New to View: Dec. 5
By Bob Bloom
The following titles are being released on Tuesday, Dec. 5, unless otherwise noted:
Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series (Blu-ray)
Details: 2017, Showtime Entertainment-Paramount Home Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This eight-disc set features all 18 episodes as Kyle MacLachlan’s FBI agent Dale Cooper returns to the quaint northwestern town of Twin Peaks 25 years after the events of the original series.
Cooper finds new mysteries to solve, while director David Lynch finds new ways to confound viewers.
Fans will enjoy this trip back to the town where they can reunite with the Log Lady and other individuals who made the show a cult favorite.
Technical aspects: Blu-ray: 1080p high definition, 16:9 widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital surround; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: More than six hours of bonus materials, including 10 30-minute films that document the making of the series, a three-part featurette in which the cast, crew and other celebrities reflect on the impact of “Twin Peaks,” a 2017 San Diego Comic-Con “Twin Peaks” panel, a look at Lynch filming in the Red Room and a featurette on returning to some of the locations used 25 years earlier.
On Wings of Eagles
Details: 2017, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Rated: PG-13, violent images
The lowdown: Those familiar with the Academy Award-winning film, “Chariots of Fire,” will remember the character of Eric Liddell.
He was the highly devout Scottish runner who, at the 1924 Olympics, defied British authorities and refused to run on Sunday because it was the Sabbath.
Liddell did run in another race and win a Gold Medal.
This story is about Liddell’s life after his sports triumphs.
Liddell, who was born in China to missionary parents, returned to that nation to teach schoolchildren.
When the Japanese invaded in 1937, Liddell, played by Joseph Fiennes, sends his wife and two daughters to Canada, while he stays behind to minister to civilians.
Liddell, along with other foreign nationals, are taken prisoner and placed in an internment camp, where he spends two years under brutal circumstances.
The movie covers this time in his life as well as his faith and legacy.
Technical aspects: 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH and Spanish subtitles.
The Crucifixion (Blu-ray + Ultraviolet)
Details: 2017, Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Rated: violent images, sexual situations
The lowdown: A horror offering, supposedly inspired by true events, about a journalist investigating the death of a nun during an exorcism.
It seems the nun was crucified by a priest in order to exorcise a demon.
But as the journalist continues to look into the gruesome events, it becomes evident that a malignant force is still lurking in the shadows and seeking another human host.
This film seems to have had a very limited release. At Rottentomatoes.com, just five reviews are posted — and all are rotten.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.40:1 (16×9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: The main extra is a featurette on the director’s vision for the film.
The War Show
Release date: Nov. 28
Details: 2016, Film Movement
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: The civil war in Syria is the focus of this documentary.
The movie centers on radio host Obaidah Zytoon and his friends who join the protests against the oppressive Syrian regime.
Zytoon and his friends, including many artists and activists, began filming their lives.
As the regime’s violent response to peaceful protest spiraled into a bloody civil war, the violence around them tested their optimism for a brighter future for themselves and their nation.
The documentary is a very personal look that captures the turmoil in Syria, through the perspective of this small group of friends.
Technical aspects: 1.78:1 widescreen picture; Arabic 2.0 Dolby digital; English subtitles.
Silent Night, Deadly Night: Collector’s Edition (Blu-ray)
Details: 1984, Scream Factory
Rated: R, violence, language
The lowdown: This two-disc set features the holiday horror film that is naughty, not nice.
The story centers on Billy Chapman who was traumatized by the murder of his parents on Christmas Eve — an event that would put coal in anyone’s stocking.
Billy is sent to a sadistic orphanage where he is brutalized. Now, an adult, Billy dresses up as Santa Claus and goes on a holiday rampage, punishing those who are naughty.
Santa has an axe to grind, and he is doing it on Christmas.
Among the cast, is scream queen Linnea Quigley.
The set features the theatrical and unrated versions of the movie.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture, English DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Among the extras are a featurette on the history and making of the movie, interviews with filmmakers and actors, a now-and-then look at the movie’s locations, two commentary tracks, an audio interview with director Charles E. Seillier, Jr. and a “Santa’s Stocking of Outrage” featurette.
The White King
Details: 2016, Omnibus Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A story set in a brutal and dictatorial dystopian future that centers on a 12-year-old boy whose father is imprisoned, and the boy and his mother are labeled traitors.
The movie offers elements of George Orwell’s “1984,” as the totalitarian “Homeland” has shut off contact from the outside world, and the landscape is filled with surveillance cameras and propaganda posters.
Before the boy’s father was imprisoned, he passed on a secret that could upend this brutal society and give its people a taste of true freedom.
Technical aspects: 2.35:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital surround and 2.0 stereo; English SDH and closed-captioned subtitles.
Don’t miss: Behind-the-scenes interviews with filmmakers and cast members is the major bonus offering.
Karl Marx City
Details: 2016, Film Movement
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A documentary in which filmmaker Petra Epperlein returns to the former German Democratic Republic, informally known as East Germany, to discover the truth about her late father’s suicide.
Epperlein also seeks to track down rumors about her father’s ties to Stasi, the East German secret police.
She seeks answers to questions about her childhood, trying to separate fact from fiction, as she scours the Stasi archives.
This troubling film examine the impact of living in a police state where every action and idea was suspect and people did not know whom to trust.
Technical aspects: 1.78:1 widescreen picture; German and English 2.0 Dolby digital; English closed-captioned subtitles.
Of Horses and Men
Details: 2013, Music Box Films
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: The relationship between man and horse is examined in this movie that celebrates the connection between human and animal.
The movie is a series of darkly comic vignettes set in a Icelandic village.
The characters in the movie attempt to connect with nature and each other. The film is a tale of love, death and humanity — and a tribute to the majesty of horses.
If you are a lover of horses, then this movie should be on your viewing list.
Technical aspects: 2.35:1 widescreen picture; Icelandic 5.1 Dolby digital; English subtitles.
Gun Runners
Release date: Nov. 28
Details: 2015, Film Movement
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A documentary that looks at Kenyan marathon runners Julius Arile and Robert Matanda, who in their earlier years were running for their lives from law enforcement.
Their early years centered on stealing cattle, other crimes and fleeing the police.
When the two disappeared, many people assumed they were either arrested or dead.
Instead, they turned their backs on their criminal lives and obtained sneakers — with the dream of becoming world-class marathon runners.
The two use the movie to tell their story of redemption and survival.
Technical aspects: 1.78:1 widescreen picture; English 2.0 Dolby digital; English subtitles.
Angry Inuk
Details: 2016, Film Movement
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This movie examines the challenges of the Inuit people, for whom seal meat is a staple.
After hunting the seals, they sell many of the pelts to pay for the extraordinary cost of hunting the animals.
The Inuit cover a vast tract of land and water, and their tiny population faces an overwhelming task of protecting their environment.
They are seeking a sustainable way to take part in the global economy, while opposing them is a vast and well-funded array of activists and well-intentioned celebrities who consider seal hunting barbaric.
The documentary travels through the Canadian Arctic and gives voice to the Inuit whom the activists rarely bother to meet, and the hunters responsible for feeding their families and communities.
Technical aspects: 1.78:1 widescreen picture; English and Inuit 2.0 Dolby digital; English closed-captioned subtitles.
Other titles being released on Tuesday, unless otherwise indicated:
All Male, All Nude (DVD + digital) (Breaking Glass Pictures)
Dawning of the Dead (Uncork’d Entertainment)
Hidden Pictures (DVD + digital) (Breaking Glass Pictures)
Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back (Film Movement)
FOR KIDS
Howard Lovecraft and the Undersea Kingdom (Blu-ray + DVD + digital) (Shout! Factory)
DIGITAL DOWNLOADS and STREAMING
The Adventurers (Well Go USA Entertainment)
Apocalypse Road (Wild Eye Releasing)
Boston (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
Craig Ferguson: Tickle Fight (Netflix)
Dalida (Under the Milky Way)
Fast Convoy (Under the Milky Way)
Flashburn (Level 33)
The Gatehouse (Uncork’d Entertainment)
Stronger (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
Victoria and Abdul (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment)
The Brokenwood Mysteries: Series 4, Episode 2 (Acorn TV, Dec. 11)
East of Everything: Series 1-2 (Acorn TV, Dec. 11)
Love, Lies & Records: Episode 4 (Acorn TV, Dec. 11)
A Place to Call Home: Season 5, Episodes 7 & 8 (Acorn TV, Dec. 11)
Vice Principals: Season 2 (HBO Home Entertainment, Dec. 11)
Coming next week: The Trip to Spain
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.