Home Entertainment Guide: November 2023

10 NEW TO NETFLIX

"The Ballad of Lefty Brown"
"The Big Lebowski"
"Good Time"
"The Last Black Man in San Francisco"
"Minari"
"Mutt"
"Prometheus"
"Scott Pilgrim vs. the World"
"Uncut Gems"
"Whiplash"

11 NEW TO BLU-RAY/DVD

"Blue Beetle"

Since James Gunn and Peter Safran took over the reins of the DC Cinematic Universe, there's been a bittersweet aspect to their blockbusters, as fans know that their time with Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman or Ben Affleck's Batman is up (and Jason Momoa's Aquaman has only one adventure left). I think it would be worthwhile for Gunn to save one current DC character/performer in Xolo Maridueña's very likable Blue Beetle. Yes, this film suffers from a lot of modern superhero problems in that it doesn't pay enough attention to composition (some of the effects are ugly, and no one even considers interesting framing in these movies anymore). But "Blue Beetle" works for one simple reason: It's easy to like. Every member of this cast is having a blast, and that energy can be infectious in an era when superhero blockbusters often feel like homework.

Buy it here 

Special Features
Blue Beetle Generations - Told in distinct chapters, explore the journeys of actors and filmmakers bringing "Blue Beetle" to the big screen for the first time ever. Audiences will be immersed in the POV of filmmakers who showcase their experiences on set and in their creative studios making the story of this DC character a reality.
Origins
Production Begins
In Full Flight
A Hero's World
Scarab Vision: - Xolo Maridueña hosts this series of scene study walk throughs that showcases how the scarab works and the role it plays in some of Blue Beetle's most epic moments.
Episode One: Initiation
Episode Two: Mystery
Blue Beetle's Nana Knows Best - Witness Nana's transformation from an adorable 'abuelita' into a machine gun-wielding revolutionary, and stop in for a few of her most fun moments on set throughout production.

Now streaming on:

"The Expend4bles"

This column is traditionally "highlights only" (the best stuff you can buy this month), but I thought I'd include the latest action extravaganza in "The Expendables" series as a counter to a time of year in which movies often get very serious as they prep their Oscar runs. "The Expendables 4" (or "Expend4bles" if you're feeling funky) should have been a high-powered, macho action alternative, a throwback to the genre style of the '80s that the previous films in this series often achieved. Sadly, we weren't quite so lucky. This is a truly awful film that looks so hideous at times in its awkward fight choreography and blatant green screen that it nearly plays like a parody. I will say that Lions Gate has treated the Sly diehards (Slyhards?) well with a commentary and a sharp 4K transfer, but the excellent quality almost makes the flaws easier to see. This one was meant for grainy VHS.

Buy it here 

Special Features
Audio Commentary with Director Scott Waugh
Bigger, Bolder, Badder: The Expendables in Action
More Than a Team: New Blood Meets Old Blood
Theatrical Trailer

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"Godland"

Hlynur Pálmason's "Godland" is so gloomy, cold, and rainy that you'll feel it in your bones. A film that I would love to discuss with Werner Herzog, this Janus Contemporaries entry in the Criterion Collection opens with a title card that claims it was inspired by seven photographs taken by a Danish priest during his time in Iceland. (Such photos don't exist; they are only one of the underrated playful elements of this generally bleak film.) This excellent drama about faith and nature unfolds in the late 19th century as Lucas (Elliott Crosset Hove) has been tasked with building a church at a Danish settlement in Iceland. The journey there is treacherous and exhausting, but life doesn't get much easier. As this slow, deliberate movie builds to violence in its final act, one realizes how much this man of God doesn't understand the world around him or his place in it. "Godland" is an excellent film that deserves the bigger audience that will be brought to it through the Janus/Criterion relationship.

Buy it here 

Special Features
Meet the Filmmakers, a new interview with director Hlynur Pálmason
Trailer

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"Gran Turismo"

Operating in that incredibly rare genre of the true story that's also based on a video game, Neill Blomkamp's 2023 summer blockbuster comes home for fans of racing simulators and inspirational dramas. Archie Madekwe (showing great range by also currently appearing in "Saltburn") plays Jann Mardenborough, a teenage fan of the game "Gran Turismo" who got so good at it that he won a challenge to translate his skills to real-life racing. David Harbour and Orlando Bloom co-star in a film that's not bad at times but also so content to repeat the same beats over and over again (there are a dozen variations on "it's not a game" speeches) that it runs over two hours, emptying its tank long before it ends. Still, it's far from the worst this year in either of its genres and could make a decent holiday gift for the most diehard Sony fans in the family.

Buy it here 

Special Features
Deleted and extended scenes
The Engine: Driving the visuals
The Pit Crew: The Action and Stunts
The Garage: The Amazing Automobiles
The Plan: The True Story of Jann Mardenborough
The Wheels: The Fast-Acting Cast

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"A Haunting in Venice"

Kenneth Branagh bounces back big time after the disastrous "Death on the Nile" with arguably the best of his Hercule Poirot films to date (although I still think I prefer the gaudy ridiculousness and narrative of "Murder on the Orient Express"). This time, Branagh plays Poirot as a recluse, forced into hiding by everyone who wants him to solve a crime. He has lost faith in man and God, and is pulled out of seclusion by an American author (Tina Fey), convinced she has found a real psychic (Michelle Yeoh). At a Venetian seance to contact a murdered girl, a mystery unfolds that brings Poirot back to life. More atmospheric and emotional than the other two films, this is a reminder that Branagh does this kind of dark mystery very well. (A fact that gives me a chance to remind everyone to hunt down "Dead Again," one of the Oscar winner's absolute best.)

Buy it here 

Special Features
Murder, Death and Haunting: Discover the secrets behind the scenes of A HAUNTING IN VENICE. Join Kenneth Branagh and his team as they bring Agatha Christie's classic Poirot novel 'Hallowe'en Party' to life with elaborate ensemble scenes and extravagant sets.
Deleted Scenes: Check out these scenes that didn't make the final cut:
Morning Routine
The Doge's Palace
Halloween Party Extended
Desdemona's Warning
Children's Story
Poirot Needs Air
Guarding The Gates
Secret Doorway Extended
Ferrier's Shouts
Poirot Pauses for Thought
Journey Home

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"Justified: City Primeval"

In Summer 2023, Sony, FX, and Hulu collaborated to bring Raylan Givens back to life. The hero of FX's excellent "Justified" rode off into the sunset in 2015, but he returned in this great eight-episode mini-series that took Elmore Leonard's character and grafted him onto another Leonard novel title, City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit. That's where Givens matches wits with a sociopath who calls himself the Oklahoma Wildman (Boyd Holbrook). Once again, the team behind "Justified" is playing with the moral boundaries of lawmen and criminals, revealing where they often intersect. However, this is a wildly entertaining crime drama that they don't make as often as they should. It's also nice of Sony to release it as a standalone Blu-ray, although a special feature or two about its production would have been even nicer.

Buy it here

Special Features
-Nothing

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"The Last Picture Show" (Criterion)

It's been over half a century since Peter Bogdanovich's stunning drama based on the novel of the same name by Larry McMurtry. Still a masterpiece, Criterion has restored the film in 4K and gone as far as to include an entire second film on the release, the 1990 sequel "Texasville," which is nowhere near as good but still worth seeing. This great remastered edition also includes a fantastic pair of commentaries that feature not only Bogdanovich but also Cybill Shepherd, Randy Quaid, Cloris Leachman, and Fran Marshall. As if that's not enough, there are three documentaries about the making of this classic, a film chosen for the National Film Registry a quarter-century ago. 

Buy it here 

Special Features
4K digital restoration of the director’s cut, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and two Blu-rays with the film and special features
Texasville (1990), the sequel to The Last Picture Show, presented in both the original theatrical version and a black-and-white version of the director’s cut, produced in collaboration with cinematographer Nicholas von Sternberg
Two audio commentaries, featuring director Peter Bogdanovich and actors Cybill Shepherd, Randy Quaid, Cloris Leachman, and Frank Marshall
Three documentaries about the making of the film
Screen tests and location footage
Introduction to Texasville featuring Bogdanovich, Shepherd, and actor Jeff Bridges
Excerpts from a 1972 television interview with filmmaker François Truffaut about the New Hollywood
Trailers
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by film critic Graham Fuller and excerpts from an interview with Bogdanovich about Texasville, with a new introduction by Bogdanovich biographer Peter Tonguette

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"Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One"

Much was made of how Tom Cruise saved the box office in 2022, only to see his 2023 blockbuster falter in the way of Barbenheimer. "What have you done for me lately" has always been the way of the box office, but it was a bit disheartening to see reporting calling a film that had its budget bloated significantly by Covid delays a bomb. "Dead Reckoning PartO One" still sold a lot of tickets. And what's more important? It still rules. The fact is that the "Mission Impossible" series has been the most reliable blockbuster franchise for the last decade, a series of fantastic action adventures that consistently out-entertain any other. The newest film is no exception, and it absolutely pops in 4K. 

Buy it here 

Special Features
Audio commentary with director Christopher McQuarrie and Editor Eddie Hamilton
Isolated Score Track
Abu Dhabi (4 minutes)
Rome (4 minutes)
Speed Flying (4 minutes)
Venice (4 minutes)
Freefall (9 minutes)
Train (5 minutes)

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"Oppenheimer"

This isn't just one of the biggest box office stories of the year; it's one of the biggest of all time. Who but Christopher Nolan could have gotten this film to such heights that it's already one of the biggest 4K Blu-ray sellers of the year and appears to be the current frontrunner for the Oscar for Best Picture? No one. They say movie stars don't exist anymore, but Nolan is a draw as big as any on the market. As for the film, I'm with the folks who think it's one of the best of 2023, a masterful study in forced perspective that allows us to experience Oppenheimer's journey from reluctant genius to destroyer of worlds through his eyes and mind. It's an incredibly ambitious work that defies standard biopic tropes through its unshakeable confidence and remarkable craft. And it's a breathtaking 4K experience, one of the best of the year. Get one if you can.

Buy it here 

Special Features
THE STORY OF OUR TIME: THE MAKING OF OPPENHEIMER
NOW I AM BECOME DEATH - The cast, crew and producers join Christopher Nolan in sharing the personal stories that made them passionate about the project's ambitious design for bridging multiple genres.
THE LUMINARIES - OPPENHEIMER's all-star cast discusses how they synthesize the script's dramatic narrative with the real lives of historical figures to embody their complex characters.
THE MANHATTAN PROJECT - To visualize Oppenheimer's ability to see different dimensions and to recreate the historic Trinity test, filmmakers developed unique techniques to craft stunning effects without using CGI.
THE DEVIL OF DETAILS - A look at how production designer Ruth De Jong and team recreated the entire town of Los Alamos with period-accurate props, spectacular sets and painstaking attention to authenticity.
WALKING A MILE - Costume and makeup craftspeople populate OPPENHEIMER's immersive environments with iconic figures by utilizing thousands of pieces of clothing and cutting-edge prosthetic applications.
CAN YOU HEAR MUSIC? - Working closely with Christopher Nolan, Ludwig Göransson composes a deeply personal, historically expansive score ranging from the organic to the alien to accompany the visual landscape.
WE CAN PERFORM THIS MIRACLE - Christopher Nolan's closest collaborators demonstrate how his artistic vision creates camaraderie that drives his talented crew to continue breaking new ground in filmmaking.
TRAILERS
INNOVATIONS IN FILM: 65MM BLACK-AND-WHITE FILM IN OPPENHEIMER - FotoKem opens the door to its film labs, where new technologies are invented for using color and black & white 65mm film to visualize OPPENHEIMER's dual timelines while pushing the format further forward.
MEET THE PRESS Q&A PANEL: OPPENHEIMER - Chuck Todd moderates a conversation where Christopher Nolan, author Kai Bird, and physicists Dr. Kip Thorne, Dr. Thom Mason and Dr. Carlo Rovelli reflect on the fascinating science and doomsday concerns OPPENHEIMER illustrates onscreen.
TO END ALL WAR: OPPENHEIMER & THE ATOMIC BOMB - Explore how one man's relentless drive and invention of the atomic bomb changed the nature of war forever, led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and unleashed mass hysteria.