Blu-ray Roundup – 3 Past Picture Titles (Blu-ray Reviews)
The column for the penny-pinching film fan is once again in full swing, only this time around we’re scouring the bargain bin for bare bones Blu-ray’s to see if they cut the collectable movie mustard. Titles that may already have lush editions or perhaps not, but that come in on the less expensive side and as a result won’t break your wallet. But are these past notable nuggets worth investing merely for the movie and menus alone? We’re gonna provide the answers including film dissection and quality in skinny form (dog ratings here represent the film and the disc quality together!), so check out the Blu-ray Roundup reviews of the recently released Flatliners (Steelbook), Night of the Living Dead and Vice Versa all below! (Tech specs are at the end as always for those who demand it!)
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Inmate #61727054. Surely that’s a number that proves irrelevant to most of us. We live in a land where prisoners are more than abundant. However, some are more famous than others and few more so than inmate #61727054, better known as Bernard L. Madoff. Bernie Madoff lived up to his last name and ‘made off’ with a disgustingly enormous sum of $65 billion of other peoples’ money. Director Barry Levinson (Good Morning, Vietnam) brought this tale of financial deceit to HBO earlier this year in the form of the bio pic The Wizard of Lies starring Robert De Niro as Bernie Madoff and Michelle Pfeiffer as his wife, Ruth Madoff. The film now makes its way to Blu-ray and we’ve got all the details on this disc from start to finish.
To say that I was not looking forward to the original April 16th theatrical release date of Kick-Ass would be like saying that I would rather watch a SD DVD of my favorite film over its superior HD counterpart. It’s just not going to happen. My obsession with this film happened way back on the magical date of July 24, 2009. It was on that very day, within Hall H at Comic-Con 2009 in San Diego, that I was introduced to the world of Kick-Ass. I never wore a grin so large in life as compared to when we, the captive audience within Hall H, were treated to not only the film’s Red Band trailer, but also exclusive clips highlighting the mayhem and action of the eccentric cast. Weird thing is, the film had no distribution deal as of yet. It was shown first at Comic-Con to gauge the public’s interest. And if memory serves me correct, the panel even got a standing ovation by the end of its time slot. Not long after, Lionsgate, one of my favorite movie studios sealed the deal to distribute Kick-Ass nationwide. And that was a great day indeed. Sadly, Nicolas Cage was absent from the 2009 Comic-Con panel, but this girl (see below), Chloe Moretz (aka Hit-Girl), won the audience over with not only her youth and innocence, but also her, for lack of a better term, “kick-ass” action sequences. I’m a firm believer that Kick-Ass would not be half the film it is without Hit-Girl.
There is an infectiously sweet, sad solitude that runs through the very well shot, directed, acted, and scored A Ghost Story, which comes out today on blu-ray, that is guaranteed to captivate and transfix anyone who views it. Despite its title, A Ghost Story could never really be mistaken for a horror or thriller, as it is much more akin to a dramatic fantasy romance. Excellent, nuanced performances by Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea) and Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) make this small film with a small cast and a small budget feel like a spectacle not to be missed. You can read further on for all the details about why, but if you are into strange, quiet, slow films just go pick this one up already.
Curious about the Close Encounters of the Third Kind 40th Anniversary Edition 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray “Light and Sound” gift set? You are almost sure you want to buy it, you’d just like to see what it looks like inside before you finalize your decision to purchase it? Well, you can rest safely, we’ve made an unboxing video of said release just for you. This gift set edition of the release contains the standard 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray release with it that you can find our review for right 
Leave it to Scream Factory to finally unearth upon everyone a long unseen, but well heard about horror movie. Its been 10 years since The Poughkeepsie Tapes had its first trailer come out for the planned release in 20o8. And then…well…it had two screenings and disappeared. Sure, those who have wanted to see the film have found the way or means to be able to scratch the itch, but its never been available on home video via a physical format or legit legal stream. Scream Factory now is finally making it the real deal here with the Blu-ray release of this notorious unseen found footage film that’s infamy has had people curious to see it. You’ll be able to add it to your horror film marathon viewing in October by pre-ordering using the Amazon link below. 
Coming out of nowhere and as a complete welcome surprise of Sony announcing the release of vintage 80s horror classic, 976-Evil. Its super notable as the film marks the directorial debut of fright icon and Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund. The movie dialed itself up a sequel a couple of years later (Your move now, Vestron!) and Englund would only direct one more feature 20 years later, though he did direct two episode of the Freddy’s Nightmares television show. This nice little release from Sony will be available and ready to kick of your October Halloween horror movie marathons on October 3rd. Pre-order this little bit of fun below, following the review to ensure yourself a copy come new release day. 
Starship Troopers might be the best sci-fi action movie of the 1990s and the one that has held up the best over time. I was a pretty big fan of it when I saw it in the theater opening weekend. Being a huge Aliens fans, it played to those sensibilities, but truly was its own beast. Lost on my was a lot of the satirical brilliance at play by Paul Vehoeven, who had shown this same expertise that is impossible to replicated in both Robocop and Total Recall. These three of his movies kinda form a bit of trilogy. Anywho, its been 20 years since the original Starship Troopers and here they are giving us a new adventure featuring Johnny Rico and resurrecting Dizzy Flores. Oh but, its animated. And this review will be of the standard Blu-ray edition, not the 4K Ultra-HD one. You can pick this up as of last week, September 19th. 
I remember back in 2013 wanting nothing to do with this movie and shamefully saying how awful it looked. However, I also remember flying home on a work trip and being bored out of my mind knowing that I had a long flight ahead of me. The conundrum was that I had nothing to watch on the plane. Eureka! I came up with the idea that I should download Warm Bodies on my iPad to keep me company for the next three hours. After all our own Aaron Neuwirth had originally given this one some nice nods in his movie review originally published 
One of the biggest surprises for summer 2003 was the original Pirates of the Caribbean film. There was a lot of goodwill with that movie and its sequels that would form a trilogy were very highly anticipated. Then came that fourth one, whatever you want to call it. I’m still a big fan of the first two films and can watch the third one, though its rather overplotted and confusing. I saw the fourth once. While interested in the fifth one, I didn’t make it to the theater and it wasn’t really priority viewing for me. It didn’t need me though as the film grossed almost 800 million dollars. What surprised me, though is looking back, this series was clearly more of a fan based one that critic. There is a pretty solid discrepancy among the sequels aside from pretty much agreeing the fourth one sucked. Now we come to the fifth one which has a huge distance between audience and critic. You’ll be able to find out for yourself, or if you’re a fan, own it on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray October 3rd. 
Believe me when I say this I never wanted write this 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray review. In fact I never wanted to even see this flick. Call me a glutton for punishment, but I know the real truth. I’m just flat out cheap and don’t want to pay to view it nor do I want to see anyone else on my team remotely speak any praise about it. You see I loved the first Transformers film. It was both epic and adventurous, but the second feature was a bloated, flaming turd. The 
