From the Big Screen:

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

(2022) When a new threat capable of destroying the entire planet emerges, Optimus Prime and the Autobots team up with a powerful faction known as the Maximals. With the fate of humanity hanging in the balance, Noah (Anthony Ramos) and Elena (Dominique Fishback) will do whatever it takes to help the Transformers as they engage in the ultimate battle to save Earth. Vitals: Director: Steven Caple Jr. Stars: Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, Luna Lauren Velez. CC, MPAA rating: PG-13, 127 min., Action Adventure, North American box office gross: $146.7 million, worldwide $407.7 million, Paramount. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray + Digital Code, 4K Ultra HD + Digital Code, VOD, Digital. Extras: “Human Affairs” featurette; “Life in the 90s” featurette; “Heroes” featurette; “Villains” featurette; “The Chase” featurette; “The Battle of Ellis Island” featurette; “Into the Jungle” featurette; “The Switchback Attack” featurette; “The Final Conflict” featurette; extended and deleted scenes. Read more here

Strays

(2023) Plucky pup Reggie (Will Ferrell) thought he and his owner Doug (Will Forte) were playing an innocent game of fetch. It isn’t until he meets Bug (Jamie Foxx), a streetwise stray who says only suckers have owners, that Reggie realizes his miserable master intentionally abandoned him in the big city. With two more pooches (Isla Fisher & Randall Park) adding fuel to his furry fire, Reggie goes from cute to cunning as he and Bug concoct a crazy scheme to get back to Doug and give him a big bite between his legs. Revenge has never been this riotous, or this irreverent, as the hilariously absurd antics of these four furballs turn typical animal adventures totally upside down. Forget everything you know about “dog movie” drama because this is one journey home that’s off its leash and over the top. Vitals: Director: Josh Greenbaum. Stars: Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher, Randall Park, Brett Gelman, Will Forte. CC, MPAA rating: R, 93 min., Comedy, North American box office gross: $23.988 million, worldwide $34.738 million, Universal. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Code, VOD, Digital. Extras: “Talk Like a Dog”; “The Ultimate Treat: Making Strays”; “Poop, Booms, and Shrooms”; “Will Forte: Stray Actor”; “Training to be Sray – Sit, stay, pee, hump?”; “A New Best Friend”; feature commentary with director-producer Josh Greenbaum and screenwriter-producer Dan Perrault. Read more here

The Boogeyman

(2023) High school student Sadie Harper and her younger sister Sawyer are reeling from the recent death of their mother and aren’t getting much support from their father, Will, a therapist who is dealing with his own pain. When a desperate patient unexpectedly shows up at their home seeking help, he leaves behind a terrifying supernatural entity that preys on families and feeds on the suffering of its victims. Vitals: Director: Rob Savage. Stars: Sophie Thatcher, Chris Messina, Vivien Lyra Blair, David Dastmalchian, Marin Ireland, Madison Hu, Maddie Nichols. CC, MPAA rating: PG-13, 98 min., Horror, North American box office gross: $43.244 million, worldwide $67.307 million, Fox. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray + Digital Code, VOD, Digital.

This Week’s Best Bet

In “Videodrome” (1983), when Max Renn goes looking for edgy new material for his sleazy cable TV station, he stumbles across the pirate broadcast of a hyperviolent torture show called “Videodrome.” His attempts to unearth the program’s origins send him on a hallucinatory journey into a shadow world of right-wing conspiracies, sadomasochistic sex games, and bodily transformation. Starring James Woods and Deborah Harry, “Videodrome” is one of the most original and provocative works from writer-director David Cronenberg, and features groundbreaking makeup effects by Academy Award winner Rick Baker. On 4K UHD, Blu-ray, with 4K digital restoration of the unrated version, approved by director David Cronenberg, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack. One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features. From The Criterion Collection. Read more here.

Buzzin’ the ‘B’s:

In “The Dead Mother [Limited Edition]” (1993 — Spain), Ismael (Karra Elejalde) breaks into the house of a fine art restorer and shoots the homeowner dead, leaving her daughter orphaned and traumatized for life. Years later Ismael is working in a bar where he sees the daughter again. Paranoid that she has recognized him and will report him, he kidnaps her and holds her hostage, demanding that her hospital pay a ransom for her release. As he spends more time with her a strange bond develops that causes him to delay the ransom request or fulfill his threats of throwing her in front of a train. But he can’t delay forever. A gothic thriller with pitch-black humor that recalls the Coen brothers, Juanma Bajo Ulloa’s sophomore feature won a host of prestigious international awards and was a precursor to the Spanish genre explosion. 4K restoration of the film supervised and approved by director Juanma Bajo Ulloa with uncompressed stereo 2.0 audio. On Blu-ray from Radiance/MVD Entertainment … In “Jules” (2023), starring Ben Kingsley, Zoe Winters, Jade Quon and Harriet Sansom Harris, Milton (Kingsley) lives a quiet life of routine in a small western Pennsylvania town, but finds his day upended when a UFO and its extra-terrestrial passenger crash land in his backyard. Before long, Milton develops a close relationship with the extra-terrestrial he calls “Jules.” Things become complicated when two neighbors (Harris and Curtin) discover Jules and the government quickly closes in. What follows is a funny, wildly inventive ride as the three neighbors find meaning and connection later in life – thanks to this unlikely stranger. On DVD, Blu-ray, from Allied Vaughn … In “Sniper G.R.I.T.” (2023), starring Chad Michael Collins, Ryan Robbins, Luna Fujimoto, Josh Brener, and Dennis Haysbert, when an international terrorist cult threatens global political stability and kidnaps a fellow agent, Ace Sniper Brandon Beckett (Collins) and the newly-formed Global Response & Intelligence Team – or G.R.I.T. – led by Colonel Stone (Haysbert) must travel across the world to Malta, infiltrate the cult, and take out its leader to free Lady Death (Fujimoto) and stop the global threat. From Sony. Read more here.

Foreign Films:

In “Io Sto Bene (I Am Fine)”> (2022 — Luxembourg), starring Renato Carpentieri and Sara Serraiocco, Antonio (Carpentieri) has spent nearly his entire life in Luxembourg, far removed from his Italian homeland. Now an aging widower, he lives a solitary existence until crossing paths with Leo (Serraiocco), a fellow ex-pat and aspiring nightclub VJ. Past and present collide as the old man and young woman discover the similar destinies they both share abroad. Exploring loyalties and betrayals, marriages and deaths, relationships and regrets with all the skill of a novelist, Donato Rotunno’s “Io Sto Bene” is a moving look at immigrant experiences, which was Luxembourg’s Official Entry for Best International Feature at the 94th Academy Awards. In Italian, Luxembourgish, English and French with English subtitles. From Indiepix Films.

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.