Let’s Have a ‘Poker Night’ Blu-ray Giveaway!
February 3rd, 2015 by Blu-ray Brian
I checked the trailer out down below and I’m still not sure what’s happening in this one, but it sounds like it involves gambling and Giancarlo Esposito is in it so count me in. The tale of Poker Night goes a little something like this. In this twisted thriller, a young detective becomes an unwilling participant in a sadistic game of cat-and-mouse when he is kidnapped by a masked serial killer. In order to survive, the detective must use the wisdom imparted to him by senior detectives on their regular poker night. Sound good? How does it sound when I say we have three Blu-rays of Poker Night to give away? Better? Read on! Continue reading ‘Let’s Have a ‘Poker Night’ Blu-ray Giveaway!’
Sometime in the later 1980s, the famous books and story of The Phantom Of The Opera fell into public domain; meaning anybody could make their own cinematic, televised or stage rendition of it without having to jump through hoops to get the rights. Coming of the success of Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers, director Dwight H Little wanted to get the first one done before countless others threw their cards in the hat. He snagged up fright icon Robert Englund at the peak of his pop culture popularity as well as one of the “it girls” of the moment Jill Schoelen to do his own take on the story. Largely forgotten, this was a pretty hyped and anticipated film back in 1989. Not just in the horror community either. The film wound up being a crushing disappointment both from a critical and box office perspective. However, through the annals of home video, the film first began finding itself an audience of appreciators on VHS and even more when it was released on DVD. Here it comes to the next format, where it hopes to find even more new fans. This makes it the perfect candidate for a Scream Factory release. 
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Now Alexander throughout the rest of this review) was a popular book published back in 1972 by Judith Viorst. I remember that book being a popular book to read even during my youthful years. Even though, I’m not sure whether I read it or not. I at least remember that title pretty well. Once a project over at 20th Century Fox, the film moved to Disney and was released this past October. In a market hungry for a live action family comedy film, the film prospered to the tune of a great opening weekend and overall awesome box office performance. This genre seemed somewhat of a thing of the past, not so much popping up with any frequency anymore (Maybe it hasn’t gone away, but I don’t feel I’ve seen anything with prominence, success or marketing like this one). With the majority positive reviews and a successful box office take, this might mean we see a small resurgence in this kind of film as an option at the multiplex. 
Scream Factory’s newest original film is a modern dangerous woods creature feature. Its another film that comes from Chiller TV (As they’ve had plenty of their original films go to Scream Factory for physical media release). This however first debuted on VOD before making its way to Chiller TV. The name that first caught my eye when I learned of it was Joey Lauren Adams being in the film and being over the title. While she’s not just some glorified cameo in the movie, she is kinda wasted. When I watched the film, another name I recognized was that of Drew Barrymore. No, she’s not in it, but she was the producer for it. If you missed the film when it ran on Chiller TV or Video OnDemand, Scream Factory is giving you a chance to just straight up own it with this Blu-ray edition of Animal. 
Game of Thrones Blu-ray reviews are very intimidating to write about. Let’s be honest, there’s a lot of ground to cover here. Do you take the high road and skim over everything without spoilers in fear or ruining it for anyone reading that has not seen the fourth season yet, or do you grow a pair with the assumption that your parents are the only ones on planet Earth who have yet to experience the epic awesomeness of Game of Thrones and everyone else just wants to find out all they can about this February 17th HBO Blu-ray release? I’m going to err for the latter as I boldly set out to accomplish two things here within this Blu-ray review, recapping what Season 4 is all about and more importantly, candidly capturing everything about this MUST-OWN Blu-ray set.
Upon its 2005 DVD release, the Australian thriller LONG WEEKEND quickly became one of the most highly-regarded films in the Synapse Films library, later to be prominently featured in Mark Hartley’s acclaimed documentary NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD and remade by director Jamie Blanks (URBAN LEGEND) in 2008. Fans have long requested a Blu-ray upgrade for this unrelenting Aussie classic, now making its high-def debut on a stunning new Synapse Blu-ray!
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Scream Factory is stocking up on the most romantic of classic movie monsters, the vampire. They’re releasing three of them that week. We’ve already talked about Vampire’s Kiss, but the other two are comedies as well. This Double Feature includes the George Hamilton 1979 romp Love At First Bite and the early Jim Carrey teen sex comedy Once Bitten. That’s an easy common thread to find them as a double feature in a pack. But I also find it funny that they both have a play on the number one and the word “bite” in their titles as well. Intentional? I’m hoping that’s the case. Pretty clever. These are two comedies that cover both classic era vampires (Dracula) and ones in the modern world more akin to that of a Fright Night type (Once Bitten actually released the same year as Fright Night). Both feature some bloody good laughs. 
One of Walt Disney’s most popular animated films of all time, 101 Dalmatians is finally making its way to Blu-ray. The film is one that saved the animation studio, changed the way they did things and gave them a future. It also gave them one of their most classic villains of all time, the haunting, skreechy, evil Cruella De Ville. She also has her own theme song that’ll creep up into your conscious too. The film took in some huge box off and was a massive success. The film has seen itself reissued four times (1969, 1979, 1985, 1991). It also spawned a broadway musical and a feature film that many remember had Glenn Close playing Cruella De Ville. Disney is bringing the original film to us once again, in this VERY loaded Diamond Edition Blu-ray . 
Well, I get to deliver what is probably going to be the best and most exciting Blu-ray news going into the weekend (Unless of course the unaltered Star Wars original trilogy or True Lies is announced). The Babadook, 2014’s best horror film (And one of the best of this current decade) is coming to Blu-ray! That’s not all, its being headed up for release by none other than everyone’s favorite, Scream Factory! Oh, and they are also giving it a limited run special edition with pop up casing to boot. So, we know this gem is in real good hands when it comes to video. The Babadook also instantly becomes the best modern horror film to be released for the label (Just nudging past The Battery in my book). Read on below to find full details of this exciting release as well as a pre-order button (Because you should). 
Last August, longtime New York Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley penned a feature entitled
Poker Night, a movie that doesn’t really have much to do with the game of poker itself. So, if for some reason the box art isn’t telling you already of that fact, then let this be that sort of disclaimer for you. The film is a crime thriller from Greg Francis, a man who looks to have an extensive background in those crime and FBI and shows you see on cable channels all time time (Francis had nothing to do with this show, but I personally find myself getting glued to Forensic Files on HLN before bedtime). Poker Night debuted on Video On Demand back in early December and enjoyed a short limited theatrical release just before Christmas. It comes to Blu-ray courtesy of XLrator Media under their Macabre label. These are the same folks who brought us Jersey Shore Massacre, but to anyone hesitant to pick up another one of their titles because of that film, this is a much improved pick up both in terms of film competency and Blu-ray authoring and technical aspects. 
