After a week off from Shelf Space while I was busy with AFI Fest, and a brief lull in Blu-ray announcements, I’m back and so is home video with a ton of major titles for the beginning of 2014, and a few more for this year. It’s time to start clearing some shelf space again, because you’ll want to have room for these reissues and new releases.
The infamous Lindsay Lohan/James Deen movie came out this summer, and of its many reported problems, I didn’t think that rating was one of them. It seemed to explore everything writer/director Paul Schrader wanted to, but now the Blu-ray release promises an unrated director’s cut.
I hope it’s more than just additional shots of closed down movie theaters. I’m not demanding more tits, since Schrader, Lohan and Amanda Brooks were plenty generous already, but if Schrader is sitting on something too hot for VOD I want to see it. The best would be if there is additional footage of Dr. Campbell (Gus Van Sant) reinstated into the film.
Hurry up! November is your last chance to pick up the “Twilight Zone” Definitive Editions Blu-rays, each of the individual five seasons or the complete set. Other “Twilight Zone” sets and episode only DVDs and Blu-rays will remain available.
Hopefully this means something extra special is in the works for the next “Twilight Zone” Blu-ray edition.
I knew that the movie only release in August wasn’t the end of the Pain & Gain story. Now we get the real pumped up edition.
It’s only an hour of bonuses, but that amounts to eight featurettes including four specifically on the characters portrayed in the film.
Franchise Fred was very happy with the direction the new Riddick took, and in my interview with David Twohy he promised an extended DVD/Blu-ray cut featuring an epilogue with Vaako (Karl Urban). The home video announcement does indeed promise the “Never-Before-Seen Unrated Director’s Cut With Alternate Ending.” I love the hyphens, because Never Before Seen just isn’t specific enough.
Additional extras include featurettes on Twohy developing the third Riddick story, new Riddick technology, and the film’s production design, two spots with various cast, and a motion comic prequel filling in the gaps between Chronicles of Riddick and just plain Riddick.
This movie was on my radar over the summer but a busy schedule kept me from seeing it the first time around. January 14 will be busy too with Sundance looming but maybe I’ll get my press copy early enough to watch it.
Sam Rockwell stars as a hunter named John Moon who gets embroiled in a crime when he accidentally shoots a woman and finds a stash of money. Two hours of bonus materials include interviews with the cast and crew, and a making of feature.
One of this year’s potential Oscar contenders. Academy voters will surely be getting screeners of Enough Said before the rest of us can buy it in January.
The romantic comedy starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini will include a Blu-ray exclusive bonus feature, and a series of promotional featurettes, simple and sweet.
January 14 just turned into the center of the Blu-ray universe. A.C.O.D. also falls on that date, a Sundance movie I missed at the festival and wanted to see. It has a great cast and when I watch it on Blu-ray I can pretend I’m in the Eccles theater. Bonus features will include public service announcements spoofing the premise of Adult Children of Divorce, Amy Poehler Outtakes (that’s very specific. Did no one else make funny bloopers?) and cast and crew discussion.
Few movies get their first home video release as a Criterion collection. You usually have to be Wes Anderson or Michael Bay for that kind of honor. Remember, Armageddon was a Criterion edition. That happened. So too, this year;s Cannes Palme d’Or winner goes straight to Criterion.
I suppose an immediate Criterion release means they didn’t have that much time to prepare bonus features. The only extra is a booklet with a film critic essay. Tech specs cite a new high-definition transfer approved by director Abdellatif Kechiche and new English subtitle translation, not that I know what was wrong with the old one.
In February, Criterion will also release Blu-rays of Truffaut’s Jules and Jim (Feb. 4), Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox (Feb. 18), Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent (Feb. 18), Godard’s Breathless (Feb. 25), Soderbergh’s King of the Hill (Feb. 25) and Polanski’s Tess (Feb. 25), all loaded with extras.
The latest Disney animated classic coming to Blu-ray is The Jungle Book. Sing along to “The Bare Necessities” in a high definition picture. There have been many adaptations of Rudyard Kipling’s novel, but this is the one we probably all remember. I dug the Jason Scott Lee live-action one too.
Diamond Edition bonus features include an alternate ending and features on Disney Animation, Richard Sherman, Diane Disney Miller and Floyd Norman, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The Disney Intermission (pause screen) is Bear-E-Oke with Baloo, so I bet that means they play “The Bear Necessities” with the words. You can also access Bear-E-Oke separately, and all previous DVD extras are included.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
