By Harley Lond - 12/31/19 at 07:44 AM CT
FROM THE BIG SCREEN:
There are no major releases this week.
THIS WEEK'S BEST BETS:
"The Peanut Butter Solution": (1985 -- Canada), starring Mathew Mackay, Siluck Saysanasy, Alison Darcy, Michael Hogan. If you were a child in the 80s, you were likely traumatized for life by repeated viewings of this film on cable or VHS. If you’ve never seen it, nothing can prepare you for the damage that awaits your psyche. For their premiere release, Severin Kids presents the “notoriously strange and creepy” Canadian kiddie feature about burning winos, sudden baldness, psychotic teachers, suburban abductions, juvenile sweatshops and the icky concoction that grows long lustrous pubes. It plays like an Afterschool Special telling kids their hair will fall out, peers will make fun of them, and they will be whisked away to
a demented underworld where Celine Dion sings and children beg for their lives. On DVD, Blu-ray, from Severin Films ... "Primal
": (2019), starring Nicolas Cage, Famke Janssen, Kevin Durand, LaMonica Garrett, Michael Imperioli. A big-game hunter (Nicolas Cage) for zoos has booked passage on a shipping freighter with a fresh haul of exotic and deadly animals from the Amazon, including a rare white Jaguar. Also on the freighter is a political assassin being extradited to the U.S in secret. Two days into the journey, the assassin escapes and releases the captive animals, throwing the ship into chaos. Frank feverishly stalks the ship’s cramped corridors in hot pursuit of his prey. On DVD, Blu-ray, from Lionsgate ... "The Titfield Thunderbolt
" (1953), starring Stanley Holloway, Naunton Wayne, George Relp, John Gregson, Hugh Griffith. A comical and delightful tale of community spirit, written by celebrated Ealing Studios regular and Academy Award-winner T.E.B. Clarke ("The Lavender Hill Mob"), directed by Charles Crichton ("A Fish Called Wanda") the comedy tells the story of the inhabitants of the tiny village of Titfield, who endeavor to prove that their single-track railway is a vital form of transportation in this digitally-restored classic from Ealing Studios, whose output from the 1940s and 1950s helped define the Golden Age for British Cinema and the birthplace of the most delectable crop of films to decorate postwar cinema. After British Railways announce the closure of the Titfield to Mallingford branch line, a group of local residents make a bid to run it themselves, backed by a wealthy member of the community. Unfortunately, this puts them into direct competition with Crump and Pearce, two unsavory characters who own the local bus company who've introduced a brand new single-decker bus to Titfield and are determined to cease the running of the train by means fair or foul. Ealing's first color film, digitally restored. On Blu-ray, from Film Movement Classics.Check out other new DVD/Blu-ray releases, streaming films, and information and reviews at OnVideo.
