The Karate Kid – 35th Anniversary Edition (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)
April 13th, 2019 by Adam Toroni-Byrne
The Karate Kid is one of those films that was almost always a big part of my movie watching as a kid. I was drawn to the underdog story of Daniel Larusso, who with a great deal of spunk and determination proved himself to be a teenage hero for some. I was so excited to see this 35thAnniversary Edition announced earlier in the year and when it arrived I was immediately ready to give it a watch! This time, for me anyway, felt like the first time. Check out my review of this April 16th release down below. Continue reading ‘The Karate Kid – 35th Anniversary Edition (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)’
I can’t say I ever thought the day would come where we’d be living in a world in which an exists a sequel to 2000’s Unbreakable whether lone two of them. I knew there was always interest in the property, but given the downward spiral of M. Night Shayamalan’s career for awhile I never thought we’d see anything spectacular from him again. A movie he wrote in 2010 called Devil kind of peaked my curiosity, but imagine my surprise when early reviews of 2016’s Split came with mentions of a tie-in to the Unbreakable universe. That news practically broke the Internet (I’m exaggerating) and even further Split was actually a really great film to boot. James McAvoy got robbed of an Academy nod for his exceptional performance, but I digress. More importantly M. Night was suddenly back! People were instantly in his corner and the third film in the trilogy, Glass, was fast-tracked for our viewing pleasure here now on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray April 16th.
Clint Eastwood returns to the role of filmmaker and actor with The Mule. I am personally always excited to check out a new Eastwood movie. Whether he is acting or directing, stylistically he always seems to strike a chord with me as a viewer and film fanatic. This particular movie did just that, although with a few odd detours. Follow down below as we explore everything about The Mule, which was recently released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray this past Tuesday (April 2nd). 
While I had never been all in on the modern day Transformers films like childhood me would have hoped, oddly enough, the spin-off prequel film Bumblebee not only garnered my attention through production. And in on odd spin of events it won over my heart completely and even made my 10 favorite films list for last year. I don’t know that there’s a series that won me over completely like this on the 6th entry (Fast & Furious movies got me at 5). In actuality its the 7th theatrical Transformers feature if you count the original animated film (Which I do love). Paramount is bringing this film set in the VHS hey-day to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray on April 2nd. Pre-order using the Amazon link below, or by signing up to hold a copy at your local Phar-Mor.
It was only a matter of time I suppose, but here we are and low and behold we unbelievably, finally have an Aquaman movie. The masterful James Wan pulled off the what was almost deemed the impossible. He defied the odds and marvelously brought to the big screen an absurd superhero project, which has been in development hell since 2004. That’s right we finally get the Aquaman! Now I have never been that big on the character like most hardcore DC Comics fans, but Wan has my full attention now. The character of Aquaman for me amounted to very little in both 
Disney has been revisiting many of their hand-drawn animated classics of yesteryear and been giving human (Or computer animated) life to them for a whole new generation with great degrees of success. Mary Poppins Returns takes at taking one of their live-action classics (That also featured a handful of hand-drawn animation) and giving it a lega-sequel of all its own. The film proved a solid hit and one of the biggest movies of the holiday season, but not the monster I think they were expecting over that leggy time period. Its arriving quickly now, on shelves for 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray on March 19th. At some point the link below will be active, so come back around to see if you can log yourself an Amazon pre-order. 
Lionsgate is bringing an underseen gem in the Nicholas Cage/Ethan Hawke/Jared Leto arms drama/thriller to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray. While their updates of catalog titles seems random sometime at others headscratching, Lord of War feels like a its somewhere in the middle of that. The film landed in the mid of maybe Nic Cage’s last great run of films back in the first half of the 00s (Matchstick Men – National Treasure – Lord of War – The Weather Man). Lionsgate was a studio trying to break out from just being Jigsaw and Madea movies and were trying their best at something prestige with a movie like this. Its one that I think people should definitely revisit or check out for the first time as it surprised me back in 2005. You can grab yourself this glorious new 4K release on March 19th using the Amazon linkage below. 
Modern audiences are oddly very weary on giving an opportune chance to any fantasy or science fiction adventure that clearly looks like something new. They may be put off by it being “weird” or unfamiliar while forgetting at one time, Star Wars was also weird and unfamiliar. I’m not saying everything they pass up on is a complete gem, but the opening weekend excitement is either rarely there (Guardians of the Galaxy, but that’s mostly based on brand awareness), barely there (Alita) or nonexistent (Valerian). Mortal Engines was one of 2018’s biggest bombs at the box office and I found little to no one aside from open minded film geeks like myself, craving new fantasy worlds and lore, excited for it. The main turn off for something like this appears to merely be that it isn’t based off anything or the nostalgic return of something familiar. Yet in the meantime, all I hear is the gripe of “There’s nothing original anymore”. WHAT DO YOU WANT? Haha! While I wanted to see Mortal Engines, life wouldn’t allow the time (And I DO normally see stuff like this, as I paid money to see Jupiter Ascending in theaters even), so this will be more first outing and can be yours when it arrives on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray March 12th. 
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald returned audiences to the Wizard World that was the Wizarding World before that of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. New Scamander and company are back in action but this time we are promised are harder tie in to the previous novels/films we’d seen before. No way around it, the film overall seemed to not take off with audiences as much as Where To Find them to significantly less money and appreciation. We’ll be able to further study (Or for some, check out for the first time) when the second of the Harry Potter prequel series makes its 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray debut on March 12th. Preorder the film using the Amazon link provided below the review. 
Where do I even begin here? I don’t want to bore my readers over and over talking about how much these Rocky franchise of movies adoringly mean to me. They are absolutely everything to me! They are my main sources of both perseverance and inspiration in life. One could even them call them my soundtrack for success, but I digress. If you’re interested in knowing the full story, you can catch up 
Where do I even begin here? I categorically knew nothing at all about this movie going in. All I knew is Why So Blu reviewers Aaron Neuwirth and Gregg Senko liked it. Aaron who can usually peg what he calls “Brian Movies” declared several months ago that this indeed is one of those. Therefore, since I didn’t take him seriously about it last year I jumped at the opportunity when the Green Book 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray set arrived on my doorstep this past week. While the synopsis of the film really didn’t tickle my fancy I took this opportunity to do so more as a way to see how good Aaron really knows me. Let’s see if his streak with 2018 “Brian Movies” holds true here. What do you say Aaron…are you up to the challenge? So without further ado I’ll put aside all my petty, personal sentiments and remarks to digress back to the reason you’re all here…I present to you Green Book on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray.
Mary Queen of Scots will forever I’m afraid be known as Johnny Depp’s sequel to Alice in Wonderland where he reprises his role of the Mad Hatter.
I remember growing up and my mom adoring 1976’s A Star Is Born, which stars Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. Not so much the movie per se, but I remember the LP always being prominently displayed in her collection. I suppose this information severely dates me, but I’m really just trying to set the mood here. Years later I would find out that it was actually a remake of a 1937 movie of the same name, but I digress. What made me take notice though as I got into collecting home media formats like DVD and Blu-ray my mom would always ask me when does A Star Is Born come out for it. Now some 40 years later it’s kind of sentimental that I’m equally excited for the newest incarnation of A Star Is Born releasing on Blu-ray and 4K UHD Disc this February 19th. 
Disney animation’s new animation hot streak may be more notable for the Frozen phenomenon, but it did start the year prior with the very popular and profitable Wreck It Ralph. And before we start sequelizing the recent run and getting the (sure to be HUMONGOUS) Frozen 2, Ralph gets his second turn at bat. And oddly enough, looking over, balance and consistency may be his strong suit. The sequel did about even critically and just a little better at the box office than the original. That’s a pretty solid carry over considering these both made just shy of half a billion dollars. You’ll be able to take home Ralph’s breaking of the internet when it comes to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray on February 26th (Same day as Ariel!). 
Many outstanding blockbuster films will hit their 30 year milestone this year. I’ve long talked about how 1989 was an important year to me, in which my passion and love for film took to brand new heights that summer, primarily with the release of Tim Burton’s Batman. Disney also found itself refreshed when The Little Mermaid arrived in theaters and paved way to a resurgence of fairy tale animated features for them, complete with some of the most memorable songs in their catalog. With that 30 year milestone, The Little Mermaid is not only getting a Signature Collection release, its also making the jump to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray for the very first time. Make sure you grab this one before those pesky vault keepers lock up all the dingle-hoppers for good. You’ll be able to own it on February 26th, and you can pre-order below. 
I’m probably alone in this way of thinking, but I cant help myself. When I first saw the artwork to click on for playing the Widows trailer I instantly thought of another Viola Davis movie she did a few years back with Jennifer Lopez. That movie was called Lila & Eve, but had what I originally thought a similar motive…revenge. While there are very much aspects of a revenge genre film in the making here make no mistakes about it Widows is very much a heist movie. It’s also an incredibly good one if do say so myself. The Steve McQueen directed film was released this past week on your favorite home media formats. Aaron Neuwirth brought you the Blu-ray review earlier in the week 
While I never was a huge Queen fan growing up I was never ignorant to their musical place and historical significance and in the world of rock. That much was never lost on me. I was a fan of most of their songs and like many from my generation completely smitten by “Bohemian Rhapsody” when it was resurrected in the 1992 
Now this is a “Brian” film!
