By Bob Bloom
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, many distributors have closed their warehouses and are not releasing 4K UHD, Blu-ray or DVD titles. Instead, they are offering digital releases of many titles at Movies Anywhere, Amazon and other sites.
The following titles are being released on Tuesday, April 21, unless otherwise noted: Better Days (Blu-ray) Details: 2019, Well Go USA Entertainment Rated: Not rated The lowdown: Nian, a teenage girl, finds herself being bullied by her peers as she is preparing for her college entrance exams in this dramatic thriller. Her situation changes after she meets Bei, a small-time crook. But before they can retreat into their own idyllic world, the two become enmeshed in a murder investigation that will change both their lives. The movie offers a bleak view of an oppressive society and the pressures heaped upon today’s teenagers. The film received a 100 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 (16:9 enhanced) widescreen picture; Mandarin 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English and Chinese subtitles. Don’t miss: A making of featurette is the major bonus component.
Ray Donovan: Season Seven (DVD) Details: 2019-20, Showtime Entertainment-CBS DVD-Paramount Home Entertainment Rated: Not rated, violence, sexual content The lowdown: A four-disc set offering all 10 seventh-season episodes of this popular Showtime series. The season finds Donovan in New York, working hard to provide for his family — especially emotionally. He also is making progress on his various issues. But his past begins catching up with him, causing him to become the Donovan of old. Donovan struggles to balance fixing things for his clients and fixing himself so his family can have the man it needs. Live Schreiber and Jon Voight head the cast of this gritty and riveting series. Technical aspects: 16:9 widescreen picture; English 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby digital; English SDH subtitles. Don’t miss: Extras include a look at cast member Dash Mihok directing an episode and a “Deconstructing Ray” featurette.
“Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Picture: Vols 4 & 5” (Blu-ray) Marihuana: Weeds with Roots in Hell & Narcotic Tomorrow’s Children & Child Bride Details: 1933-38, Kino Lorber Classics Rated: Not rated, violence, drug use, nudity The lowdown: Kino Lorber Classics is releasing two more volumes of independent sensationalistic movies from the 1930s that covered various illicit subject matter not allowed by the production code guidelines that the major studios agreed to follow. These movies, marketed as educational, were more intent on turning a profit by titillating unsophisticated audiences in rural areas of the country and playing up the sins of the big-city folks. Volume 4 contains “Marihuana: Weed with Roots in Hell” (1936) and “Narcotic” (1933). Both were directed by the infamous Dwain Esper and written by his wife, Hildagarde Stadie. “Marihuana” is the story of a high school girl who likes to party. At a beach party, the girl smokes marijuana and has sex with her boyfriend. She later discovers that she is pregnant and the boyfriend, to earn money, takes a job smuggling drugs. After the police discover the smugglers, the boyfriend is fatally shot by the cops during a chase. After learning of the death, the young girl runs away, gives up her baby for adoption and becomes a drug dealer. She starts using heroin and, in the last reel, plans to kidnap her sister’s adopted baby, only to learn it is her child. In “Narcotic” (1933), an idealistic and esteemed doctor becomes hooked on drugs and sinks lower and lower into degradation until finally he cannot take it anymore and goes mad. The main feature in Volume 5 is “Tomorrow’s Children” (1934), an expose of the discredited theory of eugenics, in which a young woman, whose parents are alcoholics, simply wants to settle down and marry her fiancé. Her life begins to crumble after her parents are ordered to accept sterilization or lose their welfare checks and the young girl also is ordered by the court to undergo the procedure. At the last minute she is saved, when her drunken mother reveals that the girl is a foundling the family took in. “Child Bride” (1938) is set in the Ozarks and was promoted as a feature aimed at calling attention to the lack of laws barring child marriages in many states. The story focuses on a 12-year-old girl lusted after by an older man who, after the girl’s father dies, blackmails his widow into allowing him to marry her the girl. Trying to stop the marriage is an idealistic schoolteacher. All turns out for the best as the young girl is saved and the state passes a law banning child marriages. These movies are oddities, cheaply made and aimed for entertainment than education. They are a product of their times, a thin slice of American film history that has passed us by. Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.33:1 full-screen picture; English monaural. Don’t miss: Bonus materials include commentary tracks on all four movies; two versions of Esper’s short film, “How to Undress (in Front of Your Husband,” Esper’s short, “How to Take a Bath,” and trailer and fragment from Esper’s lost film, “The Seventh Commandment” on the “Marihuana”/”Narcotic” set.
Gunsmoke: The Complete Series (DVD) Gunsmoke: The Final Season (DVD) Details: 1955-75, 1974-75 Rated: Not rated The lowdown: Father’s Day is a month away, but it’s never too early to begin hunting for a gift for Dad. And what could be better than one of the most famous shows in the history of television, “Gunsmoke.” This 143-disc set features all 635 episodes plus extras as Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) keeps law and order in Dodge City. Among the series regulars are Milburn Stone’s Doc Adams, Amanda Blake’s Miss Kitty, Dennis Weaver’s Chester and Ken Curtis’ Festus. Burt Reynolds and Buck Taylor also costarred for a few seasons. Over the decades, an array of guest stars have passed through Dodge, including past and future Academy Award-winners such as Bette Davis, Mercedes McCambridge, Jodie Foster, Ellen Burstyn, Jack Albertson, George Kennedy, Jon Voight, Cloris Leachman and Martin Landau. Future “Star Trek” cast members William Shatner, DeForest Kelley, Leonard Nimoy, James Doohan, Mark Lenard and Grace Lee Whitney also rode into Dodge. Others making appearances included Harrison Ford, Kurt Russell, Tom Skerritt, Harry Dean Stanton, Harry Carey Jr., Harry Morgan, James Whitmore, Slim Pickens, Beverly Garland, James Drury, Bruce Dern, Buddy Ebsen, Loretta Swit, Ben Johnson, Ruth Roman, Phyllis Coates, Joe Don Baker, Diane Ladd, Carroll O’Connor, Noah Beery Jr., Robert Vaughn, Charles Bronson, Brock Peters, Ed Asner, John Carradine, Daniel J. Travanti, Bob Steele, Will Geer, Jack Klugman, Lee J. Cobb, Ricardo Montalban, Dennis Hopper, Yaphet Kotto, Cicely Tyson, Betty Hutton and Beau Bridges. I could go on and on, but you get the picture. The set shows how “Gunsmoke” evolved from a 30-minute, black-and-white series to a 60-minute series airing its episodes in color. And, if you already have most of the seasons of “Gunsmoke,” also being released is “Gunsmoke: The Final Season,” a six-disc set that features the final 24 episodes of the series, which offered such guest stars as Nick Nolte, Ned Beatty, John Saxon and Robert Urich. So, if Westerns are a genre you appreciate, either one of these sets will entertain you. Technical aspects: 4:3 full-screen picture; English Dolby digital monaural; English SDH subtitles (seasons 5-20 only). Don’t miss: The complete series set offers commentaries and featurettes from earlier releases on season episodes. The extras on the final season include a commentary track and “Ben and Becky Talk ‘Gunsmoke’: Season 20.”
Other titles being released on Tuesday, unless otherwise indicated: Bloodshot (4K UHD & Blu-ray & DVD) (Lionsgate Home Entertainment) Cry for the Bad Man (DVD & digital) (Uncork’d Entertainment) Garth Brooks: The Road I’m On (DVD) (Lionsgate Home Entertainment) I Still Believe (Blu-ray & DVD) (Lionsgate Home Entertainment) The Jack in the Box (DVD & digital & VOD) (Shinehouse Group) South Mountain (DVD & VOD) (Breaking Glass Pictures)
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, STREAMING or VOD An Engineer Imagines (Music Box Films) Cry Havoc (Midnight Releasing) Emma (Universal Studios Home Entertainment) The Hacker Wars (Sundance Now) Intrigo: Dear Agnes (Lionsgate Home Entertainment) Intrigo: Samaria (Lionsgate Home Entertainment) Jerry Seinfeld: Secret Agent (Netflix) Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (Warner Home Entertainment) Becoming (www.netflix.com/Becoming) (Netflix, May 6) Bad Mothers: Episode 1 (Sundance Now, May 7) Driveways (FilmRise, May 7) Lamb of God (Topic, May 7) The Restaurant: Season 3, Episode 8 (Sundance Now, May 7) Sanctuary: Episode 3 (Sundance Now, May 7) Dead to Me: Season 2 ((www.netflix.com/DeadtoMe) (Netflix, May 8) The Eddy ((www.netflix.com/theeddy) (Netflix, May 8) Intrigo: Dear Agnes (Lionsgate Home Entertainment, May 8) Angelfish (Dark Star Pictures, May 10) Management (Sundance Now, May 11) Trial by Media (Netflix, May 11)
Coming next week: Birds of Prey and the Emancipation of One Harley Quinn The Photograph
I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. I review movies, 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. My movie reviews also can be found at Rottentomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com.