It’s summer, and that means summer movie blockbusters, and that means old titles arriving on DVD to cash in on the summer movie blockbusters. With THE DARK KNIGHT, THE MUMMY 3, and THE X-FILES looming on the theatrical horizon, we have a flood of related titles arriving on home video. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for something new, THE RUINS arrives in three different versions: an unrated Blu-ray disc, an unrated DVD, and a standard DVD. This well received horror film did lackluster business during its brief tour of theatres; perhaps it will find its audience now. In his review for Cinefantastique Online, Lawrence French wrote that the film ” is quite an intelligent re-imaging of an already overworked area, that still manages to deliver some incredibly visceral shocks and tap into some basic primordial fears, which for horror fans, will make it quite a fun movie to watch.”
The upcoming DARK KNIGHT is a sequel to 2005’s BATMAN BEGINS, which hits shelves this week in two versions: a Blu-ray disc and a Limited Edition Gift Set Blu-ray disc. If that’s not enough Batman to keep you busy, ther eis BATMAN – GOTHAM KNIGHT, a series of six animated adventures penned by the likes of David S. Goyer, Josh Olson, and Alan Burnett. The title is available as a two-disc collector’s edition, a single-disc edition, and a Blu-ray disc.
THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR is a follow-up to THE MUMMY and THE MUMMY RETURNS, each of which reappears on home video this week as a two-disc-deluxe edition. Universal Pictures, the studio behind the franchise, is also releacy a Legacy Series disc of the original 1932 version of THE MUMMY. Universal seems a little slow on the ball here – the film’s 75th anniversary was last year (the studio has previously released 75th anniversary edition DVDs of DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN, both of which made their debut in 1931). Rounding out this block of Universal classic horror derivatives is a two-disc collector’s edition DVDof the somewhat more tangentially related VAN HELSING, in which writer-director Stephen Sommers did not quite manage to recreate the success of his MUMMY recreations, despite hewing close to the same formula (suppressing the horror in favor of light-hearted action-adventure thrills).
X-FILES fans, eagerly awaiting the second feature film, can revisit some of their favorite episodes on the two disc X-FILES REVELATIONS DVD. Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz provide introductions for the pilot episode, “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose,” Memento Mori,” and more. There is also a teaser trailer for the upcoming movie.
Check out these titles and other home video releases for Tuesday, July 8 below, or you can find them here, in the Cinefantastique Online Store.