Nosferatu (Blu-ray Review)
February 16th, 2025 by Adam Toroni-Byrne
Throughout the many years of cinema, vampires and specifically Dracula have been a great source of horror for films. As we delve further into 2025, Nosferatu is making its way to 4K, Blu-ray and DVD, this time a new iteration of the 1922 original. Taking in nearly $200 Million worldwide and garnering tons of praise, Robert Eggers’ vision no doubt had viewers on the edge of their seats in theaters. So how do things go at home on our smaller screens? Find out inside the review and look for helpful paid links at the end to get in on the creepy proceedings of Nosferatu yourself! But beware, obsession can take you over.
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Since 1939, The Wizard Of Oz has been a great source of entertainment for filmgoers. Before that the L. Frank Baum novels captured the imaginations of people of all ages too. As a novel, then stage musical, Wicked has been on the minds of pop culture fans for decades now. After a long, and as Ariana Grande has said, “unbearable” promotional campaign and a hugely successful theatrical run, the film version of the first part of Wicked has arrived at home! The film was an instant success with audiences and critics, and now we can hold it in our hands! I for one am holding space for this release, and you can read more about it here!
I have a confession to make. When I hear about actors making directorial debuts, sometimes I think to myself: “Again??” I often wonder if it’s the natural progression of actors to want to do something they’ve observed their directors doing for so long. Maybe they’ve got gestating thoughts on what they’d do if they had the chance to run a show of their own. Sometimes, my beleaguered response is worthwhile. Other times, there are films coming from talented artists that do more than just act. Now that my confession has been made, we can get to the meat and potatoes of this feast – A Real Pain! By the time Jesse Eisenberg’s film came to Hulu and physical media, it had already become a sensation in festivals and racked up tons of award nods for Kieran Culkin, winning a Golden Globe for him and the film respectively. So how is it coming from an everyman movie fan perspective you ask? Find out and see if the film truly is A Real Pain.
Robert Zemeckis is no stranger to technical advances in cinema. In his glory days, we reveled in films like Back To The Future and Forrest Gump. Lately, Zemeckis has used technology to drive stories, like Welcome To Marwen (My first writing assignment here at whysoblu.com), and Here. So, how, you ask, does Here fare as it makes its way from graphic novel to fully fledge film? I can say in my intro alone, it just might depend on a few things. We will get into it inside the review along with the usual technical loveliness you all come here for! So what do I think of Here? Let’s take the writing somewhere there and see, shall we?
Parker Finn’s Smile was an unexpected hit back in 2022. Two years later, Finn returns with Smile 2, hoping to once again terrify us with a delicious blend of scares and gore. Does it hit the mark or does it shoot for the sky? Skye Riley that is… Read on and find out for yourself. But don’t stare into the eyes of the creep you might find smiling at you in the corner, ok? It could be a horrible idea…
One can never fault David Fincher for not having a style. His films are full of images that are dense with detail. The stories are always different. Fincher never tells the same kind of story, and I love his work for that very reason. When Se7en was released in 1995, the grisly thriller was a huge success universally and spawned a style that people still try to replicate 30 years later. Now, we get the long awaited 4K UHD Blu-ray release of Se7en, and of course, we want to know, “what’s in the box?”
At the time of its first episode, Saturday Night Live was being set up to fail. The whole story leading up to the live premiere was lore, retold times over. Chaos, musical performances, improv… it was an insane proposition in 1975. Now here we are on the eve of the 50th Anniversary of SNL, and the film Saturday Night presents the whole evening leading up to that iconic phrase “Live from New York, It’s Saturday Night!”Read more about Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night, and see if those crazy 90 minutes pre-premiere are movie worthy.
Once upon a time, the action genre wasn’t all superheroes and spies. We had cops or criminals, action stars like Stallone and Schwarzenegger, and usually even the bad would do decent box office business. Jean Claude Van Damme was one of the 80s’ biggest prospects at one point. Handsome with an accent and a very well-conditioned body, he was goals for the men in the audience, and eye-candy for their dates. Bloodsport ushered in the resurgence of martial arts films in the US. Following up with Kickboxer it is clear that Van Damme and his collaborators from Bloodsport wanted to add some depth to the very simple story they’d created. How does it fare 35 years later and in 4K? Shake your booty into the review and find out!
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…
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!
