This Week in Blu-ray / DVD Releases: Green Room, Allegiant, iZombie

July 12th 2016, 10:21am

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

This Week: A stash of good stuff includes the gutwrenching Green Room, the return of iZombie, and Richard Linklater's flashback to 1980, Everybody Wants Some.

► Jeremy Saulnier follows up his brutal thriller ‘Blue Ruin’ with the even more tense GREEN ROOM. A punk band, led by the late Anton Yelchin, plays a gig at a nasty Nazi skinhead bar in Portland, then find themselves trapped in the green room after stumbling upon a bar patron’s murder. Holed up with the victim’s best friend and a hostage, they enter a battle of wits with the skinheads’ leader, played by a gloriously creepy Patrick Stewart. Some nasty, satisfying thrills here – Saulnier isn’t breaking new ground, but he’s bringing old school John Carpenter/David Fincher skills to the table.

► Any hope the ‘Divergent’ series would be the next ‘Hunger Games’ for Lionsgate was put to rest with ALLEGIANT. The third film in the series pulled in a meek $66 million in North America, less than half of Part 2 (‘Insurgent’) and nowhere near the first film. Once again, dividing the last book of the series into two films yields diminishing returns, as the end game just feels drawn out. The final film, with presumably a huge budget cut, is slated for 2017.

► A sibling of sorts to his classic ‘Dazed and Confused,’ Richard Linklater’s EVERYBODY WANTS SOME transports you to a Texas college in August, 1980, where a freshman pitcher (Blake Jenner) joins the rest of his school baseball team in the house they all share just before the school year starts. Just as he did with ‘Dazed,’ Linklater perfectly captures the teenage experience of the era, and he nails the buffet of different music dominating radio that summer, when country, disco and new wave were all duking it out. Soundtrack includes Blondie, The Cars, Van Halen and The Sugarhill Gang. Did nothing in theatres, but this one will no doubt find its audience over the next few years.

► Rob Thomas’ iZOMBIE on The CW has been a godsend for those of us who dearly miss his ‘Veronica Mars’ – same spunky writing, cheeky characters and touch of mystery. Only this one has zombies. Based on the Vertigo comic, it has the very Veronica-ish Rose McIver as a medical student infected with a condition which will turn her into the undead unless she has a steady serving of brains. The problem is, she also ingests the recent memories stored in those brains. Season 2 offers a robust 19 episodes (Season 1 had 13).

► They get no buzz. You probably don’t know anyone who sees them. And yet, Christian ‘faith-based’ movies have become a genuine player at the box office. Take MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN, based on the true memoir of a 10-year-old girl who has a disease in which she can’t physically eat. After falling three stories into the hollow of a tree, she’s suddenly cured. Praise Jesus! Jennifer Garner plays the mom. The real miracle? This thing made over $61 million at the box office and is currently the 23rd biggest movie of 2016.

► Criterion turns its attention to one of the most influential horror movies ever made with 1962’S CARNIVAL OF SOULS. Its imprint was felt as far as ‘The Sixth Sense’ nearly 40 years later, and its low budget brilliance – aided by an unnerving organ score – still sends chills. Newly restored 4K transfer includes the 1989 doc on the film ‘The Movie That Wouldn’t Die!’, selected commentary with director Herk Harvey and a look at the film’s creepy locations. There’s a bit of this amazing flick in pretty much every David Lynch movie ever made.

► Alas, the French thriller ROAD GAMES is not a remake of the 1981 Jamie Lee Curtis flick ‘Roadgames’ (one of her better-than-average horror efforts). This one finds two drifters traveling the French countryside who accept a ride from the wrong psycho who brings them home to meet the local ‘road kill collector.’ With Barbara Crampton and Andrew Simpson.

► After several spacey flicks in the ‘70s, Ken Russell finally earned some critical acclaim with the 1981 sci-fi flick ‘Altered States.’ For the follow-up three years later, he made the laughably sleazy CRIMES OF PASSION, with Kathleen Turner as prostitute named China Blue who starts falling for an electronics salesman originally hired to spy on her. Complicating things is a sex-obsessed reverend played by Anthony Perkins who wants to ‘save’ her. Arrow Video blu-ray includes the 107-minute unrated version and the 112-minute director’s cut.

Also out this week: