By Rob Gonsalves, Special to the Neighb News
Hello and welcome to the first installment of DVDevelopments, where we’ll be looking at new movie and TV releases for sale, rental or streaming each month. Some of these DVDs (or Blu-rays) will also be available for checking out at the Millicent Library or requesting through interlibrary loan. So, without further ado…
ALL GOOD THINGS MUST END
By far, the most-requested title in December from those who don’t have HBO will be the final season (8) of the mega-popular Game of Thrones (Dec. 3). On the same date, HBO will release the complete series, in both regular and collector’s editions. The show was too depressing for me, but it definitely has its fans.
Other notable TV in December: Russell Crowe as Roger Ailes in The Loudest Voice (Dec. 10), Doc Martin series 9 (Dec. 10), The Simpsons season 19 (Dec. 3).
IT’S SHOWTIME
A surprise (if moderate) hit this past summer was Quentin Tarantino’s epic Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Dec. 10). If you ask how a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt could be a “surprise” hit, I reply that no star is a guarantee of box-office success any more. If you want to have a double feature, I recommend the thriller Lucky Day (same date), the first film in 17 years by writer/director Roger Avary, who co-wrote Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.
Other cult favorites this month: Sandahl Bergman in the ’80s action-fantasy She (Dec. 3), Drew Barrymore in The Amy Fisher Story (Dec. 17), The Peanut Butter Solution (not to be confused with last month’s The Peanut Butter Falcon (Dec. 10).
ENDGAME
Each month, the Criterion Collection releases a handful of goodies — foreign, classics, or just plain movies that rate your attention — so I’ll try to spotlight their wares in this space. At their best, Criterion offers film school on a disc. The big one in December is Wim Wenders’ 1991 sci-fi epic Until the End of the World (Dec. 10) , which has never before seen a DVD release in America. Better yet, this is the full, nearly five-hour cut, not the incoherent, hacked-down 158-minute version you may have seen in its brief theatrical run (the soundtrack was always more popular) or on videocassette. I for one can’t wait.
Other Criterion releases in December: A restored edition of Kelly Reichardt’s mellow drama Old Joy (Dec. 10), the 1960 Alec Guinness vehicle Tunes of Glory (Dec. 3), the once-scandalous 1933 classic The Story of Temple Drake with Miriam Hopkins (Dec. 3).
WHIPLASH
Sometimes it’s amusing to see what mismatched stuff comes out on the same day. For instance, December 17 brings DVDs of Rambo: Last Blood (gee, you promise?) and the Downton Abbey movie. Trying to watch these back-to-back will probably give you a sprain. As if that weren’t a weird enough combo, December 10 offers the horror sequel It: Chapter 2 and the crime movie Hustlers, which have nothing to do with each other except healthy box office; for a soothing chaser there’s always the documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice. And Christmas Eve day at least gives us a natural double feature with Renee Zellweger’s Judy Garland biopic Judy and the documentary Drag Kids.
ALL I HAVE TO DO IS STREAM
If you were to subscribe to all the streaming services currently out there, you might as well just subscribe to cable. For now, though, it’s useful to see which projects each service hopes to use to lure you in. Netflix, for instance, delivers the Oscar hopeful Marriage Story (with Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver) on December 6. Hulu’s original action-drama series Reprisal bows on that day, too. Amazon Prime picked up Syfy’s cancelled show The Expanse for a fourth and fifth season; season 4 will arrive December 13. And Apple TV+ has the new crime drama series Truth Be Told starring Octavia Spencer, out on December 6.
…TUNE IN NEXT MONTH…
…to check out what the new year has in store, including Big Little Lies Season 2, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, and the new Lucy Lawless crime show My Life Is Murder. See you then…
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