New to View: May 9
By Bob Bloom
The following titles are being released on Tuesday, May 9, unless otherwise noted:
Knock at the Cabin: Collector’s Edition (Blu-ray + DVD + digital)
Details: 2023, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Rated: R, violence, language
The lowdown: M. Night Shyamalan’s “Knock at the Cabin” is a compelling psychological thriller that holds you tightly in its grip from beginning to end.
The movie, based on an award-winning novel by Paul Tremblay, is Shyamalan’s best movie in nearly two decades.
This straightforward feature is bereft of Shyamalan’s usual twists and surprises.
The film draws you in from the outset, abetted by Herdis Stefåesdóttir’s ominous score.
“Knock at the Cabin” is an elongated debate between the rationality and pragmatism of Eric and Andrew and the surety and blind faith of their captors.
I will not divulge other aspects of the movie, but as events in the outside world begin to deteriorate — as shown by various news bulletins from the cabin’s television — doubt creeps into the family’s certainty and events grow more violent and dire.
Shyamalan does a first-rate job of not tipping his hand too early. He keeps you guessing about the motives and sanity of the foursome.
The movie, which garnered a 67 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, keeps you off-balance for most of its 100 minutes, teasing you with expectations for a surprise twist or rational explanation of events.
The movie’s biggest shocker is that none is forthcoming.
Technical aspects: Blu-ray: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 widescreen picture; English Dolby Atmos, 2.0 DVS and French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles; DVD: 2.39:1 anamorphic widescreen picture; English, French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby digital and English 2.0 DVS; English SDH, French, Korean, complex Mandarin and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus offerings include deleted scenes, a Chowblaster infomercial, a behind-the-scenes featurette, a look at some of the movie’s terrifying props, a look at how Shyamalan envisions his shots and a profile on actress Kristen Cui.
Unwelcome (Blu-ray)
Details: 2022, Well Go USA Entertainment
Rated: R, strong violence and gore, sexual situations, language, drug use
The lowdown: A young couple living in London is looking for a safer place to raise their unborn child. Fortune seems to smile on them when they inherit a house in rural Ireland.
Of course they leap at the chance to avoid the urban dangers of the big city, but find greater peril in their new home, which holds some buried, primeval secrets.
At the bottom of their garden is an ancient, gnarled wood, where a supernatural presence waits. The woods house hides the murderous and evil goblins known as “Redcaps,” named so for soaking the blood of their victims.
The couple engage a local family to do some building repairs, but failed to see that the older man and his adult children are simply criminals.
Realizing their newfound sanctuary is under threat, the pregnant woman turns to the woods — and the creatures within it — to protect her family and unborn child.
What she does not realize is the price she eventually will have to pay.
The movie earned a respectable 64 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 (16×9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: A making of featurette and a behind-the-scene looks at the movie comprise the main extras.
“The Tiger Cage Collection” (Blu-ray)
Details: 1988-91, Shout! Factory
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A trio of action-packed, martial-arts movies directed by noted action/fight choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping (“Kill Bill Vols. 1 & 2,” “The Matrix,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”).
“Tiger Cage” (1988) follows a team of police officers who are brutally exposed to violence after raiding a drug operation and discovering a link between a few members of the police force and an American crime syndicate. The movie stars Jacky Cheung.
“Tiger Cage 2” (1990) stars Donnie Yen in a tale about a former cop and a divorce lawyer who team up with a criminal to clear their names after getting involved in a dirty money scheme, perpetrated by a vicious money launderer, whose aim is to expand his business.
“Tiger Cage 3” (1991) follows two detectives, James and John, who work for the Commercial Crime Bureau. They are set on bringing down the biggest crime boss in the city but meet many betrayals and obstacles along the way.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; Cantonese and English (dubbed) 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Supplemental materials include commentary tracks on “Tiger Cage” and “Tiger Cage 3”; interviews with actor Victor Lyn and Frank Djeng of the New York Asian Film Festival and an additional scene from the Taiwanese cut of the movie for “Tiger Cage”; interviews with action choreographer Bill Lui and academic and author Victor Fan as well as the Malaysian cut of the movie for “Tiger Cage 2”; interviews with film critic James Mudge and film critic Ricky Baker for “Tiger Cage 3.”
The Strawberry Blonde (Blu-ray)
Release date: April 25
Details: 1941, Warner Archive Collection
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: James Cagney, Olivia de Havilland and Rita Hayworth star in this delightful and nostalgic romantic comedy directed by Raoul Walsh.
Set in turn-of-the-20th-century New York, Cagney stars as pugnacious and always-ready-to-brawl, correspondence-school dentist Biff Grimes. The bulk of the movie is told in flashback, shortly after Grimes is released from prison after being framed by his one-time best friend and business partner Hugo Barnstead, played by Jack Carson.
We see how both Grimes and Barnstead were fierce rivals for flirtatious “strawberry blonde” Virginia Brush (Hayworth). Barnstead finally wins and woos her and, on the rebound, Grimes marries Virginia’s best friend, the outspoken women-rights advocate Amy Lind (de Havilland).
A chance encounter years later — after Grimes has been released from prison — proves to him that he made the correct choice in marrying Amy.
The movie was a hit and Walsh considered it one of his favorite features, so much so that he directed a musical remake of it in 1948, “One Sunday Afternoon.”
The Blu-ray release is from the Warner Archive Collection and can be ordered from the WAC store at Amazon or from other Internet sellers.
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: Bonus materials include a 1941 “Screen Guild Playhouse” radio adaptation of the movie and a 1942 “Lux Radio Theater” adaption; a cartoon, “Tortoise Beats Hare”; and a Warner Bros. short subject.
Safe in Hell (Blu-ray)
Release date: April 25
Details: 1931, Warner Archive Collection
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This pre-Code melodrama, directed by William A. Wellman, is well done, but also a downer.
Dorothy Mackaill, who began her career in silent films, stars as Gilda, a young woman who is raped. The incident causes her to lose her secretarial job and she is forced to turn prostitution — a common plot device in movies of this era.
Later, her assailant, who is married, requests her presence at his apartment. She goes, not knowing it is the man who ruined her life. Upon seeing him, she refuses his advances, throws and hits him with a bottle when he attacks her, then flees believing she has killed him.
Her boyfriend, a sailor, though angry, loves her enough to smuggle her aboard his ship and takes her to a Caribbean island where there are no extradition laws.
There, she gets a room at the only hotel in town, where five fugitives also reside. Supposedly being the only attractive white woman on the island, Gilda must fend off their advances, while waiting for the return of her sailor, now-husband — whom she married at a local church.
When the man she supposedly kills appears at the hotel, she is ecstatic, believing she can now return to New Orleans with her husband. But the brute again tries to rape her and she kills him in self-defense.
On the verge of being acquitted, she falsely confesses to killing the man in cold blood to avoid the advances of the island’s jailer and executioner, who — having given her the gun — now plans on arresting and sentencing her to six months in his prison so he can take sexual advantage of her.
“Safe in Hell” is definitely not a feel-good movie. The movie recently underwent a very sharp restoration and it shows in the Blu-ray’s crisp picture and clear dialogue.
The cast also includes Donald Cook, Morgan Wallace, Ralf Harolde, John Wray, Charles Middleton, Nina Mae McKinney, Gustav von Seyffertitz and Clarence Muse.
The release is from the Warner Archive Collection and can be ordered at the WAC store at Amazon or from other online retailers.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.20:1 full-screen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include two shorts, “Crime Square” with Pat O’Brien and “George Jessel and His Art Choir” and a cartoon, “Dumb Patrol.”
Hand of Death (Blu-ray)
Details: 1976, Arrow Video
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This martial arts feature, also known as “Countdown in Kung Fu,” was written and directed by Wu Wu Sheng and, in supporting roles, featured Chen Yuan-Lung and fight choreographer Hung Chin-Pao.
And, you ask, what is the significance of these people? Well, a few years later they helped change the history of Hong Kong action filmmaking, using the names that are familiar to most moviegoers — writer-director John Woo and actors Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung.
The story is set in sixth-century China in which Commander Shih Shao-Feng (James Tien) sets out to eliminate all Shaolin masters and disciples.
Yun Fei (Tan Tao-Liang), a surviving Shaolin master, is the one who must bring Shih to justice. He is aided by Tan Feng (Chen/Chan), who also serves as comic relief.
One of the villains is Tu Ching (Hung), a Shih henchman.
The film features plenty of action and displays early glimpses of the careers and talents of a trio who made their marks in global cinema.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 widescreen picture; Mandarin 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD Master Audio monaural, English (dubbed) 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD Master Audio monaural and Cantonese 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include alternate credits as “Countdown in Kung Fu,” an archival interview with Tan Tao-Liang, an archival piece about Woo, an archival interview with Hung and a commentary track.
One Way Passage (Blu-ray)
Release date: April 25
Details: 1932, Warner Archive Collection
The lowdown: William Powell and Kay Francis star in this melancholy romance about two people who meet and fall in love on a trans-Pacific voyage from Hong Kong to San Francisco.
Powell’s Dan Hardesty is a convicted killer being transported to San Quentin for execution. Francis’ Joan Ames is a terminally ill socialite returning home to die.
On the voyage, they begin a romance that neither knows is doomed.
The movie, directed by Tay Garnett, won an Academy Award for best original story.
The cast also includes Warren Hymer, Frank McHugh and Aline MacMahon.
The release is from the Warner Archive Collection and can be ordered at the WAC store at Amazon or from other online sellers.
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: Supplemental components include a 1939 “Lux Radio Theater” adaptation with Powell and Francis, a 1949 “Screen Director’s Playhouse” adaptation of the movie, a Warner Bros. short, “Buzzin’ Around” and a cartoon, “A Great Big Bunch of You.”
Unicorn Wars (Blu-ray)
Details: 2022, GKids-Shout! Factory
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This animated horror comedy from Spain explores religious zealotry and the guilty legacies of fascism.
For eons, teddy bears have been locked in a war against their sworn enemy — the unicorns. The fighting continues because of a promise that victory will ignite a new era for the teddy bears.
Bluey, an aggressive teddy bear, and his sensitive and withdrawn brother, Tubby, are as different as night from day.
The hardships of teddy bear bootcamp soon lead to the psychedelic horrors of a combat tour in the Magic Forest.
The strain and their complicated history soon cause a fracture between the brothers that will determine the fate of the war.
This audacious and unique feature garnered an 83 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.90:1 widescreen picture; Spanish 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English and French subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include an interview with director Alberto Vázquez and a feature-length animatic.
Other titles being released on Tuesday, unless otherwise indicated:
Children of the Corn (Blu-ray & DVD) (RLJE Films)
The Curse of Wolf Mountain (DVD & digital & VOD) (Uncork’d Entertainment)
Heaven Sent (DVD & digital) (Mill Creek Entertainment)
Maria Bamford: Stand-Up Spotlight (DVD) (Mill Creek Entertainment)
Yellowstone: Season 5, Part 1 (DVD) (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
MAY 12
Employee of the Month (DVD & VOD) (Film Movement)
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, STREAMING or VOD
A Life on the Farm (Drafthouse Films)
Chop & Steele (Drafthouse Films)
Hannah Gadsby: Something Special (Netflix)
Kamikaze (Kino Lorber)
Shackled (4Digital)
The Sorrow and the Pity (Kino Lorber)
Tell Me a Creepy Story (Trinity)
Velvet Jesus (Breaking Glass Pictures)
MAY 10
The Big Door Prize: Episode 9 (Apple TV+)
Saint X: Episode 5 (Hulu)
Ted Lasso: Season 3, Episode 10 (Apple TV+)
MAY 11
Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies: Episode 7 (Paramount+)
MAY 12
City on Fire: Episodes 1-3 (Apple TV+)
The Dead Hour (Amazon-Terror Films)
The Great: Season 3 (Hulu)
The Last Thing He Told Me: Episode 6 (Apple TV+)
The Mother (www.netflix.com/TheMother) (Netflix)
Organ Trail (Paramount Global Content Distribution)
Silo: Episode 3 (Apple TV+)
Snag (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (Apple TV+)
Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West (Winterstone Pictures)
MAY 15
Fear the Walking Dead: The Final Season: Part A (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
Coming next week: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
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.