Brandon’s Blu-ray Wishlist For 2019!
As promised after much delay, the annual wishlist is here! I’m actually glad I waited until the end of January to publish it, because in the time between November and now, many past wishlist titles have been announced for this coming year. So, we can scratch them off the list. There are titles that were originally on this list (Like Klute) that didn’t get a chance to be. The Blu-ray landscape began to evolve a lot in 2018, merely with the decision Warner Bros has made to license out movies to independent distributors like Criterion and Shout! Factory. Sony used to be strict about adding new features to their titles in licensing deals (Hence why many of theirs went to Twilight Time in the past), but appear to have scaled back and now we are getting better editions and titles companies want to pull the trigger on BECAUSE they can make the Collector’s Editions they were wanting to. Its becoming obvious with major studios that home video itself is pushing and moving toward streaming being the dominant format going forward and Blu-ray/4K UHD will go way of vinyl and be a collector’s medium. Premium prices will be more standard, but as long as the big studios are turning a corner like Warner Bros and your Arrows, Criterions and Shouts continue to put out top notch product, things will prosper for us fans of cinema and the physical media formats. Continue reading ‘Brandon’s Blu-ray Wishlist For 2019!’
This is it folks – all good things must eventually come to an end. As such it’s with this final column that I Jason Coleman bid a fond farewell to both 
I’m not last, but posting the day after Aaron Neuwirth is a tough act to follow. He’s the most informed of us here and is able to see an impressive amount of films released in a given year. For me personally, 2018 felt like I didn’t see as much as I would have liked to in order to have formed a good opinion for a Top 10 for the masses (I still haven’t seen A Star Is Born). As a matter of fact, I almost bowed out of doing a Top 10 films of 2018. But I realized, at the end of the day my “I didn’t see as much as I’d have liked to” is still probably a lot larger sample of films watched in the year than a lot of people. And thus, this is my favorite of the boatload of films I did see. And crazy enough, I realized I had seen plenty when 2018 contained films from some my favorite filmmakers or collaborations that wound up not making the cut (Coen Bros-The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Wes Anderson-Isle of Dogs, Diablo Cody/Jason Reitman/Charlize Theron-Tully). And as much as I loved Mandy, that didn’t make it either. Worth noting too, that this is the first time in the Disney-Lucasfilm era that a Star Wars film didn’t make my list (And I did like Solo). But, enough rambling, here are my 10 favorite films of the year 2018. 
Every year this Top 10 movie list gets harder and harder to write.
This year was the first time since I started doing this ten years ago where my ‘worst of the year’ list was compiled before my ‘best of’. Both have since fluctuated with the titles on those lists, but the moral of the story is that while 2018 had some great films, I never felt it was a great year for films. In the final weekend before this article was due, I crammed in four theater visits in 48 hours for the most accurate top 10 list I could compile (unfortunately Vice came out too late to be viewed for this list). Little did I know three of those four wouldn’t even come close to making this list (sorry, Aquaman, I’m elated you finally got a film but it’s just too long and the Black Manta actor was awful). Nevertheless, the films that did make this were very worthy of my movie-loving appreciation for any number of reasons. As always, here’s my disclaimer that this list isn’t claiming each of these films are super artsy or award-worthy. Some of them will likely walk away with a Golden Globe or Oscar. Others are just definitive popcorn movies that were pure fun. Either way, it’s quite a mash-up of action, emotion and great storytelling.
For some reason I thought I would be last out of the Why So Blu? crew in terms of listing our Top-10 films of 2018. Nope! Looks like I’m first, so my selections are on deck. As is customary with my Top-10 list of films – I was not able to watch everything I wanted to before my cut-off date. I’m going to list my Top-10 selections in a streamlined fashion and I will omit any honorable mentions due to time and scheduling. You want a Top-10 list, well, that’s what you’re gonna get! Without further ado, let’s get busy! 
With only two more columns to go here at 
One of my favorite and most frustrating times of the movie writing season is the end of the year “TOP X” lists. They are a lot of fun, but also hurt the brain when trying to weed through all the releases and then put them in a specific order. When it came to 2018, the year was one full of significant and terrific upgrades of previously released titles. Whether it be the format jump to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray or a brand new Blu-ray release, the year showed that you’re doing more than just buying the same thing again for a new bonus feature. DVD and VHS brought about “double dipping” but in the case of standard Blu-ray, you’re actually getting an (ideally) improved picture and audio presentation to leap past your previous edition. It truly does fall under the term “upgrade”. New 4K and 2K scan restorations have yielded some impressive results and “fixed” many collector’s issues with the previous versions of a film. While us 4K Ultra-HD users pine for EVERYTHING to come to the format, many of the 4K restorations put on Blu-ray are keeping us satisfied with some of the smaller films for now. 
For me the highlight of 2018 on the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format were the great catalog releases we received. We expect our 2018 theatrical releases to look pristine and sound great on 4K UHD Blu-ray (with some Disney ones being the exception to that rule). However, it’s the catalog releases that always manage to surprise and delight the film “collecting” (that’s for you 
This year every time a new month came in, my money went out. I found an impressive array of discs released in 2018 and there was definitely some jockeying for position that took place with this list since mid-summer. For instance, DC Comics’ Justice League had been a mainstay on here until recently when one release after another pushed it off the list. Still, that film does have my favorite steelbook to date, but we’re not counting points for artwork here. We’re looking at quality of the production and the library of content. Extras aren’t the be all end all, but they can make or break a title entering this list so let’s see who made the cut.
As the years have passed, I have drifted significantly from video games and focused that time more on boardgaming. I just find the ability to use my imagination and the skill of critical thinking far more engaging in something like Terraforming Mars or Memoir ’44 as opposed to the button mashing of Mortal Kombat or the run ‘n gun of Call of Duty. Nevertheless, there is that occasional title of pixel fun that just captures my attention and won’t let go. Whereas last year that honor went to the DC Comics street fighting game Injustice 2, this year just happens to be another comic book-influenced title. No, that is not a requirement. It’s just that this game was done so incredibly well, I almost want to use the word ‘perfect’ in describing it.
Whereas 2018 was not the best year for films (in my humble opinion), it proved to be an exceptional year for comics. The world of Spider-Man saw one massive tie-in after another between the PS4 game, the upcoming animated film and the Spider-Geddon series. Valiant did a slight but impactful retooling of its popular Ninjak series, now referring to him as Ninja-K, the eleventh assassin of his kind (A through K) in Her Majesty’s service. DC made their own statement with the Drowned Earth story arc, establishing the importance and strength of Aquaman as the half-Atlantean, half-human gets ready for his own feature film later this month. Long story short (too late), there was no shortage of entertainment from comic book publishers these past twelve months. You’ll see some familiarity from last year on this article and a few new titles that are certainly worth checking out. After all, why else would they be on this list?
While various frivolous top ten lists come and go (and according to my previous stomping grounds Starpulse.com are the sole key to site traffic!) there always seems to be a slight disconnect between the writer and the cinematic subjects they are highlighting. Taking into account trends, movies with legacies and selections that stand out, most lists in a sole effort to be Goggled lack personal insight and passion from the scribe to take things to the next level. So in looking over my own work recently as a film critic I wanted to get a little more intimate and thus give anyone interested a detailed walk down movie memory lane Jason Coleman style. So what follows below are ten films that in my life changed the game in terms of what a film could be and my personal stories behind their inclusion. (Listed by year and not importance folks!) These are not merely popular choices nor films that were my only favorites, but flicks that took elements in their various genres and elevated them to a place that some movies only dream of going – in short films that had a profound effect on me. (And remember I grew up in the 80’s hence the small timeline!) Spilling my movie geek guts for all to see, here are my…Top Ten Movie Game Changers!
