This Week on Blu-ray: December 7-13

For the week of December 7th, Lionsgate Home Entertainment brings Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall to 4K UHD. The film, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Ronny Cox, and Michael Ironside has become a sci-fi action classic, and in celebration of its 30th anniversary, Lionsgate will issue both standard and Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook editions, Lionsgate's new UHD Blu-ray starts with a brand-new 4K remaster, which was supervised and approved by Paul Verhoeven himself. Additionally, the picture features Dolby Vision HDR and the sound, including one of Jerry Goldsmith's most iconic film scores, can now be heard in a new Dolby Atmos audio mix. Finally, many extras are included across the one UHD BD and two Blu-ray discs, including "Open Your Mind - Scoring Total Recall" and the documentary "Total Excess: How Carolco Changed Hollywood".

In his review of the new release, Jeffrey Kauffman says that "both the 1080 and 4K UHD versions here are an improvement over the 2012 release, especially in terms of palette and fine detail level (things like the Rekall salesman's herringbone suit jacket are really impressively rendered, and even some of the textures on the kind of quaint miniatures used in many effects sequences offer new detail). The 4K UHD version in particular offers a well balanced palette that manages to offer really striking hues, especially toward the red end of the spectrum (but also with regard to elements like the bright pink top Stone wears early in the film)". And about the new Atmos mix, Kauffman says it "does offer noticeable and recurrent verticality, quite evident in moments like some of the cacophony Quaid experiences tooling around the hotspots on Mars, but also prominently in the big "Terraforming" climax, where overhead activity is quite pronounced".

It's a big week for Paramount Home Media Distribution, starting with a 4K UHD upgrade for Michael Mann's Collateral. The 2004 thriller, starring Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Eddie Diaz, and Mark Ruffalo was shot by Mann primarily on digital video, and may not at first seem like a prime candidate for the 4K format. However, reviewer Martin Liebman says that "the 4K/Dolby Vision presentation does offer some subtle refinements that altogether make for a pleasing, and ultimately critical, series of visual improvements. One of the most immediately obvious benefits is the disc's ability to render the grain and noise a bit more pleasantly and efficiently. On the UHD it's more organic, less spiky and dense, still a very noticeable and daresay critical component of the visual experience. Texturally the upgrade is a little more nuanced but still evident, even as it's reportedly sourced from a 2K digital intermediate. The UHD renders skin details, textures inside the cab, and location specifics both inside offices and out in the city with increased command of fine point details. Clarity is improved even through the mess of grain and noise and viewers will note more pleasantly crisp and authentic intricacies that help to elevate the film's visuals to greater heights".

Next for Paramount is Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone on Blu-ray. Debuting in limited theatrical release earlier this year, this all-new version of The Godfather: Part III includes a new beginning and ending, along with rearrangements of other footage. The re-edit began with a 4K scan of the original negative, and in the process, both the picture and the original 5.1 sound were remastered. Reviewing the new disc, Martin Liebman raves that "[t]he picture is gorgeously filmic, retaining a natural, pleasant grain structure which is ever-present and exquisitely pure. Clarity is exceptional and fine details are intimately revealing, with hair and clothes and the plush environments delivering unparalleled accuracy...a picture-perfect representation of both the source material and the Blu-ray format's peak capabilities". In comparing the new disc to the current Blu-ray of The Godfather: Part III, Liebman says the new disc "stands well ahead of the previous effort, which pales (literally and figuratively) in comparison".

Rounding out the slate for Paramount this week is the TV release Yellowstone: Season 3. Continuing to be a huge hit with viewers, the third season of Yellowstone finds the Dutton family threatened by new foes and lucrative business deals, forcing John (Kevin Costner), Kayce (Luke Grimes), Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Jamie (Wes Bentley) to utilize unexpected alliances and risky measures to safeguard their legacy. The third season finale set a new series record and becoming the #1 most-watched cable telecast of the year and the most watched cable telecast since the Game of Thrones series finale in May 2019. The show has also been renewed for a fourth season on Paramount Network. The three-disc Blu-ray set offers all 10 episodes and over 4 hours of bonus features, including a featurette on the making of the season with input from Costner and Taylor Sheridan.

Next up, Well Go USA has a new release, the sc-fi thriller Possessor. Available on Uncut UHD Blu-ray and on Blu-ray in both Uncut and R-rated versions, Possessor is a new thriller from director Brandon Cronenberg, about an elite corporate assassin named Tasya Vos. Using brain-implant technology, Vos takes control of other people's bodies to execute high-profile targets. As she sinks deeper into her latest assignment, Vos becomes trapped inside a mind that threatens to obliterate her. Featuring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tuppence Middleton, Andrea Riseborough, Sean Bean, and Christopher Abbott, Possessor comes with an HDR presentation on UHD and several extras on the included Blu-ray, such as behind the scenes featurettes and deleted scenes. In his review of the UHD Blu-ray, Jeffrey Kauffman says of the film: "Captured with a variety of cameras and finished at a 4K DI, this is a riot of styles and techniques...there are a variety of colorings utilized here which are noticeably more nuanced than in the 1080 presentation. This includes the frequent orangish hues that accompany some of Colin's scenes, but it's also quite apparent in the cooler, almost blue-green, tones that are featured in, to cite just one example, Tasya's trip home. HDR also improves shadow detail in this version, including beefing up already nicely deep blacks".

Lionsgate also have a new release this week, Tim Hunter's thriller Smiley Face Killers. starring Ronen Rubinstein, Mia Serafino, Crispin Glover, Amadeus Serafini, and Ashley Rickards. Written and produced by author and screenwriter Bret Easton Ellis, and inspired by true events and the "smiley face killers" conspiracy theory, Smiley Face Killers concerns wave of mysterious drownings of male college students in California. Finding himself stalked by a hooded figure driving an unmarked van, Jake, a student struggling to keep it all together at school, fears he may become the next victim. The Blu-ray also features a behind the scenes featurette with cast interviews.

Finally, Shout Factory will release James D'Arcy's film Made in Italy, starring Liam Neeson, Lindsay Duncan, Valeria Bilello, and Marco Quaglia. Neeson stars as Bohemian London artist Robert who returns to Italy with his estranged son Jack to make a quick sale of the house they inherited from his late wife. Neither expects to find the once beautiful villa – or their own relationship – in such a state of disrepair. The Blu-ray contains a behind the scenes featurette.