Here we go again, indeed! It’s time for another batch of DVD and Blu-ray new releases and we think you’ll love this list of what is now available. The Abba-inspired blockbuster musical kicks things off in fine fashion, but we’ve also got an inventive satire from Boots Riley, plenty of horror films getting special editions just in time for Halloween, a holiday classic starring Robert Mitchum, some TV season sets, and so much more.
From now through the end of the year, the studios will really be ramping up their release schedule…which is nothing but great news for fans of movies! Enjoy this week’s new releases listed below, we know we will!
Set five years after the 2008 smash, this equally effervescent sequel finds a pregnant Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) about to re-open late mom Donna’s (Meryl Streep) hotel. As tune-filled flashbacks show a young Donna (Lily James) living on the picturesque Greek island as an expectant mother, the present offers Sophie the unexpected chance to meet the grandmother (Cher) she’s never known. “Fernando,” “Knowing Me, Knowing You,” “Mamma Mia” are among the songs. With Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård, Colin Firth.
In an alternate-universe Oakland, newly hired telemarketer Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield) hoped he had an edge that would get him job advancement. Turns out that he did–an excellent “white voice” (dubbed by David Cross)–but as his sales success takes him up the corporate ladder, is he just being set up for a fall? Savvy, imaginative satire from debuting writer/director Boots Riley co-stars Tessa Thompson, Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews, Danny Glover, and Armie Hammer.
Department store clerk Steve Mason (Robert Mitchum) let war widow and comparison shopper Connie Ennis (Janet Leigh) off the hook for returning a pricey train set, and got pink-slipped as a result. He, however, is determined to make a Christmas gift of the toy to her young son…and go to war with her sort-of steady (Wendell Corey) for her attentions. Yuletide-flavored romance that became a latter-day holiday favorite co-stars Henry Morgan, Henry O’Neill, Esther Dale.
Creepshow (Collector’s Edition)
George A. Romero and Stephen King pay tribute to the old E.C. comics with this frightening, funny anthology. A family patriarch comes back from the dead to exact revenge, in “Father’s Day”; “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill” finds a farmer transformed into a giant plant; two lovers return from a watery grave, in “Something to Tide You Over”; a monster is released from “The Crate”; and a recluse is terrorized by bugs, in “They’re Creeping Up on You.” Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Leslie Nielsen star.
It’s Halloween night and Angela is throwing a party… but this is no ordinary Halloween party. Everybody’s headed to Hull House, a deserted funeral home, formerly the home of a mass murderer. But when the partygoers decide to have a séance, they awaken something evil… and these party crashers have a thirst for blood. Now it’s a battle to survive the night in Hull House. William Gallo, Amelia Kinkade, Cathy Podewell, Jill Terashita, and Screen Queen Linnea Quigley star in this ’80s splatter-fest directed by Kevin S. Tenney.
Maximum Overdrive (Vestron Video Collector’s Series)
The folks at the Dixie Boy truck stop in North Carolina learn the true meaning of “heavy metal” when the Earth passes through the tail of a comet, bringing all the vehicles and machinery in the area to life. And with the mechanized menaces attacking everyone in sight, a small group of people must fight for their very survival. Stephen King wrote and directed this fast-paced thriller, based on his short story “Trucks.” Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, and Yeardley Smith star.
Sisters (Criterion Collection)
Director/co-writer Brian De Palma’s first foray into Hitchcockian screen suspense finds a reporter (Jennifer Salt) witnessing a brutal murder committed by the separated conjoined twin (Margot Kidder) of a Canadian fashion model (also Kidder), but cannot prove it to the authorities. As she digs into the killer’s past, she uncovers a twisted tale of dementia, homicide, and the ultimate in “sibling rivalry.” Dolph Sweet, Charles Durning also star; music by Bernard Herrmann.
Night of the Living Dead (1990)
Original “Night” co-creator George A. Romero scripted this all-new updating of the horror classic, directed by special effects master Tom Savini. When siblings Barbara and Johnnie are attacked by zombies in a remote Pennsylvania cemetery and Johnnie is killed, Barbara retreats to a nearby farmhouse. There she encounters others fleeing the zombie assault, and together the group must try survive the most terrifying night ever. Tony Todd, Patricia Tallman, Tom Towles, Heather Mazur star.
After the British biker gang the Road Toads puts down an incursion into their territory by a rival gang that worships the Devil, one of the enemy’s bikes is taken over by a demonic spirit called upon by its (now dead) rider. The cycle’s unsuspecting new owner soon discovers the cursed Norton Commando has a thirst for blood and a mind of its own! Outrageous horror comedy stars Neil Morrissey, Amanda Noar, Burt Kwouk, and Anthony Daniels.
After an apocalyptic event, stoic librarian Del (Peter Dinklage) was the last person alive in his Hudson Valley hamlet, and possibly the world…and he seemingly wouldn’t have had it any other way. However, when a second survivor–effervescent loose-cannon teen Grace (Elle Fanning)–barrels into his quiet existence, he might find himself rethinking his comfort with isolation. Director Reed Morano’s provocative parable also stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Paul Giamatti.
The Americans: The Complete Final Season
To their neighbors in 1980s suburban Washington, D.C., Phillip and Elizabeth Jennings appear to be an average married couple. What no one─not the FBI agent who moves in next to them or even their own children─knows is that they’re undercover KGB operatives, sent two decades earlier to live in the U.S. and spy on the government. Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, and Noah Emmerich star in this suspenseful Cold War-set drama from FX. All 10 episodes from the final season are featured in this three-disc set.
Alice: The Complete Eighth Season
Alice may not live here anymore, but she called CBS home for nine seasons of heartwarming fun in this 1976-1985 sitcom. On her way to Hollywood with her young son in hopes of becoming a singer, New Jersey widow Alice Hyatt’s (Linda Lavin) car breaks down and strands her near Phoenix. Taking a waitress job at the greasy spoon diner run by the irascible Mel (Vic Tayback), Alice holds fast to her dreams while sharing tips and laughs with fellow waitresses Flo (Polly Holliday) and Vera (Beth Howland). All 22 episodes from the eighth season are included in this three-disc set.
23 episodes on 3 discs.
This riveting and violent tale of men on the front lines of battle and it is the only war film directed by master filmmaker Sam Peckinpah. Set in 1943, this explosive epic centers on Corporal Steiner (James Coburn), an accomplished but war-weary combat veteran leading a group of German soldiers on the Russian front. Steiner’s authority comes under attack when Captain Stransky (Maximilian Schell) takes over command of his troops. Stransky has only one goal in mind: to win the coveted Iron Cross, Germany’s highest medal, at any cost. The two military aces soon face off in an intense and deadly battle of wills.
This disturbing thriller from Italian horror maestro Mario Bava is set in a fashion house in Rome where gorgeous models are being killed by a masked murderer with metallic claws. The killer will seemingly stop at nothing to get his hands on a diary that belonged to one of the victims and reveals the truth about the drug addiction, blackmail, corruption, and other dirty dealings that were going on behind the house’s doors. Stylish shocker stars Cameron Mitchell, Eva Bartok and Thomas Reiner.
Russian circus performer Vera Janova (Florence Vidor) barely escaped a construction site sidewalk tragedy…and slick playboy Eugene Foster (Lowell Sherman) was happy to take undeserved credit for her rescue. Her new fascination with her “hero” galled magician colleague Ivan Norodin (Clive Brook), who’d long loved her from afar–and his greatest trick would be revealing his rival for what he really is. Uncovered drama from William A. Wellman co-stars El Brendel, Roy Stewart.
Donald Sutherland stars in this terrific suspenser as Andy Hammon, an insurance investigator looking into the theft of $3 million worth of diamonds. Father and daughter fences Paul (Patrick Magee) and Paula Booth (Jennifer O’Neill) are at the top of Hammon’s suspect list, but he finds his assignment complicated by his attraction to the irresistibly beautiful Paula. Robert Duvall, Eric Braeden, and Jon Cypher also star.
Weary of the diplomatic grind during her seasonal visit to Manhattan, Katie (Briana Evigan), crown princess of a postage-stamp European nation, ditches her entourage for some alone time. When her frolic ends with a mugging, she gets helped out by compassionate local Jack (Paul Campbell)…and she has to balance her growing attraction to him with the inevitability that she’ll have to come clean about her identity. Yuletide romance co-stars Greg Evigan, Tara Wilson, Jacqueline Samuda.
Having bonded with unaccompanied 8-year-old Leah (Sophie Neudorf) as she flew to Chicago for the holidays, footloose flight attendant Sydney (Brooke Burns) felt obligated to safely deliver her to her single dad, Jonathan (Tom Everett Scott). The delay was just enough for her to miss her plane out to Bali…but she wound up with an unanticipated romantic journey instead. Seasonal charmer from Hallmark co-stars Micheline Marchildon, Adriana O’Neil.
Which of these are on your must-see list? Tell us in the comments!