Trading Places – 35th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray Review)
June 13th, 2018 by Aaron Neuwirth
For better or worse, Paramount is delivering two Eddie Murphy classics this month, in honor of their anniversaries. The first is his two-hander with co-lead Dan Aykroyd, Trading Places, the modern take on The Prince and the Pauper, which features Murphy’s hustler taking over the life of Aykroyd’s spoiled yuppie. Trading Places is a beloved comedy from the 80s and while some may be pleased with a new Blu-ray release, just know that there’s almost no difference beyond the inclusion of a digital copy and new-ish box art. Still, there’s a great comedy to take in here.
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Steven Soderbergh’s Unsane made its buzz by being a horror movie shot using only an iPhone. No, its not the first film to utilize the day-to-day device to make a film and Soderbergh’s not the first prestigious director to test his hand at it (I believe Chan Wook Park was first). However, Unsane is probably the first high profile iPhone film and one with the biggest and widest mainstream theatrical release. Granted, the film didn’t turn into some modest hit, but who knows how inexpensive the film probably was (It didn’t even cross ten million dollars domestically and barely over worldwide). I expect those curious will finally check it out now on home video and it may be a find for those who had never heard of it when it releases on June 19th. 
And randomly, Paramount has decided to flip over to us the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray upgrade of Best Picture winner Forrest Gump. There’s no milestone the film is hitting this year, but they seem to be mixing in their Best Picture winning films (Previously Gladiator and Braveheart) in with the genre/franchise films they tend to lean on. Nevertheless its not like it isn’t a film that you wouldn’t think would be one coming eventually. But, here we are pretty early on with a 4K Ultra-HD release of the film that nabbed Tom Hanks his second Oscar statue (As Sabretooth would say “Back to back!”). While the film features new audio and video, the extras remain the same (They are pretty thorough, don’t worry). You’ll be able to pick this on up on June 12th! 
Love, Simon came out during week five of the Black Panther box office phenomenon that rocketed off our cinematic year. It managed to be a pretty solid hit, but 
It’s no secret. The smash hit HBO series Game of Thrones has sat atop the Iron Throne of the home entertainment charts as the best-selling TV on Blu-ray/DVD title in each of the last seven seasons. All that time we have had you covered with our in-depth reviews of the series here on Why So Blu. If you missed any of our past coverage of these best selling Blu-ray sets, please refer to the following links to seasons 1 and 2 
I feel like I have been waiting forever for this reincarnation of the Tomb Raider movie franchise. While we just covered the Angelina Jolie films in 4K over 
Every film series that ran more into the franchise territory with multitudes of sequels gets dug up and given an attempt in today’s climate. As much as Death Wish was Charles Bronson, its not above another blowing out the candles on a tombstone and making a wish (Okay, that was bad, but whatever…). This project loomed around the studios for a few years and then actually was made, but then delayed to avoid becoming topical with a real world tragedy only to find itself topical due to a real world tragedy. Fox just sucked it up and put the damn thing out to the anticipated poor reviews and box office intake (It sailed a few million past its reported budget, though). If interested and you didn’t feel like giving it theater dollars, the Eli Roth and Bruce Willis team up will be available on Blu-ray June 5th. 
It is still somewhat difficult to imagine that a cartoon series that was ostensibly about vulgar young boys making fart jokes made it to 21 seasons. However, people familiar with the series will know that it hates to rest on its laurels. The sheer nature of the 6-day episode creation schedule of South Park has made for all-time great episodes with a finger directly on the pulse of whatever was going on that week. This pinpoint satire has aided in South Park becoming the phenomenon that gets to go 21 seasons and more. This season, the 21st, unfortunately, either started with a plan that frankly didn’t quite work out, or flipped back and forth too frequently between serialized season and episode-of-the-week formats. It is still funny and often biting, but it was missing an element of what makes South Park the thing to talk about with your friends. 
It’s the one-time trilogy starter as Brandon Peters declares. To say the Terminator franchise has been a troubled one these past two entries would be like saying there’s a distinctive taste difference between vanilla and chocolate ice cream. It’s simply that apparent. Just when you thought Terminator Salvation was going to reinvigorate the franchise, production of a fifth film went right down the toilet slapped with bankruptcy forcing the property to once again go up for sale. The question was who’s going to buy it? You? Me? Why not Annapurna Pictures with distribution help from Paramount? And then there’s that spelling of “Genisys” in this film’s title to deal with. Oh well! You can’t win them all. I suppose in the end we should all be thanking the Gods for even letting a fifth film in this troubled Terminator franchise to exist, right? Absolutely! 
There was something a bit subliminal that originally drew me into eventually reviewing Dirty Grandpa on Blu-ray last May (see 
Despite never being the biggest fan of the Jurassic Park movie franchise, there’s no denying the legacy of these suckers, especially that of the first one (hence the 25th anniversary moniker of it all). There’s also no denying the fact that many Hi-Def/4K UHD enthusiasts have been salivating over the eventual release of these monstrous titles on the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format. I can respect all of that. Heck! Even I found myself a little giddy the lower and lower they minimized the retail price on this 4K 8-disc set. With its current price tag 
Scream Factory is doing one of their first ever upgrades (Or as some as you may refer to it, “double dip”) with the Collector’s Edition of Ninja III: The Domination. The 1984 Cannon Films cult classic enjoyed a standard release with a commentary back in 2013 that has proven to be one of their most popular titles. With five years time, its good as any to revisit it and beef it up to Collector’s Edition status. This new release features some new key artwork to differentiate it of course, but also a brand new 4K transfer of the film to go along with brand new interviews, including star Lucinda Dickey. They’ve put the work in to make this worth the purchase again. And you’ll want to make sure you pre-order it to have it when it releases on June 12th. 
The 1970s brought us an interesting little horror genre, the Eco-horror film. This decade was littered with many person against nature films. Of course, the biggest one of them all was Jaws, but we were also subjected to things like the appropriately titled “Frogs” where, well you can guess the source of villainous evil in that one. Here, we may have the poster child for going to the craziest lengths with the concept; Night of the Lepus. Scream Factory has taken this cult classic gem and given it a restoration and are adding it to their library that has already brought forth some of these Eco-horror films including the aforementioned Frogs a few years ago. You’ll want to “hop” on over to Amazon with our link at the bottom and pre-order yourself a copy to have when it releases June 19th. 
Ten years following the original film, that had a highly profitable box office run and a nice legacy on home video, audiences were treated to another deadly visit from The Strangers with Prey At Night. While it had a quieter run, it still found itself profitable and likely will find some sort of cult reception on home video. Will this be the last we see of this incredibly mysterious and merciless trio? It did take ten years to get a second one and this one didn’t seem to be as well received. Hey, maybe we’ll get a straight to video one for the third outing, who knows. For the Blu-ray release, they’ll be giving you an unrated version of the film as well as some bonus features. You can pre-order the film using the Amazon link below to have it on the day of release, June 12th. 
Seems like forever ago, but director David Ayer actually stocked himself up some well reviewed movies before the back-to-back nosedive of Suicide Squad and Bright. While critical praise isn’t there, Suicide Squad did made oodles of money and Bright was a pretty sizeable success for Netflix. Fury was the film prior to those, that had some buzz and anticipation going for it leading in. The film did okay in America but wound up pulling in over 200 million dollars on the worldwide market. Sony has decided its high time to bring this one to the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray format already. Pairing it along with the Mel Gibson led film, The Patriot, it will be coming out May 22nd. If you’re a fan, feel free to order yourself a copy from the link at the end of the review. 
Not too long after the historic release of Braveheart (see my 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray review of it all 
Alex Garland really made a sweeping debut Ex Machina. A smaller scale science fiction film that was welcoming both to the hardcore and general moviegoer. That film even snuck up on us and won an Academy Award. For his follow up, Annihilation, Garland dug even deeper in the the hard science fiction elements. The film was noted for getting a wide release domestically, but Paramount let this become a Netflix movie for all the other countries in the world. Controversial, yes, but this may have been a good move as this isn’t the most accessible or general friendly audience film many of the people upset about the Netflix deal might think. Lucky enough, it IS coming to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray after just initially announcing standard Blu-ray only. The trick was that the 4K was coming as a Best Buy exclusive. This exclusive also is set for a May 29th release. 
Gnomeo & Juliet have been holding on, waiting and waiting and pining for the sequel to their beloved animated film for seven long years. In 2018, they all could breathe a huge, collective sigh of relief as Sherlock Gnomes finally came together and was released to theaters. Adding a brand new character to the mix, the superfans had plenty of mystery going in on “Who exactly is this Sherlock Gnomes, anyway?” Twitter seemed okay with actor Johnny Depp playing the titular role, unlike some other franchises he’s been apart of, as not a peep or tweet was angrily made at the film’s screenwriter or director. No theories of Sherlock Gnomes having shapeshifting abilities were tiredly shared. Anyway fans, your day to own it is here. You’ll be able to grab a copy of the film when it comes to Blu-ray June 12th. 
