American Flyers (Blu-ray Review)
“American Flyers,” Rex Reed wrote, “is a fine mixture of romance, humor, and tears with action sequences among the most exciting ever captured on film. It’s guaranteed to increase the viewer’s adrenalin.” Two-time Academy Award® winner Kevin Costner and David Marshall Grant star in the film written by Breaking Away Oscar® winner Steve Tesich and directed by John Badham (Saturday Night Fever), American Flyers is a dazzling, spirit-soaring spectacle. Warner Archive Collection is brought it to Blu-ray for the very first time on April 12th. It includes the film’s trailer as a bonus feature. You can order the film now by using the paid Amazon Associates link that follows the review at the bottom.
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The tale of Cyrano de Bergerac has been adapted to film directly, twisted around, reimagined or informed other films a rather large amount of times throughout history. Coming in toward the end of 2021, director Joe Wright brought us a lovely musical adaptation with Peter Dinklage taking the mantle. This adaptation was based on the 2018 musical of the same name. Essentially, an adaptation of an adaptation. The film was released by Universal on Blu-ray (Bummer, no 4K, this would have looked really pretty) on April 19th. Cyrano came with a DVD copy and digital code to redeem. Extras are light, with a brief “Making Of” coming in at under 10 minutes. Nonetheless, the strength of the film speaks for itself and probably is one of the more overlooked films of last year. Order yourself a copy by using the paid Amazon Associates link below.
Warner Bros is rightfully celebrating the milestone of Singin’ In The Rain turning 70 years old with a brand new 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray showcasing its newest restoration. In addition they returned it to the theaters for one of those flashy, limited, Fathom events Turner Classic Movies screenings with an intro from Ben Mankiewicz. Their latest home video iteration doesn’t include any new bonus features, but it does restore the original mono theatrical mix in lossless format for the first time ever. The extras from the Ultimate Edition Blu-ray aren’t here, but the ones from the standard Blu-ray release remain. This new release will also be getting a Best Buy exclusive 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray steelbook. You can order this standard edition by clicking on the paid Amazon Associates link that follows the review below.
Its both crazy to realize Jackass has been part of our pop culture for over 20 years and that these guys are still up and at it in terms of their crazy stunts. Jackass Forever was their latest effort, delayed a few times due to pandemic movie scheduling, finally arriving back in February of this year. The film also became attractive in being on Paramount+ as an exclusive for a short window. The Blu-ray (Yeah, no Jackass on 4K for this one) arrived on the format April 19th. It’s extras consist of about 40 minutes of stunts/skits/pranks that didn’t make the movie or alternate/expanded versions of ones that did. Some of them are even more fun with a little added context to them by way of the interviews that go with them. You can order yourself a copy of Jackass Forever by click the paid Amazon Associates review that follows the review.
Romantic comedies started getting a bit of a bad rap somewhere in the 00s. Sure, there were plenty of them, and yes they have their tropes. But, that’s really what they are. We are fine with action films, comic book films and horror movies having them, why are romantic comedies such low hanging fruit? Re-inventing them or making them ironically can get tired as well. Low and behold, here comes Marry Me, which just jumps in and makes a straight up (I guess…”old school”) romantic comedy and doesn’t look back. It arrived on Blu-ray on March 29th, coming with plenty of featurettes for the film which did a day and date theater/Peacock release. You can order yourself a copy of the film by using the paid Amazon Associates release following the review.
One of the more pivotal cinematic moments for fantasy, comics, rock music and animation in cinema arrived in the form of 1981’s Heavy Metal. Produced by Ivan Reitman, many of the top rock bands (Cheap Trick, Journey) provided the sound to some of the wickedest dreams come to life animation anyone had ever seen on a mainstream level. Celebrating 41 years now, its getting a 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray upgrade with a transfer Reitman oversaw before his passing. He’s also present for a quick little retrospective that has he and famous fans of the film reflecting on what it meant to them. The limited edition steelbook, which includes the standard Blu-ray debut of its Julie Strain-led sequel Heavy Metal 2000. arrived on April 19th. You can order yourself this collector’s item by using the paid Amazon Associates link that follows the review.
The Scream series has a rather interesting fanbase. Some love it all, some love only the original, some love the original plus one sequel (maybe two). Scream 4 crashed and burned, yet found a social media fondness afterward. With Twitter/Geek friendly properties in the past not translating into big turnouts, one would be right to question if a fifth Scream 4‘s internet buzz would translate to people actually showing up at the theater. And delightfully so, they did AND we would up with a pretty rock solid, fun entry in the series. The cleverly titled (Trust me, see the movie, it brilliant) Scream is now on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray where you can enjoy it with some new extras that included deleted scenes, 3 featurettes and a commentary. You can order yourself a copy below, following the review, from the paid Amazon Associates link. Hopefully Scream 2-4 aren’t far behind on the 4K train!
Last year saw the classic winning combination of director Pedro Almodóvar and actor Penélope Cruz reunite for Parallel Mothers. The film has landed Cruz yet another Best Actress nomination at the Academy Awards. Composer Alberto Iglesias was also been recognized by the Academy for his score for the film. It arrived Blu-ray on April 5th from Sony. You can order the film now from the paid Amazon Associates link below to have to own on or around the release date. Unfortunately this is a bare bones release. Hopefully a more substantial release could be around the corner. But if you purely want the film in physical ownership, this is really it for now. And the film really is good enough to stand on purchasing alone.
Dexter: New Blood should probably be called “Dexter: A Breath of Fresh Air.” That’s what the show was for me after the lackluster way it ended some ten years ago with Season 8. Dexter became a lumberjack and the loyal Showtime audiences of the show became very disinterested. I admit to being very skeptical and really not wanting anything to do with this new Dexter reboot so to speak, but a bout with COVID-19 gave me ample time to binge this “Season 9” and I’m so glad I did. It may not have the warm, familiar Miami locations of the past 8 seasons, but the main draw…Dexter Morgan was back! And he was back doing what he did best…killing the bad people and evading the law. Follow me down below as I catch up to speed on everything Dexter: New Blood in this March 22nd Blu-ray release from CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment. A ***SPOILER WARNING*** has been issued below for those folks reading here who may not have watched Seasons 1-8. Viewing them all are prerequisites for Dexter: New Blood, which I DO NOT spoil at all here. 
When I first met my wife, well before she became my wife that is, she made an odd comment saying I reminded her of Morty.
While the curiosity of an old 1960s big cinema fairytale is always appealing, sometimes the type of filmmaking process and ways of the elder years are selling points enough to find curiosity in buying a Blu-ray. That goes two-fold here with The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm from Warner Archive Collection. The film was in Cinerama and its 4K restoration and transfer from one of the best distributors will be eye candy enough for a recommendation. Fun enough, they’ve actually gone all out on this release with 2 presentations and 2-discs full of bonus features old and new. The release is available starting March 29th, and this is the type of thing the physical media enthusiasts should really jump at sight unseen as it will be a nice treasure and collector’s item. You can order a copy using the paid Amazon Associates link following the review below.
1989’s Dream a Little Dream is a cult classic that’s been on the list of many a collector in the world of physical media enthusiasts. Finally their “dreams” are being answered with a really cool new Vestron Video Collector’s Series release that arrived on March 15th. The release comes to Blu-ray for the very first time and carries some brand new features. Those include a commentary from a film historian and new interviews. One of said interviews is with that of the film’s lead, Corey Feldman. One of the crazy things with these Vestron releases is just how budget-friendly they are from day one. So, if you want to land yourself a copy of this brand new polish on a piece of obscure 1980s cinema, look no further than the paid Amazon Associates link that follows the review and grab a copy for under thirteen bucks!
Pandemic and a load of delays may have knocked off a potential adult IP franchise too quickly in that of Kenneth Branagh’s take on Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. Murder On The Orient Express proved to be a solid success back in 2017. Unfortunately its sequel, Death on the Nile, would be pushed back and a few of its cast members would be surrounded in controversies in the time it lay wait. When it finally set sail in February 0f 2022, its voyage was that of the damned. Hopefully, with its recent release to streaming and this 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray (Hitting shelves April 5th), it’ll find a strong audience and perhaps we could see a third novel adapted/updated. Maybe its just for streaming, maybe the theater gets another shot. It’d be a shame as these films have been easily digestible fun. Anywho, pre-order yourself a copy today if you’re interested. There’s a paid Amazon Associates link that you’ll find scrolling on down after the review.
Its always fascinatingly bizarre to me when a former Best Picture winner doesn’t wind up on a home video format until way down the road. In this case, 1980’s Ordinary People, directed by Hollywood legend Robert Redford, is finally making its debut on Blu-ray 16 years into the format’s life and when its been the “previous format” for 6 years. I guess that’s one year for every Oscar the film won back in 1981. Better late than never, and probably treated better here as its been given a 4K restoration overseen by Redford and includes a new interview with Timothy Hutton and the author of the book. Ordinary People has been given the Paramount Presents treatment and was released on March 29th. You can order yourself a copy of it by utilizing the paid Amazon Associates link that follows the review below.
When it comes to new home video formats, few films and film series are as hotly anticipated to make their debut as The Godfather Trilogy. Holding off until its 50th anniversary, these brand new restorations of Francis Ford Coppola’s cinematic epic will be arriving on March 22nd. Coming to you in a fancy bells and whistles limited edition set as well as a standard one (Which honestly is in a pretty nice package), the films have been meticulously restored for 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray. They contain bonus materials, both new and old. You’ll also find three different cuts of 1990’s The Godfather, Part III, including the 1991 cut and 2020’s The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, which serves as the preferred version of the film according to this set. Pre-orders are already currently up and available, and you can make sure to get yourself a copy by using the paid Amazon Associates link that follows the review.
