The films of Steven Spielberg have been issued in numerous configurations across every home video format, with 4K UHD now the recipient of a deluxe, limited-edition Steelbook package, STEVEN SPIELBERG: THE SPOTLIGHT COLLECTION (Universal). This eight-film anthology stresses quality over quantity here, involving not just Spielberg’s output for Universal – the home of the director’s 37th feature, “Disclosure Day,” which arrives in theaters this weekend – but Paramount and Columbia/Sony as well. The result is the first time Spielberg’s work from different studios has been celebrated in a single release, capped with beautiful, original theatrical artwork adorning each Steelbook in a highly collectible premium package.
Since I’ve individually reviewed every disc in this set previously, instead of providing a lengthy examination of each movie, here’s a quick rundown of what fans can expect from this Limited Edition collection:
JAWS (124 mins., 1975, PG) recently celebrated its 50th Anniversary and this 3-disc package houses the film in Dolby Vision HDR with its most recent Blu-Ray release plus Laurent Bouzereau’s “Jaws @ 50” documentary on a separate platter (check out Andy’s original review here).
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (132/137 mins., 1977, PG) offers its sole UHD appearance: a 40th Anniversary edition from 2017 that features a UHD, Blu-Ray, and special features disc. The HDR10 transfer still holds up decently but runs a little “hot” in terms of brightness as some Sony titles do from that era – hopefully a Dolby Vision HDR remaster may materialize in 2027, in time for the film’s 50th Anniversary (Andy’s original review).
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (115 mins., 1981, PG) holds up brilliantly in Paramount’s 2021 UHD, highlighted by its vivid Dolby Vision HDR transfer and Atmos sound. (Andy’s original review)
E.T. (115 mins., 1982, PG) hasn’t changed much on UHD since its 2017 debut, with its HDR10 transfer and DTS:X audio still being satisfying today. One does wonder if a Dolby Vision HDR/Atmos redo might be in the cards, but if it hasn’t happened yet…(Andy’s original review)
JURASSIC PARK (126 mins., 1993, PG) received a slightly reworked 4K UHD last year when Universal dropped a new Dolby Vision HDR transfer with Dolby Atmos sound into a Steelbook “Jurassic Park Trilogy” release. The result was a mild enhancement over its 2018 format debut, which featured HDR10 and DTS:X. (Andy’s original review)
SCHINDLER’S LIST (196 mins., 1993, R) finds Universal’s three-disc 2018 UHD/Blu-Ray release intact with striking Dolby Vision HDR and a surprisingly forceful Dolby Atmos audio mix. (Andy’s original review)
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (169 mins., 1998, R) reprises the movie’s reference-quality soundtrack on a Dolby Vision UHD plus the movie’s original two-disc Blu-Ray release. (Andy’s original review)
WAR OF THE WORLDS (116 mins., 2005, PG-13) includes Paramount’s rock-solid 2020 4K UHD with Dolby Vision and Atmos sound, along with its two-disc Blu-Ray configuration. (Andy’s original review)
The Steelbooks are striking in terms of their design, with original posters adorning the front covers (always a fan favorite decision!), shots of Spielberg at work in the interiors, and movie quotes and stills on each respective back cover. Digital HD codes are included plus a note from Spielberg on a numbered insert which limits the set to 5700 copies. While priced as a collectible, this comes strongly recommended, especially for those still building their Spielberg 4K libraries at home.
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Warner Archive New Releases
THE LATE SHOW Blu-Ray (93 mins., 1977, PG; Warner): My first viewing of “The Late Show” came back in 2011, when after watching some old Siskel & Ebert shows, I came across their review of this 1977 Robert Benton film and promptly Netflixed it. I was glad I did, too, as this is a hugely enjoyable “film noir” with Art Carney as an aging detective hired by “fruitcake” Lily Tomlin to find her abducted cat.
The movie is funny and warm, with a mystery that’s just engaging and convoluted enough to keep you watching, but it’s really the performances of Carney and Tomlin that make it so appealing. Strong writing, good characterizations — something we don’t see a whole lot anymore. Superb score by Ken(neth) Wannberg as well, deserving of its own CD release.
“The Late Show” makes its very belated Blu-Ray appearance this month from Warner Archive with a new 4K transfer (1.85, mono) that still seems a bit aged in terms of its elements. A brief Tomlin appearance from the Dinah Shore Show plus the trailer comprise the slender extras.
7 FACES OF DR. LAO Blu-Ray (100 mins., 1964; Warner Archive): Or, “Something Wan This Way Comes.” Pleasant enough George Pal production adapts a Charles Finney novel thanks to “Twilight Zone” vet Charles Beaumont’s screenplay, and serves primarily as a vehicle for Tony Randall, who essays a daffy Chinese man who comes into a struggling Western town and turns its fortunes around – by enabling the self-reflection of its various inhabitants. Randall’s “Oriental” personage is obviously dated but it’s the lack of tension that makes this a bland concoction, still nicely played and scored by Leigh Harline, that’s best remembered by kids of the era. Warner Archive’s Blu-Ray (1.85, mono) sports a lovely new remaster plus a vintage featurette, Tom & Jerry Cartoon and the trailer.
THE FIVE MAN ARMY Blu-Ray (110 mins., 1969, PG; Warner Archive): Surprisingly good Spaghetti western with an eclectic lead cast manages to generate a good head of steam in its second half. Peter Graves and James Daly comprise the American TV leads who are cast here in a “commando squad” sent to rob a train full of gold during the Mexican Revolution, alongside the disparate likes of Italian favorite Bud Spencer and a Samurai played by Testuro Tamba. The set-up takes a bit to get through but this is a pretty lively concoction for its genre, sporting direction by Don Taylor (“Escape From the Planet of the Apes”), an Ennio Morricone score and a script co-authored by future Italian horror meister Dario Argento! The trailer is the sole extra in another good-looking Archive Blu-Ray (1.85, mono).
POSSESSED Blu-Ray (77 mins., 1931; Warner Archive): If you’re a fan of Joan Crawford, Clark Gable or pre-Code movies in general, check out this 1931 MGM drama starring Crawford as a young woman who gets to New York, becomes a factory girl, then has an affair with company man Gable. It doesn’t end well for Crawford’s heroine in this well-regarded picture, which has nothing to do with the 1947 “Possessed” – also, coincidentally, starring Crawford! An MGM “Dogville” comedy short and cartoon are included as supplements in the Archive’s new Blu-Ray (1.37 B&W, mono).
FOLLOW ME QUIETLY Blu-Ray (59 mins., 1949; Warner Archive): Prolific director Richard Fleischer counts this short but sweet 1949 programmer as one that raised his game – an RKO thriller about the hunt for a killer who strikes only when it’s dark and wet outside. Light and shadow play a prominent role in this tension-filled picture which doesn’t overstay its welcome and features a capable turn from William Lundigan as the cop on the killer’s trail. A short and the trailer are included in Warner Archive’s now-available Blu-Ray (1.37 B&W, mono).
IT’S A WISE CHILD Blu-Ray (80 mins., 1931; Warner Archive): Pre-code comedy stars one of the era’s top draws, Marion Davies, as a woman mistakenly thought to be pregnant, but who keeps the charade going in order to avoid marrying an undesirable suitor. James Gleason co-stars in an MGM star vehicle that generated a fair amount of controversy, it appears, in its day due to the subject matter. MGM classic cartoons and shorts are special features in Warner Archive’s Blu-Ray (1.37 B&W, mono).
LOONEY TUNES CARTOONS: The Complete Series Blu-Ray (1050 mins., 2020-24; Warner Archive): Die-hard Looney Tunes fans may have blinked and missed this HBO resurrection of one of the Warner Bros. mainstays – and why not, since the series premiered during COVID on HBO Max, back when a lot of “stuff” was going on. (In fact, I found out it existed when our son came across it while streaming-surfing one day). The good news is Warner Archive is here with a complete series presentation of this underrated and often quite funny series of modern WB cartoon shorts which are a little bit rowdier than one might expect – going after a Seth MacFarlanian type of tone at times – that should give it appeal to older viewers especially. All 82 shorts are presented in good-looking 1080p (1.78) transfers with 5.1 DTS MA sound and a disc of additional web shorts produced between 2024-26. Recommended!
Finally, Monogram cowboy star Johnny Mack Brown toplines both ends of the latest MONOGRAM MATINEE [Volume 3] Blu-Ray release from Warner Archive. Brown plays a ranch hand tasked with finding stolen cattle in UNDER ARIZONA SKIES (60 mins., 1946), while RANGE JUSTICE (57 mins., 1949) finds Johnny Mac helping out “Ma” Curtis from a ranch mutiny. Fun B-movie matinee magic from Monogram, both remastered on Blu-Ray (1.37 B&W, mono) from Warner Archive.
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NICKELODEON Blu-Ray (122/125 mins., 1976, PG; Sony): Peter Bogdanovich’s career got off to a smashing start with “What’s Up Doc?”, “The Last Picture Show” and “Paper Moon” before falling back to Earth at a rapid clip. By the time he went to make “Nickelodeon,” he was coming off back-to-back bombs with “At Long Last Love” and “Daisy Miller,” yet undeterred, Bogdanovich wanted to make a film about Hollywood’s silent era, and found the right vehicle in a pre-existing script by W.D. Richter that became more of an outright comedy in the director’s hands.
“Nickelodeon” didn’t do much better than the director’s previous affairs, and has been a notoriously hard film to find on home video. This double-disc Sony release marks its first appearance on home video since a hard-to-find DVD, presenting both the theatrical version of the movie – with Ryan O’Neal as a lawyer who becomes part of an early group of filmmakers producing silent shorts in an independent manner, much to the chagrin of Hollywood’s big guns – as well as a Director’s Cut restoring a few brief scenes.
This latter cut also drops the studio-mandated color from Laszlo Kovacs’ cinematography and regrades it into the director’s preferred B&W. This may have been what Bogdanovich wanted all along (and he applied the same alterations to his Director’s Cut of “Texasville” before his passing in 2022), yet I’ve never been a fan of taking color-intended films and tweaking them in post-production to suit a director’s whims – it’s one thing if that was the intention from the beginning, but B&W cinematography is usually designed that way from the start, and post-production tinkering like here doesn’t typically yield nearly as strong a result as a movie shot in B&W from the beginning.
Otherwise, viewers can choose between the two versions of “Nickelodeon,” a film with its heart in the right place but one that also strains to be funny and moving. O’Neal is OK opposite Burt Reynolds, Tatum O’Neal, John Ritter, Stella Stevens and model Jane Hitchcock (in the “Cybill Shepherd role”), all of whom are invested in the evocation of time and place Bogdanovich establishes here. Yet, all the film does for the most part is provide a glut of frenetic silliness while being saddled with superficial leads that keep you at arm’s length. Unlike “Paper Moon,” there’s just no connection made between the audience and these characters, as you never care particularly about the journey they’re on.
Sony’s transfer (1.85, 2.0) is superbly encoded with extras including a commentary by Bogdanovich on the Director’s Cut, a video essay by author Peter Tonguette, and a 45-minute audio interview with Richter on the theatrical version, recounting the odd journey his script took to reach the screen.
Alliance New Releases
SCREAM 7 4K UHD (113 mins., 2026, R; Paramount): It’s like old home week – of sorts – for the “Scream” franchise as its leading lady, Neve Campbell, comes back for her first lead turn since the first of the “revival” films along with series creator Kevin Williamson, who directs and co-wrote this seventh entry in the long-running horror franchise. Alas, it’s mostly diminishing returns as a new Ghostface killer heads after Campbell’s Sydney and her daughter (Isabel May) with the assorted lot of goofy young characters and series vets all possible lambs for the slaughter. Younger viewers, I guess, who may not have watched all of the previous films in this series might still be surprised by some of the various plot machinations Williams employs here, but it’s mostly old hat and not very lively in its execution, either. Paramount’s 4K UHD (2.39, Atrmos) includes Dolby Vision HDR, a Making Of, deleted scenes, stunt featurette, McKenna Grace music video, the Blu-Ray and a Digital HD code.
PROTECTOR Blu-Ray (92 mins., 2025, R; Magenta Light): While waiting around for the legal issues keeping “The Expendabelles” from being made to be cleared up, Milla Jovovich starred in this standard thriller involving a former soldier whose daughter is kidnapped. Forced to dive into the underworld to save her, Jovovich’s heroine tries to exact revenge and find her daughter in a rerun of typical “Taken”/”Death Wish” cliches served up by director Adrian Grunberg, the director of the terrible “Rambo: Last Blood.” Magenta Light’s Blu-Ray (2.35, 5.1 DTS MA) is now available.
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THE MASTERMIND Blu-Ray (110 mins., 2026, R; Mubi): Josh O’Connor gives a superb performance in Kelly Reichardt’s film about a bored, unemployed family man who decides to stage a heist at a Massachusetts art museum in the early ‘70s. Recalling an actual art heist in the Boston suburbs from around that time, Reichert provides authentic atmosphere that makes this character study rich and involving, with superb cinematography by Christopher Blauvelt adding to the appeal. Mubi’s Blu-Ray (1.78, 5.1/2.0 DTS MA) is available on June 30th featuring the video essay “The Mastermind: Unwinding The Heist Film.”
Quick Takes
DAY OF THE DEAD Collector’s Edition 4K UHD & Blu-Ray (101/104 mins., R/Unrated, 1985; Shout! Factory): George A. Romero concluded his original trilogy of zombie flicks (at least until his belated “Land of the Dead”) with a disappointingly static, claustrophobic “final” battle highlighted by ample gore effects by Tom Savini. Stuck in an underground bunker for much of its duration, “Day of the Dead” offers a lot of overacting from a mostly unknown cast, eventually providing some thrills late but with a fraction of overall entertainment value of Romero’s earlier “Dawn of the Dead” especially.
Romero devotees will nevertheless love Shout’s 4K UHD, which boasts on UHD a new 4K restoration (1.85) from the interpositive with Dolby Vision HDR and a fresh Atmos remix. You also get 5.1/2.0 and an isolated score/effects option while a new commentary includes Daniel Kraus and critic Drew McWeeny; there are also new interviews with Romero assistant Lori Cardille, composer John Harrison, Suzanne Romero, actor John Amplas, 2nd unit director Ernest Dickerson, and filmmaker Tina Romero. New feaurettes include a restoration documentary plus “Stink of the Dead” while archival extras include behind-the-scenes footage and a Blu-Ray in Shout’s hardbound limited-edition package.
A YARD OF JACKALS Blu-Ray (108 mins., 2024; Indiepix): Tense drama set is in 1975, where Chile’s militaristic rule causes a disabled architect to become obsessed with his new neighbors and their odd activities. Director Diego Figueroa employs a real historical setting as the backdrop for a suitably moody, psychological study of a broken country at a pivotal time in its history, and Indiepix’s Blu-Ray (1.85, 5.1/2.0) includes a picture-in-picture video commentary with Figueroa and Inti Carrizo-Ortiz, a featurette and the trailer.
NEXT TIME: Arrow’s latest including a smashing Jackie Chan 4K box! Until then, don’t forget to drop in on the official Aisle Seat Message Boards and direct any emails to our email address. Cheers everyone!