Gloria Bell (Blu-ray Review)
May 22nd, 2019 by Brandon Peters
Lionsgate will be releasing Sebastian Lelio’s film Gloria Bell, starring Julianne Moore on Blu-ray, coming June 11th. Lelio’s film is a reimagining of his original film Gloria from 2013. Gloria Bell premiered at the 2018 Toronto International film festival and was followed by a small release this past March. It actually held the distinction of having the highest per-theater average in grosses in 2019 for any film not named Captain Marvel during that weekend (Albeit in 5 theaters). This Blu-ray will come with a digital copy and a making of featurette. Pre-order now using the link below. Continue reading ‘Gloria Bell (Blu-ray Review)’
Scream Factory’s 2019 year of Hammer Horror films on Blu-ray continues in June with a new release of Frankenstein Created Woman starring Peter Cushing. Previously released on Blu-ray by Millennium Media (Like another Scream Factory update, Dracula: Prince Of Darkness from last December), they’ve brought over those features and are doing a new 2K transfer on the film. Unlike Dracula: Prince of Darkness, it doesn’t appear to have 2 different transfers to choose from. It also packs some new features, including an interview and commentary track! 
Dreamworks has had some strong series in their animation wing (Kung Fu Panda, Shrek) and How To Train Your Dragon has possibly been their very best. The Hidden World marks the close to this story (Which also has a television series) and completion of a trilogy. Each of these films has been full of fantasy action, adventure and severely pulls at those heartstrings. The final adventure will be flying through the skies of 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray and blowing beautiful HDR fire into your viewing rooms when it arrives on May 21st. Pre-order for How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World available below! 
Mill Creek has held onto the rights for the classic horror film When A Stranger Calls for many years, in a bare bones 2-pack with Happy Birthday To Me. While Second Sight released a UK set last year (Region Free) that included the sequel, its never had a proper US release until now! Scream Factory is putting out the 1993 Showtime film When A Stranger Calls back that features new interviews with Fred Dalton, Carole Kane and Jill Schoelen as well as the original short film The Sitter that started it all. This is a nice compliment to that bare bones Mill Creek release and one fans should be pretty happy with. They’ve even gone a step above and added the option to watch it in a more theatrical 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Let’s take a look, shall we? 
Accompanying both Shaft sequels’ Blu-ray releases in the month of May (CANNOT WAIT for those!) from Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray debut of 1974 Melvin Frank film The Prisoner of Second Avenue. The Jack Lemmon/Anne Bancroft starrer looks to have been out of print on DVD (Going for $50 on Amazon currently. Oof), so getting the Blu-ray upgrade is both good for the quality and the wallet of those who’d like to add it to their film library. This is an interesting film that wasn’t too hot reception-wise when it came out, but seems like a forgotten film candidate to maybe have another look at. And a nice new presentation is one of the best ways to do that. 
Growing up, 1974’s Earthquake felt like a legendary “big deal” film to me. It was a big time disaster movie, starred a huge star in Charlton Heston and had a ride/theme park attraction at Universal Studio. As time as passed by, I feel its fallen out of public consciousness and sort of is a forgotten blockbuster. As we endure the trend of superhero films now, if you look back at the 1970s, disaster movies were that of its era. And Earthquake is one of the most notable ones of the era. Its also seen 2 bare bones releases on Blu-ray which Shout! Factory is rectifying with this pretty loaded Collector’s Edition featuring a new scan and the TV cut of the film! A must have for blockbuster enthusiasts, it releases on May 21st. Pre-order now! 
Liam Neeson — A name now synonymous with revenge action-thrillers. He will find you, and he will kill you. A fan of the genre will take note right now in their heads of all the films they’ve seen with Mr. Neeson kicking butt and taking names. There truly are quite a few, some good and some bad. Cold Pursuit takes our favorite “wronged man” and puts him in a bleak Colorado winter setting. The results here are like something we’ve seen before, but with a few very welcomed quirks and some unexpected humor. Supported by a strong narrative, some truly interesting plot twists, and the occasional laugh out loud moments, this newest piece feels more like a drama with some action than a knock down, drag out action film. Bundle up for the cold details below on this newest Neeson entry that hit stores May 14th! 
The new horror thriller I’ll Take Your Dead
Crank is fondly immortalized in my memories as one of the first elite Blu-ray titles that overwhelmingly wowed and showed off how razor sharp certain 1080p video footage could be.
Backdraft has often been one of those movies for me that I forget about. For whatever reason, despite the fact that the film is engaging, well acted and steadfastly directed, I always sock it away somehow. The funniest part to me is that despite it going left of my attention a lot of the time, each time I revisit it I am reminded of the excellent story structure that balances drama, thriller and action, the strong cast (Kurt Russell, William Baldwin, Robert DeNiro, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rebecca Demornay, Scott Glenn, Donald Sutherland and JT Walsh… phew, what a cast!) playing at their best and the lovingly crafted direction from Ron Howard. This exceptional 4K Release has made it very hard to imagine me forgetting this fantastic movie until the next viewing though! Check out more about the movie below that hit stores May 7th! 
Scream Factory seems to be making a light foray into the erotic thriller area of film genre-dom, continuing with this month’s release of the Morgan Fairchild-starring 1980s film The Seduction. If you’ll remember, they had a Valentine’s release of the four Poison Ivy films just few months back. The Seduction is getting some rather top tier treatment to with its Blu-ray debut here. They’ve got interviews, a commentary and vintage featurettes galore to soak up onto this disc. And yes, those new interviews do include a BRAND NEW one with Morgan Fairchild herself sitting down to reflect on her first lead role in a major motion picture. The street date for the release is May 21sts, so you have a little bit to pre-order a copy and if you use the Amazon link at the end of the review, you’ll help the site, and also secure the copy to your doorstep on the day of release. Maybe this review will be enough to seduce you into doing that. Or, maybe not. 
King Arthur has a had a rough go of it at the box office in recent years time. Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword came out two years ago and bombed pretty hard (Having seen it, I’d say rightfully so). The Kid Who Would Be King takes a newer approach on the overdone source material and spins it around for a kid/family friendly adventure with some meat to it. Unfortunately, we failed this little gem at the box office. But now its coming to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray (Well, its ALREADY out on all home video formats now), where we can see that we maybe should have done batter by this one. 
AMC delivered a bit of a bummer recently as they announced the fifth season of the acclaimed Breaking Bad prequel series Better Call Saul would be delayed until 2020 for its premiere. They cited they needed the time to accommodate actor shooting schedules. While I’m disappointed as I love this series (One of my probably Top 5 of currently airing shows on any network/streaming service), I’m glad they are getting to make the show they are intending to without compromise. In the meantime, they are sticking to the Blu-ray schedule, however, and the fourth season will be arriving on May 7th, complete with a solid haul of bonus features and a digital copy of each episode.
Back in 2014, The LEGO Movie took cinema-going audiences by surprise and by storm as it charmed and endeared everyone. It was the one of the first things to prop up Chris Pratt toward the superstardom he’d garner that following summer with Guardians of the Galaxy for Marvel as the lovable space-idiot hot shot Star Lord. This movie launched a LEGO brand of theatrical releases to hot and cold successes with LEGO Batman Movie and LEGO Ninjago that hit and missed financially. And now here we are with the Second Part of the first film which you can pick up on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray when it arrives May 7th.
Alien
Where to begin with this film. There are great actors, solid performances, and an engaging based on a true story storyline… Yet why does it seem like a complete and utter mess? Why does the film seem discombobulated, half baked and partially made? Story points open, yet don’t close out…. Welcome to a “Royal Mess” is more like it. Check out our full Blu-ray review of it which saw Welcome to Marwen hit the format on April 9th. 
