2001: A Space Odyssey (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)
For 50 years, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey has blown away audiences and inspired some of our biggest and best films and filmmakers. In celebration of this milestone, front by Christopher Nolan, the film was restored and rereleased in IMAX theaters to commemorate the occasion. Its amazing that a film from 1968 was already perfect for the format and could make such an easy transition, but that is the genius and master stroke that is the film that escalated Stanley Kubrick from very good filmmaker to legend overnight. Warner Bros is also not hesitating and bringing it to the best possible home presentation when it released the film on December 18th to the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray format. Originally slated for October 30th, the released suffered from a couple delays for reasons I’m not sure of, but if something’s going to be great, its always worth the wait (And indeed this one was). Don’t hesitate, order yourself a copy from the Amazon link below. Continue reading ‘2001: A Space Odyssey (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)’
Horror is doing what its doing and doing it well from all sorts of angles and subgenres. Be it awards-level prestigious like Hereditary, original blockbusters like A Quiet Place, familiar territory like It or a beloved franchise getting a new entry like Halloween, its covered. One overlooked, but important sublet of the genre is the family or kid horror film. We saw an all-timer in RL Stine’s Goosebumps a few years back (That even having a sequel this year). This year saw The House With A Clock In Its Walls, based on a popular book and directed by one of the modern experts in directing horror, Eli Roth. Keeping familiarity with the kids, Jack Black is here in the film for good measure. Its such that I feel like many people could have been confused and thought this Goosebumps-related. Universal has brought its hit film to the 4K Ultra-HD format (Unlike you, Goosebumps 2!) and you can pick it up at any time, as it was released on the last new release Tuesday of the year, December 18th. 
Yours truly originally covered the first season of Westworld, also known as The Maze, on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray over 
Having revisited the Mission: Impossible franchise this summer on the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format (our reviews 
We are just weeks away from the sneak peak and then ultimate release of James Wan’s Aquaman starring Jason Momoa and Amber Heard. Because of Wan’s involvement, my worry about the DC project is less so than many of the others. To celebrate the new film and to help people brush up or learn Aquaman, the DC Animated Universe is rereleasing and upgrading their film Justice League: Throne of Atlantis on a new 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray release. This is the story that introduced the character to the current roster after a tease at the end of Justice League: War. This particular version is widely available now and you can nab yourself a copy by clicking the Amazon link below the review.
I know The Meg is based off a book, which we’ll cover in a moment, but one look at its insane trailer, crazy cast and cute name had me instantly at hello many months ago. I didn’t even care if the movie was a turd or a shipwreck of events. I had to go see it if for nothing else than to get my DC Batwoman err I mean Ruby Rose fix, but I digress. I just like saying Ruby Rose for some reason. It flows off your tongue effortlessly and it’s fun to say and count all her tattoos too. Didn’t I say I digress a second ago? Well this time I really do mean it. More importantly The Meg is really just a movie about a big @$$ shark. It was released in my favorite summer month of August. It features something that I never see here in Austin, TX…beaches and water. What was not to love about it already? Am I right? Damn right I am!
I’m not sure what milestone hit for Wolfgang Petersen’s Air Force One to jump to Blu-ray, but I’m not going to question grabbing an awesome 1990s action movie here on the best format with both a picture and audio jump in quality. Perhaps they selected putting the Harrison Ford US President defends his plane against terrorists film on November 6th to coincide with the midterm elections that took place earlier in the week. If so, you’re one clever little pony over there, Sony. As mentioned, this new edition will feature a new Atmos mix and will carry over the Wolfgang Petersen audio commentary from the previous release (“Legacy Bonus Features” being the hot term now). I apologize for no pre-order link (Amazon’s search is more difficult than need be for it), but I’m sure if you peruse the internet well enough, you’ll be able to snag a copy. 
Whenever I hear the name Sylvester Stallone my mind is instantly wired to think of both the fictional heroes of Rocky and Rambo. Sure the guy has had many other great roles over his career, but in my opinion these two are absolutely iconic. His face is the symbol of hope, motivation and obviously the hero of these two franchises. Let’s table Rocky for a few weeks though as he’ll get enough coverage with the upcoming Creed 2 feature later this month. Instead let’s focus all our attention on the war machine…err should I say character…of the hour, Mr. John J. Rambo. First Blood back in good ole’ 1982 is where it all started for this iconic action hero and that’s exactly where we’re going to start down below.
We are going to be getting a fifth and final film covering the life and times of one John Rambo, as portrayed by Sylvester Stallone. Lionsgate is taking the original three film and giving them the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray update before that happens next year. No word as of yet on the fourth film from 10 years ago, but one can assume they won’t leave that one hanging dry for long. Now that Rambo has been laid out, how about our old pal Jigsaw get his series ported over to 4K? Sorry, I’ll stay on point. This review will be covering the third film, a film that was easily the weakest of the original run and almost self-parody. BUT, still pretty darn entertaining as just some junky 1980s action picture. You can pre-order it by using the Amazon link following the review. 
While Fox was supposed to have an X-Men team proper film out this year, well three (Or was it four?) of them originally, they wound up with just Deadpool making its release date. Dark Phoenix and New Mutants have been bumped multiple times and the Channing Tatum Gambit movie just seems like a fun talking point to make the news rounds every once in a while like a Crow reboot. They did have a film that sold itself on being very much like an X-Men movie, but not a part of any Marvel universe and skewing toward the young adult dystopian future novel crowd. Because, well, its based off of one. The film came out to poor critic reviews (Audiences loved it going by data sites) and an incredibly sad box office performance. You’ll be able to pick it up and check out what everyone missed when it arrives on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray October 30th. 
Spike Lee’s first foray into the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray format obviously comes with his latest film, BlacKkKlansman. And its a tremendous pick as he delivered one of his all-time best films this year. Its a film that tells an unbelievably true story of infiltrating and humiliating America’s most despicable hate group. While the film is sadly timely and is very prescient for our times, its also wildly entertaining, educational procedural with suspense and tasteful comedic elements. The release seems pretty light on extras, but at least its carrying a nice Dolby Atmos track to tell the story. You’ll be able to pick this one up on November 6th, giving you ample time to watch it before it (Hopefully) makes some noise with Academy nominations. Pre-order using the Amazon link below. 
Of all the properties produced from the goliath animation studio known as Pixar, the one with the most rampant sequel potential has always been and still is, The Incredibles. And it seems like its the one that has taken the longest to get one since they started doing them for Non-Toy Story and Cars films. And did ya think people were clamoring for a sequel to this or what? Opening to an almost $200 million and going on to gross over $1.2 billion this summer, the evidence and cries throughout the years were obviously warranted. People were hungry as hell for a sequel. And that it turned out so damn well is just the perfect storm for everyone. Its coming home where we can digest it over and over on November 6th. We’ve been given our Incredibles sequel, now will we be given an Incredibles 2? Hopefully it won’t be another 14 years to see if there is. 
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has gone and done it! They officially hit the ball out of the proverbial ballpark by releasing one of the Holy Grail of sci-fi trilogies of theirs on the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format the day before All Hallows Eve. Of course I’m talking about The Matrix Trilogy, which features the Wachowski Brothers’ (Andy and Larry Wachowski) 1999 acclaimed sci-fi action classic The Matrix along with their two sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions (both from 2003). Now they could have taken the easy route like Fox did with the Predator releases for example and stopped right there by not giving us a complete upgrade in the audio department. But oh no! They went above and beyond with both new video transfers and Dolby Atmos surround tracks to boot! All three 4K Ultra HD presentations of the films featured here within this review are from a new scan of the original camera negative and is officially the first remaster of the films in nearly 15 years. The 4K UHD remasters were supervised by director of photography Bill Pope (The Matrix Trilogy, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, Baby Driver). How’s that for upping the ante in this hotly anticipated release? Let’s take a closer look down below at all three of the aforementioned titles housed in this 4K collection.
We are going to be getting a fifth and final film covering the life and times of one John Rambo, as portrayed by Sylvester Stallone. Lionsgate is taking the original three film and giving them the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray update before that happens next year. No word as of yet on the fourth film from 10 years ago, but one can assume they won’t leave that one hanging dry for long. Now that Rambo has been laid out, how about our old pal Jigsaw get his series ported over to 4K? Sorry, I’ll stay on point. This review will be covering the sequel, which was also a seminal action film for the 1980s, setting a whole slew of standards and really unleashing the beast. You can pre-order it by using the Amazon link following the review. 
Thirty seven years ago, one of the most nitty gritty, down home and independently independent films of all time came and scared the hell out of audiences. It introduced us to Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, both of whom would carve out some terrific legacies in mainstream and geek filmdom. The film itself has paved the way for home video infamy as well. Like the Halloween franchise, which I laid out the epic history of last month, all three Evil Dead films have had an ungodly amount of home video releases. Now, the first film (And in December, the sequel) has made its way to the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray format. Its release gives hope that more classic horror titles will be coming (And hopefully soon). The Evil Dead actually comes with a really friendly price tag so order yourself a copy from the link below. 
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again feels somewhat of a silent assassin from this summer’s box office. The film took in almost $125 million domestically and almost $450 million worldwide. Until Crazy Rich Asians, the film had a firm spot in the Top 10. Its almost like its predecessor, which was actually somewhat of a phenomenon back in 2008. But, if I told you it made more money globally than Iron Man, you’d think I was crazy. That’s the truth though. Why did they do a sequel? Look how big that first film was. They earned it and obviously there were people there for it. Ten years later probably brought some fondness but I feel like had they done it within three years of the first it might’ve been a bit bigger. Whatever, whatever. This sequel was still a big deal. Big enough that if they’d want to make a trilogy, the audience is probably there. Though, I think this film serves more as a nice encore to the fantastic concert you saw before. You can pick up this second album/remix album/original demos 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray when it arrives on October 23rd from Universal! 
While there’s no current tie in (Gifted Season 2, maybe?), Fox is on the right track in releasing more X-Men films to the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray format. It dropped the 3 First Class film right away on the format as well as the Deadpool movies and Logan. Now comes the original trilogy of films that started it off. The crown jewel of this set being the original sequel, X2: X-Men United, considered by many to be one of the best comic book super hero films of all time. Now, we sit shy just X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Yuck) and The Wolverine (PLEASE!!!) of having the entire 11 film Fox X-Men franchise on the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray format. That’s pretty impressive! You can grab yourself a copy of the adventure from Toad to “Phoenix” now by clicking the Amazon link! 
