New to View: April 9
By Bob Bloom
The following titles are being released on Tuesday, April 9, unless otherwise noted:
Lisa Frankenstein (Blu‑ray + digital)
Details: 2024, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Rated: PG‑13, violence, bloody images, sexual material, teen drinking, drugs
The lowdown: Academy Award‑winning screenwriter Diablo Cody adds her spin to the Frankenstein legend with this coming‑of‑age homage to 1980s horror comedies.
Set in 1989, the movie centers on Lisa (Kathryn Newton, “Big Little Lies”), a misunderstood teenager who finds herself trying to fit in at a new high school.
Complicating matters is the death of her high school crush. Lisa spends a lot of time at the cemetery where he is buried. When a freak accident reanimates his corpse, Lisa does her upmost to keep him a secret from her family and classmates.
With the help of her new love, played by Cole Sprouse, they begin a murderous odyssey to find true love, happiness and some missing body parts.
The film, which received a 51 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, offers some fun concepts with its “Sweeney Todd” and “Edward Scissorhands” vibes, but it also is uneven at times.
The film was directed by Zelda Williams, daughter of Robin Williams.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS‑HD Master Audio, 2.0 Dolby digital DVS and French 5.1 DTS digital surround; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus offerings include deleted scenes, a gag reel, featurettes on resurrecting the 1980s and the relationship between Lisa and her Creature, a commentary track with Williams and a behind‑the‑scenes look at Cody and her inspiration for the movie.
Night Swim: Collector’s Edition (Blu‑ray + DVD + digital)
Details: 2024, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Rated: PG‑13, terror, violent content, language
The lowdown: So, you have to give the film kudos for its concept of a haunted pool. Besides that, it mostly falls back on the usual horror‑film tropes that dominate recent releases in the genre.
Wyatt Russell stars as a former major league baseball player forced into early retirement by a degenerative illness.
Russell’s Ray Waller moves into a new home with his wife, Eve (Kerry Condon of “The Banshees of Inisherin”), their teenage daughter, Izzie, and young son, Elliot.
Their new home comes with a shimmering backyard pool that hides a dark secret — it houses a malevolent force that threatens the family.
I don’t understand why they simply did not call a pool cleaner. The movie offers some jolts, but also includes some missed opportunities to raise the level of scares.
A majority of critics agreed, giving the movie a 22 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: Blu‑ray: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 widescreen picture; English 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, 2.0 DVS, French 5.1 DTS digital surround and Spanish 7.1 DTS‑HD high resolution; 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 offerings include featurettes with producers Jason Blum and James Wan discussing what attracted them to the project and a look at the special effects; interviews with filmmakers and cast members on the challenges of working on the underwater sequences; a breakdown of the pivotal scare scene with director Bryce McGuire; and a commentary track with McGuire.
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey (Blu‑ray)
Details: 2023, Scream Factory
Rated: Not rated, graphic and bloody violence, brief nudity, language
The lowdown: A.A. Milne is most likely spinning in his grave and fans of Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Christopher Robin and other characters in the 100 Acre Woods most likely will ignite torches and grab hatches, axes or sledgehammers to try and eradicate every print of this movie.
Pooh, Piglet and Christopher,, who first appeared in Milne’s first novel in 1926, entered the public domain in the United States in 2022, thus opening the floodgates for this adaptation.
To be fair, the premise is not bad: Christopher Robin, now a young man, leaves for college, thus Pooh and Piglet must now fend for themselves.
The two, feeling angry and abandoned, become feral. After getting a taste of blood, they set off to find new sources of food.
An adult Christopher, unaware of what has transpired, returns to the woods with his fiancée, Maria, for what he believes will be a happy reunion with his old friends. He was so wrong.
From there, bodies begin to pile up in the movie is rather amateurish, ill‑conceived and, for a slasher film, rather dull.
Never fret, a sequel has been filmed with a bigger budget and better special effects. Oh, bother!
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio surround and stereo; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: The major bonus offering is a making of featurette.
Monster (Blu‑ray)
Details: 2023, Well Go USA Entertainment
Rated: PG‑13, thematic and brief suggestive materials
The lowdown: An acclaimed Japanese drama in which a mother, after her son starts acting strangely, believes something is wrong.
She discovers a teacher is responsible and demands to know what is going on.
The movie, directed by Hirokazu Kore‑eda, tells the drama through the eyes of the mother, student and teacher until the truth finally emerges.
The movie, despite its winding storytelling and ambiguous ending, was cited for its solid performances, humanism, understanding and empathy. It received a 97 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 (16:9 enhanced) widescreen picture; Japanese and English (dubbed) 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Cary Grant: The Man He Dreamed of Being (DVD)
Release date: April 2
Details: 2022, Deskpop Entertainment‑Allied Vaughn
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This short, 53‑minute documentary, traces the life and career of Cary Grant, from his impoverished upbringing to his rise as one of the most iconic movie stars in the world.
Grant, born Archibald Leach, in Bristol, England, endured an unhappy childhood. His father was an alcoholic and his mother, who was later institutionalized, suffered from clinical depression.
Young Leach left England for the United States, where he performed in vaudeville and then on Broadway before entering movies.
His name was changed to Cary Grant and, after a few years in supporting roles, became a star in such movies as “Gunga Din,” “The Awful Truth,” “The Philadelphia Story” and four movies directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
This movie, which can be ordered at www.moviezyng.com or other online sellers, examines how Leach transformed himself from a poor English lad to the suave and debonair Grant and its impact on his life.
Technical aspects: 16:9 widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH subtitles.
The Abandoned: Limited Edition (Blu‑ray)
Details: 2006 Unearthed Films
Rated: R, disturbing images, nudity, gore, language
The lowdown: A horror‑thriller that begins in 1966 in Russia when a wounded woman drives a truck to an isolated farm with two babies.
Forty years later, film producer Marie Jones, one of the two babies left at the far leaves her daughter in California and returns to her home in the Russian wilderness because she had received a phone call from notary public Andrei Misharin, who told her where the farm was located.
Arriving at the abandoned house, Marie meets Nicolai, who tells her he received a similar phone call from Misharin, and that he is her twin brother.
Strange things happen in the house as Marie and Nicolai are haunted by zombie‑like ghosts of themselves. They also discover they are trapped and cannot leave the house.
The two are forced to relive horrifying events, including killings, that occurred just after they were born — and in the place where they were supposed to die.
Director Nacho Cerdà’s haunted-house feature is atmospheric and sometimes frightening, but overall, it fails to make much sense.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS‑HD and 2.0 LPCM; English and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include a featurette with Cerdà and co-screenwriters Karim Hussain and Richard Stanley, alternate cuts, alternate endings, deleted and extended scenes, outtakes, a making of and a dialogue between friends featurettes.
Mean Guns: Special Edition (Blu‑ray)
Details: 1997, MVD Rewind Collection‑MVD Visual Entertainment
Rated: R, violence, language
The lowdown: An explosive exploitation feature in which the world’s most dangerous criminals are summoned to a new prison on the eve of its opening by Moon (Ice‑T), the ruthless leader of the world’s most powerful crime syndicate.
The criminals all are screw-ups or have betrayed their organizations.
Weapons and ammunition are passed around to those attending, including Lou (Christopher Lambert), and the fight for survival begins. The last three men standing by midnight are promised $10 million in cash. Moon safely watches from his surveillance camera as bullets fly and bodies fall.
Meanwhile, as the fighting goes on rivalries develop between friends and loyalties are questioned as each criminal attempts to outwit and outlive the other.
The cast also includes a who’s who of B‑movie regulars including Deborah Van Valkenburgh (“The Warriors”), Thom Mathews, Yuji Okumoto, Tina Cote and Michael Halsey.
The gun-filled 104-minute movie will more than likely please action fans.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.35:1 widescreen picture; English 2.0 LPCM stereo; English, French and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Supplemental materials include a commentary track with director Albert Pyun, an introduction to the movie by Pyun, interviews with producer Gary Schmoeller, executive producer Paul Rosenblum and composer Anthony Riparetti and a collectible mini-poster.
Armstrong (Blu‑ray)
Release date: April 2
Details: 2019, Gravitas Ventures-Allied Vaughn
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A documentary that celebrates the life of Neil Armstrong, the first man to step on the Moon.
Few of us who watched Armstrong take those first steps will never forget how awe-inspiring it was nor the chills created by Armstrong’s first words when he touched the lunar surface.
The movie traces Armstrong’s life from his childhood in rural Ohio, to his aerial combat in Korea, his near‑death experiences as a pilot and his historic Apollo 11 mission that culminated with his first steps on July 21, 1969.
The film also touches upon the unwanted celebrity that Armstrong did not want after the mission was completed.
Unlike Damien Chazelle’s “First Man,” with Ryan Gosling as Armstrong, the documentary lacks dramatic flair, but it does feature some interesting interviews. The movie is narrated by Harrison Ford.
“Armstrong” is a made-on‑demand Blu‑ray that can be ordered at www.moviezyng.com or other online sellers.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.38:1 (16:9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus features include additional scenes, deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes offerings.
Agonie (Agony) (DVD)
Details: 2016, IndiePix Films
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This German-Austrian feature centers on the gruesome murder of a female university student whose head, torso and limbs are found discarded in various dumpsters around Vienna.
The two main suspects are Christian, a quiet young man studying law who works part‑time at concession counter at a nearby movie theater, and Alex, an image‑conscious inspiring boxer and rapper who just returned from the military.
This character study of the two, directed by David Clay Diaz and based on true events, explores the mind of a killer that is abetted by strong breakout performances.
Who killed the young woman seems not be the point of the movie. Rather, it is more interested in the lives and emotional makeup of the two young men.
Technical aspects: 16:9 widescreen picture; German 2.0 Dolby digital; English subtitles.
Sesame Street Mecha Builders: The Complete Series (DVD)
Details: 2023, Shout! Kids‑Sesame Workshop
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: These “Sesame Street” episodes find Elmo, Cookie Monster and Abby Cadabby as robot heroes‑in‑training, and content focused on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education.
The 26 episodes, about 11 minutes each, also feature Grover, Rosita and other Sesame Street favorites, focus on problems the STEM team must solve.
The series is a fun introduction for youngsters to STEM.
Technical aspects: 1.37:1 full‑screen picture; English Dolby digital; English and Spanish subtitles.
Other titles being released on Tuesday, unless otherwise indicated:
Doom Patrol: The Complete Series (Blu-ray) (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)
The Jack in the Box: Rises (DVD & digital & VOD) (ShineHouse Group)
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, STREAMING or VOD
The 50 (LVL Films-Grasshopper Film)
Ennio (Music Box Films)
Glitter & Doom (Music Box Films)
The Wild (Well Go USA Entertainment)
APRIL 10
Blood Free (Hulu)
Loot: Season 2, Episode 3 (Apple TV+)
Palm Royale: Episode 6 (Apple TV+)
APRIL 11
The Crimson Rivers (Kino Film Collection)
Goodbye Dragon Inn (Kino Film Collection)
We Were the Lucky Ones: Episode 5 (Hulu)
APRIL 12
Argylle (Apple TV+)
Blackout (Dark Sky Films‑Glass Eye Pix)
Drive-Away Dolls (Universal Pictures‑Peacock)
Franklin: Episodes 1‑3 (Apple TV+)
In Bed (Film Movement Plus)
Laroy, Texas (Brainstorm Media)
Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill (Greenwich Entertainment-Amazon Prime-Apple TV+)
Manhunt: Episode 6 (Apple TV+)
Pure O (Good Deed Entertainment)
The Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy: Season 2, Episode 7 (Apple TV+)
Sugar: Episode 3 (Apple TV+)
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Film Movement Plus)
APRIL 15
Hundreds of Beavers (Amazon Prime-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.