Category: Home Viewing with Peter

New This Week Promising Young Woman is the first of this year’s eight Oscar nominees for Best Picture to be released on DVD and Blu-ray. Nominated for a total of five Oscars including Best Actress, Directing, Original Screenplay, and Film Editing, first-time writer-director-producer Emerald Fennell has her name on three of them. Best known for…

New This Week Warner Archive has released a stunning Blu-ray upgrade of MGM’s The Great Caruso, the second highest grossing film of 1951. Beaten only by MGM’s biblical epic Quo Vadis, it outpaced two other MGM musicals, Show Boat and An American in Paris, which were the third and fourth highest-grossing films of the year.…

New This Week Last November, Criterion released Essential Fellini, a fifteen Blu-ray Special Edition Collector’s Set of fourteen of the maestro’s films plus numerous documentaries in honor of the centennial of his birth. As noted in the film’s merchandising, Fellini still stands apart as a giant of the cinema. He is defined by his dualities:…

New This Week The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman has been given a Blu-ray release by Universal. Based on Ernest J. Gaines’ novel, the made-for-TV movie, directed by John Korty, whose best-known work it remains, was first broadcast in January 1974 with just one commercial break. It went on to be nominated for 12 Emmys,…

New This Week Warner Archive has released Blu-ray upgrades of two of my all-time favorite films. I first saw 1935’s A Tale of Two Cities and 1936’s San Francisco on TV but was later able to see them on the big screen in revival houses that were precursors to home video through the 1970s. It’s…

New This Week Kino Lorber has released Robert Siodmak’s 1944 film noir The Suspect on Blu-ray and standard DVD, the first home video release ever for this classic in the U.S. Screen legend Charles Laughton, in one his most subdued performances, stars as a mild-mannered 1902 London businessman who murders his shrewish wife and later,…

New This Week Let Him Go is a road picture set in the mid-20th century west. Larry Watson’s 2013 novel was set in 1951 with its protagonists traveling from North Dakota to Montana. The film is set in 1963 with the protagonists traveling from Montana to North Dakota. The film begins with grandparents Kevin Costner…

New This Week Warner Archive has released four more Blu-ray upgrades of films from their vast library of film classics. They include a 1930s mystery and a 1950s comedy in stunning black-and-white and two Broadway-to-Hollywood musicals, one from the 1940s and one from the 1950s, in glorious eye-popping color. Doris Day had been making at…

New This Week With so many of the major film releases of 2020 being shown on streaming platforms in conjunction with their theatrical releases, Ammonite becomes the first high profile awards contender to be released on DVD and Blu-ray. The film was on almost everyone’s list of Oscar contenders based on its pedigree. Top-casting, seven-time…

New This Week Warner Archive has finally released the last four of their Blu-ray upgrades scheduled for December, including the Christmas themed The Shop Around the Corner and It Happened on Fifth Avenue. That’s really not an issue as both films, like any good film, can be enjoyed at any time of year. Neither film…

New This Week The first Blu-rays were introduced in 2006. Ever since then, there has been speculation as to which films, previously released on DVD, would be upgraded to the higher resolution Blu-ray discs. I have often speculated on this myself. This week, however, I am looking at the situation a little differently. Most classic…

New This Week It’s time for reflection. As we looked for entertainment in the horrible year just passed, we turned mostly to streaming, but there were many good Blu-ray releases of films from prior years to keep us busy as well. Without delving into the 4K Blu-ray market which I have yet to explore, I…

New This Week It was announced on December 3 that Warner Bros. will release all their 2021 films simultaneously in theatres and on their streaming service, HBO Max. That led to speculation that this could be the end of theatrical distribution as we know it as well as the end of DVD and Blu-ray releases…

New This Week The Covid-19 coronavirus has made this such a terrible year in so many ways. Beyond the sickness and death, there has been economic suffering and mental anguish for many. Everyday things like going to school or work and shopping for essentials have been affected for everyone. Complaining about the state of movies…

New This Week Mister Roberts, which has been given a sparkling 4K restoration by Warner Archive for its long overdue Blu-ray release, was a film of many firsts. The 1955 film was Henry Fonda’s first in seven years. It was James Cagney’s first film, except for cameos, in which he was not the top-billed star…