New on Disc: 'North to Alaska' and more …

North to Alaska (Blu-ray)

Fox, Comedy, $24.99 Blu-ray, NR.
Stars John Wayne, Stewart Granger, Ernie Kovacs, Fabian, Capucine.
1960. A transitional movie in John Wayne’s career, this Henry Hathaway Western farce is broad even by Donovan’s Reef standards, though you probably haven’t lived until you’ve seen Ernie Kovacs (the heavy of the piece) completely covered in mud after a free-for-all. As the great Johnny Horton title song explains, Wayne’s “Big Sam” is prospecting gold with partner George (Stewart Granger) and brother Billy (1950s pop idol Fabian), at least when George isn’t pining for a French babe he met in Seattle. It’s all kind of poignant in a handsome Blu-ray that looks better than any theatrical print I’ve seen.
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Good Ol’ Freda

Magnolia, Documentary, B.O. $0.14 million, $26.98 DVD, $29.98 Blu-ray, ‘PG’ for some thematic material and smoking.
2013. Freda Kelly was a teenager plucked from a typing pool  to become an indispensable aide and even friend to the Beatles — a union extending a little beyond the time when the Liverpool lads finally broke up. For all this, Kelly has remained unassuming and unpretentious for 50 years — finally, just this once, agreeing to tell her story for benefit of any grandchildren who may come to think she was just some old woman who had never accomplished much in life. She doesn’t tell all she knows here — in fact, she won’t even say if she ever dated any of her employers — but this is quite a story just the same. Basically a talking heads documentary augmented by good music and some largely unseen Beatles photos that will likely short-circuit the brains of fans, Freda shows how watchable a purely functional narrative can be if the material is there.
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2014: A Predictably Unpredictable Year

What will the new year bring? This home entertainment business of ours is so fluid, so ever-changing, that it’s hard to predict what will happen with any degree of certainty. Indeed, take a look at some of the major developments over the last decade or so and there are myriad things we simply didn’t see coming, or expect would happen.

Who would have thought that in the midst of the digital evolution, movie vending machines would stage such a dramatic comeback that they’d account for nearly half of all physical video rentals?

Who would have thought that a key factor behind Blu-ray Disc’s apparent sustainable success is the Internet connectivity of the hardware, which lets users do all sorts of other things besides watch Blu-ray Discs?

Who would have thought that the spectacular rollout of DVD would be followed by the crushing realization that the disc wasn’t good enough for the emerging class of high-definition TVs, prompting yet another software format launch (a situation that with 4K on the horizon we may well find ourselves in yet again)?

My own record with predicting the future is spotty, at best. I thought Blu-ray Disc’s launch would be every bit as successful as DVD’s, I thought Blockbuster would go out of business long before it did, and I never thought we’d be watching movies on smartphones and tablets, given the increasingly good home theater systems we were installing in our family rooms.

But once again, I feel compelled to offer some predictions for the new year — five for 2014 — and if you read them and feel I’m playing it real safe, you are absolutely right.

1. At some point, Blu-ray Disc sales will slide again, as they did in the third quarter of the year. The industry will blame the decline on a poor crop of movies, while the mainstream press will take it as yet another sign that physical media is dead.

2. During the fourth quarter, one big title will bomb, sending the entire industry into a funk. This funk, however, will be lifted when another big summer theatrical title performs remarkably well, prompting everyone to cheer and the studio behind this success to issue a press release touting its triumph.

3. EST will continue to grow, as studios step up their efforts to wean consumers from packaged media by releasing more and more titles on Digital HD anywhere from one to four weeks ahead of the DVD or Blu-ray Disc.

4. During the Black Friday holiday weekend, we’re going to see recent Blu-ray Disc hits sell for as little as $1 or $2, the threshold we saw this year for DVD. No one’s going to complain about a “race to the bottom.” We’re already there, you see.

5. At some point, we’re going to see 4K resolution on a Blu-ray Disc. I won’t hazard a guess as to which studio will be first, or how prevalent the practice will become, but I’m quite certain it’s going to happen.

Happy new year, folks. Welcome to another predictably unpredictable year.
 

'Elysium' Draws Retail Focus, Among Others

Target's 'Elysium' Steelbook

Dec. 17 turned out to be one of the biggest weeks of the year in terms of new releases, which isn’t much of a surprise given it’s just a week before Christmas.

Among the slew of new titles, the ones getting the most attention in terms of retail exclusives were the two big ones from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment: Elysium and One Direction: This Is Us.

At Best Buy, the Elysium Blu-ray came with an exclusive bonus disc containing additional behind-the-scenes footage. Target offered Elysium in exclusive Blu-ray steelbook packaging. And Walmart had the sci-fi title paired with the Blu-ray of director Neill Blomkamp’s previous film, District 9.

For This Is Us, Target offered the Blu-ray combo pack of the film with collector’s cards.

Another title garnering significant attention was Fox’s Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. Best Buy offered a $7 discount toward a Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters e-book with the purchase of specially marked 3D or Blu-ray copies of the film. Walmart had two-packs of the film’s DVD with the first film in the franchise, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.

For Disney’s The Lone Ranger, Best Buy offered exclusive Blu-ray packaging and a soundtrack download with a bonus track.

Home Media Crossing Borders

As perhaps you have noticed, Home Media Magazine is expanding its scope. In the Oct. 14 issue we took a look at China, and in this issue we explore the Canadian home entertainment market. Both are part of our initiative to grow coverage of the increasingly important international market for entertainment.

While in the United States we may think of ourselves as the center of the entertainment universe, home entertainment takes a different shape in each territory based on customs and laws. Competition varies for digital, packaged media and theatrical players. In Canada, Cineplex spans the entertainment distribution chain, and Cineplex’s Malcolm Clarke, the subject of our 6 Questions feature, offers a unique perspective on the Canadian market.

Studios also test concepts internationally. Cineplex was at the forefront of SuperTicket, which marries home entertainment with the theatrical experience.

“SuperTicket provides Cineplex the opportunity to engage the customer at the start of the film life cycle and allows our guests to gain access to the digital copy of the movie first,” Clarke noted. “First and foremost, SuperTicket is about building a relationship with our customers. We build that relationship by providing value.”

Redbox may be a fixture in U.S. neighborhoods, but the kiosk goliath is just getting started in Canada. Netflix, too, doesn’t have such a big footprint North of the border as it does in the domestic market. Still, opportunities abound as brick-and-mortar stores recede.

“There are not [a lot] of resident Canadian digital services in the market,” said Charlie Miller, director of global licensing and multimedia services with BlackBerry, which serves the Canadian market.

The bottom line is that studios that are increasingly looking to international markets for growth may find that the territory is quite different from the U.S. marketplace, requiring a different disc and digital delivery strategy. International markets also offer a venue for experimentation.

We plan to continue to explore these differences.

New on Disc: 'Oliver!' and more …

Oliver! (Blu-ray)

Available at www.ScreenArchives.com
Twilight Time, Musical, $29.95 Blu-ray, NR.
Stars Ron Moody, Mark Lester, Shani Wallis, Jack Wild, Oliver Reed.
1968. Still a feel-great musical despite always being mindful of the Dickensian squalor at its source, Carol Reed’s brief comeback blockbuster has been aggressively back-bitten over the years for winning the Best Picture Oscar the year Stanley Kubrick’s visionary 2001: A Space Odyssey came out (though 2001 wasn’t even nominated in the category). Running 153 minutes without even a hint of any pacing lags, Oliver! looks terrific on Blu-ray in a Sony/Twilight Time rendering, despite the fact that much of it takes place in something less than House Beautiful indoor settings with limited light (two expansive set-piece numbers are exceptions). Blu-ray is an ideal format for this kind of movie, in which colors tend to bleed when seen in a lesser home format.
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Turn Back the Clock

Available via Warner Archive
Warner, Drama, $18.95 DVD, NR.
Stars Lee Tracy, Mae Clarke, Otto Kruger.
1933. You can’t watch this Depression-influenced sleeper without thinking of It’s a Wonderful Life, though the premise here could have served as well for, say, a “Twilight Zone” episode — long enough, that is, to sustain the story’s march through economic and political history predating World War I.
Lee Tracy plays a cigar-store owner who is projected back to his youth where he can court an old squeeze, enabling her well-heeled father to jumpstart his career in finance, all with knowledge of future events at his disposal. There’s almost no way you can like time travel movies in general and fail to enjoy this one at least to some extent, especially once things begin falling apart catastrophically for a protagonist who thinks he’s been blessed with a second chance.
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'Despicable' Promotions

Target's 'Despicable Me 2' Digibook

The biggest title released Dec. 10, Universal’s Despicable Me 2, dominated retail attention almost to the exclusion of all the other new releases. Universal’s Fast & Furious 6 did get a fair share of promotional focus, but it was minor compared to the animated hit.

Best Buy offered a free Minion lunchbox with the purchase of any version of DM2, while offering FF6 with an exclusive steelbook cover (an alternative to the widely available steelbook Blu-ray). Best Buy’s edition came with $5 CinemaNow credit toward any other “Fast & Furious” film. Shoppers could get all six films with steelbook covers for $69.99.

Target offered DM2 with two exclusive Blu-ray editions. One came with a bonus disc and digibook packaging with an Anti-Villain League book, while the other just had the bonus disc, which includes 40 minutes of fun, including featurettes and cast interviews. Target’s FF6 steelbook came with the film’s soundtrack.

Walmart offered a DM2 gift set with minion toys, and a FF6 steelbook with extras that could be watched via its Vudu streaming service.

Lee Daniels Defends ‘The Butler’

It had been quite some time since I felt inspired by “urban” films, or those geared toward African-Americans. That was, of course, until I saw The Butler, from director Lee Daniels.

It is the heartwarming tale of White House butler Cecil Gaines — based loosely on the real-life Eugene Allen — who served eight presidential administrations throughout 34 years, ultimately living to see the nation’s first black president elected. The gripping drama intertwines Gaines’ silent, passive battle against racist attitudes so prevalent at the time with his son Louis’ bold participation in the fight for equality while serving with the Freedom Riders, marching alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and embracing the militant tactics of the Black Panthers and Malcolm X.

Whereas seeing this story of this courageous black man instilled in me a sense of pride for his accomplishments (after all, he successfully and positively influenced the views that whites at the time had toward our people), there were some in the community who didn’t see it as such.

From the comments section on various websites covering the Anchor Bay Entertainment film to Facebook rants from friends and acquaintances, some hold the opinion that the movie industry, as of late, has been crowded with too many stories of blacks in subservient, “negative” roles as slaves and servants (Django Unchained, 12 Years a Slave and now The Butler).

To me, these are stories that need to be told, because we need to be reminded of how far we’ve come as a people. Slavery and the civil rights movement really weren’t that long ago when you think about our history.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Daniels on this topic, and many others, and this is what he had to say about it:

“This is the human condition. I think that we all choose to black out stuff that is just too painful to think about. I remember as a 5-year-old learning to read — I’m 54 now — going from Philadelphia to North Carolina visiting my great-grandmother and knowing that my dad was teaching me ‘for colored’ and ‘for white.’ That’s how I formed my letters and stuff on the ride from Philadelphia to Durham, North Carolina, and getting there and seeing that you could only drink from a certain fountain, and drinking from the white water fountain thinking that it’s going to be different and realizing that it don’t taste like Sprite, it’s water, behind your father’s back.

“I don’t want to remember that, so I blocked it out. I think it’s the human condition to not talk about something so painful, to think about something so painful, ugly, the way that these people — our people, my people — were treated. I think that African-Americans don’t like to think that way. We are progressive, and I understand it. But I say that is bulls*** because I honor my relatives that had their teeth knocked out so that I could make this movie and look white men and women in the eyes today. It’s an honor to them. Most African-Americans, if not all African-Americans come from a lineage of servants. That’s from where we cometh, and then slaves prior to. They should be honored. It’s disgraceful that we basically say, ‘Let’s not honor them. Let’s not tell their stories. Let’s just pretend that it never happened.’ And I think that that’s bulls***.”

That being said, I really do hope that the upcoming awards season is kind to The Butler, its stellar cast (Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Lenny Kravitz), passionate director and 41 dedicated producers.

Anchor Bay serves up The Butler on Blu-ray Disc and DVD Jan. 14.

Daniels expounded further on this poignant project during our phone conversation.

“People, once they finish seeing the film, learn what a real hero is, and that we have very far and few heroes, both African-American and white,” said Daniels (Precious, The Paperboy). “White people and black people were standing up for something important and were willing to be killed for what they believed in. We don’t really see that type of heroic behavior today. Hopefully it inspires folks.”

Daniels dedicated the film to the men and women who “fought for our freedom” during the civil rights movement. This includes people like Gaines (Whitaker) who subtly shaped and altered whites’ views about blacks just as much as those move vocal activists like his son (Oyelowo), the director said.

“The movie [raises the question], who was right? Was it Louis’ way?” Daniels asked. “Was it his ideology of going into the streets with King and Malcolm X and then the Panthers? Was it his way of inevitable militance that was right, or was it the African-American that was passive that got that white important person to trust him or her so they could break the barrier of racism and show that [black] people were people? There’s no right or wrong.”

The Butler earned two Hollywood Film Festival Awards: Director of the Year for Daniels and the Spotlight Award for Oyelowo.

“For those that didn’t experience it in the theater, it’s a wonderful, colorful journey through the civil rights movement on DVD and Blu-ray. It’s a great home movie,” said Daniels, adding that viewers can expect “tons of great scenes” deleted from the film on home video.

The Secret Truth of Mary Poppins

After spending a day viewing the “Doctor Who” 50th anniversary special and the Mary Poppins 50th anniversary Blu-ray, I have come to the inescapable conclusion that Mary Poppins is a Time Lord.

A simple Google search shows that I am not alone in this assessment. The evidence is rather overwhelming, considering all the traits she seems to have in common with our good pal The Doctor.

She seems to live forever.

Her carpet bag is bigger on the inside, a trademark of Time Lord science and their dimensional-warping capabilities.

Her umbrella is imbued with astonishing abilities, like a sonic screwdriver.

She loves taking her companions on wild adventures.

The “Doctor Who” special added another wrinkle to the argument, reminding us that Time Lord art is bigger on the inside, allowing people to actually jump inside it and move around. You know, a lot like those sidewalk drawings Mary jumped into with Bert and the children.

Speaking of Bert, he has all the hallmarks of a Time Lord companion, and it’s clear he and Mary must have shared some adventures before. It’s probably where he learned the techniques of Time Lord art to create those trans-dimensional sidewalk drawings of his (or, perhaps he’s using special Time Lord drawing sticks, which the rest of use perceive is simple chalk).

Not being a Time Lord, of course, Bert lacked the means to actually enter the artwork. But Mary was able to complete the transference, probably because her umbrella is equipped with the necessary spatial technology needed to embed people in the art.

Where’s Mary’s TARDIS, you ask? Well, maybe she keeps it hidden in the clouds, much like The Doctor did in “The Snowmen” Christmas special.

And since Time Lords are expert time travelers, Mary may be responsible for transporting the penguin waiters back to Los Angeles in 1947, where they show up in Who Framed Roger Rabbit 17 years before Walt Disney would have created them.

See. Really it makes perfect sense if you think about it.

New on Disc: 'Jane Eyre' and more …

Jane Eyre (Blu-ray)

Available at www.ScreenArchives.com
Twilight Time, Drama, $29.95 Blu-ray, NR.
Stars Orson Welles, Joan Fontaine, Peggy Ann Garner, Margaret O’Brien.
1944. Just by itself, Bernard Herrmann’s score goes a long way toward at least suggesting that this fairly renowned Charlotte Bronte adaptation might be an unofficial Orson Welles film from his early 1940s directorial heyday — as opposed to the Robert Stevenson achievement it is. Welles as the tormented Rochester dominates even Joan Fontaine as the tough-luck servant Jane. This has to be the closest Welles ever came to cutting a dashing figure on screen. Meanwhile, an incredibly unbilled Elizabeth Taylor gets everything there is to get from a handful of scenes.
Extras: Includes Julie Kirgo’s peppy liner notes and two commentaries. Herrmann’s score can be enjoyed as an isolated experience on a separate track.
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Fearless (Blu-ray)

Available via Warner Archive
Warner, Drama, $19.95 Blu-ray, ‘R’ for language and airplane crash realism.
Stars Jeff Bridges, Isabella Rossellini, Rosie Perez.
1993. Based on a novel by Rafael Yglesias, who also wrote the screenplay, this is an eerie, under-your-skin story of survivor trauma: specifically, an airplane mishap but a situation easily as applicable to combat or a mass killing where one is spared when others are not. A plane crashes in a cornfield — a setpiece staged expertly by director Peter Weir. A survivor played by Jeff Bridges begins thinking he’s indestructible. There’s some compelling support-group material involving an airline psychiatrist, and it’s instructive to witness the different ways in which the survivors react to the experience.
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This Year's Top 10 Gift Sets

1. Dexter: The Complete Series Blu-ray Collection (Paramount/CBS): One of the hottest and most-talked-about TV series ended its run this fall after eight seasons, and Paramount has packaged the entire show in a cool wooden slide box inspired by the one Dexter himself uses to catalog his kills. The 25 discs come in individual one-sided jewel cases decorated with a huge blood spatter on the other side. The box is a bit pricey at $460 for the Blu-ray Disc version, but it’s readily available at retailers in the low $200s. And at that price it’s a deal. There’s also an Amazon exclusive gift set, packaged in a white human head, for a C-note more, but I’ll take the slide box anytime — less money and more compact for storage.

2. Breaking Bad: The Complete Series (Sony Pictures): This is the other hugely popular TV series that ended its run this fall, and my hunch is there are very few people out there who wouldn’t appreciate finding the complete series — packaged in a “money barrel” — under their tree. Again, it’s quite pricey ($300), but could be had at a steep discount ($209 at BestBuy.com), although word on the street is it’s nearly sold out and may no longer be available by the time this story runs (Amazon already had it only through its secondary marketplace, where sellers were listing it for at least $500).

3. X-Men: The Adamantium Collection (20th Century Fox): At an average street price of $130, this one’s a real bargain: You get all six “X-Men” films on Blu-ray Disc, including the recently released The Wolverine, in a package topped with a replica of Wolverine’s claw. There’s also a bonus disc and an extra slot in the case for the seventh “X-Men” film, X-Men: Days of Future Past (scheduled to open theatrically in May 2014).

4. James Dean Ultimate Collector’s Edition (Warner): I love Warner’s stuff — the studio consistently outdoes itself with its premium “Ultimate Collector’s Edition” line, and this $99.98 SRP boxed set (around $70 in stores) commemorates the brief career of the fabled actor who has come to symbolize 1950s cool with Blu-ray Disc versions of his three films — East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant) — as well as a glorious 48-page photo book with lots of behind-the-scenes photos.

5. The Dark Knight Trilogy: Ultimate Collector’s Edition (Warner):  Another of Warner’s new UCEs, this one packages all three films of Christopher Nolan’s Batman reboot in a $99.97 SRP boxed set that also includes two new features and exclusive collectible memorabilia, including Mondo art prints, three toy vehicles (the Tumbler, the Batpod and the Bat) and a behind-the-scenes booklet.

6. JFK: Ultimate Collector’s Edition (Warner): Yet another Warner UCE, this one centers on Oliver Stone’s controversial film about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a conspiracy-laden thrillfest that makes you question everything you’ve ever heard about the notorious killing. The timing couldn’t be better (Kennedy was killed 50 years ago), the set sells for less than $50, and there are all sorts of cool collectibles, including reproductions of the late president’s inaugural address, a campaign poster and various photos and correspondence. There’s also a photo book and six postcards.

7. Anchorman Ultimate Blu-ray Fun Pack (Paramount): In a brilliant marketing ploy, the genuinely funny original has been repackaged into a Walmart-exclusive gift set on the eve of the theatrical debut of the sequel. The package costs less than $20 but includes not just the spruced-up “Rich Mahogany Edition” two-disc Blu-ray Disc edition, but also a T-shirt, a 16-page booklet and coupons for a free pint of Ben & Jerry’s Anchorman Scotchy Scotch Scotch ice cream and a movie ticket to see the sequel in theaters (it opens Dec. 18).

8. Twilight Forever: The Complete Saga (Lionsgate):  A great compact gift set that includes the entire teen-vampire saga, spread out across 10 Blu-ray discs (or 12 DVDs) with ample bonus content, including a comprehensive multi-part documentary. If you’re a “Twilight” fan, I can’t think of a better gift — even if someone you know already owns all the movies, it’s worth the upgrade, given all the extras. And the price won’t bust your wallet: the DVD set is readily available at retail for less than $40.

9. Futurama: The Complete Series (20th Century Fox): One of the greatest animated series of all time is presented here in its entirety — all 124 episodes, plus four feature-length epic adventures, for more than 50 hours of whacked-out hilarity from “The Simpsons” creator Matt Groening. And while I liked the robot head packaging that came out in 2009, this neat rectangular box is so much easier to stash away in the movie closet. It’s priced below $200, but for diehard Futurama fans — my three sons included — price really doesn’t matter (especially when dad’s paying for it).

10. Beverly Hills, 90210: The Complete Series (Paramount/CBS): I was addicted to this show — essentially a soap opera about high schoolers growing up in ritzy BH — until my own kids started being born and I had to wean myself away from primetime TV, and honestly have been waiting for a complete-series set for years. It finally arrived last month, a dozen years after the original series went off the air, in an elegant white-and-fuchsia boxed set filled with 72 discs and 215 hours of drama. The list is $350, but I’ve seen it go for about $150 on Amazon and elsewhere.