Posted October 13, 2024 10:54 PM by Sean Greenwood
For the week of October 14th, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has a 4K UHD upgrade for Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), starring John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Heather Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia and Johnny Depp. Sourced from a new 4K master, Warner presents A Nightmare on Elm Street in both its R-rated and Uncut versions, with HDR and a choice of a new Dolby Atmos remix or the original mono mix in DTS-HD MA 2.0. Extras include filmmaker commentary tracks from 2001 and 2006, Freddy focus points, three alternate endings, the featurettes The House That Freddy Built: The Legacy of New Line Horror and Night Terrors: The Origins of Wes Craven's Nightmares, as well as the documentary Never Sleep Again: The Making of A Nightmare on Elm Street. In addition to standard packaging, a Limited Edition SteelBook will also be available. For full release breakdowns, read Randy Miller's 4K UHD review and 4K UHD SteelBook review.
Also coming from Warner is a Blu-ray premiere from the Warner Archive Collection: Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion (2006), starring Marylouise Burke, Woody Harrelson, L.Q. Jones, Tommy Lee Jones, Garrison Keillor, Kevin Kline. Warner Archive presents A Prairie Home Companion with DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio. Extras include audio commentary with Robert Altman and Kevin Kline, additional scenes and a a behind-the-scenes documentary. Note: This Blu-ray was delayed from a September 24th release date.
New on Blu-ray from Shout Factory is Derek Pike's Model House, starring Scout Taylor-Compton, Ryan Merriman, Kyra Santoro, Chris Zylka, Randy Wayne and Lexi Atkins.
Description: Five models shooting a swimwear campaign have been put up by their client in a secluded house for the weekend. Over the course of the first night, they post their every move--including their location--to their millions of social media followers. Before they know it, two strangers intrude upon their freewheeling weekend. Held at gunpoint, the women are forced to post a fake donation link to their social media pages until they make a desperate stand and fight back against their captors.
Also coming from Shout is a 4K UHD upgrade for George A. Romero's Land of the Dead (2005), starring Simon Baker, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper, Asia Argento, Robert Joy and Eugene Clark. Shout presents Land of the Dead in its unrated version with a choice of a new Dolby Atmos remix, DTS-HD MA 5.1 or 2.0 audio tracks and Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD disc. Two remastered Blu-rays include the theatrical and unrated versions of the film. Extras replicate Shout's 2017 Blu-ray edition and include two archival audio commentary tracks on the unrated version, several cast and crew interviews, featurettes and more.
New on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber is Rebecca Snow's The Boy in the Woods, starring Jett Klyne, Richard Armitage, David Kohlsmith, Katherine Fogler, Masa Lizdek and Christopher Heyerdahl.
Description:The Boy in the Woods tells the remarkable true story of Max (Jett Klyne), a Jewish boy escaping Nazi persecution in Eastern Europe. After he is separated from his family, Max finds refuge with Christian peasant Jasko (Richard Armitage), who hides him in plain sight until a tense stand-off with Nazi police. Afraid for his own family's life, Jasko sends Max to live in the woods where he learns to survive alone. With echoes of a Grimms' Fairy Tale, Max's experience is both terrifying and magical. He inhabits a landscape crawling with Nazis, partisans and haunted by ghosts. Based on the best-selling memoir by Canadian Holocaust survivor Maxwell Smart and inspired by the award-winning documentary Cheating Hitler: Surviving The Holocaust.
Kino's Blu-ray of The Boy in the Woods contains trailers.
Also new from Kino is a Blu-ray for Babylon Berlin: Season 4 (2022), The three-disc set contains all 12 episodes, along with trailers.
Coming to Blu-ray from Kino is Martin Ritt's Cross Creek (1983), starring Mary Steenburgen, Rip Torn, Peter Coyote, Dana Hill, Alfre Woodard and Joanna Miles. Kino presents Cross Creek with an audio commentary by film historians Julie Kirgo and Peter Hankoff, the featurette Cross Creek: A Look Back with Mary Steenburgen and a theatrical trailer.
Also from Kino is a Blu-ray for Sidney Lumet's Garbo Talks (1984), starring Anne Bancroft, Ron Silver, Carrie Fisher, Catherine Hicks, Steven Hill and Howard Da Silva. Kino presents Garbo Talks with an audio commentary by film historians Howard S. Berger and Steve Mitchell and a theatrical trailer.
Finally from Kino are two 4K UHD upgrades. First up is Rian Johnson's Brick (2005), starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lukas Haas, Emilie de Ravin, Nora Zehetner, Noah Fleiss and Matt O'Leary. Sourced from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative (approved by Rian Johnson) Kino presents Brick with a choice of DTS-HD MA 5.1 or 2.0 audio tracks and Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD disc. Extras include filmmaker audio commentary, 8 deleted and extended scenes (with an introduction by Rian Johnson), the featurette The Inside Track: Casting the Roles of Laura and Dode and a theatrical trailer.
Also on 4K UHD from Kino is Jon Favreau's Cowboys & Aliens (2011), starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach and Paul Dano. Kino presents Cowboys & Aliens in its theatrical version and in 4K SDR on the 4K UHD disc, while the extended cut is from an HD master on an included Blu-ray. Both discs come with a choice of DTS-HD MA 5.1 or 2.0 audio tracks. Extras include archival audio commentary by Jon Favreau on both cuts of the film, along with a making of featurette, Conversations with Jon Favreau, three theatrical trailers (newly remastered) and 14 TV spots.
Coming to Blu-ray from Undercrank Productions is Roland West's The Bat (1926), starring George Beranger, Charles Herzinger, Emily Fitzroy, Louise Fazenda, Arthur Housman and Robert McKim. Sourced from a new 2K master (from 35mm film elements preserved by UCLA Film & Television Archive), Undercrank Productions presents The Bat with a new musical score by Ben Model in LPCM 2.0. Extras include the featurette Roland West: Cinematic Man of Mystery and the short film A Fraternity Mixup (1926). For a full release breakdown, read Jeffrey Kauffman's Blu-ray review.
Coming to Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection is Georg Wilhelm Pabst's Pandora's Box (Die Büchse der Pandora) (1929), starring Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer, Carl Goetz, Krafft-Raschig and Alice Roberts. Sourced from a new 2K master, Criterion presents Pandora's Box with a choice of four musical scores in either DTS-HD MA 5.1 or LPCM 2.0, and with optional English subtitles for the German intertitles. Extras include audio commentary by film scholars Thomas Elsaesser and Mary Ann Doane, the documentary Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu (1998), a 1971 interview with Louise Brooks by Richard Leacock and Susan Steinberg Woll, and interviews with Leacock and Michael Pabst (a son of G. W. Pabst). Also included is "an essay by critic J. Hoberman, notes on the scores, Kenneth Tynan's 1979 "The Girl in the Black Helmet," and an article by Brooks on her relationship with Pabst".
Coming to Blu-ray and 4K UHD from Criterion is Masahiro Shinoda's Demon Pond (夜叉ヶ池) (1979), starring Tamasaburo Bando, Go Kato, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Koji Nanbara, Yatsuko Tanami and Norihei Miki. Sourced from a new 4K master (supervised by Masahiro Shinoda and actor Tamasaburo Bando), Criterion presents Demon Pond with LPCM Mono audio, optional English subtitles and in 4K SDR on the 4K UHD disc. Extras include a new interview with film scholar Dudley Andrew and a featurette about the film's special effects. Also included is an essay by film critic Michael Atkinson.
Carlotta Films' recent trailer for Demon Pond (in Japanese, with French subtitles only) can be seen below.
Coming to 4K UHD from Paramount Home Media Distribution is Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief (1955), starring Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis, John Williams, Charles Vanel and Brigitte Auber. Paramount brings To Catch a Thief to 4K UHD as part of its Paramount Presents line of Blu-ray and 4K UHD releases, with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio and Dolby Vision HDR. Extras include commentary by Dr. Drew Casper, a Filmmaker Focus featurette with Leonard Maltin, the featurette Behind the Gates: Cary Grant and Grace Kelly (2009) and more.
Also coming from Paramount is a new 4K UHD release for Gore Verbinski's The Ring (2002), starring Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, David Dorfman, Brian Cox, Jane Alexander and Lindsay Frost. The film was previously released on 4K UHD by Shout Factory as part of The Ring Collection (2002-2017) box set. This Paramount release will be available in both standard packaging and as a Limited Edition SteelBook.
Coming to Blu-ray and 4K UHD from 88 Films is The Project A Collection (1983-1987), a box set which contains Jackie Chan's Project A (A計劃) (1983) and Project A: Part II (A計劃續集) (1987), starring (across both films) Jackie Chan, Man-Ying Wong, Kin-sang Lee, Maggie Cheung, Sammo Kam-Bo Hung and Rosamund Kwan. Both films are sourced from new 4K masters, with both lossless original mono audio and Dolby Atmos remixes, new English subtitle translations and Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD discs. In addition to Hong Kong versions of both films, Project A also includes a 115-minute extended Taiwanese cut, while Project A: Part II also includes a 98-minute export cut, with all four cuts remastered in 4K. Extras include new audio commentaries for both films, cast and crew interviews, Japanese version endings for both films, trailers and much more. For full release breakdowns, read Jeffrey Kauffman's Blu-ray review and 4K UHD review.
Finally this week, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has four catalog titles to offer. First is a 4K UHD release for Chris Smith's documentary American Movie (1999), starring Mark Borchardt. Sony presents American Movie with Dolby Vision HDR and DTS-HD MA Mono audio. Extras include filmmaker commentary, deleted scenes, Mark Borchardt's short film Coven and a theatrical trailer.
Also from Sony are Blu-rays for Fabián Bielinsky's Nine Queens (Nueve reinas) (2000), starring Gastón Pauls, Ricardo Darín, Graciela Tenenbaum, María Mercedes Villagra, Gabo Correa and Pochi Ducasse and Babak Payami's Secret Ballot (رأی مخفی) (2001), starring Nassim Abdi, Cyrus Abidi, Youssef Habashi, Farrokh Shoja, Farrokh Shoja and Gholbahar Janghali. Both films are making their worldwide debuts on Blu-ray.
Finally from Sony is a 4K UHD upgrade for Eli Roth's Thanksgiving (2023), starring Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Nell Verlaque, Rick Hoffman and Gina Gershon. Sony presents Thanksgiving with Dolby Vision HDR (as approved by Eli Roth) and with Dolby Atmos and DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio options. Extras include new behead-the-scenes featurettes and a theatrical trailer, while an included legacy Blu-ray also contains filmmaker commentary, deleted and extended scenes, outtakes and more. Also included is a letter from Eli Roth.