Recent theatrical hits. Classics from the Warner Archive Collection. The final film from a Hollywood legend. Cult favorites from the 1980s. We are a bit overwhelmed at the sheer variety of new DVDs and Blu-rays that are now available…and we think you will as well. One thing is for certain, you’ll be in no shortage of things to watch for the foreseeable future!
Ignoring all sequels and remakes, this direct follow-up to the 1978 horror classic finds Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) still suffering from PTSD due to her encounter with masked killer Michael Myers 40 years earlier. When Myers returns to Haddonfield on Halloween, he’ll have to contend with Laurie, who’s had four decades to prepare for his arrival, and will stop at nothing to protect her family and take Michael down for good. With Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Haluk Bilginer.
Notorious (Criterion Collection)
Bitter and rueful over her father’s wartime treason, dissolute German-American playgirl Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman) was coaxed by government operative T.R. Devlin (Cary Grant) into becoming an asset for U.S. intelligence. Their mutual attraction turns to mutual heartache once it’s learned her Brazil assignment involves the seduction of a fugitive Nazi industrialist (Claude Rains). Superlative Hitchcock thriller of espionage, deception and thwarted love co-stars Louis Calhern, Leopoldine Konstantin.
Robert Redford (in what is intended to be his last role before retirement) stars as real-life septuagenarian bank robber Forrest Tucker in this delightfully offbeat crime comedy. In the early 1980s, Tucker employs politeness and charm as he stages a series of heists while romancing a widowed rancher (Sissy Spacek), and easily staying one step ahead of a determined police detective (Casey Affleck). With Danny Glover, Tom Waits, Tika Sumpter.
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween
In this second fun family frightfest inspired by the R.L. Stine tales, ambitious young junk haulers Sonny (Jeremy Ray Taylor) and Sam (Caleel Harris) agree to clear out a creepy old house. Unfortunately, the first thing they uncrate is Slappy, the evil ventriloquist’s dummy…and he’s out to resurrect the monsters of the “Goosebumps” mythos and terrorize the town! Can Stine (Jack Black) help bail the kids out? Madison Iseman, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Chris Parnell, Ken Jeong also star.
While in Stockholm to accept the Nobel Prize in Literature, an alcoholic writer (Paul Newman) learns of a plot involving the kidnapping of a physicist by Russian intelligence. He soon discovers that an impostor has taken the physicist’s place, and he must fend off communist agents to find the real man. Edward G. Robinson, Elke Sommer, and Diane Baker also star; based on the novel by Irving Wallace.
At the World War’s end, nurse Laura Mattson (Diana Wynyard) was left pregnant by a downed pilot (Robert Young)…and soldier Edward Seward (Lewis Stone) stepped up to marry her and raise the child as his own. In 1940, Seward–now U.S. Secretary of State–sees the global peace he tried to broker fall apart, and Laura’s pacifist son Bob (Phillips Holmes) has crucial life choices to make. Intriguing (and prophetic) speculative pre-Code drama also stars May Robson, Hedda Hopper, Ruth Selwyn.
Because of his striking resemblance to a captured collaborationist, Free French officer Pierre Metard (Jean-Pierre Aumont, in his U.S. debut) is sent into the occupied zone to uncover the location of a U-boat base. While he seemingly succeeds in duping his double’s fiancée (Susan Peters) and mistress (Signe Hasso), will there be a stunning betrayal before the mission’s complete? Gripping take on the Helen MacInnes novel co-stars George Coulouris, Richard Whorf, Darryl Hickman, Reginald Owen.
Tony Craig (Chester Morris) signed on as doctor for a passenger ship bound out of Shanghai for San Francisco to try and rekindle things with nurse/ex Ann Grayson (Wendy Barrie). Unfortunately, chief engineer Crusher McKay (Victor McLaglen) has his eye on her as well…and the rivalry could turn disastrous as they deal with a cholera outbreak spreading through the lower decks. Tense action-drama co-stars Barry Fitzgerald, Alan Hale, Allan Lane; look for Eddie Bracken in his screen debut.
Journey to the faraway planet of Krull for a spectacular mix of sci-fi action and sword-and-sorcery fantasy. Heroic young prince Colwyn (Ken Marshall) must acquire the Glaive, a mystical weapon that will let him battle the monsters and minions of the evil Black Beast and rescue his captive betrothed, the beautiful Princess Lyssa (Lysette Anthony). With Freddie Jones, Francesca Annis, and, in early roles, Liam Neeson and Robbie Coltrane.
This birthday is anything but a party, as a group of teens at an exclusive private school are killed in a variety of gruesome ways, from suffocation to shish-kabobing. But are the murders linked to a grim secret from a new student’s past, and can the slaying be stopped? Classic 1980s slasher flick stars Melissa Sue Anderson, Matt Craven, Lawrence Dane, and Glenn Ford.
London, 1888: Streetwalkers in the Whitechapel district were being savagely slain, and Scotland Yard Inspector O’Neill (Eddie Byrne) was grateful for the input of his American friend, Manhattan plainclothesman Sam Lowry (Lee Patterson). Would it be enough to uncover the identity of the Ripper before he struck again? Stunning speculative thriller from Britain also stars Ewen Solon, John Le Mesurier, Betty McDowall, George Rose.
This atmospheric, expertly realized Hammer horror tale is set in a 19th-century Cornish town where the local physician (Brook Williams) enlists the aid of his mentor and friend (André Morell) to help him fight a baffling epidemic that’s responsible for a rash of recent deaths. They soon discover that a squire (John Carson) is using voodoo to resurrect the dead in order to have them work in his tin mine. Diane Clare, Jacqueline Pearce also star.
Political operative Ed Beaumont (Alan Ladd) thought it was a mistake when his ward-heeler boss Paul Madvig (Brian Donlevy) threw his weight behind a reform candidate for senate. When the candidate’s wastrel son turns up murdered, and Madvig is fingered for the crime, Beaumont has his toughest mess of all to clean up. Crackling take on Dashiell Hammett’s tale of corruption co-stars Veronica Lake, William Bendix, Joseph Calleia, Bonita Granville.
Obsession (Collector’s Edition)
Brian DePalma directs this taut suspenser, written by “Taxi Driver” scripter Paul Schrader and featuring the final film score by Bernard Herrmann. Several years after his wife and young daughter are kidnapped and murdered, a businessman (Cliff Robertson) falls in love with a woman (Geneviève Bujold) who is a dead ringer for his late wife. As they prepare to marry, his fiancée is abducted, revealing an eerie connection to her double that goes beyond their physical resemblance. John Lithgow co-stars.
Marsupial werewolves stalk the Australian Outback in this fun sequel that mixes horror and comedy. A sociologist (Barry Otto) falls in love with a visiting Russian ballerina (Dagmar Bláhová) who turns out to be one of the beasties, and a young wolf woman (Imogen Annesley) lands a role in a monster movie and winds up pregnant by her human boyfriend (Leigh Biolos). With Max Fairchild, Ralph Cotterill, and, in a cameo appearance, Barry Humphries as Dame Edna. AKA: “Howling III: The Marsupials.”
Originally shot as a virtuality reality app, this 1980s-set drama was inspired by a true story and stars John Travolta as Ben Aranoff, a millionaire speedboat racing champ who uses his boats to run cocaine all over Miami. Aranoff’s dangerous double life catches up with him when he finds himself caught up in a bloody battle between the DEA and violent drug lords. With Katheryn Winnick, Jennifer Esposito, James Remar, Kellan Lutz, Tom Sizemore, and Matthew Modine as George H.W. Bush.
Eric Longfellow (Don Leifert) was just an ordinary music teacher living in the Baltimore suburbs…well, except for the fact that he was a reanimated corpse, and that he had to strangle others to make their life force his own. The neighborhood’s in a panic…and when the suspicious guy next door (Richard Nelson) starts nosing around, is he going to be taught a lesson? Creepy entry from low-budget shock auteur Don Dohler co-stars George Stover, Elaine White, Del Winans, Kim Dohler. AKA: “Deadly Neighbor.”
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Vol. IX
It’s the 30th anniversary of Mystery Science Theater 3000, America’s only show that makes fun of really bad B-movies from the comfort of a spaceship floating above Earth. – To celebrate, Volume XI returns, with long out-of-print classics Women of the Prehistoric Planet, Wild Rebels, and The Sinister. Joel Hodgson, Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett star.
Using a magical ticket he received from an elderly projectionist, young, movie-obsessed Danny Madigan (Austin O’Brien) is transported into the fictional world of his film hero, macho L.A. cop Jack Slater (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Can Danny help his idol foil a sinister plot hatched by the evil Benedict (Charles Dance) to return to the real world and kill Slater’s portrayer? This elaborate action-comedy co-stars F. Murray Abraham and Art Carney (in his last role), and features a host of celebrity cameos.
Having been subjected to the most inhumane experiments in a British research facility, fox terrier Snitter (voiced by John Hurt) and Labrador Rowf (Christopher Benjamin) readily seized a chance to escape into the wild. The road companions’ battle for survival is worsened by their former captors’ pursuit and a media frenzy, in this sophisticated animated fantasy adapted from the Richard Adams novel by “Watership Down” director Martin Rosen; with the voices of James Bolam, Judy Geeson, Patrick Stewart.
With Superman fallen in battle, can anyone take his place as defender of Metropolis…and the world? Four very different claimants to his mantle soon emerge–armored engineer Steel (voiced by Cress Williams), cocky teenage clone Superboy (Cameron Monaghan), alien construct Eradicator (Charles Halford), and the half-humanoid Cyborg Superman (Jerry O’Connell)–but do any have a treacherous agenda? Follow-up to “The Death of Superman” also features the voices of Rebecca Romijn, Rainn Wilson.
Hilarious John Candy, that’s who! And when inept private detective Harry Crumb is given an assignment–the kidnapping of a beautiful heiress–specifically because his boss (Jeffrey Jones) doesn’t actually want the case solved, the hapless gumshoe will need every trick in his arsenal to save the day. Annie Potts, Shawnee Smith, Tim Thomerson, and Barry Corbin co-star in this uproarious comedy caper.
The Pink Panther Cartoon Collection: Volume 4: 1971 – 1975
Think pink with that star of screens both big and small, the Pink Panther, with an animated potpourri of crazy capers in which the felicitous feline always gets the upper paw. First created by DePatie-Freleng for the opening title sequence of the 1964 film comedy, the colorful cat slinked on to Saturday morning TV in 1969.
Includes “A Fly in the Pink,” “Pink Blue Plate,” “Pink Tuba-Dore,” “Pink-In,” “Psst Pink,” “Psychedelic Pink,” “Pink Pranks,” “The Pink Flea,” “Slink Pink,” “Pinkadilly Circus,” “We Give Pink Stamps,” “Salmon Pink,” “Pink Streaker,” “Pink Plasma,” “Pink Campaign,” “Pink Piper,” “Bobolink Pink,” “Trail of the Lonesome Pink,” “Pink Aye,” “Keep Our Forests Pink,” “Pink DaVinci,” and “Forty Pink Winks.”
In this hilarious horror spoof, married couple John and Mary (real-life husband and wife Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss) inherit an old house that’s probably a perfectly safe place to live and raise a family. Of course, that’s not true. Actually, the creaky mansion contains an ancient book that can conjure up a host of menacing monsters and tells of a dreaded curse surrounding Saturday the 14th. Jeffrey Tambor, Severn Darden, Rosemary DeCamp also star.
Antediluvian animated fable from animator Don Bluth (“An American Tail”) follows young Apatosaurus Littlefoot as he searches for the Great Valley, one of the last habitable places on Earth, after his mother is killed by a wicked Tyrannosaurus. Along his journey Littlefoot is joined by other young dinos Cera, Ducky, Spike, and Petrie. Voiced by Gabriel Damon, Will Ryan, Helen Shaver, Pat Hingle.
For all of this week’s new releases, click here.