New to View: June 10
The birth of the dark side of Dexter Morgan is chronicled in this prequel series that headlines the new releases for home viewing in New to View at ReelBob.
The following titles are being released on Tuesday, June 10, unless otherwise noted:
Dexter: Original Sin: Steelbook (Blu-ray)
Details: 2024-25, Paramount Home Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Serial killer Dexter Morgan gets a prequel in this Paramount+ streaming series.
In 1991 Miami, Dexter, played by Patrick Gibson, has a forensics internship at the Miami Metro Police Department.
When Dexter and his adoptive father, Harry (Christian Slater), a detective at Miami Metro, goes hunting, the young man confesses that killing animals isn’t enough to satisfy his dark urges.
The news causes Harry to have a heart attack for which he is hospitalized. Dexter discovers that the medication given Harry is killing him. Harry allows Dexter to kill the nurse — thus she becomes the first of his many victims.
In this three-disc, eight-episode set, we follow Dexter as he becomes more skilled at killing criminals and covering his tracks.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, English Dolby digital audio description and French 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH and French subtitles.
Don’t miss: The main extra “Dissecting Dexter: Original Sin,” is an overview of the first season.
The Ballad of Wallis Island (Blu-ray)
Release date: June 6
Details: 2025, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment-Allied Vaughn
Rated: PG-13, language, smoking
The lowdown: Charles (Tim Key), an eccentric lottery winner, lives alone on a remote island. His most fervent dream is getting his favorite musicians, McGwyer Mortimer (Tom Basden and Carey Mulligan), to reunite.
His fantasy transforms into reality when the bandmates and former lovers accept Charles’ invitation to play a private show at his home on Wallis Island.
Charles tries to salvage his dream gig despite old tensions resurfacing between the bandmates.
This warm and sentimental feature earned an impressive 98 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
The Blu-ray can be found at www.moviezyng.com or other online sellers.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles.
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters: Combo Edition (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray)
Release date: June 3
Details: 1985, The Criterion Collection
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Paul Schrader directed this mixture of fact and dramatization in exploring the life of acclaimed Japanese author and playwright Yukio Mishima.
The movie is divided into four chapters, three of which parallel events in Mishima’s life with his novels, while the fourth depicts the last day of his life — Nov. 25, 1970, in which he committed public seppuku.
Flashbacks to Mishima’s past also are included, supported by the cinematography of John Bailey, the grand sets and costumes by Eiko Ishioka and influential score by Philip Glass.
Ken Ogata gives an outstanding performance as the author.
The film earned a 79 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 4K: 2160p ultra-high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; Japanese 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles; Blu-ray: 1080p high definition 1.85:1 widescreen picture; Japanese 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Supplemental offerings include two alternate English narrations; a commentary track with Schrader and producer Alan Paul; a program on the making of the film featuring Bailey, Glass, Ishioka and producers Tom Luddy and Mata Yamamoto; a program on Mishima featuring his biographer John Nathan and friend Donald Richie; an audio interview with co-screenwriter Chieko Schrader; an excerpt from 1966 featuring Mishima talking about writing; a 1985 documentary about the author; and writings about the film and censorship in Japan.
“Clark Gable 4-Film Collection” (Blu-ray)
Details: 1935-39, Warner Archive Collection-Allied Vaughn
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This four-disc set spotlights the star power of the “King of Hollywood” — Clark Gable.
Gable was more a movie star than an actor as his popularity soared throughout the 1930s and into the ‘40s.
The set features four of Gable’s best movies of the ’30s — “Mutiny on the Bounty” (1935), “San Francisco” (1936), “Wife Versus Secretary” (1936) and “Idiot’s Delight” (1939).
The films highlight Gable’s versatility from high adventure, to romantic drama to comedy and satire.
Among his costars are Charles Laughton, Franchot Tone, Herbert Mundin, Eddie Quillan, Jeanette McDonald, Spencer Tracy, Jack Holt, Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy, James Stewart, May Robson, Norma Shearer, Edward Arnold, Charles Coburn and Joseph Schildkraut.
The set can be found at www.moviezyng or other online retailers.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 (16x9 enhanced) full-screen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Murder by Decree (Blu-ray)
Details: 1979, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: PG, violence, language
The lowdown: The first Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper movie was 1965’s “A Study in Terror,” which identified the Ripper as an aristocrat.
“Murder by Decree,” produced 14 years later, takes this premise one step further, linking the Ripper’s killings as part of a Masonic plot as well as their links to the royal family.
“Decree” stars Christopher Plummer as Holmes and James Mason as Dr. Watson. Both are excellent in their portrayals, bringing a humanity and empathy to the characters, largely missing from previous iterations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s characters.
The plot of “Decree” revolves around the killings of prostitutes who were friends of Anne Crook (Genevieve Bujold), who is now institutionalized, and gave birth to a child whose father is rumored to be a member of the royal family.
A cover-up attempting to thwart Holmes’ investigation and led by high government officials, cannot stop the Great Detective from learning the truth.
The film, which earned an 86 fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, also features Donald Sutherland, David Hemmings, Susan Clark, Frank Finlay, Anthony Quayle and John Gielgud.
As an interesting aside, Finlay, who portrays Inspector Lestrade, also played the inspector in “A Study in Terror.”
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include two commentary tracks, one by Clark and the other by film historians Howard S. Berger and Steve Mitchell.
“Audie Murphy Collection V” (Blu-ray)
Details: 1956-64, Kino Lorber Studio Collections
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Another trio of 1950s Westerns spotlighting World War II hero-turned-actor Audie Murphy.
The three movies in this set are “Walk the Proud Land” (1956), “Seven Ways from Sundown” (1960) and “Bullet for a Badman” (1964).
Murphy portrays real-life Apache agent John Clum in “Walk the Proud Land,” who, in 1874, travels to a reservation in Arizona on a quest to empower and teach self-governing principles. The movie is more character driven than action oriented.
It costars Anne Bancroft, Pat Crowley, Charles Drake and Jay Silverheels, with Jesse Hibbs, who directed Murphy’s biopic, “To Hell and Back,” behind the camera.
In “Seven Ways from Sundown,” Murphy’s Seven Jones, a novice Texas Ranger, manages to capture infamous gunslinger Jim Flood (Barry Sullivan). The two men form an unlikely friendship as they encounter violent bounty hunters and vengeful locals in the dangerous journey to the jailhouse.
Veteran Western director R.G. Springsteen is behind the camera for “Bullet for a Badman” in which Murphy and Darren McGavin are former Texas Rangers who first face off in a vengeance-fueled duel, then must unite to survive incredible odds to survive.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen picture (“Bullet for a Badman”), 1.85:1 widescreen picture (“Seven Ways from Sundown”) and 2.35:1 widescreen picture (“Walk the Proud Land”); English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include commentary tracks by Gary Gerani on “Walk the Proud Land” and Toby Roan on “Seven Ways from Sundown” and “Bullet for a Badman.”
Alien Terror (Blu-ray)
Details: 1980, Kino Lorber-Raro Video
Rated: R, violence, language
The lowdown: In this Italian science fiction-horror movie, a spaceship returns to Earth after a failed mission.
However, the astronauts have been replaced by hideous creatures that can penetrate human bodies and make them explode.
A group of cave dwellers are attacked by the creatures inside an underground cave, but the survivors are in for a surprise when they finally manage to escape.
The movie was also titled “Alien 2: On Earth,” which caused 20th Century Fox to consider suing the filmmakers for using “Alien” in the title, but the studio lost the case.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; Italian 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include a commentary track by Adrian Smith and Rod Barnett, an interview with Eli Roth and an alternate English audio dub.
Sour Party (Blu-ray)
Details: 2023, Anchor Bay Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This feature centers on Gwen and James, two broke, self-absorbed, emotionally-immature 30-somethings, subsisting through a meager Los Angeles existence.
They have tried many get-rich-quick schemes, from cliché artistic endeavors and failed business startups to sex work. Through it all, they have played the victims.
When Gwen realizes she forgot her older sister’s baby shower the night before, she is determined to atone in front of her family and get her sister a gift — from the registry.
After discussing the matter with James, the two make a list of the people they believe owe them money and set out on a twisted road trip across the city in an attempt to collect their debts.
The comedy is akin to a female version of “Superbad.”
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio.
Don’t miss: Extras include a video yearbook and a commentary track with actors and filmmakers.
Other titles being released on Tuesday, unless otherwise indicated:
11 Rebels (4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray & DVD & digital) (Well Go USA Entertainment)
Borderline (Blu-ray & DVD & VOD) (Magnolia Home Entertainment)
Roseanne Barr Is America (DVD) (Highway 61 Entertainment)
FOR KIDS
Dan Da Dan: Season One (Blu-ray) (GKids-Shout! Studios)
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, STREAMING or VOD
The Amateur (Fox-Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment)
Being Maria (Kino Lorber)
Beware of Mr. Baker (Kino Lorber)
Bleeding (ScreamBox)
Call Her Alex (Hulu)
Dream Hacker (One Tree Entertainment)
Fatal Crossing (MHz Choice)
Franklin (Breaking Glass Pictures)
The Heirloom (Factory 25)
Laugh It Forward (Hideout Pictures-Wonderland)
Stick: Episode 4 (Apple TV+)
Things Like This (Shout! Studios-MPX Films)
When Fall Is Coming (Music Box Films)
JUNE 11
Carême: Episode 8 (Apple TV+)
Nine Perfect Strangers: Season 2, Episode 5 (Hulu)
Stick: Episode 4 (Apple TV+)
JUNE 12
In the Mind of a Criminal: Season 2 (Viaplay)
Madchen in Uniform (Kino Film Collection)
Victor & Victoria (Kino Film Collection)
JUNE 13
20,000 Species of Bees (Film Movement Plus)
ASOG (Film Movement Plus)
Atsuko Okatsuka: Father (Hulu)
Best Wishes to All (Shudder)
Bonjour Tristesse (Greenwich Entertainment)
Diablo (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
Echo Valley (Apple TV+)
Murderbot: Episode 6 (Apple TV+)
Not a Box (Apple TV+)
Sew Torn (Sunrise Films)
Simple Minds: Everything Is Possible (Greenwich Entertainment)
Sugarcane (Prime Video)
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.