Here Comes ‘The Judge’ (Movie Review)
There is a scene in The Judge that features the big city lawyer and his estranged father having a huge argument during a violent wind storm. It is just one of the many scenes that really want to hammer home the emotions on display. Despite featuring a solid cast and moments where they can shine, The Judge is a film that goes way overboard, when it comes to spelling out exactly how an audience should feel. Not helping is the very sentimental screenplay that must have read, “Go big,” at the end of a good majority of the scenes, as a note to both the actors and director. The film is a huge pile of clichés that seem to have been filmed in an effort to rake in awards consideration for the two acting Roberts featured. It is the kind of contrived courtroom drama that is designed to get an obvious audience response, despite a lack of any sort of real weight behind the film.
Initially, I think I was more interested in how I would be writing the title of this film for the review, rather than what I was hoping to get out of actually seeing it. I have settled on ‘Alexander’ or ‘ATHNGVBD,’ but really, I am happy to write about this actual film as well, because it is harmless fun. Adapting a feature length film from a 32-page children’s novel can only lead to so much success, depending on who is involved, but Rob Lieber’s script manages to extend the novel’s idea into a fun family comedy that does not celebrate the misfortune of Alexander and his family, but instead embraces the optimism required to hold a family together, despite the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad things that happen to them. As a result, the film works both as a broad comedy and as a family comedy with good things to take away from it.
October 6, 2014 – Take cover when Into the Storm arrives onto Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD and
Penny Dreadful The Complete First Season is a title that I’m very excited to have received this week to review on Blu-ray. I was able to check out the first episode of Penny Dreadful utilizing Showtime On Demand this summer, but due to my hectic lifestyle and work schedule I was never able to follow up on the rest of the series even though I really wanted to. Life’s not always rainbows and puppies, but I digress. I’m just overjoyed that I finally now have the chance to watch and hopefully enjoy all eight episodes in glorious 1080p on my favorite format. It’s a series that NPR calls “scary, seductive, surprising and smart” and Variety claims that Penny Dreadful is “solidly entertaining, well casted and oozing with atmosphere.” Although I did not need them to make my mind up for me those two critiques alone are encouraging enough to make me want to watch this, but if you need more reasons, try this one on for size. The series stars the wildly popular Eva Green, famous for her sexy wardrobe or lack of in most recent roles such as 
Since the advent of television on DVD, one series has had a vocal push to get it out and available for purchase. The Wonder Years, the 1960s/early 70s coming of age television show was beloved and still cherished to this day. Many years went by and there were never any plans for it. Then it was discovered in the early/mid 2000s that the reason was because of music licensing rights. Contracts were different when The Wonder Years aired, and selling home video rights with the music was covered back then. The task to get all those rights together and taken care of would be an expensive and exhaustive process. Some shows, like Dawson’s Creek and Married With Children said to hell with it and released theirs with new temp track music and songs that take a way a little bit of the lust from which you remembered it. Well, time and patience has finally paid off for The Wonder Years as StarVista has put together the complete series with all the original music intact. 
What seems to be little known is that there were actually two versions of Halloween: The Complete Collection back on September 23rd. Most every bit of press and excitement wen toward the Deluxe Limited Edition that came with 15 discs. And rightfully so. There was another, more basic edition, released as well. That one is only 10 discs and is pretty much just the discs with the regular cut of the movie and that’s it. So, gone are your original Anchor Bay release of the original, the TV Cut of Halloween II (1981), The Producer’s Cut of The Curse Of Michael Myers, Rob Zombie’s 4 hour making of documentary from his remake and disc 15 which included the extended cut of the original and the retrospective documentaries on Return and Revenge Of Michael Myers. This edition runs a bit cheaper and I guess is for someone who is more concerned with saving shelf space (its much more condensed packaging) and doesn’t care all too much about alternate cuts or bonus material. Let’s take a look at what it does include. 
Set along the tumultuous Arizona-Mexico border, FRONTERA follows Miguel (Peña), a hardworking father and devoted husband who crosses the border illegally and is wrongfully accused of murdering the wife of a former sheriff (Harris). Miguel’s pregnant wife (Longoria) lands in the hands of corrupt Mexican “Coyote” smugglers as she tries to help her husband, while the ex-lawman investigates his wife’s death and unearths evidence that could destroy one family’s future.
Scream Factory’s latest dip into the modern era of horror comes to us from Columbia in the form of the film The Squad. It revolves around a military group in search of what caused some lost communication at a base that has gone dark. I really got to go into this film completely blind, as I really couldn’t find many stats on it in my research. Looking for stats or a production history on this thing sort of came empty from the normal generic information places (Because I’d like to avoid spoilers. But, since its got the Scream Factory brand label to it, you know they saw something in the film and it’ll be pretty much worth the watch. 
From producers Steven Spielberg & Oprah Winfrey and director Lasse Hallström (“Chocolat,” “The Cider House Rules”) comes the deliciously entertaining story of “The Hundred-Foot Journey,” available to own on 
Disney is bringing back Sleeping Beauty with a new Diamond Edition. You’ll remember it was previously released in a 50th Anniversary Platinum Edition back in 2008. That version was also the first of their animated fairy tale films of any era to be released on Blu-ray. That was back during my last year of doing Quality Control for Blu-ray and DVD, and that release was a big deal as Disney was trying their best to squeeze everything possible out of the format even back then. There were many a sleepless nights over Sleeping Beauty. But, in the end, they released a pretty fantastic product. This new edition isn’t quite as elaborate as the previous one, but does provide most of the essentials and brings some new bonus features to the table as well as foreign audio tracks that weren’t available before. To get it out of the way, and make a long story short before we start the review; if you own the Platinum Edition of Sleeping Beauty, hang on to it. 
Well, here’s the most exciting way possible to start off your Friday morning heading into the weekend. Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy, the biggest movie of the summer and year in the US is hitting our lovely glorious Blu-ray format on December 9th! Yes, you’ll have time to get it and watch it like 16 times before Christmas and buy them as stocking stuffers for all of your friends. This is one of my absolute favorite films of the year and that I’m pretty sure is the consensus of pretty much all the writers here at Why So Blu. And Gerard cannot wait to be able to have this in his hands to watch the end credits tag over and over and over again while cranking his Cherry Bomb cassette tapes. Pre-order for it begins now, so get yours in to have yours waiting for you when it comes out! 
While I have never read the novel of the same name, and despite this movie being directed by one of my favorites, 
Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Zoe Kazan (Ruby Sparks) and Adam Driver (“Girls”) star in CBS Films’ WHAT IF, coming to Blu-ray™, DVD and Digital HD on Nov. 25 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. In this modern comedy about romance, friendship and everything in between, WHAT IF tells the story about Wallace (Radcliffe) and Chantry (Kazan), a pair of 20-somethings, trying to figure out what they mean to each other and what they might become.
The horror themed Wishlist tread to Halloween continues. This time with ZOMBIES! Lets get our bite on with today’s Wishlist pick! Blu-raaaaaaayyyyyyyyys…
