Shout! Factory in December

From "The Rising Hawk" (Akhtem Seitablayev/John Wynn, 2019)

I can sit here and spend your reading time bitching about what a kick in the dick 2020 has been (and, make no mistake, it has been a size 12 steel-toed boot to the testes for almost everyone). But once a month since May, I've hunkered down and detailed every single release Shout! Factory has put out on their various imprints. I would have never gotten to do that if I hadn't been laid off, or locked inside due to COVID, or gotten a job with a company overseas working from home. That's been cool. So let's finish a day late and a dollar short: here's December.

December 1

I am an absolute sucker for Movies For Guys Who Like Movies (TM TNT, 1992). Shout! Factory releases a lot of the direct-to-video, spiritual grandchildren of Cannon and American International. Here we have last year's "The Rising Hawk: Battle for the Carpathians", starring the T-1000, Elsa Schneider, and Chibs. Without having seen a trailer or done anything more than read a logline, I'm preemptively scoring this a 7 out of 10 on the MFGWLM Meter. It's Mongols versus Carpathians, shot on location in Ukraine, and featuring heroism in the face of otherwhelming odds. I wonder who's going to win. This sort of title sells a shit ton via Walmart, which isn't a dig; I just see their racking full on Tuesday and clear within a week. Look for it on Blu-ray or DVD!

If you're treating your fella to a copy of "The Rising Hawk" for his Christmas stocking, why not treat yourself to a copy of James D'Arcy's 2020 film "Made In Italy"? The English actor, who I know best from playing Anthony Hopkins in "Hitchcock", made his writing and directorial debut this year with this tale of a London widower who travels to Tuscany with his estranged son to sell the villa of his now-dead wife. Comic hijinx ensue? Five will get you ten that father and son discover some things about their relationship, and that they each find people to help them live again. I like that Liam Neeson still makes these kind of movies, alternating Brit-roms and B-shooters. There's comfort in that fact. Also available on Blu-ray or DVD. Get one for your auntie with all the cats!

Last, but certainly not least, is the debut thriller from Dave Franco, "The Rental", who I believe to be the more likeable of the two Francos. Starring personal fav Alison Brie, "Downton Abbey" hunk Dan Stevens, the fella who plays Lip on "Shameless", and the incredibly underrated Sheila Vand, it reads like a siege story, with two couples stuck in an Oregon vacation house by an unknown threat, all while slowly losing trust in each other. Joe Swanberg ("Easy", "Drinking Buddies") co-wrote the screenplay with Franco. This one's right up my alley. It feels creepy, the trailer is really well cut together, and it sure seems that Toby Huss might be the villain in this one. I hope this ends up in my stocking, Santa.

December 8

I've yet to have a chance to mention it here, so credit where credit's due: Shout! does a fantastic job with their baseball championship releases. I've ended up with a few of these over the years, and even though my beloved Orioles have yet to receive their own volume, these Blu-rays are always entertaining if you're a baseball fan. This year celebrates the first L.A. Dodgers World Series win in 32 years, as the likes of Mookie Betts, Clayton Kershaw, and WS MVP Corey Seager overcame years of disappointing playoff finishes with a 6-game win over Tampa Bay. Diehards will want to wait for the Collector's Edition that comes out in February; that version costs three times as much, but features eight complete games (all six World Series contests, plus the NLCS and NLDS clinchers). But if you weren't around in 1988 for Kirk Gibson and Orel Hershiser bringing home the trophy, you'll probably want a copy of this to watch while waiting for the 2021 season to begin.

December 15

I remember how hyped we all were for November's "MacShayne" release. But I hope you held onto a bit of that excitement for December, since another volume of Kenny Rogers TV movies has arrived. 1981's "Coward of the County" and 1985's "Wild Horses" were helmed by long-time TV director (and 2nd unit director on "Piranha II"!) Dick Lowry, and starred the Gambler himself, garnering the kind of ratings on CBS that would make a network exec ejaculate with joy in 2020. Was this all just a clever ruse to work "ejaculate" into a preview? Bet your ass it was. Sorry, hi-def fans: this is a DVD-only release. Get ready to upscale!

Back in the day, before Scream Factory became a whole thing, Shout! Factory was known for their MST3K sets and the vintage cartoon boxes they released. They originally put out the "Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales" Complete Collection back in 2012, but they're reissuing it here, I'm assuming in a more value-oriented package. It would appear that all the extras in the 2012 version still apply here, so you're no worse or better off if you already own the original copy. I have few frames of reference to "Tennessee Tuxedo": I remember an old boss calling a co-worker Chumley, and it came from the same studio that put out "Underdog". So this is either completely your thing, or you have no clue what I'm talking about. Moving on...

GKids continues their series of Studio Ghibli steelbook reissues with "Spirited Away" and "Castle In The Sky". That leaves only "Porco Rosso" and "The Wind Rises" to be released in this steelbook packaging. You're either a collector of these, or you're not. But as I've said before, it's a great excuse to add copies of Miyazaki films that you don't already own, in a package that looks really sharp. Truth be told: I've been considering selling off my older versions and replacing them with these. At $27 a pop, they're not inexpensive, but I bet they look great on a shelf.

2011's "From Up On Poppy Hill" ("コクリコ坂から") was the first theatrical release in the partnership between Studio Ghibli and GKids here in the States. Director Gorō Miyazaki's second feature told the story of two students working to save their school's clubhouse from demolition, and remains incredibly well-regarded in the ten years since its Japanese release. The video was originally distributed via New Video, so its been long overdue for a reissue under the Shout!/GKids umbrella. Available once again as either a combo pack or standalone DVD, the "Poppy Hill" set has a ton of extras and a really good reminder that Papa Hayao isn't the only great filmmaker in the Miyazaki clan.

From "The Rental" (Dave Franco, 2020)

It's a very short month, as Decembers tend to be. And, as with some of the other video houses, there will be a three week holiday until the first batch of January releases. But when those come...oooh, boy! A pair of John Carpenter classics come to UHD, the new "Lupin III" feature makes its home video debut here in the States, and Araki Joh's "Bartender" finally gets a US debut via a 15th anniversary box set. All this, plus pithy commentary, in less than 30 days. Be there...aloha.