Tag: Dunkirk

‘Twin Peaks’ Revival Takes Top Honors in 2018 Home Media Awards

Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series, from Paramount Home Media Distribution and CBS Home Entertainment, earned the top prize in the eighth annual Home Media Awards, which honor the best home video releases of 2017, taking Title of the Year and TV on Disc of the Year.

Blu-ray Disc of the Year went to Warner Bros. Home Entertainment’s Dunkirk.

Winners were chosen by a panel of judges in conjunction with an online consumer vote for eligible titles submitted for consideration by studios and distributors.

2018 Home Media Award Winners

Title of the Year
Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series
Paramount Home Media Distribution
CBS Home Entertainment

TV on Disc of the Year
Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series
Paramount Home Media Distribution
CBS Home Entertainment

 

Blu-ray Disc of the Year
Dunkirk
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

 

 

Fan-Favorite Title of the Year
Wonder Woman
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

Best Theatrical Disc
Dunkirk
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

Best Direct-to-Video/Limited Release
Batman vs. Two-Face
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

Best Catalog Title
Streets of Fire: Collector’s Edition
Shout! Factory

Best Movie Collection/Boxed Set
DC Universe 10th Anniversary Collection Blu-ray
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

Best Documentary Movie
Born in China
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

Best Foreign Film on Disc
The Villainess
Well Go USA

Best Indie/Small-Budget Film on Disc
2:22
Magnolia Home Entertainment

Best AV Quality/Blu-ray Movie
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Marvel Studios

Best Current TV Series on Disc
Game of Thrones: The Complete Seventh Season
HBO Home Entertainment

Best Vintage TV Show in Disc
The Simpsons: The Eighteenth Season
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Best Complete TV Series Set
The Rockford Files
Mill Creek Entertainment

Best TV Movie or Miniseries
Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series
Paramount Home Media Distribution
CBS Home Entertainment

Best TV Documentary
The Vietnam War: A FIlm by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick
PBS Distribution

Best Reality TV Show on Disc
Duck Dynasty: Season 11
Lionsgate

Best International TV Show on Disc
Victoria: The Complete First Season
PBS Distribution

Best AV Quality/Blu-ray TV
Game of Thrones: The Complete Seventh Season
HBO Home Entertainment

Best 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc
Planet Earth II
BBC Studios

Best 3D Disc
Doctor Strange
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Marvel Studios

Best Extras/Bonus Material
Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series
Paramount Home Media Distribution
CBS Home Entertainment

Best Box Art
Batman vs. Two-Face
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

 

 

 

 

Best Packaging
Close Encounters of the Third Kind: 40th Anniversary
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

 

 

Best Restoration
Close Encounters of the Third Kind: 40th Anniversary
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Best Alternate Version
Saturday Night Fever: 40th Anniversary Director’s Cut
Paramount Home Media Distribution

Best Upgrade
The Apartment: Limited Edition
Arrow Video/MVD Entertainment

Best Compilation
Watch Around the Clock: 24 Hours of TV
Mill Creek Entertainment

Best Digital Presentation of a Movie
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Lucasfilm

Best Digital Presentation of a TV Show
Game of Thrones: The Complete Seventh Season
HBO Home Entertainment

Best Animation Disc
Moana
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

Best Kidvid Disc
DC Super Hero Girls: Intergalactic Games
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

Best Faith-Based Disc
The Shack
Lionsgate

Best Action Disc
Baby Driver
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Best Adventure Disc
Kong: Skull Island
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

Best Comedy Disc
The Pink Panther Film Collection Starring Peter Sellers
Shout! Factory

Best Drama Disc
Big Little Lies
HBO Home Entertainment

Best Historical Adaptation/True Story
Hacksaw Ridge
Lionsgate

Best Fantasy Disc
Game of Thrones: The Complete Seventh Season
HBO Home Entertainment

Best Sci-Fi Disc
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Lucasfilm

Best Superhero Disc
Wonder Woman
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

Best Musical Disc
La La Land
Lionsgate

Best Horror Disc
Get Out
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

Best Sports Disc
NFL Super Bowl LI Champions: New England Patriots
Cinedigm/NFL

Best Disc of a Western
Hickok
Cinedigm/Status Media

Judges’ Award
The Gumby Movie
NCircle Entertainment

Darkest Hour

BLU-RAY REVIEW: 

Street 2/27/18;
Universal;
Drama;
Box Office $54.55 million;
$29.98 DVD, $34.98 Blu-ray;
Rated ‘PG-13’ for some thematic material.
Stars Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lily James, Stephen Dillane, Ben Mendelsohn.

Darkest Hour is a solid character drama about Winston Churchill’s first few weeks as prime minister of Great Britain in 1940, as he was thrust into the chaos of the early days of World War II.

With Hitler on the verge of conquering France and setting his sights on England, Churchill must contend not only with his country’s rapidly deteriorating military position, but also calls for peace talks from within his own party — from the very people whose appeasement policies helped put Churchill in this difficult position to begin with.

The crisis comes to a head with the evacuation at Dunkirk, as Churchill is determined to rescue British troops despite long odds his plans can succeed. In showing what took place in the halls of British government as the soldiers waited on the beaches for a rescue, Darkest Hour serves as an interesting companion piece to Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, which hit theaters just a few months earlier and presented the point of view of the evacuating troops.

Gary Oldman practically disappears into the role of Churchill, aided by a complex body makeup to add age and girth. Numerous actors have taken a turn at Churchill over the years, but Oldman’s is likely to draw some inevitable comparisons with John Lithgow’s Emmy-winning take on Netflix’s “The Crown” due to the close proximity of the projects. While Lithgow is just as effective in portraying Churchill’s self-assuredness, temper and arrogance, there’s no mistaking it’s Lithgow. Whereas with Oldman it’s easy to get caught up in his performance, as really it’s only his eyes that provide the telltale reminder of who is actually up there on screen.

As far as comparisons go, however, Ben Mendelsohn is in a less-enviable position for his brief turn as King George VI, with both Colin Firth’s turn in The King’s Speech and Jared Harris on “The Crown” providing fresh points of comparison for performances as the king in earlier and later periods of his life, respectively. Mendelsohn, at least, has the advantage of somewhat resembling the real-life George, as noted by director Joe Wright in a solo commentary track included with the Blu-ray.

Wright’s commentary ends up presenting a nice mix of behind-the-scenes information and some insights into the real story. There are also two short featurettes: an eight-minute making-of video and a four-minute look at Oldman’s performance.

‘American Made’ Debuts at No. 1 on Home Video Charts

Universal Pictures’ American Made debuted at No. 1 on the NPD VideoScan First Alert sales chart, which tracks combined DVD and Blu-ray Disc unit sales, and the dedicated Blu-ray Disc sales chart the week ended Jan. 6.

The film, which stars Tom Cruise as a pilot working for the CIA who becomes a smuggler for Central American drug lords, earned $51.3 million at the domestic box office.

Warner’s Dunkirk, the top seller the previous week, slipped to No. 2 on both charts in its third week on shelves.

Rounding out the top five on both charts were Universal’s Despicable Me 3 at No. 3, Fox’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle at No. 4, and Warner’s The Lego Ninjago Movie at No. 5.

Blu-ray Disc accounted for 61% of total unit sales for American Made, with 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray contributing 12% of the total.

American Made also debuted at No. 1 on the Media Play News rental chart for the week ended Jan. 7.

Despicable Me 3 and Fox’s The Mountain Between Us came off holdbacks at Redbox rental kiosks to move up to No. 2 and No. 3 respectively, while Dunkirk and Kingsman: The Golden Circle dropped to No. 4 and No. 5, respectively.

Continue reading “‘American Made’ Debuts at No. 1 on Home Video Charts”

‘Dunkirk’ Takes Over Top Spot on Disc Sales Chart

After debuting at No. 2 a week earlier, Warner’s Dunkirk in its second week moved into the top spot on the NPD VideoScan First Alert sales chart, which tracks combined DVD and Blu-ray Disc sales charts, the week ended Dec. 30, displacing Universal’s Despicable Me 3, which had been the top title the previous three weeks.

Dunkirk also maintained the top spot on the dedicated Blu-ray Disc sales chart, having debuted at No. 1 the week before.

Overall, following Despicable Me 3 at No. 2 were Fox’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle moving up a spot to No. 3 and Warner’s The Lego Ninjago Movie dropping a spot to No. 4. The top newcomer was 20th Century Fox’s The Mountain Between Us, a drama starring Idris Elba and Kate Winslet that debuted at No. 5 after a $30.3 million run at the domestic box office.

The top five on the Blu-ray chart were unchanged from the previous week: lining up behind Dunkirk were Despicable Me 3 at No. 2, Kingsman: The Golden Circle at No. 3, The Lego Ninjago Movie at No. 4 and Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man: Homecoming at No. 5. Mountain Between Us was No. 6, with Blu-ray accounting for 48% of its total unit sales.

On Media Play News‘ rental chart for the week ended Dec. 31, Dunkirk moved up to No. 1, pushing Kingsman: The Golden Circle to No. 2.

Sony Pictures’ Flatliners remake debuted as the No. 3 rental, followed by The Lego Ninjago Movie at No. 4 after coming off a week-long holdback at Redbox rental kiosks. Universal’s Atomic Blonde slipped to No. 5.

Continue reading “‘Dunkirk’ Takes Over Top Spot on Disc Sales Chart”

Dunkirk

BLU-RAY REVIEW:

Street 12/19/17;
Warner;
Drama;
Box Office $188.05 million;
$28.98 DVD, $35.99 Blu-ray, $44.95 UHD BD;
Rated ‘PG-13’ for intense war experience and some language.
Stars Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles, Aneurin Barnard, James D’Arcy, Barry Keoghan, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy.

Christopher Nolan is the kind of filmmaker who doesn’t stick to a particular genre or subject matter. Rather, when he delves into a project, he leaves an indelible mark on it that immediately sets it apart from other films that would aim to cover similar ground. Indeed, at those times when Nolan’s vision can even be classified as one thing or another, his films, such as Kubrick’s before him, stand apart as his own unique take on the genre. Much as Insomnia was Nolan’s murder mystery, Inception was his heist film, and Interstellar his science-fiction film, Dunkirk is unmistakably Nolan’s “war film.”

Told through stunning visuals with minimal dialogue, Dunkirk relates the soldier’s experience of the 1940 evacuation of the eponymous French town, where during the early years of World War II Allied troops were surrounded by Nazis and had to be evacuated from the beach. With time of the essence, the British even called upon civilian ships to save as many troops as possible, so they could regroup and hold off further German advances until the Americans were ready to enter the war.

The film relates the evacuation through three storylines covering three different time frames. In one, a group of grunts scours the beaches, desperate to find room on any ship to flee the impending doom to come. In the second, a civilian yacht is commissioned to head to Dunkirk, and encounters several soldiers adrift at sea. In the third, a Royal Air Force fighter squadron races to the beach to provide cover from German air raids against the exposed crowds of British soldiers waiting for a ride home.

The three time frames occasionally overlap, as events from one are foreshadowed in another. The film is generally cut together to cross between the time frames to give a sense of the shared experiences of the men involved, even those who never meet each other. Some find courage in their duties. Others seek only to outrun their fears.

Nolan shot much of the film with Imax cameras, allowing it to pull the audience in with its immersive framing, letting viewers absorb the details of a wide picture. Needless to say, the larger the screen, the more impactful the images will be.

To achieve his vision, Nolan and his crew had to innovate many new filmmaking techniques in order to place the Imax cameras in places they were never intended to be. Much of this is covered in the bonus material, showing how Nolan pushed the boundaries of aerial photography by mounting cameras on both ends of a plane that could keep up with and maneuver with the fighter planes during the dogfight scenes.

Rather than a series of disparate bonus materials, the Blu-ray extras are contained on a single bonus disc and consist solely of a series of behind-the-scenes featurettes that can be played separately or as a whole documentary that runs nearly two hours.