Peter Gabriel – Growing Up Live + Still Growing Up Live & Unwrapped (Blu-ray Review)
October 25th, 2016 by Shohan Cagle
Man, now THIS is the kinda of live show that is sorely missing from this generation of artists! Folks today think they can get away with throwing up a bunch of flashy lights and random explosions and still call it a live show! Peter Gabriel is here to tell you that that concept just isn’t up to snuff! The man actually attempts to visually recreate his songs while onstage. Each and every song gets it’s own unique visual interpretation. Whether it’s something as simple as synchronizing himself with a few musicians as they twirl to the beat of the music. Or it’s something as grand as climbing inside a giant inflatable plastic bubble and rolling it around while the stage itself rotates at the same time! Growing Up Live is simply a JOY to watch!
From the macabre mind of Rob Zombie (
Olive Films is continuing its march toward newfound greatness with the release of another classic Western, The Night Of The Grizzly featuring Clint Walker. Its not the last western that they’ll be dropping in this signature series, a Raquel Welch classic is coming next month. That seems to be where their focus is right now with the Signature series. If you’re reading, Olive Films, I want to put my request in for The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers as soon as you can get to it. The original one, that you’ve already put a release out for. Yeah, you knew that. Shut up, Brandon and talk about The Night of the Grizzly? Oh okay okay. This new edition features a carry over interview and some neat archival videos. Alongside John Ford’s The Quiet Man, The Night of The Grizzly Olive Signature Edition will be available 10/25/2016. 
John Ford is probably a name that the kids today aren’t familiar with and may be long forgotten for some, but he’s truly one of the finest directors of all time. He’s one that all those awesome filmmakers that rocked the industry in the 1970s pulled from. While an artist, he was also in that era where films were just sort of a working thing where you moved from whatever one the studio put you on to another. However, The Quiet Man was one of his personal projects that he kept on trying to get off of the ground for years before he was able to get the the ability to get the film made. Turns out the film and Ford knew what the heck they were doing, because he wound up taking another Oscar for Best Director for it. And as the years wore on, it because historically and culturally significant to be preserved by the Library of Congress. Now, its getting some super special treatment by Olive Films in their Signature Edition series that debuted to raves last month. 
Star Trek Beyond promises us one thing going in, a departure from J. J. Abrams’ direction. It of course delivers more, but my main concern was what kind of adventure are we in store for? For too long now I hear complaints from longtime Trekkies upset over the direction of the first two films. Most notably, many dismiss the second film as blasphemy. Rightfully so, but as a new fan to Star Trek I find myself quite fond of Into Darkness (review 
Following Sweeney Todd, I was very excited for Tim Burton to be taking on Alice In Wonderland. It looked like not only would it have the Burton stamp, but it would be sort of a follow up to the original tale. However, the film came out the same weekend in 2010 that I got married. The following week, my wife opened a business. The film just sort of got away from me. It was met with really poor reviews and disdain from peers that I trust, so I just never got around to seeing it. I avoided it for the last 6 years. Now, since this sequel was coming out, and I knew I’d be reviewing it, the time had finally come to see this 1 billion dollar box office success story. And, well, I have to say it was pretty bad, and easily one of Burton’s worst. However, while I didn’t want a sequel, it wouldn’t take much more to improve. And here we are. 
Independence Day: Resurgence is one of those sequels that never needed nor should have been made. So why was it? That’s a very good question. Considering they couldn’t even lure Will Smith back for it should have been the nail in the coffin. However, it wasn’t. Not even Jeff Goldblum nor Liam Hemsworth can keep this ship from crashing in this one. Sadly it’s all about greed here. Fox knew the uneducated would come out in droves to support the film that took the sic-fi community by storm 20 years ago. And what’s more patriotic than seeing a summer action movie circa the Fourth of July holiday? That’s a rhetorical question. So what follows is a review of a crappy sequel to the highly heralded sci-fi classic, Independence Day (see my 20th anniversary review of the 4K Ultra HD set 
The WhySoBlu gang podcast dissected all things horror comedy this week which brings to mind a little past hidden gem well worth bringing up for more than mere movie nostalgia – welcome to Forgotten Friday Flick! Today we’re heading into odd genre territory for an unconventional tale of cops, killers and the undead. Mix in the intrigue of an old fashioned detective story, the banter of a buddy/buddy movie and add a pinch of reanimation and you’ve got one of the funniest and strangest flicks ever made. “Hey, you’re hurt!” “Lady, I’m f@cking dead!” – it’s time for some…Dead Heat!
This week we’re going international for the DVD bin scouring by checking out two tall tales from China that cover everything from the supernatural to the super skilled – martial arts style that is! Not sure if these are worth the money – we got you covered! Scan our DVD Roundup for the critical skinny on Phantom of the Theatre and Judge Archer below! (Again, tech specs provided at the end for those who demand DVD details!)
Sorry film freaks – only a meager five flicks for critical dissection this time out, but I also helmed a premiere this week (Go 
Jack Reacher is one of those films I had to go back and revisit to not only freshen up going into the premiere of Jack Reacher Never Go Back, but make sure I liked it too. I honestly could not remember as I hadn’t seen the first film since 2013 when I reviewed the Blu-ray 
Nerve was a film I kinda wrote off last summer. The trailer played with a quite a few films I went to see, but it looked like one that gave away everything and it seemed to skew younger than I’d be interested in. Not that an aspect like that would keep me from seeing something, just in terms of my immediate need to catch it. It did slightly catch my eye. However, upon release, the film actually managed to garner some surprisingly positive reviews, even managing to score fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. A budget doesn’t seem to be available, but Nerve couldn’t have cost too much money and looks to have made some decent bank if it indeed had a really low budget. I didn’t quite get out of the house to see it in the theater, but here it is on Blu-ray and I’m more than willing to check it out. Lionsgate has this one dropping on October 25th. 
Confession time. I’ve never seen any of the Ice Age films before. The saga began back in 2002 when I was still a wee lad in college. At that age, they looked too kiddie for my refined early 20s taste and certainly weren’t even looking the slightest Pixar-esque. Now, its 14 years since that first film and I have two children. I once tried to put the first film on for them and they seemingly didn’t care much for it (I was doing something else, no paying attention). They claim to have seen one at a cousin’s house and it was all right. So, what I’m trying to convey here going into the review for this fifth excursion into the Ray Romano/Dennis Leary franchise, is that my experience and knowledge on these films is very minimal. If I’m not getting a reference, or for some reason enjoy this too much, then there is my disclaimer as to why. 
