Home Market Releases for February 18th, 2020

February 19, 2020

There are not a lot of major releases on this week’s list, but what we lack in quantity, we more than make up for in quality. In fact, there are five contenders for Pick of the Week and a couple of other smaller releases that might end up in my collection soon. It is going to be a rough week on my wallet. These include a couple of Oscar contenders, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Jojo Rabbit; a couple of animated releases, The Point! and Tex Avery: Screwball Classics: Volume 1; and a TV on DVD Megaset, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: The Complete Series. All five releases are worth picking up, but I’m going with Jojo Rabbit as this week’s Pick of the Week.

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21 Bridges - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack
Video on Demand
This movie isn’t as bad as its box office numbers suggest, but it also isn’t good either. Additionally, the only extras are an audio commentary track and some deleted scenes, so unless you really like Chadwick Boseman and the rest of the cast, it isn’t worth more than a rental.

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A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD, Blu-ray Combo Pack, or 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack
Video on Demand
The term “Oscar-bait” is sometimes used as an insult to describe movies that are cynically made to check off items on a list of things Oscar voters tend to look for in a movie. This film is 100% Oscar-bait, but it is far from a cynical offering and is one of the most sincere movies of the year. Extras include an audio commentary track, a trio of making of featurettes with a total running time of over 30 minutes, nearly 20 minutes of deleted scenes, and five minutes of outtakes, including some from the original show. That’s enough to be a Pick of the Week contender.

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Jojo Rabbit - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD, Blu-ray, or 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack
Video on Demand
I put in a screener request for this movie, but it hasn’t arrived, yet. The film earned excellent reviews and even won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. The extras are solid with an audio commentary track, making of featurette, deleted scenes, and outtakes. It is easily worth picking up and a contender for Pick of the Week.

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Midway - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD, Blu-ray Combo Pack, or 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack
Video on Demand
This film did better than expected at the box office, but still failed to do well enough to cover its $100 million production budget. There are a lot of extras, but the overall quality of the movie is not high enough to be worth picking up. Maybe if you like war movies, then it is worth a rental.

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The Point! - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
An animated film from 1971 based on the album of the same name by Harry Nilsson, directed by Fred Wolf, and narrated by Ringo Starr. I was going to call it a classic, but looking into it, I don’t know if many people have even heard of it. Extras include over 100 minutes of new extras and nearly 30 minutes of archival footage, which is a ton of extras for a film that is nearly 50 years old. It is easily worth picking up and this undiscovered gem is a Pick of the Week contender.

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Tex Avery: Screwball Classics: Volume 1 - No Reviews - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray
19 films from Tex Avery’s MGM collection. It is a Pick of the Week contender, but it would be higher in value if there were complete collections and not a single-disc release.

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Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: The Complete Series - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
Ellie Kemper stars as the titular Kimmy Schmidt, a woman who was part of a doomsday cult for years and years and at the beginning of the show she finally gets out and has to readjust to a world she’s never know. The reviews have been consistently amazing and even the total lack of extras doesn’t prevent it from being a Pick of the Week contender.

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TV on DVD Releases - Buy from Amazon:
Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Complete Series, 15th Anniversary Limited Edition SteelBook Collection - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray
A Feeling of Home - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Video on Demand
The Good Karma Hospital: Series Three - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
The SteelBook release for Avatar: The Last Airbender would be a lot more impressive had the TV series not been released over and over and over again on the home market. I personally own the show three times already and can’t justify buying it again.

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Blu-ray Releases - Buy from Amazon:
Another Day of Life - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack
Antonio Gaudí: The Criterion Collection - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray
Frankie - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
Dangerous Cargo - No Reviews - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray
The Day of the Dolphin - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
Gerry - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray
Hunter X Hunter: Set 7 - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
Je t'aime moi non plus - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
The Light at the End of the World - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack
The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
Münchhausen - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
Rasputin: The Mad Monk - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray
Real Girl: Complete Collection - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray
Star Blazers 2199: Space Battleship Yamato - The Complete Series - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray
Teorema: The Criterion Collection - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
X... The Unknown - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray
Warriors of the Nation - Reviews - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray
There are plenty of secondary Blu-ray releases this week. I’m most interested in the Star Blazers 2199 Blu-ray. I’m also interested in this, which I stumbled across while researching this list. I can’t justify spending that much money, no matter how cool it would look sitting on top of my computer.

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Video on Demand - Buy from Amazon:
Charlie’s Angels - Reviews - Video on Demand
Charlie’s Angels - Reviews - Video on Demand (4K Ultra HD)
Dark Waters - Reviews - Video on Demand
Queen & Slim - Reviews - Video on Demand
Standing Up, Falling Down - Reviews - Video on Demand
Swift - Reviews - Video on Demand
There are three theatrical releases on this week’s list of secondary VOD releases, but two of them are box office flops and the other is busted Oscar-bait.

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C.S.Strowbridge

Filed under: DVD and Blu-ray Releases, Home Market Releases, The Day of the Dolphin, Charlie’s Angels, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Midway, Jojo Rabbit, 21 Bridges, Another Day of Life, Manou the Swift, Frankie, Standing Up, Falling Down, The Light at the Edge of the World, Huang Fei Hong: Nu hai xiong feng, A Feeling of Home, Rasputin: The Mad Monk, X… the Unknown, Anomalo fortio, Teorema, Ringo Starr, Fred Wolf, Ellie Kemper, Harry Nilsson, Jordan Peele, Chadwick Boseman, Tex Avery