Every month, I’m always eager to see what Arrow Video has in store for us via the latest additions to their release calendars. Lately, we’ve gotten pristine remasters of gems like Cobra, Deep Blue Sea, In The Mouth of Madness, Outland, Lost in Space and Spawn, and their January slate includes a few heavy hitters. While the slate doesn’t include John Boorman’s Excalibur, which a lot of us were crossing our fingers for, several very cool movies are coming out. They include Steven Seagal’s best film, Under Siege, plus Snakes on a Plane, which was arguably the first film to ever really “go viral” thanks to YouTube fan videos made before the movie ever came out. Plus, there’s also a 4K of Evil Dead Rise, and the genre fave Cheap Thrills.
The 4K UHD of Under Siege is set to include a new audio commentary and interview with director Andrew Davis, another one with co-star Damian Chapa and – best of all – a sit-down with Erika Eleniak. Snakes on a Plane contains all the extras from the previous Blu-ray/ DVDs, as well as a new documentary about the film’s novelization. The Evil Dead Rise disc seems especially stacked, with new interviews from the entire cast and behind-the-scenes crew, plus audio commentary and vintage featurettes. Cheap Thrills also has a mix of archival featurettes and newly recorded material reuniting the cast.
Of them all, the one I’m most excited for is Under Siege. While folks are divided on Steven Seagal’s legacy, his first five movies were action classics, and they are not well represented at all on 4K. Warner Bros has been slow to restore their catalogue titles, so it’s nice to see them licensing more and more to Arrow. That said, it’s frustrating when WB hangs on to crown jewels like the Lethal Weapon or Dirty Harry franchises, and only restores the first films, leaving the others to languish with dated transfers. Both franchises would, no doubt, get amazing releases by Arrow Video.
Which one of these will you be picking up in January? Let us know in the comments!