New to View: Aug. 2
By Bob Bloom
The following Blu-rays and DVDs are being released on Tuesday, Aug. 2, unless otherwise noted:
The Lobster (Blu-ray + Ultraviolet)
Details: 2016, Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Rated: R, sexual content, violence
The lowdown: Colin Farrell stars in this unusual and fascinating feature about the tyranny of conformity as it relates to society.
The movie is set in an unspecified future place, where being alone is basically a crime.
Not only must everyone have a partner, but also those relationships need to be based on shared traits or interests — a limp, shortsightedness, a lisp or a love of butter cookies, are examples noted in the film.
Single people — and those who have either lost or split from their significant others — are sent to a hotel where they have 45 days to find a new companion.
If they do not, they are designated for transformation into an animal of their choice.
The movie offers an uncomfortable dystopian vibe that is a bit reminiscent of “A Clockwork Orange” and “Zardoz,” among others.
“The Lobster” is one of the best movies of 2016 and is well worth seeing.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio: English SDH and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: A featurette on the making of the movie is the major supplemental offering.
Keanu (Blu-ray + Ultraviolet)
Details: 2016, Warner Home Video
Rated: R, nudity, sexual content, violence, language
The lowdown: This is not a biopic about “The Matrix” actor.
Rather, it is a comedy starring Comedy Central favorites Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key as cousins Rell and Clarence who, though they live in the city, are not very streetwise.
The story centers on the theft of Rell’s beloved cat, Keanu, which forces the timid pair to impersonate killers in order to infiltrated a dangerous street gang to recover the feline.
Keanu is so adorable that a gang war develops over who will possess him, which forces Rell and Clarence to take the law into their own hands to restore some sort of normalcy.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.40:1 (16×9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: A featurette on the making of the movie, deleted scenes and a gag reel comprise the major bonus offerings.
Confirmation (Blu-ray + Ultraviolet)
Details: 2015, HBO Home Entertainment
Rated: TV-14, language
The lowdown: A behind-the-scenes political drama that focuses on the 1991 hearings for Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas (Wendell Pierce) and the allegations of sexual harassment leveled by law professor Anita Hill (Kerry Washington).
The strong performances by the two leads, as well as fine support from Greg Kinnear as Sen. Joe Biden, helps showcase a pivotal moment in U.S. culture that became a turning point in looking at quality and gender politics in the workplace and society at large.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 16:9 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French 5.1 DTS digital surround and Spanish 2.0 DTS digital surround; English SDH, Spanish, French and Brazilian Portuguese subtitles.
Don’t miss: Featurettes include talks with Washington and Pierce on the historical impact of the case and a look at the movie’s characters.
Mother’s Day (Blu-ray + Ultraviolet)
Details: 2016, Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Rated: PG-13, language, suggestive material
The lowdown: This is the last film from director Garry Marshall who recently passed away after a long and shining career in television and movies.
This feature, following in the footsteps of his other holiday-related movies such as “Valentine’s Day,” is a hit-and-miss experience with some jokes landing, while others fall flat.
Helping the feature is a strong cast that includes Julia Roberts, Kate Hudson, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Timothy Olyphant and Hector Elizondo.
The movie deals with the challenges of relationships and family dysfunction in the week leading up to Mother’s Day.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus features include deleted scenes and a gag reel.
The Knick: The Complete Second Season (Blu-ray + Ultraviolet)
Details: 2015, HBO Home Entertainment
Rated: TV-MA, violence, sexual content, language
The lowdown: Upheaval reigns in the second season of this Cinemax series set in 1900 at a downtown New York City hospital known as The Knick.
Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh directs the episodes, which star Clive Owen as Dr. John Thackery, a drug-addicted surgeons who tests the limits, not only of medicine, but also of race and morality.
In the second season, the hospital is in crisis because of Thackery’s hospitalization for cocaine addiction, a scarcity of affluent patients and financial setbacks.
The board has decided to close the facility and move uptown.
Other doctors, meanwhile, plot to fill Thackery’s shoes, while personal and professional challenges impact the medical staff.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.78:1 (16×9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French, Castilian Spanish and German 5.1 DTS digital surround and Latin Spanish 2.0 DTS digital surround; English SDH, French, Latin and Castilian Spanish, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish subtitles.
Don’t miss: A featurette on the show’s medical procedures, a walking tour of the sets, a featurette on the period costumes, a look at the creation of the charity ball in episode seven, behind-the-scenes featurettes, episode post-ops and commentaries comprise the major bonus offerings.
The Blacklist: The Complete Third Season (Blu-ray + Ultraviolet)
Details: 2015-16, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: James Spader’s criminal mastermind Raymond “Red” Reddington and FBI agent Elizabeth “Liz” Keen (Megan Boone) are fugitives in the third season of this hit NBC series.
The multidisc set follows the FBI and conflicted agent Donald Ressler and his task force as they try to hunt down Reddington and Keen.
Meanwhile, Keen digs deeper into Reddington’s underworld contacts and covert operations, while at the same time she is trying to discover more about her past.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.78:1 widescreen picture; English and French 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH, English and French subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus offerings include at the villains of the third season, deleted and extended scenes, a featurette on creating the show’s stunts, commentaries, a look at the making of “The Blacklist” comic book, a look at Reddington’s favorite season-three lines and a featurette about Aram.
Blindspot: The Complete First Season (Blu-ray + Ultraviolet)
Details: 2015-16, Warner Home Video
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This multidisc set features all 23 first-season episodes of the new NBC series about a mysterious Jane Doe with no memory of her past who is found naked in New York’s Time Square.
She is completely covered with tattoos, one of which links her to FBI Agent Kurt Weller.
Weller and his team work with Jane Doe to decipher and uncover the meanings of the various tattoos and also help her reconstruct her past.
Along the way, a web of deadly secrets, conspiracies and criminal enterprises are revealed.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.78:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Among the extras are a series of eight featurettes that look at the making of the series, its cast, stunts and action, a featurette on the show’s 2015 Comic-Con panel, unaired scenes, a gag reel and a commentary track on the pilot episode.
Louder Than Bombs
Details: 2015, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Rated: R, sexual content, language, nudity, violent images
The lowdown: A drama that follows a father (Gabriel Byrne) and his two sons (Jesse Eisenberg and Devin Druid) as they cope with the death of their wife and mother, a famed photographer (Isabelle Huppert).
The family tries to discover what, if, anything, was behind the mysterious accident that killed her.
Her death also stirs memories and how her passing will impact their lives.
Technical aspects: 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH, English, Spanish and French subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus materials include a behind-the-scenes featurette and a commentary track.
The American Side
Details: 2016, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A contemporary noir-thriller about a private detective hired to investigate a suicide.
The trail he follows leads him to uncover a conspiracy involving a long-lost design by scientist Nickola Tesla.
The story involves murder, blackmail and, of course, double-crosses.
Technical aspects: 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH, English, French and Spanish subtitles.
To Have and Have Not (Blu-ray)
Release date: July 19
Details: 1944, Warner Archive Collection
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This is the movie that introduced the world — and Humphrey Bogart — to Lauren Bacall.
The two fell in love while filming the movie, loosely adapted from an Ernest Hemingway story, which was directed by Howard Hawks.
The story involves French resistance fighters, intrigue and romance. Hoagy Carmichael and Walter Brennan are among the strong supporting cast, but it is the banter between Bogart and Bacall that carry the movie.
The film is a made-on-demand Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection and can be found at www.wbshop.com or other online retailers.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include a featurette on the making of the movie and the romance of Bogart and Bacall; a Lux Radio Theater adaptation of the film with Bogart and Bacall and a 1946 Merrie Melodies cartoon, “Bacall to Arms.”
Manhattan Night (Blu-ray + Ultraviolet)
Details: 2016, Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Rated: R, nudity, sexual content, violence, language
The lowdown: A dark drama about a reporter, played by Oscar-winner Adrien Brody, hired by an attractive widow (Yvonne Strahovski), to investigate and solve the strange death of her husband, a filmmaker (Campbell Scott).
Soon after, a rich mogul blackmails the reporter into investigating the widow. The reporter soon sees that he has become involved in something that is over his head and could cost him everything — including his life.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.40:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH, English and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include cast and crew interviews, a commentary track, deleted and extended scenes, a behind-the-scenes featurette and a director’s notebook and storyboards.
Guernica
Details: 2015, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Rated: R, war violence, language, nudity
The lowdown: A historical drama set in 1937 against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War.
The story features an American journalist (“Agent Carter’s” James D’Arcy) who travels to the village of Guernica and covertly joins with a local press officer censor (Maria Valverde) to battle restrictions that are being tightened almost daily.
Events escalate for the worse when German forces attack the town, creating a huge challenge for the freedom of the press.
The Spanish Civil War set the stage for World War II as Francisco Franco’s Fascist faction allowed Germany to test its military muscle within his country.
Technical aspects: 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen picture; English, French, Japanese and Thai 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH, English, traditional Chinese, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Thai subtitles.
Don’t miss: Deleted and extended scenes comprise the major bonus features.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers: Collector’s Edition (Blu-ray)
Details: 1978, Scream Factory
Rated: PG
The lowdown: Philip Kaufman directed and W.D. Richter adapted this first remake of Jack Finney’s classic science fiction novel, “The Body Snatchers.”
The story is set in San Francisco as one-by-one residents are changing, becoming drone-like and unemotional individuals.
Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams star as Department of Health workers who begin an investigation that discovers alien seeds as the root of this strange epidemic.
Pods from the seeds are cloning humans and destroying the originals. The health workers race to save their lives as well as humanity.
The movie costars Leonard Nimoy, Veronica Cartwright and Jeff Goldblum, with a cameo from Kevin McCarthy, star of the original “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio stereo; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Interviews with Adams, actor Art Hindle, Richter and composer Denny Zeitlin; archival interviews with Sutherland, Kaufman, Richter and others; a look at the special effects; a featurette on the man behind the scream sound effects; an interview with cinematographer Michael Chapman; and “Time Is Just a Place,” an episode of “Science Fiction Theatre” based on a short story by Finney and directed by Jack Arnold comprise the bonus offerings.
In the Deep
Details: 2016, Dimension Films-Anchor Bay Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Two sisters are trapped at the bottom of the ocean after a diving expedition to observe sharks goes awry.
Making matters worse, the cable attaching the observation cage to the boat breaks, and the cage sinks to the bottom of the ocean.
There, the sisters must pool their resources and figure out how to return to the surface, while battling injuries and keeping safe from the great white sharks around them.
Technical aspects: 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH and Spanish subtitles.
In Country (DVD-R)
Release date: July 19
Details: 1989, Warner Archive Collection
Rated: R, language, violence
The lowdown: Bruce Willis and Emily Lloyd star in this drama about a teenage girl who wants to find out the truth about father and the Vietnam War that claimed his life.
Willis plays her reclusive uncle, also a Vietnam veteran, who is still suffering the emotional scars of the war.
Norman Jewison directed this feature about the horror of war and its aftermath as well as its impact on those who fought.
The movie ends with an emotional scene at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The release is a made-on-demand DVD-R from the Warner Archive Collection and can be found at www.wbshop.com or other Internet dealers.
Technical aspects: 1.85:1 (16×9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English Dolby digital; English closed-captioned subtitles.
The Trust (Blu-ray + Ultraviolet)
Details: 2016, Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Rated: R, violence, language, sexual situations, nudity, language
The lowdown: Nicolas Cage and Elijah Wood star as Las Vegas police officers who stumble upon a hidden vault belonging to local drug dealers.
They come up with a plan to make off with the cash they believe lies within the vault.
However, what they find is more than they bargained for and could cost them their lives.
This crime-thriller received a minimum theatrical release and quickly went directly to the home entertainment market.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH, English and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: A featurette on the pairing of Cage and Wood, a look at the movies visuals and a commentary track comprise the bonus materials.
The Binding (Blu-ray)
Details: 2015, Scream Factory
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A horror-thriller about a minister’s wife whose faith is put to the test when she is forced to look at the cost of her husband’s horrific visions.
Her devotion and idyllic home life begins to unravel as tensions increase and buried secrets come into the light.
The young wife must soon make a terrible choice between her faith and her blood in this movie that may conjure up images of “Rosemary’s Baby.”
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.35:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include cast interviews, deleted scenes and a commentary track.
Stealing Home (DVD-R)
Release date: July 19
Details: 1988, Warner Archive Collection
Rated: PG-13, sexual situations, language, violence
The lowdown: TV icon Mark Harmon made a few forays into motion pictures, and his drama, co-starring Jodie Foster, is one of them.
Harmon plays Billy Wyatt, a former ballplayer who returns home after the suicide of his friend, Katie (Foster), who was his friend and mentoring, pushing him to succeed in life.
This is a made-on-demand DVD-R from the Warner Archive Collection and can be found at www.wbshop.com or other online sellers.
Technical aspects: 1.85:1 (16×9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English Dolby digital.
Viral
Details: 2016, Dimension Films-Anchor Bay Entertainment
Rated: R, graphic violence, language, sexual references, teen partying
The lowdown: Two sisters must band together when their small town is stricken with a strange parasitic virus.
The sisters barricade themselves in their house, but, somehow, the virus infiltrates their house where the sisters must protect each other and survive the virus.
Technical aspects: 2.39:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH and Spanish subtitles.
Bite (Blu-ray)
Details: 2015, Scream Factory
Rated: Not rated, violence
The lowdown: A bride-to-be returns from her tropical bachelorette party getaway and begins feeling the effects of an insect bite received during her celebration.
She tries to call off her wedding, while at the same time she begins to exhibit insect-like traits.
The young woman races toward the breaking point as the mixture of wedding anxiety and her physical transformation take their toll.
When her metamorphosis is complete, she becomes a danger to all who come near her.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.35:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Among the supplemental offerings are several behind-the-scenes featurettes that look at various aspects of the movie such as the makeup effects and the sets and a commentary track.
Other Blu-rays and DVDs being released on Tuesday, unless otherwise indicated:
Gibby (Shout! Kids)
Humpback Whales (4K UDH + 3D Blu-ray + Blu-ray + digital copy)
Red Sonja: Queen of Plagues (Blu-ray + DVD) (Shout! Factory)
OzLand (Indie Rights Movies-MVD Visual, July 26)
FOR KIDS
Paw Patrol: Sports Day! (Nickelodeon-Paramount Home Entertainment)
DIGITAL DOWNLOADS AND STREAMING
The Bodyguard (Well Go USA Entertainment)
Feed the Devil (Uncork’d Entertainment)
The Huntsman: Winter’s War (Universal Studios Home Entertainment)
Agatha Raisin: Series 1 (Acorn TV, Aug. 8)
Coming next week: A Hologram for the King
Bob Bloom is a member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. He reviews movies, Blu-rays and DVDs for ReelBob (ReelBob.com), The Film Yap and other print and online publications. He can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com. You also can follow Bloom on Twitter @ReelBobBloom and on Facebook. Movie reviews by Bloom also can be found at Rottentomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com.