Home Market Releases for March 21st, 2017

March 21, 2017

It is an interesting week on the home market with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story dominating the competition. However, it is only coming out on Video on Demand and doesn’t come out till Friday. As for Tuesday releases, there are a few contenders, but no film that immediately jumps out as the Pick of the Week. If you go with quality, extras, and overall audience appeal, then Sing on Blu-ray Combo Pack comes out on top. I would also definitely checkout Insecure: Season One and Lifeboat, if you don’t already own the latter.

Assassin’s Creed - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD, Blu-ray Combo Pack, 3D Combo Pack, 4K Combo Pack
The latest in a long line of video game adaptions. Most such movies are garbage for a number of reasons that I don’t need to go into detail about. The loss of interactivity is a main reason. This particular movie is extra bad, because the filmmakers didn’t understand what made the game fun in the first place. I’ll give you a hint... it was jump around killing people. It wasn’t the futuristic plot, which was there only to explain how you could lose a mission and try again. The filmmakers took the worst part of the game and made it the focus of the movie and then managed to screw that up by making it even more boring than in the games. The film struggled in theaters and that in turn caused the extras to be rather weak with two making of featurettes and some deleted scenes. Even if you like the video game, you can safely skip this movie.

Brokenwood Mysteries - No Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
Video on Demand
A murder mystery show from New Zealand. It is similar to shows of this genre imported from the U.K. In other words, the reviews are good, but the price-per-minute is really high. Even looking at it as four TV-movies is a little pricey, so VOD is likely the better option.

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Fire at Sea - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
Video on Demand
A documentary about the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean. The reviews are amazing and the film was nominated for an Oscar. There is nearly an hour of extras, mostly filmmaker interviews and Q&A, which is impressive for a documentary.

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Girls und Panzer: The Film - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray Combo Pack
An Anime title that managed a spot in the top ten on the best-selling new releases chart on Amazon. That’s rare, but not too surprising, as the film actually got a theatrical release here. (Technically you could call it a special engagement, but that’s still very rare for an Anime film.) I’ve read a couple of reviews and they are mixed. On the one hand, there’s not a lot of plot here. It is just an underdog story of a group of students trying to save their school. On the other hand, fans of the show will likely enjoy the movie.

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Insecure: Season One - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
Issa Rae stars as... herself really, a fictionalized version of herself. The TV show didn’t earn as much buzz as some other HBO shows last season did, but its reviews are 100% positive. There are not a lot of extras, but enough to be a contender for Pick of the Week.

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Julieta - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
Video on Demand
A Spanish film about a dysfunctional family, specifically a mother and daughter, who try to reconnect after the death of the husband / father. The reviews are excellent and it is worth checking out. The extras are limited to just two featurettes, but that’s not bad for a foreign-language import. Call it a solid purchase, but not quite a Pick of the Week contender.

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Lifeboat - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray
One of Alfred Hitchcock’s most misunderstood films. At the time, a lot of people thought the director was praising the Nazis when he was warning people to take them seriously. Extras include a new audio commentary track, an older one, making of featurette, and more. Definitely worth picking up and even a contender for Pick of the Week.

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Live by Night - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack
Video on Demand
The first misstep in Ben Affleck’s directing career. It’s not terrible with an average score of 5.3/10, so wait till you can rent it on VOD.

Master of None: Season One - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD
A Netflix show with amazing reviews. Sadly, Netflix shows tend to get really bad DVD releases, which is a shame, since they need more extras than most TV on DVD releases to compete with watching the show on demand on Netflix. The show is definitely worth checking out, but watch it on Netflix.

Miss Sloane - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack
Video on Demand
This is busted Oscar-bait. It’s not a bad movie, but it was not good enough to thrive in limited release and it certainly wasn’t good enough to win awards. Jessica Chastain gives an excellent performance and the film is worth checking out, it just isn’t award-worthy. Unfortunately, there’s only one featurette on the DVD / Blu-ray, so call it a rental.

RoboCop 2 - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray
RoboCop 3 - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray
I previously reviewed the franchise box set when it first came out and frankly only the first movie is really worth owning.

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Tower - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
Video on Demand
A documentary about the University of Texas Tower Shooting that uses archival footage and rotoscoping to illustrate what happened that day. This is one of a handful of releases on this week’s list that earned 100% positive reviews. Also, its extras are good for a documentary with nearly an hour of interviews, side-by-side animation comparisons, and more. It is certainly worth picking up and a contender for Pick of the Week.

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When Calls The Heart: The Heart Of Faith - No Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD
It’s a Christmas story. I guess Christmas is all-year round now.

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Blu-ray Releases - Buy from Amazon:
Attack on Titan: Junior High - The Complete Series - No Reviews - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray Combo Pack
Batman: The Brave and the Bold: The Complete Third Season - No Reviews - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray
Being There: Criterion Collection - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
Chamber of Horrors - No Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
Cinema Paradiso - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
Evolution - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray Combo Pack
Frankenstein Created Bikers - No Reviews - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray
Game of Death - No Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
In Dubious Battle - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack
Invisible Ghost - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray
A Kind of Murder - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
Multiple Maniacs: Criterion Collection - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
Phaedra - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray
Teen Witch - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray
WWE 24: WrestleMania Monday - No Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
There is a huge range of secondary Blu-ray releases this week, including some that are over 70 years old, a few that are widely considered classics, and even an intentional B-motion horror film. Of the film’s I’ve seen on this list, Being There is the best, but it has been a long time since I’ve seen it.

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3D Blu-ray Releases - Buy from Amazon:
Assassin’s Creed - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: 3D Combo Pack
Sing - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: 3D Combo Pack
I didn’t get the 3D version of Sing to review, but I don’t think there was enough there to really require 3D to like it. Assassin’s Creed just isn’t worth picking up at all.

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4K Blu-ray Releases - Buy from Amazon:
Assassin’s Creed - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: 4K Combo Pack
Sing - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: 4K Combo Pack
The same two films coming out on 3D are also coming out on 4K. I wouldn’t bother spending the extra money for either of them.

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TV on DVD Megasets - Buy from Amazon:
The Mod Squad - No Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD
Just the one Megaset this week and it is for a TV show from the late 1960s to the early 1970s.

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Video on Demand - Buy from Amazon:
Ali and Nino - Reviews - Video on Demand
Evolution - Reviews - Video on Demand
Julieta - Reviews - Video on Demand
Killer App - Reviews - Video on Demand
Neruda - Reviews - Video on Demand
Office Christmas Party - Reviews - Video on Demand: Theatrical or Unrated
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Reviews - Video on Demand
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is by far the biggest release on this week’s list, but it doesn’t come out on VOD until Friday.

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C.S.Strowbridge

Filed under: DVD and Blu-ray Releases, Home Market Releases, Assassin’s Creed, Live by Night, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Sing, In Dubious Battle, Evolution, A Kind of Murder, Neruda, Julieta, Fuocoammare, Miss Sloane, Tower, Office Christmas Party, Multiple Maniacs, Ali and Nino, Killer App, RoboCop, Ben Affleck, Jessica Chastain, Alfred Hitchcock