Every now and again, there comes a week when it seems like an avalanche of incredible DVDs and Blu-rays are released. This is most definitely one of those weeks. We’ve got last year’s Best Picture (along with some runners up), a DC Comics movie that is, well, super, classic films in new home video editions, and basically entertainment from start to finish. Clear your schedule, you’ve got some serious movie watching to do!
Mute since birth, Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins) works as a janitor at a secret government lab in the early 1960s. When she discovers an amphibious humanoid (Doug Jones) being held there, she forms an unexpected bond with the creature. Learning that her new friend is to be dissected, Elisa hatches a plan for him escape, keeping him in her bathtub until he can be released in a nearby canal. Winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Guillermo del Toro’s fantasy also stars Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer.
Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) recruit fellow heroes Aquaman (Jason Momoa), the Flash (Ezra Miller), Cyborg (Ray Fisher), and a resurrected Superman (Henry Cavill) to prevent alien soldier Steppenwolf (a motion-captured Ciarán Hinds) and his legion of fear-sensing Parademons from using three powerful and ancient devices called Mother Boxes to reshape the Earth. The first big-screen, live-action outing for DC Comics’ premier superhero team also stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Irons, J.K. Simmons.
By the early ‘90s, physical prowess–more than technical grace–had pushed ice skater Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie) through a hardscrabble upbringing by a flinty mother (Oscar-winner Allison Janney) and into the upper ranks of global competition. However, the cockeyed plan of her husband (Sebastian Stan) to hobble rival Nancy Kerrigan during the run-up to the 1994 Olympics would steer her career and life into tabloid fodder. Darkly comic examination of an era’s strangest sports story co-stars Bobby Cannavale, Julianne Nicholson.
For 17-year-old music prodigy Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet), the summer of 1983 seemed like it would pass like any other at the Italian villa of his professor father (Michael Stuhlbarg). However, with the arrival of his dad’s new grad student assistant–the handsome and charismatic Oliver (Armie Hammer)–their immediate rapport would lead to an intense and transformative relationship. Luca Guadagnino’s lush, acclaimed coming-of-age opus, from André Aciman’s 2007 novel, also stars Amira Casar, Esther Garrel.
James Franco directed and stars in this acclaimed, seriocomic look at the behind-the-scenes story of the now-infamous film “The Room” from 2003. Five years earlier, struggling actors Tommy Wiseau (Franco) and Greg Sestero (Dave Franco) took on the daunting task of producing their own motion picture, but the mysterious and uber-confident Wiseau’s lack of writing and directing experience ultimately results in their crafting what’s been hailed as one of the worst movies ever made. With Seth Rogen, Ari Graynor, and a slew of celebrity cameos.
Based on the children’s book “The Story of Ferdinand,” Blue Sky Studios’ computer-animated adventure is set in Spain and follows the titular gentle, flower-loving bull (voiced by John Cena) as he’s mistakenly believed to be a violent beast and sent to bullfight training farm. When he’s selected as an opponent to a famed matador (Miguel Ángel Silvestre), Ferdinand and a group of his fellow animals must make a daring escape. Also features the voices of Kate McKinnon, Anthony Anderson, Bobby Cannavale.
Fleeing a deadly child cult in the Midwest, pregnant teen Ruth is determined to keep her baby out of their grasp. Ten years later, Ruth and her son are living a quiet life, safe and sound in a small Oklahoma town. Or so they thought. Ruth soon discovers that the only way to truly protect her child is to face down the evil from her past once and for all. Fright-filled chapter in the long-running horror film series stars Marci Miller, Jake Ryan Scott, Mary Kathryn Bryant, Lynn Andrews III.
The Lion in Winter (50th Anniversary)
Katharine Hepburn won her third Oscar as strong-willed Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, fighting a battle of wills for England’s future against King Henry II (Peter O’Toole) in this classic historical opus. The aging king gathers his family on Christmas Eve to select an heir to the throne–a meeting producing dramatic maneuvers among his sons, his mistress, and the king of France. James Goldman adapted his 1966 play; Anthony Harvey directs. With Anthony Hopkins, Jane Merrow.
“Bricker bracker firecracker, sis boom bah! Comedy and nudity, rah, rah, rah!” In this raunchy teen laughfest, the troublemaking cheerleaders at Aloha High are none too pleased to learn that their school might be merging with their rival, Lincoln. But when their new principal is kidnapped, the pom pom girls are the only ones who can save him and blow the lid off of a sinister conspiracy to build a shopping mall on Aloha’s land. Jerii Woods, Cheryl Smith, Helen Lang, and, in an early role, David Hasselhoff star.
It was a student orientation like no other when American ballet student Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) landed on the doorstep of a prestigious dance academy in a small German town and promptly witnessed another student fleeing in terror. As Suzy observes the other unholy goings-on, she comes to realize the school is home to modern-day witches who seek to resurrect their coven’s long-dead founder. Italian scaremaster Dario Argento’s magnum opus co-stars Alida Valli, Joan Bennett, Stefania Casini, Udo Kier.