DVD/Blu-ray Release Calendar: September 2019

▣ Booksmart Trailers

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Now that's how you make a debut. Actress Olivia Wilde's first feature as a director is easily one of 2019's best comedies. First debuting to rave reviews at SXSW in March, where it earned comparisons to both Broad City and Superbad, Booksmart is a raunchy coming-of-age comedy following a pair of students (Kaitlyn Dever, Beanie Feldstein) during an eventful, party-filled night on the eve of their high school graduation. Jessica Williams, Will Forte, Lisa Kudrow, and Jason Sudeikis also star.

▣ Men in Black: International Trailers

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It turns out that the world didn't really need a fourth Men in Black film. Arriving seven years after the already inessential Men in Black 3, International features a new cast led by Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Liam Neeson, and Kumail Nanjiani, while F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton) takes over as director from Barry Sonnenfeld. Whether or not reports of a troubled production and meddling by producers are true, the result was mostly panned by critics as bland and lifeless.

▣ Aladdin (2019) Trailers

As feared, it's not one of Disney's better entries in its recent rush to remake every one of its animated classics. Guy Ritchie directs this take on the 1992 film that finds Will Smith (looking a bit like a giant Smurf) taking over for Robin Williams as the Genie. Filling out the cast are Mena Massoud as Aladdin, Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine, Marwan Kenzari as the sorcerer Jafar, Navid Negahban as the Sultan, Nasim Pedrad as Dalia, Billy Magnussen as Prince Anders, and Numan Acar as Hakim. The screenplay comes from Ritchie and John August (Charlie's Angels).

▣ The Dead Don't Die Trailers

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A zombie comedy from noted indie director Jim Jarmusch starring Bill Murray and Adam Driver—what's not to like? A few things, it turns out. The director's follow-up to his wildly acclaimed Paterson underwhelmed critics when it debuted at Cannes in May, thanks to a "sluggish" pace and a lack of laughs, symptoms, perhaps, of a mismatch between director and subject matter. The (un)deadpan comedy finds Murray and Driver playing cops who must deal with their small town's growing zombie population. They're joined by an eclectic cast that includes Tilda Swinton (great, as always), Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Iggy Pop, RZA, Tom Waits, Carol Kane, and Danny Glover.

▣ John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum Trailers

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It would have been impossible to predict prior to the fall of 2014 that John Wick would turn into a full-on film franchise, but here we are at installment number three, which somehow managed to out-gross the two previous films combined while nearly matching the critical approval for Chapter 2, which scored just a few points higher. Keanu Reeves returns as the titular assassin, stuntman-turned-director Chad Stahelski is once again behind the camera, working again from a screenplay by Derek Kolstad (though here there are three additional credited writers). The story finds Wick in New York, where a $14 million contract on his head means that many of the world's top assassins are after him. Joining Reeves in the cast are Halle Berry, Anjelica Huston, and Jason Mantzoukas, plus returning co-stars Laurence Fishburne, Lance Reddick, Ian McShane and John Leguizamo.

▣ Bodied (2017) Trailers

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If you see only one battle-rap dramedy this year, it may as well be Bodied. The well-reviewed, Eminem-produced film is the third and best feature from noted music video director Joseph Kahn and follows a student (American Vandal's Calum Worthy) who enters the field of competitive battle rap. After first debuting on the festival circuit in 2017, the film finally makes its way to disc in September.

▣ Dark Phoenix Trailers

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Well, it's not exactly the best X-Men movie. In fact, it's nearly the worst; only Wolverine has scored lower among the 12 X-Men films. (And none has performed as poorly at the box office.) Dark Phoenix serves as the directorial debut for writer/producer Simon Kinberg, who wrote the screenplays for several of the previous films in the series, including 2016's Apocalypse, for which this serves as a direct sequel. James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, and Sophie Turner head the cast.

▣ Child's Play Trailers

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The second film (but first released in the U.S.) by director Lars Klevberg, Child's Play is a remake of the (slightly better) 1988 slasher film that is intended to serve as a series reboot. Aubrey Plaza leads a cast that also features Gabriel Bateman and Brian Tyree Henry, plus Mark Hamill as the voice of the possessed doll Chucky.

▣ Yesterday Trailers

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One of 2019's bigger film disappointments, Yesterday is a musical comedy from director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) and writer Richard Curtis (Notting Hill). Himesh Patel stars as a struggling singer-songwriter in present-day England who awakens from a bus accident (caused by a mysterious global blackout) to discover that he is the only person on Earth who remembers the Beatles. So he adopts the Beatles' catalog as his own and quickly shoots to stardom performing their songs. Despite that intriguing premise and a well-received supporting performance by Kate McKinnon—and, obviously, killer tunes—Yesterday is let down by its script, according to many reviewers.