By Harley Lond - 03/01/23 at 02:00 PM CT
FROM THE BIG SCREEN:
"Puss In Boots: The Last Wish" (2022) Outlaw Puss in Boots discovers that his passion for peril and disregard for safety have taken their toll. Puss has burned through eight of his nine lives, though he lost count along the way. Getting those lives back will send him on his grandest quest yet. So he embarks on an epic journey into the Black Forest to find the mythical Wishing Star and restore his lost lives. But with only one life left, Puss will have to humble himself and ask for help from his former partner and nemesis: the captivating Kitty Softpaws. 
In their quest, Puss and Kitty will be aided - against their better judgment - by a ratty, chatty, relentlessly cheerful mutt, Perrito. Together, the trio has to stay one step ahead of Goldi and the Three Bears Crime Family, Jack Horner and terrifying bounty hunter, the big, bad Wolf. Vitals: Director: Joel Crawford, Januel Mercado. Stars: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Harvey Guillen, Florence Pugh, John Mulaney, Wagner Moura, Ray Winstone, Samson Kayo, Olivia Colman. 2022, CC, MPAA rating: PG, 100 min., Family, North American box office gross: $160.816 million, worldwide $401.801 million, Universal. Formats for Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: DVD, Blu-ray/DVD Combo, 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo, VOD, Digital. Extras: New short “The Trident”; deleted scenes; A Cast of Characters"; "In The Beginning"; Jack Horner’s Line-O-Rama"; “Fearless Hero” lyric video"; "How To Make A Paper Perrito"; "Kitty Cam"; Commentary with director Joel Crawford, co-director Januel Mercado, producer Mark Swift, editor James Ryan and head of story Heidi Jo Gilbert. Read more here
"Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody" (2022) A celebration of the incomparable Whitney Houston, the film is a no-holds-barred portrait of the complex and multifaceted woman behind The Voice. From New Jersey choir girl to one of the best-selling and most awarded recording artists of all time, 
audiences are taken on an inspirational, poignant - and so emotional - journey through Houston's trailblazing life and career, with show-stopping performances and a soundtrack of the icon's most beloved hits as you've never heard them before. Vitals: Director: Kasi Lemmons. Stars: Naomi Ackie, Stanley Tucci, Ashton Sanders, Tamara Tunie, Nafessa Williams, Clarke Peters. 2022, CC, MPAA rating: PG-13, 144 min., Drama, North American box office gross: $23.616 million, worldwide $56.616 million, Sony. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray, VOD, Digital.
THIS WEEK'S BEST BETS:
"Two Films by Marguerite Duras:" Marguerite Duras had already established herself as one of the major figures of postwar French literature when she launched an equally fascinating and unclassifiable career in cinema, translating her elliptical, experimental style to the screen through an unprecedented fusion of hypnotic, highly stylized imagery and radically disjunctive
sound. Boldly reimagining the possibilities of dialogue, music, silence, and architectural space, the tantalizing, sphinxlike evocations of soul-deep female malaise "India Song" (1975) and "Baxter, Vera Baxter" (1977) embody Duras’s singular multisensory approach, with each opening up new spaces for the expression of women’s interior worlds. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray, with new 2K digital restorations, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-rays. From The Criterion Collection. Read more here ... 
"Hollywood Shuffle" (1987): This debut feature by Robert Townsend is an ingenious guerrilla satire that takes riotous aim at the typecasting of Black actors in 1980s Hollywood. The writer-director-star’s megawatt charisma propels "Hollywood Shuffle," the hilarious tale of a struggling actor attempting to break into an industry where the only roles available to Black performers seem to be hustlers, butlers, slaves, and “Eddie Murphy types” - forcing him to choose between selling out and maintaining his self-respect. Lampooning everything from film noir to zombie flicks to Siskel and Ebert, Townsend and co-writer Keenen Ivory Wayans cannily turn the frustrations of the Black artist into a subversively funny pop-culture critique. In a Blu-ray debut, with new, restored 4K digital transfer, approved by writer-director-actor Robert Townsend, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack. From The Criterion Collection. Read more here.BUZZIN' THE 'B's:
Martial arts maestro Sammo Hung brings East and West crashing spectacularly together in "Millionaires' Express" (1986 - Hong Kong). Sammo himself plays Ching Foon-tin, a former outlaw with a wild scheme to make amends with the citizens of his struggling hometown of Hanshui: explosively derail a brand new luxury express train en route from Shanghai so that its super-rich passengers will have no choice but to spend money in the town. He's not the only one with eyes on the passengers' deep pockets, however; a
gang of ruthless bank-robbing bandits are on the way, looking for a priceless map being guarded by a trio of Japanese samurai. Bullets and fists will fill the air in equal measure, but will Hanshui be left standing? Working at the height of his powers alongside regular collaborator Yuen Biao, Sammo makes room for a dizzying line-up of guest appearances from many of the top talents in Hong Kong action cinema, from Shaw Brothers trailblazers like Jimmy Wang Yu to fresh-faced newcomers like Cynthia Rothrock. On Blu-ray from Arrow Video/MVD Entertainment. Read more here ... "B'Twixt Now and Sunrise: The Authentic Cut" (2011) is a new director's cut - and on Blu-ray for the first time - of "Twixt," Francis Ford Coppola's failed horror film. When struggling supernatural fiction writer Hall Baltimore (Val Kilmer) arrives in an isolated small town as part of his book tour, he hears about the local lore of vampires and an infamous mass murder. Eager for inspiration, Baltimore is swept into a surreal fever dream of eccentric characters - from the oddball sheriff (Bruce Dern) to the ghost of a young girl (Elle Fanning) to visions of Edgar Allan Poe (Ben Chaplin) - that forces him to confront his own troubled past. On Blu-ray from Lionsgate.FOREIGN FILMS:
In "Hunt" (2022 - South Korea), after a high-ranking North Korean official requests asylum, KCIA Foreign Unit Chief Park Pyong-ho (Lee Jung-jae) and Domestic Unit Chief Kim Jung-do (Jung Woo-sung) are tasked with uncovering a North Korean spy, known as Donglim, who is deeply embedded within their agency. When the spy begins leaking top secret intel that could jeopardize national security, the two units are each assigned to investigate each other. In this tense situation where, if they cannot find the mole, they may be accused themselves, Pyong-ho and Jung-do slowly start to uncover the truth. In the end, they must deal with an unthinkable plot to assassinate the South Korean president. From Magnolia Pictures/Magnet Label.
FOR THE FAMILY:
In "The Adventures of Jurassic Pet 2: The Lost Secret" (2023), the sequel to 2019's "The Adventures of Jurassic Pet," there's a new baby T. Rex in town-and his name is Junior. When Junior escapes into our world from the Land of the Dinosaurs, teenager Wendy and her friend Curtis must return him safely before anyone finds him. While chasing him in their flying car, they uncover a sinister plot that threatens the whole city. Can Wendy and Curtis stop the evil scheme and protect the townsfolk while keeping their dino-pal a secret? From Lionsgate.
FROM TV TO DISC:
"Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin: The Complete First Season" (2022) is a three-disc set with all 10 episodes. Twenty years ago, a series of tragic events almost ripped the blue-collar town of Millwood apart. Now, in the present day, a group of disparate teen girls - a brand-new set of Little Liars - find themselves tormented by an unknown assailant and made to pay for the secret sin their parents committed two decades ago ... as well as their own. In the dark, coming-of-age horror-tinged drama, we find ourselves miles away from Rosewood, but within the existing Pretty Little Liars universe - in a brand-new town, with a new generation of Little Liars. From HBO Max/Warner.
Check out other new DVD/Blu-ray releases, streaming films, and information and reviews at OnVideo.
