This is a pretty crummy week for new releases while being kind of a fantastic week for catalog titles. The best new title out there is probably the Coast Guard rescue movie The Finest Hours, with Zoolander 2 and How to Be Single trailing not too close behind. But that hardly matters when you finally have the definitive release of Michael Mann’s Manhunter, with both the theatrical and director’s cuts presented in as close to optimal presentations as possible and supplemental material new (interviews with William Petersen, Brian Cox, Tom Noonan, Dante Spinotti, Michael Rubini, and Joan Allen) and old (Mann’s commentary on the DC, archival interviews with the aforementioned cast members and Spinotti). Aside from that, the long-awaited director’s cut of 54 (I know that sounds like sarcasm, but it’s true) finally gets a home video release, Criterion gives Robert Altman’s The Player the ritzy treatment it’s long deserved, and the Cohen Film Collection brings Jean-Luc Godard’s A Married Woman to Blu-Ray in the States (after the region-free Masters of Cinema Blu-Ray went out-of-print in a big way). And that’s not all! Universal is releasing a ton of 80s comedies directly to Best Buys for the time being, including The Money Pit (with its Gordon Willis magic) and this site’s streaming pick just yesterday, The ‘Burbs (it should be noted that the Universal Blu-Ray will likely use the ass-looking transfer from its European Blu-Ray release and not Arrow Video’s gorgeous restoration, and the film is presented without any of Arrow’s insanely comprehensive supplements, so you’re better off not bothering with this release and either getting a region-free player or waiting for Shout! Factory to act), Kino is releasing many Buster Keaton shorts to Blu-Ray, the BFI is giving those with Region B capacities a taste of their upcoming exhaustive Alan Clarke set with The Firm, in addition to bringing more Christopher Doyle magic to HD with Mark Cousins’ I Am Belfast, and Olive Films is finally giving the American people their long-awaited high-definition releases of the Agent Cody Banks duo. What a time to be alive.
54 (The Director’s Cut) (Lionsgate)
Agent Cody Banks (Olive Films)
Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London (Olive Films)
Bad Influence (Shout Factory)
The ‘Burbs (Universal)
Buster Keaton: The Shorts Collection 1917-1923 (Kino)
The Chase (Kino)
The Dream Team (Universal)
Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema (Kino)
The Finest Hours (Disney)
The Firm (BFI, UK-only, Region B)
French Postcards (Olive Films)
Great Expectations (Shout Factory)
The Great Outdoors (Universal)
How to Be Single (Warner)
I Am Belfast (BFI, UK-only, Region B)
Journey to the Shore (Masters of Cinema, UK-only, Region B)
Killer Dames: Two Gothic Chillers by Emilio P. Miraglia (The Red Queen Kills Seven Times / The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave) (Arrow)
The King and Four Queens (Olive Films)
Manhunter (Collector’s Edition) (Shout Factory)
A Married Woman (Une femme mariée: Suite de fragments d’un film tourné en 1964) (Cohen Media Group)
The Money Pit (Universal)
The People That Time Forgot (Kino)
The Player (Criterion)
The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (Olive Films)
Rich Kids (Olive Films)
Risen (Sony)
The Sum of Us (Olive Films)
The Whoopee Boys (Olive Films)
Zapped! (Olive Films)
Zoolander No. 2 (Paramount)