New to View: Sept. 25
By Bob Bloom
The following titles are being released on Tuesday, Sept. 25, unless otherwise noted:
Solo: A Star Wars Story (Blu-ray + digital)
Details: 2018, Lucasfilms
Rated: PG-13, science fiction action and violence
The lowdown: In “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” we learn how a young Han Solo was given his name, became an outlaw, met Chewbacca, made the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs and won the Millennium Falcon from Lando Calrissian.
Thus, “Solo” isn’t so much a movie as an elongated episode of “This Is Your Life” for “Star Wars” geeks.
“Solo” is fun and entertaining, and Alden Ehrenreich (“Hail, Caesar!”) as young Han spouts familiar lines said by Harrison Ford as the older Han in the original “Star Wars” trilogy.
Ehrenreich, with a twinkle in his eye and a crinkle in his smile, has the cocky and arrogant attitude that endeared Han Solo to fans.
Watching Ehrenreich is one of the film’s greatest pleasures. His performance balances the weaknesses in a script filled with starts and stops and a movie whose pace stutters rather than flows.
“Solo” introduces us to a young Han in circumstances that make the movie seem like a galactic “Oliver Twist.”
His dream is to be the best pilot in the galaxy, and he will do anything to achieve that goal.
He soon falls in with a band of thieves, led by Woody Harrelson, and has a variety of short adventures — most of which touch on episodes in Han’s young life before he became a hero in “Star Wars.”
The studio’s changing of directors from Phil Lord and Chris Miller to Ron Howard more than halfway through the production did not benefit the production. Lord and Miller wanted a tongue-in-cheek attitude, while the LucasFilm executives desired something else.
The conflict shows on screen, as a balance is lacking between sequences that are impish and those that are serious.
The young cast, though, keeps the movie flying.
Technical aspects: 2.39:1 widescreen picture; English 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and 2.0 descriptive audio, French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus features include eight deleted scenes, a director and cast roundtable, a featurette on new droid L3-37, a featurette that puts the viewer at the controls of the Millennium Falcon during the Kessel Run, a featurette on remaking the Millennium Falcon, father-and-son Lawrence and Jonathan Kasdan share their thoughts on what it was like to write the movie together, a look at bringing Chewbacca to life, a look at the chase through the streets of Corellia, a behind-the-scenes featurette on the train heist and an in-depth tour of Fort Ypso.
The Seagull
Details: 2018, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Rated: PG-13, mature themes, violence, drug use, partial nudity
The lowdown: Director Michael Mayer’s adaptation of the Chekov work is very pretentious with a cast of fine actors spouting dialogue that sounds witty and meaningful — yet, more theatrical than real life.
The movie seems to be a series of confrontations and quarrels, with people exiting and entering scenes as if they were performing on stage.
It’s a story of the unfulfilled dreams of people, wishing they could change their destinies or places with others.
The characters are either famous celebrities or seekers of fame who seem to be discontented in their own skins. The younger people yearn for recognition, while the older folks seek the youths’ innocence, exuberance and challenges.
All in all, it makes for a rather boring visit, with much talk and very little action.
The film does feature a very talented cast, headed by Annette Bening, Saoirse Ronan, Corey Stall, Elizabeth Moss, Mare Winningham and Brian Dennehy.
Technical aspects: 2.39:1 anamorphic widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital and audio description track; English SDH, English, French and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include a question-and-answer session with Bening and Mayer, a Tribeca Film Festival red carpet and cast question-and-answer session.
C.B. Strike: The Series
Details: 2018, Warner Home Video
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This two-disc set features all seven episodes from the Cinemax mystery series based on crime trilogy by Robert Galbraith, a pseudonym for J.K. Rowling.
The series centers on Cormoran Strike, a war veteran who has become a private detective. He operates out of a tiny office — as do most fictional detectives — in London.
War has wounded him physically and emotionally, but his background as a SIB investigator helps him solve complex crimes.
His partner is Robin Ellacott, a new office temp who soon becomes involved in his cases.
The episodes cover the three cases from Rowling’s books, “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” “The Silkworm” and “Career of Evil.”
Technical aspects: 16:9 widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus materials include featurettes on all three cases.
The Gifted: The Complete First Season
Details: 2017-18, Fox Home Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A three-disc set containing the first season of this Marvel offshoot about a suburban couple who must flee after discovering their children have mutant abilities.
The family, on the run from a hostile government that is hunting mutants, seeks help from an underground network of others with special abilities.
They join the fight to survive, in this story set in the “X-Men” Universe. The set features all 12 episodes.
Technical aspects: 1.78:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles and English closed-captioned.
Fahrenheit 451 (Blu-ray + Ultraviolet)
Release date: Sept. 18
Details: 2018, HBO Home Entertainment
Rated: TV-MA, violence, language
The lowdown: This new adaptation of the famous Ray Bradbury novel is darker and more brutal than director Francois Truffaut’s 1966 version, which was rather cold and emotionally distant.
This new adaptation, starring Michael B. Jordan and Michael Shannon, has more sociological and political texture to it as well as highlighting more technological advances than the first movie.
The story is basically the same: In a dystopian future celebrity “firemen” go on televised search-and-destroy missions to burn books and abolish art, culture and history.
Jordan’s fireman meets a young woman and agrees to help her and an underground group with a plan to preserve thousands of classic works.
The movie is a compelling and inventive look at a future we all hope will never happen.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.78:1 (16×9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French and Castilian Spanish 5.1 DTS digital surround and Latin Spanish 2.0 DTS digital surround; English SDH, English, French and Castilian and Latin Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: A behind the fire featurette is the major bonus component.
The Day of the Jackal (Blu-ray)
Details: 1973, Arrow Video
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Fred Zinnemann directed this adaptation of Frederick Forsythe novel about a plot to assassinate then-French president Charles De Gaulle and the attempts to foil the event and uncover the identity of the elusive assassin known as The Jackal.
Michel Lonsdale plays the French police official tasked with discovering the killer, coldly played by Edward Fox, and prevent De Gaulle’s murder.
The movie follows the painstaking preparations by which Fox’s contract killer readies to carry out his assignment.
This is a taut thriller that remains fresh no matter how many times you have viewed it.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English LPCM monaural.
American Horror Story: Season Seven: Cult
Release date: Sept. 18
Details: 2017-18, Fox Home Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A three-disc set featuring all 11 seventh-season episodes of this strange and chilling series.
The season, set in post-election 2016, centers on Ally Mayfair-Richards (Sarah Paulson), a Michigan woman inundated with phobias.
She attempts to find happiness as a restaurateur alongside her chef wife, played by Alison Pill, and son.
Ally’s family and her grasp of reality are threatened by the arrival in town of Kai Anderson, a politically motivated cult leader who is plotting a mass murder.
The episodes offer up several scares and thrills, political commentary, clown suits and gaslighting.
Technical aspects: 1.78:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital and French and Spanish 2.0 Dolby digital; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: The major extra consists of FX promo spots.
My Man Godfrey: Special Edition (Blu-ray)
Release date: Sept. 18
Details: 1936, The Criterion Collection
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This feature, directed by Gregory La Cava, is one of the finest screwball comedies of the 1930s.
Carole Lombard stars as a spoiled rich Manhattan socialite wins a society-ball scavenger hunt after finding a “forgotten man,” played by William Powell, a down-and-out drifter at a dump.
She gives him work as the family butler and soon falls in love with Godfrey, trying to indoctrinate him in the dysfunctional household.
The comedy offers some great observations about class and social unrest that plagued the nation during the Depression era.
A wonderful cast of supporting players, including Eugene Pallette, Alice Brady, Gail Patrick, Alan Mowbray, Mischa Auer and Franklin Pangborn, add to the fun.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.33:1 full-screen picture; English LPCM monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include outtakes, a 1938 “Lux Radio Theatre” adaptation of the movie, newsreel spotlighting Great Depression class divides, a program with jazz and film critic Gary Giddins, an interview with critic Nick Pinkerton on La Cava and an essay about the movie.
Billions: The Third Season
Details: 2018, Showtime-CBS DVD-Paramount Home Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis head the cast in this Showtime series about money and power.
The four-disc set features all 12 episodes in which Giamatti’s Chuck Rhoades and Lewis’ Bobby Axelrod find that their lives have shifted, even as both men continue machinations to destroy each other, while at the same time battling for their own survival from other powerful enemies.
The stakes are high as the drama and tension continue to increase and the episodes progress.
Technical aspects: 16:9 picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include a tour of Axe’s penthouse and a “Billions” decoded featurette.
Exorcist II: The Heretic: Collector’s Edition (Blu-ray)
Details: 1977, Scream Factory
Rated: R, violence, language
The lowdown: John Boorman (“Deliverance”) directed this very silly sequel in which Richard Burton plays a Vatican investigator sent to investigate Linda Blair’s Regan who seems to still be possessed by the demon supposedly exorcised by Max von Sydow’s Father Merrin.
Von Sydow returns, but his presence, along with Louise Fletcher as a research specialist, James Earl Jones and Paul Henreid, cannot raise the bar on this weak effort, which was savaged by critics.
After the movie’s premiere, Boorman re-edited the movie, but to no avail. Both the 117-minute and 102-minute versions of the film are included in this two-disc set.
Still, this did not deter filmmakers from making another “Exorcist” movie.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include a new interview with Blair, a commentary track on the longer version of the movie with Boorman and a commentary with special project consultant Scott Michael Bosco.
Mountain (Blu-ray)
Details: 2017, Greenwich Entertainment
Rated: PG, dangerous sports action, injury images
The lowdown: Willem Dafoe narrates this documentary about mankind’s fascination with mountains and conquering their summits.
Director Jennifer Peedom has collected a group of mountaineers, ice climbers, free soloists, heliskiers, snowboarders and other extreme sports enthusiasts, and uses the latest technology, including drones, Go-Pros and helicopters, to create this wondrous cinematic experience.
The movie travels the world, including Tibet, Alaska, Australia and Norway, to offer some breathtaking cinematography.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include a making of featurette, a conversation with Peedom and a question-and-answer session with writer Robert Macfarlane and mountaineer Matthew Dieumegard-Thronton.
Dynasty: Season One
Details: 2017-18, CBS DVD-Paramount Home Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This reboot of the 1980s prime-time soap opera about the mega-rich Carrington family is more diverse than the original, just not as campy.
The new cast lacks the style of Joan Collins and Linda Evans, but this is a “Dynasty” targeted for a newer generation.
The six-disc set features all 22 episodes in which business dealings, betrayal, double crosses, love, sex and the grasping for power and riches take center stage.
Technical aspects: 16:9 full-screen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Deleted scenes and a gag reel comprise the major bonus components.
Regina
Details: 2013, Kino Lorber
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This documentary tells the story of Regina Jonas, who became the first officially ordained woman rabbi in the world.
The movie uses archival footage and the vocal talents of Rachel Weisz, speaking as Regina, to tell her story.
The movie covers Regina’s life in Berlin, where she was born in 1902, the daughter of an Orthodox Jewish peddler. She studied at the liberal College for Scientific Study of Judaism and was ordained in 1935.
Her sermons offered hope and encouragement to fellow German Jews who were feeling the weight of Nazi persecution.
At 37, she met the love of her life, Rabbi Josef Norden. Both of them were later deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp.
Only their love letters survived the Holocaust.
Still, Jonas’ story remains an inspiration for Jewish women seeking to be ordained as rabbis.
Technical aspects: 1.33:1 (16×9 enhanced) full-screen picture; English and German 2.0 Dolby digital stereo; English subtitles.
The Baby (Blu-ray)
Details: 1973, Arrow Video
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A rather strange and disturbing horror feature about a social worker who, still traumatized by the death of her husband, throws herself into her new assignment, investigating the Wadsworth family.
The family is comprised of a mother, two grown daughters and “Baby,” a 21-year-old man, who is a diaper-clad, bottle-sucking baby.
Veteran Ruth Roman, who starred in the 1945 serial “Jungle Queen” and also appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Strangers on a Train,” “Champion” with Kirk Douglas and “Dallas” with Gary Cooper, plays Mrs. Wadsworth and Anjanette Comer is Ann Gentry, the social worker.
This feature offers a very warped look at family dynamics. It is sadistic and campy and has achieved cult status. Veteran director Ted Post was behind the camera.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen and 1.33:1 full-screen pictures; English LPCM monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include an archival audio interview with Post, a new retrospective about the film, a commentary track and an archival audio interview with star David Mooney, who played “Baby.”
Scarlet Diva (Blu-ray)
Details: 2000, Film Movement
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Asia Argento wrote, directed and stars in this semi-autobiographical drama about Anna Battista, a rising young actress whose glamorous public life masks a private hell filled with despair and degradtion from an industry that physically and mentally abuses its female performers.
Anna’s journey to redemption takes her across the United States and Europe, where she searches for her innocence and true love.
The movie has been cited as being at the forefront of the “Time’s Up” and #MeToo movements.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English, Italian and French 2.0 LPCM; English and English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus components include two commentary tracks by Argento, one from 2002 and the other from 2018; an interview with Argento; a making of featurette; a “Looking Into the Eye of the Cyclops with Joe Coleman” featurette; and a 20-page booklet.
The Bride (Blu-ray)
Details: 1985, Scream Factory
Rated: PG-13, violence
The lowdown: Sting plays the crazed scientist and Jennifer Beals is his creation in this loose remake of the classic horror film, “The Bride of Frankenstein.”
Franc Roddam directed this gothic tale of obsession, horror, romance and passion.
This also is a story of finding one’s place in the world as Frankenstein’s creations, Eva (Beals) and Viktor (Clancy Brown), seek to establish their own identities.
Eva does so by declaring her independence, while Viktor learns self-worth from a compassionate circus dwarf, played by David Rappaport.
Tragedy ensues when Viktor returns to claim Eva, with whom the scientist has fallen in love.
The movie’s main problem is that it lacks the panache and wit of James Whale’s original.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.78:1 widescreen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio stereo; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include interviews with Brown and Roddam and a commentary track.
The [REC] Collection (Blu-ray)
Details: 2007-14, Scream Factory
Rated: R, violence, language
The lowdown: This four-disc set features a quartet of scary movies by two Spanish filmmakers, Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza, that have grown in popularity and even inspired an American remake.
In the original [REC] (2007), a TV reporter and her team are asked to cover a crew of firefighters on duty.
What starts out as a routine story, turns into a nightmare when they are trapped inside a quarantined building and must fight to survive the unknown terror inside.
[REC] 2 (2009), picks up minutes after the end of the first movie. Authorities have lost contact with the people trapped inside the building. A Special Operations Unit enters the premises only to discover their mission is anything but routine.
[REC] 3: Genesis moves from the building to the wedding of a young couple, which goes smoothly until some of the guests begin showing signs of a strange illness and begin a reign of violence.
[REC] 4: Apocalypse returns the focus to the young reporter from the original, who has managed to escape the building, but it seems she carries the seed of the strange infection. She is taken to a quarantine facility, which is the perfect site for the virus to be reborn.
Horror fans should have blast with this set, that contains gore and chills.
Technical aspects: Widescreen pictures; Spanish 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus materials include making of featurettes, behind-the-scenes footage, outtakes, deleted scenes and set tours.
The Carol Burnett Show: 50th Anniversary Special
Details: 2017, Time Life
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: CBS marked the 50th anniversary of “The Carol Burnett Show” with this special that aired in December of 2017.
The show featured some of Burnett’s favorite skits as well as original cast members Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, costume designer Bob Mackie and such guest stars as Maya Rudolph, Jim Carrey, Harry Connick Jr., Jay Leno, Jane Lynch, Steve Lawrence, Bill Hader, Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Amy Poehler, Tracee Ellis Ross and Martin Short.
The highlights, of course, were the skits that also featured Harvey Korman and Tim Conway.
Technical aspects: 1.78:1 (16:9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH and closed-captioned subtitles.
Don’t miss: Among the extras are red-carpet footage, backstage interviews and anniversary wishes from friends and fans, and a tribute booklet.
“Boris Karloff Collection”
Release date: Sept. 11
Details: 1968-71, VCI Entertainment-MVD Visual Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This two-disc set features four movies that horror film icon Boris Karloff made in the last stages of his career — and his life.
Most of these movies were shot outside the United States and were produced mostly to capitalize on Karloff’s name and reputation.
The movies even have alternate titles, but Karloff fans who are completists will still be heartened to learn of their release for home video consumption.
The titles are: “Dance of Death” (aka “House of Evil”) (1968), “Torture Zone” (aka “Fear Chamber” (1968), “Alien Terror” (1971) and “Cult of the Dead” (Isle of the Snake People” (1971).
The titles may not be the most recognized in the Karloff canon, but they do showcase the professionalism he carried — no matter how silly the project — until the very end.
Technical aspects: 1.37:1 full-screen pictures; English 2.0 Dolby digital.
Scream for Help (Blu-ray)
Release date: Sept. 18
Details: 1984, Scream Factory
Rated: R, violence, language
The lowdown: A 17-year-old girl uncovers a plot by her stepfather to murder her wealthy mother.
The problem is no one will believe her because she’s a teenager with a vivid imagination.
Suspense grows as a series of shocking events begin to pile upon each other. Soon the girl and her mom are being held hostage in their own home by a group of killers.
The film, directed by Michael Winner, was written by Tom Holland.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Supplemental materials include interviews with Holland and cast member David Allen Brooks and a commentary track.
Other titles being released on Tuesday, unless otherwise indicated:
All Styles (Shout! Factory)
The Chi: Season One (Fox Home Entertainment)
Epidemic (DVD + VOD) (Breaking Glass Pictures)
Izzy Gets the F*ck Across Town (Blu-ray) (Shout! Studios)
Occupation (Blu-ray + digital and DVD) (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
Pin Cushion (Cleopatra Entertainment-MVD Visual Entertainment)
The Row (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
A Swingers Weekend (Cleopatra Entertainment-MVD Visual Entertainment, Sept. 11)
FOR KIDS
Fraggle Rock: The Animated Series (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, STREAMING or VOD
Best F(r)iends (Lionsgate Home Entertainment (digital download + VOD)
Detective K: Secret of the Living Dead (Well Go USA Entertainment)
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
Ken Foster (Gravitas Ventures) (digital download + VOD)
Skyscraper (Universal Studios Home Entertainment)
Song of Sway Lake (The Orchard)
800 Words: Season 3, Part 2, Episode 7 (Acorn TV, Sept. 26)
Cruise (Vertical Entertainment, Sept. 28) (theatrical, digital & VOD)
I am a member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. I review movies, Blu-rays and DVDs for ReelBob (ReelBob.com), The Film Yap and other print and online publications. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com. You also can follow me on Twitter @ReelBobBloom and on Facebook. My movie reviews also can be found at Rottentomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com.