From the Big Screen:
“Joker” and “The Lighthouse.” For more information on other releases this week, see the Weekly Guide to Home Video Releases.
This Week’s Best Bets:
From Robert Siodmak, the legendary director of “Phantom Lady,” “The Spiral Staircase,” “The Killers,” and “The Crimson Pirate,” comes the romantic action-adventure “Cobra Woman” (1944), starring Maria Montez, Jon Hall, Sabu, Lon Chaney Jr., Mary Nash Lois Collier. After Ramu (Hall) discovers that his fiancée Tollea (Montez) has been kidnapped by a lost tribe and taken to a Pacific isle, he and his friend Kado (Sabu) set out across the seas to find her. They soon discover that the island paradise is ruled by Tollea’s evil twin Naja, the Cobra Woman, who commands all strangers to be killed on arrival. Not only does Naja have designs on her new prisoner Ramu, but she also desires to eliminate any competition from her benevolent sister. On Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics …
From TV to Disc:
“Big Little Lies: The Complete Second Season” (2019) is a two-disc set with all seven episodes. Meryl Streep joins the all-star cast in Season Two, along with Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern and Zoe Kravitz. In Season Two, on the surface, everything seems the same in the seaside town of Monterey, CA: mothers continue to dote, husbands support, children are adorable, houses are beautiful. But the night of the school fundraiser changed all that, leaving the community reeling as the “Monterey Five” bond together to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. Meanwhile, Perry’s grieving mother Mary Louise Wright (Streep) comes to town in search of answers after son’s death.On DVD, Blu-ray, from Warner … “The Cry” (2018) is a two-disc set with four episodes. British psychological thriller and Sundance Now Original Series chronicles the collapse of a marriage in the aftermath of a tragedy and explore the myths and truths of motherhood. The abduction of a baby from a small coastal town in Australia is the catalyst for a journey into the disintegrating psychology of a young woman as she and her husband deal with an unthinkable tragedy, under both the white light of public scrutiny and in their private lives. From Acorn Media.
Buzzin’ the ‘B’s:
In “Blood Hound” (2019), starring Ed Ackerman, David Foy Miles Dougal, Jess Allen and Silvia Moore, private investigator Abel Walker, along with his cameraman, Jim, are on the hunt for a missing woman. As they unravel the mystery of her disappearance, they become caught in a sick and violent game that will end in murder. From High Octane Pictures … In “The Mercenary” (2019), starring Dominiquie Vandenberg, Louis Mandylor and Carmen Argenziano, Maxx (Vandenberg) is a legionnaire turned mercenary. When a mission in South America goes wrong, Maxx is left for dead, but is nursed back to health and reborn with a new outlook on life. He tries to live tranquilly within the confines of his new beliefs surrounded by his new friends at a church. But his peaceful days are short-lived when mercenaries he used to work with cross his path again and he is forced to revisit and face his own demons. From Uncork’d Entertainment … In “The Shed” (2019), starring Jay Jay Warren, Cody Kostro, Sofia Happonen, Frank Whaley, Siobhan Fallon Hoga and Timothy Bottoms, Stan and his best friend Dommer have put up with bullies their entire lives. All of that changes when Stan discovers he has a murderous vampire living in his shed. Seeing the bloodshed and destruction the monster is capable of, Stan knows he has to find a way to destroy it. But Dommer has a much more sinister plan in mind. On DVD, Blu-ray, from RLJE Films …
Foreign:
In “The Nightshifter” (2018 — Brazil), starring Daniel de Oliveira, Fabiula Nascimento, Bianca Comparato and Marco Ricca, Stênio (Oliveira) works the graveyard shift in the morgue of a vast, violent city. Each night he prepares the lifeless corpses for examination, but he’s never alone. For Stênio can talk to the dead…and they talk back. But when the whispers of the dead reveal secrets of his own life, Stênio unleashes a curse that brings forth unimaginable danger and darkness. From RLJE 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.