Mike Spring
What’s New in Home Video & Pop Culture – September 17th, 2024
We have a lot of catalog releases this week, but some of them are really great! There are also a few new movies out, including one of the two biggest box office hits of the year so far. Fire up the 4K Ultra HD Player (or the Blu-ray plater) because there’s lots to watch this week!
Inside Out 2
The Movie: I’ll admit that it took me a while to come around to the first Inside Out. I saw it in theaters when my kids were young, as did so many people, and I thought it was solidly okay. I’ve spent many years thinking that a lot of Pixar movies are overrated, or declared as brilliant simply because they were Pixar movies (and I still largely stand by that opinion.) But in rewatching the first movie to prepare for the second one, I found that I did enjoy it quite a bit more than the first time around. So, I went into Inside Out 2 a little more excited to watch it than I would have been otherwise. And I’m happy to report that I enjoyed it quite a bit as well. I don’t think either film is an out-and-out masterpiece – and the billion-dollar grosses of each still baffles me, as I just don’t see them as repeat-viewing-in-theaters kinds of films – but I am clearly in the minority. In this outing, Riley is now 13 and playing hockey and about to go to high school. Enter four new emotions: Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui, hallmarks of typical teenage years. When Anxiety ousts Joy and the other emotions from control, the gang must get back to headquarters and save Riley from making some really bad decisions. There are a few times when the movie feels like a retread of the first film, but the new characters, especially a couple of non-emotion ones that I won’t specifically mention to avoid spoilers, are a lot of fun. And the film’s handling of the concept of anxiety is quite impressive, especially in a day and age when it’s a condition so many people deal with. I was a little surprised to see that Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling didn’t return as Fear and Disgust, respectively, but other than that, the voice cast – both new and old – does a great job as usual.
The Special Features: There are two making-of featurettes, one focusing on the new characters and one on the vault, a new story element based on Riley’s interior persona. Then there’s a collection of five deleted scenes.
Digital Copy Included? Yes
The Wrap-Up: Inside Out 2 is a fun and enjoyable family film that tackles some tough topics such as anxiety and teenage emotions (and how they affect our whole lives). I liked the new characters a lot and I can see where both kids and adults will have a really good time with this one.
Repo Man (Criterion Collection 4K Ultra HD)
The Movie: Not the kind of film that typically gets a Criterion Collection release, Repo Man is a 1984 cult classic starring Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton. It ostensibly tells that tale of two car repossession workers who get caught up in a plot to find a car with evidence of alien life in it, but plot is secondary to ruminations on “the repo code” and underlying subtext about capitalism, government, and society at large. If it sounds weird, that’s because it is, and I’ll admit that I don’t have quite the same level of adoration for this film that some people do. That said, I do enjoy it quite a bit as a very distinctly ‘80s piece of filmmaking. I think my biggest issue with the film is that I’m not an overly big Harry Dean Stanton fan; he’s great as a supporting actor, but in a lead role, I can’t say I get excited about him. However, Emilio Estevez is one of my favorite actors and watching him here – in one of his early major roles – is always a treat. The film was released as part of the Criterion line a few years back and now it returns in 4K Ultra HD with a deluxe new package that also includes a Blu-ray disc. As usual, it’s loaded with extra features and comes with an outstanding essay booklet.
The 4K Video/Audio: Repo Man is a 40+-year-old film that was made on a low budget, so the 4K Ultra HD presentation doesn’t magically transform it into looking like the newest Marvel film. That said, the film does look pretty good overall, with natural-looking skin tones and a decent amount of film grain, as would be expected. Color saturation ranges from lifelike to vibrant, but the film as a whole seems a little on the dark side. The soundtrack presents the original uncompressed mono soundtrack, and dialogue and music sound clear and never fighting for audio space, so no complaints there.
The Special Features: There’s a commentary track with director Alex Cox as well as cast and crew, interestingly enough including producer Mike Nesmith, famous for being in The Monkees. There’s also a 20-minyte making-of featurette, an interview with musician Iggy Pop, as well as a lengthy interview with lead actor Harry Dean Stanton. There’s another 25-minute retrospective featurette, and then a collection of deleted scenes. Finally, in addition to some trailers, there’s the TV version of the movie, which adds in some scenes and replace all of the swearing. There’s also a 58-page essay booklet, which is always a value-add with Criterion releases.
Digital Copy Included? No
The Wrap-Up: Repo Man is the very definition of a cult classic, and it’s not hard to see why. I doubt it’s the kind of film that was ever destined for box office success, but every time I watch it I pick up new things about it. I also get nostalgic for the ‘80s, and it really does capture that decade well, even while remaining somewhat timeless. This version is the ultimate edition for fans, and if you don’t already have the previous Criterion version, there’s no reason not to chase this one down as soon as possible.
Bringing Out The Dead (4K Ultra HD)
The Movie: I’ve been very vocal over the years that I’m not a big Martin Scorsese fan. I know he’s one of the most acclaimed and well-loved directors in cinematic history, and it’s not that I don’t recognize how talented he is, but he just tends to make the kinds of films that I don’t enjoy. Sure, there are some of his movies that I love: Goodfellas, The Departed, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Casino among them. But by and large, there are way more Scorsese movies that just aren’t my cup of tea then that are. And then we have Bringing Out the Dead, his 1999 drama about an EMT who is falling victim to the stress of his job and is veering towards madness. I had never seen the film before, because – to be honest – I never wanted to. It looked very much like the kind of movie I wouldn’t like based on the trailers, and the fact that Scorsese directed it and Nicolas Cage was the star certainly wasn’t enough to get me to go out of my way for it. But I was actually looking forward to watching it when I got the new Paramount Presents 4K Ultra HD release of the film. After all, maybe this was a hidden gem of a movie that I just hadn’t discovered yet; one of those rare Scorsese masterpieces. Unfortunately, it’s not. In fact, I really didn’t like it at all. It’s Scorsese directing in a style somewhat akin to the one he used for Cape Fear, filled with weird edits and visual tricks that heighten the character’s madness but also make the experience more disjointed for viewers. Scorsese presents a view of New York and hospitals and medical staff that basically makes you want to give up on humanity; I’m not even remotely sure who I was supposed to be rooting for in this film. And even though it clocks in at exactly two hours, it felt like it was twice that long, largely because there’s little plot; it’s more just a series of sketches of horrible things happening to people and the aftermath of those events. It’s a very unpleasant movie experience.
The 4K Video/Audio: The audiovisual presentation for Bringing Out The Dead on 4K is impressive, even if the film does feature such a wide variety of shooting techniques that it’s hard to find a common thread in the picture quality. Overall, Imagery is nice and clear with strong shadow delineation (a must-have for a film where large portions of it occur in the dark or at night), while colors are vibrant when the film features color (it’s often washed out on purpose) and image clarity is terrific. The surround soundtrack does create a nice, tense atmosphere throughout the film with a generous helping of surround activity. It’s not the most nuanced mix in the world, but it is rather effective in conveying the chaos of New York City.
The Special Features: There are four brand new interview featurettes exclusive to this release, including interviews with Martin Scorsese and with Nicolas Cage, as well as with writer Paul Schrader and cinematographer Robert Richardson. These run about 40 minutes total. Then you get about 30 minutes of archival cast and crew interviews, as well as a pair of trailers.
Digital Copy Included?: Yes
The Wrap-Up: So, obviously I’m not a fan of Bringing Out the Dead. That said, if you are a fan of this movie or a Scorsese completist, this new Paramount Presents 4K Ultra HD is an excellent edition to add to your collection considering the high-quality audiovisual presentation and the new extra features.
The Strangers (4K Ultra HD)
The Movie: I’m a little surprised that Scream Factory didn’t time this to hit shelves when The Strangers: Chapter 1 was in theaters, but it’s here now, so I guess I shouldn’t complain. While there are now three movies in the Strangers franchise, and this new 4K Ultra HD Collector’s Edition features the original movie that started it all. The film was a 2008 sleeper hit thriller starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman, and it featured them as a couple at a remote getaway vacation home who are set upon by three masked strangers who are threatening to break in and kill them. With more and more films over the past decade or so sharing some version of this premise, it’s nice to see that it holds up extremely well. It’s still an incredibly tense and suspenseful film, and even though I generally don’t like Liv Tyler as an actress at all, she manages to hold her own in this role. What really makes the film work, though, isn’t necessarily the performances (although they are good), it’s the atmosphere. The movie slowly builds tension and ratchets it up to higher and higher intensity until it’s almost too much to take. It doesn’t rely on blood and guts but rather actual fear, and that’s always welcome in a horror movie.
The 4K Video/Audio: I was really hoping that Scream Factory wouldn’t phone in the A/V portion of this release, and I’m pleased to announce that they didn’t. Usually when I review a 4K disc, I focus a lot on color saturation, as it’s one of the format’s best features. However, The Strangers is a movie that utilizes a somewhat limited color palette at times, while at other times a lot of what’s happening on screen is in dark surroundings. But here, shadow delineation is terrific, making sure that the onscreen action is never swallowed up by said dark. Contrasts are strong, blacks are deep, and the colors that are on screen do look vibrant and lifelike. The surround soundtrack isn’t the most active I’ve ever heard – and to be fair, there are large chunks of the film that are swallowed up in near-silence — but it does combine some decent surround effects, a thumping low end bass channel, and high-fidelity music to capture the feel of the film as it was made. This is a great A/V presentation overall.
The Special Features: You get both the theatrical and Unrated editions of the film, even if they’re not all that different. There are also six interview featurettes with cast and crew, a collection of deleted scenes, a still gallery, and trailers.
Digital Copy Included? No
The Wrap-Up: The Strangers is a tense and nerve-wracking thriller that is really fun to revisit, especially if it’s been a while since you’ve seen it. This new 4K Ultra HD Collector’s Edition is largely the same as the previous Collector’s Edition release from Scream Factory, but having it on 4K is a nice bonus. If you want to see the film that kicked off a nice little horror renaissance of movies like You’re Next and Lights Out, then look no further.
Succession: The Complete Series
The Show: Now that the show has come to an end, there’s no denying that over the course of its four seasons, Succession became a pop culture juggernaut. I’ve seen it referenced in other TV shows and movies, heard it mentioned on podcasts, seen memes from it on social media… it’s really taken on a life of its own. HBO rarely makes out-and-out bad television, so it’s not really a surprise that it became so popular, I just wish that I had liked the show – or at least the kind of show it was – more than I did. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very well-made show, with great acting and strong writing. The series follows a Rupert Murdoch-like corporate magnate and his children who are in varying degrees of jockeying for his power when he passes away. While the cast is terrific (featuring Brian Cox, Sanaa Lathan, Alan Ruck, Kieran Culkin, and Sarah Snook) it’s hard for me to really find much common ground with characters who are so rich they can’t even count their money. And frankly, they’re largely terrible and unlikable people, which is one of my biggest pet peeves in any show or movie; I do not like any film or series that features almost exclusively unlikable characters. That said, I’m clearly in the minority here, and that spelled success for Succession. Last year, Lionsgate released the complete series on DVD and in my review of that I mentioned that I was surprised they didn’t put the show out on Blu-ray. Now they’ve fixed that problem as this week’s release is a Blu-ray set. Yay!
The Special Features: There are multiple Inside the Episode making-of featurettes, cast and crew interviews, character recaps, and more, totaling about two hours of bonus materials.
Digital Copy Included? No
The Wrap-Up: Succession is like an HBO version of Dynasty, which there clearly is an audience for, I’m just not it. While I’m not the biggest Succession fan in the world, those of you who are fans of the show – and I know there are a lot of you — will be happy to be able to have the entire series in one convenient box set so you can revisit the Roy family whenever you want to.
Super Friends: The Complete Collection
The Show: There are few things that bring me back to my childhood faster than watching the Super Friends. I’ve been collecting comic books since I was about six years old, and I can trace that back very clearly to three things: the Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends cartoon, the Transformers comic book from Marvel, and the Super Friends. Running in various incarnations from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, the show was one of the premier ways that children at the time were introduced to superheroes. While there were different story elements, effectively the Super Friends featured the Justice League characters (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Robin, etc.) either saving people from things like natural disasters and alien invaders or fighting super villains. At a certain point, with Challenge of the Super Friends, the show switched to a format where they went up against the Legion of Doom every week (which included Lex Luthor, Solomon Grundy, Scarecrow, Black Manta, Riddler, Bizarro, Cheetah, and the like.) This new collection from Warner Brothers collects all six different Super Friends iterations on DVD (also available on Blu-ray) for the first time. That includes Super Friends (Including the Lost Episodes), The All-New Super Friends Hour, Challenge of the Super Friends, The World’s Greatest Super Friends, Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, and The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians. That totals 93 episodes on 21 discs, which is a whole lot of superhero awesomeness in one place. Sure, the shows are a bit dated and occasionally a bit goofy, but they also gave us the Wonder Twins, the Legion of Doom’s crazy awesome swamp/skull headquarters, and plenty of great animation and character design. I still love watching these shows, and this collection marks the most complete set produced yet.
The Special Features: There are no extra features, unfortunately, but you do get the Lost Episodes, which were a handful of episodes that were only aired internationally and not in the U.S. While they have been collected on DVD before, it’s still nice to have them included here.
Digital Copy Included? No
The Wrap-Up: If you’ve never watched the Super Friends before, it might not be the show that’s going to wow you compared to some of today’s animated storytelling. However, if you have childhood memories of watching these shows, they’re a heck of a lot of fun to revisit, and Super Friends: The Complete Collection lets you watch literally every episode ever made. That’s a win in my book.
Vikings Valhalla: Season One
The Show: From the producers of – what else? – the hit show Vikings, comes a new series called Vikings: Valhalla. This Netflix series is a dramatic historical fiction loosely based on real events. The series focuses on four main characters: real-life Vikings Leif Erikson, his sister Freydis Eriksdotter, Harald Hardrada, and William the Conqueror, the Norman King. The show is set about a hundred years after the events of Vikings, so while it is a spin-off of sorts, the storytelling is largely independent of the previous show. In this outing, while it is a drama of sorts, it’s also clearly an action show, as most episodes feature either a Viking attack on a place like London, or a group of Vikings being set upon by an invading or marauding force. So it’s not non-stop action, as you do get character moments and chances to breathe here and there, but there’s also no shortage of brutal battle scenes. While I was never a regular watcher of Vikings, I liked what I did watch of the show and this series is largely the same. I don’t know that I’m going to go out of my way to watch Vikings; Valhalla, but as long as I get home video releases of it to watch, I’ll definitely give it a spin.
The Special Features: As is typical with Netflix shows released on home video, there are no bonus features.
Digital Copy Included? No
The Wrap-Up: Vikings: Valhalla – Season One brings the hit Netflix show to home video on Blu-ray for people who either don’t subscribe to Netflix or who like the show enough to add it to their personal collections. While there are no extra features or digital copy included, fans of the show will find the high-def picture quality and expanded soundtrack a welcome addition to their shelves.
Totem
The Movie: Totem is the latest release from Janus Contemporaries, a new line of home-video editions of first-run releases following their streaming premieres on the Criterion Channel. So while it’s not an official Criterion Collection release, it’s Criterion-adjacent, with packaging that looks and feels the same as Criterion home video releases and produced by the same parent company. The last film I reviewed from Janus was a documentary but Totem is an acclaimed drama from Mexico that was the country’s official entry in the Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. I’ll admit that Totem doesn’t fall under the heading of “Film Genres I Love,” but that’s okay; sometimes I can branch out of my comfort zones. The film follows Sol, a young girl who is at her grandfather’s house as her family gathers to celebrate her father’s birthday. However, her father is bedridden with cancer, and his attendance at his own party is in question. We see the frenetic family dynamics unfurl through the eyes of young Sol as she processes the chaos around her. Now, can I say that I LOVED Totem? Not really. The story’s family chaos is captured so realistically and dynamically (and viscerally, as there are several scenes that might make some viewers uncomfortable) that it’s hard to watch at some points. That said, it’s also a technically exceptionally made film, and I think it 100% sets out to capture exactly what it was trying to capture: the messiness of life and families. That that dynamic is a bit overwhelming for me is more of an issue with me and not the film’s lack of effectiveness. It’s just a bit of a tough watch at times, but that’s because life is a tough watch at times.
The Special Features: There is an interview with director Lily Alves, plus the film’s trailer.
Digital Copy Included? No
The Wrap-Up: Totem will not be for every kind of viewer. That said, if you find yourself gravitating towards the typical kind of Criterion arthouse releases, you will probably find a lot to like about Totem. It’s a very well-made film that is probably aimed at viewers who like tougher material than I do.
Blue Desert
The Movie:
As I was looking at the cover art and press materials for Blue Desert before I watched the film, one sentence in particular stood out to me: “With plot points based on Yoko Ono’s first art book, this modernist Brazilian sci-fi offers a dreamy take on new age spirituality and the physical realm.” Wait, wait, wait… did you say Yoko Ono? Plot points based on an art book by YOKO ONO? Well… that tells me something about what to expect here. Look, I’m not here to bag on Yoko for breaking up The Beatles or anything like that, but I’ve seen her art and heard her music, and I know that it is not exactly linear in its narrative structure. Which matches this movie perfectly. This 2013 film, making its way to home video courtesy of IndiePix, sees a man in a dystopic Brazil find himself unhappy with his existence, so he sets on a journey to see what else is out there. And from there… well, I don’t really know how to explain what happens from there, honestly. This isn’t a movie that is plot driven. It has sci-fi elements, it has arthouse elements, it has poetic and surrealist imagery; effectively, it’s a little bit like watching either an interpretation of a dream or an art project. That is not typically a style of filmmaking that I personally enjoy. The film is visually interesting, but it’s not the kind of thing that I go for.
The Special Features: Sadly, there are none.
Digital Copy Included? No
The Wrap-Up: There is definitely a crowd out there for Blue Desert, even if I’m not it. It’s a visually interesting film for sure, and if you like things that are more esoteric and ethereal than the traditional film, this will definitely fit the bill.
My Love Affair with Marriage
The Movie: Ninety-nine percent of the time, if I get an animated film to review, it’s either an anime movie, a big-budget Disney or Dreamworks family film, or something related to superheroes or science fiction. I can’t remember the last time I got an animated movie to review that was about marriage, female empowerment, inner turmoil, and societal roles. In My Love Affair with Marriage, animator Signe Baumane crafts a tale of Zelma, a young woman who we follow from childhood into adulthood, as she struggles with trying to conform to what society thinks she should do when it comes to love and marriage. But the more she tries to conform, the more she finds her body rebelling against the very ideals she’s trying to embrace. But this isn’t entirely a straightforward narrative, either; after all, one of the characters is a talking neuron within Zelma’s body who explains her biochemical processes. Zelma is voiced by the talented Dagmara Dominczyk and she’s joined by fellow voices Matthew Modine, Cameron Monaghan, Stephen Lang, and Erika Schroeder, all of whom are terrific. The film mixes drama, humor, emotion, and scientific information together in a movie that is completely hand-drawn animation. In fact, I wish the animation style was more aesthetically pleasing, but it does fit the story better than I expected it to.
The Special Features: This Blu-ray Disc includes a conversation with the filmmaker and the movie’s trailer.
Digital Copy Included? No
The Wrap-Up: My Love Affair with Marriage is a unique and engaging film, and I think it will especially resonate with female viewers, although I think a lot of male viewers will enjoy and appreciate it as well. It’s definitely outside the normal realms of what we usually see from animated films, but that’s what makes it stand out.
