For the week of May 31st, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will release Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal: The Complete First Season on Blu-ray. Official studio description: Eat, or be eaten! Kill, or be killed! Get into survival mode with Adult Swim's #1 prehistoric animated series with the release of Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal: The Complete First Season on Blu-ray and DVD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. The critically acclaimed series displays a perfect 100% rating by critics & 99% by audience on Rotten Tomatoes, and recently won 3 Juried Emmy® Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Animation. Travel back in time and binge on all 10 fascinating episodes from the first season and go behind the scenes with interviews from the incredible talent from this wordless series.
Warner's Blu-ray of Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal: The Complete First Season will include all 10 episodes and also has behind the scenes interviews as extras.
Although not a new release, certainly one of the biggest is a 4K UHD upgrade for Hal Needham's film Smokey and the Bandit, starring Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jerry Reed, Paul Williams, and Jackie Gleason. The second biggest films of 1977 (behind Star Wars), Smokey and the Bandit was a hit with audiences back then and has gone on to become one of the most beloved action comedies of all time. The film was so successful that it spawned two sequels over the next six years and the role of the Bandit is arguably the first one thinks of when they think of Burt Reynolds. Now in 4K and presented with HDR picture and a Dolby Atmos audio track, as well as several extras.
Note: Universal have uploaded a sequence from the film in 4K resolution to their official YouTube channel here.
Lionsgate Home Entertainment has two new releases this week. First up is The Courier, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Merab Ninidze, and Rachel Brosnahan. One of many would-be theatrical releases for 2020, Dominic Cooke's spy thriller The Courier was initially set for an August 2020 release before the coronavirus pandemic shifted it into 2021. So far, the film has pulled in a respectable $6.5 million at the box office on its way to a current global total of over $11 million, with other markets, suck as the UK, waiting to screen the film later this year. Studio description: The Courier is a true-life spy thriller, the story of an unassuming British businessman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) recruited into one of the greatest international conflicts in history. At the behest of the UK's MI-6 and a CIA operative (Rachel Brosnahan), he forms a covert, dangerous partnership with Soviet officer Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze) in an effort to provide crucial intelligence needed to prevent a nuclear confrontation and defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Lionsgate's Blu-ray of The Courier contains a making of featurette as an extra.
Also from Lionsgate this week is M.J. Bassett's Endangered Species, starring Rebecca Romijn, Philip Winchester, Isabel Bassett, Michael Johnston, Jerry O'Connell, and Chris Fisher. Official synopsis: Starring Rebecca Romijn (X-MEN) and Jerry O'Connell (Showtime's "Billions") this gripping adventure tale unfolds beneath a brutal African sun. Jack Halsey takes his wife (Romijn), their adult kids, and a friend for a dream vacation in Kenya. But as they venture off alone into a wilderness park, their safari van is flipped over by an angry rhino, leaving them injured and desperate. Then, as two of them go in search of rescue, a bloody, vicious encounter with a leopard and a clan of hyenas incites a desperate fight for survival.
Next this week, from RLJ Entertainment is Andrew Thomas Hunt's Spare Parts, starring Julian Richings, Michelle Argyris, Emily Alatalo, Kiriana Stanton, and Chelsea Muirhead. Synopsis: In a godforsaken bar in the middle of nowhere, an all-girl band – Ms. 45 – rips the stage apart with their punk spirit. But their performance impresses an enthusiastic fan who lures the girls into a trap, sedates them, and starts...customizing them. Slowly they begin to gain consciousness and, in total shock, realize their arms have all been replaced with axes and chainsaws to fight gladiator-style in a junkyard arena owned by a sadistic "emperor," forcing them into the battle of their lives with one prize in mind – their freedom.
RLJ's Blu-ray of Spare Parts features several extras, such as an audio commentary with the director and cast, interviews and fight training videos.
Finally for new releases this week, Paramount Home Media Distribution will release on Blu-ray Jaume Balagueró's The Vault AKA Way Down (2020), starring Famke Janssen, Sam Riley, Freddie Highmore, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, and Liam Cunningham. Synopsis: Freddie Highmore ("The Good Doctor") and Famke Janssen (X-Men) star in this globe-trotting, action-packed thriller following a high-risk heist. When an engineer (Highmore) learns of a mysterious, impenetrable fortress hidden under The Bank of Spain, he joins a crew of master thieves who plan to steal the legendary lost treasure locked inside while the whole country is distracted by Spain's World Cup Final. With thousands of soccer fans cheering in the streets, and security forces closing in, the crew have just minutes to pull off the score of a lifetime. Also starring Astrid Bergès-Frisbey (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) and Liam Cunningham ("Game of Thrones").
Turning to catalog titles, Paramount will also add another title to its Paramount Presents linup: Frank Perry's Mommie Dearest, starring Faye Dunaway, Steve Forrest, Diana Scarwid, Mara Hobel, and Howard Da Silva. Based on Christina Crawford's memoir of the same name, Mommie Dearest depicts her adoptive mother Joan Crawford as an abuser and on release it received negative reviews, becoming one of the first films to win a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture. However, the film soon gained a cult following and has subsequently passed into legend for Faye Dunaway's over-the-top portrayal of the Hollywood icon. Now newly remastered from a 4k film scan and presented with archival and new extras, including a new audio commentary by drag queen Hedda Lettuce and a Filmmaker Focus featurette with biographer Justin Bozung on director Frank Perry.
Finally this week, Paramount also has another wave of them coming this week. They are: In & Out (1997), Rat Race (2001) and The Stepford Wives (2004).