Evans Above

The psychological thriller series You, based on the books by Caroline Kepnes, premiered on Lifetime in 2018, before moving to Netflix for seasons two through five. Penn Badgley stars as Joe, whose handsome and literate exterior hides a dangerous and psychopathic inner life. Over the seasons, the cast also includes Elizabeth Lail, Luca Padovan, Zach Cherry, Shay Mitchell, Victoria Pedretti, Carmela Zumbado, Jenna Ortega, James Scully, Ambyr Childers, Saffron Burrows, Tati Gabrielle, Shalita Grant, Travis Van Winkle, Charlotte Ritchie, Tilly Keeper, Amy-Leigh Hickman, Ed Speleers, Lukas Gage, Madeline Brewer, Anna Camp, and Griffin Matthews. Warner Bros. has now released You: The Complete Series on DVD and thanks to Allied Vaughn and Warner Bros. I was able to get a look. The WB likes disclaimers, so here goes: Though Warner Brothers provided me with a copy of this release to review, the thoughts and opinions below are mine.

I should probably just save this next bit as a text shortcut. People ask, “Why isn’t this show on Blu-ray, it was HD on the streaming services?” A lot of it boils down to economics. There’s a market for shows on home media as people don’t always want to have another monthly bill or be subject to the whims of a streamer that may decide to no longer keep a show in their library. It’s not a huge market for most shows. So while something like Game of Thrones might sell enough to merit a Blu-ray or 4K release, for most studios it still makes sense to release TV shows on DVD. You: The Complete Series is presented in a 16:9 aspect ratio. Though obviously not as sharp and detailed as a Blu-ray, the video presentation looks quite good but does have some softness. The 50 episodes of the series are spread over 12 discs, but with about 4-5 episodes a disc, I would like to have seen a few more discs to lower the compression a bit and give the picture more room to “breathe.”

On the audio side of things, there’s a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Subtitles are available for English SDH. Though not the most immersive experience, ambient effects put us in Joe’s world. Dialogue is clear and centred in the mix.

You: The Complete Series DVD is presented on twelve MOD DVD discs. It does not come with a digital code nor any supplemental materials.

You was a very popular Netflix series, with dedicated fans. If You love the series and don’t want to be subject to the whims or fees of a streamer, then You’ll want to pick up You: The Complete Series on DVD.

Bennett Miller’s 2011 biographical sports drama Moneyball was adapted by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin from Michael Lewis’ book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. The film looks at the 2002 season of the Oakland Athletics and studies how GM Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) used sabermetrics to assemble a winning team for a much lower salary than the team’s wealthy competitors. Jonah Hill’s character, Peter Brand, introduces him to the mathematical study of stats that favours things like a team’s overall on-base percentage over individual success. Brand is based on Paul DePodesta, who asked for his name to be removed when he thought the script no longer accurately portrayed him. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays manager Art Howe, Robin Wright is Beane’s ex-wife Sharon, with Chris Pratt and Stephen Bishop as two of the players. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (we covered the red carpet) and went on to earn Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound Mixing. Sony has now released the film on 4K and thanks to them and Allied Vaughn, I was able to take a look.

The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded native 4K digital transfer is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The video transfer is a standard dynamic range (SDR) presentation as apparently director Miller made the decision not to do high dynamic range (HDR) processing. The presentation has crisp detail on facial features, textiles and locations, and there is a nice film grain. The colour palette looks good from muted greens to the popping primaries and sunshine in the ballparks. There’s no crush or loss of detail in darker scenes. It may not have HDR, but I really don’t feel like we’re missing much here.

On the audio side of things, you have the choice of English, French, and Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, French, and Spanish. The 5.1 mix does put us in the offices and locker room, but with Zaillian and Sorkin writing the script dialogue is always going to be the focus, so not getting an Atmos upgrade isn’t really a problem.

NOTE: Some outlets and consumers received an earlier version of the release that had an issue with the low frequency effects channel in the audio mix. Sony and Allied Vaughn set up a replacement program. If you have an affected disk, contact MovieZyng customer support. According to posts online, the fixed version has a UPC SKU of 043396647381.

The Moneyball 4K disc does come with a US-only digital code. Extras include deleted scenes, a Brad Pitt blooper reel, a piece where Michael Lewis, Bennett Miller, Aaron Sorkin and Billy Beane discuss the game, the novel and bringing it to the screen, a piece on casting the team, a look at recreating the games of the 2002 season, a piece on the screenplay adaptation, and a theatrical trailer.

Moneyball combines baseball, a great cast, and great audio and video with a nice selection of extras. While some 4K sticklers may decry the lack of Dolby Atmos and an HDR pass, this is still a recommended day at the ballpark.

Henry King’s 1952 film The Snows of Kiliminjaro is based on Ernest Hemingway’s 1936 short story of the same name. Gregory Peck stars as Harry Street, a writer who is slowly dying from a gangrene infection he received while on safari. He is tended to by his companion, Helen (Susan Hayward), and as he lies there, he reflects upon his life, and his love for Cynthia (Ava Gardner) when the two were part of the Lost Generation in Paris. The film was a commercial success and was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, Color and Best Art Direction, Color. Film Masters has released the film on Blu-ray as part of their Archive Collection. Thanks to them and Allied Vaughn, I was able to take a look.

The 1080p AVC encoded digital transfer is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. I don’t have detailed notes on what restoration was done, but given the quality of the presentation, I assume the quality of the sources varied. There is some good detail in some textiles and locations, but the grain appears to have been smoothed away with faces almost appearing waxy at times. I wasn’t sure if I was watching Gregory Peck or his Madame Tussauds waxwork. The colour palette still looks pretty good, from the muted tones on safari to the popping primaries of Paris, but stock footage of Africa seems quite faded and flesh tones sometimes seem off.

On the audio side of things, there’s an English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono soundtrack. English subtitles are available. The mono soundtrack is chock full of ambient effects. Though there is occasional hisses and pops, the dialogue and score fare well in the mix.

The Blu-ray of The Snows of Kiliminjaro does not come with a digital copy. Par for the course of Film Masters’ Archive Collection it does not contain extras either, unlike Film Masters’ Special Editions which bubble over with supplements.

The Snows of Kiliminjaro was the third highest grossing U.S. film of 1952, but it doesn’t hold a place in our memories like the lower-grossing 1952 films High Noon and Singin’ in the Rain. If you’re a Peck completionist, you may want this Blu-ray release, but the video presentation stops it from being recommended when, as a public domain film, it’s available everywhere.

Film Chest Media Group has released Dark Film Mysteries IV on DVD. A collection of 12 film noir titles, it has over 17 hours of guns, gangsters, femme fatales, and bad life decisions. The twelve films in this three-disc set are: The Big Combo, Borderline, The Chase, The Second Woman, Too Late for Tears, The Naked Kiss, Please Murder Me!, St. Louis Bank Robbery, Dishonored Lady, The Kennel Murder Case, The Man with the Golden Arm, and The Man Who Cheated Himself. The casts of these dozen movies include Mary Astor, Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak, Lee J. Cobb, Cornel Wilde, Fred MacMurray, Raymond Burr, Robert Cummings, Peter Lorre, Robert Young, Angela Lansbury, and Steve McQueen.

• The Big Combo, from 1955, was directed by Joseph H. Lewis and stars Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte and Brian Donlevy, and Jean Wallace alongside Lee Van Cleef, Earl Holliman, and Helen Walker. Wilde plays a police lieutenant obsessed with bringing down a sadistic gangster.
• Borderline, from 1950, was directed by William A. Seiter and stars Fred MacMurray and Claire Trevor as two agents both working undercover to take down a smuggler (Raymond Burr).
• The Chase, from 1946, was helmed by Arthur Ripley and stars Robert Cummings, Steve Cochran, Michèle Morgan, and Peter Lorre. Cummings is a veteran with PTSD who ends up as driver for a mobster. Things go further downhill when he tries to help the mobster’s wife get away from her cruel husband.
• The Second Woman, from 1950, was directed by James V. Kern and stars Robert Young, Betsy Drake, John Sutton, and Florence Bates. Young plays a successful architect whose fiancée died in a mysterious car crash. When a series of accidents begin happening around him, the question arises: Is someone trying to kill him or is his mental state imagining these dangers?
• Too Late for Tears, released in 1949, was directed by Byron Haskin and stars Lizabeth Scott, Don DeFore, and Dan Duryea. When a couple has $60,000 tossed in their car, he wants to turn it in and she wants to keep it. She ends up working with a tough guy on her plan, but how will that work out for all involved?
• The Naked Kiss, a 1964 film directed by Samuel Fuller, stars Constance Towers, Anthony Eisley, Michael Dante, and Virginia Grey. In this Sixties noir, Fuller explores themes of prostitution, corruption, and child abuse.
• Please Murder Me!, from 1956, was directed by Peter Godfrey and stars Angela Lansbury, Raymond Burr, and Dick Foran. Burr plays a suave defence attorney who is involved with a woman (Lansbury) accused of murdering her husband. As the case concludes, layers of greed and deception become evident.
• The St. Louis Bank Robbery, also known as The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery, is a 1959 film directed by Charles Guggenheim that stars Steve McQueen as a college dropout hired as a getaway driver. The film also stars Crahan Denton, David Clarke, and Martha Gaye.
• Dishonored Lady, a 1947 film directed by Robert Stevenson, stars Hedy Lamarr, Dennis O’Keefe and John Loder, and William Lundigan. Lamarr plays a fashion editor. When a former lover is found dead, she becomes the prime suspect.
• The Kennel Murder Case, from 1933, was directed by Michael Curtiz and stars William Powell, Mary Astor, and Eugene Pallette. Powell plays detective Philo Vance, who is investigating the murder of a dog show competitor with more enemies than trophies.
• The Man with the Golden Arm, a 1955 film, was directed by Otto Preminger and stars Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak, Eleanor Parker, and Darren McGavin. Sinatra plays Frankie Machine, a card dealer and recovering addict who finds himself tempted when he’s released from prison. He has dreams for his life, but the old life beckons. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards.
• The Man Who Cheated Himself, from 1950, was directed by Felix E. Feist and stars Lee J. Cobb, Jane Wyatt, and John Dall. Cobb plays a homicide detective, Ed Cullen, who’s romantically entangled with a wealthy socialite. When she kills her abusive husband, Cullen covers it up and attempts to misdirect the investigation.

The twelve films are all presented in their original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. They have all fallen into the public domain due to lapsed or incorrect copyright filings and can be found in many outlets in varying states of quality. Film Chest has collected these films into these good budget collections, but as they themselves state in the line notes, the films having varying quality in their source materials. Film Chest has done their best to do some restoration but the films do have some issues. Some have visible scratches. Some scenes have dropped frames. Some of the scenes are very dark and lose detail. While this isn’t a perfect, and expensive, frame by frame restoration done from original negatives, I do applaud Film Chest for curating these film noir films and presenting them in an easily accessible and affordable collection that allows someone exploring film noir to get their foot in the door.

On the audio side of things, the films come with English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono soundtracks. Subtitles are available for English, but note you have to choose the captions from your player’s menu as a subtitles option is not on the DVD menu screen. As with the video, source quality does fluctuate, so the audio does have the occasional hiss and pop.

Dark Film Mysteries IV presents the twelve movies in a three-disc DVD set. There is no digital code and there are no supplemental materials. There is a four-page glossy insert with synopses and poster art. The film posters are also displayed in the DVD menus.

Dark Film Mysteries IV is a budget-friendly way to get an introduction to the film noir genre, giving you twelve films and seventeen hours of entertainment. Yes, the audio and video quality can fluctuate, but I’m still able to tip my hat to Film Chest for compiling these films that most streaming services would just ignore in favour of the latest franchise flick.

Warner Brothers has released Task: The Complete First Season on Blu-ray. Task, an HBO series, follows Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo), a former priest turned FBI agent. Brandis has recently been working as a recruiter following a family tragedy, but is ordered to run a joint task force investigating the armed robberies of gang-run trap houses. The robberies are being committed by Robbie Prendergrast (Tom Pelphrey) and his associates. The cast also includes Emilia Jones, Thuso Mbedu, Raúl Castillo, Jamie McShane, Sam Keeley, Fabien Frankel, Alison Oliver, Silvia Dionicio, and Martha Plimpton. Thanks to Allied Vaughn and Warner Brothers, I had a chance to take a look. The WB likes disclaimers, so here goes: Though Warner Brothers and Allied Vaughn provided me with a copy of this release to review, the thoughts and opinions below are mine.

The 1080p AVC encoded digital transfer is presented in a 2.00:1 aspect ratio. The detail is excellent in this video presentation, whether we’re looking at the facial features, clothing or outdoor and set environments. The colour palette is muted with lots of faded greens and dusty yellows which lend themselves to the grit of the story. When there is a pop of bright colour, you really notice it.

On the audio side of things, we have an English DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. Subtitles are available for English SDH. The soundscape makes excellent use of the surrounds for both ambient and action sounds that place you into the environment. Dialogue is clear and prioritized in mix.

Task: The Complete First Season places its seven episodes over three Blu-ray discs. There is no digital code. Extras include “Task Unmasked” pieces for each episode which feature behind-the-scenes info and interviews, as well as a piece where the cast must guess Philly slang.

Task: The Complete First Season features an excellent cast combines with an equally excellent audio and video presentation. Toss in a nice selection of extras that most TV releases don’t have and I’d say the Task: The Complete First Season Blu-ray is recommended.

It: Welcome to Derry is a horror TV series inspired by the Stephen King novel It and acts as a prequel to the movies It and It: Chapter II. The HBO series is set in 1962, as the Hanlon family moves to Derry just as a young boy disappears, It delves into the origin story of Pennywise and the life of the people affected by the disappearances as a group of kids start investigating what’s happening. The series stars Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, James Remar, Stephen Rider, Clara Stack, Amanda Christine, and Mikkal Karim-Fidler. Bill Skarsgård reprises his role as Pennywise. Thanks to Warner Brothers, I was able to take a look at the release of It: Welcome to Derry – The Complete First Season 4K. The WB likes disclaimers, so here goes: Though Warner Brothers provided me with a copy of this release to review, the thoughts and opinions below are mine.

The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded native 4K digital transfer with Dolby Vision and HDR10 is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The sharpness and detail are top-notch, whether we’re examining facial features, Pennywise’s makeup, the period costumes, or the sets and natural environments. The colour palette is wide, from muted tones, bright yellows and cool blues, while the black levels are deep with no loss of detail in darker scenes. It’s just a really nice presentation.

On the audio side of things, you have the choice of an English Dolby Atmos soundtrack that folds back to Dolby TrueHD 7.1 as well as French, German, Italian, and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1. Subtitles are available for English SDH, French, German SDH, Italian SDH, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish. The soundtrack in It: Welcome to Derry is immersive, which when you’re dealing with a horror movie, really ramps up the scares and jumps. The ambient sounds put you into the scenes, there’s enough low end to add “oomph” when “oomph” is needed, and the dialogue is clear and prioritized in the mix.

The It: Welcome to Derry – The Complete First Season 4K does not come with a digital code. There is a one page episode guide. The eight episodes are spread over three 4K discs. The discs do have some extras, including “Inside Derry” pieces for each episode, on overview featurette, a piece on becoming Pennywise, and a look at the human horror in Derry. A SteelBook case version is available for those who like collecting those.

The It: Welcome to Derry – The Complete First Season 4K does a good job expanding on the origins of Pennywise. The release combines a really good cast (both stars and expanded supporting roles) with excellent audio and video presentations. Recommended.

Frank Tuttle’s This Is the Night is a 1932 pre-Code comedy that marks the film debut of Cary Grant. Being pre-Code, the movie has fun with infidelity as Olympian Stephen Mathewson (Grant) arrives home early from the Games. His wife, Claire (Thelma Todd), has planned a romantic getaway to Venice with her lover, Gerald (Roland Young). Stephen is told it’s actually a couples getaway and suddenly Gerald must find a fake wife. He ends up hiring a French actress, Germaine (Lili Damita), but will the deception actually work? The cast also includes Charles Ruggles, who manages to throw additional wrenches in the plans as Gerald’s friend, Bunny. Universal is releasing this film as they hold the rights to much of Paramount’s pre-1950 library. Thanks to them and Allied Vaughn, I had a chance to take a look at this Blu-ray release.

The 1080p AVC encoded digital transfer is presented in a 1.37:1 aspect ratio. The disc actually contains two versions of the film: a black and white version and a version where night scenes have a blue tint. It was my first time encountering this, so I looked around. Apparently, the tinting practice was a bit of a holdover from the silent days. The tinting not only helped give the night scenes a different mood, but also in 1932 lighting low-light scenes was more difficult, so these were shot in lighter conditions and then tinted to help designate night. It’s great that they were included in this release. Moving on from our 1932 cinematography lesson, the image is quite crisp, though we do lose a little bit of detail in items like black clothing. Grain levels are very good and though there are occasional source material scratches and blemishes, they are not that often.

On the audio side of things, we have an English DTS-HD Master Audio HD 2.0 Mono soundtrack. Subtitles are available for English SDH. Given its age, it’s a very clean soundtrack. Dialogue is clear and prioritized in the mix.

The disc does not come with a digital code and apart from the tinted option, there are no other special features.

This Is the Night is fun comedy that gets to be a little more fun as it was shot before the Hays Code restricted a lot of themes and topics in films. With a nice audio and video presentation and the debut of Cary Grant, it’s a nice addition to your film library.

George Marshall’s 1947 musical comedy Variety Girl is the sort of movie that could only be made during the studio contract system as it features cameos and roles for dozens of performers and directors contracted to Paramount Studios at the time. The plot of the film is a hanger to hang all these appearances on. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby may get top-billing here, but the main plot sees two aspiring actresses, Amber LaVonne (Olga San Juan) and Catherine Brown (Mary Hatcher), as they try to break into Hollywood and get confused for each other along the way. A pre-__Star Trek__ DeForest Kelley plays talent scout Bob Kirby who wants to help Catherine while dealing with studio head R.J. O’Connell (Frank Ferguson). O’Connell just so happens to have been one of the cinema owners who helped Catherine when she was left as a baby at a Pittsburgh movie palace – an event that led to the real-life creation of the Variety children’s charity that inspires the title of the movie. It’s a fun musical that along the way gives us laughs from Hope and Crosby, and a multitude of appearances and performances by Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Alan Ladd, Barbara Stanwyck, Paulette Goddard, Dorothy Lamour, Sonny Tufts, Joan Caulfield, William Holden, Lizabeth Scott, Burt Lancaster, Gail Russell, Diana Lynn, Sterling Hayden, Robert Preston, Veronica Lake, Pearl Bailey, John Lund, William Bendix, George Pal, Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Da Silva, Macdonald Carey, Cass Daley, Spike Jones & His City Slickers, Patric Knowles, Mona Freeman, Cecil Kellaway, Virginia Field, Richard Webb, Frank Faylen, Cecil B. DeMille, Mitchell Leisen, George Marshall, Paula Raymond, George Reeves, Wanda Hendrix, Stanley Clements, Walter Abel, and Pinto Colvig. The movie also features a George Pal Puppetoon sequence of Romeow and Julicat. Sadly the Technicolor elements of that sequence appear lost, so, like the rest of the film, it’s in black and white. Thanks to Universal Home Entertainment (who has the rights to this Paramount oldie) and Allied Vaughn, I had a chance to take a look at this release.

The 1080p AVC encoded digital transfer is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The video presentation is very good, with sharp detail and a wide grayscale in most scenes accompanied by a light grain structure. There’s a few moments, like the Puppetoon sequence, that are a little darker and grainier, but that’s only an occasional issue. The source material does have the occasional scratch or blemish, but it’s really nothing to write home about.

On the audio side of things, there’s an English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono soundtrack. Subtitles are available for English SDH. The dialogue and score sound good with only minor and occasional hiss, crack and pops from the source materials.

The movie does not come with a digital code or any extras.

Variety Girl is a light musical comedy that’s a fun way to pass 93 minutes gawking at Paramount’s contract players get up to various hijinks. Sound and video are quite good and if you like a little piece of studio history loaded with Hollywood stars, this is recommended.

With the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics fresh in our minds, it’s the perfect time for Warner Archive to release Scooby’s All-Star Laff-A-Lympics on Blu-ray. The Laff-A-Lympics were part of a two-hour block of five Hanna-Barbera cartoons that ran on the US ABC network between September 1977 and September 1978. This release contains all 24 of the Laff-A-Lympics episodes, which featured three teams – the appropriately named Scooby Doobies, the Yogi Yahooeys, and the villainous Really Rottens – as they competed for medals in a variety of winter and summer Olympic sports and other activities. Forget Howard Cosell, these sporting events were hosted by Snagglepuss and Mildew Wolf. I remember watching these cartoons as a kid and rooting for the good guys. Thanks to Warner Archive and Allied Vaughn, I had a chance to take a look at this set.

The 1080p AVC encoded digital transfer is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Warner Archive’s team did their usual magic assembling the best of the original elements that were out there for their scan. The animation lines are crisp and the colour palette really pops. There really is no grain present, so I’m assuming that some digital cleanup had to be done on the elements that they were able to assemble for this project. I think the video presentation looks great and I’m just amazed that so much love was shown to preserving a Saturday morning cartoon that some companies would just shrug off. Kudos to them.

On the audio side of things, there’s an English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono soundtrack. Subtitles are available for English SDH. The soundtrack is bright and dynamic. Dialogue is clear and prioritized in the mix and both the score and sound effects sound great as well.

The 24 episodes of the show are spread over three Blu-ray discs. There is no digital code. There’s one special feature, Scooby Doo: Spooky Games which sees the gang heading over to England to compete and deal with a haunted statue.

The Scooby’s All-Star Laff-A-Lympics Blu-ray hit me right in the nostalgia section and I will be spending time getting reacquainted with the shenanigans. With great audio and video, this set is recommended.

The Closer was an American crime drama that ran on the TNT network from 2005 to 2012. It starred Kyra Sedgwick as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, a CIA-trained interrogator who has earned a reputation as a “closer”: an interrogator with great skill who is able to elicit confessions and close a case. Other series regulars include J. K. Simmons, Corey Reynolds, Robert Gossett, G. W. Bailey, Tony Denison, Jon Tenney, Michael Paul Chan, Raymond Cruz, Gina Ravera, Phillip P. Keene, and Mary McDonnell. Warner Bros. has released The Closer: The Complete Series on DVD with all 109 episodes over 7 seasons.