As the weather gets cooler and you find yourself spending more time at home, you’ll want to cozy up with a good movie or two. We’ve got you! Because right there is a golden age for DVD and Blu-ray releases, and this week we’ve got everything from recent feel-good theatrical favorites to schlock classics from William Castle to a Clark Gable gem to TV season sets. Whew! There’s so much great new stuff to watch that it’s overwhelming. But what a problem to have!
Planning heists must run in the family as Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock)–estranged sister to professional thief Danny–puts together her own crew of shady ladies, in this fun-filled spin-off. Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, Awkwafina, and Helena Bonham Carter star as the members of Debbie’s team, who join her in a daring plot to steal a prized necklace from New York City’s annual Met Gala, a job Debbie spent nearly six years planning while in prison. With Richard Armitage, James Corden.
Magazine publisher Van Stanhope (Clark Gable) was madly in love with his wife Linda (Myrna Loy), and wanted more time at home…so he hired the efficient (and gorgeous) Helen “Whitey” Wilson (Jean Harlow) to help him with his hectic schedule. Unfortunately, Van’s meddling mother (May Robson) becomes suspicious of her son’s new assistant, and provokes Linda to question his motives. Exceptional comedy-drama co-stars James Stewart, Hobart Cavanaugh, George Barbier, Gloria Holden.
His contribution to TV comedy during the medium’s formative decade had few parallels, and now the legendary efforts of Sid Caesar, his co-stars, and his stable of writers can be enjoyed in the most comprehensive collection of sketches from “The Admiral Broadway Review,” “Your Show of Shows,” and “Caesar’s Hour” ever offered. The feature film “Ten from Your Show of Shows” (1973), the 1967 reunion special with Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, and Howard Morris, and much more included.
Even a player as smooth as young Atlanta cocaine dealer Youngblood Priest (Trevor Jackson) gets weary of having to watch his back, and he was ready for that big score that would allow him to leave the life. His gambit to cut out the middleman and deal directly with his Mexican suppliers, however, leaves him in the crosshairs of bloodthirsty rivals and corrupt cops. Stylish update of the blaxploitation classic co-stars Jason Mitchell, Michael Kenneth Williams, Lex Scott Davis, Jennifer Morrison.
True Romance (Director’s Cut)
Comic book store worker–and Elvis Presley fanatic–Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) falls in love with hooker Alabama Whitman (Patricia Arquette), kills her pimp, and unknowingly swipes a suitcase loaded with cocaine. The couple heads to L.A. to sell the coke for big money, but both the cops and the drug ring’s boss are on their trail. Stylishly violent actioner, directed by Tony Scott from Quentin Tarantino’s script, also stars Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper, Brad Pitt, Gary Oldman.
Widowed Brooklynite Frank Fisher (Nick Offerman) was feeling the vise between the slow demise of his indie record store and the inevitable departure of his beloved daughter Sam (Kiersey Clemons) for medical school. When he uploads one of their familial musical jams and it becomes a viral hit, will he wind up pressuring her into tabling her hopes and dreams in order to pursue his? Song-filled, feel-good opus also stars Ted Danson, Toni Collette, Sasha Lane, and Blythe Danner.
Lauren Curran (Christina Ricci), a woman struggling with bipolar disorder, and her husband, Russell (Brendan Fletcher), move into a “smart building” in the hopes the round-the-clock surveillance it offers will ease Lauren’s paranoid delusions. But when it seems as though her suspicions about someone using the high-tech building as part of a nefarious brainwashing scheme may be justified, she turns to skilled hacker Vernon (John Cusack) to get to the truth. Offbeat thriller also stars Vicellous Shannon, Nicole Anthony.
The Tree of Life (The Criterion Collection)
Written and directed by Terrence Malick, this complex and thought-provoking exploration of the human condition stars Brad Pitt as Mr. O’Brien, the patriarch of a Midwestern family living in the 1950s. As the years pass, O’Brien’s eldest son finds himself struggling to make sense of the difficult world he has been thrust into–seeking answers about faith and existence along the way. With Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken.
Cold Water (The Criterion Collection)
In the Parisian outskirts of the early ‘70s, privileged and disaffected teen schoolmates Christine (Virginie Ledoyen) and Gilles (Cyprien Fouquet) faced institutionalization by their uncomprehending parents for their petty thievery and rebellion. Slipping out and running off together, they make their way to an all-night party at a countryside commune…and some stunning revelations. Breakout feature for Olivier Assayas also stars Jean-Pierre Darroussin, László Szabó.
After 20 years in the booby hatch, Lucy Harbin (Joan Crawford), convicted for the axe murders of her husband (an uncredited Lee Majors) and his lover, finds peace at her daughter Carol’s (Diane Baker) home. But once heads start to roll again, it looks like Lucy’s given decapitation another crack. Classic William Castle shocker, written by Robert Bloch (Psycho), reassures “It’s only a movie…It’s only a movie.” With Leif Erickson, George Kennedy, Howard St. John.
Famous as the film in which producer/director William Castle wired theatre seats to give customers mild electric jolts at key points, this offbeat chiller stars Vincent Price as a doctor who discovers that intense fear causes an insect-like creature to grow inside a person’s spine, and only screaming can kill it. His theory, however, really gets put to the test when a “tingler” runs amok in a movie theater! With Darryl Hickman, Philip Coolidge, Judith Evelyn.
Television’s Lost Classics: Volume One: 2 Primetime Specials
John Cassavetes stars in this pair of primetime specials from the early days of television. First, Sidney Lumet directs “Crime in the Streets,” a 1955 episode of “The Elgin Hour” about a violent teenaged gang leader (Cassavetes) and the social worker (Robert Preston) desperately trying to keep him from committing murder. And, the 1956 “Climax!” episode “No Right to Kill” re-imagines Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment,” with Cassavetes as a young writer who kills a pawnbroker. Robert H. Harris co-stars. Includes original commercials.
Scooby-Doo and the Gourmet Ghost
Pull up a chair, tuck in that napkin, and get ready for a 5-star meal of mystery with Scooby-Doo and the gang, as we hit the road to visit the Rocky Harbor Culinary Resort to meet Fred’s uncle, world-famous chef Bobby Flay. Mystery Inc. Quickly learns that this state-of-the-art cooking resort isn’t all steak and potatoes after they find out about the legend of the Red Ghost, and the unsolved disappearance of Bobby Flay’s great ancestor chef. When the mysterious Red Ghost returns in disastrous fashion to haunt the inn, the gang teams up with Bobby and his culinary pal Giada de Laurentiis, to dig in for clues and serve up justice. Will history repeat itself and find another world-famous chef missing? Get ready to take a bite out of this gourmet mystery filled with loads of good eating, tasty laughs and even better twists and turns!
The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Eleventh Season
Smart and witty, this CBS sitcom chronicles the misadventures of Leonard and Sheldon, two brilliant–and socially awkward–college physicists who don’t have a clue about anything except science. When pretty blonde Penny moves into the apartment across the hall, the guys enlist her help to learn about life outside of the lab. Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg star. All 24 episodes from the eleventh season are featured in this two-disc set.
Modern Family: The Complete Ninth Season
What does a “traditional” clan in modern-day America look like? WASP couple Phil and Claire Dunphy (Ty Burrell, Julie Bowen), with three children? Gay adoptive parents Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cameron (Eric Stonestreet)? Or, is today’s nuclear family best represented by the older, white, and rich Jay (Ed O’Neill) and his Colombian bride Gloria (Sofia Vergara) and their young son? Follow the travails and triumphs of these three interlinked households in this smart comedy series. Co-stars Rico Rodriguez, Sarah Hyland. All 22 episodes from the ninth season are included in this three-disc set.
This Is Us: The Complete Second Season
When one of their triplets is stillborn, Caucasian couple Jack and Rebecca Pearson adopt an African-American baby born on the same day. Debuting in 2016, this acclaimed and offbeat NBC drama series jumps between past and present as it tells the moving story of the Pearsons and their children Randall, Kate, and Kevin over the course of many years. Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, Sterling K. Brown, Chrissy Metz, Justin Hartley star. All 18 episodes from the second season are included in this five-disc set.
Let us know which of these you want to watch in the comments!