Baby Driver

Blu-ray Highlights: Week of October 8th, 2017 – Baby, You Can Drive My Car

Oh baby! One of the most inventive and fun movies of the year is available on Blu-ray and UHD this week. If I were a betting man, I’d wager that it will outsell the latest Will Farrell dud.

Which Blu-rays Interest You This Week (10/10/17)?

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New Releases (Blu-ray)

Baby Driver‘ – Director Edgar Wright (‘Shaun of the Dead’, ‘Hot Fuzz’) finally scored the breakout hit he has long deserved with a nifty heist thriller about a kid named Baby (Ansel Elgort) who works as the go-to getaway driver for an Atlanta crime boss played by Kevin Spacey. I actually saw this in the theater twice, which is a rarity for me. I have some quibbles with the movie (Spacey is basically sleepwalking through a role he’s played a bunch of times before, and the love story plot with Lily James is very thin), but the premise is clever and the car chase and action scenes are F-U-N. I imagine that it will look and sound great on Blu-ray and UHD as well.

The House‘ – Will Farrell and Amy Poehler play a suburban couple who turn their home into an illegal casino to pay for their daughter’s college tuition. I like the idea of reteaming these two former ‘SNL’ vets, but the trailers did not look very funny, reviews were dire, and audiences stayed away. I’m sure it’ll begin rotation on TBS soon enough.

The Beguiled‘ – Sofia Coppola remakes a 1971 Clint Eastwood movie about a wounded Union soldier (Colin Farrell in this version) who takes refuge in an all-girls’ school during the Civil War, triggering all sorts of complicated sexual politics and power plays. Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning co-star. What was surely intended to be a feminist statement particularly relevant to these complicated times we live in came under criticism for alleged whitewashing and racism due to Coppola writing out or rewriting black characters present in the original novel and in the first movie.

Wish Upon‘ – From the title, I’d assume that this is some ‘tween romance fairy tale thing. Apparently, it’s actually a horror movie about a magic box that grant wishes, each bringing a tragic consequence ‘Monkey’s Paw’-style. Most horror fans who sat through it came out wishing they had saved their money.

The Lure‘ – Criterion has a number of pretty strange cult movies in its collection already (‘Beyond the Valley of the Dolls’ and ‘Eating Raoul’ come immediately to mind), but the Polish horror musical about murderous mermaid strippers may well be one of its strangest yet. Check out the bizarre NSFW trailer for a taste.

UHD

Baby Driver‘ puts the pedal to the floor and revs right up to 4k. Best Buy has an exclusive SteelBook with cartoon artwork by someone who clearly never actually watched the movie. (Baby exclusively wears earbuds in the movie, never on-ear headphones.)

Also arriving on Ultra HD is the ‘Peanuts: Holiday Collection‘, featuring nine classic TV specials including ‘It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown’, ‘A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving’ and ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’.

Catalog Titles

In addition to ‘The Lure’, more traditional Criterion fare comes in the form of Orson Welles’ 1952 adaptation of ‘Othello‘. Criterion also has a Blu-ray-only reissue of the madcap comedy ‘It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World‘ (previously a Blu-ray + DVD combo set).

Bill Condon apparently used his clout from the success of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ to pressure Paramount into releasing an extended director’s cut of his Oscar bait musical ‘Dreamgirls‘.

Also from Paramount is a 30th Anniversary reissue of ‘Planes, Trains & Automobiles‘ with some absolutely hideous cover art designed around entirely the wrong holiday. The movie takes place at Thanksgiving, not Christmas. How could someone get that wrong and nobody in the art department catch it?

Miracle on 34th Street‘, on the other hand, is indeed a Christmas movie. Fox has a 70th Anniversary reissue of that one.

Alejandro González Iñárritu has four Oscars on his shelf, yet it took until now for Lionsgate to put his feature directing debut ‘Amores Perros‘ on Blu-ray. Despite all his later awards, this is arguably still his best movie.

Kinji Fukasaku’s campy 1968 sci-fi horror flick ‘The Green Slime‘ oozes out of the Warner Archive. Setting sail behind it is Michasel Curtiz’s 1941 nautical adventure ‘The Sea Wolf‘, restored to its original 100-minute length after decades of existing only in a shorter cut.

Kino doubles up on Mario Bava with the director’s 1966 horror thriller ‘Kill, Baby… Kill!‘ and his 1970 Spaghetti Western ‘Roy Colt & Winchester Jack‘. Kino then shifts over to comedy for Woody Allen’s ‘Take the Money and Run‘ and Garry Marshall’s ‘The Flamingo Kid‘.

A bunch of 1990s movies that Universal dumped as Best Buy exclusives a couple months ago now move to general retail: ‘Bowfinger‘, ‘BASEketball‘, ‘EDtv‘, ‘Problem Child‘, ‘For Love of the Game‘, and ‘The Babe‘.

Television

I gave up on ‘The Leftovers‘ early, but some of my friends assure me that the show got a lot better. Now that it’s all wrapped up after three seasons, is it really worth giving another shot?

My $.02

I have a preorder in place for the ‘Baby Driver’ UK SteelBook (which has better art than the domestic SteelBook) scheduled for release on November 13th and will wait for that.

‘Othello’ will go on my wish list for a future Criterion sale. Likewise for ‘The Green Slime’ and ‘The Sea Wolf’ at the Warner Archive. Meanwhile, ‘The Lure’ seems like something I really need to rent. I also have some interest in ‘The Beguiled’.

What gets your engine revving this week?

14 comments

  1. Deaditelord

    I need to watch it first, but it seems likely that I’ll end up buying Baby Driver on UHD at some point. Otherwise, nothing else interests me this week.

  2. TJ Kats

    I am in the minority on “The Leftovers” in that I loved the first season and thought it got worse the last half of the second season and the third. It got to “Lost” for me and I hated that show as well.

  3. Csm101

    I’m definitely picking up Baby Driver uhd/blu combo. I also ordered Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter standalone disc. I think it’s a reissue. I missed out on the complete collection so I get them as made available. The Lure would make for a blind buy next Criterion sale. Kill, Baby…Kill is also on my radar, although I’m torn between Kino and Arrow.

  4. Chris B

    I just watched PTAA last night! I watch it every Thanksgiving even though I’m Canadian and the dates don’t really line up. That IS some ridiculous cover art. Any word on whether this disc contains a new transfer?

  5. Chris B

    Holy shit The Poughkeepsie Tapes is out this week! It’s the most horrifying found-footage movie I’ve ever seen. I saw it and was wrecked for days. Watch at your own risk!

  6. Have not yet seen ‘Baby Driver’, but have bought the vinyl soundtrack last week (‘Egyptian Reggae’!! ‘Radar Love’!!!!)

    Still have ‘Trains, Planes and Automobiles’ on Video CD (hurrah for low-def), so may need to replace, but not with that hideous artwork. Wish they would include the hours and hours of deleted scenes that are rumoured to exist.

  7. JudasCradle

    Finally, TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN on HD!! One of the greateast mock documentaries ever.
    How did you not mention how hideous the cover for THE FLAMINGO KID is? I seem to remember Matt Dillion being the star?

  8. JERP

    I had Othello pre-ordered and Amazon delivered it to me 2 weeks before the release date…..awesome. I’ll also be picking up Baby Driver, Bowfinger and Amores Perros……I will pick-up T-Men when the price comes down.

  9. EM

    Yes, Miracle on 34th Street is most definitely a Christmas movie. But because it starts off on Thanksgiving Day, my father wants to watch it at Thanksgiving. OK, fair enough. But then when Christmas rolls around, he feels it’s too soon to watch it again. It’s one of the best Christmas movies ever!!! Maybe if he comes over for Thanksgiving this year, I’ll “misplace” it…

  10. Lord Bowler

    I’ll be picking up ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles: 30th Anniversary Edition’, ‘The Sea Wolf’ (Warner Archive), and maybe ‘Open Water 3: Cage Dive’.

    I may pick up ‘Miracle on 34th Street (1947): 70th Anniversary Edition’, depending on the supplements. I already own this, so if this is a double-dip, I’ll pass.

  11. William Henley

    I was making fun of the Peanuts 4k Holiday collection, until I saw today that it came with “9” shows for $35. I would have preordered if I had of known that! Looks like its arriving Thursday!

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