Bayview Entertainment Readies Two New Kelly Coffey-Meyer Fitness DVDs For Release On Apr. 13

Bayview Entertainment will be teaming up with Kelly Coffey-Meyer for two new fitness programs on DVD on Apr. 13.

A fitness trainer and wellness coach with over 40 DVDs released during her award-winning career, she is known to legions of fitness fans for her CoffeyFit Vimeo program channel and her 30-Minutes to Fitness workout series.

On Apr. 13 look for 30 Minutes to Fitness: Boxfit With Kelly Coffey-Meyer, a cardio/pump workout that is designed to chew up calories while increasing the user’s overall strength.   Get slim, get fit.

This DVD workout is divided into two sections.   The first is the cardio session built around some “shadow boxing” fun, while the second session is a muscle-building workout that requires dumbbells for the various muscle groups.

The second fitness heading home from Bayview Entertainment on Apr. 13 is titled 30 Minutes to Fitness: Super Sculpt With Kelly Coffey-Meyer.

Again, two different workout sessions are included here with the goal to “sculpt” the user’s body from head to toe.  The first session is built around “sculpting drills,” while the second session is a high intensity step aerobics workout.  

Dumbbells are also part of the routine … so step-up, burn those calories and sculpt that body.   Kelly Coffey-Meyer will be your trainer and you won’t regret it!

 

 

Mill Creek Entertainment Tabs Apr. 13 For The Blu-ray Release Of Sean Connery's Finding Forrester

Mill Creek Entertainment will be celebrating the film career of the late Sean Connery on Apr. 13 with the Blu-ray release of director Gus Van Sant’s 2000 critically-acclaimed film, Finding Forrester, co-starring F. Murray Abraham, Anna Paquin, Busta Rhymes and Rob Brown (as Edgar Reade in the Blindspot television series, plus such films as Coach Carter, Stop-Loss, The Express, The Dark Knight Rises, etc.) in his film debut.

This, ironically, would turn out to be one of Connery’s final two feature film appearances (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen would be his last in 2003 … after much talk in the trade press about his frustration with this film he decided to retire) and Finding Forrester would be one of the final two commercial successes for auteur filmmaker Gus Van Sant as well, who shot to rock-star status with Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho and Good Will Hunting.  

The other success for Van Sant was Milk in 2008, starring Sean Penn.  It would earn Van Sant his second Oscar-nomination for Best Director (Good Will Hunting in 1997 was his first) and be his last real commercial film … a string of “small” arthouse films have been his output during this past decade, with a re-teaming in 2012 with Matt Damon for Promised Land being something of a disappointment.

 

 

 

 

 

Full Moon Features' Shrunken Heads Restored For It Blu-ray Debut On Apr. 13

Full Moon Features, with sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has a new film restoration (from the original 35mm camera negative) of director Richard Elfman’s 1994 cult voodoo thriller, Shrunken Heads, primed for a Blu-ray debut on Apr. 13.

Blessed with an interesting cast, that includes Meg Foster (The Osterman Weekend, The Todd Killings, Masters of the Universe, They Live) and Julius Harris in his final film role (The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Super Fly, Black Caesar, Live and Let Die, Hell Up in Harlem) as the mysterious voodoo priest, Mr. Sumatra.

The Vipers, run by Big Moe (Meg Foster), make the mistake of slaughtering three nerd-bomber kids from the inner city, whose only sin was they like comic books and were not afraid of standing up to the Vipers.   The local newsstand operation, Mr. Sumatra, who moonlights as a voodoo priest, comes up with a plan for the dead boys to have their revenge.

He sneaks into the morgue holding the bodies of Tommy Larson (Aeryk Egan — Flatliners, The Cure, Book of Love), Freddie Thompson (Darris Love — Gang Tapes, Waist Deep, Single Black Female) and Bill Turner (Bo Sharon — The Puppet Masters) and cuts off their heads.   Once back at his home, he places them in a cauldron full of “magic broth” and boils them up … tosses in a voodoo spell and sets them loose to extract their revenge.

Since the last thing on their collective minds was their comic book superhero adventures, the disembodied heads now have special superhero powers and are able to “fly” about the city and use these special powers to take out Big Moe’s Vipers … one by one by one!!!

Bonus features include a “Behind the Scenes” featurette.

 

 

 

 

VCI Entertainment Preps Blu-ray Debut Of Director Duccio Tessari's Lost Giallo Thriller Puzzle On May 11

What do you do if you find a 1974 giallo film from Spaghetti Western and giallo filmmaker Duccio Tessari that has been mislabeled and sitting in a film warehouse for years?   Lost.  Forgotten.  From the “Golden Age” of giallo.

Option one is, you correct the label and put it back, but this time in its proper place in the film warehouse.    Option two is, you do a 4K film restoration from this long-missing archived print and prepare it for release on Blu-ray … a Blu-ray debut at that.

Option one?   Option two?   Clearly option two, option one is not really an option.    

Imagine if you found the equivalent of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (Dario Argento, 1970) or Blood and Black Lace (Mario Bava, 1964) or, for that matter, Tessari’s The Bloodstained Butterfly (1971), languishing for years in a darkened warehouse … giallo gold that’s what you have found and you’d get it out on Blu-ray as quickly as possible.

This is exactly what VCI Entertainment will be doing on May 11 when it releases the Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack of director Duccio Tessari’s 1974 lost giallo, Puzzle.   

The film was part of a library package that was acquired some years ago and when the elements arrived as the storage facility, Puzzle had been mislabeled and was believed to be a duplicate of another film.   Time past, it was forgotten.

The print that has been unearthed is the English-dubbed version that was destined for English-speaking theatrical markets.   It is believed to be the only one remaining … for giallo fans this will be like seeing something brand new, even though it was released in European markets back in 1974 and 1975.

We meet Peter Smith (Luc Merenda — Red Sun, Torso, The Nun and the Devil, A Man Called Magnum, etc.), who is living in London, and has been suffering from amnesia … the result of an auto accident some months earlier.   One day, right out of the blue, a man by the name of Phillip (Manfred Freyberger) shows up, roughs him up and gives him clues as to his real identity.   However, just before this stranger can fill in the blanks, he is shot dead by an unseen assassin.

WOW!   Peter learns that he might not be Peter after all, but a guy named Ted, who lives in Italy with a woman named Sara.   But why was the messenger murdered … and what kind of shrew is he married to?

After this hook, Puzzle kicks in with Peter/Ted flying “home” to Italy, meeting his wife, Sara, who is played by none other than Senta Berger (De Sade, The Ambushers, The Terror of Doctor Mabuse, etc.) … wait, he’s married to Senta Berger and doesn’t remember it, that must have been some auto wreck that rattle his brain!!  

She has been so lonely without Ted, and immediately they set about to solve the puzzle of the missing months and who might be out to do them harm.  There are plenty of suspects.   Pure giallo … mystery, sex, violence and all with an Italian flair.   Mark it down, May 11, the missing giallo, Puzzle, arrives on Blu-ray!!!

 

 

 

 

Wonder Woman 1984 Heads Home From Warner Bros. Home Entertainment On Mar. 30

If you want a snapshot of how much of an impact the wholesale closing of theatrical venues in United States has had on box office results, look no further than the 2017 release of director Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman, starring Gal Gadot as Diana (aka: Wonder Woman).   The domestic box office haul was over $400 million.

By contrast, Jenkins latest teaming with Gadot, Wonder Woman 1984, has taken in just $40 million.   Did Jenkins forget how to make a film?   Has Gadot lost her sex appeal?   Have audiences grown weary of super heroes?   You know the answer to those questions … Covid-19.

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment announced this past week that a three-SKU helping of Wonder Woman 1984 will be heading home on Mar. 30.   For the record, the ARR works out to 95 days, and, as mention, the box take was just $40.3 million.

Planned for release are Combo Pack editions for both the 4K Ultra HD (with Blu-ray) and Blu-ray (with DVD) formats, plus a stand-alone DVD selection.

Bonus features, which are limited to the Combo Pack SKUs, include a gag reel, five featurettes — “The Making of Wonder Woman 1984: Expanding the Wonder,” “Gal & Kristen: Friends Forever,” “Small But Mighty,” “Gal & Krissy Having Fun” and “Meet the Amazons” — and a pair of “Scene Study” segments — “Scene Study: The Open Road” and “Scene Study: The Mall.”

Elsewhere on the Blu-ray release calendar from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment during the month of March are director Richard Thorpe’s 1951 biopic, The Great Caruso, starring Mario Lanza … Oscar-winner for Best Sound (available Mar. 9), director Edward Dmytryk’s 1947 film noir, Crossfire, starring “Roberts” Ryan, Mitchell and Young, plus Gloria Grahame as the requisite “femme fatale” (Mar. 16), Boris Karloff stars in the 1945 plague-thriller, Isle of the Dead (Mar. 30) and closing out the quartet of new-to-Blu-ray releases is The Bermuda Depths (also Mar. 30).

 

 

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Tabs Mar. 23 As The Release Date For Soul

In the surreal world of Covid-19 it no longer comes as a surprise that records are being set on a routine basis for the most expensive direct-to-video releases of all time.   Indeed, it is hard to understand the long-term economics of spending a reported $150 million on the production of a Pixar animated film only to turn to streaming and home entertainment packaged media as the end-all revenue stream.

Maybe the magic of studio accounting justifies it.  

In any case, the greatest strength of the so-called “Hollywood” studios (only one is actually physically located in Hollywood) was the distribution system that they created, controlled and dominated for the last 90 years.   Production, marketing, advertising, promotion and theatrical distribution turned into an art form.  If you take the theatrical-launch mechanism out of the equation, then the studio’s greatest strength; dominance, disappears.  

So, you change the model to who owns the “streaming” platforms and which “mousetrap” can generate the most viewing minutes (measured in the billions).  If that is the future of “Hollywood,” then why do you need the illusion of “Hollywood?”   You no longer need a studio, and all that goes with it, you just need a collection of content-providers … and they can be anywhere.  

The $150 million film in question this week is the directing team of Peter Docter (who also co-wrote … eight-time Oscar nominee, including four-times for writing: Toy Story, WALL-E, Up and Inside Out) and Kemp Powers’ Soul, starring the voice of Jamie Foxx.

Its domestic theatrical launch was canceled in favor of a Disney+ streaming debut and on Mar. 23 it will be available as a three-SKU home entertainment packaged media array of product selections.    There will be Combo Pack editions for both the 4K Ultra HD (with Blu-ray) and Blu-ray (with DVD) formats, plus a stand-alone DVD edition.

Bonus features include commentary from Docter and Powers, who are joined by producer Dana Murray (Oscar-nominated for Best Animated Short Film in 2018, Lou), a half-dozen deleted scenes and six production featurettes — “Not Your Average Joe,” “Astral Taffy,” “Pretty Deep for a Cartoon,” “Into the Zone: The Music and Sound of Soul,” “Soul Improvised” and “Jazz Greats.”

 

The Criterion Collection Announces It May Of 2021 Film Restoration Calendar

The Criterion Collection announced its film restoration line-up for the month of May this past week … it is a five-strong selection of DVD and Blu-ray product offerings.

Back in 1981, a little-known writer for Rolling Stone Magazine delivered a script based on his book about his undercover observations of teenagers at a San Diego-area high school.  The rights had been purchased before the book was even published.

All that was needed now were a director and a cast and a modest little budget for a quick summer of 1982 release.   It wasn’t going to be anything more than a “programmer” … a late-summer filler.   The big pictures from Universal that summer would be E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (June), John Carpenter’s remake of The Thing (also in June) and the musical teaming of Dolly Parton with Burt Reynolds, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (July) … all that was needed was some “filler” for mid-August.  

The studio tapped a first-time director and a cast of largely unknowns for the film, and while E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial did the box office that was expected (and more) and both The Thing and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas lived up to expectations, the BIG surprise that summer was director Amy Heckerling’s film adaptation of Cameron Crowe’s book, Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

The Criterion Collection has a new 4K film restoration (supervised by Heckerling) ready for both Blu-ray and double-disc DVD release on May 11.

Heckerling would go on to write and direct a series of comedy hits, including Clueless and the Look Who's Talking trilogy and Crowe would turn his Rolling Stone Magazine experience into a Best Writing Oscar for Almost Famous, plus direct his own films as well, including Jerry Maguire, Elizabethtown, Vanilla Sky, Say Anything, Singles and Aloha.

As to the cast, how about future Oscar-winner Sean Penn as stoner Jeff Spicoli, plus Jennifer Jason Leigh (Single White Female, Dolores Claiborne, The Hateful Eight), Judge Reinhold (Beverly Hills Cop, Vice Versa, The Santa Clause), Phoebe Cates (Gremlins, Drop Dead Fred), Forest Whitaker (Platoon, Bird, Phenomenon) … and smaller parts for the likes of Nicolas Cage, Eric Stoltz and Anthony Edwards.

Bonus features include commentary with Heckerling and Crowe, a newly prepared video session with Heckerling and Crowe hosted by Olivia Wilde and the documentary titled Reliving Our Fast Times at Ridgemont High.  

There is also the re-cut television broadcast version of the film included here as well.

Also on the film restoration calendar from Criterion for release as both DVD and Blu-ray editions during the month of May are: Trances (May 4), Merrily We Go to Hell (May 11), Flowers to Shanghai (May 18) and Nightmare Alley (May 25).