Archive for the 'Blu-ray Reviews' Category
April 27th, 2026 by Jordan Grout
Too expensive and star-driven to feel like a disposable B-movie, yet too blunt and derivative to stand beside the genre classics it echoes Soldier was written by David Webb Peoples of Blade Runner and Unforgiven fame. Think Shane filtered through Universal Soldier and The Terminator with a scoop of Blade Runner industrial grime. Soldier’s poor commercial and critical reception was brutal, but time has been kinder to it as a cult object.
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April 25th, 2026 by Jordan Grout
The Eye remains one of the more memorable ghost stories to emerge from the early-2000s Asian horror wave, and while I understand to an extent why, I don’t fully endorse it. Directed by brothers Danny and Oxide Pang, the film follows Wong Kar Mun, played by Angelica Lee, a blind violinist who receives a cornea transplant and discovers that her restored vision has come with a terrifying extra ability: she can see the dead!
Continue reading ‘THE EYE (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)’
April 24th, 2026 by Jordan Grout
It’s early in the year, but it’s safe to say 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple will be one of the best films of 2026. With Danny Boyle stepping aside, Nia DaCosta takes over the director’s chair and gives the series a thrilling new rhythm, slightly less frantic and more controlled. The story splits between two terrifyingly different visions of survival. Young Spike, played with aching fear and sincerity by Alfie Williams, falls into the hands of Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal and his cult-like gang of “Jimmies,” a blond-wigged, tracksuit-wearing pack of killers who views violence as ritual. Jack O’Connell is electrifying as Jimmy, making him funny, pathetic, charismatic, and horrifying all at once. His followers go beyond simply obeying him; they surrender to him, rendering this portrait of fanaticism viciously timely.
Continue reading ’28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (4K UHD Blu-Ray SteelBook Review)’
April 22nd, 2026 by Jordan Grout
Trouble in Paradise stands as one of the clearest expressions of Ernst Lubitsch’s elegant and mischievous filmmaking style. A German-born director who helped shape Hollywood sophistication in the early sound era, Lubitsch moved seamlessly from silent cinema into musicals like The Love Parade and Monte Carlo before refining his voice in polished comedies such as Ninotchka and The Shop Around the Corner. Trouble in Paradise captures him at full command of tone and rhythm, blending romance, satire, and precise suggestion.
Continue reading ‘TROUBLE IN PARADISE (The Criterion Collection 4K UHD Blu-ray Review)’
April 22nd, 2026 by Jordan Grout
Bad manners, gruesome injuries, and characters being dragged through sand, blood, and humiliation are all on display in Send Help. Rachel McAdams is Linda Liddle, a gifted but chronically overlooked employee, who winds up stranded on a deserted island with her smug executive prince of a boss Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien), who has made a sport of belittling her. Civilization disappears, and with it goes his authority.
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April 22nd, 2026 by Adam Toroni-Byrne
There’s a certain kind of movie that doesn’t just unfold—it unravels, frays at the edges, and drags you down with it. Die My Love is exactly that kind of experience. Going into Die My Love, I expected something intense—this is Lynne Ramsay after all—but I wasn’t quite prepared for how deeply uncomfortable, intimate, and oddly hypnotic it would become.
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April 21st, 2026 by Adam Toroni-Byrne
There’s a very specific kind of chaos you only get when a director like Gore Verbinski comes back after a long absence and clearly decides, “I’m not easing back in — I’m detonating.” Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die feels like that explosion. It’s a sci-fi comedy that starts in a diner, ends somewhere between existential dread and a bugged-out video game simulation, and somehow makes Sam Rockwell the emotional anchor of all that madness. I went into it expecting a quirky time-travel satire. At the end, I was feeling like I’d been trapped inside a malfunctioning apocalypse escape room designed by someone who loves The Matrix a little too much.
Continue reading ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)’
April 16th, 2026 by Jordan Grout
Mercy has a ticking clock shown throughout the runtime, and it feels less like suspense and more like sitting in a dull class where you’re staring at the clock as each minute drags by like an hour. The film clearly thinks this countdown will tighten the screws. Instead of leaning forward, I sat waiting it out. For a movie about life-or-death urgency, it sure makes you aware of time in the worst possible way.
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April 16th, 2026 by Jordan Grout
The Housemaid has a pretty fun hook that grabbed my attention quickly. Millie (Sydney Sweeney) is fresh out of prison, broke, and living in her car when she gets hired by Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried), a polished, too-perfect housewife with a massive home complimented with a curated life. Nina’s husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) is charming and attentive. It all looks like a fresh start for Millie. You and I both know, it isn’t.
Continue reading ‘THE HOUSEMAID (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)’
April 11th, 2026 by Gerard Iribe
Honor means nothing when the system is rotten. That’s the blunt edge 11 Samurai leans on, and it cuts deep. In this 11 Samurai Blu-ray from Arrow Video’s Samurai Revolution Trilogy, director Eiichi Kudo strips away any romantic notion of the noble warrior and replaces it with something colder, harsher, and way more honest. The setup is simple but loaded with consequence: the lord of the Oshi fief is killed by his trespassing neighbor, Nariatsu. But when the Oshi clan takes the fall, eleven of their best warriors step forward, fully aware they’re not walking away from this. They know exactly how this ends, and they go through with it anyway. Continue reading ’11 Samurai (1967) (Blu-ray Review)’
April 11th, 2026 by Gerard Iribe
The Great Killing plays things very differently from the samurai films most people are used to, and that tone comes through clearly on this Blu-ray release. As the middle chapter in Eiichi Kudo’s Samurai Revolution Trilogy, it leans into something darker and more grounded. What starts as a political plot quickly turns into a slow-burn unraveling of loyalty, power, and survival, where doing the right thing feels like a death sentence. If you’re expecting clean sword fights and noble sacrifices, this one flips that on its head fast. Continue reading ‘The Great Killing (1964) (Blu-ray Review)’
April 11th, 2026 by Gerard Iribe
The 13 Assassins Blu-ray from Arrow Video hits a lot harder than you might expect from a black-and-white samurai film from the early ’60s. Part of the Samurai Revolution Trilogy directed by Eiichi Kudo, this isn’t about glorifying warriors or leaning into myth. It’s meaner than that. Colder. Set during the slow decay of the Tokugawa shogunate, the film follows a desperate mission to assassinate a sadistic lord whose unchecked power threatens to poison the entire system. What starts as a calculated plan quickly spirals into something bigger, less about honor, more about survival, and the cost of doing what’s right when the system itself is broken. Continue reading ’13 Assassins (1963) (Blu-ray Review)’
April 8th, 2026 by Jordan Grout
No Escape depicts a future where prisons have become corporate fiefdoms and punishment has been streamlined into spectacle. Captain J.T. Robbins (Ray Liotta), a soldier who killed his commanding officer, refuses to bend to authority. Consequently, he’s delivered to a gleaming maximum security complex overseen by a cruel warden (Michael Lerner). Robbins does not play along, and the system, unable to discipline him, simply discards him. Exiled to Absolom, a secret island where the worst offenders are abandoned to govern themselves, Robbins finds a place hidden from satellites and accountability.
Continue reading ‘No Escape AKA Escape from Absolom (Umbrella 4K UHD Blu-ray Collector’s Edition Review)’
April 8th, 2026 by Gerard Iribe
This is one of the strangest entries in Jackie Chan’s career, and that’s exactly why it’s worth another look. In The Protector, Chan plays Billy Wong, a New York cop who, alongside Danny Garoni (Danny Aiello), heads to Hong Kong after a wealthy businessman’s daughter is kidnapped by drug lord Mr. Ko. What starts as a standard cop thriller quickly shifts into something more unusual: a gritty East-meets-West hybrid that trades Chan’s usual charm for a harder, more aggressive edge. This Protector 4K UHD release finally gives the film a proper revisit. Continue reading ‘The Protector (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)’
April 2nd, 2026 by Gerard Iribe
This one’s been flying under the radar for decades, but this Target Blu-ray review is exactly the kind of reminder it deserves. Target (1985) pairs Gene Hackman and Matt Dillon in a tight, globe-trotting thriller that mixes family drama with cold war paranoia. When Donna Lloyd (Gayle Hunnicutt) is kidnapped during a trip to Europe, her son Chris and husband Walter are forced to work together despite their strained relationship, chasing leads across unfamiliar territory. What starts as a rescue mission slowly unravels into something bigger, and a lot more dangerous. Continue reading ‘Target (Blu-ray Review)’
March 31st, 2026 by Adam Toroni-Byrne
We Bury the Dead isn’t your typical zombie movie—and honestly, that’s what hooked me right away. Going in, I expected something grim and familiar, but what I got instead was a slow-burn, emotionally heavy story that lingers more in your chest than your nerves. It’s the kind of film that trades jump scares for dread and reflection, and that choice ends up defining everything about it.
Continue reading ‘We Bury The Dead (Blu-ray Review)’
March 30th, 2026 by Adam Toroni-Byrne
The History of Sound hit me in a strange, almost intangible way. It’s not the kind of film that overwhelms you with emotion in the moment—it’s quieter than that. Instead, it slowly seeps in, like a memory you’re trying to hold onto but can’t fully grasp. By the time it ended, I wasn’t devastated or exhilarated—I just felt… reflective. And that feeling stuck with me longer than I expected.
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March 30th, 2026 by Adam Toroni-Byrne
There’s a very specific kind of discomfort that Lurker taps into—one that doesn’t come from violence or jump scares, but from recognition. It’s the feeling of being just outside the circle, watching people who seem cooler, more connected, more alive than you… and wondering how far you’d go to get in. Writer-director Alex Russell doesn’t just explore that feeling—he weaponizes it. The result is a psychological thriller that creeps under your skin not because it’s shocking, but because it feels uncomfortably plausible.
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