer/director Kevin Smith’s 1997 romantic dramedy, Chasing Amy, starring Ben Affleck, Jason Lee and Joey Lauren Adams.

Rounding out the Feb. 23 Blu-ray release list from Paramount Home Media are the foreign-language imports, Amélie (Best Foreign Language Oscar-nominee in 2002) and Like Water for Chocolate, as well as Doubt (acting nominations for Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Viola Davis and Philip Seymour Hoffman), Frida, Gone Baby Gone, Hostage, Paid in Full, The Queen (Best Actress Oscar for Helen Mirren) and Trainspotting.

 

 

 

Bayview Entertainment Sets Feb. 23 For The DVD Debut Of Writer/Director Holly Mollohan's My Autopsy

Bayview Entertainment has selected Feb. 23 as the DVD debut date for writer/director Holly Mollohan’s intense abuse drama, My Autopsy.

Back in 2011, Mollohan began entering her script for My Autopsy into various competitions, and it piled up a list of impressive awards and citations, including the Silver Ace Award at the Las Vegas International Film Festival in 2011 and the Award of Excellence at the 2012 edition of the Canada International Film Festival.

You would think that the script would have found some backers, gone into production and would have long-since been released on DVD.   Didn’t happen, and in retrospect that was not a bad thing as Mollohan honed her film filmmaking skills with directing, editing and producing numerous short films and music videos for Byzantine and Voices of Anatole.

These music videos piled-up a ton of awards, including wins at the Great Lakes Film Festival (Best Music Video: The Existential Gentlemen: Devil in the White City), Queen City Film Festival (Best Music Video: Byzantine: New Ways to Bear Witness) and five wins at the West Virginia Filmmakers Film Festival between 2007 and 2019.

She learned the craft, and with indie financing produced, directed and edited My Autopsy.  Yes, it took a decade from inception to release, but the wait is well worth it.

Rachel (Gareth Tidball), just 24-years old, is in a dark, abusive relationship with the charismatic Vince (Dave Stishan), a local musician.   He can be sweet, sensual and loving one minute and the next brutal, manipulative and cruel.   It’s a cycle that seems to have no end.

She does work up the courage to walk away, but just being physically separated from Vince is a start, but as she learns, it is just a start.   He loves to play “mind games” with her.   She is, after all, his “property.”   The mental abuse, as she discovers, is every bit, if not more so, destructive as the physical assaults.

What filmmaker Holly Mollohan has crafted, with My Autopsy, is an intense look at the trauma of an abusive relationship and what it takes, physically and emotionally, to finally break free.   The movie is a rollercoaster ride of emotions, blessed with top-of-the-line production values and a solid soundtrack … and, of course, more festival awards were garnered for the finished film, including Best Feature Film at the 2020 GenreBlast Film Festival (you would expect nothing less).

Feb. 23, on DVD, My Autopsy from Bayview Entertainment.   Mark it down.

 

 

 

Vinegar Syndrome Expands Jan. 26 Film Restoration Slate With Four New Additions Including Jenny Agutter's Dark Tower

Just before the home entertainment industry shutdown for the Christmas and New Year’s holiday period, Vinegar Syndrome announced that they had tabbed Jan. 26 for a new 4K restoration of director Vernon Zimmerman’s 1980 horror cult classic, Fade to Black.

That was pretty exciting news as the Blu-ray release comes loaded with bonus goodies, including commentary from the film’s star, Dennis Christopher.  This past week Vinegar Syndrome expanded their Jan. 26 Blu-ray release calendar to include four additional film restorations.

What is heading home for genre fans to savor in late January?   Of course, it is always a subjective evaluation as to what is leading any particular release parade, but you’d have to lean towards the directing team of Freddie Francis and Ken Wiederhorn’s 1988 high rise “haunted house” thriller, Dark Tower, simply because it co-stars Walkabout’s Jenny Agutter.  

This is a new 2K restoration from the 35mm interpositive.

So, what is the iconic Jessica from Logan’s Run up to in Dark Tower?   After a quick introduction as part of the management team of a newly completed high rise in Barcelona, Carolyn Page (Agutter), gives a little tour, hands out some souvenir hard hats to the VIP guests and then heads back to her office and takes a little personal downtime.  

That means disrobing and enjoying the moment with next to nothing on.   The window washer, who just happens to be working on that particular floor, takes notice, she takes notice of his voyeurism and moments later he dies a horrible death.   Accident?

Dennis Randall (Michael Moriarty — Q: The Winged Serpent, Pale Rider, etc. … and four-time Emmy-nominee for his Benjamin Stone character in Law & Order) is called in to investigate.   Carolyn claims it was some sort of ghost.   Sure, that is as good as an explanation as any, but he is still going to investigate ... and fantasize what he could do the lovely witness if given the opportunity.

Turns out the place is haunted … and we discover, in something of a twist-ending, who is actually haunting the place and why the lovely Carolyn Page is the target of this deadly aberration.

The only bonus feature is the video session with f/x and makeup artist Steve Neill (Battle Beyond the Stars, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, The Stuff, etc.) titled “Dark Inspirations.”

The “haunted house” theme continues on Jan. 26 with the Blu-ray releases of  writer/director Juan Piquer Simón’s 1992 creepy thriller, Cthulhu Mansion; filmmaker 1989 remake of the classic Edgar Allen Poe horror tale, The House of Usher (with Oliver Reed, Donald Pleasence and Romy Windsor) and the 1978 Spanish-language import, Satan's Blood.

 

Arrow Video Selects Mar. 16 For The Blu-ray Debut Of The Invisible Man Appears

Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has locked into Mar. 16 as the street date for one of the coolest “old school” sci-fi flicks to be released on Blu-ray.   Yes flicks, plural … a double-feature!!

The double-bill in question is the Japanese filmmaking team of Nobou Adachi and Shigehiro Fukushima’s 1949 — yes, you read that right, 1949 — sci-fi tale, The Invisible Man Appears, which is teamed with director Mitsuo Murayama’s 1957 follow-up, The Invisible Man Vs. The Human Fly.

Japan is still in ruins, the America occupation is in its third year, troubles are brewing in China and Korea and there it is, a sci-fi film for domestic audiences … we are still a few years away from director Ishirô Honda’s Godzilla (Gojira), which introduced American audiences to Japanese cinema (not arthouse cinema, mind you).  

The Invisible Man Appears is, technically-speaking, a pretty slick little number for its time.   There are scientists working on a drug to make human invisible, a love-triangle, a jewel heist, murder and more.   It is a competent story and something of a commentary on the state of Japan at the time, but the real importance of the film is its timing and precedes Godzilla by a good five years.

Both films are presented in Japanese with English subtitles … the only bonus feature is the featurette titled “Transparent Terrors,” featuring critic and writter Kim Newman.

 

 

 

 

VCI Entertainment's The Basher Box Ready For DVD And Blu-ray Launch On Apr. 13

VCI Entertainment announced this past week that two classic chop-socky (martial arts, kung fu … ) action flicks from the 1970s — the “Golden Age” for Kung-Fu fighting and the like — will be heading home as both DVD and Blu-ray product offerings in The Basher: Box Set.  The street date is Apr. 13.

Getting a 4K film restoration (from the 35mm inter-positive print) is writer/director Lung-Hsiang Fang’s 1973 (1975 domestic) film release of The Awaken Punch (aka: The Fury of the Black Belt; aka: Village on Fire), which is teamed with a new 4K transfer (from the 35mm negative) of director Yang-Ming Tsai’s 1972 (1974 domestic) film release The Prodigal Boxer (aka: Kung Fu: The Punch of Death).

Speaking as someone who ran theatres that pulled in some pretty nice numbers from this type of genre, you simply could not get enough them during the mid-70s.  Once Billy Jack, Enter the Dragon and Fist of Fury (aka: The Chinese Connection) hit box office gold, film distributors flocked to Hong Kong and grabbed up everything being produced.   Dubbed, re-titled (often again and again), the grind houses of the time saw a steady flow of such films.  

These two films are prime examples of what was showcased theatrically during this golden period.  

Bonus goodies include commentary on The Prodigal Boxer with actor/director Michael Worth and Clones Cast/Cinema Bushido host Matthew Whittaker, plus there is the featurette titled “Creative Chaos: The Basher Genre,” which features Michael Worth and action choreographer John Kreng.