Mike Spring
What’s New in Home Video & Pop Culture – August 5th, 2025
This week is an exciting one, with lots of recent box-office hits, some great catalogue titles, and a few lesser-seen gems. Check out the full slate below!
In This Week’s Column:
- Thunderbolts (Blu-ray + Digital)
- Final Destination: Bloodlines (4K Ultra HD + Digital)
- Death of a Unicorn (Blu-ray)
- Warfare (Blu-ray)
- Clueless: 30th Anniversary Edition (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital)
- To Catch a Thief (4K Ultra HD + Digital Steelbook)
- Ultraman: The Adventure Begins (Blu-ray)
- Rust (Blu-ray)
- Give Me A Word: The Collective Soul Story (Blu-ray)
Thunderbolts (Blu-ray + Digital)
The Movie:
While I’m a huge Marvel fan, I’m not one of those fans who can’t admit when the studio stumbles. And since Avengers: Endgame, the MCU has not been at quite the same level of quality as it was before. Even this year’s Captain America: Brave New World was a movie that felt like it lacked any real direction or gave me any confidence that Marvel knew where they were going with their movies in any way.
So I went in to Thunderbolts with tempered expectations, and don’t you know it? This is where Marvel seems to have figured things out. I absolutely loved Thunderbolts. This newest entry in the Marvel canon sees several supporting characters from previous films coming together as a sort of mini-supergroup: Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier; Yelena Romanoff, The White Widow; her dad, The Red Guardian; John Walker/The U.S. Agent (the former replacement Captain America); Taskmaster; and the Ghost. They are paired up with a new mysterious member named, simply, Bob. When they’re pitted against each other due to the political machinations of the CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, they have to ultimately come together to face down a new threat that could be incredibly powerful.
At first, I was worried that the film was going to turn into one of those James-Gunn-styled movies where characters who are supposed to care about each other instead spend the whole tie fighting and screaming at each other instead (see Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and 3). But while they do have to learn to work together and there is some tension, they also do come together and take on both the new villain and the behind-the-scenes treachery. The film is action-packed, funny at times, and has a surprisingly effective message about mental heath mixed in to the proceedings. Plus, the post-credits scene sets the direction for the MCU for years to come!
The Bonus Features:
- Director’s Audio Commentary with Jake Schreier
- Assembling a Team to Remember
- Around the World and Back Again
- All About Bob, Sentry & The Void
- Deleted Scenes
- Gag Reel
Digital Copy Included: Yes
The Wrap-Up:
I know that people these days love to complain about Marvel movies and are way too hard on most of them (I.e. people tearing apart The Marvels for no reason), so I’m sure people will find things to dislike about Thunderbolts, but I loved it. I think it’s a great film in its own right and it’s also a lynchpin movie for the MCU. What more can you ask for?
Final Destination: Bloodlines (4K Ultra HD + Digital)
The Movie:
In the horror movie franchise pantheon, the Final Destination movies are pretty middle of the road for me. I like them, I’ve seen all of them, but I wouldn’t consider myself a huge fan. I always enjoy the big disaster sequences that kick the movies off, but then the formulaic waiting for people to die in anxiety-inducing and increasingly bizarre ways gets tiresome. (I still avoid logging trucks whenever I’m driving, however!)
So I was mildly interested in the new Final Destination: Bloodlines movie that relaunched the franchise (with a bang, too, grossing over $150 million at the domestic US box office!) This time around, we meet the extended Lewis family, of whom college student Stefani is having terrible nightmares about the destruction of a Space Needle-esque restaurant in the 1960s. What she discovers is a family secret that unleashes Death once again, and Stefani must tray and save her entire family from Death’s vengeance.
On the one hand, I enjoyed Bloodlines as much as I’ve enjoyed the rest of the films. It’s fun and there are some creative deaths as always, and I appreciated the approach to trying to prevent Death that one character has taken over the years. But man, the gore level is off the charts this time around, which felt wholly unnecessary to me. Now I’ll admit, it’s been a while since I watched the previous films, so maybe they’ve been getting progressively more gory and I just don’t remember, but the blood and guts felt off the charts here. And because the film was made with a moderate budget and so much of the gore is CGI, it gave the whole thing a very cartoony feel. Which might have been intentional on the part of the filmmakers, I don’t know, but it’s an odd aesthetic overall. Still, if you like the previous Final Destination movies, there’s nothing about this one you won’t like, except maybe the excessive blood and guts.
The 4K Video/Audio:
Final Destination: Bloodlines gets a 4K Ultra HD release and it looks quite good overall from a transfer perspective. The film has a lot of darker and nighttime scenes, but shadow delineation is strong and the onscreen action is never obscured. Color saturation is terrific, and the imagery is crisp and clear at all times. The surround soundtrack has a decent amount of activity to work with and it makes the most of it, featuring strong directional effects and an immersive soundfield, plus a nice, solid bass channel that really anchors the action. It’s a very strong A/V presentation overall.
The Bonus Features:
- Audio Commentary with directors Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky
- Death Becomes Them: On the Set of Final Destination: Bloodlines
- The Many Deaths of Bloodlines
- The Legacy of Bludwurth
Digital Copy Included: Yes
The Wrap-Up:
With the massive financial success of Final Destination: Bloodlines, it’s safe to assume that another entry is right around the corner. I’ll be curious to see where they filmmakers take the larger storyline (such as it is), but one thing’s for sure: another Final Destination film, like Death itself, is inevitable.
Death of a Unicorn (Blu-ray)
The Movie:
I tend not to like films distributed by A24, and while I recognize that it’s weird to like or dislike a movie because of the studio that distributed it, it feels like A24 goes out of their way only to distribute movies they know I won’t like. So when I saw the trailer for Death of a Unicorn — starring Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Will Poulter, Tea Leoni, and Richard E. Grant — I thought to myself, “Hey, maybe A24 is finally putting out another movie I like!” (I did actually like Everything Everywhere All At Once.)
The film sees Paul Rudd playing Elliott, a lawyer on the way to the family retreat of wealthy pharmaceutical industrialists The Leopolds with his semi-estranged daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) along for the ride. On the way to the Leopolds’ remote mountainous home, Elliott strikes an actual unicorn with his car, seemingly killing it. They bring the body with them to the compound, where they discover that its blood and horn have magical healing properties, something the Leopolds naturally want to capitalize on. Unfortunately, the unicorn was a baby and its parents have now shown up… and they are pissed.
As much as I wanted to like Death of a Unicorn, I really didn’t. First and foremost, it ostensibly is positioned as a horror/comedy, but it’s not nearly scary enough to be a horror film and not nearly funny enough to be a comedy, so it fails on both fronts. The characters are pretty much all unlikable; in the case of the Leopolds, they’re supposed to be, but they’re so cartoonish that it feels overdone. But even Elliott and Ridley are more… not unlikable than they are actually likable. The design of the unicorns didn’t really work for me — especially the baby, who looks like something out of a Roger Rabbiit cartoon. Really, the film’s lone bright spot is Will Poulter, who steals every scene he’s in. It gets mildly more interesting as the film gets closer to the end, but by and large I felt like the whole movie was one big missed opportunity.
I will say that this week marks the first time I’ve gotten review copies of A24 films, and I was incredibly impressed by the packaging they come in. Death of a Unicorn arrives in a cardboard clamshell-style case with a slipcover that features painted artwork plus photos and a themed design style, and it also comes packaged with six postcards. Really impressive work from a packaging standpoint.
The Bonus Features:
- Commentary with Writer/Director Alex Scharfman
- How to Kill a Unicorn Featurette
- Deleted Scenes
- Six Collectible Postcards
Digital Copy Included: No
The Wrap-Up:
Death of a Unicorn is far from the worst movie I’ve seen come out of A24, and that’s saying something, but I really wanted to like it more than I did. I hope your experience is better.
Warfare (Blu-ray)
The Movie:
Before I say anything at all about Warfare, I want to point out that it is based on a true story and was co-directed by Ray Mendoza, who was one of the soldiers in the unit portrayed in the film. And my feelings about the movie in no way reflect anything at all about what these soldiers went through or the sacrifices they made. I’m simply talking about the movie itself.
Warfare is co-directed by the aforementioned Mendoza and Alex Garland (Civil War, Ex Machina), who has become one of the go-to film directors for edgy fare in recent years. It tells the story of an American Navy SEAL unit in Iraq in 2006 who are doing surveillance from a house they’ve taken over, only to find themselves under siege from Iraqi militants. The aim of the film was apparently to make it as realistic as possible, based on the memories of the soldiers who were involved, and I would say the filmmakers clearly succeeded on that front. The problem is that not every story makes a good movie, and Warfare is an example of when that’s the case.
First of all, the film is set entirely in and around this house the SEAL unit is in. We get almost no explanation as to why they’re here, and what exposition we do get is grounded in so much reality that it’s hard to understand through the military jargon. We spend the first half hour of the film watching soldiers watch other people, which is not exactly riveting. And where the action does start, we run into what I call Black Hawk Down syndrome, where you have a bunch of soldiers who all look generally the same covered head to toe in the same uniforms and gear, and you quickly lose track of what’s happening to who. At the end of the movie, I wasn’t even sure who lived and who died, if anyone. Again, no disrespect to the soldiers involved in any way, but ultimately not much happens in this movie; I just don’t think it’s the kind of story that really makes for an effective narratively-based film. It’s well-shot and well-made, it’s just never that engaging or interesting.
The Bonus Features:
- Filmmaker Commentary with Ray Mendoza, Alex Garland, and Military Consultant Brian Philpot
- Courage Under Fire: The Making of Warfare
- Six Collectible Postcards
Digital Copy Included: No
The Wrap-Up:
People who like war movies will laud Warfare for its grittiness and realism, and like I said earlier, it absolutely succeeds on that front. But as far as watching a movie rather than a lesson on military tactics and operations, it’s not a great experience.
Clueless: 30th Anniversary Edition (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital)
The Movie:
One of the defining movies of the 1990s, Clueless was incredibly influential in its day, shaping the fashions and colloquialisms of high school kids for a good decade or so after the film came out. The movie is loosely — very loosely — based on Jane Austen’s Emma, and tells the story of Cher (Alicia Silverstone), a popular high school student who wants to do good things. So she decides to give another student a makeover and welcome her to Cher’s social group. Along the way Cher has to discover who she is and navigate her own social life as well.
The film launched Alicia Silverstone to stardom as well as giving us Paul Rudd, Breckin Meyer, and the late (and much missed) Brittany Murphy. Watching the film now, it holds up as both a great high school comedy and a true snapshot of life in the early ‘90s, and I find that I have a real affinity for it. Even though the movie was released on 4K just a couple of years ago, to celebrate the film’s 30th anniversary, Paramount has released a new 4K Ultra HD Steelbook special edition that comes bundled with some fun additional physical goodies.
The 4K Video/Audio:
Clueless is a bright and colorful film, and the 4K Ultra HD transfer reflects that. Colors really sing, allowing the fashions and the colorful locales to really come to life. Image clarity is impeccable, and the print is pristine. The surround soundtrack has to combat a lot of dialogue-based moments in the film, but at times the surround speakers kick in with atmospheric activity. Dialogue is clean and clear and natural, while the music is bright and poppy. It’s a solid mix and a terrific visual sheen for a great movie.
The Bonus Features:
- Clue or False Trivia Game
- The Class of ’95: A Look at the Cast, Then & Now
- Creative Writing with Writer/Director Amy Heckerling
- We’re History: Stories From the Cast
- Fashion 101
- Language Arts
- Suck ‘N Blow: A Tutorial
- Driver’s Ed
- Trailers
- Physical extras, including Collectible Photo Card, Movie Poster, Language Arts Cards, Facsimile, Report Card, Stickers & Decal
Digital Copy Included: Yes
The Wrap-Up:
This is a terrific new edition of Clueless, with some great extra features, and I love any Steelbook release. If you’re a younger person who hasn’t seen this film, I highly recommend you give it a watch, and if you remember the heyday of high school in the ‘90s, you’ll love this trip down memory lane.
To Catch a Thief (4K Ultra HD + Digital Steelbook)
The Movie:
To Catch a Thief is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most fun cinematic romps, a cat burglar mystery with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly that receives a new 4K Ultra HD release this week. The film has been available on 4K once before, but this time Paramount has packaged it in the increasingly popular Steelbook format and carried over all of the previous extra features to make it a nice collectible for Hitchcock fans.
The film stars Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, two of Hitchcock’s regular collaborators and two of the greatest movie stars of the 20th century. To see them together on screen is a real treat. In it, Grant plays John Robie, a retired cat burglar in the south of France who is suddenly under suspicion again when a rash of jewelry thefts occur. Seeking to prove his innocence by catching the real thief, he meets wealthy socialite Jessie Stevens and her daughter Frances (Grace Kelly), who might be mixed up in things. It’s a heady mix of suspense, comedy, romance, and heist action, and it’s no surprise that it’s one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most memorable films.
The 4K Video/Audio:
I’m not sure if To Catch a Thief got a ground-up restoration, but the film looks and sounds the best I’ve ever seen it. The movie was originally released in VistaVision, so it’s no surprise that the 4K transfer brings the extra pop of colors that 4K usually brings. Meanwhile, contrasts are stronger, the blacks are deeper, the shadow delineation is much clearer, and the overall image clarity is sharper than previous home video editions. The soundtrack options are working with limited fidelity due to the age of the film, but I certainly don’t hear anything to complain about; music and dialogue remain clear and present at all times. This is a top-notch effort from Paramount.
The Bonus Features:
- Audio Commentary with Dr. Drew Casper, Hitchcock Film Historian
- Filmmaker Focus: Leonard Maltin on To Catch a Thief
- A Night with the Hitchcocks
- Unacceptable Under the Code: Censorship in Hollywood
- Writing and Casting To Catch a Thief
- The Making of To Catch a Thief
- Behind the Gates: Cary Grant and Grace Kelly
- Alfred Hitchcock and To Catch a Thief
- Edith Head: The Paramount Years
- To Catch a Thief Theatrical Trailer
Digital Copy Included: Yes
The Wrap-Up:
To Catch a Thief is a minor masterpiece, and it’s certainly one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most fun movies. If you want to see two screen legends share the screen — and who wouldn’t? — this one is a must have!
Ultraman: The Adventure Begins (Blu-ray)
The Movie:
Specialty distributor Mill Creek continues to find every hidden gem in the Ultraman catalog with their latest release, Ultraman: The Adventure Begins, also known as Ultraman: USA. This 1987 offering is a bit of an oddity — especially with that Ultraman USA moniker floating about — so I had to do a bit of research to figure out what it was all about.
It turns out that this was an American co-production with Tsurayaba that saw the animation studio Hanna-Barbera create a pilot movie for a presumed-to-follow animated series — that sadly never materialized. It was apparently made for American audiences and takes place entirely in America, which is a huge change for an Ultraman project.
The film sees a number of monsters land on earth and three Ultras following them to try and prevent their mayhem and destruction. Because this is an animated film, we see these monsters appear much bigger and badder than the sort we usually get in the live action Ultraman outings, which is kind of fun. The animation has that mid-80s look that you saw in cartoons like GI Joe and Transformers, but with a slightly more anime-styled feel to it, fitting of the show’s origins. Overall, it’s solidly entertaining, if more to Ultraman fans than as a standalone project.
The Bonus Features:
There are no bonus features per se, but you do get both the US Version and the Japanese version of the film.
Digital Copy Included: No
The Wrap-Up:
As with so many previous Ultraman offerings, this movie is a little hit or miss. For me, it’s a step above some of the live-action entries from the ‘60s and ‘70s, but it’s probably not as good as some of the shows from the 2020s. But it’s a cool thing that I didn’t’t know existed and that I’m sure Ultraman fans will enjoy.
Rust (Blu-ray)
The Movie:
It’s a shame when a movie becomes known for what happened during the filming of it rather than for the movie itself, but such his the case with Rust. This western was filmed in 2021 and is just now getting released on home video, due to a tragedy on the film’s set, when cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed by a prop gun being fired by Alec Baldwin, who plays one of the lead roles in the film. The production was shut down and some of the crew members were charged with a crime, including Baldwin, although charges against him were ultimately dismissed. If you’ve heard of Rust, chances are very good it’s because of that incident, and not because of the film itself.
Not because it’s a bad film, just because the movie is overshadowed by the real life tragedy. It’s actually a pretty solid movie for a western, which is a genre I’ve never been an overly big fan of. The story follows 13-year-old Lucas Hollister, who’s living a tough life trying to keep his family homestead alive after the death of his parents. With a younger brother in tow, that’s no easy task. When he accidentally kills a man, he’s sentenced to hang. Enter Alec Baldwin, who plays Lucas’s estranged grandfather and who helps him escape. The pair are pursued by a posse of lawmen and others who are out to recapture the boy.
The film is a bit of a slow burn, but it’s an engaging watch, and it’s well-shot and well-acted. It runs about 2 hours and 20 minutes, which feels like about a half an hour too long, but overall I liked more than I didn’t. It’s a shame that the on-set tragedy happened, of course, and it’s a shame that it derailed a decent film as well.
The Bonus Features:
Not surprisingly, there are no bonus features on this disc.
Digital Copy Included: No
The Wrap-Up:
Rust didn’t get a high-profile release because it’s hard to celebrate a movie when a life was lost due to a preventable tragedy. But if you’re curious about it, you will be rewarded with a solid western genre movie that’s more than just a cautionary tale.
Give Me A Word: The Collective Soul Story (Blu-ray)
The Movie:
If I had a nickel for every time I’ve gotten a music documentary to review that was about a band or act that I had zero to little interest in, I could buy a whole lot of music documentaries. So I was beyond excited when Give Me A Word: The Collective Soul Story arrived for me to review, as I’ve been a huge Collective Soul fan since their earliest days. Fun fact: I went to Collective Soul’s first ever full-band, full-electric live concert. (They played an acoustic set at a record store earlier that day, but the night show was their first official concert.)
Give Me A Word starts off with the band — as it currently exists — recording their latest album at Elvis Presley’s California estate, the first band allowed to do so. We then backtrack throughout the group’s history, which features the usual manipulative managers, band member fights, reshuffling of personnel, and the music itself. It’s a fairly honest look at the band, although there are some topics that feel a little glossed over; it’s not quite a full-on warts-and-all approach, but it’s not a total fan service doc either. Overall, it’s a great watch for fans of the band.
The Bonus Features:
As to be expected with a documentary like this, there are no extra features included.
Digital Copy Included: No
The Wrap-Up:
Collective Soul isn’t the hit factory they were in the 1990s and early 2000s, but they continue to put out really good and underrated rock and roll records that I continue to be a fan of. If you every enjoyed listening to their music, I highly recommend tracking this documentary down.
