US Blu-ray and DVD Releases: Wonka, Migration, Contagion, Saw, The Expendables, Ancient Aliens

Wonka

This week features not one but two blockbuster family films hitting home video, plus a whopping three new box sets for completists and franchise fans! It’s a great week for home video! Read on to see the full breakdown.

Wonka 

The Movie: When Wonka initially opened to just $39 million in the US, I was a little concerned that maybe it was just going to be another big-budget flop. But thanks to the holiday season giving movies long legs (and the fact that people seem to genuinely like the film), it’s become an indelible hit, taking in $200 million in the US and over $600 million worldwide. Now, box office alone – in my opinion – has next to nothing to do with how good a movie actually is, so does Wonka deliver the chocolate-covered goods? I’d have to say yes it does. Now, I wasn’t necessarily looking for a Willy Wonka origin story, especially one that is a musical. But as directed by Paul King (who has delivered two of the best family films of the past decade with the Paddington movies), Wonka has no small amount of charm. And with a terrific cast led by Timothee Chalamet – who is nicely developing into a proper movie star), the movie is just fun. Did I need all the singing and dancing? No. But I’d be lying if I said it didn’t fit well into this movie universe, because it’s not like the world of Wonka is one you’re taking overly seriously anyway.

The 4K Audio/Video: Wonka gets a nice audiovisual boost on 4K Ultra HD, and it looks and sounds very good in the premium format. The color saturation is quite vibrant, image clarity is sharp, and shadow delineation is very strong, all of which complement some dazzling onscreen visuals. The surround soundtrack could easily have been a dialogue-and-music-only affair, but the soundfield is active, bringing the world of Willy Wonka to life around your ears, filling in all of the speakers. Clear dialogue rings true, and the overall soundtrack result is a strong one.

The Special Features: There are five making-of featurettes that add up to about 45 minutes of total materials, plus a “skip to your favorite song” feature.

The Wrap-Up: Wonka isn’t a full-on masterpiece, but it’s an endearing film that will appeal to a wide variety of audiences. Even if you don’t find yourself singing along, I bet you’ll find yourself smiling along.

Migration

The Movie: Illumination has been responsible for some of the biggest animated hits of the last decade with the Despicable Me and Minions films. But, you know, of course they have to branch out and some point, and that brings us Migration, a new film that has nothing to do with Gru or the Minions. In this film, we meet a family of ducks: nervous nellie father Mack, brave and wise mother Pam, bold and rash son Dax, and sweet and innocent duckling Gwen. Oh yeah, and there’s Uncle Dan (played by Danny DeVito) who is… well, pretty much Danny DeVito. Mack wants to keep everyone nice and safe in their pond, but the rest of the family wants to migrate like normal ducks, so they head off for Jamaica… and promptly end up in New York City, where all sorts of misadventures await them including a quirky flock of pigeons and a murderous chef. The movie falls squarely into the category of “enjoyable.” It’s not an instant classic and I wasn’t falling over with laughter, but it was sweet and predictable (in the right ways) and I had a good time with it. Not everything needs to be a masterpiece to be an effective film, and Migration is just that.

The 4K Audio/Video: Migration is a bright and colorful film, and the 4K Ultra HD format treats it well. Everything looks vivid and shiny, the way the filmmakers intended, and it’s a nice visual treat to watch the movie, especially the bird’s eye view sequence in New York City. The surround soundtrack is also constantly active, giving each speaker its own discrete sounds and activity, creating a nice bustling soundfield throughout. A very strong 4K release overall.

The Special Features: There are three all-new mini-movies, including two set in the Despicable Me universe. You also get four featurettes, a how-to-draw feature, and three DIY-type featurettes on bird calls, making a pop-up book, and making a bird nest.

The Wrap-Up: Kids will enjoy Migration and parents will find it an amusing enough diversion. I won’t be surprised to see a sequel in the coming years, and at least the characters are endearing enough to warrant that. We’ll see what happens.

Contagion (4K Ultra HD)

The Movie: I am admittedly not a particularly big fan of Steven Soderbergh movies. I find him to be one of the more overrated directors working in Hollywood today. (Is he even still working? Supposedly he retired, but I’ll believe it when I see it.) When Contagion first came out in 2011, I was not impressed by it. I’m not sure if it’s solely that I’ve re-evaluated the film or that I watched it in a post-COVID world, but revisiting Contagion courtesy of Warner Bros.’ new 4K Ultra HD release, I found the film to be much more riveting this time around. It really is eerie just how much watching Contagion – which again, I’ll point out was released in 2011 – is like watching a dramatic movie made about the COVID pandemic. If I told you this movie was made in 2023, you wouldn’t even blink an eye, because it is such an uncanny representation of what the world went through from 2020-2022. I had never heard the term “social distancing” before COVID, yet it shows up in this movie. But beyond just the predictive nature of the film, it also simply works as a good drama/medical mystery movie, anchored by an outstanding cast too big to list here but with a few standouts including Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne Jr., Kate Winslet, Jennifer Ehle, and Marion Cotillard. I enjoyed the movie much more this time than I did in 2011, whatever the reason, so that’s a big win for this new re-release of the film.

The Special Features: There are three featurettes, but they only run about 18 minutes total, so don’t get too excited.

The 4K Audio/Video: 4K Ultra HD releases of newer movie can often be a bit of a mixed bag. The format offers up improvements over Blu-ray, obviously, but it’s not like a movie from 2011 with a decent-sized budget needs that much of an upgrade. Contagion does look and sound quite nice in 4K. Image clarity is razor sharp and contrasts are strong. The movie is heavily filtered to begin with, so much of the film has yellow and orange hues to it, so color saturation isn’t as noticeable as it might be had the filmmakers not done that. The surround soundtrack is a little front-channel heavy, but since the driving force of the film is the dialogue, that makes sense. That said, both the dialogue and music sound terrific, and there are some ambient and directional surround sounds when called for.

The Wrap-Up: Contagion may seem like it hits a little too close to home in the wake of COVID, but the all-star cast will help remind you that you’re watching a terrific movie and not a documentary. Whether you were a fan of the film when it first came out or not, I highly recommend revisiting it with this new 4K Ultra HD release.

The Expendables: 4-Film Collection

The Movies: Even though Lionsgate put out a four-film 4K Ultra HD collection of the Expendables movies late last year, that one was a Wal-Mart exclusive. This week we get a new 4-movie collection (on Blu-ray this time) that’s available at all retailers, which I’m always a fan of. I am unabashedly a fan of The Expendables franchise, so you can expect this to be a fairly one-sided review. As someone who grew up on ‘80s and ‘90s action films, I have a deep and long-lasting fandom for Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as Bruce Willis, Harrison Ford, and many other action stalwarts of the time. When the first Expendables film came out as sort of an all-star outing of past action stars, I was beyond excited. With each subsequent film, I had more and more fun with the franchise, especially as it really hit its high point with The Expendables 2. I even really liked the third film, which I know some people complained about thanks to younger cast members being introduced. Admittedly, Expendables 4 is the lowest point in the franchise, and the only film in the series that I found to be a bit on the mediocre side, but even it has its fun moments and gets better as it goes. It may not be the perfect action movie franchise, but these are still movies I want in my collection.

The Special Features: Whereas the previous release only had extra for the fourth film, this set includes extras for all of the movies. On The Expendables, you get an audio commentary with Sylvester Stallone, two making-of documentaries, a gag reel, a Comic-Con live panel, and more. Expendables 2 includes an audio commentary, four featurettes, a gag reel, and deleted scenes. Expendables 3 brings us three featurettes, a gag reel, and a deleted scene. Expendables 4 gets you an audio commentary, a featurette, and the trailer. There are also included digital copies of each film.

The Wrap-Up: The Expendables are the movies I dreamed of happening when I was a kid watching endless Arnie and Sly action films. They may not be masterpieces of cinema, but I love them and this collection finally gives us all four movies in one great Blu-ray set.

Saw: 10-Film Collection – 20^th Anniversary Edition

The Movies: For the first time that I’m aware of, all 10 Saw movies are available in one big box set that includes each movie on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital Copy. That gets you the original classic and all the diminishing-returns sequels: Saw, Saw II, Saw III, Saw IV, Saw V, Saw VI, Saw 3D, Jigsaw, Spiral, and Saw X. I have to admit, I’m not the biggest fan of this franchise. I like the first movie a lot, which is a tense psychological thriller about two men trapped and chained in the same room, with only one seeming way out: sawing off their own foot. While it is intense and has a few tough moments, it’s a real horror film and not just a gorefest. The problem is that after that the series quickly devolved into the exact same movie over and over again, where Jigsaw basically traps a bunch of people in horrible death traps, and we have to watch them all die in increasingly gruesome ways one after the other. Blech. I like a little substance in my horror movies, sorry. Now, based on the fact that there are TEN of these movies, obviously my opinion is not shared by the majority of horror filmgoers. So if you count yourself as a Saw fan, this new box set is pretty impressive You get each film on Blu-ray and DVD, all housed in a sizable case that’s chunky but still small enough to easily fit on your shelf. It’s a great way to own the entire franchise in one convenient set.

The Special Features: All of the Blu-rays contain their original extra features, which is way too many to list here. There are multiple, multiple featurettes, most of which run between 5 and 15 minutes and focus on the making-of various aspects of all of the films. There are audio commentaries for several of the movies, and then you get various collections of deleted scenes and trailers. The set also comes packaged with four art cards. And there are digital copies of all ten films, which is nice.

The Wrap-Up: I may not be the biggest fan of the Saw movies, but I am a fan of affordable box sets that collect an entire franchise for die-hard fans and completists, and that’s exactly what Saw: 10-Film Collection – 20^th Anniversary Edition is.

Ancient Aliens: Complete Seasons 11-18

The Show: Lionsgate has consistently collected Ancient Aliens on DVD after every season that has aired. While I find that a little mind-boggling, the show must sell well on home video or they wouldn’t continue to put out new sets every season. What’s even more mind-boggling is that this show has been on for 18 seasons now. I don’t even know what to say about it anymore. Honestly, I find Ancient Aliens mildly interesting but that’s about the extent of it. It explores everything surrounding the possibility of aliens visiting earth in the past, and while some of it comes off as the theories of crazy people, most of it is approached from an academic point of view. I’ve made this complaint before, but while Ancient Aliens is easily watchable, the lack of any concrete answers or hard evidence can get frustrating, and it keeps the show from being something I can get all that into. This newest big-box collection is comprised of the last eight seasons on 21 discs, giving you over 100 episodes and almost 75 hours of viewing content! That’s a lot of conspiracy theories!

The Special Features: As usual with this DVD series, there are no extra features.

The Wrap-Up: If you’re a die-hard fan of Ancient Aliens, you’re probably better off waiting for these large collections rather than buying the seasons every time they come out, as it’s much more cost-effective. Still, if you’re looking for your daily dose of interesting topics, goofy theories, scientific analysis, ancient history, and aliens of all kinds, this is the set for you!