Blu-ray Highlights: Week of March 13th, 2016 – The Long and Short of It

A few of last year’s most acclaimed movies hit Blu-ray this week, but are any of them really the sort of thing you’ll run out to buy?

Which Blu-rays Interest You This Week (3/15/16)?

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New Releases

The Big Short‘ – If it weren’t for the perplexing adulation that ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ received, I’d call this the most unexpected of this year’s Best Picture shortlist. Who could have guessed that the man who made ‘Talladega Nights’ and countless other goofy Will Ferrell comedies would one day be an Oscar winning screenwriter and a Best Director nominee? Nevertheless, that’s just what Adam McKay did with his star-studded dramedy about the 2008 housing market financial crisis. I suppose the fact that anyone could make an entertaining movie about a topic like that shocked the hell out of everyone.

Brooklyn‘ – Saoirse Ronan scored her second Oscar nomination as the lead in a delicate period piece drama about an Irish immigrant torn between her lives in her old country and her new one. Scripted by novelist Nick Hornby (based on a book by someone else), the film also landed in the Best Picture mix, though never stood a real chance in that category. If that sort of thing matters to you.

Carol‘ – Having struggled to find his groove in anything else, director Todd Haynes returns to the 1950s melodrama genre that proved successful for him in ‘Far from Heaven’. Along similar lines as that film, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara star as secret lesbians in the highly repressive era. Both actresses received Oscar nominations, as did the screenplay by Phyllis Nagy based on a Patricia Highsmith novel. Although the movie may not have made much money or actually won any gold statues, it managed to return Haynes to some relevance for a moment.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip‘ – If you’ve already tired of me harping on Oscar nominations, we’re safely out of awards territory here. How is it possible that this stupid franchise is already up to four movies? Reportedly, this is the worst one yet. As a parent, I will admit to watching a lot of questionable content with my kids, but we have to draw the line somewhere, people.

Sisters‘ – Everyone knew it was inevitable that BFFs Tina Fey and Amy Poehler would eventually have to star in a movie together. Too bad it couldn’t have been something better than this raunchy slapstick farce about a pair of moron siblings who throw one last house party when their parents put their childhood home up for sale. The material seems really beneath the both of them. [Reader HuskerGuy reminds me that Fey and Poehler also starred in 2008’s ‘Baby Mama’, which I had completely blanked from memory. How sad that the movies these talented ladies make together are so forgettable.]

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine‘ – In case that bio-pic with Michael Fassbender (or that earlier bio-pic with Ashton Kutcher) didn’t fill your obsessive need to know everything about the megalomaniacal Apple founder, documentarian Alex Gibney tells the non-fiction version of his story with lots of footage of the actual man. This is approximately the 75th documentary that Gibney has directed in the past five years, so you know he put a lot of time into researching it.

Band of Robbers‘ – Mark Twain’s famous childhood heroes Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn get rebooted as adults in the modern day for a quirky crime comedy co-starring Supergirl herself (Melissa Benoist) as Becky Thatcher. Expect Redbox kiosks to be well-stocked with this one.

Love‘ – The Blu-ray edition of Gaspar Noé’s artsy 3D porno flick was apparently delayed a couple of times since I last announced its release back in January. I’m writing this post on Friday afternoon and Amazon currently says it’s scheduled to street on Tuesday the 15th. Let’s see if that holds through the weekend. [Update: As feared, it’s been delayed again, this time to April 19th.]

Catalog Titles

MGM released John Frankenheimer’s classic 1962 Cold War thriller ‘The Manchurian Candidate‘ as a very basic, no-frills Blu-ray back in 2011. The Criterion Collection hopes to improve on that with a feature-packed and freshly remastered reissue. Depending on your mood, this should make a good pairing with the existing Criterion editions of either Frankenheimer’s ‘Seconds‘ or the John le Carré thriller ‘The Spy Who Came in from the Cold‘.

The Cohen Film Archive somehow nabbed a Jean-Luc Godard title away from Criterion with the director’s 1964 infidelity drama ‘A Married Woman‘.

Sidney Poitier made cinema history as the first black man to win a Best Actor Oscar with ‘Lilies of the Field‘, which is now available as a limited edition from Twilight Time. Other stars featured in the latest Twilight Time batch include Ingrid Bergman in the 1956 historical drama ‘Anastasia‘; Richard Burton in the sword-and-sandal epic ‘Alexander the Great‘; Paul Newman in ‘Exodus‘, Otto Preminger’s 1960 drama about the creation of the state of Israel (scripted by Dalton Trumbo); and John Hurt in the 1971 true crime thriller ‘10 Rillington Place‘.

Arrow’s latest cult title is the 1987 ninjasploitation revenge flick ‘Rage of Honor‘.

Among the week’s many guilty pleasure offerings (which also include a Jean-Claude Van Damme 5-pack and a bunch of ’80s sex comedies), Universal bestows upon us Olivia Newton-John’s legendary musical flop ‘Xanadu‘.

Television

Good news for ‘Game of Thrones‘ fans who also happen to be Dolby Atmos listeners, the Blu-ray box set for the show’s fifth season will include Atmos right out of the gate, so there’s no need to wait around for a SteelBook reissue like the prior four seasons (unless you’re also a SteelBook fan).

My $.02

As I suggested in the intro to this post, not a lot this week inspires me to part with any money right away. I’d like to see ‘Brooklyn’, ‘Carol’ and ‘The Big Short’, but I can wait for cable or Netflix for all of those. The closest thing to a must-buy title for me is the Criterion edition of ‘The Manchurian Candidate’, but even then my enthusiasm is tempered by the fact that I happen to own the previous release. ‘Lilies of the Field’ is another wish list item for me.

What are you up to this week?

19 comments

  1. William Henley

    Waiting in the Summer is being released by Sentai, not Section 23. Good show, although I caught it back when it originally aired (I believe I watched it on Crunchy Roll), and while I enjoyed it, I just cannot find myself paying $44 for the series. I would probably not watch it again anyways – its not a show I would see myself revisiting.

    I will probably pick up Game of Thrones eventually. I started reading the books, and got drawn in. I have only seen the first season of the show, as I am reading an entire book before I watch the season. Good show, I can see why people like it, but I think the books are better. But, at least with Season 1, those bonus features were INCREDIBLE – it really helped expand the world. I haven’t opened season 2 yet, but seasons 2-4 come in a significantly larger box than 1 did, so I am anxious to see what is included in the box. Season 5 at $40 seems a bit steep at the moment – I got seasons 1-4 for $20 each new, but that might have just been on a sale.

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      Amazon says Section 23 but the cover art says Sentai. According to Wikipedia, Section 23 is the distributor for Sentai, which I guess is the source of the confusion. I’ve updated the poll.

  2. Lord Bowler

    I’m interested in picking up Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine and Game of Thrones, of course.

    I am a big fan on Van Damme (not so much his later films), but will not likely pick up this 5-Film collection as it includes some terrible movies and I already have the ones I want. Of the five, I like Maximum Risk, Universal Soldier: The Return and Second in Command is not too bad for his later direct-to-video films. Knock Off and The Hard Corps were terrible.

    • Csm101

      I was rummaging through the bargain bin at Wal-mart on friday and found Hard Target and Sudden Death for 7.88 a piece . For me, Sudden Death was his last really good flick that I saw in theaters.

      • Lord Bowler

        For me the last “great” movie was the next one after Sudden Death, The Quest! I really enjoyed that movie.

        That said, I also loved Sudden Death, even though it was a typical action film, it was very entertaining. Hard Target is also one of my favorites with Yancy Butler!

        Since then, there are only a few good to barely watchable films. Welcome to the Jungle was a terrible movie. Enemies Closer starred Van Damme’s son and was a watchable direct-to-DVD movie.

      • Deaditelord

        I’m going to have to hit up my local Walmart for Sudden Death and Hard Target. Love both of those movies. For me, the last really good movie Van Damme made was Maximum Risk. It’s pretty much been garbage since then with the exception of his villainous role in the Expendables 2.

  3. HuskerGuy

    Small matter, but Tina Fey and Amy Poehler have already been in a movie together btw. Another comedy, Baby Mama.

  4. Yeah, nothing I really feel like spending money on this week. It’s rare that I’ll go out and pick up a major studio release on day 1 anymore. Give it 6-12 months and most of these titles will be on for 9.99 at BB or HMV as opposed to the 30ish dollar range they go for brand new.

    I’d like to see 10 Rillington place, it’s one of the movies mentioned in a book I’ve been reading called “The Best Films You’ve Never Seen”. In which 35 famous directors each submit a pick for an underrated gem. It’s a great book and worth seeking out IMHO. However, I’ll have to wait for a TT sale if I was to pick up the film.

  5. Bolo

    My copy of ‘The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas’ came last week. It’s a decent presentation of the film, and for $10, a good deal. I never owned it on any previous formats, so I’m glad to have it.

    I will watch ‘Carol’ again at some point, but I’m in no rush. I quite liked it.

  6. CC

    These movies like SISTERS are not ‘beneath’ Tina Fey and Amy Poehler… They are merely exposing how bad they really are. They were hot for a moment, but they are done. One hit wonders who belong on television.

  7. Deaditelord

    I’ve sat out on the previous versions of The Manchurian Candidate so Criterion’s is a must buy for me. Other than that I really only see myself renting The Big Short. It’s okay though since my copy of Tenebrae showed up in the mail today along with Blue Underground’s Dario Argento Collection from Amazon which has Inferno, Deep Red, and Cat O’ Nine Tails (which I’ve never seen). I see an Argento marathon in my future! 🙂

      • Deaditelord

        Finally was able to watch Tenebrae last night and Synapse did a fantastic job with the transfer. Wish there was more extras, but the feature-length documentary on the giallo was decent enough.

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