And another friendly hi-def hello to our fellow blu-ray geeks. Welcome to the weekly look at our most wanted titles coming to blu-ray and/or 4K Ultra HD for the week of January 7, 2020.
The fine folks over at Kino Lorber have been very busy of late preparing a fine slate of new year releases with six of those titles making our most wanted list this week.
The company is bringing a trio of spaghetti western films to blu-ray, each getting brand new 4K restorations and new bonus materials. the 1969 Sergio Corbucci film The Specialists (also known as Drop Dead or I'll Shoot) is getting a new restoration and a new audio commentary by filmmaker Alex Cox as are the 1967 Sergio Corbucci-directed The Hellbenders and Kill Them All and Come Back Alone.
On the horror front, Kino is bringing two classic titles to hi-def with the Albert Dekker classic Dr. Cyclops getting a new 4K restoration treatment while 1944's Cobra Woman co-starring Lon Chaney Jr. comes at us with a new audio commentary by film historian Phillipa Berry. {googleads}
Warner Bros. is bringing its wildly popular Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix, to hi-def this week in multiple formats concluding 4K UHD, blu-ray, and a Best Buy Exclusive Steelbook edition.
Also coming to hi-def this week are the Robert Eggers-directed horror film The Lighthouse which stars Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, and the Rian Johnson-directed neo-noir mystery thriller Brick which is getting a brand new 4K restoration that will be supervised by Rian Johnson himself.
And lastly, the classic romantic comedy Holiday which stars Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant is getting a new 4k restoration.
Here is what is coming out on blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD This week
Joker (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital HD)
Warner Bros.
Street Date: January 7, 2020
Director Todd Phillips' "Joker" centers around the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone fictional story not seen before on the big screen. Phillips' exploration of Arthur Fleck, who is indelibly portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, is of a man struggling to find his way in Gotham's fractured society. A clown-for-hire by day, he aspires to be a stand-up comic at night…but finds the joke always seems to be on him. Caught in a cyclical existence between apathy and cruelty, Arthur makes one bad decision that brings about a chain reaction of escalating events in this gritty character study.
- DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
- DOLBY ATMOS AUDIO TRACK
- Joker: Vision & Fury - Featuerette
- Becoming Joker - Featuerette
- Please Welcome… Joker! - Featuerette
- Joker: A Chronicle of Chaos - Featuerette
The Lighthouse (Blu-ray + Digital HD)
Lionsgate
Street Date: January 7, 2020
From Robert Eggers, the visionary filmmaker behind the modern horror masterpiece The Witch, comes this hypnotic and hallucinatory tale of two lighthouse keepers (Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson) on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s. As an approaching storm threatens to sweep them from the rock and strange apparitions emerge from the fog, each man begins to suspect that the other has become dangerously unmoored
- "The Lighthouse: A Dark & Stormy Tale" Featurette
- Audio Commentary with Co-Writer & Director Robert Eggers
- Deleted Scenes
Doctor Cyclops (Blu-ray)
Kino Lorber
Street Date: January 7, 2020
Follows four explorers as they search for legendary scientist Dr. Thorkel (Albert Dekker, Kiss Me Deadly, The Killers, Beau Geste). When they discover their missing colleague, they find his brilliant mind has been warped by radiation and they decide to return him to civilization for help. But the half-blind, half-mad Dr. Cyclops will have none of that and uses his experimental body-altering devise to stop them. Now, harmless items and small creatures suddenly become giant-sized instruments of death!
- Brand New 4K Remaster
- Audio Commentary by Film Historian Richard Harland Smith
- Trailers from Hell with Jesús Treviño
- Theatrical trailer
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Holiday (Blu-ray)
Kino Lorber
Street Date: January 7, 2020
Two years before stars Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant and director George Cukor would collaborate on The Philadelphia Story, they brought their timeless talents to this delectable slice of 1930s romantic-comedy perfection, the second film adaptation of a hit 1928 play by Philip Barry. Grant is at his charismatic best as the acrobatically inclined free spirit who, following a whirlwind engagement, literally tumbles into the lives of his fiancée's aristocratic family—setting up a clash of values with her staid father while firing the rebellious imagination of her brash, black-sheep sister (Hepburn). With a sparkling surface and an undercurrent of melancholy, Holiday is an enchanting ode to nonconformists and pie-in-the-sky dreamers everywhere, as well as a thoughtful reflection on what it truly means to live well.
- Brand new 4K restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Holiday (1930), a previous adaptation of Philip Barry's play, directed by Edward H. Griffith
- New conversation between filmmaker and distributor Michael Schlesinger and film critic Michael Sragow
- Audio excerpts from an American Film Institute oral history with director George Cukor, recorded in 1970 and '71
- Costume gallery
- An essay by critic Dana Stevens
The Specialists (Blu-ray)
Kino Lorber
Street Date: January 7, 2020
Notorious gunfighter Hud Dixon (Hallyday) arrives in Blackstone, a town where his brother was wrongfully accused of robbing a bank and lynched for it. As Hud seeks revenge, he starts to discover the truth behind the stolen loot, and has to contend with an idealistic sheriff, a beautiful and seductive female banker, a corrupt businessman and a one-armed Mexican bandit, who was once his friend. Gastone Moschin (The Conformist) and Françoise Fabian (Belle de Jour) co-star in this fully restored adventure-yarn gorgeously shot by Dario Di Palma (The Seduction of Mimi, The Oldest Profession).
- Brand new 4K restoration
- New Audio Commentary by Filmmaker Alex Cox
- Includes Both French and Italian Audio with Optional English Subtitles
- Theatrical Trailer
Kill Them All and Come Back Alone (Blu-ray)
Kino Lorber
Street Date: January 7, 2020
During the American Civil War, a Confederate prisoner leads a group of mercenaries on a mission to steal a million dollars in gold from the Union Army. Directed by Enzo G. Castellari, and starring Chuck Connors, Frank Wolff, Franco Citti, Leo Anchóriz, and Giovanni Cianfriglia.
- Brand new 4K restoration
- English and Italian Cuts of the film
- New Audio Commentary by Filmmaker Alex Cox
- Theatrical Trailer
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The Hellbenders (Blu-ray)
Kino Lorber
Street Date: January 7, 2020
The Civil War is over and the South has fallen, but Col. Jonas (Joseph Cotten) has a plan to revive the Confederacy. He raids a Union Army detail and walks away with valuable treasure that he intends to put to use raising another rebel army. Jonas needs to keep the treasure safe during shipment, so he places it in a coffin and forces saloon girl Claire (Norma Bengell) to play widow. Claire is unwilling to do her part, however, and puts herself in danger by opposing the dangerous Jonas.
- Brand new 4K restoration
- NEW Audio Commentary by Filmmaker Alex Cox
- Theatrical Trailer
Cobra Woman (Blu-ray)
Kino Lorber
Street Date: January 7, 2020
Upon discovering his fiancée Tollea has been kidnaped, Ramu and his friend Kado set out for a Pacific isle where all strangers are to be killed on arrival and the inhabitants, who are frequently sacrificed to an angry volcano god, worship the cobra. The island is ruled over by Tollea's evil twin Naja, the Cobra Woman, who, besides having designs on her new prisoner Ramu, also desires to eliminate any competition from her benevolent sister. Directed by Robert Siodmak, and starring María Montez, Jon Hall, Sabu, Lon Chaney Jr., and Edgar Barrier.
Brick (Blu-ray)
Kino Lorber
Street Date: January 7, 2020
Brendan Frye is a loner, someone who knows all the angles but has chosen to stay on the outside. When the girl he loves turns up dead, he is determined to find the "who" and "why" and plunges into the dark and dangerous social strata of rich girl Laura, intimidating Tug, drug-addled Dode, seductive Kara, and the ominous Pin. But who can he really trust?
- Brand new 4K restoration supervised by Rian Johnson
- Audio Commentary by Writer/Director Rian Johnson, Actors Nora Zehetner and Noah Segan, Producer Ram Bergman, Production Designer Jodie Tillen and Costume Designer Michele Posch
- 8 Deleted and Extended Scenes (w/ introduction by Rian Johnson)
- The Inside Track: Casting The Roles of Laura and Dode
- 5.1 Surround and 2.0 Lossless Audio
- Optional English Subtitles
- Theatrical Trailer
