Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is about a boy with a dream and an accordion who makes it big swapping his own hilarious lyrics into other people’s songs. It’s also an unapologetic parody of the celebrity biography and its many clichés.
Widely regarded as one of the most beautiful films ever photographed, writer/director Terrence Malick’s second feature film, Days of Heaven, is a dramatically minimalist affair elevated by its often jaw-dropping visuals, captured perfectly on 4K Blu-ray.
From acclaimed filmmaker James Cameron, Titanic is an epic tale of forbidden love and courage set against the ill-fated maiden voyage of the R.M.S. Titanic, which carried over 1,500 people to their death in the ice cold waters of the North Atlantic in the early hours of April 15, 1912. Epic in scope, grandiose in execution, it is a trans-generational film that is haunting, tragic, and engaging — especially in this special 4K Blu-ray release.
Set in the year 2065, The Creator — recipient of Oscar nominations for Sound and Visual Effects — tells of a war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence that ensues after a nuclear device levels Los Angeles, killing millions. Joshua, a former Special Forces operative sent to track down AI’s mysterious leader, is now a shell of his former self after suffering a tragic loss in the line of duty. Years later, the military recruits him to locate the elusive architect of advanced AI and a weapon he created, which has the power to end the war… and humankind.
Minnesota nice turns dark in Fargo, the 1996 Academy Award-winning Coen brothers’ film featuring brilliant performances by William H. Macy and Frances McDormand and now beautifully restored on 4K Blu-ray.
Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple became one of the moviemaker’s most remarkable successes, garnering 11 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture while earning him Best Director honors from the DGA. The unforgettable characters of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel populate this lyrical cinematic adaptation. At the center is Celie, a Southern Black woman who gradually gains self-respect as she strives to educate herself and to find love, despite an abusive spouse and a society biased against her race and her sex.
Oppenheimer is the epic story of an extraordinary genius, physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), tasked by the U.S. government to lead the team that would deliver the world’s first atomic bomb. The Manhattan Project assembled many of the world’s brightest minds in a makeshift town in the far reaches of the New Mexico desert, inevitably igniting clashes of styles and personalities. In a race against time to devise a weapon like none ever created, they had to overcome all manner of obstacles and faced unknown risks to complete their assignment and contribute to a decisive end of World War II.
Call him the Thin White Chameleon. As pioneering as the late, great David Bowie was as a multitalented artist who came of creative age during the initial wave of the rock era, what comes across most prominently in Moonage Daydream — a provocative documentary helmed by multi-hyphenate director/producer Brett Morgen — is his deeply philosophical nature as a man constantly questioning norms, pushing social mores and cultural boundaries, and seeking cosmic truths.
Prey is the latest installment in the iconic Predator film franchise. Set in the year 1719, it tells the story of a young woman, Naru, a skilled yet untested warrior of the Comanche Nation who has been raised in the shadow of some of the most legendary hunters to roam the Great Plains. When a mysterious danger arises, she fights to protect her tribe against one of the first highly evolved Predators to visit Earth.
We revisit two very different but, nonetheless, riveting films from the mid-70s: The Exorcist, the head-turning tale of demonic possession that put Linda Blair on the map, and Three Days of the Condor, the political conspiracy thriller starring Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway that was filmed in the wake of the Watergate scandal that led to the downfall of President Richard Nixon.
Many were the times I thought of reaching out to my contacts at Paramount to give them a friendly nudge toward a 4K release of Witness, a treasure from their vault and a personal favorite of mine since its theatrical debut. My grumblings were silenced earlier this year not by one of those fancy Paramount Presents editions but with the announcement of an even fancier limited-edition box set from third-party boutique label Arrow.
Director Rob Reiner’s genre-defying The Princess Bride, from the book and screenplay by William Goldman, is weird but somehow it works. A modest hit in theaters in 1987, this romantic, swashbuckling fairy tale struck a unique comedic tone with its quirky characters and absurd situations and has since grown to become a family favorite for generations.
Generation after generation has fallen in love with Walt Disney’s iconic animated masterpiece, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Its story of love and friendship follows the beautiful and kindhearted princess Snow White, who charms every creature in the kingdom except one, her jealous stepmother the queen, who has it in for her after the Magic Mirror proclaims that Snow White is the fairest one of all. Forced to flee into the forest, Snow White meets and wins the hearts of seven diminutive miners and ultimately triumphs over the wicked queen.
A few more noteworthy titles just slid down the chimney, past our deadline for the Entertainment Holiday Gift Guide in the pages of the magazine but a dazzling menagerie nonetheless, and deserving of our consideration, so we hereby present an additional mini-sackful of eminently giftable Blu-rays.
Having already cracked the code to what would yield the best animated Batman of all time (and arguably the best adaptation of The Dark Knight, period), the team behind TV’s The Animated Series was ultimately given the green light to make a PG-rated feature film in that same style. And while small-screen Bats pushed creative boundaries, in theaters he went even further, with blood, violence and even (gulp) sex adding a palpable impact to this wholly satisfying adventure.