New to View: Dec. 6
A period drama that bites off more than it can chew and a third go-round for Kevin Smith's gang of clerks headline the new options for home viewing.
The following titles are being released on Tuesday, Dec. 6, unless otherwise noted:
Amsterdam (Blu-ray + digital)
Details: 2022, Disney Home Entertainment-Buena Vista
Rated: R, bloody images, violence
The lowdown: David O. Russell’s “Amsterdam” is a Rubik’s cube of a movie that takes too long to solve and nearly forces you to surrender.
This complex and convoluted movie is kept afloat are the performances of its three leads — Christian Bale, Margot Robbie and John David Washington.
Ostensibly, the movie is a conspiracy thriller-murder mystery, but Russell tosses in too many subplots that distract you from the main story.
At 134 minutes, “Amsterdam” stumbles like a cinematic inebriate, unable to stay focused on one aspect of its story for too long.
Bigotry, race, politics, the Great Depression and big business are all targets for Russell’s scattershot approach.
Bale, Robbie and Washington share an appealing chemistry that invests you even when the movie takes detours.
“Amsterdam’s” main problem is Russell. He overstuffs the film, trying to say too much and weaves too many themes into a tapestry about friendship, sacrifice and honor. Perhaps if he had kept his eye on a simple objective, he would have succeeded.
A majority of critics saw it the same way, awarding the movie a 33 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 widescreen picture; English 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, 2.0 descriptive audio and French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus materials include a “Welcome to Amsterdam” featurette with Russell and cast members.
Clerks III (Blu-ray + digital)
Details: 2022, Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Rated: R, language, sexual material, drug content
The lowdown: “Clerks III” is a skewed mixture of gross comedy, sentimentality and melodrama that fails to gel as a whole.
Filmmaker Kevin Smith’s return to his New Jersey roots is more a love letter to his fans than a cohesive feature.
The movie contains many laughs but expends more effort looking back — with several references to situations, dialogue and characters from his previous “Clerks” ventures and relying more on the memories and affections of Smith’s devoted followers — than moving forward.
Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) still work in the Quick Stop, but now they own the store. The video store where Randal formerly worked is now a weed shop run by Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith).
After suffering a massive heart attack Randal decides to make a movie about his life at the convenience store. He enlists Dante, Jay, Silent Bob, Elias (Trevor Fehrman) and others to help him.
Age has not mellowed Randal. He remains the self-centered, sarcastic, movie quoting asshole he always has been, denigrating all around him, including Dante, supposedly his best friend.
“Clerks III” is darker in parts than any of Smith’s previous works. Dante is still mourning the death of his beloved Becky (Rosario Dawson), killed many years earlier by a drunken driver.
It is his friendship for Randal that pushes him to help make his partner’s dream come true.
The movie relies heavily on nostalgia; it’s like attending a concert by a veteran rock band who relies on its greatest hits to entertain the audience.
“Clerks III” spotlights how Smith has mellowed. The movie is not as chaotic as his earlier features; it is more heartwarming and sentimental. It just takes a long time to get to those moments.
If “Clerks III” is Smith’s farewell to his Jersey roots, then his devotees should be amply satisfied.
A majority of critics enjoyed the movie, awarding it a 64 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 (16x9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English Dolby Atmos; English SDH and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Supplemental options include a commentary track with Smith and other cast members, a look at the making of the movie, deleted and alternate scenes and a documentary looking at three decades of “Clerks” movies.
Star Trek: Discovery: Season Four (Blu-ray)
Details: 2022, CBS Home Entertainment-Paramount Home Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: The fourth season, of this exciting and well-done “Star Trek” series, which airs on Paramount+, is set 900 years after events in the original series.
Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), now captain of “Discovery,” and her crew have helped rebuild the United Federation of Planets after a cataclysmic event.
But the newly reconstituted Federation soon faces a new threat — a destructive anomaly that obliterates planets, wiping out entire civilizations.
“Discovery” is assigned to discover the cause of this threat and end it. With little time to spare, the crew meet those behind the anomaly, explain to them the havoc that their work was creating and convince them to stop.
The four-disc set features all 13 fourth-season episodes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and French 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH and French subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include featurettes on Martin-Green’s Burnham and creating space, an overview of the season, a commentary track on the season finale, a gag reel and deleted scenes.
Blonde: The Marilyn Stories Compilation (DVD)
Details: 1976-2001, Film Chest Media Group
Rated: Not rated, R
The lowdown: This three-disc set looks at the life of ‘’50s sex symbol Marilyn Monroe through a trio of docudramas — “Goodbye, Norma Jean” (1976, R), “Marilyn and Me” (1991) and “Blonde” (2001).
Misty Rowe portrays Norma Jean Baker in this exploitation movie that details how Norma Jean found her way to Hollywood and was turned into Marilyn Monroe.
The movie is heavy on the sexual abuse Norma Jean endured as she strived to find work in the movie industry. It is a sad feature that is more fiction than fact.
“Marilyn and Me” features a strong performance by Susan Griffiths in this alternative look at Monroe’s early years. The movie is told from the point of view of writer Robert Slatzer, who claims to have married Monroe in Mexico in 1952. However, there is no proof that the two ever married.
“Blonde” is a two-part fictionalized biopic (an oxymoron if there ever was one), not to be confused with the recent Netflix movie of the same title.
Poppy Montgomery portrays Monroe, mixing fact and fiction, but driven by a decent cast, including Ann-Margret, Kirstie Alley, Titus Welliver, Eric Bogosian, Richard Roxburgh and Jensen Ackles.
Fans of Monroe will probably find these features interesting, but discerning reality from drama will be the challenge.
Technical aspects: 4x3 full-screen picture; English Dolby digital; English closed-captioned subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include a 1986 documentary on Monroe, the first television appearance in 1953 and a 1967 documentary, “The Legend of Marilyn Monroe,” narrated by John Huston.
Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman (Blu-ray)
Details: 1958, Warner Archive Collection
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This sci-fi feature is a definite campy and guilty pleasure.
Allison Hayes is wealthy Nancy Archer, who has recently been released from a mental institution.
Her husband, Harry (William Hudson), is a cheating low-life only interested in his wife’s money. He is fooling around with small-town loose girl Honey Parker (Yvette Vickers).
The two are scheming to get Nancy’s fortune and live in style.
But things go awry when Nancy, driving in the desert, has an alien encounter that causes her growth to accelerate to gigantic proportions. Also increasing is her rage toward Harry and Honey.
So, decked out — modestly — in what looks like bedsheets — she escapes from her home and begins tearing the town apart seeking the pair.
This black-and-white feature offers cut-rate special effects, but it also has a cheesy charm to it.
The title is a made-on-demand Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection and can be found at the WAC Amazon store or other online sellers.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 (16x9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: The major extra is a commentary track with Vickers and film historian-author Tom Weaver.
Westworld: Season Four: The Choice (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + digital)
Release date: Nov. 29
Details: 2022, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: The eight episodes in this final season of this HBO miniseries, inspired by the film written and directed by Michael Crichton, finds hosts and humankind battling for dominance.
A byzantine labyrinth of characters and plot twists keep you engrossed as the final fight for survival unfolds over a 23-year period.
The returning cast includes Evan Rachel Wood, Thandiwe Newton, Aaron Paul, Tessa Thompson, Jeffrey Wright, Aaron Paul, Luke Hemsworth, James Marsden and Ed Harris.
If you have not watched the first three seasons, the events of this final season may confuse you. A refresher course on earlier episodes would a great benefit before you watch season four.
The six-disc set features three 4K Ultra HD and three Blu-ray discs.
Technical aspects: 4K: 2160p ultra high definition, 1.78:1 widescreen picture; English Dolby Atmos-7.1TrueHD and French 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH and French subtitles; Blu-ray: 1080p high definition, 1.78:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and French 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH and French subtitles.
Don’t miss: Supplemental materials include a look at creating the series’ reality, a “ ‘Westworld’ on the Road” featurette, a tour of the Temperance set and an exploration of humanity featurette.
Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray)
Details: 1972, VCI Entertainment-MVD Visual Entertainment
Rated: PG
The lowdown: A horror feature in which a theater troupe, led by Alan (Alan Ormsby), a mean-spirited director, travels to a small island graveyard used for buried criminals.
Using a book of spells, Alan begins a séance to raise the dead — always a smart move in a graveyard filled with dead criminals.
Of course, the group gets more than they bargained for when the dead rise up, forcing the troupe to take refuge in an old, abandoned caretaker’s house.
The movie, directed by Bob Clark — his first — was cowritten by Clark and Ormsby. Clark went on to bigger and better movies such as “A Christmas Story,” “Murder by Decree,” “Porky’s” and “Porky’s II: The Next Day.”
Critics felt the movie dead on arrival, awarding it a 38 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 4K: 2160p ultra high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 2.0 LPCM monaural; English SDH subtitles; Blu-ray: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 2.0 LPCM monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include a documentary on Clark’s horror films; a new question-and-answer session with Ormsby; a commentary track with Ormsby and others; an interview with Ken Goch, who worked in the film’s art department; a tribute to Clark; a Grindhouse question-and-answer session; a music video; and a liner-notes booklet.
Night of the Iguana (Blu-ray)
Details: 1964, Warner Archive Collection
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: John Huston directs Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, Sue Lyon and Grayson Hall in this adaptation of a Tennessee Williams play about a defrocked minister trying to repair his shattered life.
Burton plays the former priest, now a tour guide in Mexico, who, while leading a tour group from a Baptist women’s college, is attracted to the young niece, played by Lyon, of the group’s leader.
After the priest and young woman spend the night together, the group’s leader threatens to have him fired. To keep her from communicating with his employer, he strands them at a hotel run by his friend, played by Gardner.
It is the arrival of another guest, played by Kerr, who has the most impact of the ex-clergyman, forcing him to re-evaluate his life and deal with his demons.
The movie, which earned a 73 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, is a made-on-demand Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection. It can be found at the WAC store at Amazon as well as other online retailers.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 (16x9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: A behind-the-scenes featurette Is the main extra.
The Ballad of the Sad Café (Blu-ray)
Details: 1991, Cohen Media Group
Rated: PG-13, language, mature themes
The lowdown: Vanessa Redgrave, Keith Carradine and Rod Steiger star in this adaptation of a Carson McCullers novella and the Edward Albee play that was later adapted from it.
The story, set in the 1930s deep South centers on Miss Amelia (Redgrave), who basically runs a rural town because she is the main supplier of moonshine and medicine.
But her grip on the town and its residents is altered by the arrival of two people — her half-sister’s son, Lymon (Cork Hubbert), and her husband, Marvin Macy (Carradine), with whom she never consummated the nuptials.
Lymon suggests Amelia open a café in the downstairs of her large house.
The story isn’t much, but the flamboyance of the actors that drive the movie, which earned a 71 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
The was the sole directorial effort of actor Simon Callow (“Four Weddings and a Funeral”).
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.78:1 widescreen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: A commentary track is the main bonus component.
Alienoid (Blu-ray)
Details: 2022, Well Go USA Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This is the first of two Korean sci-fi action time-warp movies.
The movie is set in two eras — the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1393) and contemporary Korea.
In the Goryeo age, two shamans seek a legendary time-bending blade as they unexpectedly cross path with modern-era people who are hunting down a dangerous alien concealed inside a human body.
It seems that for ages, aliens have locked up their prisoners in human bodies. In contemporary times, two guards live on Earth managing the prisoners. When a spacecraft appears over Seoul, it creates havoc with reverberations to the past.
The two eras become entangled as those involved seek the magical blade.
The film earned an impressive 85 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 widescreen picture; Korean and English (dubbed) 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include a making of featurette and character trailers.
Worst to First: The True Story of Z100 New York (DVD)
Details: 2022, Gunpowder & Sky-Kino Lorber
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A documentary that traces the launch and rise of the most successful radio station in history, New York City’s Z100.
The radio station began in the boondocks of New Jersey, where disc jockeys had to buy their own records to spin and no artist would venture.
The movie features such on-air personalities as Scott Shannon as well as industry heavyweights such as Clive Davis and artists such as Debbie Gibson, Jon Bon Jovi, Joan Jett and Taylor Dane.
The movie, which does a masterful job of capturing the sound and personalities of the era, received a 83 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1.78:1 (16x9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English 2.0 Dolby digital; English closed-captioned subtitles.
Don’t miss: A commentary track and deleted scenes comprise the bonus offerings.
The Leech (Blu-ray)
Details: 2022, Arrow Video
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: During Christmas season a Catholic priest, Father David, opens his door to Terry, a homeless stranger, to escape the December cold.
But the priest’s simple act of kindness has unforeseen complications and consequences when Terry’s pregnant girlfriend, Lexi, joins them after she has been evicted from her house.
Father David is determined to save the warring couple, but as time passes, he falls into some of their wicked ways.
He eventually comes to see this challenge as a test of faith from God. But will he pass the test of resort to bloody, Old Testament justice.
The movie is the latest in a line of Christmas horror movies that include, “Black Christmas” and the newly released “Violent Night.”
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include a commentary track, an introduction to the movie and a question-and-answer session from its premiere at FrightFest 2022, three early short films by “Leech” director Eric Pennycoff, a visual essay looking at “The Leech” and Pennycoff’s earlier movies, a making of featurette, a music video, a virtual interview with Pennycoff and the cast at the 2022 Chattanooga Film Festival, an interview with Pennycoff and actor Graham Skipper, who plays Father David and a live Chattanooga Film Festival audio commentary.
Nightmare at Noon (Blu-ray)
Details: 1988, Arrow Video
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This is another of those sci-fi-horror hybrids in which scientists conducting tests contaminate the water supply of a small Utah town.
The residents, of course, are transformed into brainless killer maniacs.
Wings Hauser plays a vacationing lawyer, Oscar-winner George Kennedy is the local sheriff and Bo Hopkins in a mysterious hitchhiker who find themselves in the middle of the deadly chaos.
The movie features a variety of stunts and explosive action. The movie is pure popcorn fodder for which you can put your brain on idle and just enjoy the mayhem.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and 2.0 LPCM; English SDH and Greek subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include behind-the-scenes footage; original on-set interviews with Hauser, Hopkins, Kennedy, Kimberly Beck and Brion James; and featurette on the making of the movie with a commentary track by its director, Nico Mastorakis.
Other titles being released on Tuesday, unless otherwise indicated:
Creepshow: Season 3 (Blu-ray & DVD) (RLJE Films-Shudder)
Guns of Eden (DVD & digital) (Uncork’d Entertainment)
Medieval (Blu-ray) (Paramount Home Entertainment)
Missing (Blu-ray) (Dark Star Pictures)
Old Man (Blu-ray & DVD) (RLJE Films)
The Rise of the Beast (DVD & digital) (Uncork’d Entertainment)
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, STREAMING or VOD
200 Meters (Film Movement)
Absolute Denial (Shout! Studios)
Back in the Grove: Episodes 3 & 4 (Hulu)
Call Jane (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
Homebody (Cinedigm)
Reflections of a Broken Memory (Indican Pictures)
Welcome to Chippendales: Episode 4 (Hulu)
With One Tied Hand: The Buffalo Soldiers of World War II (Shout! Studios)
DEC. 7
Back in the Groove: Episodes 5 & 6 (Hulu)
Echo 3: Episode 5 (Apple TV+)
DEC. 8
Back in the Groove: Episodes 7 & 8 (Hulu)
DEC. 9
Acapulco: Episode 9 (Apple TV+)
Black Warrant (Saban Films-Paramount Pictures)
Emancipation (Apple TV+)
Float (XYZ Films)
I Am DB Cooper (TJ Regan)
It's a Wonderful Binge (Hulu)
Little America: Season 2 (Apple TV+)
The Mosquito Coast: Season 2, Episode 6 (Apple TV+)
Mythic Quest: Episode 5 (Apple TV+)
Puppy Place: Season 2 (Apple TV+)
Shantaram: Episode 11 (Apple TV+)
Slow Horses: Season 2, Episode 3 (Apple TV+)
Ticket to Paradise (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment)
DEC. 10
Mommy or Daddy? (Kintsugi Pictures)
I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. I review movies, 4K UHD, Blu-rays and DVDs for ReelBob (ReelBob.com), The Film Yap and other print and online publications. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com. You also can follow me on Twitter @ReelBobBloom and on Facebook at ReelBob or the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My movie reviews also can be found at Rotten Tomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com.