Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs Arrives on Blu-ray July 17th
June 6th, 2018 by Aaron Neuwirth
Wes Anderson is a director that just doesn’t seem to know how to disappoint me. His second stop-motion animated feature once again proved to be a delight. Movie fans can add ISLE OF DOGS to their digital collection on Movies Anywhere beginning June 26th and purchase the Blu-ray and DVD starting July 17th. The film features an all-star cast voicing the dog and human characters including Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Bob Balaban, Jeff Goldblum, Scarlett Johansson, and Frances McDormand.ad
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It is still somewhat difficult to imagine that a cartoon series that was ostensibly about vulgar young boys making fart jokes made it to 21 seasons. However, people familiar with the series will know that it hates to rest on its laurels. The sheer nature of the 6-day episode creation schedule of South Park has made for all-time great episodes with a finger directly on the pulse of whatever was going on that week. This pinpoint satire has aided in South Park becoming the phenomenon that gets to go 21 seasons and more. This season, the 21st, unfortunately, either started with a plan that frankly didn’t quite work out, or flipped back and forth too frequently between serialized season and episode-of-the-week formats. It is still funny and often biting, but it was missing an element of what makes South Park the thing to talk about with your friends. 
In celebration of the film’s 35th anniversary, Shout Select will release the seminal romantic comedyValley Girl for the first time on Blu-ray on October 16, 2018. This release will feature a brand-new transfer and come packed with bonus features, including new and extended interviews with cast and crew. Fans can preorder now at 
Most of us have had a chance to see Disney’s latest installation in the Star Wars franchise by now. Solo: A Star Wars Story recently arrived in theaters after a well-documented production period littered with turbulence. The original director tandem of Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street) were fired after Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy didn’t like where they were headed with the Han Solo film. Ron Howard stepped in, did a bunch of reshoots, and viola! Success! Right? The film opened to a less than spectacular $103 million in its 4-day opening weekend and dropped 65% in its second weekend. What went wrong? Let’s take a closer look as to why Solo is by itself in the realm of Star Wars’ performances at the box office.
It’s the one-time trilogy starter as Brandon Peters declares. To say the Terminator franchise has been a troubled one these past two entries would be like saying there’s a distinctive taste difference between vanilla and chocolate ice cream. It’s simply that apparent. Just when you thought Terminator Salvation was going to reinvigorate the franchise, production of a fifth film went right down the toilet slapped with bankruptcy forcing the property to once again go up for sale. The question was who’s going to buy it? You? Me? Why not Annapurna Pictures with distribution help from Paramount? And then there’s that spelling of “Genisys” in this film’s title to deal with. Oh well! You can’t win them all. I suppose in the end we should all be thanking the Gods for even letting a fifth film in this troubled Terminator franchise to exist, right? Absolutely! 
There was something a bit subliminal that originally drew me into eventually reviewing Dirty Grandpa on Blu-ray last May (see 
This summer, a beloved romantic comedy that’s remained fresh and charming for 25 years celebrates its silver anniversary. Written and directed by the iconic Nora Ephron (When Harry Met Sally…, Julie & Julia), SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE stars the incomparable romantic duo of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan (Joe Vs. the Volcano, You’ve Got Mail) in the captivating tale of a recently widowed man whose son calls a radio talk-show on Christmas Eve in an attempt to find his father a new wife. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called the film “Sublime … the hippest, frankest and funniest date movie around … Director Nora Ephron’s a major talent with a wicked gift for tickling the funny bone, exposing hidden truths and then, just when you’re not looking, slamming you in the solar plexus.” 
Despite never being the biggest fan of the Jurassic Park movie franchise, there’s no denying the legacy of these suckers, especially that of the first one (hence the 25th anniversary moniker of it all). There’s also no denying the fact that many Hi-Def/4K UHD enthusiasts have been salivating over the eventual release of these monstrous titles on the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format. I can respect all of that. Heck! Even I found myself a little giddy the lower and lower they minimized the retail price on this 4K 8-disc set. With its current price tag 
Scream Factory is doing one of their first ever upgrades (Or as some as you may refer to it, “double dip”) with the Collector’s Edition of Ninja III: The Domination. The 1984 Cannon Films cult classic enjoyed a standard release with a commentary back in 2013 that has proven to be one of their most popular titles. With five years time, its good as any to revisit it and beef it up to Collector’s Edition status. This new release features some new key artwork to differentiate it of course, but also a brand new 4K transfer of the film to go along with brand new interviews, including star Lucinda Dickey. They’ve put the work in to make this worth the purchase again. And you’ll want to make sure you pre-order it to have it when it releases on June 12th. 
Director John Krasinski’s “sensationally gripping” (Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times), “heart-pounding” (Stephen Whitty, New York Daily News) and “mind-blowingly tense” (Isaac Feldberg, The Boston Globe) film A QUIET PLACE debuts on Digital June 26, 2018 and on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack, Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD July 10 from Paramount Home Media Distribution. 
In between big budget outings it’s good to know that Indie flicks are still alive and well for the film fan who demands more movies. This week sees five lesser known flicks hitting the big screen and thanks to continued cinematic diversity in smaller film fare there’s a little something for everyone. (Well, almost everyone!) Old school tales of revenge and microchips, righting war history wrongs, youths and their get rich quick schemes, growing up in the gaming era and enlightened females gone mad all make up the works featured in this edition of Encapsulated Movie Reviews. Check out the short opinions on Upgrade, The Last Witness, American Animals, eHero, and The Misandrists below!
The 1970s brought us an interesting little horror genre, the Eco-horror film. This decade was littered with many person against nature films. Of course, the biggest one of them all was Jaws, but we were also subjected to things like the appropriately titled “Frogs” where, well you can guess the source of villainous evil in that one. Here, we may have the poster child for going to the craziest lengths with the concept; Night of the Lepus. Scream Factory has taken this cult classic gem and given it a restoration and are adding it to their library that has already brought forth some of these Eco-horror films including the aforementioned Frogs a few years ago. You’ll want to “hop” on over to Amazon with our link at the bottom and pre-order yourself a copy to have when it releases June 19th. 
Ten years following the original film, that had a highly profitable box office run and a nice legacy on home video, audiences were treated to another deadly visit from The Strangers with Prey At Night. While it had a quieter run, it still found itself profitable and likely will find some sort of cult reception on home video. Will this be the last we see of this incredibly mysterious and merciless trio? It did take ten years to get a second one and this one didn’t seem to be as well received. Hey, maybe we’ll get a straight to video one for the third outing, who knows. For the Blu-ray release, they’ll be giving you an unrated version of the film as well as some bonus features. You can pre-order the film using the Amazon link below to have it on the day of release, June 12th. 
