GLADIATOR II Comes to Digital This Christmas Eve, and 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD This March!
Director Ridley Scott’s action-packed epic GLADIATOR II continues to thrill audiences around the world, having already earned over $416 million at the global box office. Fans will be able to relive the astonishing spectacle at home—along with a wealth of behind-the-scenes bonus content—when it arrives to purchase on Digital December 24, 2024 from Paramount Home Entertainment.
Hailed as “the single greatest movie of the year” (Dave Morales, FOX TV) and “an epic sequel worthy of its Oscar®-winning predecessor” (Scott Mantz, KTLA), GLADIATOR II boasts breathtaking action and sensational performances from a star-powered cast, including Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, and the sublime Denzel Washington in “one of his most charismatic and riveting performances” (Clayton Davis, Variety).
After captivating and creeping out audiences in theaters and on Mubi, Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance is set to debut on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD on January 21st!
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fan-favorite superhero thriller Constantine, the 2005 film will be available for purchase Digitally in 4K Ultra HD and on 4K UHD Blu-ray Disc on February 18. Featuring an all-star cast led by Keanu Reeves, the film marks the directorial debut of Francis Lawrence. The newly remastered film will also include new bonus content featuring Keanu Reeves and Francis Lawrence reflecting on the making of the film 20 years later.
A coming-of-age comedy starring Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis, Macaulay Culkin and Anna Chlumsky, MY GIRL is an irresistible story of first love and loss. Chlumsky makes an extraordinary acting debut as Vada Sultenfuss, a precocious 11-year-old tomboy obsessed with death. Dan Aykroyd is her widowed father, the town mortician, and Jamie Lee Curtis is the cosmetician he employs. Macaulay Culkin, in an endearing performance, is Thomas J., the boy next door who idolizes Vada. Their summer adventures — from first kiss to last farewell — introduce Vada to the world of adolescence. The perfect film for parents to share with their children, MY GIRL is a motion picture to cherish.
Religion has been a great subject to mine for cinema this year. A great deal of the films centering on religion have in fact been in the horror and thriller genres, and interestingly, the films presented this year have also met with much acclaim from critics and audiences. Long since the days of The Omen and The Exorcist, the dark side of faith has been ripe for the screen. Now onto Conclave, a film that has much going on and happens to be not only respectful to its Catholic-centered subject, but also its audience. Led by a first-rate cast and excellent moody direction from Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front), Conclave comes out just in time to stuff a stocking of the film fan in your family!
OK, so let’s just get it out of the way now – We know that Joker: Folie À Deux was a monumental failure this year. The enticing mixture of Phoenix and Gaga and some musical sequences seemed like a heady continuation of the original Joker, a film I still think about to this day as an incredible meditation of a man’s downfall in succumbing to the destruction of his own mental health. The 2020’s answer to Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, Joker was rife for an explosive continuation. Now, you ask me… is the sequel as awful as we’ve read about and been made to believe? Don your clown makeup and read on and see for yourself. You may want to tap dance after you’ve read my thoughts…
Trapped in their New York brownstone’s Panic Room, a hidden chamber built as a sanctuary in the event of break-ins, newly divorced Meg Altman (Jodie Foster) and her daughter, Sarah (Kristen Stewart), play a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with three intruders—Burnham (Forest Whitaker), Raoul (Dwight Yoakam) and Junior (Jared Leto)—during a brutal home invasion. But the room itself is the focal point because what the intruders really want is inside it.
When I was a kiddo, I was one of those kids that watched Transformers a lot. In between my watching Muppet Babies, Heathcliff and Inspector Gadget, I made sure to catch up on the gang of autobots on their many adventures. Funny enough, I even had a baby blue Transformers lunchbox. I never had any of the toys, and I don’t remember much if any of the lore now, which is just a natural part of growing older. When I heard news and saw the trailer for Transformers One, I knew somehow I’d be able to reconnect with the characters better than I was able to for the other Transformers films. More on that later. Transformers Oneis unique based on it’s being an animated film. We haven’t seen that since the 80’s for this franchise. So how does the property translate into family-friendly animation you ask? Find out inside the review. While you read, try to remember – Which Transformer was your favorite?
Who doesn’t love a documentary? If done right, a documentary can be not only informative but wholly entertaining. Some of my favorite films have been documentaries, be it one like Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice that brings depth to stories we’ve heard before about a singing icon, to deep life dives like Marley, which covers the life of Bob Marley from birth to death. Piece By Piece does something completely different and turns the documentary on its ear. Read more about the Lego-ification of the life of Pharrell Williams below, and don’t fall to pieces while you do it.
Shaun of the Dead came out the same year I graduated high school. I was ready to leave school forever, ignoring that I was starting college in the fall, and I was listening to Yeah! by Usher way too much. I was also giving myself a film education at the time. I began to reach beyond typical commercial films and looked for things that were different. Among those different films was Shaun. Randomly falling on a DVD copy of the film with a good friend, I was a huge fan after the first few moments. 20 years later, does the film stand up? And how does the new 20th Anniversary 4K edition stand up to the one released in 2019? Find out more about my love for Shaun of the Dead as well as all the new add-ons to the home media package for the film! Don’t leave the front door open, and make sure you don’t have red on you either!
Willow exists in a time where a live-action fantasy film could appeal to not just children, but adults too. The film, once a revolutionary one for the advent of computer-generated special effects was a minor hit in 1988. Thanks to home video and repeated viewing from Gen X and Millennials, the film’s cult following came to a Blu-ray release in 2013, and a TV show sequel all the way in 2022. The show has since disappeared from Disney+, but Disney did think of the fans in bringing the film to a new format. This is why we now have a Willow 4K UHD Blu-ray, and it’s a steelbook edition too! Read more about the film and its shiny new transfer, or Madmartigan may come after you!
In case you readers didn’t know, I am a teacher. I have been a preschool teacher for nearly 14 years. My love of animated films often comes into play with my students. I always hear about the latest Disney princess and then I’m inundated with the soundtrack for months on end before I ever lay an eye on the film. Then there are the ones I become interested in, much like The Wild Robot, that I never hear these children mention. I have wondered why it works that way with films targeted at children. I can say before I even delve into my critical point of view that The Wild Robot is a very special film, and one that children and adults can find lovable and totally entertaining. Read more about the film and it’s exceptional 4K release below!
Have you ever heard of twin cinema? I don’t know if this is the proper term, but this is what I’m calling it. Twin cinema is where two movies come out and are similar enough that one does better than the other. It’s a phenomenon that happens only so often but it’s always the same way. Notable twin cinema films are Girls Trip and Rough Night or Dante’s Peak and Volcano. These films were both released in the same years, 1997 and 2017 respectively, and one always performed better than the other. In 1999, The Sixth Sense and Stir of Echoes debuted. Both took place in mid-west/east-coast settings in the fall. Both dealt with spirits who talk to young children. Both had a James Newton Howard score… But what ever happened to Stir of Echoes? It’s one of those films I heard about in 1999, but forgot about shortly after, while The Sixth Sense went on to become a huge cultural hit. Read more about Stir of Echoes here. You’ll be glad you did!
