Paramount Home Entertainment Selects May 18 As The Street Date For Writer/Director Edward Drake's Cosmic Sin

Paramount Home Entertainment has established May 18 as the debut date for both DVD and Blu-ray editions of writer/director Edward Drake's sci-fi thriller, Cosmic Sin, starring Bruce Willis and Frank Grillo.

The future has arrived, it is the year 2524 and Earth and humankind have colonized our solar system and moved out into other systems.   On the fringe of space there comes a threat in the form of the Siega, who can transform humans into zombie-like drones … they are ready to take control!!

Back on Earth, we are introduced to disgraced former General James Ford (Bruce Willis), who did the unspeakable (slaughtering an entire rebel colony of 70 million people) and in the process earned the nickname, “The Bloody General.”  Washed-up, disgraced and left to live out his days as nothing more than a barfly, Ford suddenly finds that his unique killing skills are required!

General Eron Ryle (Frank Grillo — Avengers: Endgame, Captain America: Civil War) needs him to saddle-up and face the Siega, who have already infiltrated Earth’s defenses and only a heroic last stand was able to eliminate the invading vanguard who came in the form of outer-colony survivors.

Through a “Quantum Jump Gate,” Ford, Ryle and an elite commando unit arrive at Ellora, a planet colony now under attack from a Siega space armada.  Can they fight off the Siega and the Siega-controlled human drones, and buy the time necessary for “The Bloody General” to unleash his handywork … the fate of all mankind now rests with a burnt-out mass murderer!!

Also added to the release calendar this past week is writer/director BenDavid Grabinski‘s debut feature film, the odd-ball romantic black comedy titled Happily.  

Starring Joel McHale (Becky, Dark Harbor) and Kerry Bishé (Argo, The Ticket … as Sister Molly Finnister in Penny Dreadful: City of Angels series) as Tom and Janet, who are a couple so happy that all of their friends are jealous.   '

They are envious and upset that Tom and Janet are so incredibly happy, so to what lengths will their friends go to test that happiness; to challenge the perfect relationship?   Oh boy, it is dead-body lengths, that’s the lengths that they appear to be willing to go to break the perfect couple up!!

And lastly, the popular Nickelodeon animated series, PAW Patrol is back on June 1 with the latest DVD collection, PAW Patrol: Moto Pups.

Chase and friends have new adventures when the world-famous Motorcycle Stunt Show comes to town starring Wildcat, a super-star stunt cyclist.   Along with this hi-rev excitement are the mischief-makers, the Ruff-Ruff Pack.   How do you maintain some sort of order and keep everyone safe … safe, until the Motorcycle Stunt Show packs up and moves on?   It won’t be easy!!

 

MVD Entertainment Group Bestows "Rewind Collection" Status On The Go-Go Boys; The Inside Story Of Cannon Films For Release On Blu-ray And DVD On July 20

MVD Entertainment Group’s popular “Rewind Collection” promotional label well be getting a new member on July 20.  That is the street date for both DVD and Blu-ray editions of documentary filmmaker Hilla Medalia’s The Go-Go Boys: The Inside Story of Cannon Films.

Beginning in the 1950s there arose an independent film production and distribution company that was run by James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff.   This was American International Pictures and it was home to Roger Corman and other newbie filmmakers, then came the Edgar Allan Poe films with Vincent Price … and the “Beach Party” movies followed with Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon.

Everything, for something like 17, 18 years, was gold for AIP and then Nicholson died and the magic was gone … 1972, who would fill the void?

The answer came in 1979 when two cousins, Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, bought the near-defunct Cannon Films (which was founded during the final years of the AIP cycle) and moved their filmmaking operation from Israel to Hollywood.

With street-smarts and hutzpah they developed a magic action formula of making films, with a modest budget and a tight schedule — starring Chuck Norris, Jean Claude VanDamme, Charles Bronson, Michael Dudikoff and Dolph Lundgren — that found an audience and hit after hit after poured into cinemas worldwide.   Cannon Films went from nothing to an empire and within ten years the team of Golan/Globus was producing thirty to forty films per year!!

The Go-Go Boys: The Inside Story of Cannon Films follows the history of the Golan/Globus magic … the rise, the glory years and the eventual split.  One day the magic was gone.   And no one has quite replicated either the AIP or Cannon Films production and distribution model in the thirty years that have passed since Cannon Films closed its doors.

 

 

 

Mill Creek Entertainment Readies The DVD Debut Of Director Sean Hardaway's Pasture On June 15

Mill Creek Entertainment has tabbed June 15 for the DVD debut of director Sean Hardaway’s psychological thriller, Pasture.

It’s rural Texas, the Nueces River meanders its way through a remote scrub oak ranch on its way to Corpus Christi and the Gulf of Mexico.   It’s a lovely place, quiet, serene … peaceful.  

Sarah (Abigail Rose — Dandy, Crunch Time) awakes in this pastural setting to the voice of James (Brian Kelly), who keeps asking, “what do you remember?”  Disoriented, unclear as to where she is or what is happening, James reassures her that everything is fine … oh, and by the way, this is your sister Ingrid (Kimberley Christann Pember).  

This is the nightmare world that Sarah awakes to.   A strange man, who says he is family and appears to be some sort of doctor and a stranger who is, she is told, her sister.   She can’t remember anything, where she is or how she got to this remote location.  Is it a dream … is it real?

Pasture is a psychological horror tale and we soon learn that the all-too-friendly James is experimenting on Sarah.   She is suffering from “schizophrenia” and he is zapping her from time to time to correct the problem … scrambling her brain and the memories therein.   She’s a prisoner, in more ways than one.

The big question, if the kindly James and his assistant, Ingrid, can’t cure poor Sarah, does he simply let her go?   Is she really family?   It is a big place, lots of land to bury the past (so to speak) … and she might not be their first “guest.”   A skin-crawling creep-out … June 15 on DVD!!

In other release news from Mill Creek Entertainment this week, June 8 will be the street date for the three-disc DVD collection of the animated series, The Critic: The Complete Series (3 disc set).   Starring Jon Lovitz as Jay Sherman, the host of a show by the name of “Coming Attractions” … Sherman reviews films, most are, as he puts it, “stinkers!”

Included here are all 23 episodes from the series.  

 

 

 

Bayview Entertainment Selects June 29 As The Street Date For The Domestic DVD Debut Of Louisa: An Amazing Adventure

Bayview Entertainment will be handling the domestic DVD distribution of the English animated film import from the directing team of Stephen Cookson and David Reynold.   Titled Louisa: An Amazing Adventure, it will be available on June 29.

This animated thriller is based on actual events that unfolded on the night of January 12, 1899 as the 1,900-ton Forrest Hall, a four-masted cargo ship out of Liverpool, floundered in the Bristol Channel in heavy seas.

The “Louisa” of our story is actually a 34-foot, self-righting life-boat, equipped with a ten-foot sliding steel keel and stations for ten oarsmen.  The life-boat was stationed at Lynmouth, which was on the other side of the peninsula from where the Forrest Hall was taking on water.

The first thing was to haul the beast 13-miles on country roads, through pastures, knocking down fences and walls to get the Louisa to the shore.   With the crew now exhausted from the ordeal, they now had to put to sea, in gale-force winds and heavy seas to row out in a desperate attempt to save the crew of Forrest Hall before it sinks in the Bristol Channel.

Ten hours of fighting impossible seas, using only the lamps they carried, to accomplish their task.  14 men, risking their lives for complete strangers, that is the story that filmmakers Stephen Cookson and David Reynold tell in the animated-thriller, Louisa: An Amazing Adventure.   Celia Imrie provides narration.

 

 

 

4K Ultra HD Edition Of Director Dario Argento's The Bird With The Crystal Plumage From Arrow Video On June 29

Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has selected June 29 for the 4K Ultra HD debut of director Dario Argento’s 1970 landmark giallo horror/thriller, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage.

This new 4K film restoration, from the film’s original 35mm negative, includes both the original Italian language track and the English-language theatrical release track.

This was Argento’s debut effort, a mix of Italian giallo and horror … and worked to perfection, triggering two follow-up films in what fans and film critics call Argento’s “Animal Trilogy” — The Cat O’ Nine Tales (1971) and Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1972).  

The trick to Dario Argento’s stunning early success was a combination of solid production values, coherent storylines (a mix of mystery and murder) and the use of familiar American and English actors with Italian actors.   In the case of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, the “imports” were Tony Musante (The Detective, The Incident, etc.) and English actress Suzy Kendall (To Sir, with Love, Dark Than Amber … and later starring in writer/director Sergio Marino’s Torso).

As to bonus goodies for this 4K edition from Arrow Video on June 29, there is commentary from writer Troy Howarth (“So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films”), a pair of production featurettes — “Black Gloves and Screaming Mimis” and “The Power of Perception” — plus three video sessions variously titled “Crystal Nightmare” (with filmmaker Dario Argento), “An Argentro Icon” (with actor Gildo Di Marco — as Garullo, who also appeared in Four Flies on Grey Velvet) and “Eva’s Talking” (with German actress Eva Renzi — as Monica).

 

 

 

 

VCI Entertainment's 4K Film Restoration Of Phantom Of The Air Will Be Available As Both DVD And Blu-ray Product Offerings On July 06

VCI Entertainment announced this past week that a new 4K film restoration of director Ray Taylor’s 1933 sci-fi and aviation twelve-chapter serial, Phantom of the Air, will be available as both DVD and Blu-ray product offerings on July 6.

This landmark — pre-code as well — serial from 1933 not only includes actual stunt footage of airplane daredevils (barnstorming and air circus craziness swept the nation after the success of Wings in 1929), but it is one of the earliest sci-fi themed films of the sound era.

Of note, Universal Pictures also released The Invisible Man the same year … and this Universal serial pre-dates The Vanishing Shadow, which was the studio’s sci-fi serial in 1934 (which is also available from VCI Entertainment as a new film restoration released on Blu-ray in 2019).

The film stars then box office heavyweight Tom Tyler — who successfully made the transition from silent films to the talkies — as U.S. Border Patrol agent Bob Raymond, who is also an accomplished pilot.  

As the action gets underway, we learn that Thomas Edmunds (William Desmond — The Vanishing Shadow, The Roaring West, etc.), a research scientist, has developed an anti-gravity chemical compound that he calls “Contragrav.” He wants to use it as alternative aviation “fuel.”   With his lovely daughter, Mary (Gloria Shea — The Last Days of Pompeii, Black Gold), they meet up with Edmunds at the National Air Races in Cleveland, Ohio and recruit him to be their test pilot.

Also attending the air show is a flying ace by the name of Mortimer Crome (LeRoy Mason — The Tiger Woman, The Man Who Wouldn't Die, The Apache Kid), who runs the International Import and Export Company … and, as it turns out, is a good friend of Mary.  

This friendship gives him access to the family and no one suspects that he is actually the head of a criminal organization and is out to steal the “Contragrav” invention … his first step, eliminate Edmunds (his plane crash — and act of sabotage — is the cliffhanger for chapter one).

Twelve thrill-pack chapters, complete with airplane stunts that are insane, a lovely damsel, often in distress, a villain with henchmen to spare (yes, that’s future two-time Oscar winner Walter Brennan as one of Crome’s minions) and our flying hero facing doom at the end of each cliffhanging chapter!!

 

 

 

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment To Release Director Tim Story's Tom & Jerry As DVD And Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Editions On May 18

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment announced this past week the street date for something as rare these days as flying monkeys, a theatrical release with a box office gross in excess of $25 million.  Hallelujah!

This box office monster in none other than director Tim Story’s mixed animation and live-action treat, Tom & Jerry.   The street date for both DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack editions will be May 18.

For the record, the current box office number is “estimated” to be $39.5 million and the ARR works out to a swift-to-market 81 days.

Bonus features, common to both SKUs, is a gag reel.   Exclusive to the Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack edition are deleted scenes, six featurettes — “Bringing Tom & Jerry to Life,” “Tom & Jerry’s World,” “The Feud; #TeamTom vs. #TeamJerry,” “Jerry’s a House for a Mouse,” “The Tom & Jerry Guide to New York City Wildlife” and “Inside the Wedding of Ben and Preeta” — plus there are two “A Scene Comes to Life” examples — “Ben and Preeta’s Wedding” and “Animal Lock-Up.”