Kin: Season 1 (Blu-ray Review)
A boy is killed and his family embark on a gangland war with an international cartel – a war that is impossible to win. But the Kinsellas have something the cartel does not: the unbreakable bonds of blood and family. Kin: Season 1 is now available on Blu-ray & DVD. KIN Season 1 stars Charlie Cox (Daredevil, Boardwalk Empire), Clare Dunne (Herself), Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones), Emmett J. Scanlan (Peaky Blinders), Maria Doyle Kennedy (Orphan Black, Outlander) and Ciarán Hinds (Game of Thrones, The Terror). Peter McKenna (The Last Kingdom, Red Rock) serves as showrunner/executive producer, writer, and co-creator, alongside Ciarán Donnelly (Altered Carbon, Vikings) who also serves as co-creator.
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Deemed the debut Paramount+ Original film, Infinite seemed to originally be a movie that had a planned theatrical release. Pandemic notwithstanding, the film came and went on the service, leading me to believe Infinite to possibly be inferior. Read more on the film below, and at the end, be sure to click the paid link to secure your copy of Infinite at a great price!
Warner Archive Collection’s May output contains a pretty interesting release that feels surprisingly not in the Blu-ray catalog already despite such big names attached to it. Directed by Victor Fleming seems pretty notable enough. The fact that its his follow up to Gone With The Wind another. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde boasts the cast of Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner. All of them playing against type. Two of them probably would be enough to push the needle. Nonetheless, its arriving on the format for the first time on May 17th. The disc features a new HD restoration from the best surviving elements and the original trailer comes with it. You can pre-order yourself a copy using the paid Amazon Associate’s link that follows the review.
Akeem and Semmi returning to America was a dream a lot of Coming to America fans dreamed of. From 1988 on, the original film became a cultural icon, showing a sweeter side of Eddie Murphy, and opening up the door for Murphy to become a multiple character innovator in many films to follow. So, how does this film stack up to the original? Do we want to run back to Zamunda, or stampede away in disappointment. More on that below, of course, and be sure to click the paid link at the end, for a surprisingly affordable pick up!
Paramount has had an interesting roll out here of the Beverly Hills Cop movies on the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray format. About two and half years ago they rolled out the 3-Movie Collection with 4K restorations, but on standard Blu-ray. That following December, the original came out standalone on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray alongside a Coming To America 4K release, a remastered Trading Places on standard Blu-ray and the standard Blu-ray debut of The Golden Child. Now, a year and a half later, here’s Beverly Hills Cop II for its 35th Anniversary which has been ready to go for over 2 years now. The hold up certainly wasn’t new bonus materials, but its nice to finally have it here. Will anyone clamor for 3 now? Perhaps an update on the trilogy set in 4K can squeeze that one out. Beverly Hills Cop II: 35th Anniversary Edition arrives on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray on May 17th. You can pre-order it by using the paid Amazon Associates link after the review.
Candyman took its sweet time coming to Blu-ray in the United Stats. The 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray debut on the other hand? Its coming sort of on the heels of the Collector’s Edition Scream Factory put out a few years ago. And they aren’t slouching with this double dip. A new transfer, and upgraded to Atmos audio track and a new interview filter in to the already stacked bonus features being ported over from the previous release. You can order yourself a copy using the paid Amazon Associates link that follows the review. Candyman, the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray Collectors Edition from Scream Factory, will be hitting stores on May 24th.
When it was released 25 year ago, Trekkies was somewhat of a revelation and a look into a fan culture like you’ve never seen before. Things you’d only heard about “nerds” actually had bigger and better stories than you could’ve possibly imagined. Flash forward, their interests and convention lifestyle has now become the norm, though this film remains a time capsule and to see how far fandom and events have come. One might be more fond of a more genuine time when things felt like you were coming together for something special with a group of people you didn’t have in your regular life as opposed to just being sold things off the shelves. Shout Factory is celebrating the film at 25 years with its first Blu-ray release that has a 4K transfer, lossless audio and a new featurette with Denise Crosby and Roger Nygard looking back on it. It comes out on May 24th, but you can pre-order yourself a copy using the paid Amazon Associates link following the review.
One of the greatest all time Westerns from one of the greatest all time visionaries of the genre, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is coming to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray. Not only that, it’ll mark the first 4K with the Paramount Presents label (Though, Almost Famous could be argued, it didn’t have that packaging). It’s a combo pack with a standard Blu-ray disc housing the extras and comes with a brand new Filmmaker Focus featurette that welcome back Leonard Maltin who is a regular on these. The film will hit stores (well, most likely those being just online ones) on May 17th. You can order yourself a copy for your collection by using the paid Amazon Associates link that follows the 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.
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.
