This Week on Blu-ray: November 20-26

For the week of November 20th, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment will release Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer (2023), starring Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh and Josh Hartnett. Based on the book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (2005), Oppenheimer began production in 2021 at Universal Pictures, who won a bidding war for Nolan's screenplay, after he parted ways with Warner Bros. following the pandemic-impacted release of his previous film Tenet in 2020. However, Oppenheimer still displays the director's characteristic traits, notably the use of celluloid film, especially large formats like 65mm and IMAX film, the latter of which was used not just in color sequences, but in black-and-white footage, too. To that end, Oppenheimer also became the first feature since Tenet to receive a release on massive IMAX 70mm film prints, in engagements that only played at about 30 cinemas worldwide and necessitated the installation of specialized projection equipment to handle the IMAX film stock. In addition to its IMAX 70mm run, Oppenheimer also saw releases on both standard 70mm and 35mm film prints for theaters which still had the capability to project film. Christopher Nolan's films are always an event, and perhaps only he could pull off turning biopic of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his task of constructing an atomic bomb into a summer blockbuster, but as it turned out, Warner Bros. opted to release Barbie, the first feature film based on the iconic Mattel doll, on the same day as Universal released Oppenheimer. The two films could not have been more different on the face of it, with Barbie being a bright and breezy PG-13 fantasy comedy and Oppenheimer being a three-hour, R-rated drama about the construction of the atomic bomb in World War II America, but strangely, a social media phenomenon developed which was dubbed "Barbenheimer", whereby people sought to see both films back-to-back as a double feature. The result was a combined weekend gross of over $246 million for both films, with Oppenheimer taking second place and over $82 million that weekend. As Nolan is a major proponent of the theatrical experience, Oppenheimer also enjoyed an extended run in cinemas, grossing some $950 million worldwide and receiving widespread critical acclaim.

Universal has prepared Blu-ray releases of Oppenheimer to match the film's success, with the film sporting DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio, a shifting 2.20:1 / 1.78:1 aspect ratio (to emulate the shifting 2.20:1 / 1.43:1 aspect ratio of the IMAX presentation) and HDR on the 4K UHD disc. The film occupies its own disc, with the substantial extras arriving on a dedicated bonus Blu-ray disc. Included are two feature-length documentaries: The Story of Our Time: The Making of Oppenheimer and To End All War: Oppenheimer & the Atomic Bomb, as well as a Q&A Panel from the NBC TV series Meet the Press, the featurette Innovations in Film: 65mm Black and White Film in Oppenheimer and multiple trailers for the film, including an IMAX trailer with footage in the 1.43:1 aspect ratio. In addition to standard packaging, a Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook and a Walmart Exclusive Icon Edition Digipack will also be available.

Also new from Universal is a Blu-ray box set for The Expanse: The Complete Series (2015-2022). The 15-disc box set contains all six seasons of the series.

Finally from Universal is a 4K UHD upgrade for Richard Curtis' Love Actually (2003), starring Alan Rickman, Bill Nighy, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant and Laura Linney. Universal presents Love Actually with HDR and Dolby Atmos audio. New extras include the featurette Making Love Actually, while legacy extras include cast and crew commentary, deleted scenes, music videos and more.

New on Blu-ray and 4K UHD from Lionsgate Home Entertainment is Scott Waugh's Expend4bles (AKA The Expendables 4), starring Jason Statham, Curtis Jackson, Megan Fox, Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa and Iko Uwais.

Studio description: A new generation of stars join the world's top action stars for an adrenaline-fueled adventure in Expend4bles. Reuniting as the team of elite mercenaries, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, and Sylvester Stallone are joined for the first time by Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Megan Fox, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Jacob Scipio, Levy Tran, and Andy Garcia. Armed with every weapon they can get their hands on and the skills to use them, The Expendables are the world's last line of defense and the team that gets called when all other options are off the table. But new team members with new styles and tactics are going to give "new blood" a whole new meaning.

Lionsgate's Blu-ray releases of Expend4bles include the film's Dolby Atmos audio, with Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD disc. Extras include filmmaker commentary, two featurettes and a theatrical trailer. In addition to standard packaging, an Amazon Exclusive and a Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook will also be available.

Also new from Lionsgate this week is a Blu-ray and 4K UHD for Kevin Greutert's Saw X, starring Michael Beach, Synnøve Macody Lund, Tobin Bell, Steven Brand, Paulette Hernández and Shawnee Smith.

Description: John Kramer (Tobin Bell) is back. The most disturbing installment of the SAW franchise yet explores the untold chapter of Jigsaw's most personal game. Set between the events of SAW I and II, a sick and desperate John travels to Mexico for a risky and experimental medical procedure in hopes of a miracle cure for his cancer – only to discover the entire operation is a scam to defraud the most vulnerable. Armed with a newfound purpose, the infamous serial killer returns to his work, turning the tables on the con artists in his signature visceral way through devious, deranged, and ingenious traps.

Lionsgate's Blu-ray releases of Saw X include the film's Dolby Atmos audio, with HDR on the 4K UHD disc. Extras include filmmaker commentary, a making of documentary, featurettes, deleted scenes and a theatrical trailer.

New on Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection are three more titles in its Janus Contemporaries line of new release films on Blu-ray. They are:

Felix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch's The Eight Mountains (Le otto montagne), starring Luca Marinelli, Alessandro Borghi, Filippo Timi, Elena Lietti, Lupo Barbiero and Cristiano Sassella.

Description: An epic journey of friendship and self-discovery set in the Italian Alps, The Eight Mountains is a cinematic experience as intimate as it is monumental. Adapting an award-winning novel by Paolo Cognetti, Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch portray, through observant detail and stunning landscape photography, the profound relationship between Pietro (Luca Marinelli) and Bruno (Alessandro Borghi), who first meet as children in an Alpine village. Years later, the estranged friends reunite, after the passing of Pietro's father (Filippo Timi), in order to realize his dream of rebuilding a ruined cabin on a mountain slope. This emotional project, and their subsequent explorations of the mountains, create a strong bond between the two—yet individual dreams, and the demands of society, ultimately drive them to pursue irrevocably divergent paths.

Criterion's Blu-ray of The Eight Mountains contains an interview with directors Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix van Groeningen, a making of documentary and a trailer.

Hlynur Pálmason's Godland (Icelandic: Volaða land, Danish: Vanskabte Land), starring Elliott Crosset Hove, Ingvar Sigurðsson, Vic Carmen Sonne, Jacob Hauberg Lohmann, Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir and Waage Sandø.

Description: The struggle between the strictures of religion and humankind's brute animal nature plays out amid the beautifully forbidding landscapes of remote Iceland in this stunning psychological epic from director Hlynur Pálmason. In the late nineteenth century, Danish priest Lucas (Elliott Crosset Hove) makes the perilous trek to Iceland's southeastern coast with the intention of establishing a church. There, the arrogant man of God finds his resolve tested as he confronts the harsh terrain, temptations of the flesh, and the reality of being an intruder in an unforgiving land. What unfolds is a transfixing journey into the heart of colonial darkness—one that's attuned to both the majesty and the terrifying power of the natural world.

Criterion's Blu-ray of Godland contains an interview with director Hlynur Pálmason and a trailer.

Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne's Tori and Lokita (Tori et Lokita), starring Pablo Schils, Joely Mbundu, Alban Ukaj, Tijmen Govaerts, Charlotte De Bruyne and Nadège Ouedraogo.

Description: From two-time Palme d'Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne comes the story of seventeen-year-old Lokita and twelve-year-old Tori, two immigrants to Belgium—from Cameroon and Benin, respectively—whose siblinglike bond is the only resource they can depend on in their struggle for survival on the margins of European society. The pair work as performers in a cheap trattoria, dealing drugs on the side, while balancing the demands of an indifferent bureaucracy. When Lokita is held captive in a marijuana grow house, events spiral out of control. Winner of the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, the latest humanist drama from the Dardenne brothers is a heart-stopping thriller that casts an unflinching eye on the trials of the young and dispossessed.

Criterion's Blu-ray of Tori and Lokita contains an interview with directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne and a trailer.

Coming to 4K UHD and remastered Blu-ray from Criterion is Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973), starring Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, David Proval, Amy Robinson, Richard Romanus and Cesare Danova. Sourced from a new 4K master (approved by director Martin Scorsese and collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker), Criterion presents Mean Streets with LPCM Mono audio and Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD disc. Extras include an excerpted conversation between Scorsese and filmmaker Richard Linklater from a 2011 DGA event, a new video essay by critic Imogen Sara Smith, an interview with director of photography Kent Wakeford, an excerpt from the documentary Mardik: Baghdad to Hollywood (2008) about co-writer Mardik Martin and legacy extras including select-scene audio commentary by Scorsese and Amy Robinson, the vintage featurette Martin Scorsese: Back on the Block (1973) and the film's trailer. An essay by critic Lucy Sante is also included. For full release breakdowns, read Svet Atanasov's 4K UHD review and Blu-ray review.

Finally from Criterion is the Blu-ray premiere of Claude Chabrol's La Cérémonie (1995), starring Isabelle Huppert, Sandrine Bonnaire, Jacqueline Bisset, Virginie Ledoyen, Dominique Frot and Julien Rochefort. Sourced from a new 4K master, Criterion presents La Cérémonie with DTS-HD MA 2.0 Surround audio and optional English subtitles. Extras include select-scene audio commentary by Chabrol, a new introduction by filmmaker Bong Joon Ho, archival interviews with Chabrol, actors Isabelle Huppert and Sandrine Bonnaire, and cowriter Caroline Eliacheff a making of program and a trailer. An essay by crime-fiction and true-crime expert Sarah Weinman is also included.

Turning to catalog titles, Film Masters has a Blu-ray for Robert G. Vignola's The Scarlet Letter (1934), starring Colleen Moore, Hardie Albright, Henry B. Walthall, Cora Sue Collins, Alan Hale and Virginia Howell. Sourced from a new 4K scan of archival elements, Film Masters presents The Scarlet Letter with LPCM 2.0 Mono audio. Extras include audio commentary by Professor Jason A. Ney, the vintage documentary Salem and the Scarlet Letter narrated by John Carradine, interviews with author Justin Humphreys and producer Samuel M. Sherman and a 1965 trailer for the film. A booklet with an essay by Jason A. Ney is also included. For a full release breakdown, read Jeffrey Kauffman's Blu-ray review.

New on Blu-ray from Powerhpuse Films is a box set: The Criminal Acts of Tod Slaughter: Eight Blood-and-Thunder Entertainments (1935-1940), a four-disc set containing eight films with the actor, mostly in new 2K remasters, accompanied by a host of extras, including audio commentaries, video essays, an interview with Imogen Slaughter (great-niece of Tod Slaughter) and her father Giles, as well as several vintage video extras and limited edition exclusive 120-page book. For a full breakdown of feature content and extras, please see the news article here.

Coming to remastered Blu-ray and 4K UHD from Kino Lorber is Billy Wilder's Stalag 17 (1953), starring William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger, Robert Strauss, Harvey Lembeck and Richard Erdman. Sourced from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative, Kino presents Stalag 17 with Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD disc. Extras include new audio commentary by filmmaker / historian Steve Mitchell and author Steven Jay Rubin (Combat Films: American Realism), new audio commentary by film historian Joseph McBride (Billy Wilder: Dancing on the Edge) and legacy audio commentary by actors Richard Erdman and Gil Stratton with co-playwright Donald Bevan. The Blu-ray additionally includes two archival featurettes.

Also coming from Kino are new Blu-ray editions for two films starring Burt Reynolds: Joseph Sargent's White Lightning (1973) and Burt Reynolds' Gator (1976). Both films were previously released by Kino in 2014. These re-issues feature new audio commentary tracks with film historians Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson, in addition to legacy extras, such as Back to the Bayou, a two-part 2014 interview with Burt Reynolds. Both titles also feature limited edition slipcovers.

Finally from Kino is a Blu-ray for Clive Donner's Babes in Toyland (1986), starring Drew Barrymore, Richard Mulligan, Eileen Brennan, Keanu Reeves, Jill Schoelen and Googy Gress. Kino presents in both the original television aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and 1.78:1 widescreen, also including a trailer.

Coming to Blu-ray from Shout Factory is The Police Academy Collection (1984-1994), a five-disc box set which contains all seven films in new 2K remasters with DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono audio (DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo on Police Academy: Mission to Moscow). Extras include new audio commentary on Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol by film historian Russell Dyball and new featurettes with cast and crew interviews on the fifth disc. Legacy extras include cast and crew commentary on Police Academy, featurettes, additional scenes and theatrical trailers.

Also coming from Shout is a new Blu-ray edition of Farscape: The Complete Series (1999-2004). Originally released in 2018, this new Shout edition includes most, if not all of the extras as the previous Blu-ray edition and adds a new extra: A Look Back At Farscape with executive producer Brian Henson and series creator / writer Rockne O'Bannon.

Coming to 4K UHD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is Andrew Davis' The Fugitive (1993), starring Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Sela Ward, Julianne Moore, Joe Pantoliano and Andreas Katsulas. Sourced from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative (overseen by director Andrew Davis), Warner presents The Fugitive with new Dolby Atmos remix and original DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio options and HDR. Legacy extras include cast and crew commentary, an introduction by Andrew Davis, Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones, three featurettes and the film's theatrical trailer. In addition to standard packaging, a Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook will also be available. For a full disc breakdown, read Randy Miller's 4K UHD review.

Finally this week, Crunchyroll has a 4K UHD upgrade for Tetsuro Kodama's anime film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (ドラゴンボール超 スーパーヒーロー) (2022), starring Masako Nozawa, Toshio Furukawa, Yûko Minaguchi, Aya Hisakawa, Ryô Horikawa and Takeshi Kusao. Crunchyroll presents Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero with original Japanese: Dolby Atmos audio and Dolby Vision HDR. English subtitles are provided and an English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 dubbed track is also available. A legacy Blu-ray copy of the film contains promo videos and trailers as extras. In addition to standard packaging, an Amazon Exclusive SteelBook and a Walmart Exclusive SteelBook will also be available. For a full release breakdown, read Neil Lumbard's 4K UHD review.