Paramount Pictures Proudly Celebrates the 75th Anniversary of One of the Crown Jewels in its Storied Film Library SUNSET BOULEVARD

  

Legendary Director Billy Wilder’s Acclaimed and Haunting Portrait of Hollywood

is Newly Restored and Ready for Its Close-Up

 

ABOUT THE FILM

Originally released on August 10, 1950, SUNSET BOULEVARD was among the first films selected for preservation in the National Film Registry and is in the top 20 of the AFI’s Greatest American Films of All Time.  The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards®, including Best Picture, and won three for Best Art Direction, Best Music and Best Writing.^*

 

Gloria Swanson and William Holden give riveting performances as two of the silver screen’s most memorable characters: the aging silent film queen Norma Desmond and struggling young screenwriter Joe Gillis.  The bizarre and twisted story that unfolds between them is a brilliant combination of noir, black comedy and character study, as well as a scathing and pitch-black commentary on Hollywood that continues to resonate in today’s influencer-driven, true crime-obsessed, and self-reflective culture.

 

SUNSET BOULEVARD also features masterful, Oscar®-nominated performances by Erich von Stroheim as Desmond’s ex-husband/butler and Nancy Olson as the wholesome script reader who falls for Gillis, along with cameo appearances by director Cecil B. DeMille, gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, and silent film actor Buster Keaton.  

 

FILM RESTORATION

To mark the film’s diamond anniversary, this cinematic masterpiece has been meticulously restored in 4K using the highest quality surviving element—a 35mm duplicate negative—and every step of the restoration was approached with great care to faithfully honor Billy Wilder’s original vision.  The Library of Congress provided a 35mm print from its archive to serve as a reference for color accuracy throughout the restoration. This release also features an exceptional new 5.1 audio mix that was produced by Deluxe Audio with support from Park Road Post in New Zealand, whose proprietary technology enabled the isolation of dialogue, music, and effects tracks.

 

THEATRICAL RE-RELEASE

The newly restored film had its theatrical world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May and fans throughout the U.S. will have the opportunity to experience the stunning new restoration on the big screen in 4K when it returns to theatres nationwide on August 3 & 4 from Fathom Entertainment and Paramount Pictures.  Every film in Fathom’s Big Screen Classics series features an exclusive introduction by cinema critic and historian Leonard Maltin, offering insight into the landmark film and its enduring impact and relevance.

 

ENJOY AT HOME

SUNSET BOULEVARD is available now to buy or rent in sparkling 4K Ultra HD with more than two hours of legacy bonus content^** exploring the film’s production, stars, and cinematic significance on select Digital platforms. 

 

BROADWAY SHOW

Underscoring the film’s timeless appeal, Jamie Lloyd’s extraordinary reimagination of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s iconic musical Sunset Blvd., which is based on the Paramount Pictures film, won three 2025 Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival and Best Lead Actress in a Musical for Nicole Scherzinger’s sizzling portrayal of Norma Desmond. The twice extended musical will end its Broadway run on Sunday, July 20, 2025. For more information and tickets to the final performances, visit www.sunsetblvdbroadway.com.  

 

Sunset Blvd: The Album, the chart-topping cast album of the stunning new production, is available now to stream and on vinyl from The Other Songs label. Recorded live on the stage at London’s Savoy Theatre, the album captures the depth and power of Nicole Scherzinger’s Tony and Olivier Award- winning performance. To discover the album, visit https://bio.to/SunsetBLVDTheAlbum

 

FILM SYNOPSIS

Fame isn’t forever—just ask Norma Desmond. Once a Hollywood legend, now a forgotten relic, she refuses to fade away. When struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis stumbles into her decaying mansion, he becomes trapped in her web of obsession, control, and delusion. What starts as an opportunity soon spirals into something far more dangerous. Dark, twisted, and eerily relevant, SUNSET BOULEVARD is a haunting look at Hollywood’s unrelenting cycle—where youth is currency, talent is fleeting, and no one stays in the spotlight forever.  Are you ready for your close-up? 

  

 

SUNSET BOULEVARD is not rated

 

 

*Winner: Best Writing, Story and Screenplay; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black & White; Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, 1951.  Additional nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role (William Holden), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Gloria Swanson), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Erich von Stroheim), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Nancy Olson), Best Director (Billy Wilder), Best Cinematography, Black & White, Best Film Editing.

 

**Availability of bonus content varies by digital retailer

 

“ACADEMY AWARD” and “OSCAR” are the registered trademarks and service marks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

 

The Drew Carey Show: The Complete Series On DVD Box Set Review

 

Warner Brothers Discovery Home Entertainment’s The Drew Carey Show: The Complete Series On DVD Box Set is not so complete. Four Special Episodes detailed as Drew’s Dance Party Special, Drew Carey’s Back To School Rock ‘n’ Roll Comedy Hour Parts 1 & 2 and What’s Love Got To Do With it? are not included with this set although one might be able to find the missing episodes on their own on YouTube or by searching The Internet Archive. 

All nine seasons are presented across two large DVD keep cases within a high-quality cardboard slip case. The presentation is a (1.33:1) aspect ratio, preserving the method in which this series are originally exhibited on broadcast television English Dolby Digital and Digital Stereo Soundtrack options are encoded across all of the discs along with English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired. The menus are rudimentary standard interactive, steel frames that are easy to navigate. There is only one extra value feature, which is a short look at the series entitled Inside The Cubicle. 

This might be the final time to actually get the series on physical media so if you are a fan of the series, this is well worth picking up. The Drew Carey Show: The Complete Series On DVD Box Set is available now at retailers on and off-line courtesy of Warner Brothers Discovery Home Entertainment.

(C) Copyright 2025 By Mark A. Rivera

All Rights Reserved.

Alien Earth Update.

 ALIEN: EARTH (FX)

Premiere Date: Aug. 12, 2025 (Two episodes at launch then weekly)
Finale Date: Sept. 23, 2025
On Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ Internationally

Genre: Drama
Season:  1
Episode Count: 8

Synopsis: When the mysterious deep space research vessel USCSS Maginot crash-lands on Earth, Wendy (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat in FX’s “Alien: Earth.”

In the year 2120, the Earth is governed by five corporations: Prodigy, Weyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic and Threshold. In this corporate era, cyborgs (humans with both biological and artificial parts) and synthetics (humanoid robots with artificial intelligence) exist alongside humans. But the game is changed when the wunderkind founder and CEO of Prodigy Corporation unlocks a new technological advancement: hybrids (humanoid robots infused with human consciousness). The first hybrid prototype named “Wendy” marks a new dawn in the race for immortality. After Weyland-Yutani’s spaceship collides into Prodigy City, Wendy and the other hybrids encounter mysterious life-forms more terrifying than anyone could have ever imagined.

Cast: The series stars Sydney Chandler, Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, Adrian Edmondson, David Rysdahl, Essie Davis, Lily Newmark, Erana James, Adarsh Gourav, Jonathan Ajayi, Kit Young, Diêm Camille, Moe Bar-El and Sandra Yi Sencindiver.

Credits: FX’s “Alien: Earth” is created for television and executive produced by Peabody and Emmy® Award-winning Noah Hawley. Ridley Scott, David W. Zucker, Joseph Iberti, Dana Gonzales and Clayton Krueger also serve as executive producers. “Alien: Earth” is produced by FX Productions.

Amazing Music Video by The Talking Heads released nearly 50 years after the album. Link below.

 I’m amazed at the amount of work that must’ve gone into making this video because I was sure that these were scenes from a movie put to the Talking Heads song since it’s not unheard of that happening especially on YouTube. However, doing my research it turns out that all of this was done, especially For the Talking Heads song psycho killer. It’s a shame that not more people will be able to see this video only because it’s done so well. I think that in the days of MTV when it was actually a music channel, this would get a special award. It’s done beautifully in every way possible. I’m getting amazed that the amount of work done to make this complete. Thank you, Mike Mills, and the Talking Heads.

https://youtu.be/CJ54eImz88w?si=Q5e-MzLOQugfocc1

Snow White 2025 Digital Copy Review.

Rachel Ziegler is actually the least problem within the recent digital release of Disney’s Snow White live action 2025 adaptation. The quality has nothing to do with the sound and picture which are excellent and the bonus extra value features that are provided are also spot on. The main problem is not anything other than the fact that the story is completely mishandled with poor casting and terrible costuming. 

To begin with the CGI dwarves simply look out of place and they look rushed and are more frightening than they are cute. In addition to this, the costuming, particularly given to Rachel Ziegler does not fit her at all and in trying to make her look like some version of the original animated classic, they actually Made her look silly in an outfit that never gets dirty and in an environment where she supposed to be hiding from her life and all she does is stick out like a sore thumb. Gal Gadot cannot sing and she is also poorly cast in this film. 

There’s nothing wrong with organic diversity, but the attempt to appeal to just about every single demographic there makes it Unrelatable for nearly anyone who watches it. Some of the logic of the story does not work at all, and ultimately the sub storyline with the thieves is just a mess as well. 

I had difficulty sitting through this film so much that I’m grateful I talked to my brother into watching it with me because I knew that he would sit with me and then we could talk about it and we both agreed that while Ziegler’s singing is great, she really is also the least problem with this movie. 

Look in my humble opinion she’s a young woman, and who hasn’t said something they regret after the fact when they were young, or who hasn’t double down on something in the defensive take. What I’m trying to state is let he or she, who is without sin, throw the first stone. Ziegler is a great singer and in under the right casting as she gets a little bit older and more savvy, I believe that she has great promise if not in the movie theaters then on Broadway. 

The music for the most part is actually pretty good, especially when they stick close to the traditional Disney style music that one has come to expect for the last 25 years. The extra value features on the digital copy include sing-along featurettes as well as behind the scenes looks and more. Once again, the picture quality and sound quality is excellent with nice deep bass tones and an atmospheric feeling in Dolby Atmos. 

I really wish I could say nicer things about this film, but I would be lying. Little kids should like it regardless, especially those who are just coming into it without any pre-judgment or understanding of the media surrounding the making of the film, which definitely tinged it. Yet since little kids are open minded, they should enjoy it.  Again I want to emphasize that there are good things in this film. It’s not a total washout. Miss Ziegler sings well. It’s the script and the costuming that fail her. 

In short, you might want to wait till it streams on Disney+. Snow White 2025 is available at digital online retailers now.

(C) Copyright 2025 By Mark A. Rivera

All Rights Reserved.

Official Press Information For Predator: Killer of Killers and Alien Earth.

Official Press Information For Predator: Killer of Killers and Alien Earth.

PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLERS
Premiere Date: June 6, 2025
On Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ Internationally

Genre: Animated Action-Adventure Film

Synopsis: “Predator: Killer of Killers,” an original animated action-adventure film set in the Predator universe, will premiere June 6, cidijqvb2025, exclusively on Hulu. The anthology story follows three of the fiercest warriors in human history: a Viking raider guiding her young son on a bloody quest for revenge, a ninja in feudal Japan who turns against his Samurai brother in a brutal battle for succession, and a WWII pilot who takes to the sky to investigate an otherworldly threat to the Allied cause. But while all these warriors are killers in their own right, they are merely prey for their new opponent – the ultimate killer of killers.

Cast: The series stars Lindsay LaVanchy, Louis Ozawa, Rick Gonzalez and Michael Biehn.

Credits: “Predator: Killer of Killers” is directed by Dan Trachtenberg with Josh Wassung, from animation company The Third Floor, serving as co-director. The film is written by Micho Robert Rutare and story by Trachtenberg and Rutare, based on characters created by Jim Thomas & John Thomas. The producers are John Davis, Dan Trachtenberg, p.g.a., Marc Toberoff, Ben Rosenblatt, p.g.a., with Lawrence Gordon, James E. Thomas, John C. Thomas and Stefan Grube as executive producers.

ALIEN: EARTH (FX)
Premiere Date: Aug. 12, 2025 (Two episodes at launch then weekly)
Finale Date: Sept. 23, 2025
On Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ Internationally

Genre: Drama
Season:  1
Episode Count: 8

Synopsis: When the mysterious deep space research vessel USCSS Maginot crash-lands on Earth, Wendy (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat in FX’s “Alien: Earth.”

In the year 2120, the Earth is governed by five corporations: Prodigy, Weyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic and Threshold. In this corporate era, cyborgs (humans with both biological and artificial parts) and synthetics (humanoid robots with artificial intelligence) exist alongside humans. But the game is changed when the wunderkind founder and CEO of Prodigy Corporation unlocks a new technological advancement: hybrids (humanoid robots infused with human consciousness). The first hybrid prototype named “Wendy” marks a new dawn in the race for immortality. After Weyland-Yutani’s spaceship collides into Prodigy City, Wendy and the other hybrids encounter mysterious life-forms more terrifying than anyone could have ever imagined.

Cast: The series stars Sydney Chandler, Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, Adrian Edmondson, David Rysdahl, Essie Davis, Lily Newmark, Erana James, Adarsh Gourav, Jonathan Ajayi, Kit Young, Diêm Camille, Moe Bar-El and Sandra Yi Sencindiver.

Credits: FX’s “Alien: Earth” is created for television and executive produced by Peabody and Emmy® Award-winning Noah Hawley. Ridley Scott, David W. Zucker, Joseph Iberti, Dana Gonzales and Clayton Krueger also serve as executive producers. “Alien: Earth” is produced by FX Productions.

Rick And Morty: The Anime Blu-ray Disc Review

Rick And Morty: The Anime is it’s own thing complete with different English and Japanese Voice Talent providing our heroes with distinct speech that helps to set it apart from the main series. This is a standalone 10 episode arc by Takashi Sano, who directed two episodes previously for the Adult Swim Digital Platform.

The disc on Blu-ray contains all ten episodes presented in their original broadcast aspect ratio in glorious 1080p Full HD with an engaging English DTS-HD MA Soundtrack along with Japanese Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround. English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired. The run time is 207 minutes.

Rick And Morty: The Anime is available on Blu-ray Disc and DVD, but sold separately now retailers on and offline courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment.

(C) Copyright 2025 By Mark A. Rivera

All Rights Reserved.