Sure, Thanksgiving technically doesn’t have anything to do with Jesus (unless you count the one John Mulaney bit), but why not celebrate the holiday by watching the greatest Jesus film of all time, RoboCop? In lieu of it returning to the Criterion Collection, Arrow Video has given it an excellent special edition, with new commentaries and interviews and three different versions of the film, including whatever bowdlerized form it had to take to play on TV.
RoboCop is just one of many fine options presented this week for your holiday gift-giving and -receiving (even if you have someone in your family who you’d rather not talk to, you can give them Angel Has Fallen). Criterion has two classic Bette Davis pictures out, including the classicest of them all, All About Eve. Kino presents a comprehensive history of comedy with its three titles, starting with Preston Sturges (Christmas in July), skipping forward to pre-coming out Ellen Degeneres (Mr. Wrong), and finally settling on Bruno Dumont (Coincoin and the Extra-Humans). If you want a little more of a traditional Christmas movie than RoboCop, there’s Olive’s new Blu-Ray of The Bells of St. Mary’s. And if you or a loved one are in the mood for alleged great-director misfires that are actually pretty good, there’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette, which I can’t defend as a totally functional movie (the opening 20 minutes are maybe terrible?), but the middle chunk of it is Linklater, Cate Blanchett, and Billy Crudup (plus a great one-scene appearance by Laurence Fishburne) firing on all cylinders.
All About Eve (Criterion)
Amazing Grace (Universal)
Angel Has Fallen (Lionsgate)
The Bells of St. Mary’s (Olive)
Christmas in July (Kino)
Coincoin and the Extra-Humans (Kino)
Dracula (Shout Factory)
Eegah (The Film Detective)
Great Day in the Morning (Warner Archive Collection)
Hotel by the River (Cinema Guild)
Mr. Wrong (Kino)
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Season Twelve (Shout Factory)
Now, Voyager (Criterion)
Prophecy (Shout Factory)
RoboCop (Arrow)
Where’d You Go, Bernadette (Fox)