2024 Standout The First Omen Births on Blu-ray While Risky Business Remains a Classic in 4K - Viva Physical Media

Plus, Rocky gets an improved box set and The Fall Guy and the original Twister get 4K releases.

It’s time to catch up on the rest of my stack of recent releases from the remainder of July here before diving into some new August ones soon. This group includes the movie that made Tom Cruise a star, a 2024 Ryan Gosling/Emily Blunt box office disappointment, a 1996 Bill Paxton/Helen Hunt box office hit, and a new Rocky box set seeking redemption for a disappointing set from just a year ago. 

But let’s kick off with a recent horror movie I’ve raved about quite a bit and will continue to rave about. 

The First Omen Blu-ray

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My current favorite film of 2024, The First Omen unfortunately was a box office dud, but I’m pretty hopeful it will continue to find a growing fanbase as time goes on. Few were clamoring for a prequel to 1976’s horror classic, The Omen, and I shared the initial cynicism about reviving yet another old franchise just because of some lingering name recognition, but director and co-writer Arkasha Stevenson once more proved it’s all about the execution. She delivered a captivating and audacious film, telling the story of just how The Omen’s antichrist, Damien, came to be, while also operating at its own ominous and darkly inviting level. 

If you’ll excuse the pun, this was a hell of a calling card movie for both Stevenson and her lead, Nell Tiger Free, who both proved what formidable talents they were here. Free is phenomenal as Margaret, a novitiate who moves to Rome in 1971, where she works alongside nuns who run an orphanage - only to find some very dark, very twisted things are occurring all around her. The movie mostly works on its own as a compelling and unsettling story about Margaret battling against forces attempting to manipulate and control her and other young women in a way that has plenty of topical resonance, with its more direct connections to The Omen coming into play in an exciting manner in the final act. The film’s very last scene is a bit of unneeded sequel-bait (proposing a side story continuation that could take place parallel to The Omen), but otherwise, this is a prequel done right in so many ways. 

Filmed on location in Rome, The First Omen looks gorgeous, with its early sunbathed-scenes giving way to foreboding, entrancing imagery, such as in a terrific sequence where the sheltered Margert is brought to a nightclub by her more adventurous roommate, Luz (Maria Caballero). I will once more bemoan that Disney is putting so few of their 20th Century Studios or Searchlight films on 4K, while noting the transfer on the Blu-ray is a terrific one. 

IS THERE A COMMENTARY? 

Sadly, there is not. And I’d really love one for this film, as Stevenson clearly has such deliberate and nuanced instincts and it would be great to dive into more of how she made the film - and to get more from her talking about that insane birthing scene shot (you know which one it is if you have seen the movie) that definitely goes places no Disney-released film has before. 

There are three standard featurettes at the least, focused on Stevenson, Margaret as a character, and the overall approach to the film, which do include many key participants like Stevenson, Free and production designer Eve Stewart. But this material runs about 19 minutes total and there is so much more to explore about The First Omen. Maybe one day Shout! Studios / Scream Factory can revisit the film, considering they did a great box set of all the previous Omen films a few years ago. 

Risky Business 4K UHD + Blu-ray

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I probably saw Risky Business for the first time when I was 12 or 13 or so and I liked it just fine. It has many very funny moments and quotes that stand out (“Guido the killer pimp”) and yeah, Rebecca De Mornay’s beauty sure made an impression. But revisiting it now made me appreciate the movie far more than I have before. 

On the surface, what actually happens in the film sounds like a crass, 80s sex comedy, as a teenager (Tom Cruise) hires a prostitute (De Mornay) while his parents are out of town and then they team up together to use her fellow sex worker friends and his classmates to turn his upper class suburban home into a one-night brothel. But while it’s easy to imagine the Porky’s version of Risky Business, the actual film writer-director Paul Brickman made is so much more interesting than that. It’s an observational film that feels very in tune with its inherent themes of capitalism, consumerism and transactional relationships and its tone is far more nuanced and observational than the wacky hijinks its plot description evokes. 

Cruise, in the role that made him a star, and De Mornay, are great together, as their characters continually size up just what they actually mean to one another. This new release includes both the theatrical cut and the director’s cut, which are notable because of how minimally they overtly diverge, yet still do feel different in a subtle but crucial manner. The director’s cut ending, which lacks one additional short, final scene from the theatrical version, is also edited slightly differently as far as the dinner Joel and Lana have that concludes the film, layering in a more cautious, melancholy feel that feels more appropriate to the story Brickman has been telling. 

Criterion’s new 4K transfer is terrific - one of those times it’s hard to believe this is the same movie I watched a crappy pan and scan version of on cable growing up. It doesn’t look overly pristine or polished, maintaining Brickman’s dreamlike visuals – enhanced by the appropriately named Tangerine Dream’s evocative score – while allowing you to see texture and detail in a way the film never has had in a home release before. 

IS THERE A COMMENTARY? 

There is an archival commentary from the film’s 25th anniversary DVD featuring Paul Brickman, producer Jon Avnet and the man himself, Tom Cruise. It’s a really strong commentary and it's gratifying to hear Cruise is still so appreciative when it comes to Risky Business, despite all that he’s done since.  

Criterion has also included several excellent new interviews on the Blu-ray Disc, one with producer Jon Avnet, one with editor Richard Chew, and one with casting director Nancy Klopper. From Avnet getting candid about how much he disliked the studio insisting the theatrical cut ending feel more upbeat to Klopper getting a bit meta about the interview itself — noting casting directors are often overlooked and she wouldn’t be on this disc if Brickman hadn’t recommended she was — there’s some wonderful insights here both about Risky Business and filmmaking in general.

Archival material includes a half hour mini-doc about the film, Cruise and De Mornay’s screen tests and a trailer. Overall, this mixture of old and new material offers a lot to dive into about a film that deserves to still be celebrated.

Twister 4K UHD

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So here’s the thing about the original Twister… I’ve never really liked it. The movie had a hell of a marketing campaign, centered around an all-time great teaser trailer, and boasted cutting edge special effects that lead the way for what could be accomplished digitally. And yet the actual film is really mundane. Despite a stellar cast – including Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt, Cary Elwes, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alan Ruck and more – and director Jan De Bont coming off the terrific Speed, Twister feels inert. The characters are paper thin and the story uninvolving, and it ultimately feels like a very expensive special effects demo more than anything. Not to say there aren’t occasional moments that stand out and come alive – who would deny the fun of seeing a pickup truck drive straight through a house that’s been knocked into the road in the middle of a tornado? – but they are few and far between. 

I hadn’t seen Twister in decades until this new 4K disc – obviously timed to the release of Twisters in theater – and wondered if I’d re-evaluate the movie a bit, but unfortunately, that was not the case. That being said, this is a tremendous image upgrade. Especially considering what a technical marvel it is, previous DVD and Blu-ray releases of the movie were notably weak transfers and this one is a huge improvement. And the Dolby Atmos sound is tremendous, reinforcing how well the sound design works in conjunction with the visuals in this film to put you in the midst of all those tornados. So if you do like Twister – and many do! – this is the way to watch it. 

IS THERE A COMMENTARY? 

Yes, a previously released one with director Jan De Bont and VFX supervisor Stefen Fangmeier.

Most of the bonus features, commentary included, were previously released on the film’s 2008 Blu-ray, including a couple of featurettes – one of which runs about a half hour – and the 1996 HBO First Look for the film. Oh, and lest we forget, the music video for Van Halen’s “Human Beings,” a notably bad song from a band who had many good songs. The one new inclusion is a 15 minute interview with De Bont, which includes a bit of material where he mentions how happy he is to have the film get a proper new transfer before delving into more about how it was made in the first place. 

A pet peeve here is that the film’s trailers, which were on the Blu-ray, are not included. In general, I don’t get why trailers are so often skipped over on bonus features these days but here it’s especially annoying, since that first Twister trailer, mostly using moments from the film’s prologue, but concluding with that thrilling test footage of a tire flying into a car’s windshield seen from the driver’s POV, was such a big selling point. 

The Fall Guy 4K UHD + Blu-ray

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There was a lot of over the top doom and gloom reactions when The Fall Guy bombed at the box office in early May, with many declaring people not showing up to see it was an ominous sign for movies in general this year – before several big hits opened one after the other, proving that very wrong. It was an odd bit of hyperbole because The Fall Guy was never a sure thing, given it was a loose adaptation of a TV series few under the age of 40 will remember and had an ad campaign that didn’t easily sell its concept beyond “Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt flirt and there are explosions.” 

As for the movie, it’s… fine! It’s an enjoyable enough diversion and the two oh-so charming leads do a lot of heavy lifting to keep things engaging, but it also notably drags at times. Director David Leitch (John Wick, Deadpool 2) certainly knows his way around action but the film felt like it needed a rewrite and/or some re-editing to make it tighter and move better, as Gosling’s movie stuntman is sent on a side mission to find the missing movie star (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) he’s doubling. The film was made as a love letter to the incredibly hardworking stunt community Leitch himself has long been a part of and is definitely admirable in that regard, but it also doesn’t feel like it’s all it could have been. 

Technically, the home release for The Fall Guy looks and sounds terrific and features both the theatrical version and an extended cut for the movie. At 126 minutes, the movie already felt overlong as it was, making me wary of an even longer version, and indeed, it does make the whole thing feel even more unwieldy. There are some funny additional jokes among the extra material to be sure, and an extended chase sequence with some amusing and clever beats, but the movie overall does not benefit from running nearly two and a half hours in total.

IS THERE A COMMENTARY? 

David Leitch and his producing partner (and wife) Kelly McCormick provide a nicely informative commentary which is on both versions of the film, with the one on the theatrical cut trimmed accordingly to fit the run time.

On the bonus features side, The Fall Guy actually has a decent amount, mostly broken into a number of featurettes, along with a gag reel. The brunt of the featurettes focus on the film’s stunts, which is very much appropriate given both the subject matter of the film and the intent by all involved to spotlight just what amazing work people in this profession pull off on a regular basis, with Gosling and Blunt joining the filmmakers in singing their praises. One featurette, for instance, is all about the intent in one particular sequence to break a world record for the amount of times a stunt driver can have his car rotate in the midst of what is called a cannon roll - a rather wild thing to want to be the best in! I did (cannon) roll my eyes at calling the longer making of overview featurette “Making a Meta Masterpiece,” given that’s not quite the case, but by and large, it is great to see the stunt people get such a deserved spotlight here. 

I remain fairly middling about The Fall Guy as a movie, but from the transfer to the bonus features, this is a very well done presentation.

Rocky Ultimate Knockout Collection 4K UHD

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Rocky is one of the most popular and long-running movie franchises ever, but the last couple of years have been a tough road in terms of giving Sylvester Stallone’s legendary Italian Stallion the 4K box set he deserved. 

The fact that they released a 4K box set in early 2023 of just Rocky 1-4, entitled The Knockout Collection, was ridiculously frustrating. Why not just include the other two movies from the get go? Deserved Rocky V snark aside, no fan wanted an incomplete set of the films. And then it turned out the set was plagued by audio issues, resulting in replacement discs (slowly) needing to be made and distributed. But now, finally, we have the box set they should have just released in the first place, as the amusingly named Ultimate Knockout Collection includes all six movies in 4K (simultaneous individual releases of Rocky V and Rocky Balboa are also now available). 

Rocky is a fascinating film series to chart, going from a gritty, character-driven 1970s drama with the Academy Award-winnning original to an enjoyably goofy symbol of 1980s excess and music video aesthetics by the fourth entry - and then eventually getting a very satisfying conclusion long after with Rocky Balboa, which managed to offer proper redemption after the dud of Rocky V (obviously the character of Rocky would return yet again, in a satisfying manner, in the Creed movies). As with last year’s collection, Sylvester Stallone’s drastically re-edited version of Rocky IV – called Rocky Vs. Drago – is also included alongside the theatrical cut, and there’s a director’s cut of Rocky Balboa as well, which runs about 14 minutes longer. The latter has a great additional scene for Paulie (Burt Young), but I still prefer the theatrical version.

The films look great in 4K and, notably, they sound so much better this time, as all the various audio issues across those last discs have been fixed on this release. There will always be fan debates over which movies are the best of the bunch or not (the original, Rocky III and Rocky Balboa are the clear top tier entries for me) but there is always a lot of enjoyment to be had diving back into this entire series, warts and all.

IS THERE A COMMENTARY? 

There are three terrific archival commentaries for the original Rocky, including Stallone’s solo one, another featuring  director John Avildsen, cast members Talia Shire, Carl Weathers and Burt Young, and producers Irvin Winkler and Robert Chartoff, and one with boxing trainer Lou Duva and sports historian Bert Sugar. For Rocky Balboa there is an archival commentary from Stallone, but that’s it for the sequels. There have been so many releases for the Rocky series at this point, and while it would be greatly appreciated if Stallone would record commentaries for the rest of the films, it doesn’t seem in the cards at this point. 

The bonus features — a group of featurettes focused on various parts of the filmmaking process — are similarly almost entirely focused on the first and sixth movies except for the hour-long documentary on Stallone creating the new director’s cut of Rocky IV in recent years. It’s all previously released material too, which is fine – it’s still good content for those specific films – but can’t the other sequels finally get some attention? There’s a lot of love for Rocky II and III and the theatrical cut of Rocky IV out there but they’re all pretty much ignored here. Even the much-maligned Rocky V could do with some modern perspective on what went wrong with it. 

Also, since I complained about the lack of trailers above on many current physical releases, I’ll note the bonus disc on the Rocky set does include trailers for the films - except it’s only for the first four. Because the bonus disc is the same as the one from the previous set of 1-4, they didn’t add the Rocky V and Rocky Balboa trailers, which is vexing to say the least (the Rocky Balboa-specific bonus features are all on that film’s disc, but the trailer is not among them).

So is the most perfect Rocky set we could ever get? No. But it’s a huge improvement over the last one and, at this point, between the strong presentations for the films themselves and the solid bonus features for two of the best movies, it’s good enough for fans who waited until now for all six movies to get 4Ks.