New to View: Sept. 14

By Bob Bloom
The following titles are being released on Tuesday, Sept. 14, unless otherwise noted:

Black Widow (Blu-ray + digital)
Details: 2021, Marvel Studios
Rated: PG-13, intense sequences of violence & action, language, thematic elements
The lowdown: She may have died in “Avengers: Endgame,” but Natasha Romanoff’s Black Widow lives on in this feature set prior to events in the Avengers movies.
This Marvel Cinematic Universe feature went by in a flash. It was an enjoyable blur of action and CGI pyrotechnics.
You cannot fathom that it runs 133 minutes; it races by that quickly.
And the best part is that it introduces a new star to the MCU — Florence Pugh as Yelena Bolova, sister of Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow of The Avengers.
What is highly exciting about “Black Widow” is the number of women in front of and behind the camera. The vast majority of those who battle Romanoff and Bolova are female adversaries.
The movie, set between the events in “Captain America: Civil War” and “Avengers: Infinity War,” is sort of an origin story about how Romanoff became Black Widow, giving glimpses into her life before joining S.H.I.E.L.D. and becoming an Avenger.
It seems that Romanoff was one in a series of Widows, female assassins and spies, created by Dreykov (Ray Winstone), an evil Soviet spymaster during the Cold War.
The plot is secondary to Romanoff’s emotional journey — regretting many missions she undertook and the lives they claimed.
If this is indeed Johansson’s last hurrah in the MCU (you never can tell in these movies), then it is a fitting goodbye for one of the stalwart performers who has helped make these movies a worldwide phenomenon.
The movie received a respectable 79 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 widescreen picture; English 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and 2.0 descriptive audio and French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus materials include a gag reel, deleted scenes, a featurette on Johansson and Pugh fighting and bonding, a behind-the-scenes look at the movie’s stunts and a filmmaker’s introduction.

The Boss Baby: Family Business (Blu-ray + DVD + digital)
Details: 2021, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Rated: PG, rude humor, mild language, action
The lowdown: Ted and Tim Templeton may now be adults, but Ted flashes back to his Boss Baby past when he and Tim renew their rivalry and make a stunning discovery.
It seems Tim’s baby daughter, Tina, inherited her Uncle Ted’s job as an undercover BabyCorp agent.
Tina is on a secret mission to thwart an evil plan to turn babies into brats — and she needs the help of both brothers.
So, Ted and Tim have to revert to kids for a fun adventure that ultimately reminds them of the true power and meaning of family.
The movie offers some laughs, but also is rather formulaic, which is why it received a tepid 48 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: Blu-ray: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 widescreen picture; English Dolby Atmos; Spanish 7.1 Dolby digital plus, French 5.1 Dolby digital and English 2.0 DVS; 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: Supplemental options include a new short, “Precious Templeton: A Pony Tale,” a featurette on the big babies behind “The Boss Baby: Family Business,” a Boss Baby art class, a music video and a commentary track.

Mare of Easttown (DVD)
Details: 2021, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Rated: Not rated, language, violence, sexual content
The lowdown: This seven-episode HBO series featured a standout performance by Kate Winslet as Detective Mare Sheehan, a dogged investigator in a small, rural Pennsylvania town.
Mare has a lot on her plate, including the disappearance about a year earlier of a local young girl. Added to that, is the recent killing of a teenage girl.
During the episodes, Mare juggles her investigations with the pressures of her personal life, including an ex-husband and his fiancée, a rebellious teenage daughter, her nosy mother and the loss of a son.
The series is top-notch entertainment with solid performances and a twisting story filled with surprises.
Oh, I must comply with FTC obligations and say that “Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of this DVD I reviewed in my column. The opinions I share (as always) are my own.”
Technical aspects: 16:9 widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus materials include a behind-the-scenes look at the set, a making of featurette, a look at Easttown and a “Welcome to Easttown” featurette.

Magnum P.I.: Season Three (DVD)
Details: 2020-21, CBS Studios-Paramount Home Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A four-disc set featuring all 16 third-season episodes of this action-packed CBS series.
Jay Hernandez as Magnum and Perdita Weeks as Higgins work well together as a team sharing some exciting times in Hawaii, including repossessing a plane from a drug cartel, helping an MMA fighter who is being blackmailed to throw a fight and weathering a hurricane.
Between cases, Higgins begins a new relationship with her handsome doctor and Rick continues to manage the most popular tiki bar on the island, along with his best friend and Island Hoppers boss, TC.
It’s fun and adventure in paradise with Magnum on the case.
Technical aspects: 16:9 widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: A gag reel and deleted scenes comprise the extras.

Whirlybird (DVD)
Details: 2020, Greenwich Entertainment-Kino Lorber
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Today, seeing helicopters flying above major news events seems commonplace.
Yet, it was a rather new development in the 1980s.
This documentary looks at a husband-and-wife team who flew high above Los Angeles covering some of the city’s most historic events. And in doing so, they changed how breaking news could be covered.
Their camera did not only capture history it also documented the adrenaline-fueled culture of live news, the strain it took on their relationship and, finally, major life transitions.
The couple, Marika Gerrard and Zoey Tur (known then as Bob), look back on a career doing whatever it took the break the news.
The movie is told through aerial footage and home videos.
Among the pivotal events the movie covers are the L.A. riots and the O.J. Simpson pursuit.
Technical aspects: 1.78:1 (16×9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH subtitles.

SEAL Team: Season Four (DVD)
Release date: Sept. 7
Details: 2020-21, CBS Studios-Paramount Home Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Bravo Team faces many challenges on and off the battlefield in season four of this popular CBS series.
The four-disc set features all 16 episodes as David Boreanaz’s Jason Hayes wrestles with the toll his long career has taken on his professional and personal lives as well as his challenges in guiding an evolving Bravo Team.
Other team members deal with issues on and off the job as well as reaching crossroads in which they must consider their futures.
The cast includes Neil Brown Jr., Max Thieriot, AJ Buckley and Toni Trucks.
Technical aspects: 16:9 widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Supplemental options include deleted scenes, a commentary track on the season opener, an overview of the season, a look at how the series has evolved and a behind-the-scenes look at one of the season’s major sets.

Cold War Creatures: Four Films From Sam Katzman: Limited Edition (Blu-ray)
Details: 1955-57, Arrow Video
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Sam Katzman was the prototype “B” movie producer, squeezing every penny or more out of each dollar he spent on a project. He was called “Jungle Sam” because of the many low-budget features he produced in jungle settings and filled with reels of stock footage of wild animals fighting or just stalking around.
He produced a variety of series pictures in various genres: The East Side Kids and a group of cheapie Bela Lugosi horror outings at Monogram and Jungle Jim at Columbia Pictures.
He also took over serial production at Columbia in the mid-1940s, responsible for such chapterplays as “Superman” and “Atom Man vs. Superman” — in both, every time the Man of Steel took to the air he became a badly animated figure — “Batman and Robin,” and “Blackhawk.”
In the mid- and late 1950s, he produced a series of science fiction-horror movies released by Columbia. Four of these are featured in this set.
The movies are: “Creature with the Atom Brain” (1955), in which a mob boss hires an ex-Nazi scientist to reanimate his dead gangsters; “The Werewolf” (1956), in which an auto-accident survivor is used as a subject for a scientist’s experimental vaccine against nuclear fallout; the side effects, though, are not what he expected. “Zombies of Mora Tau” (1957) deals with treasure hunters seeking a cargo of diamonds that were lost with a sunken ship. Instead, they find zombified crew members guarding the loot. The final film is “The Giant Claw” (1957), about an extraterrestrial bird that is devouring people when it swoops down.
This latter movie is better known for the ridiculous looking giant bird created for the movie. It is claimed that, to save money, Katzman outsourced the special effects to a company in Mexico and its creation, which looks like an angry Thanksgiving turkey, is what he got back.
Among the performers featured in these films are such regular sci-fi stalwarts as Jeff Morrow, Richard Denning, Morris Ankrum, Mara Corday and Harry Lauter.
The directors include Columbia regulars Edward L. Cahn and Fred F. Sears.
These movies are campy fun, features to watch while munching on some popcorn and enjoying the pre-CGI cheap-as-they-come special effects.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English LPCM monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include commentary tracks and featurettes on all four movies; Super 8 versions of “The Giant Claw “Creature with the Atom Brain” and “The Werewolf”; a 60-page collector’s book with essays about each film; an 80-page art book with reproduction stills and artwork from each movie; two double-sided posters; and reversible sleeves with original artwork for each title.

Arabesque (Blu-ray)
Details: 1966, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren costar in this mystery thriller filled with international intrigue and some romance.
Peck portrays an American hieroglyphics professor hired by a mysterious Arab oil magnate to decipher a secret message.
The message’s revelation ignites a chase in which the professor and the magnate’s exotic and impulsive companion, played by Loren, find themselves involved in an assassination plot.
The film was directed by Stanley Donen, who, a couple of years earlier, had directed the mystery-romantic comedy “Charade” with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn.
He tried to bring the same appeal to “Arabesque,” but Peck, though an Academy Award-winning actor, was no Grant.
The movie, which garnered a 69 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, featured a stylish score by Henry Mancini.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.35:1 widescreen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include an archival featurette with Mancini and columnist Leonard Feather and a commentary track.

Bluebeard (Blu-ray)
Details: 1963, Kino Lorber
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: New Wave French director Claude Chabrol views World War I-era France through the lens of serial killer Henri Désiré Landru, who charms and murders wealthy older women for their money.
Landru, a seemingly respectable Parisian, devises his devious scheme to supplement his income, which is quickly decreasing during the war.
Landru woos these women, convinces them to let him handle their fortunes and then disposes of them.
The supporting cast includes Michêle Morgan, Danielle Darrieux, Hildegard Knef, Juliette Mayniel, Stéphane Audran, Catherine Rouvel, Francoise Lugagne and Mary Marquet.
In 1947, the tale of Bluebeard served as the comic premise for Charlie Chaplin’s “Monsieur Verdoux.”
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.66:1 widescreen picture; French 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: A commentary track is the main extra.

Dead Pigs (DVD)
Details: 2018, Film Movement
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A social satire from China about the travails of a disparate group of individuals caught up in a baffling nationwide mystery.
The movie shifts between Shanghai and the neighboring provincial town of Jiaxing. The movie follows an unlucky pig farmer, a feisty homeowner defending her property, a lovesick busboy, a disenchanted rich girl and an American expat chasing the Chinese Dream.
Their destinies converge as thousands of dead pigs are discovered floating down the Huangpu River.
The quirky and engaging movie, which marked the debut of director Cathy Yan, received a 97 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 200:1 widescreen picture; Chinese and English 5.1 Dolby digital; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: A short film, “Limitation of Life,” is the main bonus offering.

Masquerade (Blu-ray)
Details: 1965, Kino Lorber
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Cliff Robertson and Jack Hawkins star in this semi-comical spy caper in which the British government is negotiating with an oil-rich Middle East nation, Ramaut, to allow in British drilling companies.
Ramaut suddenly and unexpectedly withdraws from the negotiations, which upsets British officials.
British Col. Drexel (Hawkins) is put in charge of a covert operation to kidnap Ramaut prince, Jamil (Christopher Witty), as a bargaining chip to force an agreement between the two countries.
Drexel brings in American David Frazer (Robertson) to help, but Frazer discovers someone else has plans for the prince.
The movie is more satire than thriller. It costars Marisa Mell, Michel Piccoli, Bill Fraser and Charles Gray.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.66:1 widescreen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: A commentary track is the main extra.

Rififi in Paris (Blu-ray)
Details: 1966, Kino Lorber
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Veteran French star Jean Gabin stars in this crime thriller about a veteran gold smuggler who is at war with other gangsters who want a piece of his action.
Adding to his problems is a coin-tossing Mafioso, portrayed by Hollywood veteran George Raft, as well as the United States Treasury Department.
The international cast is filled with familiar faces, including Gert Fröbe (“Goldfinger”), Nadja Tiller, Claude Brasseur, Marcel Bozzuffi, Jean-Claude Bercq and Mireille Darc.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.35:1 widescreen picture; French 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: A commentary track is the major extra.

Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters (DVD)
Details: 2020, Kino Lorber
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A documentary that traces the creative process that resulted in choreographer-dancer-director Bill T. Jones’ ballet, “D-Man in the Waters.”
This is now considered one of the most important works of art to come out of the AIDS crisis.
In 1989, the ballet gave a physical presence to the fear, anger, grief and hope for salvation that the emerging Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company felt about the epidemic.
As a group of young dancers reinterpret the work, they deepen their understanding of its power and its impact on their personal lives.
The movie uses the story of this dance to illustrate the power of art and the triumph of the human spirit.
Technical aspects: 1.78:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH and closed-captioned subtitles.
Don’t miss: Deleted scenes comprise the main bonus option.

Blue Panther (Blu-ray)
Details: 1965, Kino Lorber
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: French director Claude Chabrol tackled the Eurospy genre in this tale about a young woman, Marie-Chantel, entrusted by a secret agent with a jewel in the shape of a panther with ruby eyes.
What Marie-Chantel does not know is that jewel contains a virus powerful enough to destroy all mankind.
Veteran Hollywood character actor Akim Tamiroff plays the evil Doctor Kha, who is one of many spies from various nations eager to get their hands on the panther.
Marie-Chantel, though, is up to the task of evading all attacks with her cool cunning and panther-like qualities that allow her to best the many foes she must face.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.66:1 widescreen picture; French 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: A commentary track is the major bonus component.

Death Screams: Limited Edition (Blu-ray)
Details: 1982, Arrow Video
Rated: R, graphic and bloody violence, language
The lowdown: The most curious aspect of this run-of-the-mill slasher film is that it was directed by David Nelson, the older brother on the white bread, family sitcom “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,” which also featured his younger brother, singing star Ricky Nelson.
“Death Screams,” also known as “House of Death,” centers on a crazed killer who stalks a group of cliched characters played by young actors who are rather bland and wooden.
The killer uses a machete, so you know that a lot of blood is going to flow on the screen.
Still, if you are fan of the genre, than you might enjoy this formulaic feature.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English LPCM monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include two commentary tracks, a making of featurette, a “House of Death” alternate VHS opening titles, a BD-ROM with two versions of the screenplay and a booklet about the movie.

Other titles being released on Tuesday, unless otherwise indicated:
Censor (DVD & VOD) (Magnet-Magnolia Home Entertainment)
Divine Love (DVD & VOD) (Outsider Pictures)
Fish & Men (DVD) (Virgil Films-Kino Lorber)
The Influencer (DVD & VOD) (Breaking Glass Pictures)
Skinwalker: The Howl of the Rougarou (Blu-ray & DVD & VOD) (Small Town Monsters)
Zola (Blu-ray + digital & DVD) (Lionsgate Home Entertainment

FOR KIDS
Perfect Blue: Steelbook (Blu-ray & DVD) (GKids-Shout! Factory)

DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, STREAMING or VOD
Ema (Music Box Films)
The Forever Purge (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment)
Lady Usher (Indican Pictures)
Together (Bleecker Street)
A La Calle (To the Street) (HBO Max, Sept. 15)
My Heroes Were Cowboys (www.netflix.com/myheroeswerecowboys) (Netflix, Sept. 16)
Apartment 413 (Terror Films, Sept. 17)
The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain (Gravitas Ventures, Sept. 17)
Lady of the Manor (Lionsgate Home Entertainment, Sept. 17)
Last Night in Rozzie (Gravitas Ventures, Sept. 17)
The Morning Show: Season 2 (Apple TV+, Sept. 17)
Savior for Sale (Greenwich Entertainment, Sept. 17)
The Suicide Squad (Warner Home Entertainment, Sept. 17)
The Wonderful: Stories From the Space Station (Universal Pictures)

Coming next week: Cruella

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.