Posted December 4, 2022 11:13 PM by Sean Greenwood
For the week of December 5th, Paramount Home Media Distribution will release a 4K UHD Blu-ray for Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994), starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel and Tim Roth. Newly remastered and presented with Dolby Vision HDR and DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio, Paramount's 4K UHD disc carries over a selection of extras from the existing Blu-ray, itself also included in the package. In addition to standard packaging, a Limited Edition SteelBook will also be available. Reviewer Martin Liebman is highly impressed with Paramount's 4K UHD disc, saying that the picture: "offer a healthy and naturally occurring image that offers a solid boost over the existing Blu-ray...viewers will now be able to pick out the finest fabric details and flaws...Faces are likewise presented with newfound complexity, showing pores and hairs with razor-precise clarity...The [Dolby Vision HDR] grading reveals a more vibrant picture overall, with amplified brightness while still maintaining effortless depth and stability". For full a disc breakdown, read Martin's 4K UHD review.
New on Blu-ray this week from Paramount is a Blu-ray for Petr Jákl's Medieval, starring Ben Foster, Michael Caine, Sophie Lowe, Til Schweiger, and Matthew Goode.
Description: Set in 14th Century Prague, the Holy Roman Empire plummets into chaos after the death of its emperor while brothers King Wencelas of Czech and King Sigismund of Hungary battle for control of the empty throne. Mercenary leader Jan Žižka (Ben Foster) is hired by Lord Boresh (Michael Caine) to kidnap the powerful Lord Rosenberg's (Til Schweiger) fiancée, Katherine (Sophie Lowe), to foil Sigismund's plot to take the crown. Turning against his own religious and political faith, Jan fights back with a rebel army in an attempt to save Katherine and battle the corruption, greed, and betrayal rampant amongst those clawing for power.
Also new on Blu-ray this week from Paramount comes Star Trek: Discovery - Season Four (2021-2022). The three-disc set contains all thirteen episodes with exclusive extras, including an audio commentary on the episode "Coming Home", deleted scenes and a gag reel, while also including four featurettes. In addition to standard packaging, a Limited Edition SteelBook will also be available.
Description: What happened to the children who lived through the Pandemic? Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny survived but will never be the same Post Covid.If Stan, Kyle and Cartman could just work together, they could go back in time to make sure Covid never happened and save Kenny's life. In SOUTH PARK: POST COVID: THE RETURN OF COVID, traveling back to the past seems to be the easy answer until they meet Victor Chaos.
Finally from Paramount this week comes two 4K UHD upgrades for Walter Hill's 48 Hrs. (1982) and Another 48 Hrs. (1990). Both films feature Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio, while remastered Blu-rays--previously released in July 2021 as part of the Paramount Presents lineup--are included for both films and contain Filmmaker Focus featurettes with Walter Hill, amongst other extras. In addition to separate releases, Paramount will also release 48 Hrs. / Another 48 Hrs. 2-Movie Collection.
New this week from Lionsgate Home Entertainment is a Blu-ray and 4K UHD for Kevin Smith's Clerks III, starring Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Rosario Dawson, Jeff Anderson and Brian O'Halloran.
Synopsis: Following a massive heart attack, Randal enlists his friends and fellow clerks Dante, Elias, Jay, and Silent Bob to make a movie immortalizing his life at the convenience store that started it all.
Lionsgate's releases of Clerks III contain Dolby Atmos audio, while the 4K UHD disc additionally includes HDR. Extras include cast and crew audio commentary, two lengthy documentaries, half and hour of deleted and alternate scenes and the film's theatrical trailer. For a full breakdown of the Blu-ray edition, read Jeffrey Kauffman's Blu-ray review. Please note that the 4K UHD release of Clerks III is currently only available as a Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook.
New this week from RLJE Films is a Blu-ray for Phil Tippett's Mad God, starring Alex Cox, Niketa Roman and Anthony Ruivivar.
Official description: Follow The Assassin through a forbidding world of tortured souls, decrepit bunkers, and wretched monstrosities forged from the most primordial horrors of the subconscious mind. Directed by Phil Tippett (Star Wars, Jurassic Park), the world's pre-eminent stop motion animator, every set, creature, and effigy in this macabre masterpiece is hand-crafted and painstakingly animated using traditional stop-motion techniques.
Extras for RLJE Films' Blu-ray of Mad God include audio commentary with Phil Tippet and Guillermo del Toro, cast and crew audio commentary, an interview with Phil Tippet, featurettes and more.
Also on Blu-ray from RLJE Films is a Blu-ray for Lucky McKee's Old Man, starring Stephen Lang, Marc Senter, Patch Darragh and Liana Wright-Mark.
Description: Deep in the woods, a lost hiker stumbles upon the cabin of an erratic and reclusive old man. What starts off as cordial conversation soon turns dangerous as it becomes clear that one or both of them might be hiding a terrifying secret. This horrific and poignant plunge into madness, starring Stephen Lang (Avatar, Don't Breathe) and Marc Senter (Starry Eyes), is "a mesmerizing thriller that you won't be able to take your eyes off of" (ScariestThings.com).
Also coming from RLJE Films is a Blu-ray for Creepshow: Season 3 (2022). The two-disc set features six episodes, with extras like a Comic-Con @Home 2022 Panel Interview, behind the scenes footage and more. Reviewer Jeffrey Kauffman praises the Blu-ray, saying that "This is another fine looking set of transfers that preserves this series' often whimsical if perhaps occasionally slightly gory presentational proclivities". For a full release breakdown, read Jeffrey's Blu-ray review.
New this week from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is a Blu-ray for Better Call Saul: Season Six (2022). The release contains all thirteen episodes from the series' sixth and final season, along with the Blu-ray Exclusive extras Series Adjourned: Saying Goodbye to Saul and Fear and Loathing in Omaha: The World of Gene Takavic, and additional extras, including cast and crew audio commentaries, deleted scenes, a gag reel, and more. Also on Tuesday, Sony will release Better Call Saul: The Complete Series (2015-2022), a nineteen-disc box set with all six seasons of the series.
Also coming from Sony this week is a 4K UHD upgrade for Spike Jonze's Adaptation. (2002), starring Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Tilda Swinton and Cara Seymour. Remastered in 4K, the film is presented on 4K UHD with Dolby Vision HDR and a new Dolby Atmos audio mix, as well as DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0 tracks. Extras include the featurette Behind the Scenes in the Swamp and the film's theatrical trailer.
New this week from Walt Disney Home Entertainment and 20th Century Studios is a 4K UHD and Blu-ray release for David O. Russell's Amsterdam, starring Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Chris Rock and Anya Taylor-Joy.
Studio description: Written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker David O. Russell comes an original crime epic about three close friends who find themselves at the center of one of the most shocking secret plots in American history.
Based on facts that meet fiction, the film stars Academy Award® winner Christian Bale, two-time Oscar® nominee Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Alessandro Nivola, Andrea Riseborough, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Rock, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, Taylor Swift, Timothy Olyphant, Zoe Saldana with Oscar winner Rami Malek and two-time Academy Award winner Robert DeNiro.
Disney's 4K UHD release of Amsterdam contains the film's Dolby Atmos audio, while the included Blu-ray has a DTS-HD MA 7.1 track. The 15-minute featurette Welcome to Amsterdam is included as an extra. Reviewer Jeffrey Kauffman is impressed with the 4K UHD disc, awarding five stars for both picture and sound quality, saying in part: "An already gorgeous 1080 presentation is improved at least marginally and I'd actually argue surprisingly substantially both in terms of an uptick in general and perhaps especially fine detail levels, but also in a rendering of the often rather beautifully "peachy" palette that Russell and DP Emmanuel Lubezki employ". For full disc breakdowns, read Jeffrey's 4K UHD review and Blu-ray review.
New this week from Shout Factory is a Blu-ray for 's Operation Seawolf, starring Frank Grillo, Dolph Lundgren and Hiram A. Murray.
Description: Dolph Lundgren and Frank Grillo star in a riveting, action-packed war drama. In the last days of World War II, German forces, desperate for one final chance to defeat the Allied powers, look to their last remaining resources of battle. Amassing their dwindling fleet of U-Boats, the German Navy plots their ultimate attack. Their target: the United States mainland. Grizzled submarine commander Hans Kessler (Dolph Lundgren) is called into service to help turn the tide of war in this thrilling adventure from director Steven Luke (Battle Of The Bulge: Winter War).
Also from Shout is a 4K UHD upgrade for Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974), starring Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, John Saxon, Marian Waldman and Andrea Martin. Newly remastered from a 4K scan of the original camera negative, Shout's 4K UHD release presents the film on 4K UHD and remastered Blu-ray with newly remastered DTS-HD MA Mono and 5.1 tracks, as well as Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD disc. Extras replicate Shout's 2016 Collector's Edition Blu-ray, with the Critical Mass cut of the film, three audio commentaries, and hours of legacy featurettes and interviews.
New this week from Arrow Films is a Blu-ray for Eric Pennycoff's The Leech, starring
From Black Christmas to Rare Exports, there has long been a symbiotic relationship between horror and the season of good cheer. Now, writer/director Eric Pennycoff (Sadistic Intentions) continues this proud tradition with The Leech, a cautionary tale about the perils of opening your door to a stranger.
Father David (Graham Skipper, Sequence Break), a Catholic priest struggling to fill the pews in his church, allows a homeless man, Terry (Jeremy Gardner, After Midnight), into his home to escape the December chill. But this simple act of kindness has unforeseen consequences when Terry's pregnant girlfriend, Lexi (Taylor Gardner, Sadistic Intentions), also decides to crash at the parochial house. Determined to save the warring couple through the healing power of God's love, David's ordered existence quickly unravels as he succumbs to the wicked ways of the parasitic pair. Will he pass this apparent test of faith or resort to blood-soaked, Old Testament justice?
Agonisingly intense and rib-ticklingly funny in equal measure, The Leech serves as both a festive frightmare and a microcosm of the fault lines of contemporary America. Arrow Video is proud to present this latest inductee into the Christmas horror hall of fame!
Arrow's Blu-ray of The Leech contains several extras, including audio commentaries, featurettes, short films, a music video and more. The jacket has a reversible sleeve with alternate artwork and the first pressing also includes an illustrated collector's booklet.
While technical specifications vary across the films, nine of them have had new remasters for the set (with The 36th Chamber of Shaolin receiving a 4K scan), and all films sport original Cantonese and/or Mandarin audio in DTS-HD MA Mono, with several films also including English dubs. As with last year's release of ShawScope Volume One, the discs are packaged in an elaborate, oversized box which also includes a 60-page booklet, along with two CDs of music from the De Wolfe Music library, which can be heard in the films. Each Blu-ray also contains hours of new and existing bonus features. Reviewer Jeffrey Kauffman has already completed reviews for all fourteen films in the set. They can be accessed via the film titles above or via his overall ShawScope Volume Two Blu-ray review.
Finally from Arrow is a Blu-ray for Nico Mastorakis' Nightmare at Noon (AKA Death Street USA) (1988), starring Wings Hauser, Bo Hopkins, George Kennedy, Kimberly Beck, Brion James and Kimberly Ross. Sourced from a new 2K master, Arrow presents Nightmare at Noon with LPCM 2.0 and DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio tracks. Extras include lengthy behind the scenes material and cast interviews, as well as an image gallery and trailer. For a full disc breakdown, read Jeffrey Kauffman's Blu-ray review.
Staying with catalog titles, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has a 4K UHD upgrade for Robert Schwentke's R.I.P.D. (2013), starring Jeff Bridges, Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Bacon, Mary-Louise Parker and Stephanie Szostak. Presented in 4K HDR, R.I.P.D. also includes a new DTS: X (with DTS-HD MA 7.1 core) audio mix on the 4K UHD disc. The included existing Blu-ray contains legacy extras, including an two alternate openings, alternate and deleted scenes, a gag reel and several featurettes.
New this week from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment are two more Blu-rays from the Warner Archive Collection. First is Nathan Juran's Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman (1958), starring Allison Hayes, William Hudson, Yvette Vickers, Roy Gordon, George Douglas and Ken Terrell. Newly remastered from a 4K scan of the original camera negative, Warner Archive's Blu-ray contains DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono audio and audio commentary with actress Yvette Vickers and film historian Tom Weaver, as well as the film's theatrical trailer. Reviewer Randy Miller calls the Blu-ray "outstanding". For a full disc breakdown, read Randy's Blu-ray review.
Then from Warner Archive is a Blu-ray for John Huston's The Night of the Iguana (1964), starring Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, Sue Lyon, Grayson Hall and Cyril Delevanti. Newly remastered from a 4K scan of the original camera negative, Warner Archive's Blu-ray contains DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono audio and two featurettes, as well as two theatrical trailers for the film. Once again, reviewer Randy Miller has high praise for Warner Archive's efforts, saying that the picture quality "marks a solid leap beyond earlier home video editions and likely rivals or exceeds theatrical showings". For a full disc breakdown, read Randy's Blu-ray review.