For the week of August 21st, Lionsgate Home Entertainment will release Tim Story's The Blackening, starring Antoinette Robertson, Dewayne Perkins, Sinqua Walls, Grace Byers, X Mayo and Melvin Gregg.
Description: The Blackening centers around a group of Black friends who reunite for a Juneteenth weekend getaway only to find themselves trapped in a remote cabin with a twisted killer. Forced to play by his rules, the friends soon realize this ain't no motherf****** game. Directed by Tim Story (Ride Along, Think Like A Man, Barbershop) and screenplay and screen story by Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip, Harlem) & Dewayne Perkins (The Amber Ruffin Show, Brooklyn Nine-Nine), The Blackening skewers genre tropes and poses the sardonic question: if the entire cast of a horror movie is Black, who dies first?
Lionsgate's releases of The Blackening contain Dolby Atmos audio, with Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD disc. Extras include filmmaker commentary, several featurettes, a deleted scene, outtakes and a theatrical trailer. In addition to standard packaging, a Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook will also be available. For full disc breakdowns, read Jeffrey Kauffman's 4K UHD review and Blu-ray review.
Also new from Lionsgate this week is a Blu-ray for Nicole Holofcener's You Hurt My Feelings, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tobias Menzies, Arian Moayed, Amber Tamblyn, David Cross and Owen Teague.
Description: A novelist's longstanding marriage is suddenly upended when she overhears her husband giving his honest reaction to her latest book.
Lionsgate's Blu-ray of You Hurt My Feelings contains audio commentary with Nicole Holofcener and Julia Louis-Dreyfus and a making of featurette.
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has officially announced that it will release on Blu-ray Brendon Small's Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar, starring Brendon Small, Tommy Blacha, Victor Brandt, Stephen "Thundercat" Bruner, King Diamond and Mark Hamill.
Description: After the heroic rescue of Toki Wartooth, DETHKLOK frontman Nathan Explosion finds himself traumatized in a BRUTAL professional and romantic flat-spin all while he is tasked with fulfilling the prophecy and confronting the ultimate songwriting challenge: write the SONG OF SALVATION and save the planet. Can Nathan Explosion look beyond his brutally damaged ego to save his band, stop the Metalocalypse, and finally face the ultimate evil: Salacia?
Warner Bros.' Blu-ray of Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar contains a 24-minute making of featurette. For a full disc breakdown, read Randy Miller's Blu-ray review
New on Blu-ray from Sentai Filmworks is Shinji Ishihira's Reincarnated as a Sword: Complete Collection (転生したら剣でした), starring Shin'ichirô Miki, Ai Kakuma, Wataru Hatano, Tetsu Inada, Rumi Okubo and Shinpachi Tsuji.
Description: When you're killed in one reality and wake up as a sentient sword in a world where magic is real, what else can you do with your steely new existence except become an adventurer? Even though his shiny new form can levitate itself around, our slicing implement without a name also craves a wielder: a mighty warrior with whom to partner, explore and slay monsters. Instead, he gets Fran, a young cat girl, former slave, and trouble magnet who names him Teacher. It's as odd a pairing as they come, and whether they'll be sharp enough to make the cut in the realm of high adventure will be anyone's guess in REINCARNATED AS A SWORD!
Sentai's Blu-ray of Reincarnated as a Sword: Complete Collection contains all 12 episodes with a choice of Japanese: DTS-HD MA 2.0 audio (with English subtitles) or an English dub. Extras include clean opening and closing animations and web previews. For a full release breakdown, read Neil Lumbard's Blu-ray review.
Finally for new releases this week, Oscilloscope Laboratories has a Blu-ray for Nathalie Álvarez Mesén's Clara Sola, starring Wendy Chinchilla Araya, Ana Julia Porras Espinoza, Flor María Vargas Chavez, Daniel Castañeda Rincón, Laura Román Arguedas and María Belén Román Quesada.
Description: In a remote village in Costa Rica, 40-year-old Clara endures a repressively religious and withdrawn life under the command of her mother. Her uncanny affinity for creatures large and small allows Clara to find solace in the natural world around her. Tension builds within the family as Clara's younger niece approaches her quinceañera, igniting a sexual and mystical awakening in Clara, and a journey to free herself from the conventions that have dominated her life.
Oscilloscope's Blu-ray of Clara Sola contains audio commentary, the short films Asunder, Flip, Letting Go and Molt, behind-the-scenes footage and a theatrical trailer.
Turning to catalog titles, the Criterion Collection has a Blu-ray box set: Bo Widerberg's New Swedish Cinema (1963-1969) a four-disc set containing the films The Baby Carriage (Barnvagnen) (1963), Raven's End (Kvarteret Korpen) (1963), Elvira Madigan (1967) and Ådalen 31 (1969). All films are presented with Swedish: LPCM Mono audio and optional English subtitles. Extras include an introduction to Bo Widerberg by filmmaker Ruben Östlund, new interviews with actor Tommy Berggren and cinematographer Jörgen Persson, Widerberg and Jan Troell's short film The Boy and the Kite (Pojken och draken) (1962) (with an introduction by Troell), interviews with Widerberg from Swedish television and behind-the-scenes footage from Elvira Madigan. Also included is an essay by film historian Peter Cowie and excerpts from Widerberg's book Vision in Swedish Film (1962).
Coming to remastered Blu-ray and 4K UHD from Powerhouse Films are two more Jean Rollin films: First is The Rape of the Vampire (Le Viol du vampire) (1968), starring Solange Pradel, Bernard Letrou, Ariane Sapriel, Eric Yan, Jacqueline Sieger and Catherine Deville. Powerhouse presents The Rape of the Vampire from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative, with original French: LPCM Mono audio (with optional English subtitles) and Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD edition. Extras include multiple audio commentaries (including legacy selected scene audio commentary with Jean Rollin), a newly updated making of documentary, newly-edited archival interviews with the film's cast and crew, new interviews and video essays, alternative sex scenes, a theatrical trailer and image galleries. Also included is a limited-edition-exclusive 80-page book with new and archival essays, interviews and more.
Then from Powerhouse comes Jean Rollin's The Night of the Hunted (La Nuit des traquées) (1980), starring Brigitte Lahaie, Vincent Gardère, Dominique Journet, Bernard Papineau, Rachel Mhas and Christiane Farina. Once again, Powerhouse presents The Rape of the Vampire from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative, with original French: LPCM Mono audio (with optional English subtitles) and Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD edition. Extras again include multiple audio commentaries (including legacy audio commentary with Jean Rollin), a newly updated making of documentary, newly-edited archival interviews with the film's cast and crew, new interviews and video essays, Rollin's short film The Far Countries (Les Pays loins) (1965), L'Itinéraire Souvenir (2018): A reconstruction of a lost 1962 work by Rollin, an alternative scene, a theatrical trailer and image galleries. Also included is a limited-edition-exclusive 80-page book with new and archival essays, interviews and more.
Coming to Blu-ray from Kino Lorber is Peter Hall's Three Into Two Won't Go (1969), starring Rod Steiger, Claire Bloom, Judy Geeson, Peggy Ashcroft, Paul Rogers and Lynn Farleigh. Kino's Blu-ray also includes the TV cut of the film in SD resolution, as well as audio commentary by film historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson and a newly remastered theatrical trailer.
Also coming to Blu-ray from Kino is Louis Malle's Pretty Baby (1978), starring Brooke Shields, Keith Carradine, Susan Sarandon, Antonio Fargas, Diana Scarwid and Barbara Steele. Kino's Blu-ray is sourced from a new 4K master by Paramount Pictures and contains audio commentary by film historian Kat Ellinger, interviews with Brooke Shields and Leonard Maltin, a video essay by filmmaker / historian Daniel Kremer and a theatrical trailer.
Finally from Kino is a new Biu-ray edition of Paul Schrader's Hardcore (1979), starring George C. Scott, Peter Boyle, Dick Sargent, Season Hubley, Gary Graham and Larry Block. Kino's Blu-ray features audio commentary by Schrader and audio commentary by film historians Eddy Friedfeld, Lee Pfeiffer and Paul Scrabo, as well as a theatrical trailer.
Coming to Blu-ray from Arrow Video is John Mackenzie's Unman, Wittering and Zigo (1971), starring David Hemmings, Douglas Wilmer, Tony Haygarth, Carolyn Seymour, Barbara Lott and David Jackson. Arrow presents Zigo from an HD master with LPCM Mono audio. Extras include new audio commentary by Sean Hogan and Kim Newman, a new appreciation by critic, broadcaster and cultural historian Matthew Sweet, a featurette with the cast and crew, the original 1958 radio play, an original trailer and an image gallery. Also included is a double-sided fold-out poster, reversible artwork and an illustrated collector's booklet.
Also coming this week from Arrow is a 4K UHD upgrade for John Hughes' Weird Science (1985), starring Anthony Michael Hall, Kelly LeBrock, Ilan Mitchell-Smith, Bill Paxton, Suzanne Snyder and Judie Aronson. Sourced from a 4K scan of the original camera negative, Arrow presents both the theatrical and extended cuts of Weird Science with DTS-HD MA 2.0 or 5.1 audio and Dolby Vision HDR. Extras replicate Arrow's 2019 Blu-ray edition and include the edited for TV version of the film (in SD resolution), additional scenes, interviews, an archival featurette, a theatrical teaser, theatrical trailer, TV and radio spots and image galleries. Also included is a double-sided fold-out poster, reversible artwork and an illustrated collector's booklet.
Coming from Shout Factory is a remastered Blu-ray for Michael Crichton's Coma (1978), starring Michael Douglas, Geneviève Bujold, Elizabeth Ashley, Rip Torn, Richard Widmark and Lois Chiles. Sourced from a new 2K scan of the interpositive Shout presents Coma with DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono audio. Extras include a new audio commentary with film critic / author Lee Gambin and novelist Aaron Dries, a photo gallery, original theatrical trailer and TV spots.
Also coming from Shout is a 4K UHD upgrade for Iain Softley's Hackers (1995), starring Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, Jesse Bradford, Matthew Lillard, Laurence Mason and Renoly Santiago. Sourced from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative, Shout presents Hackers with DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0 audio, with Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD disc. Extras include the hour-long documentary The Keyboard Cowboys: A Look Back at Hackers and a theatrical trailer. In addition to standard packaging, a Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook will also be available.
Coming to Blu-ray from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is Ralph Bakshi's American Pop (1981), featuring the voices of Mews Small, Ron Thompson, Jerry Holland, Vincent Schiavelli, Lee Ving and Lisa Jane Persky.
Description: This animated trek across the musical landscape of the 20th century begins with young immigrant Zalmie (Jeffrey Lippa) arriving in New York City. He's addicted to show business, but an accident ruins his voice. He marries a stripper (Lisa Jane Persky) and their son, Benny (Richard Singer), becomes a jazz pianist. Although Benny is killed in World War II, his son, Tony (Ron Thompson), goes on to great success as a songwriter during the '60s, as does Tony's son, Pete (also Thompson), in the '80s.
Also coming from Sony is a 4K UHD upgrade for Martin Campbell's The Legend of Zorro (2005), starring Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rufus Sewell, Nick Chinlund, Julio Oscar Mechoso and Shuler Hensley. Extras include filmmaker commentary, deleted scenes with optional commentary, four behind-the-scenes featurettes and a theatrical trailer.
Coming to Blu-ray from Radiance Films is Benny Chan's A Moment of Romance (1990), starring Andy Lau, Chien-lien Wu, Man-Tat Ng, Kwong-Leung Wong and Bonnie Man-Wai Wong. Sourced from a new 4K master, Radiance Films presents A Moment of Romance with Cantonese: LPCM 2.0 Mono audio and optional English subtitles. Extras include audio commentary by Asian cinema expert Frank Djeng, an archival audio interview with Benny Chan, a video essay by critic and Asian cinema expert David Desser and a trailer. A limited edition booklet is also included. For a full disc breakdown, read Jeffrey Kauffman's Blu-ray review.
Coming to 4K UHD from Walt Disney Home Entertainment is Henry Selick's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), starring the voices of Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, William Hickey, Glenn Shadix, Catherine O'Hara and Paul Reubens. Newly remastered in 4K, Disney presents The Nightmare Before Christmas with DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio and HDR on the 4K UHD disc. Extras include filmmaker audio commentary. deleted scenes, the short film Frankenweenie (1984) and more. In addition to standard packaging, a Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook will also be available.
Finally this week, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment have two 4K UHD upgrades: First is Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth (1998), starring Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Fiennes, Richard Attenborough and Fanny Ardant. Newly remastered in 4K, Universal presents Elizabeth with DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio and HDR. Extras include filmmaker commentary and two featurettes.
Then from Universal comes a 4K UHD edition of Emerald Fennell's Promising Young Woman (2020), starring Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge and Laverne Cox. Universal presents Promising Young Woman with the film's Dolby Atmos audio and HDR. Extras include filmmaker commentary and three featurettes.