New to View: Feb. 1
By Bob Bloom
The following titles are being released on Tuesday, Feb. 1, unless otherwise noted:
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Blu-ray + DVD + digital)
Details: 2021, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Rated: PG-13, supernatural action, suggestive references
The lowdown: This sequel to the original “Ghostbusters” focuses on single mom Callie (Carrie Coon) and her children, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), who move to a small town and soon afterward begin to discover their connection to the original Ghostbusters.
The movie is part-nostalgia, part-1980s tribute film and part family adventure.
At times, the film, which costars Paul Rudd, is a bit bland, but fans of the franchise will most likely enjoy it — especially with the various “surprise” stars who pop up late in the movie.
The film charmed a majority of critics who gave it a 62 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: Blu-ray: 1080p high definition, 2.40:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, English 5.1 Dolby digital audio description track and French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH, English, French and Spanish subtitles; DVD: 2.40:1 widescreen picture; English, French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby digital and English 5.1 Dolby digital audio description track; English SDH, English, French and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus materials include an Easter egg revelation, a look back at “Ghostbusters” featurette, a Bringing Ecto-1 Back to Life” featurette, a deleted scene, a “Gearhead’s Guide to Ghostbusters Gadgets” and a making of featurette.
Little Girl (Blu-ray)
Details: 2020, Music Box Films
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This touching documentary follows Sasha, a 7-year-old who always has known that she is a girl.
Sasha was assigned male from birth.
The film focuses on Sasha’s struggles to be treated like other children her age in her small, rural French community and its traditionally minded school. She also deals with challenges in her gendered dance class.
Sasha’s parents embrace and support her identity and lead the push for her social acceptance, which they see as a constant battle to change attitudes one person at a time.
The movie, which earned a 100 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, is told with compassionate intimacy as it explores the emotional challenges and small moments in Sasha’s life.
The movie, which is more observational than editorial, and Sasha herself will definitely touch your heart.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.40:1 widescreen picture; French 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus components include an interview with director Sébastien Lifshitz, a filmmaker question-and-answer session from the Rendez-vous with French Cinema program, a conversation at the movie’s New York premiere and deleted scenes.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Blu-ray)
Details: 1978, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: PG, violence, disturbing images
The lowdown: While the classic 1956 adaptation of Jack Finney’s novel, “The Body Snatchers,” makes more of a political statement about the Cold War and McCarthy-era paranoia of the time. Under the direction of Don Siegel, it has become a timeless and acclaimed science fiction-horror feature.
The 1978 remake, directed by Philip Kaufman (“The Right Stuff,” “The Wanderers”) with a screenplay by W.D. Richter (“Big Trouble in Little China,” “Brubaker”), looks at then-contemporary problems of urban paranoia and loss of individuality.
The story basically remains the same — spores from space take over the body of humans as they sleep, but those whose identities are stolen lose their emotions, souls and the uniqueness that separate them from everyone else.
The cast is headed by Donald Sutherland and also features Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy, Jeff Goldblum and Veronica Cartwright.
The movie also features a very chilling finale.
The film received an impressive 92 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Siegel’s original garnered a 98 fresh rating, but it lacks some of the subtlety of the remake.
And be on the lookout for a cameo by Kevin McCarthy, the star of the 1956 film.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: A bevy of bonus offerings are offered, including two commentary tracks — one by Kaufman and the other by film historian Steven Haberman; interviews with Adams, Richter, composer Denny Zeitlin, actor Art Hindle and Finney expert Jack Seabrook; and featurettes on the making of the movie, the special effects, the memorable sound effects and the cinematography.
The Great Moment (Blu-ray)
Details: 1944, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Filmmaker Preston Sturges, the comic mind behind such classics as “The Great McGinty,” “Hail the Conquering Hero” and “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek,” wrote and directed this true-life story of Dr. William T. Morgan, the dentist who discovered ether, also known as anesthesia.
The movie is an uncomfortable mix of drama and comedy as Morgan decides to help humanity by sharing his discovery, rather than capitalizing on it or profiting from it.
Joel McCrea stars as Morgan. The supporting cast includes Betty Field, Harry Carey and such Sturges regulars as William Demarest, Porter Hall and Franklin Pangborn.
The movie is one of Sturges’ lesser films, mostly because of studio interference with the movie being re-edited over Sturges’ objections.
The movie received a 71 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include an introduction to the movie by film historian Constantine Nasr and a documentary about Sturges that includes interviews and observations by his son, Tom, Nasr and filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich.
Monsieur Beaucaire (Blu-ray)
Details: 1946, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Bob Hope is at his comic peak in this costume farce about Beaucaire (Hope), the barber at the court of France’s King Louis XV, who is sentenced to death by the king, who has grown tired of Beaucaire’s various missteps.
Beaucaire is forced to flee, disguised as the Duc de Chandre (Patric Knowles), where he is taken to the Spanish court.
Various misadventures follow as Beaucaire is forced to pose, ineptly, as a nobleman.
The cast also includes Reginald Owen, Joan Caufield, Marjorie Reynolds, Joseph Schildkraut, Cecil Kellaway, Constance Collier and Hillary Brooke.
The film, directed by George Marshall with a screenplay by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, is based on a novel by Booth Tarkington.
Hope fans will enjoy this 93-minute romp.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Trailers from other Hope films comprise the extras.
The Capture: Special Edition (Blu-ray)
Release date: Jan. 18
Details: 1950, The Film Detective
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Lew Ayres and Teresa Wright star in this drama about Lin Vanner (Ayres), an injured man on the run from the police.
Seeking shelter with a priest, played by Victor Jory, Vanner relates the circumstances that led to him being hunted.
Vanner was working in a Mexican oil field when he captured a man suspected in a payroll robbery. When the man later died in police custody, Vanner felt responsible.
He quit his job and felt compelled to visit the dead man’s widow, Ellen (Wright). Vanner ends up working on her ranch, where the two fall in love and later marry.
When the real robber is later killed, Vanner becomes a murder suspect and flees to the priest’s home.
The movie has noir-like qualities and features solid performances by Ayres, Wright and Jory.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio; English and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include a commentary track, profiles of Wright and director John Sturges and an essay about the movie.
Fortress (Blu-ray + digital)
Release date: Dec. 21, 2021
Details: 2021, Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Rated: R, violence, language
The lowdown: An action-thriller starring Bruce Willis as a retired CIA officer living at a secret site in the woods.
One day, the retiree’s son comes to visit. However, he is followed by an old nemesis of his father’s.
The site then comes under attack from the nemesis and his men. Father and son retreat to a high-tech bunker lined with steel walls and advanced weapons.
This direct-to-video movie is unexceptional and lackadaisical, with Willis making no real effort throughout.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 (16×9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH, Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish subtitles.
A Cops and Robbers Story (DVD)
Details: 2020, Greenwich Entertainment-Kino Lorber
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: As a young man in 1980s New York City, Corey Pegues was living a life of crime as a member of the city’s infamous Supreme Team gang.
After a near-death gang confrontation, Pegues fled the city and changed his life around.
This documentary looks at the reformed Pegues who, after returning to the city years later, became a rising force in the New York Police Department.
But he is not very popular, especially when he talks about police reform, which made him a target and brought details of his former life to public scrutiny.
The movie, which does not drill down as deeply as it had the potential to do, is, nonetheless, inspirational and serves as an example of how second chances can help people.
Technical aspects: 2.39:1 (16×9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English 2.0 Dolby digital; English SDH subtitles.
Other titles being released on Tuesday, unless otherwise indicated:
Lockdown (DVD & VOD) (Uncork’d Entertainment)
The Nocturna Collection (DVD) (Breaking Glass Pictures)
Power Book III: Raising Kanan: The Complete First Season (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
The Spine of Night (4K UHD & Blu-ray & DVD) (RLJE Films)
Superhost (Blu-ray & DVD & digital & VOD) (RLJE Films)
FOR KIDS
Sesame Street: Elmo’s World: All Around the Neighborhood (DVD & digital) (Shout! Kids)
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, STREAMING or VOD
City of Vultures 2 (Breaking Glass Pictures)
House of Gucci (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment)
Julia (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
They/Them/Us (Gravitas Pictures)
Pam & Tommy: Episodes 1-3 (Hulu, Feb. 2)
The Tinder Swindler (Netflix, Feb. 2)
The Afterparty: Episode 4 (Apple TV+, Feb. 4)
Air Doll (Dekanalog, Feb. 4)
The Long Night (Well Go USA, Feb. 4)
Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché (Utopia Media, Feb. 4)
Suspicion: Episodes 1 & 2 (Apple TV+, Feb. 4)
Sweet Magnolias: Season 2 (www.netflix.com/sweetmagnolias) (Netflix, Feb. 4)
Coming next week: Encanto
The Beatles: Get Back: Collector’s Set
I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. I review movies, 4K UHD, 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 at ReelBob or the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My movie reviews also can be found at Rotten Tomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com.