Justice League (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)
The Justice League motion picture is finally getting its deserving shot to win over your living room on March 13th. As far as 2017 feature films going into last November I had thought of nothing else except Justice League ever since I left San Diego Comic-Con that July and attended this unforgettable superhero panel captured in all its splendor and awe right here. I have also painstakingly covered the 4K Ultra HD releases of Wonder Woman, Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad here on the site with both the utmost of detail and exposé. So it’s with overwhelming joy and rousing happiness I now am in a position to do much the same with my take on the long awaited home media release sans the Zack Snyder cut of the superhero ensemble flick, Justice League. Buckle up ladies and gentlemen as I’m about to steal/drive Batman’s Batmobile both fast and so very furious. Vroom, vroom!
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Downsizing is acclaimed director Alexander Payne’s first in four years. That last one was the absolutely terrific Nebraska. This time he pairs with Matt Damon for a quirky concept of people shrinking themselves to live in a community where they are much wealthier than they would have been at normal size. The trailer for the film was pretty dynamite in my opinion, but I guess didn’t sell it well at all as the film completely bombed both in the United States and worldwide. With other studios, that would mean just putting it out on standard Blu-ray and being done with it, but kudos to Paramount as they’ve decided to stick with the times and put this one out on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray. You’ll be able to catch it since you missed it in the theater on March 20th. Amazon Pre-order link available below if you’re interested. 
Thirty six years ago, two fantastic visionaries in the realm of puppeteering and one of the men responsible for the first two Star Wars films put their heads together for a a mystical fantasy film, The Dark Crystal. Those men were Jim Henson, Frank Oz and Gary Kurtz. I’m not sure kids today are so hot on The Dark Crystal, but when I was growing up in the 1980s, it seemed to be on TV quite a bit and at every VHS rental store. Maybe its popularity is nostalgic adults like myself. Regardless, its exciting to see this film get the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray upgrade and that the life and work of Jim Henson still is important and relevant to studios today. There is a fancy digibook version of this on standard Blu-ray, but the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ay is getting a standard case. Regardless, this new release, that has a new bonus feature, will be available March 6th. Pre-order below! 
Nominated for five Academy Awards and winning over critics and audiences alike this past fall was Greta Gerwig’s feature directorial debut, Lady Bird. The coming of age tale of a teen girl going through her senior year at the beginning of this century brought another strong performance from Saoirse Ronan, and maybe put more than just us film geeks on notice for Greta Gerwig and if it hadn’t been for that equally awesome performance by Allison Janney in I, Tonya, the Best Supporting Actress Award would be Laurie Metcalf’s. Lionsgate is bringing it to Blu-ray just after the awards which will remind how refreshing and how much of a joy this film is or for many others a nice discovery of the film they heard’s name called a few times in the big categories for the Oscars. You can pick it up Tuesday or pre-order it using the Amazon link below. 
Grabbing most of the slasher spotlight in 2006 was Adam Green’s Hatchet, that just embraced and celebrated all the was stalk n’ stab horror. But there was another film that should have been a huge landmark but flew under the radar. That film was a super grassroots low budget film Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. Not only was it ahead of the game in its fake documentary/found footage style for most of the film, but its deconstruction and comedic aspects were the best of the genre and even more hard nosed inside baseball than genre legend Scream. But, the folks at Scream Factory are aware and know how special this film is as they are releasing it under their collector’s edition banner on March 27th. Get in for that pre-order now! 
Writer and director Martin McDonagh has hit big this year with his highly acclaimed and decorated third feature film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. It has been collecting hardware for the overall film as well as the performances of Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell, with Woody Harrelson receiving nominations for his role. Like many others, I’ve been a big fan of McDonagh for his first two films; In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths. Films that are also worthy of the celebration Three Billboards is receiving this year. What makes me excited for this 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray and standard Blu-ray release is that his short film (and first), the Academy Award winning Six Shooter starring Brendan Gleeson has been included. This release is already available, so if you’re too tired to go to a store and pick it up, please click on the Amazon link to order yourself a copy. 
Next year, Joe Dante’s classic comedy, The ‘Burbs will be turning thirty. And with that, Shout! Factory, under the Shout Select label, will be giving this cult classic its rightful due on on a US Blu-ray. The film wasn’t a box office smash, the critics didn’t care much for it, but its had the last laugh by living on and being a favorite by many. This new edition contains a few new interviews as well as a new 2K transfer of the film. Most of the features found on the Arrow Video UK release of the film from a few years back are also found on this release, including the workprint of the film from Joe Dante’s archives. This one is coming at you on March 20th, so go ahead and get your pre-orders in and sell off your little standard release from not to long ago, this one has easily upgraded over it. 
I’ve long been a fan of the works of Agatha Christie, either through actually reading one of the books or checking out an adaptation of one I hadn’t put my eyes to text with. In terms of movie-going, when the trailer dropped for this Kenneth Branagh film, it had an interesting approach to it, but it also looked like both something we have seen in a long time and also like nothing else out there. People agreed as this one was sort of the poor man’s Greatest Showman as this was released during a time when Thor: Ragnarok, Justice League, Daddy’s Home 2, Wonder and Coco were also making some good money (Technically Justice League was making some decent money, they just spent too much on it). With solid reviews and obviously a terrific audience reception, it looks as if we’ll be moving forward with another film in the near future with classic Christie protagonist Hercule Poirot. You can check out this case on the train of his when it releases to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray, February 27. 
I, Tonya was a film I was dying to see ever since it was first announced. It killed me to see fellow Californians have access to it nearly a month before myself in crappy Austin, TX. I was drawn to this movie not only because of my affinity for Margot Robbie as the mischievous Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad, but because I lived during this media-crazy time period. I remember this news story unfolding as vividly as the OJ Simpson Ford Bronco chase that replaced it in the eyes of the media. On top of that I dug the overall vibe of the trailers and the gangster-documentary narrative way this one is ultimately told. It feels the lovechild of a smart gangster movie meets the world of ladies figure skating. What’s not to like? Margot Robbie is exceptionally cast here as Tonya Harding, but it’s Allison Janney who steals the show as her mother. Despite the bleak incident this movie revolves around you can really have a lot of fun with this story and cast. Let’s talk about it some more down below. 
Coming just in time for you to catch it at home, if you weren’t able to make it in the theater, in preparation for the upcoming Academy Awards is Darkest Hour. The film is mostly lauded for its performance from actor Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill (Nominated for Best Actor and already having collected awards during this “season”). Many have said this film makes a great companion to Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk (Also nominated for many awards this year). This Blu-ray comes with a couple bonus features and will be available for you to pick up on the extremely loaded new release day of February 27th. You can pre-order it, as well as the many other titles coming out that day, by finding the reviews or press releases on Why So Blu and clicking the Amazon link. 
This March, we are getting another crack taken at the Tomb Raider game franchise being adapted to the big screen with Alicia Vikander as the new Lara Croft. Let us not forget the early 2000s when much excitement came and the perfect bit of dream casting in that of Angela Jolie in the title role. While the film did solid box office, most found it to be a bit of a disappointment, though still led to a sequel The Cradle of Life. Many will tell you that was a much better and actually good film. However, people didn’t trust their dollars on it after the first and its box office failure effectively shut down the franchise. But, with a reboot comes the great think in that the home video editions of the originals usually see a nice upgrade. And here we are with both Tomb Raider films seeing a 4K Ultra-HD format jump. In this review, its time for the sequel, the lengthy titled Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. 
This March, we are getting another crack taken at the Tomb Raider game franchise being adapted to the big screen with Alicia Vikander as the new Lara Croft. Let us not forget the early 2000s when much excitement came and the perfect bit of dream casting in that of Angela Jolie in the title role. While the film did solid box office, most found it to be a bit of a disappointment, though still led to a sequel The Cradle of Life. Many will tell you that was a much better and actually good film. However, people didn’t trust their dollars on it after the first and its box office failure effectively shut down the franchise. But, with a reboot comes the great think in that the home video editions of the originals usually see a nice upgrade. And here we are with both Tomb Raider films seeing a 4K Ultra-HD format jump. In this review, we’ll be digging into the first film, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. 
While some have this illusion of some sort of fatigue (Black Panther is laughing HARD about that right now), 2017 was a pretty terrific year for the comic book super hero movies across the board. Marvel’s three offerings all ramped up the fun factor and were as successful with their comedic chops as they were the heroics and action bits. And they led up to the heaviest hitter of the bunch, Thor: Ragnarok. The film’s trailer was crazy loved and built up great hype which then delivered in pleasing critics, audiences and the almighty box office dollar. My kids were quoting “I know him, he’s a friend from work” from the day that trailer dropped all the way to having their butts in the seats on opening night. And We surely can’t wait to relive this one again, and you’ll be able to too on March 6th when it arrives on glorious 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray. 
Disney Pixar’s Coco may have kinda faded from conversation with a lot of the Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Jumanji and The Greatest Showman box office triumphs. But, just before those three films dominated, Coco was quite a phenomenon and powerhouse itself. Coco opened to fantastic reviews and almost made three quarters of a billion dollars in its worldwide run. Quite an achievement. This fresh, emotion and charming family drama is making its way to Disney’s slowly growing 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray collection. I’ll have to admit, when I saw it in theaters, throughout the thing I was getting giddy at the prospect of how the HDR was gonna look on the 4K UHD disc. Well, now we can see when it releases on February 27th. 
Daddy’s Home is one of those films I could easily live without. While I love Mark Wahlberg and most everything Will Ferrell does (there are exceptions) I’m just not warm on the PG rating. It was cool when I was a kid, but now I’m an old geezer and I need my F-bombs, gratuitous nudity and raunchy comedy moments. I’m kidding of course, but thankfully despite that family friendly PG rating I gave Daddy’s Home a tryout once it made its debut on the Blu-ray format. I’m glad I did because I still managed to laugh and even had a good time with it all. I must have too because I am devoting my personal time to covering this one. Yep! That’s right the family friendly comedy featuring two of Hollywood’s biggest men (sorry ladies) is getting a 4K Ultra HD upgrade to coincide with its sequel’s release on the format February 20th.
