Summer’s gone, but cooler days lie ahead…and tons of cool new DVDs and Blu-ray releases as well. This week’s new offerings include some underappreciated recent releases, several archival offerings (including several Universal Classic Monsters titles), TV season sets, and more. Take a look at what you’ll be wanting to watch with this week’s new titles, now available!
A quartet of sixtysomething lifelong besties–recent widow Diane (Diane Keaton), fearlessly single Vivian (Jane Fonda), long-divorced Sharon (Candice Bergen), and listlessly married Carol (Mary Steenburgen)–were each struggling with late-life relationship doldrums. Things on the romantic excitement front, however, begin to look up–courtesy of their choice to read and critique the erotic novel “Fifty Shades of Grey”! Don Johnson, Andy Garcia, Richard Dreyfuss, Craig T. Nelson, Alicia Silverstone also star.
Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man
Comedy legends Bud Abbott and Lou Costello encounter one of Universal’s most unforgettable monsters in Abbott and Costello Meet The Invisible Man. Recent detective school graduates Bud and Lou are minding their new business when accused killer Tommy Nelson (Arthur Franz) bursts into their office. Proclaiming his innocence, he convinces the two to get him to his beautiful fiancée Helen (Nancy Guild). Just as the police arrive to investigate, Tommy injects himself with invisibility serum being developed by Helen’s uncle. Tommy convinces Lou to go undercover as a boxer to help expose the real killer. With Tommy’s unseen assistance, Lou reluctantly goes into the ring as “Lou the Looper” for one of the most hilarious fight sequences ever filmed.
Creature from the Black Lagoon: Complete Legacy Collection
This two-disc set collecting the cinematic adventures of everybody’s favorite scary–and scaly–monster opens with “Creature from the Black Lagoon” (1954), in which a team of scientists in the Amazon is hunted by a water-breathing, half-human gillman. Richard Carlson, Julia Adams star. Next, it’s the “Revenge of the Creature” (1955), as he torments tourists at a Florida aquarium. John Agar, Lori Nelson star. Then, “The Creature Walks Among Us” (1956) after scientists mutate the beastie so that he can live on land–and terrorize San Francisco. Jeff Morrow, Rex Reason star.
The Invisible Man: Complete Legacy Collection
“The Invisible Man Returns” (1940) in the guise of Vincent Price as he attempts to clear his name. Nan Grey, Cedric Hardwicke co-star. Then, scientist John Barrymore turns Virginia Bruce into “The Invisible Woman” (1940), featuring Shemp Howard; and the “Invisible Agent” (1942) tries to stop a Nazi plot. Jon Hall, Peter Lorre star. Next, it’s “The Invisible Man’s Revenge” (1944) when fugitive Hall terrorizes a rich couple. John Carradine, Leon Errol co-star. Four-disc set also includes “The Invisible Man” (1933) and “Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man.”
Universal Classic Monsters: Complete 30-Film Collection
Twenty-four-disc set includes “Dracula: Complete Legacy Collection,” “Frankenstein: Complete Legacy Collection,” “The Wolf Man: Complete Legacy Collection,” “The Mummy: Complete Legacy Collection,” “The Invisible Man: Complete Legacy Collection,” “Creature from the Black Lagoon: Complete Legacy Collection,” and “Phantom of the Opera” (1943).
Frankie and Annette never had problems like the kids on Party Beach, as toxic waste, sea slime, and dead sailors combine near a seaside resort to create half-human, half-fish monsters eager to prey on surf daddies and beach bunnies. Director Del Tenney’s classic turkey features a surf rock soundtrack by The Del-Aires; John Scott, Alice Lyon, Marilyn Clarke, and Eulabelle Moore star.
Bound (Olive Signature Collection)
Intense, erotic crime thriller with Gina Gershon as Corky, an ex-con who, after having a sexual liaison with neighbor Violet (Jennifer Tilly), joins forces with her to dupe gangster boyfriend Caesar (Joe Pantoliano) out of $2 million in laundered loot. Stylish, sizzling suspenser from the Wachowskis features titillating sex scenes and plenty of plot twists. Co-stars Christopher Meloni.
In the South Pacific of World War II, idealistic officer Lt. Hearn (Cliff Robertson) is charged by taskmaster CO Gen. Cummings (Raymond Massey) with leading a platoon on a vital island recon mission. Thanks to the undermining efforts of sadistic displaced topkick Sgt. Croft (Aldo Ray), the Japanese forces might not be the soldiers’ only source of peril. Long-demanded take on the Norman Mailer novel also stars Barbara Nichols, Richard Jaeckel, Joey Bishop, Lily St. Cyr; Raoul Walsh directs.
The High Chapparal: Season One
This 1967-71 NBC western series from “Bonanza” creator David Dortort was set on a ranch called the High Chaparral located in the Arizona Territory in the 1870s. His wife killed in an Apache attack, High Chaparral owner “Big John” Cannon (Leif Erickson) marries neighboring rancher’s daughter Victoria Montoya (Linda Cristal) to solidify an alliance between their families, causing tension between John and his son (Mark Slade). With Cameron Mitchell, Henry Darrow. All 28 episodes from the first season are included in a six-disc set.
Tucker: The Man and His Dream (30th Anniversary Edition)
He was the visionary ’40s automaker whose ideas and independence threatened Detroit’s “Big Three,” and whose courage wouldn’t let his dream die. Jeff Bridges stars as Preston Tucker in director Francis Ford Coppola’s masterful film, the Oscar-nominated biodrama about a maverick that contains many fascinating parallels to the filmmaker’s own reputation for outsized ambition. Lloyd Bridges, Frederic Forrest, and Joan Allen co-star.
In 1810s London, teenaged Mary Godwin (Elle Fanning) began a scandalous romance with her philosopher father’s young–and married–acolyte, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (Douglas Booth). The years they spent in flight from England in the company of her free-spirited stepsister Claire Clairmont (Bel Powley)–including the fateful visit to the Swiss retreat of Lord Byron (Tom Sturridge) that inspired “Frankenstein”–are chronicled in this memorable effort. Stephen Dillane, Joanne Froggatt co-star.
Old-school mechanic Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green) didn’t have much use for our increasingly automated world. However, after a brutal gang assault left his wife dead and him a quadriplegic, he agreed to let an entrepreneur (Harrison Gilbertson) bond an experimental AI with his nervous system. Now mobile–and superhumanly enhanced–Trace goes on a hunt for the killers, but the trail may provide a few stunning twists. Distinctive fantasy-thriller co-stars Betty Gabriel, Richard Cawthorne.
From tireless trial advocate for gender equality to second woman named to the U.S. Supreme Court to seemingly boundless source of memes for the present generation, the life, career, and phenomenon of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg receive an engaging and informative overview in this effort, offering unprecedented access to the progressive stalwart as she holds forth on cases, colleagues, and the state of American jurisprudence.
Every May, five grown men dedicate themselves to a truly noble pursuit: the same game of tag they’ve been playing since they were kids. And with Jerry (Jeremy Renner)–the only member of the group who’s never been “it”–about to get married, the other four guys (Ed Helms, Jon Hamm, Jake Johnson, Hannibal Buress) will go to hilariously crazy and elaborate lengths to see that he’s tagged just once. Based on a true story, this quirky comedy co-stars Isla Fisher, Annabelle Wallis, Rashida Jones.
Fine performances highlight this rousing drama that depicts the struggles many American farmers faced in the 1980s. On the Iowa farm her family has owned for generations, Jewel Ivy (Jessica Lange) and her husband, Gil (Sam Shepard), contend with bad weather that has affected their crops, while they deal with the strain this puts on their marriage and family, and find themselves at odds with government officials who wish to foreclose on their property. Wilford Brimley, Matt Clark also star.
Scandal: The Complete Sixth and Seventh Seasons
Leaving a powerful White House job for the private sector, pro public relations “fixer” Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) opens her own crisis management firm to cater to the country’s most elite clients. Unfortunately for her, the staff she’s brought on might be expert at handling the trials and tribulations of the rich and famous, but they’re not so adept at tackling their own problems! Saucy drama co-stars Henry Ian Cusick, Tony Goldwyn. All 34 episodes from the sixth and seventh seasons are included in this eight-disc set.
A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die
Grizzled gunfighter Clay McCord (Alex Cord) may be forced into early retirement thanks to the uncontrollable tremors afflicting his shooting arm. He sets out for the town of Tuscosa to take advantage of an offer of amnesty to outlaws, but before he can enjoy his pardon, McCord will be forced to take the town’s corrupt boss (Mario Brega) down once and for all. Exciting western drama from Italy also stars Robert Ryan, Arthur Kennedy, Enzo Fiermonte, and Nicoletta Machiavelli. AKA: “Dead or Alive,” “Outlaw Gun.”
Born on a parallel Earth where the Axis won World War II, reporter Ray Terrill (voiced by Russell Tovey) was exposed to radiation that gave him incredible light-based powers…and, in the guise of the Ray, fought to end generations of fascist rule alongside the superheroic rebel Freedom Fighters. The struggle, however, may spill into our dimension..and cost his life. Featurized version of the 2017-2018 CW Seed animated web series also features the voices of Melissa Benoist, Carlos Valdes.
For a complete list of all of this week’s new releases, click here