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OnVideo's Weekly Guide to Home Video Releases
Addicted
(2014) Sharon Leal, Boris Kodjoe, Kat Graham, Tyson Beckford, Tasha Smith. Sexy thriller about desire and the dangers of indiscretion. Successful businesswoman Zoe Reynard (Sharon Leal) appears to have attained it all – the dream husband she loves (Boris Kodjoe), two wonderful children and a flourishing career. As perfect as everything appears from the outside, Zoe is still drawn to temptations she cannot escape or resist, and she finds herself risking it all when she heads down a perilous path of indiscretion. Based on the best-selling novel by Zane. Formats: DVD, Digital, UltraViolet. Extras: "Getting Intimate With Zane" featurette, "Filming Addicted With the Hottest Men on the Planet" featurette, deleted scenes. (Lionsgate).
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
(2014) Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner, Ed Oxenbould, Bella Thorne, Dylan Minnette. Formats:Blu-ray/DVD Combo, VOD, Digital, Disney Movies Anywhere (cloud). Extras: "Snappy Crocs & Punch Roos: The Australian Outback Party," "Hurricane" by the Vamps music video. Blu-ray adds "Alexander ... In Real Life," "Walkabout: A Video Diary," "And the Delightful, Magnificent, Very Good Bloopers." (Disney).
Batman: The Second Season, Part 1
Four-disc set with 30 episodes from the 1966 original Batman series. Batman and Robin take on more perilous plots with fiendish foes trying to undo the undaunted heroes. From the torturous King Tut to a straying Catwoman to the provoking Joker, Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward) take on a cape-full of calamity. But wait! There are still plenty of Bat-gadgets and plot twists in the race against time and adrenalin laced adventure. With ever-popular guest stars Julie Newmar, Casear Romero and many more. Re-mastered. $29.99. Formats: DVD. (Warner).
Chuggington: Turbo Charged Chugger
(2014) Six turbo-charged train episodes. The trainees are taking their responsibilities to a whole new level when Wilson and the Chug Patrollers attempt a daring bridge rescue, Brewster helps the Chuggineers build a new station, Koko tries to break her Chug-A-Sonic record, the Speed Fleet competes in the Track Dash, and everybody learns how to use the Piggy-Back Wagon. Formats: DVD, $14.98. Extras: Coloring and activity pages, character montages, custom activity book with stickers. (Anchor Bay).
A Day in the Country
(1936) This bittersweet work from Jean Renoir, based on a story by Guy de Maupassant, is a tenderly comic idyll about a city family's picnic in the French countryside and the romancing of the mother and grown daughter by two local men. Conceived as part of a larger project that was never completed, shot in 1936, and released 10 years later, this warmly humanist vignette ranks among Renoir's most lyrical films, with a love for nature imbuing its every beautiful frame. New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray Disc. Extras: Introduction by Renoir from 1962; new interview with Renoir scholar Christopher Faulkner about the film's production; new video essay by Faulkner on Renoir's methods; "Un tournage a la campagne," an 89-minute 1994 compilation of outtakes from the film; interview with producer Pierre Braunberger from 1979; screen tests; an essay by film scholar Gilberto Perez. (The Criterion Collection).
Digimon Tamers Volume 1
(2001) A new generation of Digidestined take over protecting the Digital World from evil Digimon. Through a new gadget called the D-Arc, Takato and his friends can draw Digimon and make them come to life with one swipe through the D-Arc. After creating new Digimon, Takato and his friends battle constant evil, finally defeating the last major threat. They all return to the Real World only to find another portal to the Digital World in jeopardy. Three-disc set, $19.99. Formats: DVD. (Cinedigm).
Don't Look Now
(1973) Donald Sutherland and Julie Christi mesmerize as a married couple on an extended trip to Venice following a family tragedy. While in that elegantly decaying city, they have a series of inexplicable, terrifying, and increasingly dangerous experiences. A masterpiece from Nicolas Roeg, "Don't Look Now," adapted from a story by Daphne du Maurier, is a brilliantly disturbing tale of the supernatural, as renowned for its innovative editing and haunting cinematography as its explicit eroticism and unforgettable denouement, one of the great endings in horror history. New 4K digital restoration, approved by Roeg, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray Disc. Extras: New conversation between the film's editor, Graeme Clifford, and film writer. Bobbie O'Steen; "Don't Look Now, Looking Back," a short 2002 documentary featuring Roeg, Clifford, and cinematographer Anthony Richmond; "Death in Venice," a 2006 interview with composer Pino Donaggio; "Something Interesting," a new documentary on the writing and making of the film, featuring interviews with Richmond, Christie and Sutherland, and co-screenwriter Allan Scott; "Nicolas Roeg: The Enigma of Film," a new documentary on Roeg's style, featuring interviews with filmmakers Danny Boyle and Steven Soderbergh; Q&A with Roeg at London's Cine Lumiere from 2003; trailer; an essay by film critic David Thompson. (The Criterion Collection).
Dorothy in the Land of Oz
(1980) With her beloved aunt and uncle preparing to move away, Dorothy's carried back to Oz where she meets Jack Pumpkinhead, the Hungry Tiger, Tik-Tok and others before facing off against Tyrone the Terrible Toy Tinker. Formats: DVD, $9.99. (CBS/Paramount).
Fear Clinic
(2015) Robert Englund, Fiona Dourif, Corey Taylor, Angelina Armani, Thomas Dekker. When trauma-induced phobias begin to re-emerge in five survivors a year after their horrifying tragedy, they return to the "Fear Clinic," where a doctor works to cure patients suffering from crippling phobias by placing them inside his invention, which induces and controls hallucinations. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray Disc. (Anchor Bay).
Forbidden Films From the Age of Beauty: Anthology of Erotic Cinema - The 1900s
(2015) The beginning of the 20th century was known as "The Age of Beauty" (La Belle Epoque), a period before the first World War that saw an incredible blossoming of literature and art as well as the birth of the cinema. One of cinema's first explorations was erotica, and this anthology presents some of the earliest film adventures from around the world during 1900-1910, erotica that featured straights, trios, bisexuality and sadomasochistic acts. Wild fantasies range from and include vacuum cleaners, family life, nuns, priests, satanic rituals and school teachers, just to name a few. Formats: DVD. Extras: Commentary, photo gallery. (Risque Cinema).
Foreclosure
(2014) Michael Imperioli, David Costabile, Wendell Pierce, Spencer List, Matt Servitto. One rule of real estate that buyers and sellers ignore at their peril: Ghosts don't move out. A broken family moves into the home of a recently deceased relative and strives to stay together while a curse and the ghosts of a haunted house try to tear them apart. Formats: DVD, Digital. (Virgil Films).
Frankenstein vs. the Mummy
(2015) Ashton Leigh, Brandon DeSpain, Constantin Tripes, Max Rhyser, Robert MacNaughton. Dr. Victor Frankenstein and Egyptologist Naihla Khalil are both professors at a leading medical university. Victor's latest grisly "experiment" is the re-animated corpse of a sadistic madman and Naihla's most recent find is the cursed mummy of an evil pharaoh. When the two monsters face-off in an epic showdown, no one is safe from the slaughter. Formats: DVD. (RLJE/Image Entertainment).
In Your Eyes
(2014) Zoe Kazan, Michael Stahl-David, Nikki Reed, Jennifer Grey, Steve Howey, Mark Feuerstein. A romance with a supernatural twist. Rebecca (Zoe Kazan), a lonely housewife in New Hampshire, suddenly discovers that she shares a strange connection with Dylan (Michael Stahl-David), a struggling ex-con in New Mexico … they can see through one another's eyes and experience sensations felt by the other. Though they've never met, the two share a unique, unparalleled intimacy by being in each other's heads and begin a long-distance relationship unlike any other. Formats: DVD. (Anchor Bay).
Kill the Messenger
(2014) Jeremy Renner, Robert Patrick, Jena Sims, Robert Pralgo, Hajji Golightly, Ted Huckabee, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Lucas Hedges, Rosemarie DeWitt. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray/DVD Combo, VOD, Digital, UltraViolet (cloud). Extras: Deleted scenes, "Kill the Messenger: The All-Star Cast," "Crack in America," "Filming in Georgia," commentary with director Michael Cuesta. (Universal).
Kink
(2014) Ropes, belts, pneumatic devices and clothes pins are put to eye-opening use in this feel-good-through-pain documentary, a look at an adult entertainment website devoted to sexual extremes. Director-cinematographer Christina Voros and her frequent collaborator, James Franco, pull back the curtain on the fetish empire of Kink.com, the Internet's largest producer of BDSM content. Voros and producer Franco go behind the scenes at the San Francisco studios of Kink.com and introduce us to those who work in front of and behind the camera. Formats: DVD, VOD, Digital. (Dark Sky Films/MPI Media Group).
The Lookalike
(2014) Justin Long, Jerry O'Connell, Gillian Jacobs, Scottie Thompson, John Corbett, Gina Gershon, Steven Bauer, John Savage, Luis Guzman. Drug lord William Spinks (Savage) has a curious obsession with a young woman, Sadie Hill, and uses family friends Bobby and Frank (Corbett and O'Connell) to get to her. But when her death jeopardizes a major deal, Bobby and Frank set out to find a replacement -- a lookalike (Jacobs) -- and the shady plan propels an ex-basketball champion, a deaf beauty, an addict, and an aspiring actress into an unlikely romance and a desperate quest to fool Spinks. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray Disc. (Well Go USA).
Love At First Bite/Once Bitten BLU-RAY DEBUT
"Love At First Bite" (1979): George Hamilton, Susan Saint James, Richard Benjamin, Arte Johnson, Dick Shaw, Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford. "Once Bitten" (1985): Jim Carrey, Lauren Hutton, Karen Kopins, Cleavon Little. (Scream Factory).
Maison Close: Season One
(2014 -- France) An edgy, provocative and ratings-busting Canal Plus+ series set in a lavish 19th century Parisian bordello. Set in Paris in 1871, right after the suppression of la Commune, a workers' revolutionary movement that briefly took power, this richly compelling period drama with unmistakably modern sensibilities follows a cast of gorgeous women trapped by circumstances beyond their control in the luxury brothel Paradise. Considered a first class "closed house" reserved for aristocratic or bourgeois clientele and noted for strange and refined practices during a time when prostitution was legalized, Paradise is populated by a fascinating cast of characters, each of whom struggles to find escape and solace in their own way. Hortense (Valerie Karsenti) is the manipulative and, in turn, manipulated mistress of the Paradise who runs her business with iron hand; Vera (Anne Charrier), the star of the bordello, is a beautiful courtesan in her thirties whose career is nearing its end; and Rose (Jemima West), the heroine, is a country ingenue raised by nuns who goes to the Paradise searching for her mother, only to be blackmailed into becoming a prostitute. All eight unrated and uncut 55-minute episodes. Formats: Three-disc DVD: $34.95, two-disc Blu-ray: $39.95, VOD. Extras: Collector's book featuring photos and essays. (Music Box Films).
Nurse Jackie: Season Six
(2014) In the sixth season of the high-flying comedy series, Jackie realizes that sobriety is the ultimate cover for getting high, and now she's saving lives at work, taking care of her kids, and even her boyfriend loves the new her. She's got everyone fooled, but what goes up must come down. 12 episodes. Formats: Three-disc DVD, two-disc Blu-ray. Extras: "Deceit,
Olive Kitteridge
(2014) Dir.: Lisa Cholodenko; Frances McDormand, Richard Jenkins, Bill Murray, Zoe Kazan, Rosemarie DeWitt. McDormand and Jenkins star in this HBO miniseries drama . Based on Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, this four-part drama tells the
story of a seemingly placid New England town wrought with illicit affairs, crime and tragedy, told through the lens of Olive (McDormand), whose wicked wit and harsh demeanor mask a warm but
troubled heart and staunch moral center. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray, Digital, UltraViolet. (HBO).
101 Dalmatians Diamond Edition
(1961) Voices of Rod Taylor, J. Pat O'Malley, Betty Lou Gerson, Martha Wentworth, Ben Wright, Cate Bauer. Pongo, Perdita and their super-adorable puppies are in for thrills, hilarious spills and an
Peter & The Magic Egg
(1983) Peter's family farm is in danger of being repossessed by the greedy Tobias Tin Whiskers; with no money to save the home, Peter meets the Easter Bunny and joins with him to save the farm and the holiday. Formats: DVD, $9.99. (CBS/Paramount).
Poker Night
(2014) Ron Perlman, Giancarlo Esposito, Beau Mirchoff, Titus Welliver, Michael Eklund, Ron Eldard, Corey Large. A young detective is caught in a sadistic game of cat-and-mouse when he is kidnapped and tormented by a masked serial killer and, in order to survive, he must use the wisdom imparted to him by senior detectives on their regular poker night. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray Disc. (XLrator Media).
Power Rangers Super Megaforce: The Silver Warrior
(2015) The next chapter in the boys live-action franchise. As the fight against evil Prince Vekar's alien Armada gets tougher, the Power Rangers Super Megaforce (Troy, Noah, Emma, Gia and Jake) find themselves receiving help from the Legendary Samurai and Jungle Fury Red Rangers. The odds are further evened when the Rangers are joined by an unexpected new ally from another planet -- Orion, the all-new Silver Ranger. Formats: DVD, Digital. (Lionsgate).
Puff the Magic Dragon Triple Feature
(2015) "Puff the Magic Dragon," "Puff the Magic Dragon in the Land of Living Lies," "Puff and the Incredible Mr. Nobody." Formats: DVD, $12.99. (CBS/Paramount).
RPG (aka Real Playing Game)
(2013) Rutger Hauer. For 10 hours, 10 aging millionaires from around the world are transferred to attractive and healthy younger bodies, to live in a world of temporary rejuvenation, in a game of real thrills, where every hour someone must die. Formats: DVD, VOD. (ARC Entertainment).
Rosewater
(2014)Gael García Bernal, Kim Bodnia, Dimitri Leonidas, Haluk Bilginer. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray/DVD Combo, VOD, Digital, UltraViolet (cloud). Extras: "Iran's Controversial Election," "The Story of Maziar Bahari," "Real Spies Have TV Shows," "What Happens in New Jersey ...," "A Director's Perspective." (Universal).
Strawberry Shortcake Double Feature
(2015) "The World of Strawberry Shortcake" and "Strawberry Shortcake in Big Apple City," $12.99.
Formats: DVD. (CBS/Paramount).
Syncopation
(1942) Director William Dieterle's long-unseen 1942 musical feature, restored in 2K from an archival 35mm fine grain master struck by the Library of Congress from the nitrate negative. A one-of-a-kind cinematic extravaganza, "Syncopation" is both a love story about two young musicians and a celebration of some of the greatest popular music of the first half of the 20th century. The romance between a young trumpeter (Jackie Cooper) and a New Orleans-born piano player (Bonita Granville, the silver screen's original Nancy Drew) serves as the narrative plot line. But the
Tarzan
(2015) The classic re-imagined for a new generation in CGI-animation. During an expedition to a remote African jungle, the Greystoke family's helicopter crashes, leaving one survivor: the young boy J.J., nicknamed Tarzan. Raised by gorillas, Tarzan lives by the laws of the jungle -- until he encounters another human being, the courageous and beautiful Jane Porter. For Tarzan and Jane, it-s love at first sight -- and the beginning of a thrilling adventure -- as Tarzan uses his instincts and intellect to protect his jungle home and the woman he loves. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray Disc, Digital. Extras: Behind the scenes featurette, "Becoming Gorillas" featurette, "The Making of Tarzan" featurette. (Lionsgate).
20 Stories for Spring
(2014) Single disc with 20 stories celebrating Spring and Easter, including Max & Ruby, Curious George, Chicken Little, The Red Hen and other favorite characters: "Max's Chocolate Chicken," "Chicken Little," "The Red Hen," "Reading to Your Bunny," "Voyage to Bunny Planet," "Curious George Rides a Bike," "Bear Wants More," "Scaredy Squirrel," "Chicka Chicka 123," "My Garden," "Chrysanthemum," "Fletcher and the Springtime Blossoms," "Goodnight Moon," "Runaway Ralph," "Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present," "And Then It's Spring," "Caterpillar and the Polliwog," "The Most Wonderful Egg in the World," "Giggle Giggle Quack Quack," "Dooby Dooby Moo." Formats: DVD, $5.97. (Scholastic Storybook Treasures: The Classic Collection).
Vampire's Kiss/High Spirits BLU-RAY DEBUT
"Vampire's Kiss" (1988): Nicolas Cage. "High Spirits" (1988): Daryl Hannah, Peter O'Toole, Steve Guttenberg, Beverly D'Angelo, Jennifer Tilly, Peter Gallagher, Liam Neeson. (Scream Factory).
Vandal
(2013 -- France) Zinedine Benchenine, Chloe Lecerf, Emile Berling, Jean-Marc Barr. The story of a wayward young man who comes of age in the world of graffiti art. Like the stolen car he is driving in circles, Cherif's life is going nowhere in a hurry. When he is arrested for the umpteenth time, Cherif's exasperated mother strikes a last-chance deal with a judge to send the troubled juvenile to live quietly with his aunt and uncle and attend vocational school. Cherif's earnest attempt to go straight is sending him directly to the doldrums, until he discovers that his even straighter-laced cousin Thomas is actually part of a local gang of taggers, who roam the night bombing walls and overpasses in the shadow of a mysterious tagger whose death-defying works have made him a legend. Formats: DVD, packaged in certified Green Forestry eco pack. (First Run Features).
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February 8, 2015 (ISSN 1094-3676). |
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