From the Big Screen:

Plane

(2023) Pilot Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) saves his passengers from a lightning strike by making a risky landing on a war-torn island – only to find that surviving the landing was just the beginning. When most of the passengers are taken hostage by dangerous rebels, the only person Torrance can count on for help is Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), an accused murderer who was being transported by the FBI. In order to rescue the passengers, Torrance will need Gaspare’s help, and will learn there’s more to Gaspare than meets the eye. Vitals: Director: . Stars: Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Yoson An, Daniella Pineda, Paul Ben-Victor, Tony Goldwyn. 2023, CC, MPAA rating: R, 107 min., Action Thriller, US box office gross: $31.931 million, worldwide $48.604 million, Lionsgate. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Code, 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo + Digital Code, VOD, Digital. Extras: “This Is Your Captain,” “Plane Clothes,” “Brace for Turbulence.” Read more here

Missing

(2023) When her mother (Nia Long) disappears while on vacation in Colombia with her new boyfriend, June’s (Storm Reid) search for answers is hindered by international red tape. Stuck thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, June creatively uses all the latest technology at her fingertips to try and find her before it’s too late. But as she digs deeper, her digital sleuthing raises more questions than answers … and when June unravels secrets about her mom, she discovers that she never really knew her at all. Vitals: Director: Nick Johnson, Will Merrick. Stars: Storm Reid, Joaquim de Almeida, Ken Leung, Amy Landecker, Daniel Henney, Nia Long. CC, MPAA rating: PG-13, 111 min., Mystery, North American box office gross: $32.401 million, worldwide $45.001 million, Sony. Formats: DVD + Digital, Blu-ray + Digital, VOD, Digital.

This Week’s Highlight:

Throughout the 1970s, a wave of daring disaster movies gripped cinemagoers with their combination of bravura spectacle and “ripped from the headlines” plotlines. Among these, John Frankenheimer’s “Black Sunday” (1977) endures to this day as among the cream of the crop. Robert Shaw (“Jaws,” “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three”) stars as Major Kabakov, an Israeli agent attempting to avert a terrorist atrocity on US soil. The weapon: a blimp laced with explosives and piloted by Michael Lander (Bruce Dern), a troubled Vietnam vet driven to strike back against the nation he believes has betrayed him. The target: the Orange Bowl stadium, Miami. What follows is a nail-biting race against time culminating in a spectacular aerial climax that will determine the fate of 80,000 spectators. Adapted from the best-selling debut novel by Thomas Harris (“The Silence of the Lambs”) and featuring virtuoso performances by a cast headlined by Dern, Shaw and Marthe Keller (“Marathon Man”), “Black Sunday” is a nerve-shredding, best-in-class suspense thriller from a filmmaker at the top of his game. On Blu-ray from Arrow Video/MVD Entertainment. Read more here.

Buzzin’ the ‘B’s:

In order to keep herself and her newborn baby alive, a mother must fight to overcome postpartum depression, grief, inner demons, sinister impulses, and an unseen tormentor until her husband can return home from his business trip to help her in the creepy “Adalynn” (2023), starring Sydney Carvill, Wade Baker and Janet Carter. From Summer Hill Films. Read more here … In “The Son” (2022), starring Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath and Anthony Hopkins, Peter (Jackman) finds his already hectic life upended when his ex-wife (Dern) appears to discuss their teenage son, Nicholas (McGrath), who has been missing school for months and is deeply troubled. Peter strives to take care of Nicholas as he would have wanted his own father (Hopkins) to have taken care of him, but the rigors of raising a new son with Beth (Kirby) and a new position at work makes him lose sight of how to hold onto Nicholas. The film is a compelling cautionary tale from director Florian Zeller (“The Father”) about a family struggling to reunite after falling apart. On DVD, Blu-ray, from Sony. Read more here … In “The Weapon” (2023), starring Tony Schiena, AnnaLynne McCord, Sean Patrick Flanery, Jack Kesy, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Bruce Dern, Schiena plays Dallas, a one-man killing machine on a mysterious rampage. His attacks on biker gangs and meth labs anger the Vegas mob boss who’s holding Dallas’s girlfriend hostage. But who is Dallas working for? Even torture won’t make him talk … and he won’t stop until justice is served. From Lionsgate. Read more here … The animated feature “Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham” (2023) is inspired by the comic book series by Mike Mignola, Richard Pace and Troy Nixey, a 1920s-based tale that finds explorer Bruce Wayne accidentally unleashing an ancient evil, expediting his return to Gotham City after a two-decade hiatus. The logic/science-driven Batman must battle Lovecraftian supernatural forces threatening the sheer existence of Gotham, along the way being aided and confronted by reimagined versions of his well-known allies and enemies, including Green Arrow, Ra’s al Ghul, Mr. Freeze, Killer Croc, Two-Face, James Gordon and Bruce’s beloved wards. On Blu-ray + Digital, 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo + Digital, from Warner.

Foreign Films:

In the wuxia fantasy action-adventure “Code of the Assassins” (2022 — China), starring William Feng, Jun Hu, Gina Jin and Qingxiang Wang, a distinguished young assassin, trained by the best, receives his first assignment for a secret society of assassins. Failing to complete his mission, he becomes a fugitive hunted by the government, shadowy figures and rival assassin groups. With his weaponized mechanical hand, he must survive double crosses, gadget-arsenal armed killers and clashing factions to find a secret treasure map and get to the bottom of the huge conspiracy he finds himself tangled in.. On DVD, Blu-ray, VOD, from Well Go USA … Having established himself as Hong Kong’s premier action choreographer throughout the 1970s, Sammo Hung ended the decade by directing a non-stop assault of kung fu classics for Golden Harvest, starting with the brutal “Iron-Fisted Monk.” But it would be his 1979 directorial effort, “Knockabout” (1979 — Hong Kong), that would finally give his Peking Opera brother-in-arms, acrobatic ace Yuen Biao, his first chance at leading man status. Brothers and partners-in-crime, Yipao (Biao) and Taipao (Leung Kar-Yan), have made an up-and-down career out of being hustlers, conning everyone from bank tellers to casino dealers. One day, they push their luck with the wrong man, martial arts master Chia Wu Dao (legendary Shaw Brothers fight choreographer Lau Kar-Wing), but convince him to reluctantly become their teacher in hand-to-hand combat. But upon learning Chia’s dangerous true nature, Yipao turns to another master: a portly blinking beggar (Hung) trained in the ways of the monkey fist. Will this new skill defeat Chia’s secret snake style? Combining Hung’s hard-hitting choreography with the Mo Lei Tau style of humor that was increasing in popularity at the time, “Knockabout” is a thrill-a-minute action spectacular that would pave the way for later masterpieces such as Hung and Biao’s subsequent collaboration, the Wing Chun tour-de-force “The Prodigal Son.” 2K restorations from the original elements by Fortune Star of both the original HK Theatrical Cut and the shorter Export Cut. Original lossless Cantonese and Mandarin mono audio for the HK Theatrical Cut, plus lossless English mono for both cuts. Two choices of English dubbed audio for the HK Theatrical Cut: the original export dub mono and the newer 5.1 dub created for international DVD presentations. On Blu-ray from Arrow Video/MVD Entertainment. 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.