A double-whammy of a long-delayed vacation and the onslaught of the flu kept me from bringing a new release column out last week. So I’m making up for that here with the new releases of the last two weeks and a calendar of releases. I’ll be back to review some of the listed titles in later columns. In the meantime, here are the big releases now for sale and rent on disc (and some also on digital and / or VOD).
Furious 7 (Universal, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD, VOD) – I don’t know how the heist-on-wheels The Fast and the Furious speed franchise became the blockbuster action series it did, but I’m a fan. I dig these movies, enjoy the comic-book plotting and pulp characters and macho codes of brotherhood and familia, and appreciate a modern action spectacle that favors actual rubber-on-the-road stunts over CGI wizardry (Mad Max: Fury Road shares that devotion but with a more mythic dimension). Since the fourth installment, these films put the pedal to the metal and get airborne before they’re over, and the momentum never flags.
James Wan, who made the original Saw, Insidious and The Conjuring, takes over with Furious 7 from Justin Lin, who transformed the failing franchise into an international phenomenon. Wan follows his lead, putting the emphasis on elaborate stunt sequences and team camaraderie and loyalty, and turns out to be quite adept at action spectacle. There’s nothing new to the formula here—it’s basically a revenge drama and the team, led by Vin Diesel’s papa bear and former fed turned brother-in-law Paul Walker, comes out of retirement (once again) to take on the threat directly—but the character is ladled on thick and the stunts are so outrageous that you either dismiss the whole thing out of hand or go with the madness and enjoy the ride.
In fact, la familia gets bigger as Dwayne Johnson, the government agent who once set out to put them all away, gives them the heads up and Kurt Russell, a fellow agent with the not-at-all comic book name of Mr. Nobody, coaxes them into driving for their side. Because, of course, all that can stop an all-powerful surveillance program from landing in enemy hands is a high-speed interception on a winding mountain road. There’s a squad of sports cars making a precision parachute landing in the middle of nowhere, a Somali terrorist, a car chase the involves leapfrogging across skyscrapers in Abu Dhabi, and a shoot-out on the night streets of Los Angeles. Jason Statham is the insane Special Forces veteran who wants vengeance for his international criminal brother (killed in the last movie) and Thailand martial arts phenom Tony Jaa (The Protector) shows off his mad skills as a terrorist henchman. As an added bonus, it turns out that high-precision, physics-defying, bat-shit crazy vehicular antics are useful in repairing plot twist-induced memory loss.
Paul Walker died during the shooting and some complicated CGI was used to keep him a central part of the story. To the film’s credit, you’ll likely never notice, but you will find a fitting send-off to the character and the actor in the epilogue. Family, after all, is forever.
Blu-ray and DVD, with four featurettes (including “Back to the Starting Line,” which looks at the changes in the franchise along the way). The Blu-ray edition also features an “extended edition” of the film (it’s only a couple of minutes longer), the half-hour “Talking Fast” with director James Wan taking the audience through key scenes of the film, four deleted scenes, four additional featurettes, and a bonus DVD and Ultraviolent Digital HD copies of the film.
Love & Mercy (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, DVD) – Capturing the life of Brian Wilson, the troubled genius who pushed the surf pop sound of The Beach Boys into psychedelic symphonies as he spiraled into depression, in just a few key years is a tricky proposition. Love & Mercy, a biopic that parallels the boyish enthusiasm and free-flowing creative drive of young visionary Brian (played by Paul Dano) with the frail, fragile, terrified older Brian (John Cusack), is as perceptive and as interesting as you could hope for.
Where the 1995 documentary I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times slipped into hagiography that cheered his genius and hissed the villains who broke his spirit, this dramatization is more interested in exploring the enthusiastic, boyish musical genius who slipped into self-doubt and paranoia at the height of his creative powers and ended up in a nightmarish ordeal with Dr. Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti in sleazy, medical huckster mode), the radical psychotherapist who became his legal guardian. And it presents Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks), who meets the confused but sincere older Brian and sees through Landy’s pose of benevolent protection, as the film’s true hero.
There’s a lot of history packed in here—from the panic attack that stopped Brian from touring with the band to the conflicts with the band as his music heads into unconventional directions to the mind games that Landy uses to control Brian as he’s adrift from his family—but Pohald is just as interested in exploring Wilson’s creative process and those scenes, with Dano in a state of near bliss as Wilson creating what will be “Pet Sounds” in a studio he treats as an artistic playroom, are the film’s highlights. You don’t have to be a fan to appreciate the portrait offered here. It’s a fascinating story and a rare film that delves into the exuberance and joy of artistic creation. It may just nudge you into pulling out that old copy of “God Only Knows” or “Good Vibrations” and giving another listen to the magnificence and beauty of those pop masterpieces.
Blu-ray and DVD, with filmmaker commentary, two featurettes, and deleted scenes.
Saint Laurent (Sony, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD), Bertrand Bonello’s portrait of one of the most influential fashion designers of the 20th century, focuses on just a few years of the life of Yves Saint Laurent (Gaspard Ulliel): 1967 through 1975, the height of his success and influence in the fashion world. There’s no backstory, no rising through the ranks, no breakthrough moment where he comes into his own. He’s is already running his own fashion house when we meet him.
Saint Laurent is about image as much as fashion and aesthetics, and in the case of YSL we know far more about his image and lifestyle than we do about him. He makes the nightclub scene with a supermodel or two on his arm, playing the part of the fashion celebrity without actually engaging in it, while within the inner circle he’s openly gay and brings a sense of style even to his hedonism. Ulliel plays him as an enigma, an observer who soaks up everything he sees and reflects it back in his designs. When he meets Loulou de la Falaise (played by Léa Seydoux), he’s enchanted by her gypsy thrift store style and immediately weaves it into his next line. But otherwise we get only fleeting glimpses of him sketching designs or completing his outfits. It’s an impressionistic sketch of a life and a career, with the familiar beats of the classic biopic are either trimmed away or completely cut out. Call Saint Laurent fashionably enigmatic in a culture of off-the-rack biographical dramas.
Blu-ray and DVD, in French with English subtitles and an English language audio description track. Includes the featurette “Bernardo Bonello: The Characters” with the director and cast.
Also new and notable:
Disney’s live action remake of their classic animated fairy tale Cinderella (2015) (Disney, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD, Disney Movies Anywhere, VOD) stars Lily James (of Downton Abbey) as Cinderella and Cate Blanchett as her stepmother and is directed by Kenneth Branagh, a filmmaker whose experience with royal figures on the screen is decidedly Shakespearean. Features the animated short Frozen Fever plus numerous featurettes and an alternate opening. The Blu-ray features bonus DVD and Ultraviolet Digital HD copies of the film.
Pitch Perfect 2 (Universal, Blu-ray, DVD), the sequel to the surprise musical smash about a female a cappella group, sends Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, and the gang to an international competition for a new round of romance, goofy antics, and friendship through harmonizing. Elizabeth Banks directs.
“Do you have to be miserable to be funny?” That’s the question that comedian and actor Kevin Pollak poses to his fellow performers in the documentary Misery Loves Comedy (Cinedigm, DVD, Digital HD), which posits serious questions to funny people. As you might guess, it’s more party than postmortem.
Results (Magnolia, Blu-ray, DVD) is a more grown-up romantic comedy, with Cobie Smulders and Guy Pearce as personal trainers at a gym and Kevin Corrigan as their gentle schlub of a new client. It’s the first film from American indie director Andrew Bujalski with real screen stars.
Little Boy (Universal, Blu-ray, DVD), a family drama about a spunky little kid who turns to prayer to prove his faith while his father fights in World War II, comes from the producers of The Bible. The heart is in the right place but the message is confused and misguided and its origins (it’s produced in Mexico with an English language cast) show in its odd, ersatz nostalgia. Emily Watson and Tom Wilkinson star.
The made-for-HBO movie Nightingale (HBO, Blu-ray, DVD), starring David Oyelowo, was one of the five Emmy nominees for Best Television movie or mini-series. It lost to another HBO production, Olive Kitteredge.
In the Name of My Daughter (Cohen, Blu-ray, DVD), starring Catherine Deneuve and Guillaume Canet, is based on a real-life murder mystery. André Téchiné directs.
Digital / VOD / Streaming exclusives:
Time Out of Mind (VOD)
A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story (Cinedigm, VOD)
War Pigs (Cinedigm, Digital, VOD)
Available for digital purchase in advance of disc:
San Andreas (Warner, Digital HD)
Magic Mike XXL (Warner, Digital HD)
Insidious: Chapter 3 (Sony, Digital HD)
Batkid Begins (Warner, Digital HD) Friday, September 25
More new releases:
Blumenthal (Olive, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Journey Home (RLJ, DVD)
Reality (Shout! Factory / IFC, Blu-ray+DVD)
Heaven Knows What (Anchor Bay, Blu-ray, DVD)
Monkey Kingdom (Disney, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD, Disney Movies Anywhere)
Finding Neighbors (Strand, DVD)
The Heart Machine (Kino Lorber, DVD)
The Great Museum (Kino Lorber, DVD)
The Other Man: F.W. De Klerk and the End of Apartheid (First Run, DVD)
The Farewell Party (First Run, DVD)
Kindness is Contagious (Cinedigm, DVD, Digital)
Love & Engineering (Kino Lorber, DVD)
The Seven Five (IFC, DVD)
Closer to the Men (IFC, DVD)
All American High Revisited (Virgil, DVD, Digital)
Little Glory (Lightyear, DVD)
Chain of Command (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, DVD)
Classics and Cult:
The Ultimate James Bond Collection (Fox, Blu-ray)
Fast and Furious Blu-ray Collection (7 films) (Universal, Blu-ray, DVD)
Blind Chance (Criterion, Blu-ray, DVD)
Breaker Morant (Criterion, Blu-ray, DVD)
Mister Johnson (Criterion, Blu-ray, DVD)
Moonrise Kingdom (Criterion, Blu-ray, DVD)
Dog Day Afternoon: 40th Anniversary (Warner, Blu-ray, Digital HD)
Jumanji: 20th Anniversary Edition (Sony, Blu-ray)
Zathura: 10th Anniversary Edition (Sony, Blu-ray)
The Indian in the Cupboard: 20th Anniversary Edition (Sony, Blu-ray)
The Rocky Horror Show 40thAnniversary (Fox, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD)
Prick Up Your Ears (Olive, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Beast (Arrow / MVD, Blu-ray+DVD)
Immoral Tales (1975) (Arrow / MVD, Blu-ray+DVD)
Eaten Alive (Arrow / MVD, Blu-ray+DVD)
The Legacy (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)
Unforgettable (Kino Lorber Studio Classics, Blu-ray, DVD)
House of the Long Shadows (Kino Lorber Studio Classics, Blu-ray, DVD)
Billy Two Hats (Kino Lorber Studio Classics, Blu-ray, DVD)
Hidden Agenda (Kino Lorber Studio Classics, Blu-ray, DVD)
Moby Dick (Kino Lorber Studio Classics, DVD)
The Sentinel (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)
Requiescant (Arrow / MVD, Blu-ray+DVD)
The Satan Bug (Kino Lorber Studio Classics, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Destructors (Kino Lorber Studio Classics, Blu-ray, DVD)
Busting (Kino Lorber Studio Classics, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Woods (Olive, Blu-ray)
The Mighty Quinn (Olive, Blu-ray)
Black Caesar (Olive, Blu-ray, DVD)
Slaughter (Olive, Blu-ray, DVD)
Some Kind of Hero (Olive, Blu-ray, DVD)
Hitler: The Last Ten Days (Olive, Blu-ray, DVD)
Mad Dog Time (Olive, Blu-ray, DVD)
Antitrust (Olive, Blu-ray)
Deuces Wild (Olive, Blu-ray)
Mod Squad (Olive, Blu-ray)
Dirty Work (Olive, Blu-ray)
S.F.W. (Olive, Blu-ray)
Fatal Instinct (Olive, Blu-ray)
Madhouse (Olive, Blu-ray, DVD)
Mannequin (Olive, Blu-ray)
Mannequin Two on the Move (Olive, Blu-ray)
For Us, The Living: The Medgar Evers Story (Olive, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Invisible Monster (Olive, Blu-ray, DVD)
Lisa (Kino Lorber Studio Classics, Blu-ray)
The American Dreamer (Etiquette, DVD)
On Her Bed of Roses / The Incredible Sex Revolution (Vinegar Syndrome, DVD)
007: The Sean Connery Collection Vol. 1 (MGM, Blu-ray, DVD)
007: The Sean Connery Collection Vol. 2 (MGM, Blu-ray, DVD)
007: The Roger Moore Collection Vol. 1 (MGM, Blu-ray, DVD)
007: The Roger Moore Collection Vol. 2 (MGM, Blu-ray, DVD)
007: The Pierce Brosnan Collection (MGM, Blu-ray, DVD)
007: The Daniel Craig Collection (MGM, Blu-ray, DVD)
TV on disc:
Empire: The Complete First Season (Fox, Blu-ray, DVD)
Agent Carter: The Complete First Season (Disney, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Flash: The Complete First Season (Warner, Blu-ray, DVD)
Arrow: The Complete Third Season (Warner, Blu-ray, DVD)
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Complete Second Season (Disney, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Returned (Lionsgate, DVD)
Happy Valley: Season One (BBC, DVD)
Masterpiece: Arthur and George (PBS, Blu-ray, DVD)
Wodehouse in Exile (BBC, DVD)
Castles in the Sky (BBC, DVD)
The Red Road: The Complete Second Season (Anchor Bay, DVD)
Lost In Space: The Complete Series (Fox, Blu-ray)
Carol Burnett: The Lost Episodes (Time Life, DVD)
Aquarius: The Complete First Season (Anchor Bay, Blu-ray, DVD)
Sisters: Seasons One and Two (Shout! Factory, DVD)
Sleepy Hollow: The Complete Second Season (Fox, Blu-ray, DVD)
NCIS: The Twelfth Season (Universal, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Eighth Season (Warner, Blu-ray, DVD)
Modern Family: The Complete Sixth Season (Fox, Blu-ray, DVD)
King of the Hill: The Complete 12th Season (Olive, DVD)
The Nanny: Season Four (Shout! Factory, DVD)
Doctor Who: Dark Water / Death in Heaven 3D (BBC, Blu-ray 3D+Blu-ray+DVD)
Midsomer Murders: Series 17 (Acorn, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Bold Ones: The Protectors – Complete Series (Shout! Factory, DVD)
Peanuts Emmy Honored Collection (Warner, DVD)
Miss Marple: The Complete Collection (Joan Hickson) (BBC, DVD)
Lego Star Wars: The New Yoda Chronicles (Disney, DVD)
American Experience: Walt Disney (PBS, DVD)
Calendar of upcoming releases on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital, and VOD