Posted December 24, 2023 03:09 PM by Sean Greenwood
For the week of December 25th, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has a Blu-ray for Gabe Polsky's Butcher's Crossing, starring Nicolas Cage, Fred Hechinger, Xander Berkeley, Jeremy Bobb, Rachel Keller and Paul Raci.
Description: Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage stars in a gritty story about buffalo hunters in the Old West. Will Andrews (Fred Hechinger) has left Harvard to find adventure. He teams up with Miller (Cage), a mysterious frontiersman offering an unprecedented number of buffalo pelts in a secluded valley. Their crew must survive an arduous journey where the harsh elements will test everyone's resolve, leaving their sanity on a knife's edge.
New from Dark Star Pictures is a Blu-ray for Chad Ferrin's Pig Killer, starring Jake Busey, Lew Temple, Bai Ling, Ginger Lynn, Cyril O'Reilly and Michael Paré.
Description: Based on the terrifying true story of Robert 'Willy' Pickton, the pig farmer cum prolific lady killer whose horrific crimes shocked the world. PIG KILLER graphically depicts Pickton's felonious farmhouse of rape, torture, slaughter and dismemberment of almost fifty women. With his herculean hog, Balthazar, by his side, Willy and his menagerie of colorful cohorts terrorized Vancouver's Downtown Eastside for almost two decades until his 2002 arrest that uncovered the most bizarre series of murders Canada has ever seen.
Dark Star's Blu-ray of Pig Killer contains behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted and alternate scenes, a Q&A from Cine Excess, a making of featurette, a screen test, auditions and more.
New this week from Crunchyroll is a Blu-ray for Tomoki Kyoda's anime film Eureka: Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution (EUREKA/交響詩篇エウレカセブン ハイエボリューション), starring Takashi Onozuka, Kôichi Yamadera, Rina Endô, Ami Koshimizu, Mamoru Miyano and Toshiyuki Morikawa.
Description: A girl who can control Scabs appears, and Eureka must protect her from Dewey Novak's crazed mission to destroy the world—the one Eureka threw into turmoil. Now she has a choice to make: let her sins be erased or fight for what's left to love.
Crunchyroll's Blu-ray of Eureka: Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution contains both Japanese (with English subtitles) and English dubbed Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio. Extras include promo videos, commercials, a teaser and a trailer.
Coming to Blu-ray from Deaf Crocodile is Jannik Hastrup and Flemming Quist Møller's Benny's Bathtub (Bennys badekar) (1971), starring Jesper Klein, Peter Belli, Otto Brandenburg and Jytte Abildstrøm. Newly remastered from a 4K scan of the original camera negative, Deaf Crocodile presents Benny's Bathtub with Danish: DTS-HD MA 2.0 audio and optional English subtitles. Extras include two audio commentaries: One with film historian Millie De Chirico and another with film historian Mike White, three episodes of the Danish show Circleen (1967-1971) (with optional audio commentary by Millie De Chirico) and a new hour-long interview with director Jannik Hastrup. For a full disc breakdown, read Brian Orndorf's Blu-ray review.
This week also sees the release of Discotek Media's December titles on Blu-ray. They are:
Mazinger Z: TV Series Vol. 2 (マジンガーZ), is a four-disc set containing episodes 47-92 from the 1972-1974 anime series, in Japanese with English subtitles.
Kyôsuke Mikuriya and Shigetsugu Yoshida's anime series Lady Georgie (ジョージィ!) (1983-1984), starring Yuriko Yamamoto, Yasuko Endô, Yû Shimaka, Miyuki Ueda, Runa Akiyama and Hideyuki Hori. This is an SD on Blu-ray release which contains all 45 episodes on a single Blu-ray disc in standard definition, in Japanese with English subtitles.
Blue Comet SPT Layzner (蒼き流星SPTレイズナー) (1985-1986) is a four-disc set with all 38 episodes of the anime series and three OVAs, all in Japanese with English subtitles.
Overman King-Gainer: The Complete Series (OVERMANキングゲイナー) (2002-2003) is a three-disc set with all 26 episodes of the anime series, in both Japanese with English subtitles and the original English dub.
Hajime Kamegaki's anime film Lupin III: Seven Days Rhapsody (ルパン三世 セブンデイズ・ラプソディ) (2006), starring Kan'ichi Kurita, Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Gorō Naya, Eiko Masuyama, Mariya Ise, Yosuke Akimoto, presented in Japanese with English subtitles.
Tsutomu Hanabusa's live-action film Bela: Humanoid Monster (妖怪人間ベラ) (2020), starring Win Morisaki, Emma, Akane Hotta, Seiji Rokkaku, Akira Onodera and Hiyori Sakurada, presented in Japanese with English subtitles.
Coming to Blu-ray from 88 Films is Wellson Chin's The Inspector Wears Skirts (霸王花) (1988), starring Sibelle Hu, Cynthia Rothrock, Kara Wai, Regina Kent, Ellen Chan and Ann Bridgewater. Sourced from a new 2K master, 88 Films presents The Inspector Wears Skirts with a choice of Cantonese or English Mono audio with optional English subtitles. Extras include audio commentary with Frank Djeng, interviews with Cynthia Rothrock and Wellson Chin, "Top Squad" opening and closing titles, trailers and a stills gallery. Packaging includes reversible artwork, a slipcover, a limited edition 32-page booklet with notes by Paul Bramhall and a double-sided foldout poster.
Also from 88 Films is a Blu-ray for Kai-Ming Lai's The Blue Jean Monster (著牛仔褲的鍾馗) (1991), starring Fui-On Shing, Siu-Fung Wong, Wai-Kit Tse, Gloria Yip, Jun Kunimura and Bei-Dak Lai. Sourced from a new 2K master, 88 Films presents The Inspector Wears Skirts with Cantonese Mono audio and optional English subtitles. Extras include an interview with assistant director Sam Leong, trailer and a stills gallery. Packaging includes reversible artwork, a slipcover and a double-sided foldout poster.
Finally this week, Shout has two releases on offer. First is a remastered Blu-ray for Walter Hill's Last Man Standing (1996), starring Bruce Willis, Bruce Dern, William Sanderson, Christopher Walken, David Patrick Kelly and Karina Lombard. Shout presents Last Man Standing from a new 2K scan of the interpositive and includes a theatrical trailer.
And coming to re-remastered Blu-ray and 4K UHD from Shout is Randall Wallace's The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Gérard Depardieu, Gabriel Byrne and Anne Parillaud. Sourced from a new 2023 4K scan of the original camera negative, Shout presents The Man in the Iron Mask with DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0 audio, with Dolby Vision HDR. Extras replicate Shout's 2018 Blu-ray edition and include legacy audio commentary with Randall Wallace, interviews with producer Paul Hitchcock and production designer Anthony Pratt, four legacy featurettes and a theatrical trailer.