Spider-Man: No Way Home, newly released on Blu-ray, 4K Ultra HD, and DVD by Sony, was the first film released to theaters during the Covid-19 pandemic to earn more than $1 billion at the box-office. The emotionally riveting superhero movie was the 15th Marvel film nominated for a Best Visual Effects Oscar, an award that only 2004’s Spider-Man 2 went on to win.

The film’s cast and plot were kept secret during filming with rumors of both building toward the film’s premiere. Even if you haven’t seen it or at least read the film’s credits on IMDb., you would have to be deaf and blind not to know by now that it is about Spidey in the Multiverse, and that it resurrects villains from previous Spider-Man films such as Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Electro (Jamie Foxx), and Doc Ock (Alfred Molina), as well as the two Spider-Men from the previous 21st Century series versions (Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield). To everyone’s delight, Maguire and Garfield do not just put in cameo appearances, they join current Spider-Man, Tom Holland, in bringing the film to its remarkable conclusion.

Joining the three Spider-Men in their fight for good against evil are Zendaya as MJ, Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds, Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan, Maria Tomei as Aunt May, and Benedict Cumberbatch reprising his Doctor Strange role.

Holland used his star power to save the film from cancellation by forcing negotiations between Sony (the film’s producer) and Disney (which owns most of the Marvel franchise). Under terms of the new deal, not only does the Sony film take place within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), but Spider-Man can also appear in both MCU films and as part of Sony’s own Spider-Man franchise.

This is the first MCU trilogy to be directed by the same director: Jon Watts. All previous MCU trilogies, including Iron Man, Avengers, and Captain America, had only two of their three films made by the same director.

On a side note, much has been made of the 2021 Oscars failing to take advantage of the presence of Oscar nominees Judi Dench and Javier Bardem (Skyfall) who could have added substance and class to the James Bond franchise tribute. The Spider-Man franchise, however, had double its share of 2021 Oscar nominees with Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Garfield, and J.K. Simmons from Spider-Man: No way Home, and Kirsten Dunst who was Tobey Maguire’s Mary Jane in the first three films, who could have appeared in a tribute to their own franchise. That was another missed opportunity.

Over 80 minutes of bonus content includes a Spider-Men Unite featurette.

Lionsgate has released C’mon C’mon on Blu-ray and standard DVD.

C’mon C’mon provides a change of pace for Joaquin Phoenix who usually plays intense characters such as in his Oscar-winning turn in 2019’s Joker.

This time around, Phoenix is a radio journalist who takes his energetic nephew on a road trip to show him what life is like away from Los Angeles in this deftly played film. 11-year-old British actor Woody Norman does a masterful job of speaking with an American accent throughout. Former child actress Gaby Hoffman (Field of Dreams) plays Phoenix’s sister and Norman’s mother. Scoot McNairy (A Quiet Place Part II) plays her mentally ill ex-husband.

C’mon C’mon was directed by Mike Mills (20th Century Women, Beginners) with the same skill he brought in those earlier comedy-tinged dramas.

Paramount has released a Blu-ray upgrade of 1991’sSoapdish.

Revolving around the world of TV soap operas, Soapdish is a satire that is worth a look for its once-in-a-lifetime cast of Sally Field, Kevin Kline, Whoopi Goldberg, Robert Downey Jr., Elisabeth Shue, Cathy Moriarty, Teri Hatcher, and Carrie Fisher, but it’s no Tootsie. As long as your expectations aren’t too high, you should enjoy this film from director Michael Hoffman (The Last Station).

Warner Archive has released a Blu-ray upgrade of 1985’s American Flyers.

Steve Tesich, who won an Oscar for the 1979 bicycle classic, Breaking Away, wrote the screenplay for American Flyers, another film revolving around the sport of bicycle racing.

Directed by John Badham (Saturday Night Fever), American Flyers stars Kevin Costner and David Marshall Grant as brothers, one of whom is hiding a cerebral aneurism that will soon take his life. Janice Rule (3 Women) is their mother. Rae Dawn Chong and Alexandra Paul as the women who accompany them on their trek to Colorado and one of the world’s toughest bicycle races. Despite the maudlin aspect of the screenplay, this is not a soap opera but an exhilarating sports film of the kind they so rarely make.

Kino Lorber has released a Blu-ray update of 1934’s Now and Forever.

One of the oddest films ever made, Now and Forever is the story of a jewel thief and con artist who reclaims his young daughter from his late wife’s family only to lose her again thanks to another one of his schemes going wrong. The ending was supposed to have him being killed in a car crash alongside the train that is taking his daughter away, after which his new wife commits suicide by crashing the car yet again.

Into this dreary scenario came the unlikely casting of Gary Cooper, Carole Lombard, and Shirley Temple under the direction of Henry Hathaway.

Temple, on loan to Paramount from Fox for a two-picture deal that began with the box-office hit, Little Miss Marker, was looking forward to making the film as it was supposed to reunite her with her Little Miss Marker co-star, Dorothy Dell, but Dell was killed in a real-life car crash before filming commenced. She was replaced by Lombard. Cooper, who was to next make The Lives of a Bengal Lancer with Hathaway, reluctantly agreed to play the male lead.

Paramount hastily changed the ending, allowing both Cooper and Lombard to live albeit facing an uncertain future as were the depression audiences of the day. It became a box-office hit, increasing the popularity of all three stars, especially Temple, who despite the gloomy screenplay, was at her most charming.

This week’s new releases include the 4K Blu-ray upgrades of In the Heat of the Night and Singin’ in the Rain.