Superstition (Blu-ray Review)
Scream Factory has a pair of cult classic horror films from the era of the later 70s/early 1980s coming through the line on April 16th. Superstition is one of those titles. Released in 1985, but shot in 1982, Superstition is one of those notorious Video Nasty titles and a little seen bit of terror from that era. This Blu-ray debut for the film will feature some new interviews with the film’s director Jame Roberson and star James Houghton (Of Knott’s Landing fame), commissioned by Justin Beahm’s Reverend Entertainment. The film itself will feature a nice new 2K scan from the original film elements according to the blurbs for the release. Personally I’m looking forward to this one as I’ve actually never seen it and like the video store kid I am, “That poster/box looks awesome”. You’ll be able to pre-order this one (And as always, help out the site just a little), by using the Amazon link following the review. It will be released alongside The Manitou, both of which are debuts (In the US at least), on April 16th. Continue reading ‘Superstition (Blu-ray Review)’
March 2019 has proven a bit of spoils to grindhouse martial arts fans, as the long awaited Street Fighter films have all finally hit Blu-ray. Earlier in the month, Arrow Video released the spin-off Sister Street Fighter set and now the big boss of them all, The Street Fighter trilogy that launched Sonny Chiba into stardom is coming from Shout! Factory. As these were a New Line distribution, it comes as a part of their little run with Warner Bros titles, and I couldn’t be happier. The three films have been given 2K restorations from the best given materials to work with and there’s a brand new interview with Sonny Chiba included on the release as well. This is also a case where the inclusion of trailers as bonus is cause for a flying kick in celebration as they are some of the best of the era. Speaking of, Jack Sholder cut said trailers and is here to interview and talk about his involvement with New Line at the time and their attachment to these movies. It can all be had when it comes out on March 26th. So don’t have your balls ripped off, get your pre-order in now using the Amazon link below! 
Disney has been revisiting many of their hand-drawn animated classics of yesteryear and been giving human (Or computer animated) life to them for a whole new generation with great degrees of success. Mary Poppins Returns takes at taking one of their live-action classics (That also featured a handful of hand-drawn animation) and giving it a lega-sequel of all its own. The film proved a solid hit and one of the biggest movies of the holiday season, but not the monster I think they were expecting over that leggy time period. Its arriving quickly now, on shelves for 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray on March 19th. At some point the link below will be active, so come back around to see if you can log yourself an Amazon pre-order. 
Coming later in June, Scream Factory will be releasing a set that highlights the work of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi outside of the respective monster franchise characters. With The Body Snatcher, not included in that set (Different studio production), they are giving a little taste of what’s to come with the 1945 Robert Wise film based on the Robert Louis Stevenson novel of the same name. Scream Factory looks to have some good assets on this release including some vintage materials to go along with a new featurette for the release. The Body Snatcher is coming out at the end of the month on March 26th, and you can pre-order it (And help the site out a little) to have ready on release day by using the Amazon link located following the review. 
Lionsgate is bringing an underseen gem in the Nicholas Cage/Ethan Hawke/Jared Leto arms drama/thriller to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray. While their updates of catalog titles seems random sometime at others headscratching, Lord of War feels like a its somewhere in the middle of that. The film landed in the mid of maybe Nic Cage’s last great run of films back in the first half of the 00s (Matchstick Men – National Treasure – Lord of War – The Weather Man). Lionsgate was a studio trying to break out from just being Jigsaw and Madea movies and were trying their best at something prestige with a movie like this. Its one that I think people should definitely revisit or check out for the first time as it surprised me back in 2005. You can grab yourself this glorious new 4K release on March 19th using the Amazon linkage below. 
Modern audiences are oddly very weary on giving an opportune chance to any fantasy or science fiction adventure that clearly looks like something new. They may be put off by it being “weird” or unfamiliar while forgetting at one time, Star Wars was also weird and unfamiliar. I’m not saying everything they pass up on is a complete gem, but the opening weekend excitement is either rarely there (Guardians of the Galaxy, but that’s mostly based on brand awareness), barely there (Alita) or nonexistent (Valerian). Mortal Engines was one of 2018’s biggest bombs at the box office and I found little to no one aside from open minded film geeks like myself, craving new fantasy worlds and lore, excited for it. The main turn off for something like this appears to merely be that it isn’t based off anything or the nostalgic return of something familiar. Yet in the meantime, all I hear is the gripe of “There’s nothing original anymore”. WHAT DO YOU WANT? Haha! While I wanted to see Mortal Engines, life wouldn’t allow the time (And I DO normally see stuff like this, as I paid money to see Jupiter Ascending in theaters even), so this will be more first outing and can be yours when it arrives on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray March 12th. 
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald returned audiences to the Wizard World that was the Wizarding World before that of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. New Scamander and company are back in action but this time we are promised are harder tie in to the previous novels/films we’d seen before. No way around it, the film overall seemed to not take off with audiences as much as Where To Find them to significantly less money and appreciation. We’ll be able to further study (Or for some, check out for the first time) when the second of the Harry Potter prequel series makes its 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray debut on March 12th. Preorder the film using the Amazon link provided below the review. 
Scream Factory is digging into the atomic age Universal monster horror movies, continuing with 1957’s The Deadly Mantis. This comes on the heels of the February release of The Mole People. Like that atomic Blu-ray, they are also including the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode featuring the film. Its a very nice added touch to these release that I hope continue on with the more releases we see. This one doesn’t have quite the bonus features that one did beside that (Mole People had a very fun retrospective documentary), but we are seeing a new 2K scan of the film for the presentation. This one will be releasing to you on March 19th, but you can go ahead and put your pre-orders in now by using the Amazon link below!
Where do I even begin here? I don’t want to bore my readers over and over talking about how much these Rocky franchise of movies adoringly mean to me. They are absolutely everything to me! They are my main sources of both perseverance and inspiration in life. One could even them call them my soundtrack for success, but I digress. If you’re interested in knowing the full story, you can catch up 
With Scream Factory’s (And of course Shout! Factory overall’s) continued dive into the Sony catalog of horrors, The Craft is a perfect marriage in terms of a title to enhance via a Collector’s Edition. This feels the first of its super teen horror type since their release of Disturbing Behavior back in 2016. The Craft has been a rock solid generational touchstone for over two decades now, proving to be somewhat between a hit and a cult item over time. Very much a big title in the VHS/home video era, its now coming to Blu-ray for the second time around. Scream Factory has aligned some impressive names for new interviews, but unfortunately none of them happen to be any leads from the film which I’m sure its going to be a deal-breaker for many on the fence that would be considering an upgrade of the title. Scream Factory is bringing it out as a part of its March lineup at the top of the month on the 5th and you can pre-order to have it in your hands via the Amazon link below. 
Ridley Scott primarily has been known for mostly his genre and period work in his career and then there’s the little stop off on Thelma & Louise. However, he’s been known to dabble in just about everything to be quite honest. One of my personal favorite films of his is the Nicolas Cage led con-man comedy Matchstick Men. He’s long shown his chops in many avenues and one of his early proving grounds was 1987’s Someone To Watch Over Me. Admittedly, I’m not familiar with this film. Shout! Factory is making it another title to add to the quickly growing and amassing Shout Select line of films. They are putting it out on March 12th and will be including brand new interviews with the screenwriter from the film as well as Someone To Watch Over Me’s cinematographer Michael Poster. No word on what the transfer was on the film, but I’ll spoil it for you and tell you it looks pretty damn terrific. You can set yourself up with a pre-order to have day of release from using the Amazon link below. 
Where do I even begin here? I categorically knew nothing at all about this movie going in. All I knew is Why So Blu reviewers Aaron Neuwirth and Gregg Senko liked it. Aaron who can usually peg what he calls “Brian Movies” declared several months ago that this indeed is one of those. Therefore, since I didn’t take him seriously about it last year I jumped at the opportunity when the Green Book 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray set arrived on my doorstep this past week. While the synopsis of the film really didn’t tickle my fancy I took this opportunity to do so more as a way to see how good Aaron really knows me. Let’s see if his streak with 2018 “Brian Movies” holds true here. What do you say Aaron…are you up to the challenge? So without further ado I’ll put aside all my petty, personal sentiments and remarks to digress back to the reason you’re all here…I present to you Green Book on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray.
I love the Warner Archive Collection. With such a large and vast catalog the studio has, a ton of it still has not seen release to DVD, let alone Blu-ray. WAC picks up a lot of the slack with some good audio/video upgrades as they don’t really create new special features for their releases. And with their monthly releases they are announced usually a month before and usually they are from a wide variety of different decades and genres. And most of the time we have no clue what’s coming (Cleopatra Jones FINALLY next month! Cross it off the wishlist, HELL YEAH!). This month brings some excitement with Academy Award winning director Michael Cimino’s follow up to his notorious bomb Heaven’s Gate, the Mickey Rourke starring Year of the Dragon. Its available now, but I hear there’s a been a bit of a backorder on many sites, so it could take a minute to get to you (DiabolikDVD has come through, cuz “duh”). Pre-order using the link below. 
New Line Cinema was “The House That Freddy Built”, but in 1991 the studio bumped off their carpenter and noted breadwinner (Only to return three years later in Wes Craven’s New Nightmare). They were still a notable horror house and delivered many of the more interesting and mid-level pictures throughout the 1990s. Man’s Best Friend, along with the likes of Ghost In The Machine that same year, were of the horror films that came during the absentee Freddy years. It was also during that dreadful time for horror in the 1990s (That has more gems than you think) where the genre felt on a decline. Scream Factory is bringing Man’s Best Friend to Blu-ray finally on March 12th for the first time. Maybe Ghost in the Machine will be around the corner as well, considering the newfound relations with Warner Bros which also leads to New Line. It doesn’t have many bonus features to speak of, but fans will likely be happy just to have it with a new 2K scan. Pre-order is available below. 
Mary Queen of Scots will forever I’m afraid be known as Johnny Depp’s sequel to Alice in Wonderland where he reprises his role of the Mad Hatter.
