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Zachary Levi Trades Magic Word for Pigskin in American Underdog

Zachary Levi Trades Magic Word for Pigskin in American Underdog

SANTA MONICA, CA (January 18, 2022) – Based on the inspirational true story of two-time NFL MVP, Super Bowl MVP, and Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner, American Underdog arrives on Digital February 4 and on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack (plus Blu-ray and Digital), Blu-ray Combo Pack (plus DVD and Digital), DVD, and On Demand February 22 from Lionsgate. From The Erwin Brothers (I Still Believe and I Can Only Imagine) and screenwriters Jon Erwin (I Still Believe and I Can Only Imagine) & David Aaron Cohen (Friday Night Lights) and Jon Gunn (I Still Believe), the film stars Zachary Levi (Shazam!, Thor: The Dark World, Chuck, Academy Award® winner Anna Paquin (Best Supporting Actress, The Piano, 1993; X-Men franchise, The Irishman), Ser’Darius Blain (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Jumanji: The Next Level, Charmed), and Primetime Emmy® Award nominee Dennis Quaid (Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie, The Special Relationship, 2010; The Day After Tomorrow, Far From Heaven, In Good Company). 

American Underdog tells the inspirational true story of Kurt Warner (Zachary Levi), who went from a stockboy at a grocery store to a two-time NFL MVP, Super Bowl champion, and Hall of Fame quarterback. The film centers on Warner’s unique story and years of challenges and setbacks that could have derailed his aspirations to become an NFL player – but just when his dreams seemed all but out of reach, it is only with the support of his wife, Brenda (Anna Paquin) and the encouragement of his family, coaches, and teammates that Warner perseveres and finds the strength to show the world the champion that he already is. American Underdog is an uplifting story that demonstrates that anything is possible when you have faith, family and determination. Based on the Book “All Things Possible” by Kurt Warner with Michael Silver. Screenplay by Jon Erwin & David Aaron Cohen and Jon Gunn. Directed by The Erwin Brothers.

The  American Underdog 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack , Blu-ray Combo Pack, and DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $39.99, $39.99, and $29.96, respectively.  4K ULTRA HD / BLU-RAY / DVD / DIGITAL SPECIAL FEATURES

  • Audio Commentary with Directors Andrew and Jon Erwin, and Producer Kevin Downes
  • “Inspired” Featurette
  • “Making the Cut” Featurette
  • “A Coach’s Faith” Featurette (on 4K and Blu-ray™ only)
  • “New to the Scene: Hayden Zaller” Featurette
  • “Meet the Champion” Featurette
  • “Behind the Game” Featurette
  • American Underdog: Behind the Story” Featurette
  • Deleted Scenes with Optional Audio Commentary by Andrew Erwin
  • Theatrical Trailer (on 4K and Blu-ray™ only)

PROGRAM INFORMATION
Year of Production: 2021
Title Copyright: American Underdog © 2021 American Underdog , LLC. Artwork & Supplementary Materials ®, TM & © 2022 Lions Gate Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Type: Theatrical Release
Rating: PG for some language and thematic elements
Genre: Inspirational Drama
Feature Run Time: 112 Minutes
Closed-Captioned: N/A
Subtitles: Spanish, French, English SDH
4K Ultra HD™ Format: 2160p Ultra High Definition, 16×9 (2.39:1) Presentation 
Blu-ray Format: 1080p High Definition, 16×9 (2.39:1) Presentation 
DVD Format: 16×9 (2.39:1) Presentation 
4K Audio Status: English Dolby Atmos, English Descriptive Audio, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Audio 
Blu-ray Audio:  English Dolby Atmos, English Descriptive Audio, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Audio 
DVD Audio:  English 5.1 Dolby Audio, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Audio, English Descriptive Audio 

Alias the Cat! by Kim Deitch

I don’t know if all of the Waldo stories are consistent. I don’t know if they can be consistent, or if Deitch would want them to be.

I kind of hope they aren’t, actually. Memory is flawed, history is misunderstood, the past is a mystery. And demon-creatures shouldn’t be completely knowable, able to be nailed down to a specific timeline.

Alias the Cat!  is a Waldo story: it’s almost twenty years old now, but close to the last major Waldo story to date. It followed A Shroud for Waldo and The Boulevard of Broken Dreams (probably the centerpiece of the Waldo universe) and was in turn added onto by The Search for Smilin’ Ed. Deitch’s most recent book, Reincarnation Stories, is a similar style but doesn’t include Waldo as far as I remember.

What does any of that mean?

Well, Deitch presents himself as an autobiographical cartoonist, one fascinated by popular entertainments of the early 20th century: cartoons, circuses, movie serials, comic strips, carnivals, and so on. Ephemeral stuff, things that are largely forgotten or lost. His big stories, for the last thirty years or so, tend to combine his discovery of some old piece of entertainment with a retelling of that old story – or the circumstances surrounding those people, or a complicated combination of the two. We get comics pages of Deitch talking to the reader directly, about the things he’s discovered, and pages of him doing things in his life, and we also get stretches retelling the history he’s discovered, or – as in this book – supposedly reprinting old comics by someone else from a hundred years before. It all combines together into fictions that mimic non-fiction, as surreal and supernatural elements are first hinted at and then leap into the center of the story.

They’re impossible, and Deitch presents them all as if they’re true. I’d say he presents them “straightforwardly,” but he doesn’t – Deitch portrays himself as excitable, eager to chase down these crazy ideas, as maybe more than a little bit naïve or gullible, someone always ready to believe in a great story.

Alias the Cat! is a three-part story: it appeared originally as three separate comics, in 2002, 2004, and 2005, and each volume has that Deitch energy and enthusiasm – each one has that air of “hey, look at what I just discovered!” They each end inconclusively, with mysteries left unsolved: even the third, even the end of this book and story.

Again, that’s the nature of history, of the kind of stories Deitch tells. There’s only so much Deitch-in-the-story can find out, only so much that has survived a hundred years. Only so much Waldo will tell, or allow to be told.

Waldo is a anthropomorphic character, like a black cat – call him Felix’s evil twin, or dark doppelganger. He was a character in forgotten ’20s cartoons, or a real creature impossibly in the real world, or a supernatural entity centuries old, or a hallucination only seen by the insane: he’s all of those things in turn, or at the same time. He’s a trickster at heart, a hedonist who has been everywhere and done everything and is ready to tell entertaining and possibly even true stories about those places and things.

As Alias the Cat! opens, Deitch-the-character insists he’s never met Waldo, and that he’s not saying that Waldo is a real person in the actual world. He likes Waldo stuff

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

Candyman Remake Comes to Disc

Candyman Remake Comes to Disc

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
The Vestron Video Collector’s Series unleashes unholy terror when Candyman: Day of the Dead, the third installment in the original Candyman series, arrives on  Blu-ray™ (plus Digital) January 18 from Lionsgate. Based on the characters created by acclaimed horror writer Clive Barker , this film stars Donna D’Errico (Baywatch, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, 9-1-1), Robert O’Reilly (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), and Tony Todd (Candyman, The Crow, The Flas”). Candyman: Day of the Dead will be available on Blu-ray™ for the suggested retail price of $17.99.

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS
The Candyman is back, and he’s hooked on revenge! As the Day of the Dead celebration approaches the barrio of East Los Angeles, the tortured ghost is intent upon bringing his family together in a bloody reunion beyond the grave. Challenged to confront the horrifying legend of her ancestor, Caroline (Donna D’Errico, “Baywatch”) must come face to face with the monster who has destroyed her past — and now wants to steal her future — in this third installment of the electrifying Candyman series.

BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

  • Audio Commentary with Director-Cowriter Turi Meyer and Producer-Cowriter Al Septien
  • Isolated Score Selections featuring an Audio Interview with Composer Adam Gorgoni
  • Interviews:
    • “On The Hook” — An Interview with Actor Tony Todd
    • “A Bloody Legacy” — An Interview with Special Prosthetic Effects Designer Gary J. Tunnicliffe
    • “Decay & Design” — Interviews with Director of Photography Michael Wojciechowski and Production Designer Marc Greville-Masson
  • English & German Trailers
  • Home Video Promo
  • Home Video Trailer
  • Still Gallery

CAST

  • Donna D’Errico     (Baywatch , Brooklyn Nine-Nine, 9-1-1)
  • Robert O’Reilly     (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
  • Tony Todd            (CandymanThe Crow, The Flash)

PROGRAM INFORMATION
Year of Production: 1999
Title Copyright: Candyman: Day of the Dead © 1999, Artwork & Supplementary Materials ®, ™ & © 2022 Lions Gate Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Type: Catalog Re-Release
Rating: Rated R for bloody violence and gore, sexuality and language.
Genre: Horror
Closed-Captioned: N/A
Subtitles: English, Spanish, English SDH
Feature Run Time: 93Minutes
Blu-ray Format: 1080p High Definition, 16×9 (1.85:1) Presentation 
Blu-ray Audio:  English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio™

The King’s Man & 3-Film Collection Coming in Feb.

The King’s Man & 3-Film Collection Coming in Feb.

LOS ANGELES , CA (January 24, 2022) – Uncover the secrets of the world’s most stylish spy organization and learn how it all began with the ingenious and action-packed origin story The King’s Man. From masterful filmmaker Matthew Vaughn, The King’s Man explores the mythology of the very first independent intelligence agency. Set in the historic WWI era, the lethal yet impeccably trained spies take on the ultimate mission to save the fate of humanity. Add the film to your Kingsman collection on Digital February 18 and on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD February 22.

Also for fans of the stylish spy series comes The Kingsman Collection. All three films, with bonus features, together for the first time. The collection will be available digitally on February 18 and as a collectible SteelBook on February 22.


Film Synopsis
Set during WWI, The King’s Man tells the exhilarating origin story of Kingsman, the world’s very first independent intelligence agency. As a collection of history’s worst tyrants and criminal masterminds gather to plot a war to wipe out millions across the globe , one man must race against time to stop them.

Bonus Features*

  • The King’s Man: The Great Game Begins Documentary
    • A Generation Lost – Discover how the filmmakers created a richly textured story that explores the origins of the Kingsman spy organization.
    • Oxfords and Rogues – Meet the phenomenal new cast of characters Matthew Vaughn has assembled.
    • All the World’s a Stage – Delve into the meticulous world-building of THE KING’S MAN with interviews, on-location footage, artwork, and details of on-set construction and design.
    • Instruments of War – Experience the analog spy tech and early 20th century weaponry utilized in THE KING’S MAN and see a breakdown of the precise execution and evolution of the major stunts and combat in the film.
    • Fortune Favors the Bold – Join Matthew Vaughn and his team for music scoring and sound design.
    • Long Live the Kingsman – Cast and crew reveal their thoughts about their collective journey through the very special experience of making THE KING’S MAN.
  • Featurettes
    • No Man’s Land – Experience the creative process behind the harrowing knife battle sequence in several stages: rehearsals, storyboards, interviews and on-set footage, culminating with the atmospheric VFX.
    • Remembrance and Finding Purpose – Learn about amazing organizations such as The Royal British Legion and Help for Heroes, two U.K.-based resources for recovery, well-being and employment for military veterans. Also hear why Matthew Vaughn strongly supports their mission.

*bonus features vary by product and retailer

Cast
Ralph Fiennes as Orlando Oxford
Gemma Arterton as Polly
Rhys Ifans as Grigori Rasputin
Matthew Goode as Morton
Tom Hollander as King George / Kaiser Wilhelm / Tsar Nicholas
Harris Dickinson as Conrad Oxford
Daniel Brühl as Erik Jan Hanussen
Djimon Hounsou as Shola
and Charles Dance as Kitchener

Directed by
Matthew Vaughn

Produced by
Matthew Vaughn , David Reid and Adam Bohling

Executive Producers
Mark Millar, Dave Gibbons, Stephen Marks, Claudia Vaughn and Ralph Fiennes 

Screenplay by
Matthew Vaughn & Karl Gajdusek

Story by
Matthew Vaughn

Music by
Matthew Margeson & Dominic Lewis

Based on the comic book
 The Secret Service by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons

Product Specifications
Street Date
Digital: February 18
Physical: February 22

Product SKUs
Digital: 4K UHD, HD, SD
Physical: 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack (4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital Code), Blu-ray Combo Pack (Blu-ray + Digital Code) & DVD

Feature Run Time
Approx. 131 minutes

Rating
U.S. Rated R
*Rated R for sequences of strong/bloody violence, language, and some sexual material.

Aspect Ratio
Digital: 2:39:1
Physical: 2:39:1

U.S. Audio
4K Ultra HD: English 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos, English DVS 2.0 Dolby Digital, French  5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 7.1 Dolby Digital.
Blu-ray: English 7.1 DTS-HDMA, English DVS 2.0 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital.
DVD: English 5.1 Dolby, English DVS 2.0 Dolby, French 5.1 Dolby, Spanish 5.1 Dolby.
Digital: English Dolby ATMOS (UHD only, some platforms), 5.1 & 2.0 Dolby Digital, Latin Spanish 5.1 & 2.0 Dolby Digital, French-Canadian 5.1 & 2.0 Dolby Digital, English Descriptive Audio 2.0 Dolby Digital (some platforms)

U.S. Subtitles
4K Ultra HD: English SDH, French, Spanish
Blu-ray: English SDH, French, Spanish
DVD: English SDH, French, Spanish
Digital: English SDH, French, Spanish (some platforms)

http://my-home-page.com

The Law Is A Ass #459: THE SHOW WASN’T ACCURATE “FOR LIFE” OR MONEY

Nicholas Pinnock on "For Life" -  ABC7 Chicago

Five minutes. Couldn’t ABC’s big new legal drama For Life go just five lousy minutes without a major legal mistake? Is that too much to ask?

Yes, ah say yes, it is.

Sorry about the bad Foghorn Leghorn impersonation. I had to do a bad Foghorn Leghorn impersonation, because I can’t do a good Foghorn Leghorn impersonation. And, I had to say, “Yes,” twice, as there were two major legal mistakes in those first five minutes.

In those first five minutes, a flashback introduced us to Aaron Wallace, a black nightclub owner in New York City who was framed for drug possession. He was convicted of a crime that neither he nor a one-armed man committed and sentenced to prison.

The show then jumped nine years to the present. Aaron was now an attorney arguing a motion for a new trial in his first case. And arguing it against Assistant District Attorney Dez O’Reilly, the same ADA who prosecuted Aaron and who didn’t know his opposing counsel was Aaron Wallace until he saw Aaron in the courtroom.

Then the show quantum leaped back into another flashback that revealed Aaron hasn’t been released from prison. He is appearing as a lawyer even though he’s still serving a life sentence.

Then the show, which was jumping around more than a five-year-old in a bouncy castle, came back to the present for a conversation between O’Reilly and his boss District Attorney Glen Maskins to explain how Aaron became a licensed attorney.

Aaron worked for the prison’s paralegal association helping other inmates with their internal prison legal matters. This got him unlimited access to the prison law library and computers, which he used to attend then graduate from first an online college and then an online law school. Aaron took the Vermont bar, because it was the only state that allowed someone with a degree from an unaccredited law school to take it’s bar. Then Aaron successfully applied to have his Vermont law license accepted reciprocally in New York.

Which brings us up to the five minute and two seconds mark of the show. Okay, I lied, it was five minutes and two seconds. So sue me, maybe you can get Aaron to take the case.

What’s wrong with that picture? Let’s start with ADA O’Reilly having no idea who his opposing counsel was until he saw Aaron in the courtroom.

Legal pleadings have a service clause, a paragraph in which the attorney who filed the pleading swears a copy of the pleading was served upon opposing counsel. It also includes the attorney’s address so opposing counsel can serve their responsive pleading. Aaron’s name and address, Bellmore prison, was clearly on display for O’Reilly to see. Unless O’Reilly didn’t read the motion before appearing in court to argue it, he should have seen Aaron’s name and address.

The show tried to explain why he didn’t see Aaron’s name. The ADA originally assigned to the new trial motion hearing went to the hospital when his wife had gone into labor, so the motion was only given to O’Reilly thirty minutes earlier. But that excuse, like a napkin in a deli, won’t cut the mustard.

If Dez O’Reilly was going to go argue against a motion he only received thirty minutes earlier, the first thing he’d do is read the motion. After all, he would need to see what arguments the motion made so he’d know what counter arguments to make. And when he read the motion, he would have seen Aaron’s name and address. Reading the motion is the first thing I would have done. But what do I know? I was merely a practicing attorney for 28 years, I didn’t play one on TV.

But that mistake, like a side of tots, is small potatoes. We’ve got bigger spuds to fry: The fact that Aaron is a licensed attorney in New York.

Ex-cons can become licensed attorneys and practice law. Isaac Wright, Jr., the real-life person whose story inspired For Life, did. While he was serving his sentence, Mr. Wright, with the help of a licensed attorney, got all the charges against him dismissed for prosecutorial misconduct. After he was released, Wright graduated college, then law school, and became an attorney. It took him more than a decade, but he did it.

Aaron took a shortcut. He managed to become a licensed attorney without first getting the charges against him dismissed. And while he was still in prison.

Which makes it unlikely that he would been admitted to the Vermont bar. Like all state bars, Vermont’s bar requires an applicant meet its character and fitness requirements. I’m sure those requirements would put a big old biggest frowny emoji on an application from a convicted drug offender who was serving a life sentence in another state and denied it. Most states don’t want people becoming criminals until after they’ve been admitted to the bar and have learned how to cover their tracks. It’s much less embarrassing that way.

The show told us a former state senator in New York vouched for Aaron to get him past the character and fitness requirements in New York. Maybe that former senator did grease the wheels in New York. But how much pull would he have had with the Vermont bar? About as much as a teddy bear in a taffy factory.

And what about travel expenses? Vermont would have had to pay to transport Aaron from a prison in New York to some Vermont courtroom every time he had a case to argue. That also should have caused Vermont to deny the application, as the other way would be to practicality and fiscal responsibility what balsa wood is to fighter jets.

But even if Aaron was admitted to the Vermont bar, he still wouldn’t have been able to get New York to grant him reciprocal admittance its bar. When states have a reciprocity agreement, members in good standing of the bar in one state can be admitted to the bar of another state without having to take the new state’s bar exam. New York and Vermont do have a reciprocity agreement, so Aaron could have had New York accept his Vermont license reciprocally. Provided he met the requirements of Rule 520.10 of New York’s rules for admission to the bar.

By now you should know me well enough that I shouldn’t have to spell out those requirements for you to know Aaron didn’t meet them. But like a jock strap that’s on backward, I’ll be anal retentive and tell you. Under Rule 520.10 New York will grant reciprocity to an applicant who has been practicing law in a reciprocating state, “for five of the preceding seven years.”

There is simply no way that Aaron could have been practicing law in Vermont for five years. He’d only been in prison for nine years, and, considering he was a full-time prisoner taking on-line courses in his spare time, it probably took him most of those nine years to complete his studies. Even if he was able to take a heavy caseload to accelerate his studies, he probably needed three years to complete the four-year college program then another two years to finish the three-year law curriculum. That’s five years. If he was working at optimum speed. Which means he could only have been practicing in Vermont for four years, not enough years for him to qualify for reciprocity in New York. So, no, Aaron probably wasn’t an attorney in Vermont and definitely wasn’t one in New York.

That’s what was wrong with For Life in just the first five minutes. Did the show get better from there? Well, I can honestly tell you that there were no more legal problems with the episode that I can write about.

In this column.

Next column… Well next column, I hope I can at least get us past the first commercial break.

Mr. Punch by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean

To me, the core Neil Gaiman stories are about young people, encountering things they don’t understand. The Ocean at the End of the Lane. “How to Talk to Girls at Parties.” Violent Cases. Coraline, something of an edge case – since the core set of stories are all about a young person like Gaiman.

And, of course, Mr. Punch .

I don’t want to speculate how much of this story is “true.” That’s the wrong question anyway: the truth of a story is the story-ness of it , and this is a great story, told beautifully by Gaiman’s words and Dave McKean’s art. (I wish they had worked together more: they are each other’s best collaborators.)

It’s a graphic novel about a young British boy, about fifty years ago, remembered by that boy as a man, about twenty-five years later. So it’s now as far back in time itself as the events it depicted were when it was published: this is a 1995 book about things that happened in the late ’60s. The boy is Gaiman. Or he is not. Or, more accurately, that again is not the right question.

It’s the story of how the boy learned about Punch and Judy shows, about his grandfather’s failing seaside business, about family stories. Like all stories about childhood, it’s about memory most of all: what is remembered, how it’s remembered, what looms larger looking back than it did at the time. It is an intensely told story, constructed carefully by Gaiman even as it seems to be narrated off-the-cuff by the man in the story who is and is not Gaiman.

And

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

Michael Davis: I Want My Props!

Michael Davis: I Want My Props!

Dear whoever decides who should be recognized with awards and whatnot;

My name is Michael Davis. You’re no doubt heard of me. Depending on who you ask, you will get many different stories.

I’m sure they are all entertaining, like the one where  I killed a cat for looking at me or was caught in bed with an underage nanny goat while high on Elmer’s Glue. Stories vary but are pretty much all bullshit. I’ve said for decades that…shit, never mind. What’s the point of me saying anything that proves it’s all bullshit? People like to believe rumors, and I’m a bit too old to give a fish anymore.

Since no one is talking about my contributions to the industry (except when I was thought to be dead), I’ve decided that I would.

I am the only comic book creator with a comic book series in the American school system taught as a curriculum.

So incredible was that feat, The Gordon Parks Academy named their auditorium after me. I’m pretty sure no comic book creator has gotten that honor either.

It’s called The Action Files, and it was so successful the original hardcover series now goes for over $700 bucks on Amazon, if you can find someone willing to sell their copies.

Oh, and it’s been selling for over 25 years. So this ‘recent trend’ of comics in the schools an educational comics blah blah blah can thank me.

I started it.

I was not only there first; I’m still the only comic book creator with a comic book series in the American school system taught as a curriculum.

So, it’s only fair that an achievement like that is given some props, right?

OR…answer the question of why is an achievement of such magnitude acknowledged by academia but not my peers?

Is it the underage nanny goat while high on Elmer’s Glue rumor?

The truth is that goat was over 18.

Please feel free to start with my Pulitzer throw in my Nobel Peace Prize. Wait, those are not industry awards or honors. But I bet if I won those, it would look silly if my industry ignored my accomplishments, would it not?

Did I mention I’m the only comic book creator with a comic book series taught as a curriculum in the American school system or the auditorium with my name on it in the school named after one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th Century?

Most likely, you’re unaware of the Action Files, which is the reason I’ve been left out of all those reindeer games.

Well, the more you know…

Win a Digital HD Code for Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho

Win a Digital HD Code for Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho

Edgar Wright’s acclaimed fall film, Last Night in Soho, arrives on streaming services today and will hit 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD on January 18.

Our friends at Universal Home Entertainment have provided us with two digital codes to share with readers. Ellie Turner (Thomasin McKenzie) loves the music and fashion of the Swinging Sixties. In order to win one , please tell us which era provides you with the same affection for its own music and fashion.

Submit your responses by 11:59 p.m., Monday, January 10. The decision of ComicMix’s judges will be final.

From the acclaimed director of fan-favorites such as Baby Driver, Shaun of the Dead and The World’s End comes the “mesmerizing and ultra-stylish” (US Weekly) tribute to 1960s London, LAST NIGHT IN SOHO, available to own for the first time on Digital January 4 , 2022 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-rayTM and DVD January 18, 2022 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. “A stunning achievement of filmmaking” (LA Times), LAST NIGHT IN SOHO is filled to the brim with thrills, suspense and a love of classic film and music in every frame. Own the cinematic masterpiece for the first time, alongside exclusive bonus content, including never-before-seen deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes content and feature commentaries exploring the intoxicating nostalgia, flair and suspense.

In Edgar Wright’s psychological thriller, Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie, Jojo Rabbit, Old), an aspiring fashion designer, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s, where she encounters a dazzling wannabe singer, Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy, Emma, “The Queen’s Gambit”). But the glamour is not all it appears to be, and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something far darker.

The “seductive and sophisticated” (NY Times) masterpiece is directed by Edgar Wright, and stars Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith (The Crown, Doctor Who) and Michael Ajao (Attack the Block, Silent Witness). The film is co-written by Edgar Wright and Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917).

BONUS FEATURES on 4K UHD, BLU-RAYTM, DVD AND DIGITAL:

  • MAKING OF FEATURETTES
    • MEET ELOISE – An in-depth look at the character of Eloise and the challenges that star Thomasin McKenzie faced while bringing her to life.
    • DREAMING OF SANDIE – A closer look at the characters of Sandie and Jack and why Anya Taylor-Joy and Matt Smith were the perfect actors to embody the essence of the time period.
    • SMOKE AND MIRRORS – The cast and crew break down how lighting, makeup, special effects, and creative camerawork came together to create a collision between the present day and 1960’s time periods.
    • ON THE STREETS OF SOHO – The cast and crew discuss the importance of shooting on location in Soho and the complexity of transforming the city streets back in time.
    • TIME TRAVELLING – A look into how the music, costume design, and production design of the film work together to immerse the audience into the world of 1960’s Soho.
  • DELETED SCENES
  • ANIMATICS
    • FIRST DREAM
    • SHADOW MEN
    • MURDER
    • FINAL CONFRONTATION
  • EXTRAS
    • HAIR & MAKEUP TESTS**
    • LIGHTING & VFX TESTS**
    • WIDE ANGLE WITNESS CAM
    • ACTON TOWN HALL STEADICAM REHEARSAL**
  • “DOWNTOWN” MUSIC VIDEO**
  • TRAILERS**
  • FEATURE COMMENTARY WITH DIRECTOR/CO-WRITER EDGAR WRIGHT, EDITOR PAUL MACHLISS AND COMPOSER STEVE PRICE
  • FEATURE COMMENTARY WITH DIRECTOR/CO-WRITER EDGAR WRIGHT AND CO-WRITER KRISTY WILSON-CAIRNS

**available on 4K, BD and Digital only

REVIEW: The Mitchells vs. the Machines.

REVIEW: The Mitchells vs. the Machines.

Many worthy films for all audiences flew under the pop culture radar in 2021, released with some fanfare but overshadowed by current events. Take the animated Connected, for example. Announced by Sony for 2020, it briefly arrived in theaters in April before hitting Netflix under the name The Mitchells vs. the Machines.

Now available in a Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD combo pack, the film is well worth your time and attention. First of all, it’s funny and good for the entire family to enjoy together. Second, it has some fine messages underneath the frenetic pace and stuffed visuals.

Rick (Danny McBride) loves nature and is a bit of a technophobe, setting up a conflict with his daughter Katie (Abbi Jacobson), who is about to attend film school. When their visions clash one more time, he cancels her flight and decides to pack the family into their old station wagon and drive across the country. His wife Linda (Maya Rudolph) and young son Aaron (Mike Rianda) don’t necessarily want to interrupt their lives but off they go.

As they ride the highway, the evil tech genius Mark Bowman (Eric André), having had his PAL (cute) AI declared obsolete, enacts his revenge by having the next generation of PAL programmed to capture all of mankind and launch them into space. Our heroic family narrowly avoids this and it’s up to them to save the world from technology gone wild.

On the macro level, we have the obvious save the world plot, but underneath it, Rick is trying to save not only his family but his relationship with his eldest. The film is stuffed with other characters with an impressive vocal cast with John Legend and Chrissy Teigen playing married neighbors, whose daughter Abbey (Charlyne Yi) is the object of Aaron’s adolescent desire; and a series of PALs, led by Olivia Colman, clearly having fun.

The animation is impressive as it blends the hand-drawn with CGI overlays, letting director/co-writer Mike Rianda pack plenty of action, comedy, and commentary.

The 1080p high-definition transfer is excellent , Co-Writer/Co-Director Jeff Rowe, Producer Kurt Albrecht, Head of Animation Alan Hawkins, and Head of Story Guillermo Martinez —with so many creators chatting, it’s a fun review of their ambitions and reflections.