Posted February 1, 2021 01:10 AM by Sean Greenwood
For the week of February 1st, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has Let Him Go, starring Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Jeffrey Donovan, Booboo Stewart, and Lesley Manville. One of the comparatively few films to see a wide theatrical release in late 2020 during the cornoavirus pandemic, Let Him Go stars Costner and Lane as a retired sherrif and his wife, who after the death of their son, set out to find their only grandson. It was released in November 2020 and made just over $10 million worldwide, with over $9 million coming domestically. The Blu-ray features a DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio track and three featurettes for extras. In his review of the disc, says: "The picture is in full command of broad and intimate textures alike, well capable of sprawling definition to open countryside and revealing intimate pores and other facial features with equal attention to detail. Viewers will appreciate intricate fabric definition on clothes and the complex gore elements in the film's most graphic shot...Many of the [audio] track's highlights come not in overpowering sound effects but rather subtle atmosphere. There's some nice open ambience of all kinds throughout the stage and in many different scenes. Thunder rolls and gentle rain falls during the dramatically intense dining room scene midway through the film, reinforcing the context and suggesting the pending terrors to come. Distant train whistles, chirping birds, small town street din, and the like bring a number of scenes alive".
Universal also has a new 4K UHD release for Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, starring Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, and Giancarlo Esposito. The now-classic drama, a story of raicial tensions in a Brooklyn neighborhood that boil over on the hottest day of summer, was nominted for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Danny Aiello) and Best Original Screenplay (Spike Lee) at the Academy Awards. In the years since its release, the film's reputation has only grown, and it has been part of the Criterion Collection since 1995, where it saw a special edition Blu-ray release in 2019. Now, though, it arrives on 4K UHD format, with HDR picture enhancement and a Dolby Atmos audio track. Several archival extras are also available on the Blu-ray, including deleted and extended scenes, and the documentary "Do the Right Thing: 20 Years Later".
Next from Passion River is Taylor Morden's documentary The Last Blockbuster. Synopsis: The Last Blockbuster is a fun, nostalgic look back at the era of video rentals and the story of how one small town video store managed to outlast a corporate giant. Featuring interviews with comedians and celebrities with ties to Blockbuster: Adam Brody ("The O.C.", Jennifer's Body), Ione Skye (Say Anything, River's Edge), Doug Benson ("Getting Doug with High", The Lego Batman Movie), Paul Scheer ("The League", "Veep") and director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Jay and Silent Bob), with narration by Lauren Lapkus (The Wrong Missy, "Orange Is The New Black").
RLJ Entertainment has two releases this week. First up is Rob Savage's thriller Host, a SHUDDER original film starring Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Emma Louise Webb, Radina Drandova, and Caroline Ward. Synopsis: Host is the story of six friends who hire a medium to hold a séance over Zoom during lockdown, but they get far more than they bargain for as things quickly go wrong. When an evil spirit starts invading their homes, they begin to realize they might not survive the night.
Next from RLJ is the SHUDDER original documentary Xavier Burgin's Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. Description: Based on the acclaimed book of the same name by Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman, Horror Noire takes a critical look at a century of genre films that by turns utilized, caricatured, exploited, sidelined, and embraced both black filmmakers and black audiences. Featuring interviews with Ernest Dickerson (Bones), Rusty Cundieff (Tales from the Hood), Jordan Peele (Us), Tina Mabry (Mississippi Damned), Tony Todd (Candyman), Paula Jai Parker (Tales from the Hood), Tananarive Due (My Soul to Keep), and Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman.
Coming this week from Shout Factory is Michael Almereyda's biographical drama Tesla, starring Ethan Hawke, Eve Hewson, Kyle MacLachlan, Josh Hamilton, Jim Gaffigan and Lucy Walters. The film, which is the second in recent years to portray the lives of Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison and their rivalry over electricity, premiered in January 2020 at Sundance and was shown in limited theatrical and VOD release in August. Extras include a Making of featurette and the film's trailer. A review with screenshots by Brian Orndorf is available here.
Also this week, from Capelight Pictures and MPI Home Video is Marc Fehse's horror comedy Sky Sharks, starring Naomi Grossman, Robert LaSardo, Tony Todd, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, and Diana Prince. Label description: 75 years after World War II, an arctic research team discovers the Himmelsfaust, a colossal Nazi Warship thought to be long lost. Within they find Third Reich's base for a weapon like no other: Sky Sharks. Jet-propelled, artillery-equipped, aeronautical and manned by an army of undead elite Nazi soldiers, these flying beasts were created to prevent the downfall of the Third Reich. But now they seek revenge and to claim their final victory – taking down the whole world with them in process, if they can... Starring a cast of genre film favorites: Tony Todd (Candyman), Naomi Grossman (American Horror Story), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Mortal Kombat), Amanda Bearse (Fright Night), Dave Sheridan (Scary Movie), Lar Park-Lincoln (Friday the 13th Part VII), Lynn Lowry (Shivers), Barbara Nedeljakova (Hostel).
For catalog titles, this week Kino Lorber will bring out Harvey Hart's Dark Intruder, starring Leslie Nielsen, Peter Mark Richman, Judi Meredith, Gilbert Green, and Charles Bolender. Featuring Nielsen in a serious role, rather than the comedic roles he would become known for later in his career, here he plays Occult expert Brett Kingsford, who is brought in to assist the police with a series of murders, in which a mystical stature is left at each crime scene. Newly remastered in 2K, and with new extras, including an audio commentary by film historian and screenwriter Gary Gerani, as well as an interview with with Mike Westmore, the son of makeup artist Bud Westmore.
Finally this week, don't forget about the following catalog titles debuting on Blu-ray from Paramount Home Media Distribution and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Paramount's slate is: The Rodney Dangerfield comedy Ladybugs (previously released by Lionsgate in 2010), Lassie (1994), Mouse Hunt with Nathan Lane and Lee Evans, Joe Dante's Small Soldiers and finally, Raja Gosnell's remake of Yours, Mine & Ours (2005) with Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo. According to the packaging, all releases except for Ladybugs contain featurettes and trailers, while Mouse Hunt additionally contains deleted scenes and Small Soldiers also contains bloopers. Yours, Mine & Ours (2005) contains several extras.
Universal's slate is: The 1962 Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin romantic comedy That Funny Feeling, Emmy-award winning TV movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, starring Cicely Tyson, Circle of Friends, starring Minnie Driver, Chris O'Donnell and Saffron Burrows, Kissing a Fool, with David Schwimmer, Mili Avital and Jason Lee and Prime, starring Uma Thurman, Bryan Greenburg and Meryl Streep.