VOL. 108
SCOOBY'S ALL-STAR LAFF-A-LYMPICS: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION (1977-78) - THE NEW FRED AND BARNEY SHOW: THE COMPLETE SERIES (1979) - PRIVATE BENJAMIN (1980) - GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON'T DIE (2026) - SLEEPERS (1996) - LAUREL & HARDY: THE DEFINITIVE RESTORATIONS (1933) - DUST BUNNY (2025)
We once again are flooded with a killer slate of home video releases, it's truly a wonderful time to be a physical media collector, and month after month I am reminded of how many classics and hidden gems are only just now getting the treatment they deserve on home video, it's crazy. The Epitaph this month features remembrances of two late '70s Hannah-Barbera animated series, an 80's army enlistment comedy gem featuring funny-lady Goldie Hawn, a collection of rarities from one of comedies great team-ups, a dark 90's thriller, and a pair of contemporary 2026 films that deal in apocalyptic A.I. science-fiction and whimsical monster under the fantasy.
SCOOBY'S ALL-STAR LAFF-A-LYMPICS: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION (1977-1978)
3-Disc Blu-ray Set
Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 550 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD
Cast: Daws Butler, Don Messick, Mel Blanc, Frank Welker, Casey Kasem
As a guy of a certain age this series of sport spoofs from Hannah-Barbera is a real nostalgic sweet spot, I had not seen any of these for decades, so this new 2-disc set from Warner Archive was a total time-machine cat-nip! At the time Hannah-Barbara were cashing on on the popularity of Olympics and ABC's all-star Battle of the Network Stars, and the show basically had Hanna-Barbera characters, both old favorites and new creations, in groupings competing for Olympic style medals, it was fun stuff and when I caught them on Saturday mornings I was always the throughly entertained. The three teams competing were the Scooby Doobies, the Yogi Yahooeys and the Really Rottens, and the competitions were always hosted by Snagglepuss and Mildew Wolf. We also get the voice talents of Daws Butler, Don Messick, Frank Welker, Scatman Crothers, Casey Kasem, and Mel Blanc, which combined with classic H-B characters and globe-hopping sports competition shenanigans ensures you're going to have a good time. This 3-disc Blu-ray set looks and sounds terrific, the restoration efforts by Warner Archive to reconstruct and restore these have given us wonderful results. The only extras on the set is the 23-min Scooby Doo: Spooky Games, a 2012 made-for-TV adventure which follows Mystery Inc. to England as Shaggy competes in the World Invitational Games.
Special Features:
- Scooby Doo: Spooky Games (23:18)
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THE NEW FRED AND BARNEY SHOW: THE COMPLETE SERIES (1979)
2-Disc Blu-ray Set
Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 410 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Cast: Henry Corden, Mel Blanc, Jean VanderPyl, Gay Autterson
The New Fred and Barney Show was actually my introduction to The Flintstones, a revival series that aired in 1979, when I was about six years old. The show featured traditional Flintstones characters, headlined by Fred (voiced by Henry Corden following the passing of original voice actor Alan Reed) and Barney (voiced by Mel Blanc) and their children Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm, who were now toddlers, after having been depicted as teenagers in the The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show n 1971. Their wives Betty and Wilma taking a bit of a backseat, hence the title of she show. Watching these now I was sort of overcome by a pleasant wave of youthful nostalgia, I had forgotten how much these one-off episodes delved into the mythical and magical elements, with a cadre of monsters and witches, haunted forests and their new neighbors The Frankenstone's, and of course the wonderful retro fun stuff like dinosaur powered appliances, including mammoth powered dishwashers, showers and hot tubs. Warner Archive's 2-disc Blu-ray set presents all 17-episodes restored and wonderful looking, there are no extras to speak of, but the trip down memory lane was worth the price of admission all on it's own! Even at that young age when I first saw these I was a monster-kid, having grown-up on TV airings of the Universal monster movies on WPIX, and watching it now, still a monster-kid at heart, I had a blast, still.
Special Features:
- None
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PRIVATE BENJAMIN (1980)
Blu-ray
Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 110 Minutes 11 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Howard Zieff
Cast: Goldie Hawn, Armand Assante, Eileen Brennan, Albert Brooks, Robert Webber
Private Benjamin (1980), directed by Howard Zieff, My Girl) is a 80s comedy classic starring Goldie Hawn, the comedic tale of a spoiled Jewish-American princess, Judy Benjamin (Goldie Hawn, Overboard), who after the death of her horny husband (Albert Brooks, Drive) on their wedding night. is coerced by a army duplicitous recruiter (Harry Dean Stanton, Repo Man) into enlisting for the Women's Army Corps. Soon after her arrival at Fort Biloxi she discovers that it's far from the paid vacation promised, but it's too late now, she's trapped in basic training, where she endures comical hardships and learns a lot about her self worth. The cast is unfirmly terrific, including the antagonistic Captain Doreen Lewis (Eileen Brennan, The Sting), Sergeant L.C. Ross (Hal Williams, TV's Sanford and Son) and the pervy Col. Clay Thornbush (Robert Webber, Madame Claude). Eventually she graduates basic and ends up stationed in a cushy position in Paris, where she finds what seems like love with Parisian doctor Henri Alan Tremont (Armand Assante, Prophecy). Her parents who are at a loss to understand why she enlisted are played by Sam Wanamaker (Death on the Nile) and Barbara Barrie (TV's Barney Miller), and other enlisted women include Toni Kalem (The Sopranos), P.J. Soles (Carrie), Damita Jo Freeman (Elvira: Mistress of the Dark), and also be on the lookout for Craig T. Nelson (Poltergeist) and Richard Herd (V, V the Final Battle) as military men. The Warner Archive Blu-ray look phenomenal, sourced from a 4K scan of the OCV in it's original 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio for the very first time ever on home video with uncompressed audio. Extras include a fullframe Theatrical Trailer and 2 episodes of the Private Benjamin TV Series starring Lorna Patterson steeping in as the titular Pvt. Benjamin, and interestingly Eileen Brennan, Hal Williams reprise their roles in the series, and Damita Jo Freeman returned as well, but as a different character. The series ran for three seasons with 36-episodes. The two episodes presented here are sourced from the best available masters, and accordingly show some SD video anomalies, but are still fun to watch.
Special Features:
- Two episodes of the Private Benjamin TV Series with Eileen Brennan and Lorna Patterson: Benjamin to the Rescue (22:41), The Captain's Helper (22:53)
- Original Theatrical Trailer (2:40)
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GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON'T DIE (2026) 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital
Label: Universal Pictures
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 134 Minutes 12 Seconds
Audio: English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1), DTS-HD MA 5.1 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Dolby Vision HDR10 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (2.39:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1)
Director: Gore Verbinski
Cast: Sam Rockwell, Juno Temple, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Pena, Zazie Beetz
The latest from director Gore Verbinski (Rango), and the first since 2016's A Cure For Wellness is a wild and messy time-travel A.I. apocalypse flick, a sort of 12 Monkeys by way of The Matrix, and Groundhog Day of course, wherein "a man from the future" (Sam Rockwell, Moon) arrives at a late-night diner in L.A. and proclaims he is on a mission to save humanity from an A.I. apocalypse, telling the patrons that the future of humanity depends on him assembling a specific combination of the diners to prevent certain doom. He also says this is his 117th attempt, so it seems he has not quite nailed down the specific combination, but he had a good feeling about this one! This 117th attempt includes diners Scott (Asim Chaudhry, The Sandman), Bob (Daniel Barnett), Marie (Georgia Goodman), couple Mark (Michael Peña, Ant-Man) and Janet (Zazie Beetz, Deadpool 2), Susan (Juno Temple, Venom: The Last Dance) and Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson, The White Lotus) who has an allergy to technology. Enroute to their destination, the home of a 9 year-old genius programmer, we get some flashbacks to backstories for some of the characters and their involvement and observations of AI in the real world, the affect of cellphone addiction social media on the youth, and how Susan's son died in a school shooting was cloned with insidious results. It's a wild and wooly tale, but the action is kinetic, the paranoid predictions of our A.I. enslaved future are terrifically entertaining, Rockwell, who looks like a lunatic from the start, holds it all together and his opening monologue at the diner about the impending AI apocalypse totally hooked me into it, so I was here for the ride. The group make their way to their target, along the way they're attacked by masked men brain-rotted teens who have been enslaved by their phones sinister algorithm. It's smart, it's funny, and it's unpredictable wild, I had a blast. The 4K UHD presentation looks terrific with Doby Vision/HDR and Dolby Atmos audio, but sadly the only extras is an 8-min making of. This 2-disc UHD/Blu-ray release includes a Slipcover and a redemption code for a Digital Copy.
Special Features:
- The Making of Goid Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (5:07)
- Digital Copy
- Slipcover
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4K Ultra HD + Digital
LAUREL & HARDY: THE DEFINITIVE RESTORATIONS
Label: Warner Bros.
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 147 Minutes 39 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (2.39:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1)
Director: Barry Levinson
Cast: Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, and Brad Pitt, along with Kevin Bacon, Jason Patric
For it's 30th Warner Bros. give the Barry Levinson (Diner) thriller Sleepers (1996), based on the book of the same name by Lorenzo Carcaterra, a new 4K makeover. Oddly this is a film I have zero memory off, which is surprising given that it features an all-star ensemble cast, among them Robert De Niro (The Godfather), Dustin Hoffman (Marathon Man), Brad Pitt (Se7en), Kevin Bacon (Flatliners) and Jason Patric (The Lost Boys). I threw this on expecting to remember having seen it, but no, I'd never watched it. The two-decade spanning story follows four boys, Lorenzo "Shakes" Carcaterra, Tommy Marcano, Michael Sullivan and John Reilly, from Hell's Kitchen who after a prank on a hotdog vendor gone wrong proves near fatal they end up sentenced to Wilkinson Home for Boys in Upstate New York, where they lose their innocence after repeatedly being tortured and sexually abused by torture by the schools guards, lead by Sean Nokes (Bacon). They never report the abuse or the death of a black inmate. In 1981, years after their release, Johnny (Ron Eldard, Super 8) and Tommy (Billy Crudup, Big Fish), are Irish mob career criminals, and while eating at a restaurant encounter Snokes eating alone, they confront him and unsatisfied with his response blow him away. They are arrested, and Michael, who is now an assistant district attorney, arranges himself to be assigned to the case in an effort free his friends and expose the crimes of Snokes and the others at the reform school. Michael is aided by "Shakes" who now works at the New York Times, mobster King Benny (Vittorio Gassman, Sharky's Machine), childhood friend/love interest Carol (Minnie Driver, Grosse Pointe Blank), and neighborhood priest Father Robert “Bobby” Carillo (De Niro), and alcoholic has-been lawyer Danny Snyder (Hoffman). I had a good time watching it, it sort of has a Goodfellas vibe, especially with the Jason Patric narration, crossed with a dark Stephen King coming-of-age tale, sort of a reform school version of Shawshank Redemption, and then becoming a courtroom drama at the end. It's an odd hybrid, and it's overlong, but the all-star cast is phenomenal and the core story is pretty gripping stuff. The new 4K presentation is top-notch, it looks and sounds terrific with Dolby Vision and uncompressed audio. A nice surprise is that we get two brand new featurettes with Levinson looking back at the film.
Special Features:
- NEW! The Making of Sleepers: A Conversation with Barry Levinson (6:28) - Uncover the inner workings of creating the film, from the production design to adopting the novel into a screenplay, with director Barry Levinson.
- NEW! Sleepers: The Art of Casting with Director Barry Levinson - Director Barry Levinson delves into the intricacies of crafting the roles of this star-studded cast. (6:52)
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(1933) 4-Disc Blu-ray Set
Label: Kit Parker Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 511 Minutes
Audio: English with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Cast: Jimmy Finlayson, Mae Busch. Charlie Hall. Billy Gilbert, Charley Chase
Praise be to Kit parker Films for releasing the classic Laurel & Hardy comedies with new 2K and 4K digital restorations from original 35mm nitrate! Seeing these classic comedies from this conic comedy team fully restored and looking better than ever will always make me giddy, that there are good people out there doing the cinema-lord's work, and preserving these timeless bits of slapstick for future generations to enjoy. This 3-disc Blu-ray set features two full-lengths "Sons of the Desert" and "Way Out West", and 17 shorts, including the long thought lost silent-era film "The Battle of the Century," which is making it's home video debut in it's most complete form for the first time in over 90 years! A not-so-small caveat would be that these restorations are wildly uneven, they've been sourced from different sources, all of which have been probably not treated and stored well for the past 90 years, as such the restorations can only do so much, and there are faded, washed-out looking presentations, some have wonky contrast, and blacks can be milky, so just expect that. Also know that it looks like some of the restorations have removed grain and film textures, which is not great either, but I am willing to say these are probably the best these have ever looked on home video - could they do better? Probably. Looking at the extras this is a treasure trove, hours of commentaries, alternate versions, archival interviews, trailers, galleries galore. I have not poured through the entire set yet, but wowsers, I am overwhelmed, what a comedy treasure chest, and a must-own for fans of vintage comedy team-ups.
Special Features:
- 'Battle of the Century' (1928) virtually complete and restored!
- Audio Commentaries by Randy Skretvedt and Richard W. Bann
- Never before seen video interviews as well as audio interviews with L&H co-workers
- Over 2500 stills, posters, scripts
- Alternate Soundtracks
- Music Tracks
- 'Ship's Reporter' Oliver Hardy Interview (restored)
- 'That's That' (restored/first time on video)
- 'Tree in a Test Tube' (restored from 16mm Kodachrome)
- L&H off-camera pix from Hardy's collection
- Restored Trailers
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DUST BUNNY (2026)
4K Ultra HD + Digital
Label: Lionsgate
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 106 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Atmos (TrueHD 7.1) with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Dolby Vision HDR10 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (3.00:1)
Director: Bryan Fuller
Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Sophie Sloan, Sheila Atim, David Dastmalchian, Sigourney Weaver
Dust Bunny (2026) is the directorial debut of Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, American Gods), a 10-year-old Aurora (Sophie Sloan) believes her adoptive parents have been killed by a monster that lives under her bed. When she follows her elusive neighbor in apartment 5B (Mads Mikkelsen, TV's Hannibal) is a killer, after witnessing what she believes to be a dragon, but in reality was a group of armed assassins inside of a dragon dance costume. It turns out that the resident in 5B is a contract killer. When she approached him to hire him to kill the monster under her bed he thinks that her parents were accidentally killed by assassins sent him, and that her imagination has just created the monster under the bed in place of what actually happened. He informs his handler Laverne (Sigourney Weaver, Ghostbusters) about the situation and advise him to kill the child as she witness the Chinatown contract, but he ignores her advice and befriends the child, which results in him having to porrect the child from an array of assassins who first come for him, and then for both. The film sort of feels like Leon: The Professional as seen through the imaginative lens and color palette of something like Amelie, I feel like the look-book or style-book they used by the production team must have had references to the work of Jean-Pierre Jeunet, as it has that whimsical, highly stylized fantasy feel to it, which looks gorgeous and just pulls you into the fantasy of it all, truly a candy-colored fairytale, I adored the visual style of it. The hired assassin-ness of it all offers some terrific hand-to-hand and firearm engagements as well, including a multi-assassin siege lead by The Conspicuously Inconspicuous Man (David Dastmalchian, Late Night with the Devil), where Aurora's case work Brenda (Sheila Atim, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) shows up, further complicating the situation. Narratively I don't know if I loved this, there are some terrific comedic and heartfelt moments between the young girl and Resident 5B that work wonderfully, the young actress is terrific and I loved seeing the softer side of Mikkelsen, but the real pull here is the visual tour de force, and for me, that's all I needed, I love this flick. The 4K UHD from Lionsgate looks splendid, the artsy style and fantastical production design shine in 4K with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, plus we get a handful of EPK style extras, nothing too meaty, I def wanted more bonus material, but at least we get something.
Special Features:
- Making Dust Bunny (11:56)
- Monster Craft (0:36)
- Q&A Sizzle (0:43)
- Cute to Cutthroat (0:26)
- Mads Choreography Video (1:01)
- Cast Explainers (0:32)
- Theatrical Trailer
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