For the week of April 13th, the Criterion Collection has a Blu-ray and 4K UHD release for Ernst Lubitsch's Trouble in Paradise (1932), starring Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, Herbert Marshall, Charles Ruggles, Edward Everett Horton and C. Aubrey Smith. Sourced from a new 4K master, Criterion presents Trouble in Paradise with LPCM Mono audio and in SDR on the 4K UHD disc. Extras include audio commentary with Lubitsch biographer Scott Eyman, an introduction by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich and a new video essay by critic David Cairns. Also included is an essay by critic Farran Smith Nehme.
Also coming from Criterion is a remastered Blu-ray and 4K UHD release for Terry Jones' Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. Sourced from a new 4K master (supervised by Terry Gilliam), Criterion presents Monty Python's Life of Brian with a choice of DTS-HD MA 2.0 Surround or DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio options and Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD disc. Extras include two audio commentary tracks with Gilliam, Cleese, Idle, Jones and Palin, the documentaries The Pythons (1979) and The Story of Brian (2007), five deleted scenes with commentary, behind-the-scenes film shot by Palin, original British radio adverts with Mrs. Cleese, Mrs. Gilliam, Mrs. Idle and Palin's dentist, an original illustrated recording of an early version of the film's screenplay, an animated stills gallery and a trailer. Also included is an essay by film critic Bilge Ebiri.
New on Blu-ray and 4K UHD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is Bernard MacMahon's documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin.
Description: Becoming Led Zeppelin explores the origins of this iconic group and their meteoric rise in just one year against all the odds. Powered by awe-inspiring, psychedelic, never-before-seen footage, performances, and music, Bernard MacMahon's experiential cinematic odyssey explores Led Zeppelin's creative, musical, and personal origin story. The film is told in Led Zeppelin's own words and is the first officially sanctioned film on the group.
Sony's Blu-ray and 4K UHD release of Becoming Led Zeppelin currently available only as a Limited Collector's Edition SteelBook, with photo cards, a letter from the director, guitar picks, an iron-on jacket patch and a vinyl sticker.
New from Crunchyroll is a 4K UHD release for Mitsuo Fukuda's anime film Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FREEDOM (機動戦士ガンダムSEED FREEDOM), featuring the voices of Sôichirô Hoshi, Rie Tanaka. Akira Ishida, Nanako Mori and Ken'ichi Suzumura.
Description: In C.E.75, the fighting still continues. There are independence movements and aggression by Blue Cosmos... In order to calm the situation, a global peace-monitoring agency called COMPASS is established, with Lacus as its first president. As members of COMPASS, Kira and his comrades intervene into various regional battles. Then, a newly established nation called Kingdom of Foundation proposes a joint operation against a Blue Cosmos stronghold...
Crunchyroll's 4K UHD release of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FREEDOM contains Japanese: Dolby Atmos audio, HDR and English subtitles. A Japanese: Dolby TrueHD 2.0 track and an English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio track are also included.
New on Blu-ray from Shout Factory and GKIDS is the anime film Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can't Sing (劇場版プロジェクトセカイ 壊れたセカイと歌えないミク), featuring the voices of Saki Fujita, Ai Furihata, Akina, Asami Shimoda, Fumiya Imai and Hina Kino.
Description: COLORFUL STAGE! The Movie: A Miku Who Can't Sing is an animation film by studio P.A.WORKS featuring an all-new Hatsune Miku and the first film with the iconic Virtual Singer. Based on HATSUNE MIKU: COLORFUL STAGE!, a game about high school students finding their true feelings through music in an alternate world called "SEKAI"" with the help of Hatsune Miku.
Ichika is a high school musician who can enter a mysterious place called "SEKAI," where she and her friends express their innermost emotions through music alongside Hatsune Miku. One day after giving a live performance, Ichika meets a new Miku that she has never seen before. No matter how hard this new Miku tries to sing, she struggles connecting with the hearts of her listeners. Miku must rely on the help of others to find a way to sing again.
Shout Factory and GKIDS' Blu-ray release of Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can't Sing contains Japanese audio and English, English SDH, French or Spanish subtitles. Extras include 20 after-show concerts, music videos, a non-credits opening, teasers and trailers. Collector's edition content includes an acrylic stand and a 36-page book.
Note: Shout's Blu-ray of Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can't Sing is currently available only in a Collector's Edition DigiPack. A standard edition is set to be released on June 16th.
New on Blu-ray from Cinema Guild is Hong Sang-soo's A Traveler's Needs (여행자의 필요), starring Isabelle Huppert, Lee Hye-yeong, Kwon Hae-hyo, Jo Yoon-Hee, Ha Seong-guk, Kim Seung-yun and Cho Yun-hee.
Description: A comedy of improbable encounters and unlikely language lessons, A Traveler's Needs marks the third collaboration between Hong and Huppert (following 2012's In Another Country and 2017's Claire's Camera). This time Huppert plays Iris, a woman who finds herself adrift in Seoul and without any means to make ends meet, turns to teaching French via a very peculiar method. Through a series of encounters, as we grow to know more about Iris and her situation, the mysteries of her circumstances only deepen.
A charming troupe of Hong regulars complete the cast, including Lee Hyeyoung [sic] as one of Huppert's students and Kwon Haehyo as her flirty husband. A film about meaning and connection and the comfort of makgeolli, A Traveler's Needs, offers a surprising take on inter-continental rendezvous and continues one of the most unique actor-director collaborations in contemporary cinema.
Cinema Guild's Blu-ray of contains a 2024 Q&A with Isabelle Huppert and Ari Aster at Film Forum, Sang-soo's short film It Snows on You (2024) and a theatrical trailer. Also included is a booklet with an essay by writer and translator Jawni Han.
New on Blu-ray from Acorn Media is Midsomer Murders: Series 25 (2025), starring Neil Dudgeon, Nick Hendrix, Annette Badland and Fiona Dolman. The two-disc set contains all four episodes.
Turning to catalog titles, Kino Lorber has a Blu-ray release for Louis Feuillade's cinema serial Tih Minh (1919), starring Georges Biscot, Édouard Mathé, Louis Leubas, Gaston Michel and Georgette Faraboni. Sourced from a new 4K master by Gaumont, Kino presents Tih Minh with an audio commentary by novelist and critic Tim Lucas.
Then from Kino are five titles coming to remastered Blu-ray and 4K UHD. They are:
Alvin Rakoff's Death Ship (1980), starring George Kennedy, Richard Crenna, Nick Mancuso, Sally Ann Howes, Kate Reid and Victoria Burgoyne. Sourced from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative, Kino presents the theatrical cut of Death Ship with HDR on the 4K UHD disc. Extras include two new audio commentary tracks: one with Paul Corupe of Canuxploitation.com and film historian Jason Pichonsky and another with film historians Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson. Also included is the extended cut on Blu-ray, which sports its own new commentary with Nicholas and Nelson, along with an isolated score track. Additional extras include the documentary Stormy Seas - The Voyage from Bloodstar to Death Ship, a featurette with Katarina Severen of Katarina's Nightmare Theater, the Bloodstar short story script by Jack Hill and two theatrical trailers.
John Binder's UFOria (1985), starring Cindy Williams, Harry Dean Stanton, Fred Ward, Harry Carey Jr., Robert Gray and Ted Harris. Sourced from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative, Kino presents UFOria with DTS-HD MA 2.0 audio and Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD disc. Extras include audio commentary with John Binder and associate producer Jeanne Field (moderated by filmmaker / historian Daniel Kremer), as well as a newly remastered theatrical trailer.
Guy Hamilton's Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985), starring Fred Ward, Joel Grey, Wilford Brimley, J.A. Preston, George Coe and Charles Cioffi. Sourced from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative, Kino presents Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins 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 a new audio commentary with film journalist Brandon Streussnig and a legacy audio commentary with producer Larry Spiegel and co-producer Judy Goldstein. Also included is a new interview with actor Patrick Kilpatrick, five featurettes, a radio spot and a theatrical trailer. For full release breakdowns, read Svet Atanasov's Blu-ray review and 4K UHD review.
Andrei Konchalovsky's Runaway Train (1985), starring Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, Rebecca De Mornay, Kyle T. Heffner, John P. Ryan and T.K. Carter. Sourced from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative, Kino presents Runaway Train with a choice of DTS-HD MA 2.0 or 5.1 audio tracks and Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD disc. Extras include a new interview with Eric Roberts, a legacy audio commentary with Roberts and film historians David Del Valle and C. Courtney Joyner, archival interviews with Andrei Konchalovsky, Jon Voight, Eric Roberts and Kyle T. Heffner and a theatrical trailer. For a full release breakdown, read Svet Atanasov's 4K UHD review.
Simon Wincer's The Phantom (1996), starring Billy Zane, Kristy Swanson, Treat Williams, Catherine Zeta-Jones, James Remar and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. Sourced from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative (approved by Simon Wincer), Kino presents The Phantom 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 a new audio commentary with Simon Wincer (moderated by filmmaker Douglas Hosdale), new interviews with Billy Zane and composer David Newman and a theatrical trailer. For a full release breakdown, read Svet Atanasov's 4K UHD review.
Finally this week, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has a 4K UHD release for Jay Roach's Meet the Fockers (2004), starring Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, Blythe Danner and Teri Polo. Universal presents Meet the Fockers with Dolby Vision HDR and a Dolby Atmos audio remix. Extras include audio commentary with Jay Roach and editor / co-producer Jon Poll, deleted scenes, bloopers and five featurettes.