On the Shelf: ‘The Mask,’ ‘The Naked Gun (2025),’ Best Picture Winners, and A Fresh Criterion Entry Highlight Physical Media Week of November 10
After a lackluster start to the month of physical media releases, we’ve hit the motherlode this week with plenty of new titles to make any collector happy. Up first is the latest release from Arrow Video with a Jim Carrey classic arriving on 4K, The Mask. Part of a run for the iconic comedian in the 1990s, The Mask follows Stanley Ipkiss (Carrey), a kind bank clerk in Edge City, can’t bring himself to talk to the girl of his dreams, Tina Carlyle (Cameron Diaz), a stunning nightclub singer. But everything changes when Stanley discovers an ancient mask with supernatural abilities, unleashing an unstoppable and uncontrollable version of himself: the Mask. This non-stop, joke a second action comedy is a staple of Carrey’s career, and now thanks to Arrow, you can see it in glorious 4K, featuring two archive audio commentaries from director Chuck Russell, new interviews with Russell, visual effects supervisor Scott Squires, editor Arthur Coburn, and choreographer Jerry Evans. There are also tons of deleted scenes, a new video essay by critic Elizabeth Purchell on the film’s canine sidekick Milo, and a double-sided fold-out poster featuring two original artwork options. As always, Arrow has gone all out and you will want to get this film as soon as it releases on Tuesday.
Over a half dozen films from 2025 are releasing this week, featuring titles, Caught Stealing, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, Eden, Freakier Friday, Him, and Together. But the film that’s the best of the bunch, and worth highlighting and showcasing alongside The Mask is the latest installment, reboot, legacy sequel in the Naked Gun series, The Naked Gun (2025). Liam Neeson takes over the franchise as Lt. Frank Drebin Jr., as he goes on his latest case for Police Squad where he must stop a sinister billionaire from take over the world. In my review from earlier this year, I raved about the newest spoof comedy from director Akiva Schaffer, calling it “hilarious,” “brilliant,” and “a fresh take on the spoof comedy that honors the past by being one hundred percent its own silly, goofy, ten jokes a minute self, poking fun at just about everything and everyone in the cop, spy, true crime genre.” It’s easily the comedy of the year and one you’ll be revisiting over and over again once you own it.
Being an awards website, it’s only right to keep an eye out when Best Picture winners make their way onto 4K, and this week, we have two films celebrating their anniversaries as they arrive on the premiere physical media, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Spotlight. For Cuckoo’s Nest, Miloš Forman’s film follows R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a new patient transferred to a mental institution run by the strict Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher), and his rebellion against her harsh rule of power. Part of one of the best film years of not just the 1970s, but of all time, Cuckoo’s Nest was a smash hit with audiences and the Oscars, winning the Big 5 Oscars (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Director, and Screenplay), being one of three films to do it all time (It Happened One Night and The Silence of the Lambs). It’s a stone cold masterpiece and a must-own, alongside one of the better modern Best Picture winners in Spotlight. Tom McCarthy’s drama follows The Boston Globe’s investigation into a decades-long cover-up of systemic child sex abuse within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. Lead by a cast that included Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Stanley Tucci, Liev Schreiber, and Billy Crudup, Spotlight is a vital piece of modern filmmaking, winning two Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, making it the first Best Picture winner since The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) to win only one other Oscar. Grab it from our friends at Shout Factory, who included a featurette that looks at the current state of journalism following the release of this film.
Lastly, as the November Criterion Collection sale begins at Barnes and Noble, the collection adds a new entry on 4K, Burden of Dreams. For nearly five years, acclaimed German director Werner Herzog desperately tried to complete one of the most ambitious and difficult projects of his career: Fitzcarraldo, the story of one man’s attempt to build an opera house in the Amazon jungle. With Burden of Dreams documentary filmmaker Les Blank captured the highly memorable production, showcasing Herzog’s manic determination to make the film, showcasing the lengths an artist will go to capture their art. Featuring an audio commentary with Blank and Werzog, you’ll want to add this to your collection as soon as you can.
Other Notable Releases for the Week of August 25, 2025 include:
Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000, 4K Blu-ray, Universal Studios)
Snowden (2016, 4K Blu-ray, Shout Factory)
Ted Lasso: The Richmond Way (2020-2023, 4K Blu-ray, Warner Bros.)
U-571 (2000, 4K Blu-ray, Universal Studios)
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