Let's Whet Your Appetite/The Statham Sting - HDD's 4K UHD & Blu-ray Shopping Guide, Apr 22, 2024

 Title volume ticks up quite a bit this week. Call it a bit of an appetizer to the smorgasbord of titles next week. Statham returns as a 'beekeeper,' no doubt Stathaming as best as Statham knows how!

 Welcome to Volume 4 Episode 47 of our weekly release guide. A look at the highlights of what's coming to disc the week of April 21st - April 27th, as well as a look at announcements from last week.

4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Releases-

 Try not to buy something this week, just try!

 Import Monday has a couple of titles to choose from. First, StudioCanal's premium label, their "Vintage Classics" presentation of The Lavender Hill Mob. A comedy/crime classic starring Sir Alec Guinness. I might have just bought my first title of the week and we are not even on to Domestic titles yet.

 In my slightly annoyed leer, recent hit comedy/drama The Holdovers gets a 4K import. The leer is aimed at Universal Pictures, not Dazzler Media who brings it to us in 4K, while Uni does not. I totally get that not every film gets 4K, but this one should!

  And a hard rock music title, somehow now showing up as a January release, but probably an error on Amazon's part, Mötley Crüe: The End - Live in Los Angeles.

 And on to Domestic Tuesday titles we go as we look at two new release from Warner Bros!

 First up, a Jason Statham action/thriller (bet you thought I was going to say romcom right?) The Beekeeper. How are you holding up for the buy nothing challenge?

 Next, DC Animation's Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part 2.

 Starting off catalog releases, might as well stick with Warner Bros for their star-filled, award winning director release of The Departed. You can also opt for the SteelBook if you wish.

 Sony Pictures has the SteelBook of Steel Magnolias this week.

 Up next, a pair of Indicator Series Limited Editions with The Demoniacs and The Nude Vampire.

 A label we don't see every week, Blue Underground has Goodbye Uncle Tom, presented as a 4-Disc Limited Edition. Personally have never been steered wrong yet with the quality of any of their releases.

 Criterion has foreign film I Am Cuba this week.

 From team Kino, Andrei Tarkovsky's Nostalghia.

 And closing out the week for 4K, Shout Select release Rolling Thunder.

 How did you fare? I got 5 for sures and 3 maybes. Next week, Disc-ocalypse returns with way too many titles to summarize! (Although, a bunch of them are standard edition reissues, so there is hope yet of not quite destroying your account balance.)

Blu-ray releases-

 Blu-ray counterparts of the above 4K releases include a lot,  The Beekeeper and Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Two from Warner Bros, The Demoniacs and The Nude Vampire under the Indicator Series, Goodbye Uncle Tom from Blue Underground, I Am Cuba from Criterion, and Nostalghia from Kino Lorber.

 The blu-ray category looks quite busy, even if we exclude the off-brand boutiques, there are still a lot to look at. (And maybe there are some lesser known boutique titles you want to look at.)

 New action/comedy Drive-Away Dolls comes to us via Universal.

 From Eureka Entertainment, Jet Li stars in Black Mask, available as a 2-disc limited edition. Wouldn't be a Eureka week if there were only one title. Also look for The Cat and the Canary, all the way back from 1927.

 MPI has a mediabook of Hansel and Gretel (1987) this week. If you opt for the standard release, there's that too.

 From Arrow Video, The Scarface Mob, a crime/drama based on a TV pilot of the hunt for ruthless gangster Al Capone.

 Friday via Amazon US, lots of Umbrella Entertainment and Via Vision (Australia) imports become available to the US market:

• Bill Nighy Triple Film Collection (AU Import)
• Kate Winslet Triple Film Collection (AU Import)
• Nicole Kidman Triple Film Collection (AU Import)
• Half Light (AU Import)
• Judi Dench: Triple Film Collection (AU Import)
• Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (AU Import)
• The Umbrella Academy: Season Three (AU Import)
• Tank Girl (1995) (Australian Import)
• Time Addicts (2023) (Australian Import)
• Coffy (1973) (Australian Import)
• Ransom (1974) (Australian Import)
• Masters of the Universe (Australian Import)
• Jacob's Ladder (1990) (Imprint Standard Edition)
• Body Parts (1991) (Imprint Standard Edition)
• The Mothman Prophecies (Imprint Standard Edition)
• Let's Scare Jessica to Death (Imprint Standard Edition)
• The Brotherhood of Satan (Imprint Standard Edition)

Notable announcements from last week:

 Criterion has announced their July 2024 disc slate. Look for Black God, White Devil blu-ray, Farewell My Concubine blu-ray and 4K, Le Samouraï in 4K, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid blu-ray and 4K, Perfect Days blu-ray and 4K, and Risky Business blu-ray and 4K.

4K Release Calendar

2K/BD Release Calendar

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?