New to View: Aug. 8
By Bob Bloom
The following titles are being released on Tuesday, Aug. 8, unless otherwise noted:
Fast X: Collector’s Edition (Blu-ray + DVD + digital)
Details: 2023, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Rated: intense sequences of violence, action, language, suggestive material
The lowdown: “Fast X” is a follow-up to 2011’s “Fast Five,” in which Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his friends are in Brazil to take down a dangerous drug lord.
What they could not know was that the drug lord’s son, Dante, witnessed the events from the shadows.
A now-adult Dante (Jason Mamoa) instigates events to avenge himself on Dom, his friends and — most importantly — Dom’s family.
At 140 minutes, “Fast X” is overblown and crowded, with the addition of Brie Larson and Rita Moreno, as well as such returning familiar faces as Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Jordana Brewster, Sung Kang, Helen Mirren, Jason Statham and Charlize Theron, as well as John Cena, the brother and misguided villain of the previous outing, who now has been accepted back into the Toretto family.
The movies in the “Fast” franchise continue to get bigger and more cartoonish with outlandish stunts that obscure the lack of storyline and character development.
The film earned a 57 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: Blu-ray: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 widescreen picture; English Dolby Atmos, 2.0 DVS and French and Spanish 7.1 Dolby digital plus; 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 and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus features include a featurette on the “Fast” family bonds and the introduction of new characters; a scene breakdown with director Louis Leterrier; a look at the cars used in the movie; a featurette on the action sequences involving the women in the cast; a look at the cast’s return to Rio de Janeiro; a featurette on Mamoa; a featurette on the youngest Toretto, Little B; a look at the end-credit tags; a gag reel; a commentary track; and three music videos.
Other People’s Children (Blu-ray)
Details: 2022, Music Box Films
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Rachel is a dedicated, 40-something high school teacher who meets and falls in love with Ali.
As the romance progresses, she finds herself growing attached to Ali’s 4-year-old daughter, Leila.
The relationship between Rachel and Ali evolves from its early sexual excitement to comfortable warmth and family picnics, after-school pickups and train trips to the countryside.
In fact, though, Leila is the daughter of another woman, so, with her biological clock ticking, Rachel must decide whether to accept the co-parenting complexities of the situation with Ali and his ex-wife, or set out to begin a new family of her own.
The movie, which is sexy, soulful, poignant and intelligent, with the performance of Virginie Efira as Rachel, being the story’s foundation.
The movie garnered a 92 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.35:1 widescreen picture; French 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: A question-and-answer session and interview comprise the extras.
East of Eden (4K Ultra HD)
Release date: Aug. 1
Details: 1955, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Rated: PG, violence, thematic elements
The lowdown: James Dean’s breakout role, after a few years appearing on television shows and a few uncredited appearances in movies, came with this adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel — a loose adaptation of the story of Cain and Abel.
Dean portrays Cal, a lonely young man who believes his very religious father, Adam (Raymond Massey), favors his older brother, Aron (Richard Davalos). No matter what Cal does to try to earn the love and respect of his father, he is rejected.
Events spiral after Cal learns that his mother, played by Jo Van Fleet, whom Adam told his sons was dead, is alive and running a brothel in a nearby town. Plus, Carl and Aron’s girlfriend, Abra (Julie Harris), are falling in love.
For her role, Van Fleet won a best supporting actress Academy Award. The movie, directed by Elia Kazan, earned an 86 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
The 4K Ultra HD can be purchased at www.movieyng.com or other online retailers.
Technical aspects: 2160p ultra high definition, 2.55:1 widescreen picture; English Dolby Atmos TrueHD and 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: The main bonus component is a commentary by film historian-author Richard Schickel.
Outrage (Blu-ray)
Details: 1950, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Ida Lupino was an actress at Paramount and Warner Bros. in the 1930s and ’40s, where she refused many roles she believed beneath her, was placed on suspension several times and dubbed herself “the poor man’s Bette Davis,” accepting roles Davis had rejected.
Among her most significant acting credits were “The Light That Failed” with Ronald Coleman at Columbia Pictures and, at Warner Bros., “They Drive by Night,” “High Sierra,” The Sea Wolf” and “The Hard Way.”
The British-born Lupino came from an acting family and went into the profession to please her father,
In the late 1940s, Lupino and her husband, Collier Young and screenwriter Malvin Wald, formed an independent company, The Filmmakers Inc., for which they produced many low-budget, issue-oriented movies, some of which Lupino directed.
“Outrage” is one of those movies. The screenplay, written Young, Lupino and Wald, was one of the first Hollywood films of the era to deal with rape.
The film stars Mala Powers as Ann Walton, a young bookkeeper who recently engaged to her boyfriend, Jim Owens (Robert Clarke). On her way home from work one night, Walton is raped.
The attack and its aftermath upends her world and sense of identity, forcing her to flee from her home in shame.
Filmmaker Martin Scorsese praised “Outrage” as “a subdued behavioral study that captures the banality of evil in an ordinary small town.”
For its time, the movie is very daring, addressing with much sensitivity, the widespread and unquestioned violence that women face.
The film was praised by a majority of critics and in 2020 it was deemed “a culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” work of art and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
Lupino went on to direct other movies as well as hundreds of television episodes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: The major bonus component is a commentary track by film historian Imogen Sara Smith.
Swamp Thing: Collector’s Edition (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray)
Details: 1982, MVD Rewind Collection
Rated: PG, violence
The lowdown: Dr. Alec Holland (Ray Wise) and a government agent, Alice Cable (Adrienne Barbeau), working deep in the Florida everglades, have developed a secret formula that could end world hunger and change mankind forever.
What they do not know is that their arch-nemesis, Arcane (Louis Jourdan), is planning on stealing the formula for his own nefarious purpose.
Looting the lab and kidnapping Cable, Arcane douses Holland with the chemicals and leaves him for dead in the swamp.
Holland, however, mutated by his formula, becomes Swamp Thing, a half-human, half-plant superhero who will stop at nothing to rescue Cable and defeat Arcane.
The release is part of MVD Visual Entertainment’s new LaserVision Collection.
The film, written and directed by Wes Craven, earned a 60 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes. The 4K disc features the U.S. theatrical PG and unrated international versions of the movie.
Technical aspects: 4K; 2160p ultra high definition, 1.85:1 (16×9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural and Spanish monaural; English subtitles; Blu-ray: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 (16×9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural and Spanish monaural; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Supplemental elements include a commentary track with Craven and another with makeup effects artist William Munn; a “Tales from the Swamp” featurette with Barbeau; a “Hey Jude” featurette with actor Reggie Batts; a featurette with Len Wein, creator of Swamp Thing; a “Swamp Screen: Designing DC’s Main Monster” featurette; “From Krug to Comics: How the Mainstream Shaped a Radical Genre Voice” featurette; and various photo galleries.
Night of the Assassin (Blu-ray)
Details: 2023, Well Go USA Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: An assassin for the Joseon clan, who has learned he has a heart condition, goes into hiding to seek a cure without revealing his true identity.
But after witnessing a ruthless campaign of terror against local villages, the assassin comes out of retirement to exact his own brand of vigilante justice.
The movie contains some very good fight sequences, which fans of the genre will enjoy.
Technical aspects: 16:9 (enhanced) widescreen picture; Korean 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Scarlet (Blu-ray)
Details: 2022, Kino Lorber
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: An enchanting story, set in rural Normandy between the end of World War I and the dawn of World War II.
Raphael, a World War I veteran, returns home to find that he is a widower and father to an infant daughter. The girl, Juliette, raised by her father, grows into a lonely young woman who dreams greater possibilities than found in her rural setting.
Juliette seeks refuge in the nearby woods, where she meets a witch who promises her that scarlet sails will one day take her away from her village.
Later, planning on her future, she is swept away by a charismatic young pilot who literally falls from the sky. Juliette never stops believing in the witch’s prophecy.
The movie, which garnered a 78 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, is a fantasy that blends history and folklore, with drama and romance.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.55:1 widescreen picture; French 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Supplemental materials include a question-and-answer session with director Pietro Marcello and a making of documentary.
“Audie Murphy Collection II” (Blu-ray)
Release date: July 18
Details: 1950-54, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Audie Murphy was one of the most decorated soldiers during World War II, receiving, among other honors, the Medal of Honor.
Murphy began his film career in 1948, with the vast majority of the more than 40 movies in appeared in being Westerns.
This three-disc set contains a trio of those Westerns: “Sierra” (1950), “Kansas Raiders” (1950) and “Destry” (1954).
“Sierra” features Murphy as Ring Hassard who, along with his father, Jeff (Dean Jagger), live in a hidden mountain valley where they capture and tame wild horses. Their lives are altered when Ring rescues Riley Martin (Wanda Hendrix, Murphy’s then-wife), who had lost her way on the trail.
Martin, a lawyer soon opens an investigation into Jeff Hassard’s past. At the same time, a romance develops between Martin and Ring Hassard.
Complicating matters are a gang of horse thieves led by Big Matt Rango (Richard Rober). The movie features an early villainous role for a young Tony Curtis.
“Kansas Raiders” features Murphy as Jesse James who, with his brother, Frank (Richard Long), are riding with Quantrill’s Guerrillas during the Civil War. Jesse soon discovers that Quantrill (Brian Donlevy) is not a hero fighting for the South, but a murderous madman who enjoys looting and killing.
The supporting cast also includes Curtis, Marguerite Chapman, Richard Arlen, James Best and Dewey Martin.
“Destry” is another remake of the popular Max Brand novel that had been filmed in 1932 with Tom Mix and, most famously, in 1939 with James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich and Donlevy.
The story more closely follows the Stewart version with Thomas Mitchell as the town drunk-turned-sheriff who sends for Destry and Lyle Bettiger as the main villain.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include commentary tracks on all three movies.
Other titles being released on Tuesday, unless otherwise indicated:
Ender’s Game: Steelbook (4K UHD + Blu-ray + digital) (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
In Its Wake (DVD & digital) (Uncork’d Entertainment)
Summoning the Spirit (DVD & digital) (Dark Star Pictures)
Wolfkin (DVD & digital) (Uncork’d Entertainment)
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, STREAMING or VOD
H.I.M. (Breaking Glass Pictures)
Kali Karate: The 2nd Beginning (Cranked Up)
The Last Rider (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
Only Murders in the Building: Season 3, Episodes 1 & 2 (Hulu)
Sorry, We’re Closed (Gravitas Ventures)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
Untold: Johnny Football (Netflix)
The YouTube Effect (Amazon Prime)
AUG. 9
The Afterparty: Season 2, Episode 6 (Apple TV+)
Strange Planet: Episodes 1-3 (Apple TV+)
AUG. 10
Limbo (Viaplay)
Trader (XYZ Films)
AUG. 11
3 Days in Malay (Saban Films)
Foundation: Season Two, Episode 5 (Apple TV+)
Heart of Stone (Netflix)
King Coal (Drexler Films-Cottage M-Fishbowl Films)
Medusa Deluxe (A24)
Red, White and Royal Blue (Amazon)
Solar Opposites: Season 4 (Hulu)
Swagger: Season 2, Episode 8 (Apple TV+)
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.