For the week of August 14th, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment will release Wes Anderson's Asteroid City, starring Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton and Bryan Cranston.
Description: A fictional American desert town, circa 1955. Junior Stargazers and Space Cadets from across the country assemble for the annual Asteroid Day celebration -- but the scholarly competition is spectacularly upended by world-changing events. Equal parts comedy, drama, and romance (with a touch of science-fiction).
Universal's Blu-ray of Asteroid City contains DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio. Extras include a making of featurette and a trailer.
New this week from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is a Blu-ray and 4K UHD for Matt Peters' Babylon 5: The Road Home, starring the voices of Bruce Boxleitner, Claudia Christian, Peter Jurasik, Bill Mumy, Tracy Scoggins and Patricia Tallman.
Description: Return to Babylon 5 as the epic interstellar saga continues with The Road Home. Travel across the galaxy with John Sheridan as he unexpectedly finds himself transported through multiple timelines and alternate realities in a quest to find his way back home. Along the way he reunites with some familiar faces, while discovering cosmic new revelations about the history, purpose, and meaning of the Universe.
Warner's releases of Babylon 5: The Road Home contain DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio, with HDR on the 4K UHD disc. Extras include a filmmaker audio commentary and the featurette Babylon 5 Forever.
New on Blu-ray from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is Jennifer Kluska and Derek Drymon's Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, starring Brian Hull, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kathryn Hahn, Keegan-Michael Key and Steve Buscemi.
Description: Drac and the pack are back, like you've never seen them before in Hotel Transylvania: Transformania. Reunite with your favorite monsters for an all-new adventure that presents Drac with his most terrifying task yet. When Van Helsing's mysterious invention, the 'Monsterfication Ray," goes haywire, Drac and his monster pals are all transformed into humans, and Johnny becomes a monster! In their new mismatched bodies, Drac, stripped of his powers, and an exuberant Johnny, loving life as a monster, must team up and race across the globe to find a cure before it's too late, and before they drive each other crazy. With help from Mavis and the hilariously human Drac Pack, the heat is on to find a way to switch themselves back before their transformations become permanent.
Sony's Blu-ray of Hotel Transylvania: Transformania contains filmmaker audio commentary, a new mini-movie Monster Pets, Monster Mash-Up: Making Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, Selena vs. Andy: A Hotel Transyl-Trivia Quiz, a lyric video for "Love Is Not Hard to Find" by YEИDRY and more.
Also from Sony is a Blu-ray for Peter Atencio's comedy The Machine (2023), starring Bert Kreischer, Mark Hamill, Jimmy Tatro, Stephanie Kurtzuba, Martyn Ford and Brian Caspe.
Studio description: Bert Kreischer rose to fame as a stand-up comedian known as The Machine, and in his signature set he recounts his true experience with Russian mobsters while on a booze-soaked college trip. Now, 23 years later, that trip has come back to haunt him as he and his estranged father (Mark Hamill) are kidnapped back to Russia by the mob to atone for something they say he did. Together, Bert and his father must retrace the steps of his younger self (Jimmy Tatro) in the midst of a war within sociopathic crime family, all while attempting to find common ground in their often fraught relationship.
Sony's Blu-ray of The Machine contains filmmaker audio commentary, a making of and other featurettes, deleted scenes, and outtakes and bloopers.
New on Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment is huck Konzelman and Cary Solomon's Nefarious, starring Sean Patrick Flanery, Jordan Belfi, Robert Peters, Cameron Arnett, Stelio Savante and Tom Ohmer.
Description: On the day of his scheduled execution, a convicted serial killer gets a psychiatric evaluation during which he claims he is a demon, and further claims that before their time is over, the psychiatrist will commit three murders of his own.
Mill Creek's Blu-ray of Nefarious contains filmmaker commentary, cast commentary, a making of featurette, Interview With An Exorcist with Father Carlos Martins, easter sggs and more.
New on Blu-ray from Utopia Distribution is Ali Abbasi's Holy Spider (عنکبوت مقدس), starring Zar Amir-Ebrahimi, Mehdi Bajestani, Arash Ashtiani, Forouzan Jamshidnejad, Sina Parvaneh and Nima Akbarpour.
Description: Female journalist Arezoo Rahimi (Zar Amir-Ebrahimi, White Paradise) travels to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a serial killer targeting sex workers. As she draws closer to exposing his crimes, the opportunity for justice grows harder to attain when the murderer is embraced by many as a hero. Based on the true story of the 'Spider Killer' Saeed Hanaei (Mehdi Bajestani, 'Whisper"), who saw himself as on a mission from God as he killed 16 women between 2000 and 2001.
Utopia's Blu-ray of Holy Spider contains two Q&A sessions with Ali Abbasi, a Q&A with moderator Reza Safai, and interviews with Abbasi, producers Jacob Jarek and Sol Bondy and actors Zar Amir-Ebrahimi and Mehdi Bajestani.
New on Blu-ray from RLJE Films is Thomas Marchese's From Black, starring Anna Camp, John Ales, Jennifer Lafleur, Travis Hammer, Ritchie Montgomery, Eduardo Campirano III and Alicia Mason.
Description: A young mother, crushed by guilt after the disappearance of her young son 5 years previously, is presented with a bizarre offer to learn the truth and set things right. But how far is she willing to go, and is she willing to pay the terrifying price for a chance to hold her boy again?
New on Blu-ray from Well Go USA is Ari Novak's Kill Shot, starring Rachel Cook, Rib Hillis, Bobby Maximus, Mara Ohara, Xian Mikol and Todd Gordon.
Description: During a hunting trip in Montana, a wilderness guide and former Navy SEAL (Rib Hillis) and his client (Rachel Cook) stumble upon a cache of heist money, unwittingly making themselves the one obstacle standing between a dangerous terrorist group and its lost fortune. Eager to take some of the cash for themselves, the pair learns far too late how easy it can be to make someone disappear in the vastness of Big Sky country.
Well Go USA's Blu-ray of Kill Shot contains a trailer. For a full disc breakdown, read Jeffrey Kauffman's Blu-ray review.
New on Blu-ray from Lionsgate Home Entertainment is Michael Oblowitz's Confidential Informant, starring Mel Gibson, Dominic Purcell, Kate Bosworth, Nick Stahl, Russell Richardson and Jon Lindstrom.
Description: This gritty crime thriller starring Mel Gibson tells the tale of two narcotics agents hunting for a cop killer during a crack epidemic. Hoping for leads, Moran (Dominic Purcell, "Prison Break") and Thorton (Nick Stahl, Sin City) pay off a junkie informant. To provide for his wife (Kate Bosworth, Superman Returns) and son, Moran involves the stool pigeon in a deadly scheme. This causes the partners to come under the scrutiny of a suspicious internal affairs agent, leading to an explosive finale…
Lionsgate's Blu-ray of Confidential Informant contains filmmaker commentary and a trailer. For a full disc breakdown, read Jeffrey Kauffman's Blu-ray review.
Also from Lionsgate is a Blu-ray for The Lincoln Lawyer: Season 1 (2023), starring Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Neve Campbell, Becki Newton, Angus Sampson, Jazz Raycole and Christopher Gorham.
Description: Need a lawyer? Call Mickey Haller. He's quick, sharp, and owns the courtroom like Michael Jordan owned the basketball court. Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) runs his law practice out of his Lincoln, and he's ready to hit the gas again after being sidelined by personal issues. After inheriting an acquaintance's law practice, Haller finds himself with a batch of new cases, including a significant murder trial he must hastily prepare to defend. Moving swiftly through the city of Los Angeles, he takes case after case while balancing a private life that includes being the father of a teenager and having two ex-wives – one who works with him, the other the city's Deputy District Attorney. It's a bumpy road, but if there's anyone who can navigate it smoothly, it's Mickey Haller.
Lionsgate's Blu-ray of The Lincoln Lawyer: Season 1 contains a blooper reel.
Turning to catalog titles, Paramount Home Media Distribution have a 4K UHD upgrade for William Wyler's Roman Holiday (1953), starring Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert, Hartley Power, Harcourt Williams and Margaret Rawlings. Previously remastered in 4K, Paramount brings Roman Holiday to 4K UHD with Dolby TrueHD 2.0 Mono audio and Dolby Vision HDR. Extras for this single-disc 4K UHD release duplicate those of the Blu-ray edition, including a Filmmaker Focus featurette with Leonard Maltin, several featurettes (including the 30-minute Audrey Hepburn: The Paramount Years) and multiple trailers and galleries.
Coming from Kino Lorber is a Blu-ray for Ernst Lubitsch's The Doll (Die Puppe) (1919), starring Max Kronert, Hermann Thimig, Victor Janson, Marga Köhler, Ossi Oswalda. Kino's Blu-ray also contains the Lubitsch's I Don't Want to Be a Man (Ich möchte kein Mann sein) (1918) as a bonus film, and features audio commentary for both films by author Joseph McBride (How Did Lubitsch Do It?).
Also coming from Kino Lorber is a Blu-ray box set: The Audie Murphy Collection III (1960-1963), a three-disc set that contains George Sherman's Hell Bent for Leather (1960), Herbert Coleman's Posse from Hell (1961) and R.G. Springsteen's Showdown (1963). Extras include new audio commentaries for Hell Bent for Leather and Posse from Hell, as well as newly remastered theatrical trailers for each of the three films. Note that Kino's first Audie Murphy Collection was released in 2020 and that the Audie Murphy Collection II followed earlier this year.
Finally from Kino are two films by René Clément. First is The Day and the Hour (Le Jour et l'Heure) (1963), starring Simone Signoret, Stuart Whitman, Geneviève Page, Michel Piccoli and Reggie Nalder. Sourced from a 4K master provided by Gaumont, Kino's Blu-ray features a new audio commentary by film historian Samm Deighan and a theatrical trailer.
Then is Clément's Is Paris Burning? (Paris brûle-t-il ?) (1966), starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Boyer, Leslie Caron, Jean-Pierre Cassel, George Chakiris and Alain Delon. Newly remastered in 4K from the original camera negative by Paramount Pictures, in association with American Zoetrope and Francis Ford Coppola, Kino presents Is Paris Burning? with a new audio commentary by film historians Daniel Kremer and Howard S. Berger.
Coming to Blu-ray from Radiance Films is Cosa Nostra: Franco Nero in Three Mafia Tales by Damiano Damiani (1968-1975), a limited edition three-disc box set that contains The Day of the Owl (Il giorno della civetta) (1968), The Case Is Closed, Forget It (L'istruttoria è chiusa: dimentichi) (1971) and How to Kill a Judge (Perché si uccide un magistrato) (1975). All three films are sourced from 2K masters, presented with Italian (with English subtitles) or English: LPCM 2.0 Mono audio. Each film also offers a new interview with star Franco Nero, while other extras include both the English and Italian cuts of The Day of the Owl, and new and archival interviews and video essays. The box set is rounded out by a limited edition-exclusive 120-page book with several essays and credits for each film. Reviewer Jeffrey Kauffman has already completed reviews for all three films in the set. They can be accessed via the film titles above or via his overall Cosa Nostra... Blu-ray review.
Coming this week from Shout Factory is Shaw Brothers Classics: Volume Two (1970-1976), a 12-disc, 12-film box set of more martial arts films from the Shaw Brothers library. The films are presented with Mandarin: DTS-HD MA Mono audio and new English subtitle translations, with an English dubbed audio option for five of the films. All 12 films have at least one new audio commentary and a trailer, with several containing two commentaries and multiple trailers. Also included are the first-ever on-camera interview with actor Kai Kang and a 77-minute documentary on Shaw Brothers, amongst several other new and archival extras. Note that Volume One was released in June, while Volume Three is currently scheduled to be released on October 24th, 2023.
Finally this week, Fun City Editions has another Blu-ray box set: Primetime Panic 2 (1977-1984), a three-disc set that contains Paul Wendkos' The Death of Richie (1977), Jud Taylor's Incident at Crestridge (1981) and Jerrold Freedman's The Seduction of Gina (1984). Extras include new audio commentaries for all three films and a limited edition booklet. Note that FCE's first box set of Primetime Panic was released in 2021.