Happy Thanksgiving, folks. It’s a short week and only some quickie announcements, but we always want you to be aware of Blu-rays for which you might want to clear some shelf space. A few big Oscar contenders, some badass newbies and a few reissues are all worth your attention, and you can just stay safe from the Black Friday nonsense and preorder these online.
These are all movies we already own, but I thought this new packaging looked really cool, especially the old school First Blood and Pulp Fiction ones and the impressionistic T2 and Total Recall. Plus they all come with digital copies now, except for Highlander, and I’m getting more serious about building my library in the cloud.
Other Lionsgate titles in new steelbooks include Sin City, Stargate, Hero and Apocalypse Now.
Keanu Reeves’ directorial debut premiered on VOD in September and theaters in November. It’s already coming home before the end of the year, and I’m happy about that.
Tiger Chen was so magnetic I want to watch him fight some more, and to watch Reeves look directly into my eyes in my living room and scream at me.
Universal just announced some big titles coming to Blu-ray in the beginning of the year. Coal Miner’s Daughter, Gorillas in the Mist and The Hurricane come to Blu-ray for the first time.
Coal Miner’s and Hurricane have all their DVD extras included, and Gorillas has an archival featurette. Remember when they used to play those between movies on HBO and stuff? Fun.
The acclaimed film and Oscar hopeful Fruitvale Station has been announced for a January Blu-ray. That should be plenty of time to get it in the hands of Academy voters even if they didn’t get early screeners.
The film comes with modest extras, a feature on the real Oscar Grant whom Michael B. Jordan portrays, and a Q&A with the cast and filmmakers.
The Sundance hit about backup singers is coming to Blu-ray just a year after it premiered in Park City. We spoke with singer Darlene Love and director Morgan Neville when the film opened theatrically this summer. If you’ve got a fancy Blu-ray sound system, you’re going to want to hear the new recordings of these vocalists at work.
Neville only hinted at the amount of full scenes he cut out of the film so we’ll see how many end up in the Blu-ray’s deleted scene collection. With all the artists he spoke to about backup singing, there could be countless stories. Q&A with the film’s subjects Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer and Neville should provide us some more perspective, and a new short film The Buddy System.
You know, I was just going to let Machete Kills slip through the cracks as an obligatory new release in January. We have more important indie films and classics to discuss, but when I saw the meager offering of extras I just had to say something. I suggested in my review of the film that the slapdash Troublemaker production model has gotten lazy. Now they’re not even making an effort for Blu-ray and DVD anymore.
The Machete Kills Blu-ray comes with two extras: Deleted & Extended Scenes, and “The Making of Machete Kills.” Rodriguez used to do those “10 Minute Film Schools” and even cooking schools to have some fun with his extras. Surely a “10 Minute Film School” would be more entertaining than Machete Kills itself. I guess the first Machete didn’t have one either, but I’m finding the lack of interest in putting together a home video package especially telling these days.
Blu-ray.com reports that the Metallica 3D concert movie is coming to 3D Blu-ray via their own label, Blackened Recordings. Guess I should get on Blackened’s press list. That concert footage was stunning so I have high hopes for even a 2D Blu-ray presentation of that.
The bonus features are basically a movie unto themselves, with an 80 minute documentary by Adam Dubin. Okay, it’s not Joe Berlinger but could that be a new Some Kind of Monster? It says it includes two new chapters, which could mean new chapters of the narrative story starring Dane DeHaan, or two new tracks in the concert. I’m personally hoping for more music.
Robert Redford’s oceanic Gravity swept Cannes, pun intended, and will come home next year. I expect the deadly ocean to look stunning on Blu-ray, and bonus features aplenty will highlight what a major achievement the film was.
The commentary track will be your only chance to hear dialogue in the film, and several features range from basics on the story and Redford, to specific visual effects processes.
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.
