This summer doesn’t want to end, and you’ll want to stay indoors even longer and cling to the air conditioning vent. Luckily Arrow Video is providing four good reasons to avoid the heat and humidity. John Hughes’ Weird Science is getting upgraded to 4K UHD. This extra resolution allows Kelly LeBrock to bust through your screen as the women created by Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan Mitchell-Smith. John Hughes goes wild with the special effects in the film that gave us less teen angst than his other films from the time. Unman, Wittering And Zigo is an English film from the early ’70s about a teacher (Blowup‘s David Hemmings) fearing that the students killed the teacher before him. It’s a great back to school movie. New Fist of Fury marked Jackie Chan’s arrival as a leading man. Director Lo Wei had made the original Fist of Fury (called Big Boss in original US release). The film made Bruce Lee a movie star. Now Lo Wei was back with Jackie Chan positioned to be the next martial arts star. The film wasn’t an immediate hit. After Jackie Chan became a big star, the film was recut to remove scenes that didn’t feature him. The Blu-ray of New Fist of Fury features both cuts. The Last House On The Left coming to 4K UHD is the remake from 2009. Once more a teenage girl meets up with the wrong people and things go really bad. This is the perfect film to remind the kids to stay inside their own house and out of the heat. Here’s the press release from Arrow Video:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New from Arrow Video US
Weird Science [Limited Edition]
8/22/23
Unman, Wittering And Zigo [Limited Edition]
8/22/23
8/22/23
New Fist of Fury [Limited Edition]
8/29/23
The Last House on the Left [Limited Edition]
8/29/23
via MVD Entertainment Group
| Arrow Video in August: Jackie Chan’s Star-Making Tribute to Bruce Lee, 4K Sci-Fi Comedy, Shockingly Bold Wes Craven Horror Remake and Psychological British Thrills |
| On August 22nd, Arrow Video delivers a new 4K UHD of the John Hughes classic sci-fi teen comedy Weird Science. Lowly high school nerds Gary (Anthony Michael Hall) and Wyatt (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) have concocted the perfect plan to go from zeroes to heroes, using Wyatt’s computer to create the perfect AI girl of every teenage boy’s fantasies. The duo gets more than they bargained for with dream-girl Lisa (Kelly LeBrock), a wild party, a biker gang straight out of Mad Max (led by The Road Warrior’s Vernon Wells, no less), and Wyatt’s antagonistic brother (Bill Paxton) all thrown into the mix. Mixing raunchy humor with earnest romance, Weird Science is the kind of high school comedy that made Hughes a legend. The Limited Edition release features a new restoration by Arrow Films from a 4K scan of the original 94 min theatrical negative in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible), plus a seamlessly-branched Extended Version (97 mins) – featuring two additional scenes; an Edited-for-TV version of the film (SD only, 94 mins), plus a comparison featurette highlighting the alternate dubs and edits; there’s also an option to watch additional scenes from the extended version separately. Additional content includes Casting ‘Weird Science,’ Dino The Greek, an interview with supporting actor John Kapelos; Chet Happens, an interview with special makeup creator Craig Reardon; Fantasy and Microchips, an interview with editor Chris Lebenzon; Ira Newborn Makes The Score It’s Alive! Resurrecting Weird Science; Theatrical trailers, TV spots and radio spots; Image galleries; an Illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring writing on the film by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Amanda Reyes; a Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tracie Ching; and a Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tracie Ching. Also coming on August 22nd, Unman, Wittering And Zigo makes it worldwide home video debut on Blu-ray. John Mackenzie’s (The Long Good Friday) second feature film follows young schoolmaster John Ebony (David Hemmings), who begins working at the remote Chantrey School for Boys. He was expecting an easy, quiet assignment. He soon discovers that the school is full of reckless and angry young men who may be responsible for the previous schoolmaster’s untimely death. A chilling tale, loaded with unexpected twists, Unman, Wittering And Zigo remains a scathing indictment of toxic mob mentality. The special features include brand new audio commentary by Sean Hogan and Kim Newman; brand new appreciation by critic, broadcaster and cultural historian Matthew Sweet; Unman, Terhew, Lipstrob and Mrs. Ebony, a featurette with cast members Michael Howe, Michael Cashman, James Wardroper and Carolyn Seymour looking back at the production; the original 1958 recording of Giles Cooper’s radio play; Original trailer; Image gallery; Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Eric Adrian Lee; Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Eric Adrian Lee; and an Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Kevin Lyons and Oliver Wake. On August 29th, New Fist of Fury is released on Limited Edition Blu-ray. Lo Wei directed this sequel to his original Bruce Lee classic, and introduces a soon-to-be superstar in his feature film debut: Jackie Chan. After the death of Chen Zhen (Bruce Lee), his fiancée Li Er (Nora Miao), is on the run from Japanese authorities led by karate master Okimura (Chan Sing), who plans on overtaking all Chinese-owned martial arts schools. The only chance for Li Er and the schools is a young criminal named Ah Long (Jackie Chan), who steals Chen’s prized weapon. Will Ah Long fight alongside Li Er against the evil Okimura and become the New Fist of Fury? The special features include a new 2K restoration from the original negatives of the 120-min original theatrical cut and the 82-min 1980 re-release cut; New feature commentary on the theatrical cut by martial arts cinema experts Frank Djeng & Michael Worth, co-directors of Enter the Clones of Bruce Lee; a new feature commentary on the re-release cut by action cinema expert Brandon Bentley; Dueling Furies, a new video essay by Bentley comparing New Fist of Fury to the rival sequel made simultaneously, Fist of Fury Part II; Trailer gallery, including a Chen Zhen trailer reel of sequels and reboots; Image gallery; Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella; Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella; Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Jonathan Clements and an archival retrospective article by Brian Bankston. On August 29th, the 2009 remake of Wes Craven’s controversial 1970s grindhouse classic, The Last House On The Left, makes its debut on Limited Edition 4K UHD. A simple decision changes the fates of Mari (Sara Paxton) and her parents (Tony Goldwyn and Monica Potter) while they’re on vacation. After meeting Mari and a friend in town, escaped prisoner Krug (Garret Dillahunt) and his gang of evil criminals viciously assault them and leave them for dead. The gang then hides out at Mari’s family’s vacation home and face the full force of revenge from her parents. The special features include two versions of the film: the original Theatrical Version (4K Ultra HD Blu-ray) and the Unrated Version (Blu-ray); Exclusive new filmed introduction by director Dennis Iliadis; Brand new audio commentary by David Flint and Adrian Smith; A River of Blood, a new 31-minute interview with Sara Paxton; The Notorious Krug, a new 27-minute interview with actor Garret Dillahunt; Suspending Disbelief, a new 18-minute interview with screenwriter Carl Ellsworth; Reviving the Legend, a new 33-minute interview with producer Jonathan Craven; Look Inside Featurette, from the film’s original 2009 release; Deleted scenes; a Theatrical trailer; an Image gallery; an Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Zoë Rose Smith, Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Eric Adrian Lee. |
Weird Science [Limited Edition]
Two high-school nerds use a computer program to literally create the perfect woman, who promptly turns their lives upside-down.
![Weird Science [Limited Edition]](data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0naHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmcnIHZpZXdCb3g9JzAgMCAyMTYgMCc+PC9zdmc+)
THEY WENT FROM ZEROES TO HEROES IN ONE FANTASTIC WEEKEND. If you can’t get a date… make one! After proving himself the king of heartfelt teen flicks with Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, writer-director John Hughes infused the genre with a hefty dose of wacked-out sci-fi comedy in Weird Science, a film where every teenage boy’s wildest fantasies come to life. Perennially picked-on high school nerds Gary (Anthony Michael Hall, Sixteen Candles) and Wyatt (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) are sick of their status at the bottom of the social food chain. Using Wyatt’s computer, the two hatch a plan to create their dream woman – and following a massive power surge, that woman unexpectedly appears in the form of Lisa (Kelly LeBrock). Gorgeous, intelligent, and blessed with limitless magic powers, Lisa makes the boys’ dreams come true… but what about Wyatt’s gun-toting psycho older brother Chet (Bill Paxton), and the two bullies (Robert Downey Jr and Vamp’s Robert Rusler) determined to put them back in their place? Inspired by EC Comics and boosted by a killer soundtrack (including the classic title theme by Oingo Boingo), Weird Science has never looked better than in this new 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray edition, including an extended version of the film and hours of bonus content.
Media
Bonus Materials
- New restoration by Arrow Films from a 4K scan of the original negative
- 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) of the original Theatrical Version of the film (94 mins), plus seamlessly-branched Extended Version (97 mins), featuring two additional scenes
- Original lossless stereo audio, plus 5.1 DTS-HD MA surround option (theatrical version only)
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Edited-for-TV version of the film (SD only, 94 mins), plus comparison featurette highlighting the alternate dubs and edits
- Option to watch additional scenes from the Extended Version separately
- Casting ‘Weird Science’, an interview with casting director Jackie Burch
- Dino The Greek, an interview with supporting actor John Kapelos
- Chet Happens, an interview with special makeup creator Craig Reardon
- Fantasy and Microchips, an interview with editor Chris Lebenzon
- Ira Newborn Makes The Score, an interview with the composer
- It’s Alive! Resurrecting Weird Science, an archive documentary featuring interviews with cast, crew and admirers, including star Anthony Michael Hall
- Theatrical trailers, TV spots and radio spots
- Image galleries
- Illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring writing on the film by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Amanda Reyes
- Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tracie Ching
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tracie Ching
Unman Wittering And Zigo [Limited Edition]
When a young man takes a vacant teaching spot at a British public school he quickly learns he may have gotten into more than he expected.
Boys will be boys in this scathing psychological thriller set within the hidebound but testosterone-charged confines of a remote coastal British private school, produced by and starring David Hemmings (Blow Up, Deep Red). John Ebony is the idealistic young schoolmaster who arrives at Chantrey School for Boys on his first assignment, employed to fill the shoes of his predecessor Pelham who has recently been found dead at the bottom of a nearby cliff. Taking up residence in a cottage in the school’s grounds with his restless young wife Sylvia (Carolyn Seymour), Ebony is eager to make a good impression, but immediately gets off on the wrong foot with his assigned pupils, discovering the boys of class Lower 5B, minus the perpetually absent Zigo, to be unruly and defiant. However, they might possibly know more about Pelham’s demise than the school’s headmaster and his fellow staff are letting on. Masterfully shot by cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth (2001: A Space Odyssey) and directed by John Mackenzie (The Long Good Friday), this film adaptation of Giles Cooper’s classic play is presented on home video for the first time ever. Unman, Wittering and Zigo presents a scathing exposé of the kind of environment from which brutish empires are born.
Media
Bonus Materials
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
- Original lossless English mono audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
- Brand new audio commentary by Sean Hogan and Kim Newman
- Brand new appreciation by critic, broadcaster and cultural historian Matthew Sweet
- Unman, Terhew, Lipstrob and Mrs Ebony, featurette with cast members Michael Howe, Michael Cashman, James Wardroper and Carolyn Seymour looking back at the production
- The original 1958 recording of Giles Cooper’s radio play
- Original trailer
- Image gallery
- Double sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Eric Adrian Lee
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Eric Adrian Lee
- Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Kevin Lyons and Oliver Wake
New Fist Of Fury [Limited Edition]
A young kung fu master is hired to help protect the local martial arts school when it comes under attack by the Japanese.
Almost five years after breaking all Hong Kong box office records with the instant classic Fist of Fury, his last collaboration with the late Bruce Lee, director Lo Wei got to work on a sequel. It would be the first major leading role for Lo’s latest discovery, a young actor who had been a stuntman on the original film but would soon be as massive a star as Lee. His name: Jackie Chan. Shanghai, 1910. With the Jing Wu martial arts school in shambles and pressure from the Japanese armies to suppress a Chinese uprising after Chen Zhen’s martyrdom, Chen’s fiancée Li Er (Nora Miao, reprising her role from Fist of Fury) escapes to Japanese-occupied Taiwan to hide at her grandfather’s school. Despite her attempts to lay low, she runs afoul of karate master Okimura (Chan Sing, The Iron-Fisted Monk), who plans to take over all of the Chinese-run schools in Taiwan. Amidst all of this, a young aimless thief, known only as Ah Long (Jackie Chan), befriends Li Er after unknowingly stealing the nunchaku once yielded by the late Chen. Will he give into his fears, or will he learn the martial arts of Jing Wu and fight alongside Li Er against the Japanese? Considered to be one of the few “official” sequels to a Bruce Lee film, and now freshly restored in two different versions, New Fist of Fury is the first spark that would eventually lead Jackie Chan to becoming the worldwide star he is today!
Media
Bonus Materials
- New 2K restoration from the original negatives by Fortune Star
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray transfers of the 120-min Original Theatrical Cut and the 82-min 1980 Re-release Cut
- Original Mandarin and English lossless mono audio for the Theatrical Cut, plus newly uncovered alternate Mandarin and Cantonese mono audio
- Original Cantonese and English lossless mono audio for the Re-Release Cut
- Newly translated optional English subtitles
- New feature commentary on the Theatrical Cut by martial arts cinema experts Frank Djeng & Michael Worth, co-directors of Enter the Clones of Bruce Lee
- New feature commentary on the Re-Release Cut by action cinema expert Brandon Bentley
- Duelling Furies, a new video essay by Bentley comparing New Fist of Fury to the rival sequel made simultaneously, Fist of Fury Part II
- Trailer gallery, including a Chen Zhen trailer reel of sequels and reboots
- Image gallery
- Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
- Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Jonathan Clements and an archival retrospective article by Brian Bankston
The Last House On The Left [Limited Edition]
After their daughter is assaulted and left for dead, a couple exact bloody revenge on the attackers who have unknowingly taken shelter at their home.
The Last House on the Left is a vicious and efficient updating of the 1972 controversial graphic shocker of the same name, produced by its original director/producer pairing of Wes Craven and Sean Cunningham. When athletic teen Mari Collingwood (Sara Paxton) opts to hang out with her friend Paige in town rather than spend an evening in with her parents vacationing at the family’s remote lake house, it marks the beginning of a night no one is going to forget. The two girls wind up in the company of escaped convict Krug (Garret Dillahunt) and his makeshift family of vile career criminals, who kidnap and brutally assault them before leaving them for dead. Fleeing from the scene of their violent crime during a storm, the thugs inadvertently seek refuge with Mari’s parents, anxious as to why their daughter hasn’t come home yet and primed to unleash the full forces of hell on anyone who would dare to touch so much as a hair on her head. Energetically directed by Dennis Iliadis from a new script by Carl Ellsworth (Red Eye, Disturbia), this remake of horror cinema’s seminal tale of bloody revenge has been described by Stephen King as “the best horror movie of the new century”.
Media
Bonus Materials
- 4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
- Two version of the film: the original Theatrical Version (4K Ultra HD Blu-ray) and the Unrated Version (Blu-ray)
- Original uncompressed stereo audio and DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio for both films
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing on both films
- Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Zoë Rose Smith
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Eric Adrian Lee
- DISC ONE – THEATRICAL VERSION (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)
- 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) of the original Theatrical Version of the film
- Exclusive new filmed introduction by director Dennis Iliadis
- Brand new audio commentary by David Flint and Adrian Smith
- A River of Blood, a new 31-minute interview with Sara Paxton
- The Notorious Krug, a new 27-minute interview with actor Garret Dillahunt
- Suspending Disbelief, a new 18-minute interview with screenwriter Carl Ellsworth
- Reviving the Legend, a new 33-minute interview with producer Jonathan Craven
- Look Inside Featurette, from the films original 2009 release
- Deleted scenes
- Theatrical trailer
- Image gallery
- DISC TWO – UNRATED VERSION (BLU-RAY)
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the Unrated Version
