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

This Week’s Highlighted Releases:

Spinal Tap has come to be recognized as England’s loudest and most punctual band. In the legendary rockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap” (19840, now beautifully restored, Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) embark on their final American tour, with filmmaker Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) capturing all the mishaps, creative tensions, dwindling crowds, and ill-fated drummers. “This Is Spinal Tap” takes DiBergi’s brilliant vérité style and turns it up to eleven! Formats: 4K UHD + Blu-ray, Blu-ray, with new 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Rob Reiner, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. Alternate 2.0 uncompressed stereo soundtrack. Read more here. From The Criterion Collection … The folks at Disney hav loveingly restored 1982’s “Tron” and 2010’s “Tron: Legacy” just in time for their release of “Tron: Ares” on October 10. In Tron, starring Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner, Cindy Morgan and Barnard Hughes, a brilliant video game maker (Bridges) hacks the mainframe of his ex-employer and is beamed inside an astonishing digital world and becomes part of the very game he is designing. In “Tron: Legacy,” starring Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner, James Frain and Beau Garrett, the son of a famous video game engineer receives a virtual signal from his long-lost father, and he sets off on a thrilling, high-tech adventure through a cyber universe to rescue his dad. Both films have been digitally scanned and carefully restored by The Walt Disney Film Restoration team, who corrected dirt, warping, and other imperfections to ensure pristine image quality and are released on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray Combo + Digital Code Steelbooks, loaded with hours of extras. Read more here.

The sixth feature film from acclaimed filmmakers The Adams Family, “Hellbender” (2001) is a spell-binding folk horror and coming-of-age story, boiling over with adolescent rage and wicked witchcraft. Teenager Izzy lives in isolation with Mother because she has a rare immune disorder. Or so she is told. After befriending local girl Amber, Lizzy begins to question the reality of her disease. And when she eats a live worm as part of a teenage game, she soon develops a ravenous hunger for living things, learning that she is the latest in a line of “hellbenders”, supernatural beings who possess immensely powerful abilities. Featuring a fantastic punk rock soundtrack with songs from the family’s band, H6LLB6ND6R, this truly unique film expertly blends beautiful and naturalistic cinematography, impressive and stylistic VFX and stunning performances from real-life mother and daughter team, Zelda Adams and Toby Poser. On Blu-ray from Arrow Video/MVD Entertainment. Read more here.

On the Indie Front:

“Born in Flames” (1983) is a blistering rallying cry issued loud, clear, and unapologetically queer; Lizzie Borden’s explosive postpunk provocation is a DIY fantasia of female rebellion set in America 10 years after a revolution that supposedly transformed the country into a democratic socialist utopia. In reality, racism, sexism, and economic inequality are as virulent as ever, and a band of radicals—led by Black, lesbian, and working-class women—join forces to fight back. Told through a furiously fractured, kinetically edited flurry of television news broadcasts, pirate radio transmissions, agitprop, and protests shot guerrilla-style on the streets of New York City, “Born in Flames” is a shock wave of feminist futurism that’s both an essential document of its time and radically ahead of it. On Blu-ray, with 2K digital restoration—preserved by Anthology Film Archives, with restoration funding from the Golden Globe Foundation and The Film Foundation, and supervised and approved by director Lizzie Borden—with uncompressed monaural soundtrack. Read more here. From The Criterion Collection.

Foreign Films:

In “The Betrayal” (1966 — Japan), to protect his clan, an honorable samurai (Raizo Ichikawa) takes the blame for a murder committed by one of his fellows. He is promised a safe return after one year in exile, but this vow is broken and he becomes a fugitive chased by his own clansmen. Disillusioned by the bushido code of honour, he realizes there are only two ways out: vengeance or death. From director Tokuzo Tanaka (“The Snow Woman”), a former assistant to Akira Kurosawa, this cruel jidaigeki stands alongside such notable works of the genre as “Harakiri” and “Sword of Doom” with its classic mix of honor codes and samurai action. Beautifully filmed in black and white ‘scope with thrilling set pieces, “The Betrayal” features one of the most breathtaking finales in all of samurai cinema. On Blu-ray from Radiance/MVD Entertainment … In “Dial M for Maya” (2022 — Uganda), starring Mathew Kavuma and Zion Kente, after being acquitted in a high-profile domestic violence trial, recently divorced businessman Paul finds solace in the arms of Maya – a beautiful and enigmatic young woman, whom he soon discovers is harboring mysterious secrets of her own. What begins as a picture-perfect marriage slowly unravels into a chilling game of manipulation and deceit. As buried crimes resurface and hidden truths claw their way to the surface, Maya must confront the darkness that Paul has so desperately tried to conceal. A pulse-pounding psychological thriller filled with betrayal, deception and twists at every turn, “Dial M for Maya” is a masterclass in suspense where nothing is what it seems. On DVD from IndiePix Films … “The Flaming Brothers” (1987 — Hong Kong) is a standout Hong Kong crime thriller released amidst the wave of heroic bloodshed films that followed in the wake of John Woo’s “A Better Tomorrow” and Ringo Lam’s “City on Fire,” “Flaming Brothers” features Alan Tang and Chow Yun-fat (who was quickly rising to superstardom in the late 1980s) as triad brothers determined to protect their criminal operation – and each other – no matter what the cost. Both orphaned at a young age, Cheung Ho-tin (Chow) and Chan Wai-lun (Tang) grew up together on the streets, forming a strong bond in their childhood that remains unbroken as they become triad brothers in adulthood. Having recently opened a nightclub together, they begin to feel that they have finally made it. That is, at least, until they become embroiled in a conflict with the ruthless gangster Ko Lo-sei (Patrick Tse) and his right-hand man (Norman Chui), who threaten to take away everything that Tin and Lun have worked for. New 2K restoration marks the film’s Blu-ray debut in both the UK and North America. From Eureka Classics … In “Los Golfos” (1959 — Spain), a group of poor youths tear around Madrid pulling scams and petty crimes. As one of their gang prepares to perform in a serious bullfighting competition, they plan a heist that will raise the money to finance his entry. Breaking with tradition by filming in the streets and utilising documentary techniques to give the film an urgent resonance, Carlos Saura and producer Pere Portabella (“Viridiana”) were announced as a powerful new force in Spanish cinema when the film was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Suffering curtailed distribution by Francoist censorship, this new restoration reinstates previously removed footage and presents the film as originally intended. Restored in 4K in 2024 by Filmoteca Española in collaboration with Films 59 at Digital and Electronic Systems laboratory from the 35mm acetate negative, 35mm prints and other intermediate photochemical materials. Restoration supervised by Javier Rellán. On Blu-ray from Radiance/MVD Entertainment.

From the Big Screen:

No Major Theatrical Releases This Week