Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (Blu-ray Review)
After my last go around with Paranormal Activity 4 in 2012 after Gerard Iribe flipped me the disc, I swore myself off the franchise for good. I made ignorant comments such as I don’t care how long this franchise carries on, I want nothing to do with it, etc. When they announced the delay of the fifth film this past year from its lavish Halloween spot to a January play date, I just chuckled heavily. What movies play in January? A million arms raise high. I pick the loudest screaming one. The answer they all shout out unanimously is not very good ones. And then the unthinkable happened. Reports started flooding in on my RSS feeds saying low and behold, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones actually isn’t that bad and that revered writers praised it for reinvigorating their interest in the franchise and further installments. Say whaaat?! Continue reading ‘Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (Blu-ray Review)’
Hulk Hogan was a mega star in the (then) World Wrestling Federation (WWF). He was one of those “larger than life” personalities. His presence got a whole generation into pro wrestling for at least a good while. Personally, I even went and saw him live once. I was young and didn’t see how fake it was and my dad to this day says watching me there was one of the greatest things he’d ever seen when I watched Hulkster battle Mr. Perfect. The WWF wrestlers even had a cartoon back in the day. The one thing Hulk Hogan didn’t really cross over to well like his popularity heir The Rock would now dominate, was becoming a big action movie star. And to his defense, the era he tried to break into was already overloaded with action heroes. But, it should be said, he did open the door for wrestlers to try their hand at mainstream film. Hogan’s biggest numbers would wind up being a pair of family comedies that played on his abilities ironically (Mr. Nanny and Suburban Commando). The Blu-ray we’re reviewing today, No Holds Barred (turning 25 years old this year), was his shot at maybe becoming the next big action star. 
Here we are once again. It’s the same place we were last year. It’s spring time so it must be coincidentally time for the newest entry in The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) saga…err I mean The Hobbit saga on Blu-ray. And low and behold…IT IS! How about I make a promise to you from the get go? My review below will not be as long as every LOTR infused butt numbing experience you ever had. No sir! Or no ma’am! This isn’t an Extended Edition anyway. I promise to keep my babbling to a minimum, but just in case let’s get a move on it. I tend to fib and we have lots to discuss here. We have a dragon to slay, elves, dwarves and orcs to feud with and possibly even a certain hobbit to toast. Ladies and gentlemen…this is second installment in the three-part film series set to conclude with There and Back Again this summer…may I introduce The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug…on Blu-ray. 
Disclaimer: This opening paragraphs consists of all original thoughts, phrases and ideas. Admittedly so, I missed this one in theaters. I got lazy. I never showed up. I even lost the free movie cash we had to see this one. Boo! However, I was still curious to see where this second and supposedly final film in the franchise took our favorite anchorman as when we last left Ron Burgundy it seemed that Veronica Corningstone and he were living happily ever after. Could turmoil have boiled up in the bask of their afterglow? Was Baxter the dog alright? What happened to the other guys? These and many more are questions I was hoping to find answers for as I finally got the chance to snuggle up with Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues on the home media format of choice, Blu-ray. 
Walking With Dinosaurs was a pretty big disappointment for Fox this past winter. The $80 million budgeted film only took back $36 million in the United States. When added, the overseas totals take it to $125.5 million overall. But, Fox claims that the intake globally is still very lackluster. The film featured computer generated dinosaurs in live action filmed locations. It was originally intended to be a realistic approach just following dinosaurs around but later on it was decided that they should even more “kid friendly” the film and add some voice overs and try to enrich the story with them. What they wound up with was a film that both audiences and critics agreed wasn’t very good at all. So I guess it is with great caution that I venture into this prehistoric tale on my own. 
So Sabotage! Yeah! I’m at a loss for words, truly. I really wanted nothing to do with this one, but since it was a pretty lifeless week for press screeners in the Austin, TX area and there’s not a single one slated for Noah I thought why not? I have been pleasantly surprised before and the more I read about Sabotage the more I felt that maybe, just maybe, I could get onboard with it. After all, Escape Plan and The Last Stand weren’t completely awful films. As long as this is better than The Expendables I know I can get on board. So why not, indeed! Let’s roll with the punches and trade a few bullets in this review because this one has a pretty simple one-sentence synopsis: Members of an elite DEA task force find themselves being taken down one-by-one after they bust into a drug cartel safe house. Sound familiar? Hell yeah it does! But this one has Arnold with tattoos! So it has to be a must-see movie, right? Read on, buck-o! 
Any fellow Phantasm fans that read us here at Why So Blu? Well, screw it. This story that popped up this week with a poster and word that a fifth film was coming and that is was likely actually already shot and almost ready to go completely took my fascination. Fans have been on Don Coscarelli and stars like Reggie Bannister about when we would get to see the further antics of the Tall Man and those damn deadly silver balls. They’d all keep saying they’d like to and talked about it for years. Little did we know, they were filming the thing behind our backs. It was already done. This kind of stuff isn’t allowed to happen anymore in this day and age of internet news and social media. Yeah, I know its Phantasm and not a big huge tentpole film, but its a franchise picture and a horror one at that, a fanbase that will dig to find every dirty detail. Today, Entertainment Weekly was given the privilege of dropping the film’s first trailer, letting us know that YES, this film is pretty damn close to us seeing it already. So, yeah, this sneaking up on us has definitely brought my excitement even if I was bored by Phantasm IV. 
Another holiday, another holiday themed wishlist entry. Well, today isn’t April Fool’s Day, but it’ll have hit before my next wishlist piece, so I decided to pop it in now.
My love and affinity for anything Adam Green puts his hands on should come as no surprise to any of my loyal readers at Why So Blu over the years. I have not only chatted with the man extensively every year I see him at Comic-Con, but he’s also become quite the household name in the “White House” as both my girlfriend and I eat up everything he does and we can’t get enough of his FEARnet television series, Holliston. My girlfriend loves the cute little Laura Ortiz (see some pictures of her 
More clips and promos arrive to torture those of us who can’t see THE WINTER SOLDIER until next weekend. They’re down below. I’m not going to view them, as I’d like to be as clear headed going in as can be (just the way I am). But, you’re more than welcome to check these out. THE WINTER SOLDIER invades your local multiplexes on April 4th. Soak it all in now, because one day Chris Evans will be retired.
Attention readers…to celebrate this week’s Blu-ray release of The Wolf of Wall Street on Blu-ray, Paramount was able to surprise three offices with a Wolf of Wall Street party and hidden cameras recorded their reactions. Sounds like a rowdy good time huh? Well, why don’t you check it out for yourselves? They gave us the exclusive video below to share with you all. And in the meantime, if you haven’t already, please click 
True Detective, the critically-acclaimed show starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as two detectives assigned to a grisly and cultish murder case in the Louisiana bayou country, has become the most talked about new TV show of the year…and I have NOT seen it yet (insert unhappy face). To say I’m looking forward to seeing it is like saying it sure gets hot in the desert. Speaking of hot…hot off McConaughey’s Academy Award win (Dallas Buyers Club) and the show’s tense and explosive season finale, HBO Home Entertainment has just announced the June 10, 2014 Blu-ray with Digital HD, DVD & Digital Download debut of True Detective. Just in time for Father’s Day, the sets are packed with exclusive bonus features including interviews with McConaughey and Harrelson, conversations with creator Nic Pizzolatto, director Cary Joji Fukunaga and series composer T Bone Burnett, whose music helped establish the dark and ominous tone of the series, and never-before-seen footage from the series. 
Sorry about the title, but I saw the door open and went there. Sally Field’s Academy Award winning performance as a millworking union leader is making the jump to Blu-ray. Norma Rae was also nominated for several other Academy Awards and took home 2 statues. This was actually one of the higher profile films that my college screenwriting professor had worked on. But we’ll get into that more when we hit the review. I haven’t seen this film in a super long time time (close to maybe 20 years?), so I’m excited to revisit it. It comes out on April Fool’s Day, so we’ll see if its actually happening. I kid, I kid. Though I do wish some distributor would have played a joke this year with New Release Tuesday falling on April Fool’s to get the internet going in a tangent, like “Halloween 6 Producer’s Cut coming April 1!!!” and then it not coming out or something. Okay, so maybe I’m have a dark sense of humor. Anyway, read the specs on Norma Rae (No pre-order, but it really is coming out!) below where you can see the horribly photoshopped Sally Field on the cover. Also, how weird is it that they tell you there’s an Easter Egg on the disc already? 
