Dune: Part Two
(2024) The next chapter of Frank Herbert’s celebrated novel “Dune.” Explores the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a warpath of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee. Vitals: Director: Denis Villeneuve. Stars: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux, Souheila Yacoub, Stellan Skarsgård, Charlotte Rampling, Javier Bardem. CC, MPAA rating: PG-13, 166 min., Sci Fi Action Adventure, North American box office gross: $265.0 million, worldwide $665.4 million, Warner. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray + Digital Code, 4K Ultra HD + Digital Code, VOD, Digital. Extras: “Chakobsa Training,” “Creating the Fremen World,” “Finding the Worlds of Dune,” “Buzz Around the New Thopter,” “Worm-Riding,” “Becoming Feyd,” “A New Set of Threads,” “Deeper into the Desert: The Sounds of the Dune.”
Imaginary
(2023) When Jessica moves back into her childhood home with her family, her youngest stepdaughter, Alice, finds a stuffed bear named Chauncey. As Alice’s behavior becomes more and more concerning, Jessica intervenes only to realize that Chauncey is much more than the stuffed toy bear she believed him to be. Vitals: Director: Jeff Wadlow. Stars: DeWanda Wise, Tom Payne, Taegen Burns, Pyper Braun, Betty Buckley, Matthew Sato, Veronica Falcón. CC, MPAA rating: PG-13, 104 min., Horror, North American box office gross: $27.444 million, worldwide $38.002 million, Lionsgate. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray + Digital Code, VOD, Digital. Extras: Audio commentary by producer-cowriter-director Jeff Wadlow and executive producer-actress DeWanda Wise; “Meet Your New Imaginary Friends”; “Frills and Thrills” costume design; “Crafting the Beasts of Imaginary” effects; “Bringing Nightmares to Life” featurette.
The American Society of Magical Negroes
(2024) A young man gets recruited into a secret society of magical Black people who dedicate their lives to making white people’s lives easier. Although initially enamored with his new powers, he begins to question the value of using supernatural means to do the very thing he’s felt obligated to do his whole life. Vitals: Director: Kobi Libii. Stars: Justice Smith, David Alan Grier, An-Li Bogan, Drew Tarver, Michaela Watkins, Aisha Hinds, Tim Baltz, Rupert Friend, Nicole Byer. CC, MPAA rating: PG-13, 104 min., Comedy, North American box office gross: 2.480 million, worldwide $2.480 million, Universal. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray + Digital Code, VOD, Digital. Extras: “Secret Society Members”; “Crafting a Magical Society”; “Speaking Your Truth”; feature commentary with director-writer-producer Kobi Libii.
One Life
(2024) The true story of Sir Nicholas ‘Nicky’ Winton, a young London broker who, in the months leading up to World War II, rescued 669 predominantly Jewish children from the Nazis. Nicky visited Prague in December 1938 and found families who had fled the rise of the Nazis in Germany and Austria, living in desperate conditions with little or no shelter and food, and under threat of Nazi invasion. He immediately realized it was a race against time. How many children could he and the team rescue before the borders closed? Fifty years later, it’s 1988 and Nicky lives haunted by the fate of the children he wasn’t able to bring to safety in England; always blaming himself for not doing more. It’s not until a live BBC television show, “That’s Life,” surprises him by introducing him to some surviving children – now adults – that he finally begins to come to terms with the guilt and grief he had carried for five decades. Vitals: Director: James Hawes. Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Lena Olin, Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Flynn, Romola Garai, Jonathan Pryce. CC, MPAA rating: PG , 109 min., Bio Drama, North American box office gross: $1.713 million, worldwide $49.259 million, Decal Bleecker. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray, VOD, Digital.
This Week’s Best Bets
Having brought British cinema into exalted realms of fantasy and imagination, Michael Powell took a dark detour into obsession, voyeurism, and violence with “Peeping Tom” (1960), a groundbreaking metacinematic investigation into
Buzzin’ the ‘B’s:
In “The Gate” (1996), starring Stephen Dorff, Louis Tripp and Christa Denton, when best friends Glen and Terry stumble across a mysterious crystalline rock in Glen’s backyard, they quickly dig up the newly sodden lawn searching for more precious stones. Instead, they unearth The Gate — an underground chamber of terrifying demonic evil. The teenagers soon understand what evil they’ve released as they are overcome with an assortment of horrific experiences. With fiendish followers invading suburbia, it’s now up to the kids to discover the secret that can lock The Gate forever. In Blu-ray Steelbook from Lionsgate …
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Foreign Films:
The Horror comedy “The Coffee Table” (2022 — Spain), starring David Pareja, Estefanía de los Santos, Josep Riera, Claudia Riera and Eduardo Antuña, follows Jesus and Maria, a couple going through a difficult time in their relationship. Nevertheless, they have just become parents. To shape their new life, they decide to buy a new coffee table. A decision that will change their existence. From Cinephobia Releasing. Read more here … In the third and final chapter of director Kim Han-Min’s epic nautical trilogy, “Noryang: Deadly Sea” (2023 — South Korea), legendary Korean admiral Yi Sun-Sin (Kim Yun-seok) faces his final fight in the high-stakes naval battle that changed the very course of human history: the last major battle of the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598). On DVD, Blu-ray, from Well Go USA.
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.