Jordan Peele’s “Us” Kicks Off An Incredible Week of Blu-ray and DVD New Releases

With the summer officially getting underway this week, the temperature is going to be rising…meaning that you’ll want to be spending some time indoors to beat the heat. Thankfully, there are an assortment of terrific new releases — led by Jordan Peele‘s latest chiller — for you to check out while the sun is blazing. Other interesting offerings include several French film classics, archival releases, and more. Here are this week’s notable new releases that we think you’ll find are very cool indeed!

Us

From “Get Out” writer and director Jordan Peele comes this effectively creepy chiller that finds Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong’o), her husband, Gabe (Winston Duke), and their children (Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex) being terrorized by horrifically violent doubles of themselves. Just who are these deadly doppelgängers, and what is their mysterious connection to Adelaide’s past? Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker also star.

Under the Silver Lake

Directionless East L.A. denizen Sam (Andrew Garfield) thought he’d made a connection with Sarah (Riley Keough), the stunning blonde from across the apartment complex. When the next day finds her abruptly and inexplicably moved out, he’s compelled to follow the meager clues left behind–and his odyssey takes him into the orbit of a bizarre conspiracy and its adherents. Stylish contemporary noir co-stars Topher Grace, Zosia Mamet, Patrick Fischler, Riki Lindhome, Grace Van Patten.

The Silent Partner

When meek bank clerk Miles Cullen (Elliott Gould) realized his branch was being cased by “Santa Claus bandit” Harry Reikle (Christopher Plummer), he used the event of the robbery to give the holdup man chump change…and stash away $50,000 for himself in a safety deposit box. The scheme works, until Reikle learns of the discrepancy through the media and comes looking for Miles. Great thriller from Canada co-stars Susannah York, John Candy; written by Curtis Hanson (“L.A. Confidential”).

Popeye the Sailor: The 1940s: Volume 2

Crush open a can of spinach, because a shipload of 15 color Famous Studios Popeye shorts from 1946-1947 is surfacing for the first time on home video. Have all ya can stands of “House Tricks?” (1946), “Klondike Casanova” (1946), “Rocket to Mars” (1946), “The Island Fling” (1946), “Abusement Park” (1947), “Popeye and the Pirates” (1947), “Wotta Knight” (1947), “All’s Fair at the Fair” (1947), and more.

Ordeal by Innocence

Before spending two years abroad, scientist Arthur Calgary (Donald Sutherland) had given a lift to hitchhiker Jack Argyle…and, now, having sought out Argyle to return a lost address book, he discovers that the hitcher has since been executed for murder. Knowing that he holds Argyle’s alibi for the night of the crime, Calgary presses to reopen the case–and meets with dangerous pushback. Gripping Christie adaptation co-stars Sarah Miles, Christopher Plummer, Ian McShane, Faye Dunaway.

The Border

Director Tony Richardson’s (“Tom Jones”) searing, socially charged drama stars Jack Nicholson in an understated performance as a corrupt border patrolman who suffers a crisis of conscience when he meets a young Mexican woman whose baby has been put up for sale on the black market. Top-notch supporting cast includes Harvey Keitel, Valerie Perrine, Warren Oates, Elpidia Carrillo.

Détective

Director Jean-Luc Godard intertwines two tales of money, murder, betrayal, prizefighting, and gangsters–all set in a French resort hotel–in this stylized and literary allusion-packed salute to classic Hollywood crime dramas. Presented in a non-linear style of storytelling, the film also offers Godard’s views on contemporary life in France. Nathalie Baye, Claude Brasseur, Johnny Halladay, Jean-Pierre Leaud, Laurent Terzieff, Alain Cuny star.

First Name: Carmen

A spontaneous mix of slapstick, eroticism and deep thoughts, Jean-Luc Godard’s irreverent satire of “Carmen” stars Maruschka Detmers as a femme fatale who plans to rob a bank while pretending to film a movie, but finds herself compromised by her attraction to the security guard (Jacques Bonnaffé). Godard himself appears in his first comedy as a once-great director confined to a local madhouse; Myriem Roussel, Christophe Odent, Hippolyte Girardot also star.

Hélas Pour Moi

A publisher (Bernard Verley) on a desperate hunt for the missing pages to a manuscript finds his fate intertwining with that of a Swiss fisherman (Gérard Depardieu) and his estranged wife (Laurence Masliah), whose marriage foundered after her seduction by an unknown entity that had taken her husband’s form. Jean-Luc Godard’s fantastic rumination on the Alcmene legend–which he disavowed after clashing with his star–also stars Aude Amiot, Jean-Louis Loca. AKA: “Oh, Woe Is Me.”

Eat, Play, Love

When veterinarian Carly Monroe (Jen Lilley) came home to Minnesota and assumed her retiring grandfather’s practice, it meant stops at the local animal shelter–and encounters with its owner, high school boyfriend Dan Landis (Jason Cermak). As old attractions are rekindled, will Dan’s catty TV host girlfriend (Emily Maddison) throw water on them by dragging him along to her new NYC job? Hallmark charmer reunites the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman–Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner–in support.

The Monolith Monsters

When a meteor slammed into the American Southwest and its fragments littered a tiny town, scientists pounced on the opportunity to study the phenomenon. They’d better make their notes fast, as the pieces of crystalline debris start absorbing moisture from all available sources–including humans–and grow into titanic obelisks crushing all in their path! Stunning sci-fi staple stars Grant Williams, Lola Albright, Les Tremayne.

Patrick Melrose

Outwardly, it would seem that Patrick Melrose (Benedict Cumberbatch) should have little complaint about being born to moneyed British aristocracy. However, a boyhood marked by the physical and sexual abuses of his father (Hugo Weaving) with the silent assent of his mother (Jennifer Jason Leigh) laid the groundwork for an adulthood mired in substance addiction. Acclaimed miniseries take on Edward St. Aubyn’s autobiographical novels co-stars Sebastian Maltz, Jessica Raine, Pip Torrens.

Wonder Park

Wonderland is a magical amusement park that only exists in the imaginations of young June and her mom…until now. When June winds up in a world where Wonderland is real, she must help her animal pals–including beaver brothers Gus and Cooper, wild boar Greta, porcupine Steve, and monkey Peanut–save the park from the monstrous Chimpanzombies. Delightful computer-animated adventure features the voices of Brianna Denski, Jennifer Garner, Matthew Broderick, Kenan Thompson, Ken Jeong.

Corvette Summer

When the refurbished ‘73 Stingray that had been the pride of his auto shop class gets boosted, fixated Van Nuys high schooler Kenny Dantley (Mark Hamill) is determined to track it down. Tipped that the car has been spotted in Las Vegas, his hunt leads him to the friendship of a resourceful young hooker (Annie Potts), the stunning truth about the theft…and a wild chase back to L.A. Lively teen comedy-drama also stars Eugene Roche, Kim Milford, Danny Bonaduce, Brion James.

Click here for an overview of all of this week’s new releases.