xXx: Return of Xander Cage X-plodes on 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray This May!
March 21st, 2017 by Blu-ray Brian
I was not a huge fan of this franchise going in, but I did manage to have a lot of fun with this one. Hailed as “a crazy, stunt-filled action spectacular” (Scott Mendelson, Forbes) and “a shot of pure adrenaline” (Joey Nolfi, Entertainment Weekly), xXx: Return of Xander Cage x-plodes on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack, Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD and On Demand May 16, 2017 from Paramount Home Media Distribution. X-cited fans can be the first to get it two weeks early on Digital HD May 2. Continue reading ‘xXx: Return of Xander Cage X-plodes on 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray This May!’
Illumination Entertainment, the animation studio most known for those darn Minions. Actually, I enjoy the Despicable Me films, its just the one that focused on the little side characters was a giant waste of time (Though, I’m sure those seven and under probably loved it). While that’s the flagship, they’ve actually carved quite a remarkable track record in six short years. All but two of their films have made over a half a billion dollars worldwide. Which, one of those two was The Lorax which did exceedingly well at 348 million worldwide. They hit big in summer and winter in 2016, showing they are much more than the Minion house. The Secret Life of Pets almost made a billion dollars in the summer and the film we are reviewing here, Sing, made over half a billion running up against Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. They appear to be a major force to be reckoned with, holding their own in a world usually owned by Disney and Pixar. Sing proved to be quite popular, not just with audiences, but seemingly winning over critics as well. It comes to 4K UHD Blu-ray on March 21st! 
“Visually stunning, frequently terrifying, viscerally disturbing and genuinely thought-provoking… Tank 432 really, truly marks the arrival of a genuine talent.” – UK Horror Scene. 
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, the sixth and final installment in the worldwide franchise phenomenon, premieres on digital May 2 and 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray
My fiancee is going to be excited about this! The countdown begins for one of the most highly anticipated home entertainment debuts of the year. In 50 days, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment will unleash Fifty Shades Darker Unrated Edition, plunging fans even deeper into the mesmerizing, hidden world of Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele, as the year’s hottest romance comes home on Digital HD on April 25, 2017 and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand, on May 9, 2017. The global film phenomenon sparked by E.L. James’ best-selling book trilogy returns with the second chapter of the darkly alluring tale that captivated the world. Fans can now stay in and have the ultimate at-home movie night with Fifty Shades Darker Unrated Edition, and this time, there are no rules and no secrets. 
20th Century Women comes from writer/director Mike Mills of whom I only familiar with his film Thumbsucker, which was one of the first films that was highly recommended to me by Scott Mendelson early on in our friendship. It was a terrific coming of age comedy, the best of what seemed to have a lot of similar ones like it back in 2005, and one of the best films that year. This film, featuring a single mother tasking two younger women with helping to shape her 15 year old son’s adolescence, is my first venture with Mills since. I highly enjoyed the trailer when I saw it back during December (Actually had me cracking up aloud at a few moments), but wasn’t able to get to it during its theatrical run. It looked like another big awards run movie for Annette Bening, but the film wound up only getting nominated for Best Original Screenplay. The film very much offers far more than its lack of award season nods would lead you to believe. 20th Century Women will be available to purchase on (21st century, yok yok) Blu-ray March 28th. 
It sounds very silly to have expectations for or to be really looking forward to a film like Arsenal. A primarily straight to Blu-ray and DVD (I think it played a couple festivals) release where the leads are Adrien Grenier and Johnathon Schaech. And John Cusack, has been less of the kicker than ever in the past couple of years, looking unhappy stuck in some sort of slow rent action movie straight to video hell. The kicker here was someone also kind of stuck there, but who always commits; Nicolas Cage. This trailer actually brought the internet abuzz as he looked to be going full on Cage for this one and was resurreting his Deadfall past with “Eddie”. Maybe Cusack would find it in himself to bring it too. This looked like it could be bringing the right amount of crazy and silly to an otherwise tired looking story. Therein lies the potential I (And I was not alone) was seeing in this movie. Everything seemed like it was on the table, but would it actually pan out. 
I kind of wanted to try something new on the site here. Many years ago I became so smitten with the world of collecting (mostly Star Wars) that it got to the point of insanity when you have Master Replica lightsabers and Slave Leia’s in your kitchen, living room, office and basically anywhere you can think of because of lack of proper display space. Couple that with the expense of having to haul all of that crap half way across the country in a move from Ohio to Texas and I swore I’d never do it again. However, the itch has returned and has taught me a “valuable” lesson. Never say never. I quote the word valuable because let’s face it in order to really collect some cool items one must at least have some disposable income or else you’re very prone to go broke. I would say modern day, pop culture brands like 
This is just the kind of midnight movie I was waiting for at SXSW! Meatball Machine Kodoku has tons of ridiculous gore effects (actually 4 tons of fake blood were used on the film according to the director), an insane plot that doesn’t need to make any sense, and completely over-the-top action scenes. This is a direct sequel to 2005’s Meatball Machine from the same director, Yoshihiro Nishimura (Tokyo Gore Police), and by direct sequel I mean it shares almost the same exact plot as the original, but with better effects and a tighter plot (plot, in this case is a very loose interpretation of the term). This movie is a hilarious, blood-filled, wackily Japanese, complete crazefest of a blast! 
With a slight divine diversion last week, we’re back to the past picture prowess of all things 80’s – welcome to Forgotten Friday Flick! Today we’re heading down the road in one good-looking car from hell guaranteed to get your cinematic wheels turning. It’s a tasty terror tale ala one of the movie masters of suspense John Carpenter (we’re gonna be paying tribute to his work the next few weeks – deal with it!) that features an unusual relationship between a man and his…Plymouth Fury? Obsession, jealousy and plenty of car carnage awaits when you ride shotgun inside…Christine!
Indie films stretch vastly over high and low dog ratings this week – not to mention covering the full spectrum of genres to boot! Unlikely superheroes, ex-boyfriend and father bonding, sci-fi wackos, elder basketball star docs, horrific curses, deadly office games and damaged gals seeking revenge fill out the seven films that make up the Encapsulated Movie Reviews this week. Check out the cinematic skinny on They Call Me Jeeg, All Nighter, Atomica, Coming Back To The Hoop, Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Word, The Belko Experiment and Psychos below!
In terms of his directorial output, Ben Affleck has had a perfect track record with me. Gone Baby Gone was one hell of a debut for him and surprisingly his least talked about film in his director catalog (It shouldn’t be, its fantastic). That film was based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, which is a well Affleck is seemingly returning to by adapting another one of his books into Live By Night. For critical reception, its been a rough year for Ben Affleck, with Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice being thrashed (Though he was almost praised across the board for it) and The Accountant getting a mediocre reception (Though being a rock solid hit). It seemed like, well, at least he has his own film to end the year on. A Ben Affleck film was something we thought we could count on. Though, disappointingly, he’d end the year on a huge double whammy, with more awful reviews and a having his film totally bomb at the box office. This, being the film that followed up his widely praised and Academy Award winner for best picture, Argo. 
