Ginger Snaps – Collector’s Edition (Blu-ray Review)
Prior to this Collector’s Edition, those of us in the US have had a rare chance to see this film correctly. Its been available on VHS and DVD. However, that DVD carried over the 4:3 pan & scan aspect ratio. There was a Canadian edition that featured the correct presentation and it also came with a slew of extras. None of that would be found on the US edition that came out. It was bare bones. Pine not for that stuff anymore, as Scream Factory has come to the rescue with their Collector’s Edition of Ginger Snaps, giving us fans pretty much everything and anything we’ve ever wanted from this fantastic Werewolf movie. With Scream Factory at the helm of one of my all-time favorite films, this surely would be a treat. Continue reading ‘Ginger Snaps – Collector’s Edition (Blu-ray Review)’
Coming of age comedies are something I can find myself being a sucker for if they can get the right in or hook for me. As I grow older, it becomes more of a challenge to understand today’s youth because I’m not one of them and I don’t know what’s hip with the kids. I must say last year had a fantastic run of these movies with ones like to The Way Way Back, The Spectacular Now, Kings Of Summer and The To List to name a few. Ping Pong Summer is a much much much more independent film than any of those films, but still nonetheless takes their lead. It’s summer in the 1980s, and in a little lake town its time for some ping pong, love and learning experiences. 
If you’ll remember last weekend I reviewed Tony Jaa’s Ong Bak franchise in its entirety from the box set. And after how much of a disappointment those sequels wound up being, you can imagine my hesitancy going into the sequel to another Tony Jaa film, The Protector 2. Would we actually get a sequel this time? Would there be some of the same characters? Will this take place in the present day or some extremely distant past? Maybe we’ll got to some incredibly distant future this time. Well, rest assured, this is indeed a full fledged sequel to The Protector. Tony Jaa returns as Kham, and the dude is still all about his pet elephant. Mark even comes back too. 
All I knew about the first Rio going into this was that it was the film that topped the box office the weekend Scream 4 was released. It was a huge hit, taking almost half a billion dollars worldwide. In order to properly review Rio 2, I had to watch Rio before this and wow…I’m surprised there was a bunch of buzz regarding what the film is about. It’s basically the story of trying to get 2 birds together to umm…well…let’s not have the birds and bees discussion right now. And there’s also this crazy moment where they use the main character’s wing taking shape for its first flight to symbolize his first erection. I couldn’t believe what I was watching. Craziness. Where would Rio 2 go? Well, let’s go there and find out. 
I don’t know what it is with the Golden Age of slashers that amuses me so much, but its something I’ve always been fond of and never really tired of. Even bad ones (there’s plenty) I tend to enjoy. There were so many of these things from 1980-1984 its not even funny. So many, that there are a whole lot of them that have gone missing forever. With home video releases over the years we think we’d have them tracked, but some didn’t make it to VHS or went out of print real fast, a lot didn’t make it to DVD and even more have not made it to Blu-ray. However, being the collector’s medium, the slasher films of the 80s have been getting some attention and royal treatment in the past few years. Here today is the Canadian slasher film Curtains, which Synapse Films has rescued and put it onto DVD (by itself) and Blu-ray for the first time ever. Its crazy that this is the first time as Curtains is one of the finest slasher films from the era. But many of you probably don’t even know this one. 
Here comes the Ong-Bak trilogy in time for the release of The Protector 2. This is the home franchise for martial arts and Muay Thai expert Tony Jaa. For those of you wondering right off the bat, no, there is nothing new to this box set that hasn’t been out already. The only addition is a really nice sleeve to put all 3 films in. So, no there is no reason to pick this up if you already have it. The cases, discs and bonus features are all identical aside from the fact that they all now have a trailer for The Protector 2 on them preceding the menu. If you don’t own the Ong-Bak trilogy though, we have plenty to discuss today! 
When I think back to my earliest childhood and ponder about television shows that aired way before this sexy beast who’s typing this ever walked the Earth, I fondly recall such shows a Happy Days, Leave it to Beaver and of course who can forget everyone’s favorite, crazy redhead, Lucille Ball, and her equally crazy onscreen husband, Desi Arnaz, in I Love Lucy. In all honesty, that’s one of those rare black & white series, in my opinion, that truly has transcended the generations as I can still turn it on the boob tube now and laugh equally as hard at Lucy and her onscreen antics as I did when I was a child at the dinner table or as a teenager after school (we did not have the Internet back then and only six television channels). So imagine my joy when CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount announced they were bringing I Love Lucy to my favorite home media format, Blu-ray. And not only that, but every episode has been transferred from the original camera negative, producing crisp details, and rich sharp blacks. Come on! I’ll show you around this 6-disc Blu-ray television set! 
Today we have an interesting circumstance. Something that doesn’t really happen frequently anymore. A film that was cut because of its message and redistributed to try and look like it had a different one. Olive Films is releasing Lewis Milestone’s The North Star, but under its other title Armored Attack. Don’t worry, both films come with this release and have been given fresh high definition transfers. Armored Attack is the 1957 reissue of The North Star that featured a less positive focus on the Russian uprising as they were now American enemies of the time. Its finale features a narration about Hungarians fighting the Red Army during the Hungarian uprising of 1956 instead of what it really is…Soviets rising up against Nazi soldiers. 
Going into 2014, Transcendence was on my “movies to check out” list. I didn’t really know all too much about it. Mainly, it was the prospect of seeing longtime Christopher Nolan collaborator Wally Pfister make his directorial debut. It was the notion of seeing someone from the Nolan tree branch out was attractive enough to me. The man shot Memento, Inception and the modern Batman trilogy under one of the best working modern directors. Unfortunately, as it got closer to release it looked a bit less interesting. Then the reviews started piling in and it wasn’t pretty. So, I decided to pass until it came to Blu-ray. And now, its here.
“Welcome to Mayberry” is a phrase my good friend Clint’s stepfather tells me every time I come to visit in Seymour, Indiana. Mayberry has become synonymous with that comfy, cozy, charming lifestyle. And it all derived from The Andy Griffith Show. Its a show that was an iconic piece of American television and still plays through reruns to this day. You know you can whistle the theme song (which in itself is a whistle) like its second nature. I don’t know how familiar the youth of today is with the show, but for my generation and prior at least, its something that comes with your upbringing just like learning to ride a bike or something. 
Took long enough, eh? Well, you’re finally getting your wish, THE WONDER YEARS is REALLY REALLY happening. Shame its only on DVD though, but really, who can argue. Its a television show from the 80s, so I think DVD will be fine enough to capture the quality. And remember with getting this set right, it was the music in the content that was the most important factor. Video and Audio quality come in 2nd. Well, its finally being done and being done right. Today is the day the pre-ordering begins. I’ll quite yapping so you can scroll down and read the details. This is very exciting as I know tons of people who wanted this complete series out since they started putting TV out on DVD. You can now rest easily at the expense of $249.95, that THE WONDER YEARS is on DVD! 
I approached Open Grave completely blind, not knowing really what to expect aside from Sharlto Copley being in the movie. I didn’t really read the plot synopsis or look at the cast list or who directed it. I knew it was a horror movie based on the title and the box art, but that was about where my knowledge of the film ended. In essence, I think this sort of helped kind of get in with its set of characters as they were all trying to figure out who they were and why they were there. I knew just as much about them as they did. With this in play I think I was roped in a bit more for this film than had I read what likely described the entire first act on the synopsis. But where would it all lead, and would I stay just as invested for the entire run time. Well, that’s not something I’m gonna play my hand on in the first paragraph of the review, so keep on reading to see. 
As it goes to start off, I was sort of in the dark regarding Blue Ruin back in 2013. It wasn’t until I started seeing actor AJ Bowen Tweeting such high praises for the film and its lead performer Macon Blair, that I became aware and intrigued. Upon looking the film up, I noticed it was the long awaited next film from the guy who did Murder Party. Murder Party was a little cult classic dark comedy that completely surprised me many moons ago. Blue Ruin was looking on the up and up for me. Finally it got a release on VOD where I was able to see it and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. As you can see from our ‘Top 3 of 2014 So Far’ lists we had compiled last week, I kinda liked it. Enough of that, lets get into the how and why I loved this movie so much. 
