New to View: July 15
A classic Western from acclaimed director George Stevens headlines the new titles available for home viewing. Take a look at the selections in New to View at ReelBob.
The following titles are being released on Tuesday, July 15, unless otherwise noted:
Shane (4K UHD + Blu-ray)
Details: 1953, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Two-time Academy Award-winning director helmed this classic story of a loner gunfighter who comes to the aid of a homesteader family and their neighbors battling an aging cattleman trying to maintain his open range way of life.
Alan Ladd stars as Shane, supported by Van Heflin as Joe Starrett, Jean Arthur (in her final film) as his wife, Marian, and Brandon de Wilde as their son, Joey, who comes to worship Shane.
Among the movie’s highlights are the beautiful Technicolor landscape and the sound, which emphasizes, the gunfire, making the violence more pronounced.
The cast also includes Walter (Jack) Palance as Wilson, the cold-blooded gunfighter; Emile Meyer as Ryker, the cattleman; Ben Johnson as Chris Calloway, a henchman of Ryker’s who has a change of art; and Edgar Buchanan, Elisha Cook Jr. and Douglas Spencer as other homesteaders.
“Shane” earned a 97 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 4K: 2160p ultra-high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles. Blu-ray: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus features on both discs include a commentary track by author-film historian Alan K. Rode and a second with George Stevens Jr. and associate producer Ivan Moffat.
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume Two (Blu-ray)
Release date: June 24
Details: 1930-69, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A three-disc set containing 50 Warner Bros. cartoon plus hours of bonus materials.
The first disc centers on the studio’s major animated stars — Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and the Roadrunner” — and includes such shorts as “Buckaroo Bugs,” “Show Biz Bugs,” What Makes Daffy Duck,” “Porky in Wackyland” and “Zipping Along.”
Disc two mixes familiar characters with obscure one-shot cartoons, and includes such titles as “Wabbit Twouble,” “Porky’s Hare Hunt,” “Rabbit Seasoning,” “Duck, Rabbit, Duck!,” “The Bashful Buzzard,” “An Itch in Time” “Page Miss Glory” and “Russian Rhapsody.”
The third disc features the bonus content.
The set can be found at www.moviezyng.com or other online sellers.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.33:1 full-screen picture; English and Spanish 1.0 Dolby digital; English SDH and French subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus options include commentary tracks on various cartoons; documentaries looking at such animators as Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Friz Freling and producer Leon Schlesinger; and a 28-page booklet with a cartoon guide by historian Jerry Beck.
Fury: Steelbook (4K UHD + Blu-ray + digital)
Details: 2014, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Rated: R, graphic violence, disturbing & grisly images, sexual situations, language
The lowdown: Brad Pitt stars in this brutal World War II drama about an American tank crew fighting for survival in the waning days of the conflict.
This drama, which costars Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Pena, Jon Bernthal, Jason Isaacs and Scott Eastwood, eschews high ideals and glory.
Writer-director David Ayer paints a blue-collar portrait of these GIs who are not seeking medals or a chance to win the war single-handedly. They are men simply doing a dirty job and trying to survive so they can return home.
The crew’s mission takes them behind enemy lines, where they are outnumbered and outgunned as they move to strike inside Nazi Germany.
The movie received a 76 percent fresh rating at Rottentomatoes.
Technical aspects: 4K UHD: 2160p, ultra-high definition, 2.40:1 widescreen picture; English Dolby Atmos (7.1 Dolby TrueHD compatible), English and French 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, English audio description track and Spanish 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH, English, French and Spanish subtitles; Blu-ray: 1080p high definition, 2.40:1 widescreen picture; English and French 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, English 5.1 Dolby Digital audio descriptive track and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital; English SDH, English, French and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Deleted and extended scenes, Ayers’ combat journal; “No Guts, No Glory: The Horrors of Combat” featurette;; a look at “Tiger 131”; a “Heart of Fury” featurette; a featurette about the actual soldiers who manned Sherman tanks and their camaraderie; and a featurette on how to drive the tank and handle its weapons comprise the major bonus materials.
Exclusive (Blu-ray)
Details: 1937, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: The newspaper yarn was a popular feature in the 1930s and ‘40s, usually revolving around wise-cracking reporters — male and female — who usually solved crimes before the police.
Another variation was the story about competing newspapers which would use any trick — fair or foul — to outwit the competition and stay ahead in circulation.
“Exclusive” fits into this latter category of journalistic melodrama. Two big-city newspapers are trying to out-scoop one another, each using different standards of journalistic integrity to get headlines.
Fred MacMurray stars as Ralph Huston, who works for crusading editor Tod Swain (Charles Ruggles), who places principle and honesty above all else.
His daughter, Vina (Frances Farmer), goes to work for the paper, a scandal sheet run by Charles Gillette (Lloyd Nolan), a corrupt politician who uses blackmail and muck-racking to promote his yellow-journalism, scandal sheet.
Vina goes to work for Gillette. She eventually digs up a story about one of the city’s most respected merchants, causing him to commit suicide.
Swain’s publisher forces him to write the story on the suicide, in which he blames his daughter for the tragedy.
Gillette, fearing Vina has outlived her usefulness, he decides to have her killed.
The cast also includes Fay Holden and Ralph Morgan, with Alexander Hall directing.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: A commentary track by professor-film scholar Jason A. Ney and Frances Farmer expert Jeffrey Kauffman is the main extra.
Black Tea (Blu-ray)
Details: 2024, Cohen Media Group
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A romantic drama in which Aya, a young woman from the Ivory Coast, runs away on her wedding day for a new life in the “Chocolate City” of Guangzhou, China.
In a district of the city where the African diaspora meets Chinese culture, she gets hired in a tea boutique owned by Cai, a Chinese man.
In the secrecy of the back shop, Cai decides to initiate Aya into the secrets of the tea ceremony.
Through the teaching of this ancient and intimate ritual, the two slowly fall in love. The two, though, most overcome issues from their past to gain trust and allow true love to flourish.
Director-co writer Abderrahmane Sissako’s movie received mix reactions from reviewers.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; Mandarin, English, French, Portuguese 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: The main extra is a press conference at the Berlin Film Festival.
Crumb Catcher: Limited Edition (Blu-ray)
Details: 2023, Arrow Video
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A funny home invasion thriller in which a newlywed couple, Shane and Leah, head to a remote cabin for their honeymoon.
Their plans are shattered when a knock at the cabin door reveals a waiter and the bartender from their wedding reception. The pair are there to blackmail Shane for something he does not remember doing.
As tensions increase, it soon becomes apparent that the blackmailers don’t want money. Instead, they are looking for business partners for their invention — a revolutionary gadget called The Crumb Catcher.
This satire, which offers a chilling, hilarious look at the failure of the American Dream, marked the directorial debut of writer-director Chris Skotchdopole. His film earned an 87 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.00:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Supplemental materials include a commentary track by Skotchdopole, two short films by Skotchdopole and a booklet about the movie.
Other titles being released on Tuesday, unless otherwise indicated:
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, STREAMING or VOD
Dark Nuns (Well Go USA Entertainment)
Don’t Log Off (Dread-Epic Pictures)
How Thoughts Become Things (Breaking Glass Pictures)
Love & Rage: Munroe Bergdorf (Misfit Entertainment-Universal Pictures Content Group)
Mother Nature and the Doomsday Prepper (Amazon Prime-Apple TV+)
The Priests (Well Go USA)
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill (Amazon Prime-Apple TV+-Kino Lorber)
ZombieCon: Vol. 1 (Level 33 Entertainment)
JULY 16
The Buccaneers: Season 2, Episode 5 (Apple TV+)
Miley Cyrus: Something Beautiful (Disney+-Hulu)
Stick: Episode 9 (Apple TV+)
JULY 17
The Amateur (Disney+-Hulu)
As I Open My Eyes (Kino Film Collection)
How to Come to Life with Norman Mailer (Kino Film Collection)
Mafia: Episode 5 (Viaplay)
JULY 18
Bury Me When I’m Dead (Vertical Entertainment)
Foundation: Season 3, Episode 2 (Apple TV+)
Kristina (Film Movement Plus)
Saint Clare (Quiver Distribution)
Smoke: Episode 5 (Apple TV+)
Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical (Apple TV+)
Zarna Garg: Practical People Win (Hulu)
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 X @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.