Posted September 5, 2022 04:23 AM by Sean Greenwood
For the week of September 5th, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment will release Kyle Balda's Minions: The Rise of Gru, featuring the voices of Steve Carell, Pierre Coffin, Alan Arkin, Taraji P. Henson, and Michelle Yeoh. The fifth feature film in the Despicable Me franchise is a sequel to the 2015 prequel film Minions and finds the adorable yellow Minions trying to help a young Gru become a member of the Vicious 6 team of supervillains. Production on the film was announced in 2017, but after the coronavirus pandemic struck, production moved to remote work, and the film's release was delayed from 2020 to 2021 and then finally to July 2022, where it opened over the Independence Day holiday and grossed over $123 million during the four-day weekend. So far, the film has grossed over $359 million domestically so far and over $850 million worldwide, making it the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2022, as well as the highest-grossing animated film released during the pandemic.
Also coming to Blu-ray this week from Universal is Anthony Fabian's Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, starring Lesley Manville, Isabelle Huppert, Lambert Wilson, Alba Baptista, Lucas Bravo, Ellen Thomas and Jason isaacs.
Studio description: Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris tells a humorously heartwarming tale about a London housecleaner Ada Harris (Manville) who thinks her lonely life might turn around if she can become the owner of a Christian Dior gown. Saying goodbye to her friends like Archie (Isaacs) won't be easy, and neither will be winning over elite people in Paris from Madame Colbert (Huppert) to idealistic accountant André (Bravo). But Ada's irrepressible charm just might end up saving the whole House of Dior in this uplifting story of how an ordinary woman becomes an extraordinary inspiration by daring to follow her dreams.
Universal's extras for Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris include deleted and extended scenes and a gag reel.
New this week from Warner Bros Home Entertainment is a Blu-ray for Young Sheldon: The Complete Fifth Season (2021-2022). The two-disc set contains all 22 episodes and the featurette Time Flies When You're Having Fun: Young Sheldon at 100.
Also from Warner on Blu-ray this week is another entry in the Warner Archive Collection: Paul Newman's Rachel, Rachel (1968), starring Joanne Woodward, James Olson, Estelle Parsons, Donald Moffat, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Kate Harrington. Reviewer Randy Miller is once again highly complimentary of Warner Archive's work, saying in part: "I've had the pleasure of reviewing dozens of WAC Blu-rays of Technicolor films from this era and Rachel, Rachel competes with the best of them, sporting plenty of fine detail along with excellent color saturation and density, strong black levels...[this is] yet another praise-worthy effort from the reliably great boutique label". For full a disc breakdown, read Randy's Blu-ray review.
New this week from IFC Films is a Blu-ray for Audrey Diwan's Happening (L'Événement), starring Anamaria Vartolomei, Kacey Mottet Klein, Sandrine Bonnaire, Louise Orry-Diquero, Louise Chevillotte, Pio Marmaï and Anna Mouglalis. Based on the novel of the same name by Annie Ernaux, Happening is set in France in 1963 and tells of a bright college student, Anne, who finds herself pregnant. Determined to complete her studies rather than drop out, she seeks help to get an abortion, a procedure that is illegal in France and could send her to prison. Premiering at the 78th Venice International Film Festival in 2021, Happening won the Golden Lion and received universal critical acclaim, with particular praise for Vartolomei, who would go on to win a César Award (the French equivalent to the Oscars) for Most Promising Actress.
New onBlu-ray this week from Lionsgate Home Entertainment is Anna Gutto's Paradise Highway, starring Juliette Binoche, Frank Grillo, Hala Finley, Cameron Monaghan and Morgan Freeman.
Official description: Academy Award winners Juliette Binoche and Morgan Freeman lead this riveting thriller set in the trucking industry and its seamy underbelly of human trafficking. To save the life of her brother (Frank Grillo), Sally (Binoche), a truck driver, reluctantly agrees to smuggle illicit cargo: a girl named Leila (Hala Finley). As Sally and Leila begin a danger-fraught journey across state lines, a dogged FBI operative (Freeman) sets out on their trail, determined to do whatever it takes to terminate a human-trafficking operation — and bring Sally and Leila to safety.
Lionsgate's Blu-ray of Paradise Highway contains audio commentary with Gutto, deleted scenes, a making of featurette and a trailer. For full a disc breakdown, read Jeffrey Kauffman's Blu-ray review.
Finally for new releases this week, Cinema Guild will release a Blu-ray of Kazik Radwanski's Anne at 13,000 ft, starring
Label description: Anne hasn't been the same since the jump. While skydiving for her best friend Sara's bachelorette party, the 27-year-old felt focused, free, above it all. Back on the ground, the pressures of her daily life threaten to overwhelm her. Her coworkers at the daycare center are constantly questioning the way she connects with the children. At Sara's wedding, she meets a nice guy named Matt, but she can't help bringing him into ever-more-awkward social situations. As the stressful circumstances mount, Anne prepares for another jump.
An electrifying pairing of two of the brightest young stars in cinema in director Kazik Radwanski (Tower, How Heavy This Hammer) and rising talent Deragh Campbell (I Used to Be Darker), Anne at 13,000 ft reveals a director and star in perfect synch. From a rip-roaring skydive to moments of quiet reverie, Radwanski captures Anne's experience with an unflinching directness, a volatile mix of Dardenne brothers immediacy and Cassavetes naturalism. And yet even from this privileged vantage point, it's impossible to predict what Anne will do next.
Cinema Guild's Blu-ray of Anne at 13,000 ft contains cast and crew audio commentary, two short films by Radwanski, outtakes from the skydive, a theatrical trailer and a booklet with an essay by Penelope Bartlett.
Turning to catalog titles, Paramount Home Media Distribution will release a brand new 4K UHD and Blu-ray editions of Robert Wise's Star Trek: The Motion Picture: The Director's Edition (1979), starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, and George Takei. Previously released in its theatrical version, these new editions present Wise's director's edition of the film, with updated effects that were previously finished in standard definition (for the DVD release) now in 4K resolution. The director's edition of the film features a new Dolby Atmos remix on 4K UHD and Blu-ray, while the 4K UHD disc additionally features Dolby Vision HDR. Extras include new and archival audio commentaries, a new eight-part documentary on the making of the director's edition, new deleted scenes, new costume and effects tests, as well as additional archival extras. In addition to separate 4K UHD and Blu-ray releases of the newly remastered director's edition, a 5-disc version, subtitled The Complete Adventure, contains three cuts of the film on two 4K UHD discs: the 1979 theatrical cut, the director's edition and an exclusive disc with the "Special Longer Version", created for television broadcast in 1983. A Blu-ray of the director's edition, special features Blu-ray and previously released Blu-ray of the theatrical cut are also included, along with deluxe packaging that contains collectibles, reproductions of promotional material and a booklet.
Finally this week, the Criterion Collection will upgrade another of its Blu-ray titles to 4K UHD: Brian De Palma's Blow Out (1981), starring John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, Dennis Franz, Peter Boyden and Curt May. Presented on 4K UHD from a new 4K master, with Dolby Vision HDR and DTS-HD MA 2.0 audio, Criterion's 4K UHD release also includes their 2011 Blu-ray with several extras, including De Palma's Murder a la Mod (1967) and interviews with De Palma and Nancy Allen, amongst other extras.