Posted October 11, 2021 12:16 AM by Sean Greenwood
For the week of October 11th, Walt Disney Home Entertainment will release Shawn Levy's Free Guy, starring Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Lil Rel Howery, Joe Keery, and Utkarsh Ambudkar. The sci-fi action comedy, which stars Reynolds as a bank teller who discovers he is a non-player character in a video game, was originally developed at 20th Century Fox before that studio was acquired by Disney. Subsequently, it became a 20th Century Studios title and was set for a summer 2020 release, having been filmed in 2019. However, after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Disney shifted the film to December 2020, then to March 2021, before finally releasing the film on August 13th, 2021. The film became a surprise hit on its opening weekend, topping the box office for two weeks and eventually grossing over $119 million domestically and $320 million globally thus far. Disney's 4K UHD discs feature Dolby Atmos audio and HDR picture, with several extras on the Blu-ray, including deleted scenes, a gag reel and featurettes. Additionally, a Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook edition and a Target Exclusive Art edition will also be available.
New this week from Lionsgate Home Entertainment is David Lowery's The Green Knight, starring Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Sarita Choudhury, and Sean Harris. Synopsis: An epic fantasy-adventure based on the timeless Arthurian legend, The Green Knight tells the story of Sir Gawain (Dev Patel), King Arthur's reckless and headstrong nephew, who embarks on a daring quest to confront the eponymous Green Knight, a gigantic emerald-skinned stranger and tester of men. Gawain contends with ghosts, giants, thieves, and schemers in what becomes a deeper journey to define his character while proving his worth in the eyes of his family and kingdom by facing the ultimate challenger. From visionary filmmaker David Lowery comes a fresh and bold spin on a classic tale from the Knights of the Round Table.
Lionsgate's disc releases for The Green Knight include Dolby Atmos audio, while the 4K UHD disc also includes Dolby Vision HDR. Jeffrey Kauffman was highly impressed with the 4K UHD presentation, saying: "the results here are often staggeringly beautiful, with the 4K UHD version enjoyable noticeable upticks in both detail levels in general as well as nuance in the impressive palette. The film's inventive use of unusual grading and lighting choices is given some subtle new highlights courtesy of HDR and/or Dolby Vision... I would certainly rate this one of the strongest and most consistently enjoyable 4K UHD presentations I've had the pleasure of viewing recently". Read Jeffrey's full review here.
Also new from Lionsgate this week is James Cullen Bressack's action thriller Survive the Game, starring Bruce Willis, Chad Murray, and Jesse Metcalfe. Studio description: A man's life on his farm is interrupted when a cop and a pair of dangerous criminals show up.
New this week from Paramount Home Media Distribution is a Blu-ray for the limited series The Haunting of Bly Manor. Studio description: From The Haunting of Hill House creator Mike Flanagan and producer Trevor Macy comes THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR, the next highly anticipated chapter of The Haunting anthology series, set in 1980s England. After an au pair's tragic death, Henry Wingrave (Henry Thomas) hires a young American nanny (Victoria Pedretti) to care for his orphaned niece and nephew (Amelie Bea Smith, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) who reside at Bly Manor with the estate's chef Owen (Rahul Kohli), groundskeeper Jamie (Amelia Eve) and housekeeper, Mrs. Grose (T'Nia Miller). But all is not as it seems at the manor, and centuries of dark secrets of love and loss are waiting to be unearthed in this chilling gothic romance. At Bly Manor, dead doesn't mean gone.
Paramount's Blu-ray of The Haunting of Bly Manor contains featurettes and audio commentaries as extras. Note also that The Haunting: 2-Series Collection, which also includes The Haunting of Hill House, will also be available on Tuesday.
More TV on Blu-ray this week comes from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, with The Flash: The Complete Seventh Season. Studio description: After last season's cliffhanger which saw the brilliant and powerful Eva McCulloch victorious and still-at-large in Central City, Barry Allen/The Flash must regroup in order to stop her and bring back his missing wife. With help from the rest of Team Flash, Barry will ultimately defeat Mirror Monarch and reunite with Iris West-Allen. But in doing so, he'll unleash two more devastating threats: one that could tear his marriage apart… and another that will lay siege to Central City and change the future forever.
Warner's Blu-ray of The Flash: The Complete Seventh Season contains deleted scenes, a gag reel and featurettes as extras.
But it's another big week for catalog titles on 4K UHD as Sony Pictures Home Entertainment releases its highly anticipated Columbia Classics Collection: Volume 2. Following on from last year's Volume 1, this limited edition collectible set brings six more titles from Sony's library to 4K UHD for the first time. The films included are Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Oliver! (1968), Taxi Driver (1976), Stripes (1981), Sense and Sensibility (1995) and The Social Network (2010). As with the previous volume, all films have HDR, as well as lossless original mono, stereo and/or 5.1 audio, in addition to Dolby Atmos remixes. New extras are included for all six films, from commentaries and featurettes to deleted scenes and newly added trailers. Both theatrical and extended cuts of Stripes and the theatrical and unrated versions of The Social Network are included. Additionally, a bonus disc features 20 short films in HD from across the Columbia Pictures library. All of this is housed in the same collectible packaging as the previous set, with a hardbound 80-page book containing six new essays by writers such as Julie Kirgo, John Kenrick, Glenn Kenny, Michael G. McDunnah, Kayti Burt and Nev Pierce.
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment also have two 4K UHD upgrades this week. First is Brian De Palma's Carlito's Way, starring Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Penelope Ann Miller, John Leguizamo, and Ingrid Rogers. Universal's 4K disc includes HDR10+ and a DTS:X audio track. Then, it's Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, starring Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth, and Michael Fassbender. Universal's 4K disc includes HDR10+. Additionally, 4K UHD SteelBook editions for both Carlito's Way and Inglourious Basterds will also be available.
Our last 4K UHD upgrade this week comes from Kino Lorber, who will upgrade Rob Reiner's thriller Misery, starring James Caan, Kathy Bates, Richard Farnsworth, Frances Sternhagen, and Lauren Bacall. Kino's 4K UHD disc contains a Dolby Vision HDR presentation of the film along with the audio commentaries from Reiner and screenwriter William Goldman. The included Blu-ray additionally features over 70 minutes of featurettes and the film's theatrical trailer.
Also from Kino this week is a Blu-ray for the complete series of Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974-1975), starring Darren McGavin. The four-disc set contains all 20 episodes taken from new 2K masters. Extras include a staggering 25 new audio commentaries on various episodes, new interviews with co-writer David Chase and 14 vintage TV spots--from new 2K masters--for various episodes.
Finally this week, a particularly interesting release from Criterion: Raoul Walsh's High Sierra (1941), starring Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Alan Curtis, Arthur Kennedy, Joan Leslie and Henry Hull. The film is sourced from a new 4K master and has uncompressed mono audio. Notably, Criterion have produced this title as a two-disc set, with the second disc containing Colorado Territory (1949), which is Walsh's own remake of High Sierra. Colorado Territory, which is considered an extra feature on this release, is presented from an unrestored master taken from the original camera negative, with uncompressed mono audio. Additional extras include the 2019 feature-length documentary The True Adventures of Raoul Walsh, a 1997 episode of The South Bank Show about Humphrey Bogart, new scholarly interviews and more. Reviewer Dr. Svet Atanasov gave this release a prefect 5/5 score. Read Svet's full review and see screencaps from both High Sierra and Colorado Territory here.