Now on Blu-ray: The latest movie releases on disc

If you want to kick back and enjoy a movie at home, you could stream it, and that’s a serviceable option—unless of course your video stream is interrupted or degraded by traffic congestion or an unreliable connection. Or you could enjoy your movie on a Blu-ray or DVD disc, avoiding those issues altogether and getting the added benefit of special features and commentary, as well adding another piece of entertainment to your collection.

For your consideration, we present 10 worthwhile movies that have recently come to disc. Our emphasis is on the Blu-ray format, but we make note of whether Ultra HD Blu-ray (4K) is also an option.

Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

20th Century Fox

Writer (Cloverfield, The Martian) and director (The Cabin in the Woods) Drew Goddard turns in his second feature, Bad Times at the El Royale, with this Tarantino-influenced multi-character crime piece, set at a single location (a hotel built right on the border between California and Nevada). It runs a little too long and it doesn’t have much crackle, but it has a few dazzling moments, mostly involving a secret corridor running behind all the rooms. Big stars Jeff Bridges, Jon Hamm, and Chris Hemsworth are weirdly less interesting than the lesser-known cast members: Cynthia Erivo, as a struggling singer, and Lewis Pullman, as a meek, emotionally tormented desk clerk.

• Format: Blu-ray
• Release date: January 1
• Company: 20th Century Fox
• Audio: 7.1 DTS-HD (English), Dolby Digital 5.1 (Spanish, French)
• Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
• Resolution: 1080p
• Region A
• Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
• Running time: 140 minutes
• MPAA rating: R for strong violence, language, some drug content and brief nudity
• Digital copy: Yes
• DVD: Yes
• 4K: Sold separately
• Bonus features: “Making Bad Times at the El Royale” (29 mins.); photo gallery; teaser trailer; theatrical trailer
• SRP: $34.99

The Equalizer 2 (2018)

Sony

Denzel Washington makes the first sequel of his career, slipping back into the role of former secret agent Robert McCall as if he’d never been away. He’s cool and commanding, and makes The Equalizer 2 worth seeing. Director Antoine Fuqua and screenwriter Richard Wenk are also back with more of the same, some rather traditional screenwriting and some excellent action sequences. Ashton Sanders (Moonlight) plays a young man who hopes to be an artist, whom McCall takes under his wing. As with the first film, the final showdown is a show-stopper; this one is in a small fishing community as the beginning of a huge storm roils in the background, causing structures to creak and groan as the first spatters of rain fall. Bill Pullman, Melissa Leo, and Orson Bean co-star, the latter in a surprisingly moving coda.

• Format: Blu-ray
• Release date: December 11
• Company: Sony
• Audio: 7.1 DTS-HD (English), 5.1 DTS-HD (French), Dolby Digital 5.1 (Spanish, Thai)
• Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
• Resolution: 1080p
• Region A
• Subtitles: English, English SDH, and 10 other languages
• Running time: 121 minutes
• MPAA rating: R for brutal violence throughout, language, and some drug content
• Digital copy: Yes
• DVD: Yes
• 4K: Sold separately
• Bonus features: “Retribution Mode” (a series of behind-the-scenes extras that play during the film); deleted and extended scenes (23 mins.); featurettes: “Denzel as McCall: Round Two” (7 mins.), “Seconds Till Death: Action Breakdown” (5 mins.), and “Through Antoine’s Lens: The Cast” (6 mins.); TV promos; pop-up trivia track; previews for other Sony titles.
• SRP: $19.99

Forty Guns (1957)

Criterion Collection

Director Samuel Fuller was one of the most explosive in history, a former newspaper reporter who fought in WWII. It is said that his dialogue was like headlines. Specializing in crime movies, war movies, and Westerns, Forty Guns (1957) is one of his most interesting, focusing on a tough female rancher, Jessica Drummond (a platinum Barbara Stanwyck), who inadvertently launches a war when her brother (John Ericson) kills the local sheriff. Fuller’s brilliant widescreen framing is heavy on masculine symbolism (some critics considered it a “Freudian Western”) as well as wild trashy fun. Barry Sullivan and Dean Jagger co-star.

• Format: Blu-ray
• Release date: December 11
• Company: Criterion Collection
• Audio: Uncompressed Mono
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Resolution: 1080p
• Region A
• Subtitles: English
• Running time: 80 minutes
• MPAA rating: Not rated
• Digital copy: No
• DVD: Sold separately
• 4K: No
• Bonus features: New interview with director Samuel Fuller’s widow, Christa Lang Fuller, and daughter, Samantha Fuller; “A Fuller Life” (2013), a feature-length documentary by Samantha Fuller about her father; audio interview with Samuel Fuller at London’s National Film Theatre from 1969; new interview with critic Imogen Sara Smith, author of “In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City;” stills gallery; liner notes booklet with an essay by film scholar Lisa Dombrowski and a chapter from Fuller’s posthumously published 2002 autobiography, “A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting, and Filmmaking.”
• SRP: $27.99

The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)

Universal

Director Eli Roth is known—and has a small, fervent fan base—for his horrendous, inept, and vile cinematic wreckages of gore and violence, notably the Hostel movies but also sinking all the way down to remakes of The Green Inferno and Death Wish. But suddenly he turned it all around with The House with a Clock in Its Walls, an enjoyable, kid-friendly fantasy full of action, jaw-dropping visuals, and even some decent slapstick. (Think: Jumanji or Spy Kids.) When his parents die in an accident, young Lewis (Owen Vaccaro) goes to live with his uncle Jonathan (Jack Black) and his neighbor, Mrs. Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett); it turns out they are witches/warlocks who are desperately trying to uncover the secret of the clock in the house before… ahem… time runs out. The House with a Clock in Its Walls is a little dark for younger or more sensitive children, but for others it’s a zany, somewhat spooky ride.

• Format: Blu-ray
• Release date: December 18
• Company: Universal
• Audio: Dolby Atmos (English), Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (English), DTS-HD HR 7.1 (Spanish, French)
• Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
• Resolution: 1080p
• Region A
• Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
• Running time: 105 minutes
• MPAA rating: PG for thematic elements including sorcery, some action, scary images, rude humor and language
• Digital copy: Yes
• DVD: Yes
• 4K: Available separately
• Bonus features: Audio Commentary by director Eli Roth and star Jack Black; alternate opening and ending with optional commentary; deleted scenes, with optional commentary (9 mins.); gag reel (3 mins.); featurettes: “Warlocks and Witches,” “Movie Magic,” “Tick Tock: Bringing the Book to Life,” “Eli Roth: Director’s Journals,” “Owen Goes Behind the Scenes,” “Theme Song Challenge,” “Do You Know Jack Black?”, “Abracadabra!”, “Jack Black’s Greatest Fear,” and “The Mighty Wurlitzer.”
• SRP: $34.98

Méliès: Fairy Tales in Color (2018)

Flicker Alley

Flicker Alley has released several Georges Méliès sets before, but this one is perhaps its most ambitious collection. While Méliès began—in the 1890s—with simple little “magic trick” films, he quickly grew more ambitious and told longer stories with bigger effects. This collection features 13 of these from between 1899 and 1909, including the famous A Trip to the Moon (1902), with its shot of the rocketship crashing into the moon’s eye, surely one of cinema’s greatest indelible images. (Most people will recognize the picture, even if they don’t know the film.) Other shorts include versions of Joan of Arc, Robinson Crusoe, Rip Van Winkle, and Jules Verne’s The Impossible Voyage, with hand-coloring and three optional audio tracks: English narration, French narration, or music only.

• Format: Blu-ray
• Release date: December 18
• Company: Flicker Alley
• Audio: Music, English narration, French narration, all 2.0 Dolby Digital
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Resolution: 1080p
• Region A
• Subtitles: none
• Running time: 145 minutes
• MPAA rating: Not rated
• Digital copy: No
• DVD: Yes
• 4K: No
• Bonus features: A 28-page souvenir booklet.
• SRP: $36.95

Mid90s (2018)

A24

Two-time Oscar-nominee Jonah Hill makes his feature directing debut, and also wrote the screenplay, for Mid90s, the powerful story of a 13-year-old Los Angeles kid who falls in—and finds a family—with a pack of skateboarders. Though Hill’s touch is simple and observant, and almost documentary-like, the story’s emotions run high, from joyous, as when Stevie (Sunny Suljic) first learns to stay on his board, to harrowing, as when he’s pummeled by his bullying older brother (Lucas Hedges). Na-kel Smith is commanding as Ray, the most talented and responsible of the skaters, and Katherine Waterston plays the boys’ bewildered mom. The great soundtrack includes incidental music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, as well as an energizing collection of ‘90s hip-hop.

• Format: Blu-ray
• Release date: January 8
• Company: A24
• Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD (English), English Descriptive
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Resolution: 1080p
• Region A
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
• Running time: 85 minutes
• MPAA rating: R
• Digital copy: Yes
• DVD: No
• 4K: No
• Bonus features: Audio commentary track by writer/director Jonah Hill and director of photography Christopher Blauvelt; deleted scenes (3 mins.); trailers.
• SRP: $24.99

The Predator (2018)

20th Century Fox

The latest Predator movie was a huge disappointment to just about everyone, except for fans of writer/director Shane Black, of Lethal Weapon and Iron Man 3; they know that Black has a gleeful penchant for embracing action-movie cliches and turning them upside-down. So, despite its haphazard plot—about a regular-sized Predator, a new, bigger, more highly-evolved one, and a kid on the autism spectrum who can communicate with them,The Predator is a fast, funny collection of scenes that spring directly from cheesy 1950s sci-fi classics, but fresh and fun; it’s like a kid playing with toys. The cast includes Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, Jacob Tremblay, Olivia Munn, Sterling K. Brown, Thomas Jane, and Keegan-Michael Key.

• Format: Blu-ray
• Release date: December 18
• Company: 20th Century Fox
• Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (English), Dolby Digital 5.1 (Spanish, French)
• Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
• Resolution: 1080p
• Region A
• Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
• Running time: 107 minutes
• MPAA rating: R for strong bloody violence, language throughout, and crude sexual references
• Digital copy: Yes
• DVD: Yes
• 4K: Available separately
• Bonus features: Deleted scenes (7 mins.); featurettes: “A Touch of Black” (10 mins.), “Predator Evolution” (20 mins.), “The Takedown Team” (16 mins.), and “Predator Catch Up” (9 mins.); photo gallery; theatrical trailers.
• SRP: $34.99

Smallfoot (2018)

Warner Home Video

While not entirely original—it resembles Pixar’s Monsters, Inc.—the computer-animated feature Smallfoot is a surprisingly winning movie. The characters quickly grow on you, the jokes (including a selection of Looney Tunes-like slapstick) are funny, the songs are catchy, and the message is solid—and timely. Channing Tatum voices Migo, who is happy to live in the yeti community at the top of a mountain, protected by a ring of clouds. That is, until he learns of the existence of humans (“smallfoot”) and begins to question everything. Common voices the Stone Keeper, who tries to keep everything the way it is, and Zendaya voices the Stone Keeper’s daughter Meechee, who leads a secret society of truth-seekers. Danny DeVito voices Migo’s father, and James Corden is the “smallfoot,” the host of a TV animal show.

• Format: Blu-ray
• Release date: December 11
• Company: Warner Home Video
• Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD (English), English Descriptive, Dolby Digital 5.1 (French, Spanish, Portuguese)
• Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
• Resolution: 1080p
• Region A
• Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese
• Running time: 96 minutes
• MPAA rating: PG for some action, rude humor, and thematic elements
• Digital copy: Yes
• DVD: Yes
• 4K: No
• Bonus features: Play movie in regular version or in “Yeti Set Go Sing-Along” version; “Super Soozie” Mini Movie (2 mins.), “Migo in the Secret of the Yeti Stones” (4 mins.), “Yeti or Not, Here They Come! Imagining Smallfoot” featurette (6 mins.); 3 music videos (“Finally Free,” “Moment of Truth,” and “Wonderful Life: In 28 Languages, Sung Around the World”); promotional materials.
• SRP: $22.99

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

Unquestionably one of the greatest films ever made, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey was shockingly modern when it was first released, and has barely aged in 50 years. With consummate artistry, framing, rhythm, use of sound and music, it explores profound themes of humankind and the ways in which its tools changes it over the centuries, from an ape using a bone as a weapon, to astronauts putting their trust in a computer called HAL-9000. It’s about birth and death and re-birth, and the strange, swirling finale has had viewers puzzling—or just going along for the ride—for five decades. Arthur C. Clarke co-wrote the screenplay, based on his own story. Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, and William Sylvester co-star, with the voice of Douglas Rain.

• Format: Blu-ray
• Release date: December 18
• Company: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
• Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD (English: restored and remixed & original 1968 audio options), English Descriptive, Dolby Digital 5.1 (French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish)
• Aspect ratio: 2.20:1
• Resolution: 1080p
• Region A
• Subtitles: 29 different languages
• Running time: 149 minutes
• MPAA rating: G
• Digital copy: Yes
• DVD: No
• 4K: Yes
• Bonus features: Audio Commentary by Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood; featurettes: “2001: The Making of a Myth” (43 mins.), “Standing on the Shoulders of Kubrick: The Legacy of 2001” (21 mins.), “Vision of a Future Passed: The Prophecy of 2001” (21 mins.), “2001: A Space Odyssey: A Look Behind the Future” (23 mins.), “What Is Out There?” (21 mins.), “2001: FX and Conceptual Artwork” (10 mins.), and “Look: Stanley Kubrick!” (3 mins.); audio interview with Stanley Kubrick from 1966; trailer; liner notes booklet and still cards.
• SRP: $41.99

Venom (2018)

Sony Pictures

Seemingly a spinoff so that Sony could keep control of a character from the lucrative Spider-Man franchise, Venom was viciously savaged by critics, who labeled it a disaster, but fans clamored to see it nonetheless, and it became a huge hit. Certainly, it’s possible to watch the film without taking it too seriously, and to have a measure of fun. It’s surprising how the marble-mouthed Tom Hardy managed to inject humor into the bizarre, nonsensical character Eddie Brock, having frantic discussions with the alien symbiote that lives in his body and turns into a powerful suit when needed. Michelle Williams co-stars as Eddie’s angry ex-girlfriend, with Riz Ahmed, Jenny Slate, and Melora Walters. Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) directed.

• Format: Blu-ray
• Release date: December 18
• Company: Sony Pictures
• Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD (English, French), English Descriptive, French Descriptive, 5.1 (Spanish)
• Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
• Resolution: 1080p
• Region A
• Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish
• Running time: 112 minutes
• MPAA rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and for language
• Digital copy: Yes
• DVD: Yes
• 4K: Sold separately
• Bonus features: “Venom Mode” (popups throughout the film with insight to the character’s relationship to the comics and hidden references), deleted and extended scenes (5 mins.); featurettes: “From Symbiote to Screen” (20 mins.), “The Anti-Hero” (10 mins.), “The Lethal Protector in Action,” “Venom Vision,” “Designing Venom,” “Symbiote Secrets,” and “Select Scenes: Pre-Vis;” music videos: “Venom” by Eminem, “Sunflower” by Post Malone, Swae Lee (from “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”); sneak peek of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”
• SRP: $38.99