Posted Sun Jun 5, 2022 at 12:00 PM PDT by D. LaFontaine
The week after a holiday always feels like a ho-hum business as usual slow week to me, but a lot is happening with new releases and announcements, so it really is not business as usual. The Summer movie season has kicked off, Top Gun: Maverick appears to be incredible with Imax 4DV or whatever it's called being the ultimate experience. What is this 4th element, smell?
Welcome to Volume 3 Episode 3 of our weekly release guide. A look at the highlights of what's coming to disc this week, as well as a look at announcements from last week.
Before we start with domestic releases, as I mentioned last week in my mini-rant, a lot of titles are getting gift sets or other deluxe releases overseas. Zavvi is offering an Exclusive SteelBook release of The Untouchables with a Monday release, the U.S. release last week was pretty basic. It's not as elaborate as some of the overseas releases, but it does add some swag pertinent to the film.
This week there are two New Releases in the 4K disc category, an action/thriller from Paramount titled The Contractor starring Chris Pine. And no, he's not a drywall or other such contractor, check out the synopsis.
And from Universal, the norse movie titled The Northman. This one got a street date literally at the last second. Zavvi UK also has a SteelBook for this film releasing in July, if you prefer to go that route.
The rest of this category is dominated by catalog titles, but in a way they're all considered "double-dips." First a pair of SteelBook releases, Lawrence of Arabia and The Bridge on the River Kwai. When the latter came out I was not overly impressed with the cover art they went with, I am not sure what to think on the latest cover seen here either.
Each studio has their own franchise or franchises they release over and over again. In this case I'm referring to Universal and the Jason Bourne franchise. The Bourne Complete Collection this week comes as a standard edition and as a Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook. As to whether this set offers anything new, I am not sure. There's been unsubstantiated claims of new transfers, but there wasn't anything wrong with the previous ones, so I doubt that claim is true.
For the month of June, this week looks to be the busiest week for blu-ray releases. Blu-ray counterparts to the 4K titles above, that would be The Contractor from Paramount, and The Northman from Universal.
Warner Archive Collection brings us a Judy Garland triple play with a drama/romance The Clock, a musical/romance titled For Me and My Gal, which also stars Gene Kelly and Ziegfeld Girl, which also stars James Stewart.
From the Warner Bros. label, Eraser: Reborn, which seems similarly based on the original Eraser movie.
Anime highlights this week include 5 Centimeters Per Second, BEM: Become Human - Movie, BTOOOM! Complete Collection, Children Who Chase Lost Voices, One Piece: Season Eleven - Voyage Eight, Only Yesterday, The Place Promised in Our Early Days and The Tale of The Princess Kaguya.
More TV on disc with La Brea: Season One from Universal.
Catalog titles from Paramount include Kinky Boots (2005), The Mexican, Pretty in Pink, She's Having a Baby, Some Kind of Wonderful and The Weather Man.
Criterion has a single release this week, a musical/romance titled The Tales of Hoffmann.
LionsGate's action release of the week is Fortress: Sniper's Eye. It is a followup to the movie Fortress, which was actually a pretty decent movie for its genre.
MVD Rewind Collection brings us The Fabulous Baker Boys, a well known movie from '89. Also an all star comedy from 1997, Highball.
Honorable Mention: Kino Lorber is releasing the next Film Noir Collection, this one is Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema VII, which includes the films The Boss, Chicago Confidential and The Fearmakers.
Shout Factory has announced the next batch of titles among their various labels. For Scream Factory, Child's Play, Child's Play 2 and Child's Play 3 all get 4K combo releases on August 16th. You could go all in and get the set available from Shout Factory's store which comes with a NECA figure and other swag. The Shout Factory label is offering The Bionic Woman: The Complete Series on August 30th, no doubt to go with the Six-Million Dollar Man set you would have bought in July. The Shout Select label has Red Dawn (1984) coming to 4K combo pack on August 16th. Also, blu-rays of Last Days In The Desert on August 2nd, Learning To Drive and A Walk In The Woods on August 30th. The GKIDS partner label has Belle coming to 4K Collector's Edition on August 30th. No word on region coding on this one, hopefully they got enough flak for region locking Weathering With You.
LionsGate has been busy as well. Mid-Century will be arriving on blu-ray on July 26th. For previously released films now getting a 4K upgrade in mid to late July, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, The Kid and Primal. It's becoming a theme that if we see a 4K release a few months later, it's absent a slipcover. I recently got Malignant 4K from Warner and Fatale from LionsGate, no slips.
Which titles are you buying this week? Which ones are on your wishlist, be it to buy as an impulse buy or to wait for the right price?
The latest news on all things 4K Ultra HD, blu-ray and Gear.