Category: Home Viewing with Peter

The problem with streaming services is that there are so many of them now competing for content that the quality of what they are showing has reached an all-time low. Not only is their original content suffering, so are the theatrically released films they are premiering. Take for example, the most watched film of last…

With the Blu-ray release of Oliver Hermanus’ Living, all but two of the 2022 Oscar nominees in the top 8 categories representing Best Picture, acting, Directing, and Writing have been released for home viewing via either physical media or streaming. The two exceptions are Triangle of Sadness, which is being released on 4K and regular…

Warner Home Video has released 4K Blu-ray upgrades of two of the most popular films from its vast library, 1941’s The Maltese Falcon and 1967’s Cool Hand Luke. John Huston’s film version of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon was his first as director. Already an Oscar nominee for his screenplay of 1940’s Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic…

Edward Berger’s 2022 German remake of Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front is remarkable in many ways, not the least of which is its 4K Blu-ray release, a rare Netflix film to be released on home video and the first to be released so quickly after its Netflix release, a mere five…

One of last year’s most highly anticipated films, Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, opened to mixed reviews and ended up alienating as many people as it pleased. Relatively absent from major awards recognition, it did nab Oscar nominations for its production design, costume design, and score. While it may have deserved to win all three, it won…

Whenever Tom Hanks makes a movie, he is in the conversation for that year’s major acting awards. 2022 was no exception thanks to A Man Called Otto, the Hollywood remake of the 2015 Swedish film (A Man Called Ove) that was nominated for 2 Oscars following its 2016 release in the U.S. This time around,…

The 1936 film version of Camille, newly released on Blu-ray from Warner Archive, was the eighth of fourteen film versions of Alexandre Dumas’ 1848 novel to date. It is also the most famous, featuring Greta Garbo in the title role in the film for which she would be nominated for an Oscar for only the…

Everything Everywhere All at Once is poised to become the first Hollywood film featuring Asians in major roles both before and behind the camera to win above-the-line Oscars. It is considered the favorite to win Best Supporting Actor and a strong contender for Best Picture, Actress, Supporting Actress, Director, and Original Screenplay. Now is a…

This year’s Oscar nominations have been described as the most populist in years. That may be so, but there’s another thing that distinguishes this year’s nominees as being the “most” in years. For the first time since 2019, all the Best Picture nominees have been or soon will be released on home video. The Banshees…

Let’s talk about Steven Spielberg. Spielberg’s The Fabelmans has now been released on Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray, making its availability complete. The question is why was this film that was presumed early on to be the year’s film to beat at the Oscars was such a flop at the box office, and why has Spielberg’s…

Let’s talk about the upcoming Oscars. 11 is a magic number at the Oscars. It represents the number of most awards any film has won, which happened three times with Ben-Hur (1959), Titanic (1997), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2023). It also represents the most nominations received by a…

Paramount has released long overdue Blu-ray upgrades of four of its best, if not necessarily best-known, films of the last forty-two years. Here at last are great looking Blu-rays of 1981’s Gallipoli, 1985’s Young Sherlock Holmes, 1996’s Big Night, and 2007’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Peter Weir’s Gallipoli was the celebrated Australian director’s…

Warner Archive has stepped up production of its Blu-ray upgrades, releasing three more in late January. Production delays have cancelled plans for February releases, but six more are on tap for March. Releasing at the end of January were Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Wife vs. Secretary, and The Long, Long Trailer, all of which, of course,…

Time to discuss a few films I recently caught up with on streaming. Based on Don DeLilio’s 1984 novel, Noah Baumbach’s White Noise, now streaming on Netflix, is a dark comedy set in 1983 dealing with many situations of the day. There were no cell phones, widescreen TVs, home computers, or other commonplace objects of…

Although I had some problems with the ending of James Gray’s Armageddon Time, now out on Blu-ray and DVD, I found this to be one of the best films of 2022. Set in 1980s New York, Gray’s semi-autobiographical film is about a sheltered young Jewish boy (Banks Repeta) who forms a quick friendship with a…