Posted December 20, 2021 01:15 AM by Sean Greenwood
For the week of December 20th, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment will release Cary Joji Fukunaga's No Time to Die, starring Daniel Craig, Léa Seydoux, Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch, and Ralph Fiennes. The 25th James Bond film, which is said to be star Daniel Craig's final appearance as the character, was filmed in 2019 and originally set for an April 2020 release. However, the coronavirus pandemic arrived in force a month before in March 2020, forcing the first in a series of major postponements for the film, which went from April 2020 to November 2020 and then to April 2021, before the film finally opened on September 30th, 2021 in the UK and October 8th, 2021 in the US, a delay of some 18 months. On its opening weekend, No Time to Die received critical praise and topped the box office, earning over $60 million over the four-day Columbus Day holiday weekend, on its way to a domestic total of over $160 million so far. Internationally, the film has so far grossed over $612 million, bringing its worldwide total to over $773 million, which currently makes it the third highest-grossing film of 2021 and the highest-grossing English-language film of 2021.
Reviewer Martin Liebman gives the 4K UHD A/V presentation a perfect 5/5 score and says of the picture quality: "The level of clarity and detail are insane, reaching a zenith for the UHD format that reveals fine environmental details (a graveside scene in the 13-minute mark being a wonderful example) and exemplary skin and clothing output, both of which enjoy far greater intimacy than even the top-tier Bu-ray. It's difficult to imagine the movie looking any cleaner, sharper, more visually arresting than this". Of the disc's Dolby Atmos track, Liebman continues: "It's 007 score bliss. Action scenes are a delight for intensity and full stage engagement. When a car is peppered by gunfire partway through the film, the barrage of bullets emanates from every corner of the listening area and the impacts hit bulletproof glass with incredible depth and power". For full disc breakdowns and screenshots, you can read Martin's full 4K UHD review and Blu-ray review.
Also this week from Universal is a Blu-ray for Justin Chon's Blue Bayou, starring Justin Chon, Alicia Vikander, Mark O'Brien, and Emory Cohen. Studio description: From award-winning writer/director Justin Chon and inspired by true events, Blue Bayou is the moving and timely story of a uniquely American family fighting for their future. Antonio LeBlanc (Chon), a Korean adoptee raised in a small town in the Louisiana bayou, is married to the love of his life Kathy (Alicia Vikander) and stepdad to their beloved daughter Jessie. Struggling to make a better life for his family, he must confront the ghosts of his past when he discovers that he could be deported from the only country he has ever called home.
Universal's Blu-ray release of Blue Bayou contains deleted scenes and the featurette The Making of Blue Bayou as extras.
Also this week, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will have 4K UHD and Blu-ray releases for Alan Taylor's film The Many Saints of Newark, starring Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Billy Magnussen, Ray Liotta, and Corey Stoll. Studio description: New Line Cinema's "The Many Saints of Newark" is the much-anticipated feature film prequel to David Chase's groundbreaking, award-winning HBO drama series The Sopranos. Young Anthony Soprano is growing up in one of the most tumultuous eras in Newark's history, becoming a man just as rival gangsters begin to rise up and challenge the all-powerful DiMeo crime family's hold over the increasingly race-torn city. Caught up in the changing times is the uncle he idolizes, Dickie Moltisanti, who struggles to manage both his professional and personal responsibilities—and whose influence over his nephew will help make the impressionable teenager into the all-powerful mob boss we'll later come to know: Tony Soprano.
Warner's disc releases for The Many Saints of Newark include Dolby Atmos audio (with HDR picture on the 4K UHD disc) and deleted scenes and two featurettes as extras.
New this week from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is a Blu-ray for Eiichirô Hasumi's Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness - Season One, featuring the voices of Bill Rogers, Armen Taylor, Jona Xiao, Stephanie Panisello, and Kellen Goff. Description: The landmark survival horror video game series Resident Evil has shipped over 110 million copies worldwide. Popular characters Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield appear in this CG serialized drama, the first in series history! Don't miss this new epic entertainment on a scale more spectacular than ever before! In 2006, American federal agent Leon S. Kennedy is invited to the White House to investigate a hacking incident. During the investigation, he encounters a horde of zombies in a mysterious attack against the President. Meanwhile, TerraSave staff member Claire Redfield uncovers a strange image drawn by a young boy in a country she visited. Haunted by this drawing, which appears to be of a victim of viral infection, Claire starts her own investigation. Claire visits the White House and has a chance reunion with Leon. Together, Leon and Claire investigate the connection between the White House attack and strange drawing and uncover a threat that will shake the nation to its very core.
Sony's Blu-ray for Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness - Season One also includes a 30-minute making of featurette.
Also new this week, from Lionsgate Home Entertainment, is a Blu-ray release of James Cullen Bressack's Fortress (2021), starring Bruce Willis, Jesse Metcalfe, Chad Michael Murray, Shannen Doherty, and Kelly Greyson. Synopsis: In this dazzling action cyber-thriller, Bruce Willis (Pulp Fiction) plays Robert, a retired CIA agent living at a secret resort in the woods. One day, his estranged son drives to the camp for a visit — but he's followed by Robert's old nemesis, Balzary (Chad Michael Murray, "One Tree Hill"). As the site is besieged by Balzary's attack squad, father and son retreat to a high-tech bunker. But are its steel walls and advanced weapons powerful enough to match Balzary's bloodthirsty plans for revenge?
Finally this week, we have three releases from Shout Factory's Scream Factory imprint. First is Lady in a Cage (1964), starring Olivia de Havilland, James Caan, Jennifer Billingsley, Jeff Corey, Ann Sothern and Rafael Campos. Shout's disc contains a new audio commentary with filmmakers David Del Valle and David DeCoteau, and a new featurette with film historian and author Kim Newman, as well as trailers and a photo gallery. Then, Shout has No Way to Treat a Lady (1968), starring Rod Steiger, Lee Remick, George Segal, Eileen Heckart, Murray Hamilton and Michael Dunn, which also includes a new audio commentary with Dell Valle and another new interview with Newman.
But the biggest Scream Factory title this week is a re-release for Roy Ward Baker's The Vampire Lovers (1970), starring Ingrid Pitt, George Cole, Peter Cushing, Kate O'Mara, and Ferdy Mayne. The classic Hammer horror film has been remastered from a 4K scan of its original camera negative, and contains both new and archival extras, including audio commentaries, featurettes, interviews, trailers, photo galleries and more.