We continue trudging into the new year with another slow week that features only a couple of new films debuting on home video and an equal number of significant releases getting the 4K Ultra HD treatment. But there's still plenty of hi-def goodness to be had as Kino Lorber is releasing a couple of horror/thriller classic titles on blu-ray: Lee Katzin's What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice is getting a brand new 4K remaster from the original camera negatives as is the Barbara Stanwyck made-for-television thriller The House That Would Not Die which is getting a shiny new 2K remaster.
Shout Factory gets in the game this week with a 30th Anniversary Edition blu-ray release of Rob Reiner's classic comedy When Harry Met Sally that stars Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan. The package features a brand new 4K restoration of the film from original camera negatives in addition to a new interview with Rob Reiner and Billy Crystal.
The company is also putting out Joel Schumacher's "snuff" thriller 8MM on blu-ray. The film stars Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini and Catherine Keener. It will feature a new interview with producer/director Joel Schumacher. {googleads}
A couple of titles getting the 4K UltraHD treatment are Castle Rock: The Complete First Season and the Gregory Plotkin-directed slasher film, Hell Fest from Lionsgate that features a Dolby Vision HDR presentation of the film in addition to a making-of featurette.
The American blaxploitation film Willie Dynamite is getting a blu-ray release this week as is the 1993 classic thriller Judgment Night that stars Emilio Estevez, Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Jeremy Piven Whishaw will feature a brand new remaster of the film. And of course there's that fantastic soundtrack!
MVD Rewind is releasing a two-disc Collector's Edition of the 1992 sci-fi-action classic Nemesis that contains a two-disc set with tons of interviews, extras, and commentaries as well as a director's cut of the film AND the longer Japanese cut.
And finally, Lionsgate is hitting us up with a little title that went largely overlooked when it came out a few months ago but deserves a much more respect and attention. Jonah Hill's love letter to the skating culture that formed his youth, Mid90s is coming out on blu-ray and represents our Most Wanted on Blu-ray for the week of January 8, 2019.
8MM (Blu-ray)
Shout Factory
Street Date: January 8, 2019
Academy Award® winner Nicolas Cage (1995, Best Actor, Leaving Las Vegas) stars with Joaquin Phoenix (Walk The Line), James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) and Catherine Keener (Get Out) in an electrifying thriller from the writer of Se7en. Directed by Joel Schumacher, this dramatic story follows one man's obsessive search to the truth about a six-year-old crime – and his ultimate discovery of the truth about himself.
Blu-ray Details:
- NEW 8MM In 35MM – An Interview With Producer/Director Joel Schumacher
- Audio Commentary With Producer/Director Joel Schumacher
- Vintage Behind The Scenes Featurette
- Theatrical Trailer
- TV Spots
- Still Gallery
When Harry Met Sally (Blu-ray 30th Anniversary Edition)
Shout Factory
Street Date: January 8, 2019
Will sex ruin a perfect relationship between a man and a woman? That's what Harry Burns (Crystal) and Sally Albright (Ryan) debate while sharing a drive from Chicago to New York. Eleven years of friendship later, they're still no closer to finding the answer. Will these two best friends ever accept that they're a perfect match ... or will they continue to deny the attraction that exists between them?
Blu-ray Details:
- NEW Transfer Restored From A 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative
- NEW Scenes From A Friendship – An Interview With Rob Reiner And Billy Crystal
- Audio Commentary With Rob Reiner, Nora Ephron, And Billy Crystal
- Audio Commentary With Rob Reiner
- How Harry Met Sally Documentary
- Vintage Featurettes
- Deleted Scenes
- Theatrical Trailer
- Music Video By Harry Connick Jr.
What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice (Special Edition)
Kino Lorber
Street Date: January 8, 2019
Oscar winners Geraldine Page (The Trip to Bountiful, Sweet Bird of Youth) and Ruth Gordon (Harold and Maude, Rosemary’s Baby) sharpen their claws on each other in this chilling thriller about a lost fortune, a mad heiress and a housekeeper hell-bent on digging up the truth. Mrs. Marrable (Page) is a society matron who's had some shocking news: her late husband left her only a stamp collection. Determined to maintain her extravagant lifestyle, she takes advantage of an unlikely new source of income—her housekeepers, by robbing them not only of their life savings, but also their lives. The turnover rate for help speeds faster than a revolving door... until Mrs. Marrable's latest hire, Mrs. Dimmock (Gordon), develops a drive to unearth the terrible secret buried in the front yard. Directed Lee H. Katzin (Le Mans) and co-starring Rosemary Forsyth (How Do I Love Thee?).
Special Features:
- Brand new 4k remaster of the film from the original camera negative
- Audio Commentary by Film Historian Richard Harland Smith
- Theatrical Trailer
Hell Fest (Special Edition)
Lionsgate Films
Street Date: January 8, 2019
A group of friends are bound for a horror-themed Halloween event at a local amusement park — a sprawling labyrinth of rides, games, and mazes that travels the country and happens to be in town. But for one visitor, the ghoulish carnival of nightmares is not the attraction — it is a hunting ground. On the night the friends attend, a masked serial killer turns the amusement park into his own playground, terrorizing attendees while the rest of the patrons believe that it is all part of the show. As the body count and frenzied excitement of the crowd continues to rise, who will fight to survive the night?
Special Features:
- “Thrills and Kills: Making Hell Fest” Featurette
- Theatrical Trailer
{googleads}
Willie Dynamite (Blu-ray + DVD)
Arrow
Street Date: January 8, 2019
Who is Willie Dynamite? He’s the flashiest pimp in New York – he drives a personalised purple-and-gold Cadillac and wears some of the most eye-catching outfits ever seen on a cinema screen. He wants to be number one, but with the police, the D.A., fellow pimps and a tough-talking social worker on his tail, can a man as arrogant and amoral as Willie D avoid a downfall?
Special Features:
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the feature, transferred from original filmelements by Universal
- Original uncompressed 1.0 mono audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
- Brand new audio commentary by critic and lecturer Sergio Mims
- Theatrical trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sean Phillips
Castle Rock: The Complete First Season (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital Copy)
Warner Bros.
Street Date: January 8, 2019
A psychological-horror series set in the Stephen King multiverse, the series combines the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of King’s best-loved works, weaving an epic saga of darkness and light, played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland. The fictional Maine town of Castle Rock has figured prominently in King’s literary career: Cujo, The Dark Half, IT and Needful Things, as well as novella The Body and numerous short stories such as Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption are either set there or contain references to Castle Rock. Castle Rock is an original suspense/thriller — a first-of-its-kind reimagining that explores the themes and worlds uniting the entire King canon, while brushing up against some of his most iconic and beloved stories.
Special Features:
10 One-Hour Episodes:
- 1. Severance
- 2. Habeas Corpus
- 3. Local Color
- 4. The Box
- 5. Harvest
- 6. Filter
- 7. The Queen
- 8. Past Perfect
- 9. Henry Deaver
- 10. Romans
Bonus Material:
- Blood on the Page (New Featurette)
- A Clockwork of Horror: Merging the styles of Stephen King & J.J. Abrams (New Featurette)
- Inside the Episode: Severance
- Inside the Episode: Habeas Corpus
- Inside the Episode Local Color
- Inside the Episode: The Box
- Inside the Episode: Harvest
- Inside the Episode: Filter
- Inside the Episode: The Queen
- Inside the Episode: Past Perfect
- Inside the Episode: Henry Dever
- Inside the Episode: Romans
Judgment Night (Special Edition)
Warner Archive Collection
Street Date: January 8, 2019
Noted producer/director Stephen Hopkins (The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, 24, Predator 2) navigates this harrowing journey of four suburban men into the nightmarish neighborhood of Chicago's crime-infested underworld. When four young men (Emilio Estevez; Cuba Gooding, Jr.; Stephen Dorff; Jeremy Piven) take a wrong turn on their way to a boxing match in a state-of-the-art RV, they witness a murder. Now, the killers' leader (Denis Leary) cannot let them live, and the four must find their way to safety while being hunted through Chicago's meanest streets. With a powerhouse cast, this edge-of-your-seat thriller takes viewers on a life-and-death road trip into terror.
Special Features:
- Brand new 2019 remaster of the film
The House That Would Not Die(Special Edition Blu-ray)
Kino Lorber
Street Date: January 8, 2019
Ruth Bennett (Barbara Stanwyck, Witness to Murder, The Lady Eve) has inherited an old house in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Amish country. She moves into the house with her niece, Sara Dunning (Kitty Winn, The Panic in Needle Park, The Exorcist). The house was built before the Revolutionary War and is said to be haunted by the spirits of its original inhabitants. With the help of Pat McDougal (Richard Egan, The 300 Spartans, GOG), a local professor, and one of his students, Stan Whitman (Michael Anderson Jr., The Sons of Katie Elder, Major Dundee), they delve into the history of the house and find a scandal that involves a Revolutionary War general, who was suspected of being a traitor, and his daughter, who had disappeared after eloping with her boyfriend, a young British soldier. The spirits of the general and his daughter take possession of Pat's and Sara's bodies and a dark secret is revealed.
Special features:
- New 2K remaster of the film
- Interview with director John Llewellyn Moxey
- Audio Commentary by Film Historian Richard Harland Smith
Blind Date (Blu-ray)
Scorpion Releasing
Street Date: January 8, 2019
Struck by sudden blindness, ad executive Jonathon Ratcliff (Joseph Bottoms, The Black Hole, Crime and Passion, The Dove) is frustrated when doctors can find nothing wrong with him. With the aid of his girlfriend (Kirstie Alley, Cheers, Look Who’s Talking), he consults a top eye doctor (Keir Dullea, 2001: A Space Odyssey, David and Lisa) who fits him with an experimental device allowing him to see with the aid of a computer interface and brain electrodes. Meanwhile, a taxi driver is taking young women up to their apartments, sedating them, and performing a little fatal amateur surgery. Their paths inevitably converge as the serial killer starts cutting too close to home.
BLU-RAY INCLUDES NEW LIMITED EDITION SLIP COVER ARTWORK BY NATHAN THOMAS MILLINER
- 2K remaster struck from the original interpositive
- NEW audio interview with star Barbara Steele
- Audio commentary with writers Ken and Jim Wheat and star Rebecca Balding
- Audio interview with director Denny Harris
- Scream of Success - 30 Years Later
- Silent Scream - The Original Script
- The Wheat Brothers: A Look Back
- Interview with Rebecca Balding
- 5.1 Surround and 2.0 Stereo
- TV Spot
- Theatrical Trailer
Nemesis (Collector's Edition)
MVD Visual
Street Date: January 8, 2019
Los Angeles, 2027. Japan and America have merged, politically and economically. Man and machines have merged as well. But mankind is threatened when the Cyborgs decide they are better suited to rule the planet than humans. When police officer Alex Rain discovers the plot to replace world leaders with Cyborg clones, he embarks on a full-scale war to stop them.
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the main feature in both 2.20:1 and 1.78:1 aspect ratios
- Director's Cut of the film (SD, 1.33:1) with optional commentary by Albert Pyun
- Japanese Extended Cut (SD, 1.33:1) (w/ Japanese subtitles burnt-in)
- NEW 2018 Interview with Eric Karson (HD)
- NEW 2018 Interview with Olivier Gruner (HD)
- Introduction by Albert Pyun (SD, 2:19)
- Introduction by Olivier Gruner (SD, 3:13)
- Afterword by Albert Pyun (SD, 0:48)
- Making Of' featurettes (SD, 5:58, 7:13)
- Interview with Olivier Gruner (SD, 2:18)
- 'Making Of - Stunts & Effects' (SD, 2:43)
- 'Making Of - Visual Effects' (SD, 1:41)
- 'The Saga' featurette (SD, 7:26)
- Trailers and TV Spots (SD)
- Collectible Mini-Poster Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature
Dragon Ball Super: Part Six (Blu-ray)
FUNimation Entertainment
Street Date: January 8, 2019
The universe versus universe tournament finally has it winner with it, a chance to wish on the Super Dragon Balls! But are they really going to wish something like that?! Then, after an unexpected visit to a bizarre planet, a sudden SOS from the future arrives in the form of Future Trunks! What horror plagues his timeline, and can the Z Fighters face a foe that looks exactly like Goku?
And now for our MOST WANTED ON BLU-RAY AND 4K for the week of January 1, 2019
Mid90s (Blu-ray + Digital Copy)
Lionsgate Films
Street Date: January 8, 2019
Follows Stevie, a thirteen-year-old in 90s-era L.A. who spends his summer navigating between his troubled home life and a group of new friends that he meets at a Motor Avenue skate shop.
Special Features:
- Deleted Scenes
- Audio Commentary with Writer-Director Jonah Hill and Cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt
