New to View: March 19
A series of visual essays that examines the impact of "The Wizard of Oz" on the films of David Lynch headlines my latest New to View column at ReelBob.
The following titles are being released on Tuesday, March 19, unless otherwise noted:
Lynch/Oz (Blu-ray)
Details: 2022, Janus Contemporaries-The Criterion Collection
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Filmmaker David Lynch career has been a diversified one, including such films as “Eraserhead,” “The Elephant Man,” “Blue Velvet,” the TV series “Twin Peaks,” “Mulholland Drive” as well as numerous music videos and short films.
This visual essay looks at Lynch’s obsession with the 1939 classic “The Wizard of Oz” and how it has impacted Lynch’s work over the decade.
Victor Fleming’s “Oz” has been a consistent inspiration for Lynch, from early shorts to his TV series “Twin Peaks: The Return.”
This movie offers six perspectives that re-interpret and re-experience “The Wizard of Oz” through Lynch’s movies, creating new appreciations for the 1939 movie and Lynch’s works over the decades.
Among those appearing as hosts of each chapter are Amy Nicholson, John Waters, Karyn Kusama and David Lowery.
The movie, which garnered an 83 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, also features archival footage of Lynch, Kathleen Turner, Jay Leno and Jack Paar.
The film is enlightening and fascinating and will definitely appeal to devotees of Lynch.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.77:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: The main extra is an interview with the film’s director, Alexandre O. Philippe.
Anyone But You (Blu-ray + digital)
Release date: March 12
Details: 2023, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Rated: R, nudity, sexual content, language
The lowdown: Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell star in this rom-com that is basically a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” but with formulaic situations and cliches associated with the genre.
Bea (Sweeney) and Ben (Powell) look like the perfect couple. But after a disastrous first date something happens their turns their attraction ice cold.
They soon find themselves put together at a destination wedding in Australia where, in typical genre fashion, they pretend to be a couple.
And while both leads are attractive, their chemistry is basically not as strong as it should be, despite their verbal swordplay.
The movie earned a modest 55 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English, French and Spanish 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and English and French 5.1 Dolby digital audio description tracks; English SDH, English, French and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include “He Said She Said,” “Everyone Down Under, “Aussie Snacks” and “ASMR Pickup Lines” featurettes, deleted scenes and outtakes and bloopers.
Driving Madeleine (Blu-ray)
Details: 2022, Cohen Media Group-Kino Lorber
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A French import about Charles (Dany Boon), a Parisian taxi driver who is having a bad day. That is until he picks up a new fare, Madeleine (Line Renaud), a well-dressed nonagenarian who tells Charles that their trip will not be a direct one.
Madeleine is moving into a nursing home and would like to make some stops along the way, predicting that this might be her final car ride through the city.
As Charles drives her through the important locations of her long life, a brief friendship deepens between the pair, especially as Madeleine attentively listens to Charles confess his own worries.
Boon, mostly known as a comic actor, creates a heartfelt and dramatic portrait of a frustrated man facing a major personal crisis. Renaud, renowned for decades for as a singer, shines as Madeleine, reminding those watching that inside every elderly woman we may pass on the street is a warrior, a nurturer and an avid adventurer.
The movie, directed by Christian Carion (“Joyeux Noel”), garnered a 94 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.35:1 widescreen picture; French 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: An interview with Carion is the major bonus feature.
Witness (Blu-ray)
Details: 1985, Paramount Home Entertainment-Allied Vaughn
Rated: R, violence, language, partial nudity
The lowdown: Harrison Ford gives one of the strongest performances of his career as Detective John Book in this crime thriller about a big-city detective who must protect an Amish widow and her young son, who witnessed the murder of an undercover police officer by crooked cops.
Book takes Rachel (Kelly McGillis) and her son, Samuel (Lukas Haas), home, believing that is the best place to protect them.
The movie also is a romance and a tender relationship develops between Book and Rachel. The movie, directed by Peter Weir, offers a nice emotional vibe that counterbalances the crime-thriller aspects of the movie.
The movie, a made-on-demand Blu-ray from Allied Vaughn, earned a 93 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes. It can be ordered at www.moviezyng.com or other online sellers.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH and English subtitles.
The Manchurian Candidate (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray)
Details: 2004, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: R, violence, language
The lowdown: This re-imagining of John Frankenheimer’s film about Cold War paranoia and McCarthyism has been updated under the direction of Jonathan Demme.
Denzel Washington stars as Major Ben Marco who, years after his squad was ambushed during the Gulf War, is haunted by nightmares.
He begins to doubt that his fellow squad-mate, Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Live Schreiber), now a vice-presidential candidate, is the hero he remembers him being.
As Shaw’s power grows, Marco finds a mysterious implant in his back. Slowly, the true events of what happens emerges.
The cast also includes Meryl Streep, in the role made famous by Angela Lansbury, Jon Voight, Jeffrey Wright and Anthony Mackie.
The remake is darker, more pessimistic than the original, but still garnered an 80 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 4K: 2160p ultra-high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles; Blu-ray: 1080p high definition, , 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus materials include a commentary track with Demme and screenwriter Daniel Pyne, featurettes on the cast and the making of the movie, Schreiber’s screen test, deleted and extended scenes, outtakes and a “Political Pundits” featurette with commentary by Demme.
Dark Water (4K Ultra HD)
Details: 2002, Arrow Video
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Another J-horror film from “Ring” director Hideo Nakata about Yoshimi, a single mom who, while going through a bitter divorce, fights to keep her young daughter.
The two move into an apartment in a dilapidated complex. Soon after, Yoshimi begins experiencing strange visions, including a ghostly little girl, and sounds, which call her mental state into question, thus endangering not only retaining custody of her daughter, but their lives as well.
Nakata used the same cinematographer on this supernatural thriller as he did on “Ring” and “Pulse.” The movie, which received an 83 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, also features an unnerving sound design that may keep you jumping.
Technical aspects: 2160p ultra-high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; Japanese 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Supplemental options include a making of documentary, interviews with cinematographer Junichiro Hayashi, author Koji Suzuki, Nakata, actresses Hitomi Kuroki and Asami Mizukawa and theme-song artist Shikao Suga and a booklet with essays about the movie.
Over the Edge (Blu-ray)
Release date: March 5
Details: 1979, Shout Select-Shout! Studios
Rated: PG, violence
The lowdown: A story about teenager alienation set in the planned suburban town of New Granada, where the adults are more interested in expanding the community to grow its prosperity, while ignoring the teenage population, which comprises a quarter of the residents.
The bored, neglected teens are left to their own devices, turning to drugs, alcohol and resentment.
Things only get worse when the trigger-happy sheriff shoots one of the teens, sparking a deadly confrontation with the adults.
The movie is shocking for its time, detailing middle-class decadence as well as teen alienation and anger.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Supplemental options include a making of featurette, interviews with director Jonathan Kaplan and screenwriter Charlie Haas, a seven-part retrospective documentary, two commentary tracks, the complete “Destruction: Fun or Dumb?” educational video excerpted in the movie and an isolated music and effects track.
Colt. 45: The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
Release date: March 12
Details: 1957-60, Warner Archive Collection-Allied Vaughn
The lowdown: In the late 1950s, Warner Bros. was the king of TV Westerns, airing such shows as “Maverick,” “Cheyenne,” “Lawman,” “Sugarfoot” and “Bronco.”
Now joining that posse is “Colt .45,” which starred Wayde Preston as Christopher Colt who, using the guise of a salesman for his family’s arms manufacturing company, secretly works undercover on a special assignment for the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps to combat lawlessness in the West.
In the final season, Preston left the series over a contract dispute and was replaced by Donald May as Colt’s cousin, Sam Colt Jr. Preston and the studio settled their differences and both actors appeared in the final few episodes.
The 10-disc set features all 67 episodes, which featured such guest stars as Angie Dickinson, Troy Donahue, Alan Hale Jr., Charles Bronson, Robert Conrad, Leonard Nimoy, Adam West, Lyle Talbot and baseball legend Sandy Koufax, as well as such Western regulars as Dan Blocker, Don “Red” Barry, I. Stanford Jolley, Kenneth MacDonald, Arthur Space and Lane Bradford.
The set can be ordered at www.moviezyng.com or other online sellers.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.33:1 full-screen picture;; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Shadow Magic (Blu-ray)
Details: 2000, Sony Pictures Classics-Allied Vaughn
Rated: PG, language
The lowdown: A movie, set in Peking in 1902 is a magical drama that showcases the wondrous influence of movies in the city.
Photographer Liu (Xia Yu) is intrigued by inventions and western technologies that are arriving in his community. When Englishman Raymond Wallace (Jared Harris) arrives with talk of moving pictures, Liu helps bridge the gap between Wallace and the Chinese.
In doing so, he unintentionally defies the traditions of his culture in the process. Conflicted by his loyalty to his family and the opportunity to better his standing in society so he can marry the woman he loves, Liu must choose whether or not to risk everything to help bring the motion picture industry to China and make his dreams come true.
The movie, which received a 72 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, offers an appreciation of what it was like to discover cinema in its infant stages.
The Blu-ray can be found at www.moviezyng.com or other Internet sellers.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.78:1 widescreen picture; Mandarin 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH, English and French subtitles.
Don’t miss:: The lone extra is a commentary track with director Ann Hu.
Target (Blu-ray)
Details: 1985, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: R, violence, language
The lowdown: Gene Hackman and Matt Dillon portray emotionally-distant father and son who must put their differences aside in this political thriller.
Hackman’s Walter seems like an ordinary businessman to his son, Chris. But when his mother, Donna, mysteriously disappears in Paris, Chris and Walter fly to Paris to find her.
Chris also discovers that his father is a former CIA agent, and that some of his old contacts may be helpful in finding Donna.
The search takes them across Europe, with many deceptions, twists and turns along the way.
The movie, directed by Arthur Penn, costars Gayle Hunnicutt and Josef Sommer. It garnered a 64 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.78:1 widescreen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: The main extra is a commentary track by entertainment journalists-authors Bryan Reesman and Max Evry.
“The Ring Collection” (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray)
Details: 2002-17, Scream Factory-Shout! Studios
Rated: PG-13, violence, terror, disturbing images, language, some drug references, sexuality
The lowdown: The success of Hideo Nakata’s “The Ring” in 1998 spurred an American remake in 2002 starring Naomi Watts and directed by Gore Verbinski.
It followed the basic plot of its Japanese predecessor centering on the urban legend of a videotape that causes anyone who watches it to die seven days later.
Watts portrays investigative reporter Rachel Keller who, after four teenagers meet mysterious deaths exactly one week after watching the videotape, tracks down the tape and also watches it.
She now has seven days to solve the mystery and save her own life.
Three years later, Watts starred in a sequel in which Keller and her son have moved to a small town in Oregon. She soon learns about the death of a teenager who had watched a strange videotape with his girlfriend. Rachel suspects her past is following her.
The set features PG-13 and unrated versions of the sequel.
“Rings,” released in 2017, deals with a radical college professor, played by “The Bing Bang Theory’s” Johnny Galecki, who finds the mysterious video and enlists his students in a dangerous experiment to uncover the secrets behind the Samara legend.
When the deadly video goes viral, the professor and his students must devise a way to break the curse and defeat Samara before her evil is unleashed upon the world.
The initial “Ring” earned a 71 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, while the sequels received much lower scores.
Technical aspects: 4K: 2160p ultra-high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles (“The Ring” and “The Ring Two); English 7.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio (“Rings”); English SDH subtitles; Blu-ray: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles (“The Ring” and “The Ring Two); English 7.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio (“Rings”); English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include a collection of deleted footage, a “Ghost Girl Goes Global” featurette, a short film that uncovers the secret connection between “The Ring” and its sequels, an “Origin of Terror” featurette and cast and crew interviews on “The Ring” Blu-ray; a commentary track on the 4K Ultra HD “The Ring Two” disc and, on the Blu-ray, the uncut version of the movie, the connection between the movies featurette, deleted scenes and five featurettes; “Rings” offers deleted and extended scenes and three featurettes on the Blu-ray disc.
The Devil’s Partner: Special Edition (Blu-ray)
Release date: Jan. 16
Details: 1961, Film Masters
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Ed Nelson plays a dual role; first, as an old hermit who sells his soul to the devil for eternal youth, and then as a young man, posing as the old man’s nephew, who uses witchcraft and black magic to steal a woman from his rival.
The movie is a decent little horror outing despite some cheesy animal attack sequences. The film, which runs 73 minutes, also features Jean Allison, Edgar Buchanan, Richard Crane and Byron Foulger.
The film is paired with “Creature from the Haunted Sea,” a 1961, a Roger Corman-directed that is a gangster-creature feature combo.
An American crook seizes the opportunity to get rich by taking advantage of a revolution on a Caribbean island by planning to help loyalists and the national treasury escape on his boat.
He plans to kill the men and blame the deaths on a legendary sea creature. However, the real monster shows up and that is that!
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 (16x9 enhanced) widescreen and 1.37:1 (4x3) both films; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural and 2.0 Dolby digital monaural (both films); English closed-captioned subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include commentary tracks on both movies, an interview with Corman, a “Hollywood Intruders: The Filmgroup Story: Part 3” documentary and the extended TV version of “Creature from the Haunted Sea.”
Cocktail Hour (Blu-ray)
Details: 1933, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment-Allied Vaughn
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Bebe Daniels stars as Cynthia Warren, a successful young commercial artist, in this pre-Code romantic drama.
Warren has no interest in settling down and continually rebuffs the advances of her boss, Randolph Morgan (Randolph Scott). Warren decides to leave New York for Paris where, on the crossing, she falls in love with an Englishman. But, when she arrives in Paris, she finds a third suitor — a prince.
With three men competing for her affections, she Warren must decide what she really wants from her love life.
The cast also includes Sidney Blackmer, Barry Norton, Muriel Kirkland, Jesse Ralph and, if you look very quickly, you can spot future B-Western star Bill Elliott and perennial Three Stooges and Columbia Pictures villain Kenneth MacDonald in bit parts.
The Blu-ray can be found at www.moviezyng.com or other online retailers.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Other titles being released on Tuesday, unless otherwise indicated:
Carrie (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray) (Scream Factory)
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, STREAMING or VOD
Asleep in My Palm (Strike Back Studios)
French Girl (Paramount Global Distribution Group)
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Kino Lorber)
The Invisible Fight (Kino Lorber)
The Soldier’s Tale (Kino Lorber)
Trail of Justice (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
MARCH 20
Constellation: Episode 7 (Apple TV+)
The New Look: Episode 8 (Apple TV+)
Palm Royale: Episodes 1-3 (Apple TV+)
MARCH 21
Ballad of Little Jo (Kino Film Collection)
Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen (Kino Film Collection)
Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told (Hulu)
Paradise (Tubi)
MARCH 22
Aloners (Film Movement Plus)
Coming to You (Omnibus Entertainment)
The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin: Episode 5 (Apple TV+)
The Fox (Amazon-Apple TV+)
The Fragile King (IndiePix Unlimited)
Manhunt: Episode 3 (Apple TV+)
Molli and Max in the Future (Level 33 Entertainment)
The Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy: Season 2, Episode 4 (Apple TV+)
You’ll Never Find Me (Shudder)
Yuni (Film Movement)
MARCH 23
The Dynasty: The New England Patriots: Episode 8 (Apple TV+)
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.