Welcome to ComingSoon.net’s November 21 Digital HD, Blu-ray and DVD column! As you can see, we’ve added a video player at the top highlighting this week’s releases, and you can find more detailed write-ups of different titles and exclusive clips below! Click each highlighted title to purchase through Amazon!
New Movies on Blu-ray/DVD
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (exclusive clip)
Luc Besson directs this visually sumptuous sci-fi epic based on the French comic book series. Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne star as space cops with a flirtatious relationship trying to save a race of beings bordering on extinction. Watching the film in high definition on a home theater actually makes the film slightly less overwhelming than it was in the theater in 3D. You can watch all the thousands of aliens and amazing sci-fi environments (the standout being the Big Market sequence) that Besson brought to the screen. ComingSoon.net has an exclusive clip from the behind-the-scenes features, which you can check out below!
The Hitman’s Bodyguard
This snarky action team-up between stars Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) and Samuel L. Jackson (The Avengers) proved to be a sleeper hit at the box office with over $176 million worldwide! Gary Oldman and Salma Hayek co-star in this story of a bodyguard (Reynolds) who is hired to protect a hitman (Jackson) who is being forced to testify at the International Criminal Court. This odd couple will have to learn to work together and… well you know the rest!
Good Time (exclusive clip)
We caught this terrific tragi-comic thriller at this year’s Fantasia Fest, and were blown away by Robert Pattinson’s high-strung performance as a desperate con artist trying to break his mentally-impaired brother out of the hospital after a robbery gone wrong. We have an exclusive clip about the filming of the movie’s supermarket getaway scene. Check it out below!
Leap!
This animated film follows a wannabe ballerina/orphan who gets a chance to audition for the Paris Opera Ballet, and meets a young inventor.
Lemon
Writer/actor Brett Gelman plays Isaac Lachmann, a 40-year old in free-fall after his blind girlfriend of ten years (Judy Greer) leaves him and he attempts to stage a production of Chekhov’s “The Seagull.” This bizarre indie dramedy arrives on DVD and also features Michael Cera, Fred Melamed, Rhea Perlman, David Paymer, Gillian Jacobs, Martin Starr, Megan Mullally, Jeff Garlin and Nia Long.
Criterion Corner
Jabberwocky
After their tip-top releases of Time Bandits, Brazil, The Fisher King and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (see photo above), The Criterion Collection brings another one of director Terry Gilliam’s surreal masterpieces to Blu-ray. This 1977 film based very very loosely on the Lewis Carroll poem was Gilliam’s first film as a solo director after sharing the load with Terry Jones on Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The film, appropriately, begins with Jones getting eaten by the title monster, and proceeds to follow fellow Python Michael Palin on a rambling journey from simple cooper to dragon slayer. The medieval environment is so filthy and impoverished that it actually elevates the comedy, although Gilliam’s voice was not quite as refined as in later films, but is still a worthy inclusion in a unique filmography.
Reissues
The Paul Naschy Collection II
Paul Naschy was a prolific Spanish actor, writer and occasional director who became a cult sensation for the monster movies he made in Europe during the 1970’s. Our pals at Scream Factory have put out the second volume of their Paul Naschy Collection, which contains five of the legend’s greatest, wackiest horror flicks: The Hunchback of the Morgue, The Devil’s Possessed, The Werewolf and the Yeti, Exorcism, and The Dragonfly and the Corpse. Our personal favorite of the bunch is The Werewolf and the Yeti (“LA MALDICIÓN DE LA BESTIA”), in which a hirsute Naschy goes toe-to-tow with a warlord, a sorceress and, yes, a mighty sasquatch!
Click here to purchase the first The Paul Naschy Collection!
Dolores Claiborne
After her Oscar-winning triumph in Stephen King’s Misery, Kathy Bates returned to King country five years later in this terrific (and underrated) adaptation of one of the horror master’s non-horror dramas. Bates plays the title maid, who reunites with her emotionally-troubled daughter (Jennifer Jason Leigh) when an overzealous cop attempts to pin a murder on her. The Maine setting (actually Nova Scotia, Canada) is perfect for this gothic psychological thriller, which features disturbing flashbacks to years earlier when Dolores may or may not have killed her slimy husband (David Strathairn). This no-frills release with a great transfer from Warner Archive Collection is required viewing for all King fans, and stands right up with Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me as one of the better versions of King’s books.
New on Digital HD
American Assassin (exclusive clip)
This tense action thriller stars Dylan O’Brien as a black ops recruit and Michael Keaton as his tough-as-nails mentor comes to Digital HD. ComingSoon.net has an exclusive clip from the digital bonus features which talks about why the producers cast O’Brien. Check it out below!
Despicable Me 3
Steve Carell reprises his hilarious role as reformed criminal mastermind Gru, as well as his newly-discovered twin, Dru, in this animated blockbuster sequel.
The Defiant Ones
The riveting 4-part HBO documentary comes to digital, telling the story of the unlikely partnership between music legends Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre (founders of the Beats brand) comes to Digital.
Almost Friends (exclusive clip)
Freddie Highmore, Odeya Rush and Haley Joel Osment star in this comedy romance about an unmotivated twenty-something who lives at home and finds himself falling for local barista. Check out an exclusive clip from the film below!
TV on Blu-ray and DVD
The Fall Complete Collection
Emmy and Golden Globe winner Gillian Anderson (The X-Files) delivers a masterful performance as steely Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson in this heart-pounding psychological thriller as she tracks serial killer Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan of Fifty Shades of Grey). The DVD/Blu-ray collection from Acorn TV of all three seasons is a 6-disc set containing 17 episodes, plus behind-the-scenes featurettes.
Acorn TV is also releasing to DVD The Best of Agatha Christie Volume One and Volume Two, as well as Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express (for those looking for the David Suchet version of the more recent Kenneth Branagh film). World-renowned as the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie is the bestselling novelist of all time, perennially winning new fans since the 1920s. In these television adaptations of her finest mysteries, star-studded casts and lavish period detail bring Christie’s work to life.
Volume 1 Mysteries: And Then There Were None (Sam Neill, Aidan Turner, Charles Dance), Five Little Pigs, and Death on the Nile (Emily Blunt)
Volume 2 Mysteries: The Witness for the Prosecution (Toby Jones, Kim Cattrall), Three Act Tragedy, and Hallowe’en Party
The 2010 version of Murder on the Orient Express finds Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) traveling on the luxurious Orient Express, where he meets Samuel Ratchett (Toby Jones), an unsavory businessman who fears for his life. Not caring for the man or his money, Poirot declines his demand for professional protection. But when Ratchett is stabbed to death, the detective is determined to find the culprit. The 2010 television movie co-stars Eileen Atkins, Hugh Bonneville, David Morrissey, Jessica Chastain and Barbara Hershey.
