For the week of May 16th, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, in association with MGM, has a Blu-ray release for Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza, starring Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Bradley Cooper, Joseph Cross, and Benny Safdie.
Studio description: Licorice Pizza is the story of Alana Kane and Gary Valentine growing up, running around and falling in love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973. Written and Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the film tracks the treacherous navigation of first love.
Showcasing an all-star, Critics Choice Award® nominated ensemble cast, Licorice Pizza stars Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Academy Award winner Sean Penn (Mystic River, Milk), Academy Award nominee Tom Waits (Seven Psychopaths, The Dead Don't Die), Academy Award® nominee Bradley Cooper (A Star is Born, Silver Linings Playbook) and Benny Safdie (Pieces of a Woman, upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi).
Licorice Pizza is a timeless story of Alana Kane (Haim) and Gary Valentine (Hoffman) growing up, running around and falling in love in the San Fernando Valley in 1973. Nominated for over 180 awards to-date including three Academy Awards®, eight Critics Choice Awards, and a total of 22 Best Picture nominations, the film is "an exhilarating reminder of what joy is like" (The New Yorker) and "reminds us why we love movies so much" (Slashfilm).
Universal's Blu-ray for Licorice Pizza contains camera tests, a deleted scene, behind the scenes material, and more. Special packaging includes a poster, a slipcover, and reversible artwork.
Also coming this week from Universal is The Last Kingdom: Season Five (2022). The three-disc set contains all 10 episodes of the fifth and final season of the series, as well as a making of and the featurette Strength and Sensitivity: The Women of The Last Kingdom. On the same day, The Last Kingdom: The Complete Series (2015-2022) will also be available. The sixteen-disc box set will collect all five seasons of the series with their existing extras.
New this week from Paramount Home Media Distribution is a 4K UHD and Blu-ray for Antoine Fuqua's Infinite, starring Mark Wahlberg, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sophie Cookson, Dylan O'Brien, and Jason Mantzoukas. Originally planned to be a theatrical release in 2020, Paramount delayed the film because of the coronavirus pandemic and eventually released it on their streaming service in June 2021. Critical reception was largely negative.
Studio description: For Evan McCauley (Mark Wahlberg), skills he has never learned and memories of places he has never visited haunt his daily life. Self-medicated and on the brink of a mental breakdown, a secret group that call themselves "Infinites" come to his rescue, revealing to him that his memories are real - but they are from multiple past lives. The Infinites bring Evan into their extraordinary world, where a gifted few are given the ability to be reborn with their memories and knowledge accumulated over centuries. With critical secrets buried in his past, Evan must work with the Infinites to unlock the answers in his memories in a race against time to save humanity from one of their own (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who seeks to destroy it.
Paramount's disc releases for Infinite include the film's Dolby Atmos audio, while the 4K UHD disc also includes Dolby Vision HDR. Extras include four featurettes.
Also from Paramount this week are two 4K UHD upgrades. First up is the first 4K UHD release that is also designated as part of the Paramount Presents lineup: John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), starring John Wayne, James Stewart, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin, and Edmond O'Brien. Taken from a 4K master, the film is presented with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio (as well as the original mono audio in lossy Dolby Digital) and presented with HDR on the 4K UHD disc. Archival extras have been ported over from previous releases, while there is also a new Filmmaker Focus featurette with Leonard Maltin. As with all Paramount Presents titles. packaging includes a special slipcover that opens to reveal original poster art. Note that this is a dual format release with a 1080p Blu-ray also included.
Also on 4K UHD from Paramount is Tony Scott;s Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), starring Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, Jürgen Prochnow, Ronny Cox, and John Ashton. Reviewer Martin Liebman gives the disc a perfect 5/5 score for picture quality, saying in part: "this is a gorgeous filmic presentation that absolutely excels in bringing the movie to life with a faithful reproduction of the theatrical experience. It could not be any more cinema-like. Detailing is terrifically stout as well. The 2160p resolution offers a boost for clarity and razor-sharpness even above the near reference 2020 Blu-ray". For a full disc breakdown, read Martin's 4K UHD review.
Also from Paramount this week is a Blu-ray release for Top Secret! (1984), starring Val Kilmer, Peter Cushing, Lucy Gutteridge, Warren Clarke, and Michael Gough. Paramount's Blu-ray features DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio and ports over several extras, including the group audio commentary, alternate scenes and the theatrical trailer.
New this week from Shout Factory and GKIDS is a Blu-ray for Mamoru Hosoda's Belle, featuring the voices of Kenjirô Tsuda, Mamoru Miyano, Koji Yakusho, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Ryô Narita and Shôta Sometani.
Description: From the celebrated Academy Award®-nominated director Mamoru Hosoda and Studio Chizu, creators of Mirai, Wolf Children, and Summer Wars, comes a fantastical, heartfelt story of growing up in the age of social media.
Suzu is a shy, everyday high school student living in a rural village. For years, she has only been a shadow of herself. But when she enters "U", a massive virtual world, she escapes into the online persona of Belle, a gorgeous and globally-beloved singer. One day, her concert is interrupted by a monstrous creature chased by vigilantes. As their hunt escalates, Suzu embarks on an emotional and epic quest to uncover the identity of this mysterious "beast" and to discover her true self in a world where you can be anyone.
Shout's Blu-ray of Belle contains both the original Japanese audio with English subtitles and an English dubbed audio track. Several extras include A Conversation with Director Mamoru Hosoda, four featurettes scene breakdowns and more. Note that in addition to standard packaging, a Target Exclusive SteelBook edition will also be available.
Note: GKIDS has also announced that a Collector's Edition 4K UHD of Belle will be released at a later date.
Also from Shout Factory this week are two 4K UHD releases. First is John Carpenter's Escape From New York (1981), starring Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, and Isaac Hayes. Sourced from a new 4K master completed by StudioCanal, Shout's three-disc set presents the film on 4K UHD with Dolby Vision HDR and remastered Blu-ray, with your choice of a new Dolby Atmos remix, DTS-HD MA 5.1 or the original stereo audio in DTS-HD MA 2.0. Archival extras include three audio commentaries, and spread over the two Blu-rays are featurettes, interviews, trailers and much more.
Then from Shout is a 4K UHD for Andrew Fleming's The Craft (1996), starring Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell, Rachel True, and Skeet Ulrich. Sourced from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative done by Sony Pictures, Shout's two-disc set presents the film on 4K UHD and remastered Blu-ray. An audio commentary is also included, while the Blu-ray ports the extras from Shout's 2019 Blu-ray, including four interviews with the crew produced for that release, as well as two vintage featurettes, deleted scenes and the film's trailer.
Finally from Shout this week is the worldwide premiere on Blu-ray for Brian De Palma's Femme Fatale (2002), starring Rebecca Romijn, Antonio Banderas, Peter Coyote, Eriq Ebouaney, and Edouard Montoute. Sourced from a new 2K scan of an interpositive, Shout's Blu-ray also contains new interviews with actor Gregg Henry and editor Bill Pankow, along with four archival featurettes and English and French theatrical trailers.
Finally this week, Lionsgate Home Entertainment brings another title to its Vestron Video Collector's Series of Blu-rays: Walter Hill's Extreme Prejudice (1987), starring Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, Michael Ironside, Maria Conchita Alonso, and Rip Torn. As usual, the Vestron Video Collector's Series offers up several extras, including an hour-long 2019 interview with Walter Hill, over 45 minutes of new 2022 interviews with actors Michael Ironside and Clancy Brown, a new audio commentary, Jerry Goldsmith's score as an isolated score track, a 1987 promotional featurette, and more.