New to View: Dec. 12
By Bob Bloom
The following titles are being released on Tuesday, Dec. 12, unless otherwise noted:
The Creator (Blu-ray + digital)
Details: 2023, Fox-Disney-Buena Vista
Rated: PG-13, violence, bloody images, language
The lowdown: A futuristic thriller set against the backdrop of a war between humans and A.I.
Joshua (John David Washington), a former special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife, Maya (Gemma Chan), is recruited to kill an A.I. architect who has developed a mysterious weapon that could end the human race.
Joshua and his elite team of operatives cross into A.I. territory only to discover that this ultimate A.I. weapon is in the form of a young child (newcomer Madeleine Yuna Voyles).
The movie, directed by Gareth Edwards (“Star Wars: Rogue One,’ “Godzilla”) and written by Edwards and Chris Weitz, makes a strong argument that supports the use of artificial intelligence, but at 133 minutes, the uneven pacing has the film lagging at times.
The, cast which also includes Ken Watanabe and Allison Janney, received a 66 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.76:1 widescreen picture; English 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, 2.0 Dolby digital descriptive audio and French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus features include an extensive making of featurette with Edwards and cast and crew members that goes behind the scenes to look at various aspects of the production.
The Warriors: Limited Edition (4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray)
Details: 1979, Arrow Video
Rated: R, violence, language, sexual references
The lowdown: This cult favorite, like a few other movies in the 1970s, reinforces the perception by some around the country of a crime-infested, wild-west New York City where the police are powerless and the bad guys — in this case street gangs — rule the city.
The movie, directed by Walter Hill, is basically an overnight odyssey as nine members the Warriors travel from their home turf in Brooklyn to the Bronx for a summit of the city’s major gangs led by the charismatic Cyrus.
But when Cyrus is assassinated, the Warriors are blamed and must flee back to Coney Island. Except a bounty has been placed on their heads and every gang in the city is out to get them.
This is an action-packed, kinetic, energetic and visually exciting movie that, even 40-plus years after its release, still provides grindhouse thrills.
The cast includes Michael Beck, James Remar, Dorsey Wright, Deborah Van Valkenburgh, David Harris, Brian Tyler and David Patrick Kelly.
This edition features the theatrical cut and a 2005 alternate version of the movie.
Technical aspects: 4K: 2160p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English Dolby Atmos and 7.1 Dolby TrueHD; English SDH subtitles; Blu-ray: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, 2.0 LPCM and LPCM monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus materials include an archival introduction by Hill, a new interview with Hill, archive featurettes, a new appreciation of composer Barry De Vorzon and the film’s music, a look at the New York and Brooklyn locations, a featurette on the costume designs and an interview with costume designer Bobbie Mannix, an interview with editor Billy Weber, a commentary track, a roundtable discussion about the movie and the work of Hill, a 100-page collectible book, gang logo stickers, six postcard-sized art cards and double-sided, fold-out poster.
Fremont (Blu-ray)
Details: 2023, Music Box Films
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This tender, black-and-white movie is about Donya (Anaita Wali Zada), a former Afghan translator for the U.S. government, who now lives alone in Fremont, Calif.
Each morning she travels across the bay to her job at a family-run fortune cookie factory in San Francisco.
Donya is struggling to assimilate and connect with the culture and people in her new country. Donna is seeing a therapist regularly, who advises her to process her complicated feelings about her past in Afghanistan.
When Donya is promoted at work, she finds a chance to write her own story through the fortune messages inside each cookie.
Soon, her world is expanding beyond Fremont as she finds a connection with Daniel (Jeremy Allen White of “The Bear”), a quiet auto mechanic looking to expand his world as well.
Director-cowriter Babak Jalali’s film is a sweet, low-key experience that earned an impressive 97 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.33:1 full-screen picture; English and Dari 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles.
Looney Tunes: Collector’s Choice: Vol. 2 (Blu-ray)
Details: 1939-61, Warner Archive Collection
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A disc with 25 more Looney Tunes featuring Bugs Bunny, the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Porky Pig, Foghorn Leghorn, Elmer Fuddy, Tweety and Sylvester.
The talents of an all-star cast of directors, such as Chuck Jones, Frank Tashlin, Friz Freling, Tex Avery and Robert McKimson, also are on display.
The pun-heavy titles include “Brother Brat,” “Catty Cornered,” “Fair and Worm-er,” “From Hand to Mouse,” “Hamateur Night,” “Hiss and Make Up,” “The Leghorn Blows at Midnight” “One Meat Brawl,” “Lickety-Splat” and “The Rebel Without Claws.”
Looney Tunes fans will enjoy these animated shorts, most of which move at a Road Runner-like pace. And, please note, some of these cartoons are intended for adults and may not be suitable for children.
The Blu-ray can be ordered at www.moviezyng.com or other online sellers.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 (16×9 enhanced) full-screen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural and Spanish Dolby digital; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.
The Road Dance (DVD)
Details: 2021, Music Box Films
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Kirsty (Hermione Corfield) lives in a small, remote village in the Outer Scottish Hebrides. She is a young woman craving adventure and a new life away from the Hebrides.
She manages to find comfort with the time she spends with her mother and sister. She also hopes for a future with Murdo (Will Fletcher), an intelligent and curious poet. The two fall in love as World War I quickly approaches. Murdo is soon conscripted to join the other men of the village to fight.
As a farewell gesture, the village hosts a road dance, a celebration attended by every resident. However, an unspeakable act shatters the sense of community and changes Kirsty’s life.
The movie, which earned an 81 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, is a story of adversity and resilience that deftly captures the attitudes of its time, though it does fall back on a few cliches, with Corfield’s performance serving as the movie’s solid foundation.
Technical aspects: 2.39:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: A live fiddle solo and a look at the Isle of Lewis comprise the extras.
The Quatermass Xperiment: Special Edition (Blu-ray)
Details: 1955, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Nigel Kneale’s BBC television serial was transformed to the screen by Hammer Films and its success helped transform the studio, setting it on the path to its horror-film future.
American actor Brian Donlevy is a prickly anti-hero as scientist Professor Bernard Quatermass who investigates what happened to the crew of an experimental space craft he launched.
The ship, which contained three astronauts, returns with only one on board and he is suffering from a mysterious malady.
It seems his body has been taken over by an alien fungus that needs blood to survive. The astronaut escapes from the hospital and slowly transforms into a monster that attacks anyone who gets in its way.
Quatermass must cope with a Lomax (Jack Warner), a dogged Scotland Yard detective, in tracking down the creature before it attacks more victims.
The movie was directed by Val Guest. In America it was released as “The Creeping Unknown,” and it garnered an 88 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.66:1 widescreen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Supplemental materials include an interview with director John Carpenter about the movie; two commentary tracks, one with film historian-screenwriter Gary Gerani, and the other with Guest, moderated by film historian Marcus Hearn; an interview of Guest by Hearn; an alternate main title; two featurettes, “The Quatermass Xperiment: From Reality to Fiction” and “The Quatermass Xperiment: Comparing the Versions.”
The Terror: Special Edition (Blu-ray)
Details: 1963, Film Masters
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson star in this supernatural story set during the Napoleonic era.
The movie is better known for its convoluted history that includes the use of five directors, starting with Roger Corman, that fact that Karloff was hired was just two days of shooting, the movie was begun without a completed script and the sets used were left-overs from Corman’s “The Raven.”
So, the movie: Nicholson plays a French soldier in 1806 lost in the Confederation of the Rhine, who is saved by a young woman who bears a resemblance to the late wife of Baron von Leppe (Karloff).
The movie features a ghost, a witch, a strange raven, secret identities and darker deeds.
The film spotlights Corman’s spooky, horror-loving side. The Blu-ray also spotlights Corman’s whimsical nature with the inclusion of “The Little Shop of Horrors,” in which Jonathan Haze stars as a bumbling florist’s assistant who creates a giant plant that craves human blood.
Nicholson has a delightful cameo as a dental patient with a high threshold for pain.
Younger moviegoers may remember the musical remake of “Little Shop” with Rick Moranis and Steve Martin.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio; English closed-captioned.
Don’t miss: Supplemental materials include commentary tracks on both movies, a visual essay, “Ghosts in the Machine: Art & Artifice in Roger Corman’s Celluloid Castle,” and “Hollywood Intruders: The Filmgroup Story: Part Two.”
The Ballad of Little Jo (Blu-ray)
Release date: Dec. 5
Details: 1993, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: R, violence, language
The lowdown: In this modern take to the classic Western, Suzy Amis stars as Josephine Monoghan, a society girl who leaves home in disgrace after bearing an illegitimate child.
Traveling West, Josephine learns that a woman traveling alone is a sexual target for any man, so she disguises herself as a boy.
As Little Jo, she head-on meets the myriad of dangers the Wild West has to offer, including deadly winters and killer outlaws.
Her most risky enemy is her heart, when she risks everything by falling in love with the man who discovers her secret.
The film, written and directed by Maggie Greenwald, features Bo Hopkins, Ian McKellen, David Chung, Heather Graham, Anthony Heald, Melissa Leo, René Auberjonois and Carrie Snodgrass.
The movie received a 76 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus materials include a commentary track with Greenwald and cinematographer Declan Quinn and an interview with Amis.
Stella Maris (Blu-ray + DVD)
Details: 1918, VCI Entertainment-MVD Visual Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Iconic silent film star Mary Pickford plays dual roles in this film, which is different from most of the films she had previously made.
The story revolves around two women from different strata’s of society — the rich, born paralyzed Stella Maris, who has never left her opulent London home and knows nothing of the outside world, and Unity Blake, a deformed and abused orphan who is badly beaten by her mistress, Louise (Marcia Manon). Stella and Unity are portrayed by Pickford.
Stella is frequently visited by John Risca (Conway Tearle), a journalist stuck in a loveless marriage to Louise.
When Louise is jailed for beating Unity, the maid falls in love with John, whom Stella also loves.
Complications arise, of course, when Louise is released from prison. The film contains a few contortions that allow a happy ending for Stella and John, retribution for Louise and sacrifice by Unity.
Behind the camera were two of Pickford’s frequent collaborators — director Marshall Neilan and screenwriter Frances Marion. Also noteworthy is the trick photography created by cinematographer Walter Stradling.
The movie’s restoration was a project by the Mary Pickford Foundation and the Paramount Film Archives to collect all available elements in the Pickford collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Library of Congress.
Pickford and silent-film fans will be pleased with this edition of a milestone Pickford movie.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen picture; English intertitles Dolby digital stereo musical score.
Don’t miss: Bonus options include a commentary track with author-film historian Marc Wanamaker, a 1909 short film “The Mountaineer’s Honor” and a liner notes pictorial booklet by the Mary Pickford Foundation.
Before, Now & Then (DVD)
Details: 2022, Film Movement
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This Indonesian import centers on Nana, the beautiful wife of a wealthy plantation owner. Nana values her safety and material comforts above all else.
She also lives a haunted existence, dreaming of her deceased first husband, murdered in the civil war a decade earlier in the Indonesian Revolution.
Nana, forced to confront her husband’s unconcealed infidelity, makes an unusual connection with his younger mistress. The two begin sharing secrets and desires, discovering along the way, a newfound freedom and intimacy withheld from them by the strictures of their patriarchal society.
This emotional and poignant period piece earned a 100 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 2:1 widescreen picture; Indonesian 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby digital; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: An Indonesian short film, “Following Diana,” is the main extra.
The Questor Tapes (Blu-ray)
Release date: Dec. 5
Details: 1974, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This made-for-TV movie, from a story by Gene Roddenberry — who cowrote the screenplay with Gene L. Coon — deals with Questor (Robert Foxworth), an android that is able to take on humanity’s greatest minds.
Questor, though, cannot find the answer to one vital question — the location of its genius inventor, Dr. Vaslovik (Lew Ayres). He also seeks half of the tapes that provide detailed instructions about how his creation can benefit humanity.
Questor, with a nuclear time bomb counting down in his chest, must rely on the help of another scientist, Dr. Jerry Robinson (Mike Farrell), to help solve the mystery of its origin.
Roddenberry may have had thoughts of transforming “The Questor Tapes” into a television series, but that never happened.
However, it seems Questor was the inspiration for the character of Data in “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.33:1 full-screen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: A commentary track by screenwriter-film historian Gary Gerani is the main extra.
Mercy Road (Blu-ray)
Details: 2023, Well Go USA Entertainment
Rated: R, language
The lowdown: A frantic father commits an impulsive and vicious crime while searching for his missing daughter, forcing him to go on the run from law enforcement.
He soon begins receiving chilling phone calls from an unknown person who claims to know his daughter’s whereabouts.
As he faithfully follows the caller’s increasingly unhinged instructions, he continues moving very close to the edge of sanity while discovering how far he is willing to go to save his child.
The Australian film is a dark, compelling and creative thriller, at 86 minutes, should keep you engrossed.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 16:9 widescreen picture; English and Spanish 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English and Spanish SDH subtitles.
Radical Wolfe (DVD)
Details: 2023, Kino Lorber
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A documentary that looks at the career and cultural impact of writer Tom Wolfe, who began as a beat reporter at “The Washington Post,” and became an overnight sensation as the leader of the New Journalism movement.
In his writings, Wolfe went beyond the traditional “who, what, where, when, why and how” of journalism to cover topics and peoples that most mainstream newspapers either overlooked or neglected.
He was able to bridge cultural and class divides while writing about subjects central to American life in fiction and nonfiction.
His books, “The Right Stuff,” “The Bonfire of the Vanities” and “Man in Full” told memorable stories about the 20th century.
“Radical Wolfe” is a personal and revealing look at the man, best known for wearing his white suit no matter what the season.
The movie features interviews with colleagues and friends such as Michael Lewis, Jann Wenner, Gay Talese, Lynn Nesbitt, Christopher Buckley and Alexandra Wolfe.
At just 76 minutes, the feature is an entertaining examination of a man whose professionalism and integrity has stood the test of time.
Technical aspects: 1.78:1 (16×9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby digital; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Deleted scenes comprise the extras.
OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies & Lost in Rio (Blu-ray)
Details: 2006-09, Music Box Films
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Best actor Academy Award-winner Jean Dujardin (“The Artist”) stars as Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, code name Agent OSS 117 — a famous French intelligence agent — in these two funny and satiric spy spoofs.
“OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies” (2006), set in 1955, finds OSS 117 in Cairo on a mission for the French Secret Service, that includes discovering the killer of his friend, a Cairo-based spy, controlling the Suez Canal and establishing peace in the Middle East.
OSS 117, it seems, does not have a clue have to solve any of these mysteries, but is lucky enough to come out ahead.
OSS 117 finds himself in Brazil in “OSS 117: Lost in Rio” (2009), when he is sent to recover a microfilm with the names of Frenchmen who assisted the Nazis during World War II. He also joins forces with a beautiful female military officer to uncover an underground group of escaped Nazis.
Both movies are jubilantly retro with bouncy musical scores and spot-on period production designs, all driven by Dujardin’s wonderful performances.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.35:1 widescreen picture; French 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Both movies feature commentary tracks, making of featurettes, deleted scenes and blooper reels. “Cairo” also includes alternate scenes, while “Rio” offers a behind-the-scenes look at Dujardin on set and cast appearances at movie theaters.
Horrors of the Black Museum (Blu-ray)
Details: 1959, VCI Entertainment-MVD Visual Entertainment
Rated: R, violence, language
The lowdown: This British feature relies more on shock than horror. A series of gruesome murders has Scotland Yard baffled.
Stories about the killings by crime journalist Edmond Bancroft (Michael Gough) reach their own conclusions missed by Yard investigators. That is because Bancroft is behind these heinous crimes as a way of creating material for his writing.
Bancroft and his assistant, Rick (Graham Curnow), whom the journalist hypnotizes to help with the murders and who also helps run the journalist’s private basement “black museum” descend to the facility that contains various murder and torture devices.
The film is rather graphic for 1959, including a decapitation, a man lowered into a vat of acid, a woman killed with ice tongs and, most famously, eyeball-gouging binoculars scene at the beginning of the movie.
The Blu-ray includes the original American International Pictures introduction called Hypno-Vista that greeted American filmgoers on its initial release.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.35:1 widescreen picture; English LPCM monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include an archival commentary track with writer-producer Herman Cohen and a new commentary with film historian-artist Robert Kelly, an archival phone interview with Cohen, a tribute to the producer, an archival phone interview with Gough and a 2018 interview with costar Shirley Anne Field.
Clue: Collector’s Edition (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray)
Details: 1985, Shout! Studios
Rated: PG
The lowdown: Fans of the game Clue will enjoy this movie adaptation that finds all your favorite characters brought to life on the big screen.
Martin Mull is Colonel Mustard, Lesley Ann Warren is Miss Scarlet, Eileen Brennan is Mrs. Peacock, Tim Curry is Wadsworth the butler, Madeline is Mrs. White and Christopher Lloyd is Professor Plum.
There’s murder and suspects galore. Was it Colonel Mustard in the study with a gun? Or Miss Scarlet in the billiard room with a rope?
The laughs increase as does the body count in this appealing movie. The cast also includes Michael McKean, Colleen Camp, Bill Henderson and Howard Hesseman.
You won’t laugh yourself to death, but you will have a good time following all the clues.
Technical aspects: 4K: 2160p ultra high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles; Blu-ray: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Supplemental features include three different surprise endings, interviews with writer-director Jonathan Lynn, associate producer Jeffrey Chernov and film music historian Daniel Schweiger about John Morris’s score.
Kill Butterfly Kill / American Commando 6 (Blu-ray)
Details: 1983, 1987, Neon Eagle Video
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Years after being assaulted, a young woman, played by Juliet Chen, seeks bloody revenge on the five men responsible for her rape. She is aided by a retired hitman sympathetic to her cause as well as a group of like-minded female friends.
One by one each of the men are caught in a trap and eliminated. Her final adversary, though, has a few tricks of his own, setting up a violent, climactic confrontation.
The movie is a prime example of the so-called “Black Cinema” genre a popular exploitation sub-genre popular during the early 1980s in Taiwan.
This set also features the original Mandarin-language version, known as “Underground Wife,” and “American Commando 6: Kill Butterfly Kill,” a 1987 cut of the movie that features new scenes featuring actors Mike Abbot and Mark Miller.
Please be aware, some of the restoration elements are not as sharp as other sequences.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 4:3 full-screen picture (“Underground Wife) and 1.85:1 widescreen picture (“Kill Butterfly Kill” and “American Commando 6: Kill Butterfly Kill”); Mandarin LPCM monaural (“Underground Wife”) and English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio (“Kill Butterfly Kill” and “American Commando 6: Kill Butterfly Kill”); English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include a commentary track.
Apple Seed (Blu-ray & DVD)
Details: 2019, VCI Entertainment-MVD Visual Entertainment
Rated: R, violence, language
The lowdown: Prince Mccoy (Michael Worth, who also directed) is on a road trip to rob his hometown bank. On the way, though, he discovers that he must rely on an ex-convict hitchhiker, Carl Robbins (Rance Howard), who may have his own agenda.
Mccoy holds his hometown bank responsible for the foreclosure on his family’s properties and his father’s death. Mccoy decides to make the bank in Apple Seed pay, which is why he is set on robbing it.
He has a 1967 Mustang, a loaded gun and not much else, which is why he wants the help of Robbins, who has his own bucket list mission to fulfill.
Robbins begins to lead Mccoy on a journey that diverts from the younger man’s objective. They cross the paths of other people, including Mccoy’s the love he let slip away.
This was the final movie for Howard, the veteran character actor whose sons, Ron and Clint, continue his legacy with their own careers.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.35:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital ac3; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include a commentary track with Worth, a making of featurette, a director’s cut of the film, a tribute to Rance Howard, Howard talking about Worth’s direction and Clint Howard talking about his father on KTLA radio.
The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra (DVD)
Details: 2022, IndiePix Films
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: In this strange Korean horror film, a mysterious mold starts spreading across the surface of an abandoned mattress. It is a sentient creature that begins to take shape from within.
It feasts on unsuspecting victims, growing stronger in the process. It finds nourishment not only in the bones and sinews it assimilates, but also in the hopes, fears and emotions of those it encounters.
The movie shows the human condition from the creature’s perspective. This is a melancholic monster movie that is original, weird and meditative.
Technical aspects: 1.85:1 (16×9 enhanced) widescreen picture; Korean 2.0 Dolby digital; English subtitles.
“Savage Guns: Four Classic Westerns Volume 3” (Limited Edition) (Blu-ray)
Details: 1968-75, Arrow Video
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A four-disc set offering four more spaghetti Westerns that fans of the genre will appreciate.
The movies are: “I Want Him Dead” (1968), “El Puro” (1969), “Wrath of the Wind” (1970) and “The Four of the Apocalypse” (1975).
“I Want Him Dead” is a revenge story about a brother out to avenge the kidnapping and murder of his sister by assassinating two generals to prolong the Civil War.
“El Puro” is about a wanted gunman sought by a group of killers seeking a $10,000 reward. Their target is a drunkard who is fed up with living, but who is roused to action after the killing of his girlfriend.
“Wrath of the Wind” is set in Valencia, Spain, where a close-mouthed gunslinger opposes a local landlord and aristocrat who is abusing the laborers in his community.
“The Four of the Apocalypse” follow four petty bandits — three men and a woman — wandering through the wastelands of Utah. The four are being hunted by a sadistic bandit.
None of these can be defined as “classic,” but they do offer the usual gunfights, bloodshed and other tropes familiar to the genre. They also are darker, crueler and bloodier than most spaghetti Westerns.
The set includes two versions of “Wrath of the Wind,” a 98-minute cut presented in Italian, English and a 108—minute version in Italian and newly created English-Italian mix and a 106-minute Spanish-language version.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture (“I Want Him Dead,” “Wrath of the Wind,” “The Four of the Apocalypse”), 2.35:1 widescreen picture (“El Puro”); Italian, Spanish and English LPCM monaural; English SDH and English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Commentary tracks on all four movies, appreciation of the composers and soundtracks of the movies, an interview with “Four of the Apocalypse” production manager Roberto Sbargia, alternate “Revenge of Trinity” opening titles on “Four of the Apocalypse,” a 2022 short film that serves as a love letter to the spaghetti Western, interview withs actor Robert Woods and the camera operator on “Wrath of the Wind,” an interview with composer Nico Fidenco on “El Puro” and interviews with editor Eugenio Alabiso, director Paolo Bianchini on “I Want Him Dead.”
Also included are introductions to each film, an illustrated booklet with writings about the movies and a fold-out, double-sided poster.
Other titles being released on Tuesday, unless otherwise indicated:
Family Game (DVD & digital) (Dark Star Pictures)
The Persian Version (DVD) (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + digital) (Paramount Home Entertainment)
DEC. 14
Emanuelle’s Revenge (DVD & VOD) (Cinephobia Releasing)
FOR KIDS
Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie (Blu-ray & DVD) (Paramount Home Entertainment)
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, STREAMING or VOD
A Creature Was Stirring (Well Go USA Entertainment)
A Murder at the End of the World: Episode 6 (Hulu)
The Smell of Money (Beyond the Pines)
WW2 — Saving Norway’s Gold (Viaplay)
DEC. 13
The Buccaneers: Episode 8 (Apple TV+)
Moving (Hulu)
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour: Extended Version (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment)
DEC. 15
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (www.netflix.com/chickenrundawnofthenugget) (Netflix)
The Family Plan (Apple TV+)
For All Mankind: Season 4, Episode 6 (Apple TV+)
Jacob the Baker (Buffalo 8)
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters: Episode 6 (Apple TV+)
Ruthless (Saban Films)
Slow Horses: Season 3, Episode 4 (Apple TV+)
Such Brave Girls (Hulu)
Coming next week: The Exorcist: Believer
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.