And we’re back. After a bit of holiday hibernation, home video companies are back and bigger than ever. Well, the first part of that, at least. This is a fairly even week in terms of new releases and catalog titles, with some standouts on both stands. Starting with catalog titles, there’s Criterion’s release of the two Lady Snowblood films, today best-known as major influences on Kill Bill. There’s also Kino seeing fit to pander to the Hooded Justice market with their release of Louis Feuillade’s classic serial series Fantomas, not to mention with them giving one of Ken Russell’s films its Blu-Ray debut (okay, that Ken Russell film is Valentino, but you can’t win ’em all). As for new releases, you have plenty of options, whether you’re in the mood for films that were probably better-served in the theater (The Walk), moderate comebacks for internet figures of mockery (The Visit), further descents into self-parody by arthouse provocateurs (Love), good films that slipped through the cracks (Experimenter), or things that the internet turned completely and absurdly against (#TrueDetectiveSeason2). But, of course, my pick for this week has to be Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario, which boasts some of Roger Deakins’ most sublime cinematography, with images powerful enough to make grown men weep. And besides that, it’s pretty much nothing but armrest-clinching suspense sequences and it has a fantastic trio of performances from Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro, and Josh Brolin. It’s better than Unbroken, is what I’m saying.

Bone Tomahawk (Image, actually came out last week but I didn’t do one of these then)
The Captive City (Kino Lorber)
The Complete Lady Snowblood (Criterion)
Experimenter (Magnolia)
Fantomas: 5-Film Collection (Kino Lorber)
Flesh and Bone (Anchor Bay)
The Green Inferno (Universal)
The Hotel New Hampshire (Kino Lorber)
The House Where Evil Dwells / Ghost Warrior (Shout Factory)
Infinitely Polar Bear (Sony)
Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser (Sony)
Love 3D (Alchemy)
Over Your Dead Body (Shout Factory)
The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues (Kino Lorber)
The Return of Jafar / Aladdin and the King of Thieves (Disney)
Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (Paramount)
Shanghai (Anchor Bay)
Sicario (Lionsgate)
Spellbinder (Scorpion Releasing)
True Detective: The Complete Second Season (HBO)
Two for the Seesaw (Kino Lorber)
Valentino (Kino Lorber)
The Visit (Universal)
The Walk (Sony)