Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (Blu-ray Review)
September 9th, 2010 by Sean Ferguson
For those 8.9 million Disney Channel Movie premiere viewers who made Camp Rock a huge success, here comes the sequel you’ve been waiting for…Camp Rock 2! All of the elements that made the first one so popular have returned – The Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato, and a new talented group to round out the cast. I’ve never seen the first movie but thanks to my son’s love of the Disney Channel, I’ve seen plenty of music videos and clips of the movie to be familiar with it. Continue reading ‘Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (Blu-ray Review)’
A decade before the incarnation of Saw, the crime thriller Seven (stylized as Se7en) “saw” its reign in the theaters some 15 years ago in 1995. My God, has it been that long? And honestly, I remember really liking the film, but for some reason I never revisited the film again. Must be a lack of time thing. Yeah, that sounds about right. Anyway, that’s all in the past now and when I got the call to review the Warner Home Video catalog release, I took the plight despite all the other work I am currently buried under. 
“Mr. Crowley (beat), what went down in your head? Mr. Crowley (beat), did you talk to the dead?” Um, so why do I have the sudden urge to belt the lyrics out to Ozzy Osbourne’s Blizzard of Oz masterpiece, “Mr. Crowley?” Oh, wait a minute! I know. It may just have something to do with the fact that I just watched Adam Green’s 2006 “Holy Grail of Slasher Films,” Hatchet and his legendary “icon of horror,” Victor Crowley. Move over Michael, Jason, Freddy and Thomas Brown Hewitt, there’s a new “monster in the house,” and his name is Victor Crowley. 
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Not all that long ago, I came across DC’s latest animated title to hit the streets. Titled Batman: Under the Red Hood, Amazon included a brief clip from the film that contained some action, though offered little in the way of substance. It was questionable that DC released yet another Batman title in their animated lineup when there are so many characters yet to be tapped for the transition to a cartoon film. 
Warner Bros has done something unique. In a music first, if memory serves, they have released a collection of the King’s films and live performances. These editions have been released as a 3-disc Blu-ray collection and as a single disc-book of Elvis on Tour. WhySoBlu was extremely fortunate to get a copy of the 3-disc set for review and a set to give away (enter 
To say that I was not looking forward to the April 16th theatrical release date of Kick-Ass would be like saying that I would rather watch a DVD of my favorite film over its superior Blu-ray counterpart. It’s just not going to happen. And now that my number four film of the year is coming out on Blu-ray August 3rd, I have even more reason to celebrate. My obsession with this film happened way back on the magical date of July 24, 2009. It was on that very day, within Hall H at Comic-Con 2009 in San Diego, that I was introduced to the world of Kick-Ass. 
I was excited when I got the word that I would be reviewing Mother, the new film by Bong Joon-Ho, writer and director of the amazing genre-bending film The Host. In the past few weeks I’d seen various promotional material about Mother which included stills and the trailer. After watching the trailer, I made the assumption that Mother was going to be a straightforward murder-mystery. Even the theatrical trailer makes it seem like it’s a straightforward murder mystery tale. I couldn’t have been more wrong. 
When this movie was released in 1989 it I don’t remember hearing about it and I’d never seen it until now. At the time of this movie’s release, Mickey Rourke was near the beginning of his career freefall after a decade of hits. After this movie failed, his rollercoaster career began which is a shame because he did some good work in this movie. It all has a happy ending however, as The Wrestler brought him back front and center and he just played the main villain in Iron Man 2 so it will be interesting to see where his career goes now. 
I’m an unabashed Sylvester Stallone fan especially when it comes to the Rocky and Rambo movies. Back in the 80s he was in top form but towards the end of the decade, I noticed the quality of his movies were starting to go down starting with Cobra and then continuing on with movies like Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot! Lock Up falls squarely in that period but fares a little better than a lot of those. It seems like Stallone was getting restless and most likely felt typecast and was trying as many different genres as possible. 
I think most people have at some point wondered “what if” whether it’s about a girl or boy in your past or a decision you made long ago that still keeps you awake at night on occasion. I think if everyone (myself included) were given the opportunity to find out how things could have been different knowing what they know now, they would jump at the chance if they had access to let’s say a GMC Delorean or in this case a Hot Tub Time Machine. 
After recently suffering through the original 1981 Clash of the Titans on Blu-ray (see review 
I just so happened to miss this one during its brief stint in the theaters this year so I was overjoyed to find out that Sony would be providing me with a Blu-ray review copy of The Runaways. However, I will let you in on a little secret. Do you want to know the real reason why I wanted to see The Runaways so badly? Well, even if you don’t, you know me; I’m going to tell you. It’s because I wanted to check out one of my favorite actresses, Scout Taylor-Compton, and see how she is doing. 
I am huge fan of Christopher Nolan’s films especially Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, but I’ve also really enjoyed his other movies as well. While I haven’t seen his earliest work on Doodlebug and Following, I did see Memento, which catapulted him into the public consciousness in a big way. Nolan obviously has recurring themes throughout all of his movies as they all contain elements of obsession, psychological and physical pain, guilt, and characters who try to succeed despite their hardships. 
It seems as time goes on, there are more and more entertaining films that find their way to Blu-ray, but never made it to the cinema. In the case of Outlander, it found zero success at the movie theater and was released this past May on Blu-ray. The film, while not a blockbuster of mammoth proportions, managed to successfully use a tighter budget when it came to delivering a quality production. 
Why So Blu might just make it a habit of reviewing imports now, because once we start, we can’t stop! Continuing on the import train, we now bring you The Tournament which has not received an official Blu-ray release in the states other than the standard DVD through The Weinstein Company. I actually found out about The Tournament when I was watching Solomon Kane. There’s a trailer for it on the Kane disc. I’m under the impression that the UK may get a Blu-ray release before the U.S. 
In what we hope will be our first of many blu-ray import reviews, Why So Blu is proud to present Solomon Kane. Solomon Kane was completely financed out of the U.S. by European interests to the tune of 40 million dollars. Not a bad chunk of change for a fantasy flick which received minimal play in the U.S., if any. This review copy of Solomon Kane was obtained from 
Rambo, Rambo: The Extended Cut, Rambo IV, John Rambo or whatever you want to call it is Sylvester Stallone’s follow-up, some 20 years later, to the successful Rambo franchise of the 80’s. Unlike its predecessor, this film kicks a$$ in all four of my major action/war critical requirements: realism/believability, brutality, heart pounding action sequences and satisfying necessary emotional ties. However, this time around, Lionsgate provides us Blu-ray customers with an alternate Director’s Cut version of what many peeps may call Stallone’s best entry into the franchise since the original film. 
I remember a few years ago when the studios were billing Jet Li’s Fearless as his final “epic” film. I then saw the trailer for The Warlords over a year ago and was kind of surprised that Jet Li was doing another…”epic” film. You gotta do what you gotta do, right? I was also surprised to see that this film was released almost three years ago in late 2007. I am aware that there was a U.K. blu-ray release sometime ago. Magnolia has acquired the U.S. home video distribution rights to this film. 
