Catalog titles rule in this month’s picks for Blu-ray and digital movies. That makes sense for August, since it’s a tad too early for any of the summer movies to come home. The new releases that made it on this list this month include one festival favorite on VOD, one horror movie and one foreign film. The other seven are a seemingly random assortment of classic and cult favorites. Only two are actual anniversary editions, although you never need a reason to release a good movie. Here are the top 10 Blu-ray and digital releases of August.
10. Mississippi Grind
I saw this movie at Sundance but didn’t get around to writing about it. Now it is available as a DirecTV exclusive before it can be seen everywhere else on September 25. Please don’t take my Sundance neglect as a slight on the movie. It was a solid drama, especially if you’re fans of either Ben Mendelsohn or Ryan Reynolds, and you should be of both. They play two gamblers on a road trip, with Reynolds a bit of a lucky charm but reigning in some of his more aggressive comedic tendencies.
9. Unfriended
This low-fi high concept horror movie never goes beyond being a gimmick, but that gimmick looks good on Blu-ray. An entire movie set on a computer screen, the bright details of web pages contrast nicely with the pixelated Skype video. Too bad I never reviewed Open Windows on Blu-ray so I can’t compare them. Unfriended is a less ambitious movie than Open Windows, but it plays out on a fully HD simulation of a computer screen.
8. Police Story: Lockdown
Jackie Chan’s 2013 addition to his Police Story franchise took a long time to get to the States. Now that it’s here, the Blu-ray looks great. This grittier, serious take on police action is all set in a nightclub during a hostage situation. That provides a lot of colors in the flashing lights, which for some reason nobody turns off, even after the bad guys hole up there. Even though he’s being very careful not to make anything a joke (the outtakes show it was a challenge to avoid looking silly), Jackie Chan is still a graceful, inventive performer.
7. Student Bodies
Before there was Scary Movie, I saw this spoof of horror movies on cable. It was only made in 1981 so it was even too soon to really be an ‘80s horror spoof, though I guess production in 1980 naturally seeped its way into the homage. The tropes that were already established would become pervasive so perhaps Student Bodies was ahead of its time with this fun, ridiculous approach to gimmicky killers. The Olive Films Blu-ray looks great, but still lets me feel like I’m watching my old VHS tape from TV. You see the grain and texture of ‘80s film stock, but it holds up on a 54” TV and keeps the image clear.
6. The Last American Virgin
Cannon Films is most famous for its cheaper knockoffs of ‘80s action movies, but they did cheap knockoffs of ‘80s sex comedies too. The Last American Virgin Blu-ray from Olive Films has no extras, but it boasts a high definition transfer that is a clear portal into the forgotten ‘80s, as long as you don’t turn your brightness settings too high. On standard settings though, Last American Virgin is perfectly clear with ‘80s pastels and glimpses of authentic film grain. Because the actors were then-unknown and fresh, their natural reactions to romantic disappointments are all the more heartbreaking when we can see the subtlety of their faces sinking or putting on brave fronts.
5. Innerspace
Warner Home Video’s release of Innerspace on Blu-ray does an impeccable job of looking like the film probably looked projected in 1987, and how it would look if a rep house was able to screen a new print of it today. You see all the film grain and the skin tones and they just make you think, “Yup, those people live in the ‘80s.” The Oscar winning visual effects footage of inside the human body holds up. Since it was practical models, those sequences look the same as the live-action scenes. It’s not like it becomes a different movie when animation takes over, as some modern films do. There are new bonus features but they have kept the commentary from the DVD.
4. Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon: 30th Anniversary Edition
Do you need to own this Blu-ray? Sho nuff! The Motown martial arts classic has a transfer comparable to Innerspace. It looks like the film probably did in 1985. The funny thing is we now have a much better looking transfer of Enter the Dragon than the ones the characters in The Last Dragon watch on film in a movie theater. There are more bonus features on The Last Dragon though. Significant talent from the film are cut together in a lean 23 minute featurette, including Gordy, Taimak and other cast members. Sorry, there’s no Vanity, Mike Starr, Ernie Reyes, Jr. or William H. Macy, but director Michael Schultz gives a pretty frank and thorough commentary, telling stories about everyone.
3. Hackers: 20th Anniversary Edition
This might be Shout! Factory’s best transfer yet. The movie is only 20 years old but I’ve never seen one of their cult movies look like this, and that includes other studio movies. The picture is perfectly clear but retains the colors and tints of ‘90s film stock lighting. The oddest thing is how smooth the actors’ faces look. It’s a weird combination of film makeup meeting clarity they never expected on the set. Bonus features focus mostly on the filmmaker and hacking consultants, but they got cast members Matthew Lillard, Fisher Stevens and Penn Jillette. Obviously we don’t expect Angelina Jolie to come back for this, but you’d hope Jonny Lee Miller had some love for Hackers, and where’s Jesse Bradford?
2. Walt Disney Short Films Collection
Taking a cue from Pixar, Disney has once again begun producing animated shorts to accompany feature film releases. Now there are enough to put together a whole Blu-ray collection. There’s some really stunning work here, and each animation style is represented wonderfully on Blu-ray. The weak link may be Goofy in “How to Hook Up Your Home Theater” just because the backgrounds look a tad saturated, unintentionally. And of course the Tangled and Frozen shorts look as great as those feature films did. Fan favorites Feast and Paper Man show off unique 2D styles, and the real standouts John Henry and The Little Matchgirl show incredibly rich 2D animation. The bonus features are also short. I assume this was designed for synergy, but they make their mark: there is a seven minute piece on the shorts program for Disney animators, and 45-second introductions to each short by the filmmakers.
1. The People Under The Stairs
The People Under the Stairs is my favorite horror movie ever, so it has an unfair advantage this month. It’s my number one pick simply because it’s The People Under the Stairs and the new Scream Factory Blu-ray doesn’t suck, so I don’t even feel guilty about favoritism. The film itself looks good enough for a 1991 film shot literally between the walls of a house. You see the grain of the film and all the detail in the house of horrors. While Hackers’ transfer may look better, People has more bonus features. The best is an interview with Howard Berger and Robert Kurtzman, as this was one of the landmark films in the burgeoning KNB makeup effects company. Wendie Robie’s interview is fairly straightforward but it spotlights an actor we don’t get to hear from very often in a standout role. It’s cool to see VHS quality behind the scenes footage, to see how technical a seemingly simple Wes Craven scare actually is. They have kept the audio commentaries from previous DVD releases too.
Please Note: This title was picked and reviewed before news broke yesterday of Wes Craven’s passing.
