Posted Sun Nov 26, 2023 at 09:00 AM PST by D. LaFontaine
Resist all you want, you will buy every disc featured in this guide. You cannot escape fate.
With the holiday meal in your rearview, this week offers up Wandavision, Barbarella, Tremors 2, The Sandman Season 1, The Monster Squad and so much more, what's on your dessert plate this Cyber Monday week?
Welcome to Volume 4 Episode 26 of our weekly release guide. A look at the highlights of what's coming to disc the week of November 26th - December 2nd, as well as a look at announcements from last week.
New releases this week actually consist of two television shows that originated on streaming services. Both of these are available on streaming with Dolby Vision, but the disc is in HDR10. A bit frustrating, but the discs should still look better.
First, Disney+ series WandaVision: The Compete Series.
And Second, Netflix series The Sandman: The Complete First Season and brought to us via Warner Bros..
On to catalog titles, somewhat alphabetically, somewhat by label.
From Arrow Video, a trio of releases, with several choices. First, Barbarella, the adventure/sci-film starring Jane Fonda. If you prefer an original poster cover version instead, you can get that from Arrow Video's Storefront.
Also from Arrow Video, Tremors 2. Again, a less teal colored cover art is available from the Arrow Video Store directly.
And lastly, somewhat of an oddity from Arrow Video, Michael Mann's Blackhat. What made it odd is that it appeard to have gotten a release, but then was held back so that they could add the Director's Cut to the blu-ray pack-in. Follow our link, read the review and decide for yourself. It has Michael Mann going for it, a blind buy by me.
Boutique label Severin Films has general releases of Count Dracula (1970) with Christopher Lee and 'cult/eurotrash' films Zombie Holocaust / Doctor Butcher M.D..
Shout Factory has Death Wish (2018) and Tales from the Darkside: The Movie coming to 4K disc this week.
Another well known boutique label, Vinegar Syndrome has 4 general release titles this week, Blood Sucking Freaks, East End Hustle, Mark of the Devil and Mother's Day.
Team Kino Lorber keeps pumping them out, this week look for The Monster Squad.
Paramount has a little comedy for ya with The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! starring Leslie Nielsen. Bring on the rest, and Airplane! while we are it it.
And the final 4K of the week, Discotek has Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (1994).
Next week might have fewer titles, but it doesn't mean a break for your wallet any time soon. The latest Indiana Jones, another season of Strange New Worlds, James Cameron's Titanic, and more!
Blu-ray counterparts of the above 4K releases includes WandaVision: The Compete Series, The Sandman: The Complete First Season, Barbarella, Tremors 2, Blackhat and The Monster Squad. That's quite a few actually.
There are a lot of blu-ray titles to get through this week, but almost every one of them is special interest. Here are some of the highlights.
From 20th Century Studios, A Haunting in Venice. The other two films of this series got 4K discs, just another frustration to air.
TV on disc includes Ancient Aliens Season 18, Monk: Season One and World on Fire: Season Two.
Anime highlights include Crying Freeman The Animated OVA Series, Fist of the North Star the Legends of the True Savior: Legend of Yuria/Legend of Toki and Management of a Novice Alchemist.
The Kino label has a few special edition releases this week, mostly upgrades in the bitrates (BD50 disc instead of BD25) and inclusion of a slipcover. Titles include The Carpetbaggers, The Conformist, The Emerald Forest, The Last Tycoon and Valmont.
As far as a Friday release, Amazon US will have Frank Herbert's Dune: Complete Collection available from Umbrella Entertainment.
As expected, last week was a slow week for announcement news.
Universal has a pair of announcements, The Exorcist: Believer will be released on December 19th, while Five Nights at Freddy's will release on December 12th. These are nearly zero-day announcements, as usual.
Our Amazon links for James Cameron's December batch of Avatar releases are live. Do check out the article for a refresher.
Arrow Video has revealed their February slate. For North America, blu-ray releases of Fear is the Key and The Shaolin Plot. For the UK, 1978's Invasion of the Body Snatchers in both 4K and blu-ray formats. Body Snatchers was done by Kino Lorber in 2021, the Arrow release of course offers the familiar fat-pack format. Other than that, it is unknown if the AV presentation will be any different.
We have also filled in the blanks on a couple of upcoming Kino 4K releases as details have become available.
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?
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