New to View: Feb. 23

By Bob Bloom
The following titles are being released on Tuesday, Feb. 23, unless otherwise noted:
The Croods: A New Age (4K UHD + Blu-ray + digital & Blu-ray + DVD + digital)
Details: 2020, Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Rated: PG, peril, action, rude humor
The lowdown: In this animated sequel, the Croods must leave their cave and find a new home.
Out in the world, they discover a walled-in abode created by another family, The Bettermans.
As the two families attempt to co-exist, their differences erupt into a full-blown feud.
However, a new threat forces the families to put aside their problems and work together — or else face extinction.
The funny and sweet film, which earned a 77 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, features the vocal talents of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Peter Dinklage, Catherine Keener and the late Cloris Leachman.
Technical aspects: 4K: 2160p UDH: 2.35:1 widescreen picture; English Dolby Atmos, Spanish 7.1 Dolby digital plus and French 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles; Blu-ray: 1080p high definition, 2.35:1 widescreen picture; English Dolby Atmos and 2.0 DVS, Spanish 7.1 Dolby digital plus and French 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles; DVD: 2.35:1 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 options include three new animated shorts, “Family Movie Night: Little Red Bronana Bread,” “Dear Diary: World’s First Pranks” and “To: Gerald”; deleted scenes; a “How to Draw: Caveman Style” featurette; a gag reel; “The Croods Family Album” featurette, which includes a look at the cast members; a featurette on the evolution of the franchise; a video on how to make your own prehistoric family album; a three-part “Stone Age Snack Attack,” with easy-to-make recipes; and a commentary track.

Pump Up the Volume (Blu-ray)
Details: 1990, Warner Archive Collection
Rated: R, language
The lowdown: Christian Slater stars as Mark Hunter, a shy new kid in a small Arizona town.
At night, though, Mark takes on the persona of Hard Harry, a cynical, uncensored DJ of a pirate radio station.
Hard Harry is adored by his high school classmates, who are unaware that he walks among them.
Harry’s uncensored and funny monologues on sex, love and rock ‘n’ roll make him a hero.
But trouble brews when Harry exposes the corrupt school principal. She calls in the FCC to shut Harry down.
The film contains one of Slater’s best performances and, while it is a bit uneven at times, it is a celebration of free speech, which was awarded an 81 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
The release is a made-on-demand Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection and can be found at www.wb.com/warnerarchive, warnerarchive.com or other online sellers.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles.

Horizon Line (Blu-ray + digital)
Release date: Feb. 16
Details: 2020, Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Rated: PG-13, language, bloody injury images, suggestive material, partial nudity, smoking, drug use
The lowdown: Sarah and Jackson, a former couple, board a single-engine plane for a routine flight to their friend’s tropical island wedding.
Soon after takeoff, however, their pilot suffers a fatal heart attack. Neither Sarah nor Jackson knows how to land a plane, they don’t even know where they are and, to make matters even worse, they are heading into a storm.
The film’s premise sounds intriguing and exciting, but it lacks urgency and is undercut by a couple of dreary protagonists and a few preposterous situations.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and 2.0 DVS; English SDH and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Deleted scenes comprise the extras.

The Other Side of the Mountain / The Other Side of the Mountain 2 double feature (Blu-ray)
Details: 1975, 1978, Kino Lorber
Rated: PG
The lowdown: If you enjoy schmaltzy love stories than these two films, based on the life of Olympic hopeful skier Jill Kinmont (Marilyn Hassett).
“The Other Side of the Mountain” (1975) details the devastating accident that left her paralyzed from the neck down and her determination to regain much of what she lost.
She is aided by her fiancé, family and friends. The movie costars Beau Bridges, Dabney Coleman, Belinda J. Montgomery and Nan Martin.
In lazily-titles “The Other Side of the Mountain 2,” Kinmont returns with her mother to her childhood home in rural California to deal with the death of an old friend and try to overcome the memories of her accident.
She meets a young trucker, they fall in love, court and marry.
The movie returns Hassett and Martin and also features Timothy Bottoms.
Both movies were directed by Larry Peerce.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English DTS-HD; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: The main extra is an interview with Peerce.

7 Yards: The Chris Norton Story
Details: 2021, Virgil Films-Kino Lorber
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This inspiring documentary focuses on a young man who, at 18, suffered a debilitating spinal cord injury during a college football game.
Doctors gave him a 3 percent chance of moving again, but, with resilience and the help of his fiancé, Emily, family members and friends, he defied the odds.
Norton underwent years of physical therapy and training. His story went viral in 2015 when he successfully walked across the college graduation state with the help of Emily.
Soon after, Chris and Emily set an ambitious goal — to walk seven yards side-by-side down their wedding aisle.
This is one of those feel-good stories you watch on a cold and bleak winter’s day to warm your heart and soul.
Technical aspects: 2.37:1 widescreen picture; English 2.0 Dolby digital; English closed-captioned subtitles.

Shogun’s Joy of Torture (Blu-ray)
Details: 1968, Arrow Films
Rated: Not rated, torture, violence, nudity, sexual situations
The lowdown: Director Teruo Ishii helmed a series of movies in Japan labeled “Ero guro” (“erotic-grotesque”) of which “Shogun’s Joy of Torture” was the first.
The film is an anthology, telling three stories. The first concerns an injured worker whose sister is forced to give herself to her brother’s boss to help pay his doctor bills. The second features the arrival of a new abbess and her servant at a monastery and her arousal after seeing a young priest from a nearby temple.
The last story follows a tattoo artist who does his work while watching Christian missionaries undergo torture.
These movies are not for everyone’s tastes, but they offer a glimpse of Japanese cinema not often seen in this country.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 widescreen picture; Japanese LPCM monaural; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include a featurette on the history of torture in Japanese exploitation films, an interview with author Patrick Macias about Ishii and a commentary track.

Filmworker (Blu-ray)
Release date: Feb. 16
Details: 2018, Kino Lorber
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Leon Vitali was a promising young British actor. Probably his best-known role was that of Lord Bullingdon in Stanley Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon.”
Vitali’s Bullingdon is the one who shoots Ryan O’Neal’s Barry Lyndon in the duel near the end of the movie.
The experience of working with Kubrick changed Vitali’s life. Vitali gave up acting and resolved to devote the rest of his life working for Kubrick.
And, as director Tony Zierra shows in this documentary, that is exactly what Vitali did.
Vitali worked behind the scenes doing a variety of jobs — casting director, acting coach, location scouter, sound engineer, color corrector, assistant director, promoter and, eventually, the restorer of Kubrick’s movies.
Zierra profiles Vitali, who preferred the self-created title of “filmworker,” as Vitali recounts his days with Kubrick, whose genius also showed a dark side. He could be a tyrant and dysfunctional, but, through it all, Vitali remained steadfast.
The movie details the personal and professional costs of Vitali’s decision as well as showing his pride and sacrifice.
Most of all, the movie underlines how the making of a film is a collaborative process, which needs people such as Leon Vitali.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.78:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: The major extra is a question-and-answer session with Vitali and Zierra.

Santo in The Treasure of Dracula: The Sexy Vampire Version (Blu-ray)
Release date: Feb. 9
Details: 1968, VCI Entertainment-MVD Visual Entertainment
Rated: not rated, nudity, violence
The lowdown: In this Mexican luchador movie, the masked wrestler Santo invents a time machine to return to the past the find the hidden treasure of Dracula. Santo wants to use the treasure to help fund a children’s hospital.
But in his quest, Santo is forced to battle Dracula as well as his beautiful vampire women.
The original family version of the movie was released in 1969 in black and white and did not contain nudity.
This release is the version, shot simultaneously, in color and featuring nudity for the European market. It was released in 2012 after much wrangling.
Fans of luchador films should enjoy this outing.
Unfortunately, the audio track is the English dubbed version; no Spanish-language version is available.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 (16×9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English dubbed LCPM monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include a comparison between the original and 2012 versions of the movie and a look ahead at future Santo movies.

You Never Had It — An Evening With Bukowski (DVD)
Details: 2016, Slamdance-Kino Lorber
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This 53-minute documentary captures a night of drinking and talking about literature, sex, childhood and humanity with cult writer Charles Bukowski.
The movie shot in 1981 is based on a video interview conducted by producer and journalist Silvia Bizio with the author and his soon-to-be wife, Linda Lee Beighle, at their home in San Pedro, Calif.
The film was shot on tape, which was later digitized and edited with new shots of contemporary Los Angeles and poems read by Bukowski.
Fans of his work will appreciate this personal look at Bukowski, which is humorous and sobering.
Technical aspects: 1.78:1 widescreen and 1.33:1 (16×9 enhanced) full-screen picture; English 2.0 Dolby digital; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: An interview with Bizio is the main extra.

Wild West Days (Blu-ray)
Release date: Feb. 9
Details: 1937, VCI Entertainment-MVD Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Johnny Mack Brown began his career in silent “A” movies at MGM, where he costarred with, among others, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer.
The former Alabama All-American also starred in a Western for the studio, “Billy the Kid.”
After leaving MGM, Brown began a long and successful career as a Western star in serials and B-pictures for various studios, including Universal and Monogram.
At Universal, he starred in three serials; “Wild West Days” was the first.
In this 13-chapter Western, Brown plays retired lawman Kentucky Wade, who along with a trio of sidekicks, helps his friend Larry Munro and Munro’s sister, Lucy, deal with outlaws wanting the Munro ranch as well as a platinum mine located on the ranch’s property.
Wade and his pals face several dangers, including hostile Indians, before defeating the outlaws and saving the ranch and mine for Larry and his sister.
Like many Universal Western serials, “Wild West Days” utilizes stock footage from earlier Buck Jones serials as well as sequences that goes back to the silent era.
Still, Brown is a striking figure in his all-black outfit and riding a white horse.
The cast includes George Shelley, Frank Yaconeilli and Bob Kortman — in a rare heroic role — as Kentucky’s friends, Frank McGlynn Jr. and Lynn Gilbert as Larry and Lucy Munro and Russell Simpson, Walter Miller, Charlie Stevens, Francis McDonald and Al Bridge as the bad guys.
The serial, restored from the studio masters, looks and sounds excellent — way above earlier releases of the movie.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen picture; English Dolby digital monaural; English SDH subtitles.

Hard to Hold (Blu-ray)
Details: 1984, Kino Lorber
Rated: PG
The lowdown: Rock singer Rick Springfield in another romantic drama directed by Larry Peerce (“The Other Side of the Mountain.”
Springfield plays rock star Jamie Roberts who falls in love with a child psychologist who loves classical music and has never heard of Roberts.
Complications abound when Roberts former girlfriend, who remains a member of his band, isn’t ready to give him up.
The soundtrack is better than the movie, featuring songs by Springfield, Peter Gabriel, Graham Parker and Nona Hendryx.
The cast includes Jane Eilber as child psychologist Diane Lawson, Patti Hansen (George Harrison’s ex-wife) as jealous ex-girlfriend Nicky Nides and character actor Albert Salmi.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English DTS-HD; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus materials include an interview with Peerce and a commentary track.

Gang Busters (Blu-ray)
Release date: Jan. 19
Details: 1942, VCI Entertainment-MVD Visual Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: “Gang Busters” originated as a popular radio show that dramatized real cases from law enforcement agencies around the country.
This 13-chapter serial, while highlighting such police investigative techniques as fingerprinting, ballistics and other police-lab technologies to help solve crimes, also takes a step into the mad-scientist realm popular in  many Universal Pictures features of that era.
Ralph Morgan plays Professor Mortis who uses scientific methods to resurrect executed criminals and recruit them for his “League of Murdered Men.” Under Mortis’ direction, the professor’s gangsters unleash a wave of terror on a city. Their aim to throw the city’s entire administration, including the mayor, police chief and his department, out of office.
Opposing Mortis and his gang is Detective Bill Bannister (Kent Taylor) and his partner, Detective Tim Nolan (Robert Armstrong). Also helping is newspaper reporter Vicki Logan (Irene Harvey) and her colleague, “Happy” Haskins (Richard Davies).
Aiding Morgan’s Mortis are such character actors as William Haade, Ralf Harolde and George J. Lewis.
The serial has been restored from original 35mm film masters and is definitely an upgrade from earlier releases of the serial.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 (4×3) full-screen picture; English Dolby Digital monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Among the extras are a cartoon, “A Tale of Two Kitties”; and a coming soon look at the serial, “Junior G-Men of the Air.”

Port of Freedom (Blu-ray)
Details: 1944, Kino Lorber
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This German film, produced during 1944, stars Hans Albers, a very popular actor whose career stretched from the silent era until 1960, the year which he died.
He was the most popular German actor of the 1930s and ‘40s.
In “Port of Freedom,” Albers plays a former sailor who works as an entertainer, playing his accordion in the streets of Hamburg’s red-light district.
When he meets Gisa, a young farm girl, his spark of life is reawakened. He soon is torn between his love for the young woman and the siren call of the sea.
The movie, directed by Helmut Käutner, shows how independent-minded artists were able to get around the demands of the Nazi-run film industry during the Third Reich.
Unlike many German films of the era, “Port of Freedom” is not a celebration of Nazi might, but rather a melancholy ode to lost love and happier times.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen picture; German audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: A commentary track is the main bonus component.

Alone With Her Dreams (DVD)
Details: 2019, Corinth Films
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This sensitive feature, set in the late 1960s in Sicily, centers on Lucia, who is left behind with her grandmother when her parents emigrate to France to find work.
Lucia is upset that she has been left behind. Under the watchful eye of her strict grandmother, Lucia struggles to find her place in the tiny, traditional village. She also strives to understand her grandmother, who hides a terrible family secret that can endanger the young girl’s well-being.
This coming-of-age story is touching and driven by the performances of Marta Castiglia as Lucia and Lucia Sardo as her grandmother.
Technical aspects: 1.85:1 widescreen picture; Italian Dolby digital; English subtitles.

The Allnighter (Blu-ray)
Details: 1987, Kino Lorber
Rated: PG-13, language
The lowdown: Susanna Hoffs, lead singer of The Bangles, stars as Molly in this cheesy movie directed by Hoffs’ mother, Tamar Simon Hoffs.
The storyline is Molly’s frustration about spending four years at a California surf-side college without a significant romantic experience. Molly, though, is determined to do something about that.
She is helped by her two roommates, one of whom is played by the always-dependable Joan Cusack. The young women prepare for the hottest party of the year, hoping for the most memorable night of their lives.
The movie, which was mostly panned on its release, does feature an interesting supporting cast, including Pam Grier, Meshach Taylor, Todd Field and Michael Ontkean.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English DTS-HD; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include two commentary tracks and a music video.

Other titles being released on Tuesday, unless otherwise indicated:
Butchers (DVD) (Breaking Glass Pictures)
Collective (DVD & VOD) (Magnolia Home Entertainment)
Last Call (Blu-ray & DVD & digital) (Mill Creek Entertainment)
My Name Is Pedro (DVD & VOD) (Passion River)
Wrong Turn (Blu-ray + digital & DVD) (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
Watching TV With the Red Chinese (MVD Visual Entertainment, Feb. 9)

FOR KIDS
Scooby-Doo! The Sword and the Scoob (Warner Home Entertainment)

DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, STREAMING or VOD
Donna: Stronger Than Pretty (Gravitas Ventures)
Pinocchio (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
The Pond (Shout! Studios)
Playing for Keeps: Season 2, Episode 2 (Sundance Now, Feb. 25)
Trans in Trumpland (Transwave Films-Topic, Feb. 25)
Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry (Neon-Apple+, Feb. 26)
Safer at Home (Vertical Entertainment, Feb. 26)
The Vigil (IFC Midnight, Feb. 26)
Painting With John (HBO Home Entertainment, Feb. 27)
The Astrology of Pandemics (Amazon, March 1)
Cat Hospital (Acorn TV, March1)
China Love (Sundance Now, March 1)
Law & Order UK: Series 3 (Acorn TV, March 1)
Monday, Monday (Acorn TV, March 1)
Ruth: Justice Ginsburg in Her Own Words (Starz, March 1)

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.