For the week of July 17th, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will release The Last of Us: The Complete First Season (2023), starring Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Gabriel Luna, Anna Torv, Nico Parker, Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman.
Studio description: The Last of Us takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal and heartbreaking journey as they both must traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.
Warner's Blu-ray and 4K UHD releases for The Last of Us: The Complete First Season contain Dolby Atmos audio, with HDR on the 4K UHD edition. Over two hours of extras include the never-before-seen featurettes The Last of Us: Stranger Than Fiction, Controllers Down: Adapting The Last of Us and From Levels to Live Action, as well as several other featurettes.
Also coming from Warner is another Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection: Howard Hawks' Land of the Pharaohs (1955), starring Jack Hawkins, Joan Collins, Dewey Martin, Alexis Minotis, James Robertson Justice and Luisella Boni. Sourced from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative, Warner Archive presents Land of the Pharaohs with DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio. Extras include audio commentary by film historian director Peter Bogdanovich (with archival interview comments by Howard Hawks) and the film's original theatrical trailer. For a full disc breakdown, read Randy Miller's Blu-ray review.
New this week on Blu-ray from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment is Ric Roman Waugh's Kandahar (2023), starring Gerard Butler, Bahador Foladi, Navid Negahban, Elnaaz Norouzi, Rebecca Calder and Ali Fazal.
Studio description: Reuniting with renowned action director Ric Roman Waugh (Angel Has Fallen, Greenland), Butler stars alongside an incredible cast including Navid Negahban (Aladdin, "Homeland"), Ali Fazal (Victoria & Abdul, "Mirzapur"), Tom Rhys Harries ("White Lines", The Gentlemen), Rebecca Calder (Love Me Do, The Dark Mile), and Travis Fimmel ("Vikings", Warcraft) in this "unmissable" (Austin Chronicle), high-tech cat-and-mouse thriller. Filled with exhilarating explosions, high-speed chases, and intense combat sequences amidst deadly surroundings set in the Middle East, KANDAHAR delivers non-stop action that will keep viewers on the edge of their seats from beginning to end.
Also coming from Universal is a 4K UHD upgrade for Tom Hooper's Les Misérables (2012), starring Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Russell Crowe, Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter. Newly remastered with HDR, Universal presents Les Misérables with a new Dolby Atmos audio track. Extras include audio commentary with Tom Hooper, while an included Blu-ray copy of the film carries over the video extras, including the hour-long multi-part featurette Les Misérables: A Revolutionary Approach and The Original Masterwork: Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, a featurette on the source novel.
Lionsgate Home Entertainment is a Blu-ray for Charlie Day's Fool's Paradise (2023), starring Charlie Day, Ken Jeong, Kate Beckinsale, Adrien Brody, Jason Sudeikis and Edie Falco
Studio description: Starring Charlie Day ("It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia") in his directorial debut, this hilarious comedy follows an ordinary guy (Day) who happens to be a dead ringer for a hot-headed movie star. When he replaces the movie star in a major film, he becomes an accidental celebrity thrown into a fever dream of Hollywood fame brought to life by a stellar cast, including Ken Jeong, Kate Beckinsale, Adrien Brody, Jason Sudeikis, Edie Falco, Jason Bateman, Common, and Ray Liotta.
New this week from Full Moon Features is a Blu-ray for Ted Nicolaou's Subspecies V: Bloodrise, starring Kevin Spirtas, Anders Hove, Denice Duff, Stasa Nikolic, Olivera Perunicic and Yulia Graut.
Description: Stolen by crusaders on the night of his birth, he has no knowledge of his bloodline: his mother is a demon; his father is a vampire. Trained and exploited by a brotherhood of mystic monks to slay all enemies of the church, fate brings him back one night to the castle of his father, armed with the monster-slaying Sword of Laertes, to destroy the vampire Vladislas and reclaim a holy relic: The Bloodstone. The events of that night turn Radu from a noble man into a vampire with no master, setting him on a centuries-long quest for sustenance, and companionship, for the treacherous one who stole him from the sun, and for the Bloodstone he hopes will bring him peace. Spanning 500 years in the life of the vampire Radu Vladislas, this long-anticipated prequel to the Subspecies series chronicles Radu's descent from a noble warrior for the Church to a depraved creature of the night.
New from AMC Studios is a Blu-ray for the TV series Moonhaven (2022), starring Dominic Monaghan, Emma McDonald, Amara Karan, Ayelet Zurer, Kadeem Hardison and Yazzmin Newell.
Official description: Moonhaven focuses on Bella Sway, a lunar cargo pilot and smuggler 100 years in the future who finds herself accused of a crime and marooned on Moonhaven, a utopian community set on a 500 square mile Garden of Eden built on the Moon to find solutions to the problems that will soon end civilization on Mother Earth.
New on Blu-ray from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is Jim Strouse's Love Again, starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sam Heughan, Céline Dion, Sofia Barclay, Russell Tovey and Lydia West.
Description: What if a random text message led to the love of your life? In this romantic comedy, dealing with the loss of her fiancé, Mira Ray (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) sends a series of romantic texts to his old cell phone number…not realizing the number was reassigned to Rob Burns' (Sam Heughan) new work phone. A journalist, Rob is captivated by the honesty in the beautifully confessional texts. When he's assigned to write a profile of megastar Celine Dion (playing herself in her first film role), he enlists her help in figuring out how to meet Mira in person…and win her heart.
Sony's Blu-ray of Love Again contains the extra Finding Love Again and six deleted scenes.
New on Blu-ray from Cohen Media Group is Vadim Perelman's Persian Lessons, starring Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Lars Eidinger, Jonas Nay, David Schütter, Alexander Beyer and Andreas Hofer.
Description: Occupied France, 1942. Gilles (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) is arrested by SS soldiers alongside other Jews and sent to a camp in Germany. He narrowly avoids sudden execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but Gilles gets assigned a life-or-death mission: to teach Farsi to Head of Camp Koch (Lars Eidinger), who dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran once the war is over. Through an ingenious trick, Gilles manages to survive by inventing words of "Farsi" every day and teaching them to Koch. The particular relationship between the two men sparks the jealousy of other prisoners and SS guards towards Gilles. And while the suspicions of Koch grow every day, Gilles understands that he will not be able to keep his secret very long...
Cohen's Blu-ray of Persian Lessons contains trailers.
Finally for new releases this week, Magnolia Pictures has a Blu-ray for Lisa Cortes' Little Richard: I Am Everything, starring Little Richard, John Waters, Mick Jagger, Tom Jones, Paul McCartney and Nile Rodgers.
Label description: Growing up in Macon, Georgia, Little Richard (Leon) discovers music through his church. After winning a local talent contest, Richard is encouraged to pursue a career as a songwriter and performer, and finds success and stardom following his first single, "Tutti Frutti." At the height of his fame, Richard abandons his career in favor of a religious life. His retirement, however, proves to be short-lived, and he soon makes a triumphant return to rock 'n' roll.
Turning to catalog titles, Kino Lorber have a number of titles coming this week. First is Carl Theodor Dreyer's Michael (Mikaël) (1924), starring Walter Slezak, Nora Gregor, Benjamin Christensen, Mady Christians, Max Auzinger and Robert Garrison. Kino's Blu-ray contains an audio commentary by Scandinavian cinema scholars Amanda Doxtater and Maxine Savage.
Next from Kino is a Blu-ray for Abel Gance's End of the World (La Fin du monde) (1931), starring Abel Gance, Colette Darfeuil, Sylvie Gance, Jeanne Brindeau, Samson Fainsilber and Georges Colin. Kino's Blu-ray contains interviews about the film with Laurent Véray, Serge Bromberg, Christophe Gauthier and Léon Rousseau, as well as a trailer.
Then from Kino is a Blu-ray box set, the Audie Murphy Collection II (1950-1954), a three-disc set that contains Alfred E. Green's Sierra (1950), Ray Enright's Kansas Raiders (1950) and George Marshall's Destry (1954). Extras include new audio commentaries and theatrical trailers for each of the three films. Note that Kino's first Audie Murphy Collection was released in 2020 and that the label will also release the Audie Murphy Collection III on August 15th, 2023.
Also from Kino is a Blu-ray for Henry Hathaway's Nevada Smith (1966), starring Steve McQueen, Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Arthur Kennedy, Suzanne Pleshette and Raf Vallone. Kino's Blu-ray is sourced from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative. Extras include a new audio commentary by author / screenwriter C. Courtney Joyner, producer Mark Jordan Legan and film historian Henry Parke, a theatrical teaser, three TV spots and a radio spot.
Also from Kino is a new Blu-ray edition of John Cassavetes' Gloria (1980), starring Gena Rowlands, Julie Carmen, Buck Henry, John Finnegan, Tom Noonan and J.C. Quinn. Extras include two theatrical trailers.
Coming to 4K UHD and remastered Blu-ray from Kino is William Friedkin's To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), starring William Petersen, Willem Dafoe, John Pankow, Debra Feuer, John Turturro and Darlanne Fluegel. Newly remastered from a 4K scan of the original camera negative, Kino presents To Live and Die in L.A. with lossless 5.1 and 2.0 audio and Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD disc. Extras include audio commentary with William Friedkin, while the remastered Blu-ray disc also carries over extras from previous Blu-ray editions, including several cast and crew interviews, a deleted scene and alternate ending and more.
Then Kino has a new Blu-ray edition for John Frankenheimer's 52 Pick-Up (1986), starring Roy Scheider, Ann-Margret, Vanity, John Glover, Robert Trebor and Lonny Chapman. Previously released in 2015 on a single-layered BD-25 disc with only a theatrical trailer, this new edition will be re-authored on a dual-layered BD-50 disc and adds a new audio commentary by filmmakers/ historians Steve Mitchell and Edwin Samuelson, as well as an isolated music track featuring an interview with composer Gary Chang and TV spots.
Finally, Kino will release a Blu-ray for Jack Smight's Number One with a Bullet (1987), starring Robert Carradine, Billy Dee Williams, Valerie Bertinelli, Peter Graves, Doris Roberts and Ray Girardin. Kino's Blu-ray is sourced from a new 2K scan of the interpositive. Extras include a new audio commentary by action film historians Mike Leeder and Arne Venema and the film's theatrical trailer.
Coming to 4K UHD and Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection is The Ranown Westerns: Five Films Directed by Budd Boetticher (1957-1960), a six-disc box set with 4K UHD and Blu-ray editions of Boetticher's films The Tall T (1957), Decision at Sundown (1957), Buchanan Rides Alone (1958), Ride Lonesome (1959) and Comanche Station (1960). All five films have been remastered in 4K by Sony Pictures Entertainment and are presented with LPCM Mono audio and Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD discs. Extras include introductions to the films by filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Taylor Hackford, audio commentaries on three of the films, archival interviews with Boetticher, a Super 8 version of Comanche Station and more.
Also coming to 4K UHD from Criterion is Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless (À bout de souffle) (1961) starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Daniel Boulanger, Henri-Jacques Huet, Roger Hanin and Jean-Pierre Melville. Remastered in 4K by StudioCanal, Criterion presents Breathless with LPCM Mono audio and Dolby Vision HDR. An included Blu-ray presents the extras from the 2010 Blu-ray edition, including various interviews, two video essays, the feature-length documentary Chambre 12, Hôtel de Suède (1993), Godard's short film Charlotte et son Jules (1959) and more.
Finally this week, Arrow Video have a 4K UHD upgrade for Martin Scorsese's Hugo (2011). Arrow presents three options for viewing Hugo: 4K with Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD disc, or in 3D or 2D on the included Blu-ray. All versions offer DTS-HD MA 7.1 and LPCM 2.0 audio tracks. New extras include audio commentary by filmmaker and writer Jon Spira, new interviews with Brian Selznick (author of the original novel), cinematographer Robert Richardson, composer Howard Shore and film historian Ian Christie, new visual essays, legacy extras from the previous Blu-ray release and more. For full disc breakdowns, read Jeffrey Kauffman's 4K UHD review and Blu-ray review.