We’re not toying around with you, this week’s new releases are downright incredible. Check out the Blu-rays and DVDs that are now available!
Dropped in the pecking order of Bonnie’s toys, Woody looks for new purpose in mentoring her current favorite–Forky, an arts & crafts project she made from a spork. During a family RV road trip, the existentially confused Forky runs off…sending Woody on an adventurous chase that brings him to a reunion with the thought-lost Bo Peep, and tough choices for his future. Fourth franchise favorite from Pixar features the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Tony Hale, Keanu Reeves.
Reeling after an unspeakable family tragedy, Dani (Florence Pugh) wanted to salvage her fraying relationship with her grad student boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor). She opted to tag along with his classmates on a field trip to Sweden, where they’d observe the midsummer rituals at a throwback commune…but they’d only comprehend the cult’s true nature until it was far too late. Disturbing chiller from Ari Aster (“Hereditary”) co-stars William Jackson Harper, Will Poulter, Vilhelm Blomgren, Ellora Torchia.
Set after the opening scenes of “The Conjuring,” this chilling series installment finds demonologists Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) locking deadly doll Annabelle up in their house for safe keeping in the early 1970s. But when Annabelle’s case is opened, she unleashes a host of evil spirits, forcing the Warrens’ young daughter Judy, (Mckenna Grace), her babysitter Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman), and Mary Ellen’s friend Daniela (Katie Sarife) to fight for their very survival.
In the hinterlands of 19th-century Wales, teenage farm girl Gwen (Eleanor Worthington-Cox) was struggling to help keep her homestead together, with her father gone to war, her mother (Maxine Peake) subject to increasingly frequent spells and seizures, and covetous businessmen eyeing their land. Do the bizarre blights taking their crops and livestock have reasonable explanation…or is something unholy going on? Moody, singular gothic chiller also stars Jodie Innes, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith.
Picking up 10 years after the 2004-06 series ended, this HBO movie finds former citizens of Deadwood joining its current residents to mark the impending statehood of South Dakota in 1889. Relationships are renewed and an old conflict is re-ignited as U.S. Marshal Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) and an ailing Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) work together to go up against the nefarious Sen. George Hearst (Gerald McRaney). Molly Parker, Paula Malcomson, John Hawkes co- star.
An American lawyer (Clark Gable) heads for Italy to clear up matters after a car accident claims the lives of his brother and his common-law spouse. On arrival, he learns that he has a delinquent, chain-smoking 10-year-old nephew (Marietto), and that the boy’s aunt (Sophia Loren), a gorgeous nightclub dancer, won’t give up custody without a fight. Romantic farce with lush Neapolitan locales co-stars Vittorio De Sica.
After his turbulent Civil War service, ex-Confederate officer Colt Saunders (Charlton Heston) returned to the family spread in Texas with new bride Lorna (Anne Baxter), hoping to turn the page. That would prove harder than planned, thanks to carpetbaggers with designs on his land, the resentments of his handicapped brother (Tom Tryon), and the sordid nature of Lorna’s past. Powerful mix of frontier action and character study also stars Gilbert Roland, Forrest Tucker, Bruce Bennett.
Understated drama stars Robert Redford as Sonny Steele, a washed-up rodeo champ-turned-cereal pitchman who steals a racehorse that his employer corporation has been mistreating. After learning of the story, journalist Hallie Martin (Jane Fonda) follows Steele as they lead the stallion to freedom while seeking their respective personal redemptions. With Willie Nelson, Valerie Perrine, John Saxon, and Wilford Brimley; Sydney Pollack directs.
3 Silent Classics by Josef Von Sternberg (Criterion Collection)
Three key silent films by Austrian-American director Josef von Sternberg are featured in this special three-disc set that boasts an array of new musical scores by Robert Israel and the Alloy Orchestra. Widely regarded as pioneering the gangster film genre, von Sternberg’s trip through the “Underworld” (1927) relates the hard-boiled saga of a mobster, his girl, and a has-been attorney. George Bancroft, Evelyn Brent star; scripter Ben Hecht won the Academy Award. Emil Jannings won the first Best Actor Oscar for “The Last Command” (1928), portraying a Russian general forced to flee his motherland, ironically hired on as an extra in a Hollywood film version of the Revolution of 1917. With Brent, William Powell. Finally, Bancroft saves a dance-hall girl (Betty Compson) from suicide, beginning a deep romance played out in and around “The Docks of New York” (1928). With Olga Baclanova, Clyde Cook.
Life with Lucy: The Complete Series
Lucille Ball’s final foray into TV sitcoms came with this short-lived offering that aired on ABC. Widowed grandmother Lucy Barker (Ball) was determined to personally maintain her late husband’s half-interest in a hardware store, to the constant exasperation of his partner Curtis McGibbon (Gale Gordon). To compound matters, Lucy’s daughter (Ann Dusenberry) was married to Curtis’ son (Larry Anderson). Jenny Lewis, Philip Amelio, Donovan Scott also starred. All 13 episodes from the series are included in this two-disc set.
Leave It to Beaver: The Complete Series
Gee, Wally. Leave it to schoolboy Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver to get himself into all sorts of trouble, in the heartwarming and hilarious 1957-63 situation comedy that defined the “perfect” American family for an entire generation. The Cleaver clan consisted of June (Barbara Billingsley), Ward (Hugh Beaumont), Wally (Tony Dow), and Theodore (aka “the Beaver”) (Jerry Mathers); with Ken Osmond as Eddie Haskell, Rusty Stevens, Stanley Fafara. 234 episodes on 36 discs.
In 2000, seemingly innocuous London retiree Joan Stanley (Judi Dench) was arrested by British intelligence after a late acquaintance left evidence that she’d channeled atomic secrets to the Soviets during World War II and for 30 years thereafter. The tale of how the young defense researcher Joan (Sophie Cookson) was swayed by Communist friends is absorbingly told in this effort inspired by the Melita Norwood case. Stephen Campbell Moore, Tom Hughes, Tereza Srbova, Ben Miles also star.
Reg Park returns as Hercules in this horror-tinged fantasy epic from director Mario Bava. When his beloved Deianira (Leonora Ruffo) is robbed of her senses, Herc doesn’t shirk from the task of finding a powerful stone that will restore them…even if it means a descent into the bowels of Hades and a confrontation with the evil King Lico (Christopher Lee). With George Ardisson, Marisa Belli. AKA: “Hercules in the Center of the Earth,” “Hercules vs. the Vampires.”
A decade after a pandemic wiped out the bulk of the world’s female population, a widower (Casey Affleck, who wrote and directed) lived a nomadic existence with the willful 11-year-old daughter (Anna Pniowsky) he dressed as a boy for her safety. His challenge to be a nurturing and instructive dad while trying to ensure their survival in a post-apocalyptic culture fuels this contemplative and compelling story; Elisabeth Moss, Tom Bower, Hrothgar Mathews also star.
As he furtively made his way across Pakistan and India, Britisher Jay (Dev Patel) had his reasons not to be late for the arranged nuptials of Samira (Radhika Apte)…since he was contracted by her true love (Jim Sarbh) to kidnap the bride and bring her back to England. As the extraction goes south and he has to go on the run with his attractive charge, he starts to fall for her…and her own agenda starts to surface. Michael Winterbottom’s singular thriller also stars Harish Khanna, Nish Nathwani.
Macabre chills abound in this horror anthology based on four short stories from R. Chetwynd-Hayes centering around items bought or stolen from a mysterious antiques shop run by Peter Cushing. Includes “The Gate Crasher,” with David Warner unleashing an evil entity from a mirror; “An Act of Conscience,” featuring Donald Pleasence as a spooky matchseller; “The Elemental,” concerning a cursed snuffbox; and “The Door,” focusing on a portal into the past. Ian Bannen, Ian Carmichael, Diana Dors, Lesley-Anne Down co-star.
Shazam!: The Complete Live-Action Series
Iconic comic book hero Captain Marvel made his small-screen debut in this well-remembered Saturday morning series that aired on CBS from 1974-1976. Young Billy Batson (Michael Gray) and his mentor, Mentor (Les Tremayne), traveled the highways in an RV offering help to those in need, and when danger surfaced, Billy uttered his magic word to transform into the World’s Mightiest Mortal (Jackson Bostwick for the first season, then John Davey). All 28 episodes from the series are featured in a four-disc set.
Click here for a complete overview of all of this week’s new releases.