*OnVideo’s week begins with “New Release” Tuesdays

This Week’s Highlighted Releases:

“The Good, the Bad, the Weird” (2008 — Korea) Genre maestro Kim Jee-woon (“A Tale of Two Sisters”) set his sights on new frontiers and spiced them up with his rollicking kimchi western. Wrangling three of Korea’s biggest stars, he orchestrated an audacious action epic sweeping across the dusty Manchurian plains. In the 1930s, three gun-toting Koreans converge on a train with different objectives but after an explosive altercation they leave it with the same goal: track down a map leading to an unfathomable treasure. The ‘Good’ is bounty hunter Park Dowon (Jung Woo-sung), who is chasing down the ‘Bad’, the ruthless bandit Park Chang-yi (Lee Byung-hun), rumored to be the notorious ‘Finger Cutter’. Meanwhile, wily thief Yoon Tae-goo (Song Kang-ho), the ‘Weird’, is on the hunt for anything he can get his hands on. Backs are stabbed, fingers are cut, and many bullets fly as this dangerous trio blast their way through the desert in search of untold riches. This glorious resurrection of the Manchurian Western was the biggest and most ambitious production ever undertaken in Korea. Presented here in stunning 4K, experience this spicy slice of wild west mayhem as you’ve never seen it before. On 4K Ultra HD from Arrow Video/MVD Entertainment. Read more here. … “Isle of Dogs” (2018) Wes Anderson conjures a dystopian future Japan in magical stop-motion. After a canine virus outbreak, the dogs of Megasaki are exiled to a vast island garbage dump. When Atari (the daring 12-year-old ward of the city’s mayor) sets out to rescue his beloved Spots, he meets a pack of mongrel friends and is launched on an epic quest. Innovatively blending English and Japanese dialogue through a cross-cultural voice cast that includes Bryan Cranston, Greta Gerwig, Jeff Goldblum, Scarlett Johansson, Yoko Ono, and Koyu Rankin, this fable of loyalty and disobedience combines Anderson’s signature themes—friendship among outsiders, the adventure of rebellion—with a delight in the boundless possibilities of animated storytelling. On 4K UHD + Blu-ray, Blu-ray, with new 4K digital master, supervised and approved by director Wes Anderson, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features. Read more here. From The Criterion Collection … “The Wes Anderson Archive: Ten Films, Twenty-Five Years”: Wes Anderson’s first 10 features represent 25 years of irrepressible creativity, an ongoing ode to outsiders and quixotic dreamers, and a world unto themselves, graced with a mischievous wit and a current of existential melancholy that flows through every captivating frame. This momentous 20-disc collector’s set includes new 4K masters of the films, over 25 hours of special features, and 10 illustrated books, presented in a deluxe clothbound edition. $499.00. Formats: 4K UHD + Blu-ray, with new 4K digital masters of “Bottle Rocket,” “Rushmore,” “The Royal Tenenbaums,” “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,” “The Darjeeling Limited,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “Moonrise Kingdom,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “Isle of Dogs,” and “The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun,” supervised and approved by director Wes Anderson, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks. Ten 4K UHD discs of the films presented in Dolby Vision HDR and ten Blu-rays with the films and special features. Over 25 hours of special features, including audio commentaries, interviews, documentaries, deleted scenes, auditions, short films, home movies, commercials, storyboards, animation tests, archival recordings, still photographs, discussions/analyses, and visual essays. Read more here. From The Criterion Collection.

Buzzin’ the B’s:

“Affinity” (2024) Starring Marko Zaror, Brooke Enge, Jane Mirro, Louis Mandylor. Chilean martial-arts star Marko Zaror is Bruno, an ex-SEAL struggling with PTSD. He lives a life in fear of his demons until one day when he discovers a beautiful woman with no past of her own. Together they begin to build a life, but when she disappears, Bruno must return to his violent past if he’s going to save her from a shocking conspiracy in this riveting, fast-paced sci-fi action film from director Brandon Slagle. On DVD, Blu-ray, VOD, Digital. From Well Go USA). Read more here … “Creepshow 2” (1987) Titans of terror George A. Romero and Stephen King deliver yet another selection of blood-curdling tales in “Creepshow 2,” the follow-up to the 1982 horror classic. In “Old Chief Wood’nhead”, a group of young hoodlums face retribution from an unlikely source after looting a local hardware store. Meanwhile, “The Raft” sees a group of horny teens wishing they’d read the warning signs first before taking a dip in a remote lake. Finally, an uptight businesswoman finds herself with some unwanted company following a hit-and-run incident in “The Hitch-hiker”. Retaining the same EC Comics flavor that made the original such a hit, “Creepshow 2” – this time directed by long-time Romero collaborator Michael Gornick – is a standout horror anthology from the minds of two of the genre’s master craftsmen. On 4K Ultra HD from Arrow Video/MVD Entertainment. Read more here … “Raw Meat (AKA Death Line)” (1972) Starring Sharon Gurney, David Ladd, James Cossins, Donald Pleasence, Norman Rossington, Hugh Armstrong, Christopher Lee. During a late-night ride on the London Underground, Patricia Wilson (Gurney) and her boyfriend Alex Campbell (Ladd) find James Manfred, OBE (Cossins) passed out on the steps to the Russell Square Station. When they fetch a police officer to help, the body disappears. Inspector Calhoun (Pleasence) and Detective Sergeant Rogers (Rossington) investigate, and it appears the disappearance is tied to the urban legend of workers trapped in a tunnel collapse when the Underground was being built. To survive deep under the streets, the workers reportedly resorted to cannibalism. Are their descendants roaming the Tube still looking for victims? New 4K restoration from the original uncensored camera negative, with Dolby Vision HDR and a new Dolby Atmos audio mix. On DVD, Blu-ray, 4K Ultra HD. From Blue Underground/MVD Entertainment.

Foreign Films:

“Misericordia” (2024 — France) A web of secrets, suspicions, and desires ensnares the inhabitants of an insular French village in this tantalizing comic thriller from ever-audacious auteur Alain Guiraudie. Returning to his rural hometown to attend the funeral of the mentor he loved, enigmatic, sexually fluid drifter Jérémie (Félix Kysyl) stirs up long-simmering feelings of lust, jealousy, and rage among those he left behind — including the dead man’s widow (Catherine Frot), her hot-tempered son (Jean-Baptiste Durand), and a curiously protective local priest (Jacques Develay) with whom Jérémie forges a twisted bond. Amid the evocatively earthy milieu, Guiraudie constructs a slippery, continuously surprising moral universe where love and hatred, eroticism and violence, spiritual grace and mortal sin, are intimately entwined. On DVD, Blu-ray from Janus Contemporaries, Criterion Premieres.

From the Big Screen:

The Life of Chuck

(2025) This powerful tale celebrates the life of Charles ‘Chuck’ Krantz as he experiences the wonder of love, the heartbreak of loss, and the multitudes contained in all of us. The film follows the formative moments in the life of Chuck, chronicled in reverse chronological order, from his death coinciding with the end of the universe to his childhood. Based on the novella of the same name by Stephen King, Vitals: Director: Mike Flanagan. Stars: Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Mark Hamill, Jacob Tremblay, Nick Offerman. CC, MPAA rating: R, 111 min., Fantasy Drama, Theatrical release date: June 13, 2025, North American box office gross: $6.4 million, worldwide $9.8 million, Streaming date: July 29, 2025, Neon. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray, VOD, Digital. Read more here.

All DVDs and Blu-rays are screened on a reference system consisting of an Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray Disc Player w/SACD & DVD-Audio, a Rotel RSX-972 Surround Sound Receiver, and Phase Technology 1.1 (front), 33.1 (center), and 50 (rear) speakers, and Power 10 subwoofer.