This Week on Blu-ray: September 13-19

For the week of September 13th, Walt Disney Home Entertainment will release Cate Shortland's Black Widow, starring Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, O.T. Fagbenle, Ray Winstone, Rachel Weisz. The 24th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Black Widow was to be Johansson's first solo adventure after having portrayed the title character in several MCU films dating back to Iron Man 2 in 2010. Sadly, the coronavirus pandemic had a major impact on the film, which was shot in 2019 and originally to be released on May 1, 2020. After the pandemic hit the US in March 2020, Black Widow would be shuffled around the release calendar several times, eventually opening in most countries on July 7, 2021, fourteen months later than planned. The film also ended up with a day-and-date release on Disney's streaming service, albeit with the studio's controversial "Premiere Access" fee of $30. Regardless, Black Widow opened to some $80 million domestically in its first weekend, setting a pandemic box office record. Thus far, the film has earned a total of over $372 million at the global box office. This week, Disney will release the film on 4K UHD, with 4K UHD retailer exclusives at both Best Buy and Target stores. A single-disc Blu-ray edition will also be available. Disney's 4K UHD discs will have HDR picture and Dolby Atmos audio, while the included Blu-ray will have several extras, including deleted scenes a gag reel and featurettes.

Also new this week, from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment comes Tom McGrath's The Boss Baby: Family Business, featuring the voices of Alec Baldwin, James Marsden, Amy Sedaris, Ariana Greenblatt, and Jeff Goldblum. The sequel to 2017's The Boss Baby was originally set for March before landing on a July release date, which has seen the film pull in over $57 million domestically and over $107 million globally so far. Universal's discs contain Dolby Atmos audio, while the 4K UHD disc also contains Dolby Vision HDR. Several extras are also available, in 4K resolution on the 4K UHD disc, including an all-new short film Precious Templeton: A Pony Tale, a filmmaker audio commentary a deleted scene and featurettes.

Also new this week, from Lionsgate Home Entertainment comes a Blu-ray for Janicza Bravo's Zola, starring Riley Keough, Colman Domingo, Nicholas Braun, Jason Mitchell, and Taylour Paige. Synopsis: "Y'all wanna hear a story?" Thus began the odyssey of one A'Ziah King, aka Zola. From acclaimed writer-director Janicza Bravo, Zola's stranger-than-fiction saga − first told in a now-iconic series of viral, uproarious tweets − comes to dazzling cinematic life. Zola, a Detroit waitress, is seduced into a weekend of partying in Florida. Her trip turns into a wild saga involving a pimp, an idiot boyfriend, and Tampa's finest strip clubs in this film based on the greatest Twitter story ever told.

Lionsgate's extras for Zola include a filmmaker audio commentary, deleted scenes with optional commentary and a making of featurette.

Also from Lionsgate this week is a Blu-ray for Blu-ray Michael Feifer's western Catch the Bullet, starring Tom Skerritt, Peter Facinelli, Jay Pickett, Gattlin Griffith, and Cody Jones. Plot: A US Marshal, aided by an Indian scout and a bigoted town deputy, ride into hostile territory to rescue his kidnapped son from an outlaw gang lead by a psychopathic killer.

New this week from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is a Blu-ray for Craig Zobel's HBO limited series Mare of Easttown, starring Kate Winslet, Julianne Nicholson, Jean Smart, Angourie Rice, and David Denman. The two-disc set contains all seven episodes along with featurettes as extras.

Turning to catalog titles, Warner has a big one, a 4K UHD upgrade for Frank Darabont's The Shawshank Redemption, starring Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, William Sadler, and Clancy Brown. Adapted from a short story by Stephen King, the film was not a financial success when first released in 1994. However, it did receive significant acclaim and was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. This reaction led to the film becoming immensely popular with general audiences, both on home video and on television broadcasts. The film's reputation has grown in stature so much that in 2015, it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry. Randy Miller is impressed with the picture on the 4K UHD disc, saying in part that the "transfer...is much different than its older Blu-ray counterpart. Vaguely advertised as being sourced from a "previous 4K master", its visual features appear closer to a theatrical presentation than the overly bright and warm-tinted picture seen on older releases. Perhaps the most immediately obvious differences occur during most of the early prison scenes, which now take on a much cooler gray and blue cast than before; these color shifts emphasize Andy's isolation to a more literal degree and seem to be in line with cinematographer Roger Deakins' original intentions during shooting...Other visual elements show improvements as well, especially in the areas of fine detail and density...Close inspection [reveals] much more balanced highlights on the 4K presentation, as well as those stronger fine details that are clearly evident in wide shots and small background details alike...this 4K transfer should largely please die-hand fans finally hoping to retire a disc almost as old as the format itself". Read Randy's full review here.

Finally this week, Warner Archive will release Santa Fe Trail, starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Raymond Massey, Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale, Van Heflin. Synopsis: After graduating from West Point, Jeb Stuart (Errol Flynn) and George Custer (Ronald Reagan) are both stationed to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. Once there, they find that the violent abolitionist John Brown (Raymond Massey) has laid waste to the state, killing anyone who gets in the way of his anti-slavery crusade. While the duo must work together to battle the murderous revolutionary, they also come to blows over their competing love for Kit Carson Holliday (Olivia de Havilland).