Beauty and the Beast 2017

Blu-ray Highlights: Week of June 4th, 2017 – Ever Just the Same

What goes around comes around. Among this week’s new Blu-rays are a nearly shot-for-shot live-action remake of an animated classic, plus plenty of catalog releases either making repeat appearances on the format or getting upgraded to 4k.

Which Blu-rays Interest You This Week (6/6/17)?

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New Releases (Blu-ray)

Beauty and the Beast‘ – With over $1 billion in grosses for this outing alone, Disney’s remake train appears unstoppable. Emma Watson becomes the live-action embodiment of animated heroine Belle as she falls in love with a CGI wolfman (voiced by Dan Stevens). Bill Condon of ‘Dreamgirls’ and the last couple of ‘Twilight’ movies directs. Nearly identical to the original aside from being padded with 40 new minutes of bloat, the point of this eludes me. Critics found it lacking in charm, but audiences apparently disagreed. Disney collectors have a choice between the standard Blu-ray, a Digibook at Target or a SteelBook at Best Buy. None of them have 3D, so be prepared to import from overseas if you want that.

A Cure for Wellness‘ – After leaving the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ franchise in other hands and watching his big-budget ‘Lone Ranger’ reboot flop, director Gore Verbinski returns to the horror genre that proved successful for him in the past. Dane DeHaan stars as a young corporate executive who travels to a mysterious health clinic in the Alps to fetch his CEO, only to find some freaky shit going down at the place under the direction of evil doctor Jason Isaacs. The trailers looked highly stylized in much the same way ‘The Ring’ was, but reviews tore the movie apart for being too derivative, predictable and dull. The strange title and lack of a star that anyone cared about also turned off audiences, making this another serious bomb for the filmmaker.

The Assignment‘ – Formerly titled ‘(Re)Assignment’, Michelle Rodriguez plays a hitman (yes, man) who’s unwillingly forced to undergo a sex change operation. Now a woman, (s)he tries to find his balls and take revenge on the mad scientist (Sigourney Weaver) who did this to him while adapting to a new life with lady parts. That premise kind of sounds like it was specifically designed to offend the LGBT community, many of whom protested it sight unseen. Being made by an old-school macho action movie director (Walter Hill) whose work has a history of sexism certainly didn’t help. However, the film is allegedly not actually transphobic, so much as just a simple B-movie exploitation flick never intended to be taken seriously. Sadly, word-of-mouth claims that, for as crazy as the idea is, the execution came out looking very cheap (it was made on a shoestring) with a muddled and dull plot.

A United Kingdom‘ – In a feel-good period piece drama based on a true story, David Oyelowo is a Botswana prince whose marriage to a white British woman (Rosamund Pike) caused political turmoil in his native country. Love, of course, ultimately triumphed. (See movie’s title.)

The Last Word‘ – At 83-years-old, Shirley MacLaine gets her first headlining role in two decades, playing a bitter old shrew who bribes the local newspaper into writing a glowing obituary that will secure her legacy. Amanda Seyfried is the young journalist assigned the task. Pleasant adventures are had and schmaltzy life lessons are learned by all. Phil haaaaaaaaaaaaaated this.

Aftermath‘ – With his action star and political careers both pretty much behind him now, Arnold Schwarzenegger attempts to reinvent himself again as an actual dramatic actor. According to Shannon’s Blu-ray review, Schwarzenegger does a very credible job playing a man beset by tragedy when his wife and daughter both die in a plane crash. Unfortunately, the movie got next to no theatrical play and will probably go unnoticed on video as well.

Sky on Fire‘ – Hong Kong director Ringo Lam hopes to evoke his 1980s action classics ‘City on Fire’ and ‘Prison on Fire’ with a throwback bullet ballet that features lots of shootouts and car chases and irresponsibly staged stunts that very likely put the lives of his entire crew in danger. That all sounds great, but Phil says that the movie’s plot is ludicrous and the digital effects work is pretty crappy.

UHD

None of the week’s day-and-date releases are available on Ultra HD. Instead, a couple of studios focus on upgrading older titles.

With a third movie coming soon, it’s no surprise that Universal would want to bring the first two ‘Despicable Me‘ entries back into circulation. The timing of the ‘Bourne: The Ultimate Collection‘ box set is a little more perplexing. I thought that had been released back in December alongside ‘Jason Bourne’. Was it a retailer exclusive at that time, perhaps? I don’t remember the details.

I can definitely see Lionsgate’s ‘Dredd‘ and ‘Ex Machina‘ having fan bases willing (even eager) to rebuy them in higher quality. But what’s with ‘Snitch‘? Did anyone even like that movie? This seems like a very unlikely candidate to deserve the 4k treatment.

Catalog Titles

Disney pulls ‘Bambi‘ out of the vault for a reissue under the Signature Collection banner. I fully expect this to feature the same video and audio quality as the out-of-print Diamond Edition Blu-ray from 2011, with some differences in bonus features. Please tell me this isn’t a signal that ‘Bambi’ is coming to live-action soon!

Kenji Mizoguchi’s 1953 Japanese ghost story ‘Ugetsu‘ is a longtime favorite for the Criterion Collection, which previously released it on Laserdisc in 1994 and DVD in 2005. Now the film makes its way to Blu-ray with a new 4k restoration.

Universal is actually a little late in celebrating the 50th anniversary of François Truffaut’s 1966 adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s ‘Fahrenheit 451‘. The dystopian cautionary tale seems particularly relevant right about now.

Shout! Factory finds a home ‘Where the Buffalo Roam‘, the 1980 comedic bio-pic in which Bill Murray plays gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.

From out of the Warner Archive comes Sam Peckinpah’s 1970 Western ‘The Ballad of Cable Hogue‘ starring Jason Robards.

FUNimation tries to get a little more mileage out of the anime classic ‘Akira‘ by reissuing it in a new SteelBook case.

It makes me feel very old to realize that the wave of ‘hood movies from the early 1990s are hitting their 25th anniversaries. Ernest Dickerson’s ‘Juice‘ was never actually one of the best of those, but having Tupac Shakur play a main character got it some attention. Undoubtedly, Paramount has dusted it off to capitalize on the upcoming Tupac bio-pic called ‘All Eyez on Me’, due in theaters later this month.

1992 was also the year that launched two competing movies to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Columbus landing in the New World. Ridley Scott’s ‘1492: Conquest of Paradise‘ was the more prestigious production. (The other was the largely forgotten ‘Christopher Columbus: The Discovery’.) Ultimately, both movies were disastrous box office bombs. My recollection is that Scott’s film was visually striking but a dreadful bore.

Television

Because apparently no actual American actors were available, Englishman Jude Law plays the first American Pope in HBO’s ten-episode ‘The Young Pope‘. At 45, it’s also debatable whether he qualifies as “young.” Promoted as a limited series, a second season (to be called ‘The New Pope’) is nonetheless in the works now.

Also available are the first season of Syfy’s terrible ‘Van Helsing‘ and the first half of the tenth season for ‘Doctor Who‘.

My $.02

I don’t have any urgent purchases this week, but ‘Fahrenheit 451’ and ‘Ugetsu’ will go on my wish list for later. I’m kind of curious about ‘The Assignment’, but can wait for that to hit cable or Netflix. Likewise, I’d almost be willing to give ‘1492’ another shot, but I don’t want to spend any money on it.

You want to tell us what movies have your eye this week? Be our guest.

13 comments

  1. Thulsadoom

    Tempted by Farenheit 451, but that’s about it.
    On an unrelated note… Josh, I met and got Sian Philips autograph this weekend! 😀

  2. Csm101

    I forgot to vote for it, but I’m really wanting to revisit Juice. Those types of movies were big in my teenage years and I’d love to see how it holds up. I wonder if it has a new transfer? I refuse to buy Beauty and the Beast unless it’s in 3D. I didn’t even get to see it that way in theatres. It pisses me off because the movie was a huge hit and the inconsistency that Disney is doing this with their movies is extremely frustrating. I would also like to check out Aftermath and eventually pick up the 4K Dredd. I wonder if the blu included is the exact one from before with 3D?

  3. Deaditelord

    Dredd in 4k for sure this week. Mobile Suit Gundam is a likely purchase too, but I’ll wait for a sale. It sounds like Akira is the exactly the same as the original blu-ray release so I’ll pass on it unless I hear differently. I’m also curious about A Cure for Wellness, but will rent it first.

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      Akira was first released on Blu-ray in 2009 by Bandai Visual. It was later reissued in 2013 by FUNimation. Those discs had some differences. I believe the FUNimation is supposedly slightly better and has more bonus features. The SteelBook should be the same as that 2013 copy.

      • Deaditelord

        Interesting. I have the Bandai release and I see that Funimation included the outstanding remastered Japanese Dolby True HD 5.1 track from that release. (The loss of that track would be a deal breaker.) I guess I’m upgrading to the SteelBook after all! Thanks for the info Josh!

        • Josh Zyber
          Author

          The Bandai disc was annoyingly windowboxed with black bars on all four sides of the picture. The FUNimation disc reportedly fixes that.

          However, Bandai included the Japanese soundtrack in both the original 2.0 and the remixed 5.1, whereas FUNimation drops the 2.0. That’s something that purists may care about, but I doubt will bother most viewers who’d rather listen to the supercharged 5.1 mix anyway. Both Blu-rays included two English tracks, the old Streamline dub and the later Pioneer dub.

  4. Elizabeth

    As someone who is transgender, the basic plot of The Assignment sounds like childhood fantasies I had about how I would get to transition (back before there was such a thing as the internet to figure it out and I certainly wasn’t going to ask my parents). I doubt younger me would have felt the need to seek revenge if I had woken up looking like Michelle Rodriguez though, probably would have settled for giving them a hug and thanking them.

  5. I will probably end up picking up Dredd on 4k.

    1492 is a maybe. I haven’t seen it in decades, so I don’t know if I like it or not.

    Beauty and the Beast is a must, although I preordered the 3D version from the UK. Unfortunately, it does not release in the UK for another month. But my movie backlog (and gaming backlog) is great enough that a month delay is not that big of a deal for me.

  6. Beauty & the Beast Steelbook is awaiting me to pick it up at Best Buy. The Target Digibook looks mighty nice too but only a moment of no will power would make me buy another copy. Is it time I cancel my Zavvi Steelbook which appears to look the same but also contains the 3D disc? And Bambi as a Signature edition. Another moment of weakness for what amounts to a nearly identical release I already own? Will also buy A Cure For Wellness but am miffed of the lack of UHD combo for this one. I Am Dragon is arriving in 2 days via Amazon. Anyway – wishlist of ones to keep an eye on: The UHD releases – Bourne Collection, Dredd, Ex Machina, Despicable Me 1 & 2. BDs on the wish list: Axe Murders of Villisca, Child of Satan, Dr. Who 10.1, Fahrenheit 451, Journey to the West Demons Strike Back, Kill ’em All, Van Helsing #1.

  7. Lord bowler

    Well, I’ll be renting ‘Kill Em All’ because I’m still a fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme. I don’t think I’ll bother buying it unless it’s really good.

    Other than that, I’ll be picking up nothing this week.

    Although, ‘Fahrenheit 451’ is tempting.

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