Even with Criterion and Kino and the like hibernating, this week will still be a hard one on the wallet. The big cause of this may very well be Arrow Academy’s first in a line of three Woody Allen Blu-Ray box sets (the second comes out in December), encompassing his early, funnier films, Annie Hall (only available in the set), and Interiors, with a 100-page hardcover book containing a wealth of scholarly writing on the films, plus Allen’s own words. And if you just the two best comedies in the set, Arrow was kind enough to also put out the individual releases of Sleeper and Love and Death this week.
Back in the States, a whole bunch of quality TV shows come out on Blu-Ray, Lionsgate releases the year’s most singular film, Swiss Army Man, while Sony *gasp* releases some of its catalog titles, giving Mr. Deeds Goes to Town the 4K restoration and release afforded some of their other Capra releases and giving Brian De Palma’s Body Double a release somehow even less worthy of that film than the Twilight Time Blu-Ray (it’s not even a pressed disc, it’s a BD-R) and Universal releases the very different space-themed films October Sky and It Came from Outer Space. And Warner finally remasters Prince’s catalog… by releasing and remastering the three films of his that they own (i.e. not Sign O the Times) on Blu-Ray. Hey, baby steps.
American Horror Story: Hotel (Fox)
Amerigeddon (yes, you read that title right) (Sony)
Banshee: The Complete Fourth Season (HBO)
Being Charlie (Anchor Bay)
Body Double (Sony)
Constantine: The Complete Series (Warner Archive Collection)
Diary of a Chambermaid (Cohen)
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (Sony)
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (Universal)
Into the Forest (Lionsgate)
It Came from Outer Space 3D (Universal)
Joshy (Lionsgate)
Love and Death (Arrow Academy, UK-only, Region B)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Sony)
October Sky (Universal)
Penny Dreadful: The Final Season (Paramount)
Preacher: Season One (Sony)
Prince Movie Collection (Purple Rain / Under the Cherry Moon / Graffiti Bridge) (Warner, all titles available separately)
The Purge: Election Year (Universal)
Sleeper (Arrow Academy, UK-only, Region B)
Swiss Army Man (Lionsgate)
Vamp (Arrow)
Woody Allen: Six Films 1971-1978 (Arrow Academy, UK-only, Region B)
X-Men: Apocalypse (Fox)