March has come to a close and April is upon us so there have been a bunch of home video releases worth shelling out your hard earned money for and more still to come this month. We’ll highlight some great releases from a variety of labels that I personally think are worth spending cash on. Hopefully, we’ll turn this into a monthly column! Remember you can click the links for any of these titles and purchase them from Amazon, a portion of which comes back to us here at Pop Culture Beast!
Let’s get going!
First up, Arrow Video continues taking the US by storm with a series of excellent releases from their fantastic Arrow Academy label finally arriving stateside! Plus a much demanded horror classic finally getting an HD release! These releases are a great mix of genres and gives us clear proof that Arrow can handle more than cult genre films.
A CELEBRATION OF YOUTH, FRIENDSHIP, AND THE EVERLASTING MAGIC OF THE MOVIES
A winner of awards across the world including Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, five BAFTA Awards including Best Actor, Original Screenplay and Score, the Grand Prize of the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival and many more.
Giuseppe Tornatore s loving homage to the cinema tells the story of Salvatore, a successful film director, returning home for the funeral of Alfredo, his old friend who was the projectionist at the local cinema throughout his childhood. Soon memories of his first love affair with the beautiful Elena and all the high and lows that shaped his life come flooding back, as Salvatore reconnects with the community he left 30 years earlier.
Presented in both the original award-winning cut and the expanded Director s Cut incorporating more of Salvatore s backstory, newly restored from original negative materials.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- Restored from the original camera negative and presented in two versions the 124 minute Cannes Festival theatrical version and the 174 minute Director s Cut
- Uncompressed original stereo 2.0 Audio and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio options
- Optional English subtitles
- Audio commentary with director Giuseppe Tornatore and Italian cinema expert critic Millicent Marcus
- A Dream of Sicily A 52-minute documentary profile of Giuseppe Tornatore featuring interviews with director and extracts from his early home movies as well as interviews with director Francesco Rosi and painter Peppino Ducato, set to music by the legendary Ennio Morricone
- A Bear and a Mouse in Paradise A 27-minute documentary on the genesis of Cinema Paradiso, the characters of Toto and Alfredo, featuring interviews with the actors who play them, Philippe Noiret and Salvatore Cascio as well as Tornatore
- The Kissing Sequence Giuseppe Tornatore discusses the origins of the kissing scenes with full clips identifying each scene
- Original Director s Cut Theatrical Trailer and 25th Anniversary Re-Release Trailer
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector’s booklet by Pasquale Iannone illustrated with archive stills, behind-the-scenes images and posters
A REAL-LIFE SCIENCE-FICTION MOVIE EXPLORING A WORLD CREEPING RIGHT BENEATH OUR FEET, WHERE TIME AND SPACE ARE MAGNIFIED AND INTELLIGENCE REDEFINED.
The Creeping Garden is an award-winning feature-length creative documentary exploring the extraordinary world of the plasmodial slime mould as revealed through the eyes of the fringe scientists, mycologists and artists who work with them.
Long overlooked by biologists, in recent years this curious organism has become the focus of much research in such areas as biological-inspired design, emergence theory, unconventional computing and robot engineering, much of which borders on the world of science fiction. The film transports us from the laboratory into its natural habitat, depicting these otherworldly lifeforms using startling time-lapse macro-cinematography to reveal hidden facets of the world around us.
Co-directed by the artist film-maker Tim Grabham (KanZeOn) and author and film critic Jasper Sharp, with an original soundtrack composed by celebrated musician and producer Jim O Rourke (Sonic Youth, Grizzly Man), The Creeping Garden is a unique exploration into a hitherto untapped subject matter, immersing the viewer within the worlds of the observers and the observed.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
- Original 2.0 audio (uncompressed on the Blu-ray)
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
- Audio commentary by directors Tim Grabham and Jasper Sharp
Biocomputer Music, a short film by Grabham on the first biocomputer music system, allowing a two-way musical dialogue between man and slime mould
- Return to the Fungarium, a featurette revealing further treasures of the fungarium at Kew Gardens
- Feeding Habits of Physarum, a featurette on the feeding preferences and dislikes of slime moulds
- Three cinema iloobia short films: Milk (2009), Rotten (2012) and Paramusical Ensemble (2015)
- Angela Mele s animated slime moulds
- Gallery
- US theatrical trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring two pieces of original artwork
THE CREEPING GARDEN SOUNDTRACK [Limited Edition Exclusive]
- Bonus CD containing the rearranged soundtrack to The Creeping Garden by legendary producer and musician Jim O Rourke
PLUS… FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector s booklet containing writing on the film by Jasper Sharp
The life of a beautiful, young and pious woman is thrown into chaos when her parents takes in a dashingly handsome lodger. Having embarked on a torrid affair, the lodger goes off to Rome to seek a divorce from his estranged wife.
Unable to live apart from her beloved, our hero leaves home only to fall prey to the infatuations and lusts of a band of noble admirers, unsavoury criminals and utopian do-gooders…
The only feature Walerian Borowczyk (The Beast, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne) made in his native Poland, Story of Sin transforms Stefan Zeromski s classic melodrama into a deliriously surrealistic meditation on l amour fou.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- 2K restoration from the original film negative
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
- New subtitle translation
- New 2K restorations from the original negatives of Borowczyk s ground-breaking Polish shorts: Once Upon a Time (co-directed by Jan Lenica), Dom (co-directed by Lenica) and The School
- New introduction by poster designer Andrzej Klimowski
- New interview with Story of Sin lead actor Grazyna Dlugolecka
- New interview featurette on Borowczyk’s career in Poland by Daniel Bird (co-founder Friends of Walerian Borowczyk)
- New interview featurette on Borowczyk s innovate use of classical music in his films by writer and filmmaker David Thompson
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Andrzej Klimowski
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Fully illustrated collector s booklet featuring new and archival writing, including an exclusive interview with the producer of Story of Sin, director Stanislaw Rozewicz; a text by art historian and one-time Borowczyk collaborator, Szymon Bojko; and excerpts from Borowczyk s memoirs presented in English for the first time.
Having tackled the corrupting nature of power with Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion and taken an angry, impassioned look at labour relations with The Working Class Goes to Heaven, Italian master Elio Petri next turned his attentions to capitalism for the darkly comic Property is No Longer a Theft.
A young bank clerk (Flavio Bucci, the blind pianist in Dario Argento s Suspiria), denied a loan by his employer, decides to exact his revenge the local butcher (Ugo Tognazzi, La Grande bouffe) who is not only a nasty, violent, greedy piece of work but also one of the bank s star customers. Quitting his job, the clerk devotes all of his time tormenting the butcher, stealing his possessions one-by-one, including his mistress (Daria Nicolodi, Deep Red).
Told in an off-kilter fashion by Petri, abetted by the woozy sound design and another outstanding score by Ennio Morricone, Property is No Longer a Theft presents a caustic, blackly comic look at a corrupt society.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
- 4K restoration from the original film negative
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
- New subtitle translation
- Brand-new interview with actor Flavio Bucci
- Brand-new interview with producer Claudio Mancini
- Brand-new interview with make-up artist Pierantonio Mecacci
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Nathanael Marsh
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector s booklet containing new writing on the film by Camilla Zamboni
Ludwig. He loved women. He loved men. He lived as controversially as he ruled. But he did not care what the world thought. He was the world.
A string of masterpieces behind him including Ossessione, Senso, The Leopard and Death in Venice the great Italian director Luchino Visconti turned his attentions to the life and death of King Ludwig II of Bavaria in 1972, resulting in an epic of 19th century decadence.
Dominated by Helmut Berger (The Damned, The Bloodstained Butterfly) in the title role, Ludwig nevertheless manages to find room for an impressive cast list: Romy Schneider (reprising her Elisabeth of Austria characterisation from the Sissi trilogy), Silvana Mangano (Bitter Rice), Gert Fröbe (Goldfinger), John Moulder-Brown (Deep End) and Trevor Howard (Brief Encounter) as Richard Wagner.
As opulent as any of Visconti s epics Piero Tosi s costume design was nominated for an Academy Award Ludwig is presented here in its complete form in accordance with the director s wishes and features the English-language soundtrack for the first ever on home video.
LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:
- 4K restoration from the original film negative
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
- Two viewing options: the full-length theatrical cut or as five individual parts
- Original Italian soundtrack with optional English subtitles
- Original English soundtrack available on home video for the first time ever
with optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
- Brand-new interview with actor Helmut Berger
- Luchino Visconti, an hour-long documentary portrait of the director by Carlo Lizzani (Wake Up and Kill, Requiescant) containing interviews with Burt Lancaster, Vittorio Gassman, Francesco Rosi, Claudia Cardinale and others
- Speaking with Suso Cecchi d’Amico, an interview with the screenwriter Silvana Mangano: The Scent Of A Primrose, a half-hour portrait of the actress
- Theatrical trailer
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector s booklet containing new writing by Peter Cowie
Takashi Miike’s Dead or Alive Trilogy
Beginning with an explosive, six-minute montage of sex, drugs and violence, and ending with a phallus-headed battle robot taking flight, Takashi Miike’s unforgettable Dead or Alive Trilogy features many of the director’s most outrageous moments set alongside some of his most dramatically moving scenes. Made between 1999 and 2002, the Dead or Alive films cemented Miike’s reputation overseas as one of the most provocative enfants terrible of Japanese cinema, yet also one of its most talented and innovative filmmakers.
In Dead or Alive, tough gangster Ryuichi (Riki Takeuchi) and his ethnically Chinese gang make a play to take over the drug trade in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district by massacring the competition. But he meets his match in detective Jojima (Show Aikawa), who will do everything to stop them. Dead or Alive 2: Birds casts Aikawa and Takeuchi together again, but as new characters, a pair of rival yakuza assassins who turn out to be childhood friends; after a botched hit, they flee together to the island where they grew up, and decide to devote their deadly skills to a more humanitarian cause. And in Dead or Alive: Final, Takeuchi and Aikawa are catapulted into a future Yokohama ruled by multilingual gangs and cyborg soldiers, where they once again butt heads in the action-packed and cyberpunk-tinged finale to the trilogy.
Each of them unique in theme and tone, the Dead or Alive films showcase Miike at the peak of his strengths, creating three very distinct movies connected only by their two popular main actors, each film a separate yet superb example of crime drama, character study, and action filmmaking.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
- High Definition digital transfers of all three films
- Original uncompressed stereo audio
- Optional English subtitles for all three films
- New interview with actor Riki Takeuchi
- New interview with actor Sho Aikawa
- New interview with producer and screenwriter Toshiki Kimura
- New audio commentary for Dead or Alive by Miike biographer Tom Mes
- Archive interviews with cast and crew
- Archive making-of featurettes for DOA2: Birds and DOA: Final
- Original theatrical trailers for all three films
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Orlando Arocena
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector s booklet featuring new writing on the films by Kat Ellinger
House Two Stories (NOTE: It’s now known that the UK Set House: The Collection, featuring all four House films is REGION FREE but you’ll have to import it from Arrow or Amazon UK)
Step inside, we’ve been expecting you! At long-last, Arrow Video is proud to present the first two installments of hit horror franchise House on Blu-ray for the first time!
In the original House, William Katt (Carrie) stars as Roger Cobb, a horror novelist struggling to pen his next bestseller. When he inherits his aunt s creaky old mansion, Roger decides that he s found the ideal place in which to get some writing done. Unfortunately, the house s monstrous supernatural residents have other ideas…
Meanwhile, House II: The Second Story sees young Jesse (Arye Gross) moving into an old family mansion where his parents were mysteriously murdered years before. Plans for turning the place into a party pad are soon thwarted by the appearance of Jesse s mummified great-great-grandfather, his mystical crystal skull and the zombie cowboy who ll stop at nothing to lay his hands on it!
From the team that brought you Friday the 13th, House and House II are era-defining horror classics now newly restored and loaded with brand new extras!
LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
- Brand new 2K restorations of House and House II: The Second Story
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- The House Companion limited edition 60-page book featuring new writing on the entire House franchise by researcher Simon Barber, alongside a wealth of archive material
HOUSE
- Audio commentary with director Steve Miner, producer Sean S. Cunningham, actor William Katt and screenwriter Ethan Wiley
- Ding Dong, You re Dead! The Making of House brand new documentary featuring interviews with Steve Miner, Sean S. Cunningham, Ethan Wiley, story creator Fred Dekker, stars William Katt, Kay Lenz, and George Wendt, composer Harry Manfredini, special make-up and creature effects artists Barney Burman, Brian Wade, James Belohovek, Shannon Shea, Kirk Thatcher, and Bill Sturgeon, special paintings artists Richard Hescox and William Stout, and stunt coordinator Kane Hodder
- Stills Gallery
- Theatrical Trailers
HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY
- Audio commentary with writer-director Ethan Wiley and producer Sean S. Cunningham
- It s Getting Weirder! The Making of House II: The Second Story brand new documentary featuring interviews with Ethan Wiley, Sean S. Cunningham, stars Arye Gross, Jonathan Stark, Lar Park Lincoln, and Devin DeVasquez, composer Harry Manfredini, special make-up and creature effects artists Chris Walas, Mike Smithson, visual effects supervisor Hoyt Yeatman, and stunt coordinator Kane Hodder
- Stills Gallery
- Theatrical Trailer
Scream Factory is unleashing some great titles as well in the form of a few collector’s editions that have fans excited, including a highly sought after anthology, and the last two sequels in the Robocop series (preremake). As usual, they are all excellent releases loaded with features. This month also brings us a new IFC Midnight release which you might enjoy.
She has the power to set objects afire with just one glance!
Firestarter, based on the unforgettable best-seller by esteemed horror author Stephen King, chronicles the extraordinary life of Charlene “Charlie”, McGee. Eight-year-old Drew Barrymore stars as the child who has the amazing ability to start fires with just a glance. Can her psychic power and the love of her father save her from the threatening government agency, “The Shop, “, which wants to control her… or destroy her? Filled with blazing special effects and featuring an all-star cast including Martin Sheen, Heather Locklear, Art Carney, Louise Fletcher and George C. Scott, Firestarter is directed by Mark L. Lester (Class of 1999, Commando) and driven by a pulsating, thrilling score from Tangerine Dream (Legend, Sorcerer, Risky Business).
• NEW Audio Commentary with director Mark Lester
• NEW Playing with Fire: The Making of FIRESTARTER – featuring interviews with director Mark Lester, actors Freddie Jones, Drew Snyder, stuntman/actor Dick Warlock and Johannes Schmoelling of Tangerine Dream (52 minutes)
• NEW Tangerine Dream: Movie Music Memories – an interview with Johannes Schmoelling (17 minutes)
• NEW Live Performance of “Charlie’s Theme” by Johannes Schmoelling of Tangerine Dream
• Theatrical Trailers
• Radio Spot
• Still Gallery
RoboCop returns to fight his toughest opponent yet: his replacement!
RoboCop 2 pits two unstoppable cyborgs against each other in a battle to the death! When Detroit’s decent into chaos is further compounded by a police department strike and a new designer drug called “Nuke”, only RoboCop can stop the mayhem. But in his way are an evil corporation that profits from Motor City crime and a bigger and tougher cyborg with a deadly directive: Take out RoboCop. Containing the latest gadgetry and weaponry as well as the mind of the madman who designed “Nuke”, this new cyborg isn’t just more sophisticated than his predecessor… he’s psychotic and out of control! And it’s going to take everything RoboCop has (maybe even his life) to save Detroit from complete and utter anarchy.
• NEW 2K scan of the inter-positive
• NEW Audio Commentary with author/CG supervisor Paul M. Sammon
• NEW Audio Commentary with the makers of “RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop” documentary – Gary Smart, Chris Griffiths and Eastwood Allen
• NEW Corporate Wars: The Making of ROBOCOP 2 – featuring new and vintage interviews with director Irvin Kershner, producer Jon Davidson, cast members Tom Noonan, Nancy Allen, Galyn Görg, executive producer Patrick Crowley, associate producer Phil Tippett, cinematographer Mark Irwin and author/CG supervision Paul M. Sammon (32 minutes)
• NEW Machine Parts: The FX of ROBOCOP 2 – featuring Phil Tippett, Peter Kuran, Craig Hayes, Jim Aupperle, Kirk Thatcher, Paul Gentry, Don Waller, Justin Kohn, Randal Dutra and Kevin Kutchaver (31 minutes)
• NEW Robo-Fabricator – an interview with RoboCop armor fabricator James Belohovek (9 minutes)
• NEW Adapting Frank Miller’s ROBOCOP 2 – an interview with comic book writer Steven Grant (6 minutes)
• NEW OCP Declassified – a collection of rare archival production and behind-the-scenes videos including interviews with director Irvin Kershner, actors Peter Weller, Dan O’Herlihy and a look at the filming of some deleted scene (46 minutes)
• Theatrical Trailer
• Teaser Trailers
• TV Spots
• Deleted Scenes Still Gallery
• Still Galleries (behind-the-scenes photos, stills, posters and lobby cards)
He’s Back… To Lay Down the Law!
It’s Megacop vs. Megacorp when Detroit’s cyborg crime-fighter hits the streets to protect the innocent: this time from corporate greed!
When the ruthless corporation that runs Motor City begins kicking families out of their homes to clear space for a profitable new real estate project, RoboCop (Robert John Burke, 2 Guns, Limitless) joins with a renegade band of freedom fighters to save them. But RoboCop must face some deadly foes, including a lethally efficient android and a dangerous gang of thugs. RoboCop’s latest arsenal of high-tech weaponry only somewhat evens the battlefield, as this lone superhero takes on the entire army of corporate militia in an all-out war to control Detroit! This last film in the trilogy is directed by cult filmmaker Fred Dekker (The Monster Squad, Night of the Creeps).
• NEW Audio Commentary with director Fred Dekker
• NEW Audio Commentary with the makers of “RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop” documentary – Gary Smart, Chris Griffiths and Eastwood Allen
• NEW Delta City Shuffle: The Making of ROBOCOP 3 featuring director Fred Dekker, actors Nancy Allen, Bruce Locke, producer Patrick Crowley, cinematographer Gary Kibbe and production designer Hilda Stark (38 minutes)
• NEW Robo-Vision: The FX of ROBOCOP 3 featuring Peter Kuran, Phil Tippett, Craig Hayes, Kevin Kutchaver and Paul Gentry (12 minutes)
• NEW The Corporate Ladder – an interview with actor Felton Perry (11 minutes)
• NEW Training Otomo – an interview with actor Bruce Locke and martial arts trainer Bill Ryusaki (8 minutes)
• NEW War Machine – an interview with RoboCop gun fabricator James Belohovek (9 minutes)
• Theatrical Trailer
• Still Gallery
Welcome to the hood of horrors!
It’s a place where your worst fears can come to life. A place where it’s hard to tell nightmares from reality. A place where you will discover Tales From The Hood.
Stack, Ball and Bulldog arrive at a local funeral parlor to retrieve a lost drug stash held by the mortician Mr. Simms (Clarence Williams III). But Mr. Simms has plans for the boys. He leads them on a tour of his establishment, introducing them to his corpses. Even the dead have tales to tell and Mr. Simms is willing to tell them all. And you better listen: because when you’re in the hood, even everyday life can lead to extraordinary terror.
From executive producer Ben Wheatley (Kill List, High-Rise) comes a mind-bending plunge into hallucinatory terror. Under siege by a mysterious enemy in an apocalyptic, war-torn landscape, a band of mercenary soldiers, hooded hostages in tow, seek refuge inside an abandoned military tank. But their sanctuary soon reveals itself to be a steel-walled prison. As the group succumbs to claustrophobia, paranoia, and increasingly disturbing delusions, it becomes clear that the real threat may lie not outside, but within. The directorial debut from longtime Wheatley collaborator Nick Gillespie unfolds like a delirious, pulse-pounding puzzle.
The Criterion Collection releases a few films a month but we’re only going to look at a couple of the recent ones. Both are worth your attention. Honestly, you can’t go wrong with any releases from this label but if we covered them all, this column would never end.
In this exquisitely calibrated film by Andrew Haigh (Weekend), Charlotte Rampling (The Night Porter) and Tom Courtenay (Billy Liar) perform a subtly off-kilter pas de deux as Kate and Geoff, an English couple who, on the eve of an anniversary celebration, find their long marriage shaken by the arrival of a letter to Geoff that unceremoniously collapses his past into their shared present. Haigh carries the tradition of British realist cinema to artful new heights in 45 Years, weaving the momentous into the mundane as the pair go about their daily lives, while the evocatively flat, wintry Norfolk landscape frames their struggle to maintain an increasingly untenable status quo. Loosely adapting a short story by David Constantine, Haigh shifts the focus from the slightly erratic Geoff to Kate, eliciting a remarkable, nuanced portrayal by Rampling of a woman’s gradual metamorphosis from unflappable wife to woman undone.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
-High-definition digital transfer, supervised by director Andrew Haigh, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
-Audio commentary featuring Haigh and producer Tristan Goligher
-New documentary featuring interviews with Haigh, Goligher, actors Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay, editor Jonathan Alberts, and director of photography Lol Crawley
-New interview with David Constantine, author of the short story on which the film is based
-Trailer
-PLUS: An essay by critic Ella Taylor
One of Mexico’s best-regarded works of political cinema, Canoa: A Shameful Memory reimagines a real-life incident that had occurred just eight years before its release, when a group of urban university employees on a hiking trip were viciously attacked by residents of the village of San Miguel de Canoa, who had been manipulated by a corrupt priest into believing the travelers were communist revolutionaries. Intercutting footage from a fictional documentary about the village with gruesome scenes of the crime itself, director Felipe Cazals produced a daring commentary on the climate of violence and repression in Mexico during that era, including the military’s infamous massacre of demonstrating students in Tlatelolco, Mexico City. With its gritty newsreel style, Canoa is a visceral expression of horror as well as an important historical document.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
-New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by director Felipe Cazals, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
-New introduction by filmmaker Guillermo del Toro
-New conversation between filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón and Cazals
-Trailer
-New English subtitle translation
-PLUS: An essay by critic Fernanda Solórzano
The gloriously grotesque second feature directed by John Waters (Hairspray) is replete with all manner of depravity, from robbery to murder to one of cinema’s most memorably blasphemous moments. Made on a shoestring budget in Waters’ native Baltimore, with the filmmaker taking on nearly every technical task, this gleeful mockery of the peace-and-love ethos of its era features the Cavalcade of Perversion, a traveling show mounted by a troupe of misfits whose shocking proclivities are topped only by those of their leader: the glammer-than-glam, larger-than-life Divine (Pink Flamingos), out for blood after discovering her lover’s affair. Starring Waters’ beloved regular cast the Dreamlanders (including David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Susan Lowe, George Figgs, and Cookie Mueller), Multiple Maniacs is an anarchic masterwork from an artist who has doggedly tested the limits of good taste for decades.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
-New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director John Waters, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
-New audio commentary featuring Waters
-New interviews with cast and crew members Pat Moran, Vincent Peranio, Mink Stole, Susan Lowe, and George Figgs
-More!
-PLUS: An essay by critic Linda Yablonsky
Now for the more mainstream of titles starting with that titan Disney who happens to be releasing two of the most successful films of last year, not too mention two of the best. Both are must owns, but I definitely wish that the Rogue One blu had more features. I’m guessing we can already be ready for a double dip this holiday season.
From Walt Disney Animation Studios comes MOANA, an epic adventure about a spirited teen who sets sail on a daring mission to save her people. Along the way, Moana (Auli’i Cravalho) meets the once mighty demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson), and together they cross the ocean on a fun-filled, action-packed voyage. Bring home the movie full of heart, humor and oceans of bonus extras!
From Lucasfilm comes the first of the STAR WARS stand-alone films — ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY, an epic adventure. In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire’s ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the STAR WARS timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves.
100 STREETS, a powerful ensemble drama, follows three contrasting and interwoven stories as they play out in one square mile of modern-day London. A former rugby player, Max (Idris Elba), struggles to find a life off the field while fighting to save his marriage to former actress Emily (Gemma Arterton). Kingsley (Franz Drameh, TV’s “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow”) is a small-time drug dealer desperately seeking a way off the street. While completing his community service for a misdemeanor, Kingsley meets Terence (Ken Stott), a local thespian, who gives him the push he needs out of his dead-end life and into a very different, creative world. George (Charlie Creed-Miles), a cab driver, and his wife, Kathy (Kierston Wareing), dream of having kids, but a devastating road accident puts their hopes on hold, even testing their otherwise strong marriage. Anybody can make a wrong turn, but it’s the journey that allows us to find the right path.
From the producer of Oculus and The Strangers comes The Bye Bye Man. When three college friends stumble upon the horrific origins of the Bye Bye Man, they discover that there is only one way to avoid his curse: don’t think it, don’t say it. But once the Bye Bye Man gets inside your head, he takes control, making you see and do the most unspeakable acts committed by man. Is there a way to survive his possession? Starring Douglas Smith (Ouija) and Carrie Anne-Moss (The Matrix), see the chilling thriller that critics are calling “a paranormal thrill ride that will echo in your nightmares” (Elizabeth Rayne, Den Of Geek).
- Digital Copy of The Bye Bye Man – Unrated Version (Subject to expiration. Go to NBCUCodes.com for details.)
- Includes UltraViolet (Subject to expiration. Go to NBCUCodes.com for details.)
Martin Scorsese’s Silence tells the story of two Christian missionaries (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver) who face the ultimate test of faith when they travel to Japan in search of their missing mentor (Liam Neeson) — at a time when Christianity was outlawed and their presence forbidden. The celebrated director’s 28-year journey to bring Shusaku Endo’s 1966 acclaimed novel to life, examines the spiritual and religious question of God’s silence in the face of human suffering.
- Martin Scorsese’s Journey Into Silence
That’s it! Well, that’s a lot, but all of these titles are excellent additions to your collection. I’d definitely get your hands on them if you are able to. See you next column!
Garon Cockrell is the Founder and Editor of Pop Culture Beast and host of The Pop Culture Beast Show. He founded the site over seven years ago to have a place on the internet to write about the things he loved. Since then, Garon has become a best-selling author (Demonic and Other Tales), an award winning screenwriter (Best Screenplay 2013 Motor City Nightmares Film Festival), and a cast member on the top rated podcast, Never Not Funny.