Winnie The Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year – The Gift of Friendship Edition (Blu-ray Review)
Get ready to ring in the season with a full-length adventure straight from the heart of the Hundred Acre Wood! Join Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Roo and the whole gang in “Winnie The Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year” – now on Blu-ray and Digital Copy for the first time! Newly re-mastered in digital high definition, this sparkling holiday classic is an inspiring celebration of friendship. It’s the most wonderful time of the year, but Rabbit will only discover the true spirit of the season after his pals make misguided New Year’s resolutions to change – with hilarious and heartfelt results! Featuring beloved characters, delightful songs and fun-filled bonus goodies, this special “Gift Of Friendship Edition” is sure to become a shared family tradition for generations to come. Continue reading ‘Winnie The Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year – The Gift of Friendship Edition (Blu-ray Review)’
Super heroes and regular humans alike had their work cut out for them in 2013. The DC universe witnessed the advent of the Forever Evil storyline that saw everyone’s favorite do-gooders beat down and removed from the picture (temporarily anyway). Marvel is experiencing the return of Galactus, so you can bet earth is on his menu again. Meanwhile, The Walking Dead delivered its consistently high quality storyline of survival amidst a world of zombie fodder. But with all the awesomeness that filled the comic book landscape of this year, which ones are deserving of being the best in their class?
To be honest with you all, I’m not really sure what I was expecting here. I really wanted something juicy, gross and full of controversy and taboo. However, I’m not quite sure I received quite everything on my wish list. Make no mistake about it, things that happen in this film are completely wrong, gross and twisted in my opinion, but it wasn’t as controversial as I thought it would be. With a couple flash forwards, Adore plays out like a straight forward narrative that’s very reminiscent of my time spent with the feature Brokeback Mountain (see that review 
In 1978, the BBC aired a special from former Monty Python member, Eric Idle. The special was a full on parody of The Beatles’ history. Entitled The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, the film is a very specific and on the money parody of the famous supergroup. Every big moment is accounted for. Idle even has written a catalog of parody and alternate versions The Beatles’ classics. It’s a very involved concept that works pretty well if you’re familiar with The Beatles work. Hell, if you just watched The Beatles Anthology that aired in the 90s, you’ll probably understand everything that this film is offering up for you. Its a silly offering that is plenty of fun if you’re the intended audience. Its kind of surprising that this is making the leap to Blu-ray, but I have no qualms with that. Let’s see how they did with the disc then, shall we? 
Finally, United States, All The Boys Love Mandy Lane is arriving on Blu-ray. This film was completed and screened 2006. It received some good acclaim and high praise from horror fans. However, what followed was 7 years full of distribution hell. Nobody knew what was going on and when it would finally come out. Recently You’re Next was a film that was bought and took a while to come out, but that was only 2 years of waiting. It’s a unique slasher film from Jonathan Levine who recently struck a big hit with this year’s Warm Bodies. It’s also an early role for Amber Heard, who exudes her star quality and potential at this young stage. It’s a fun film delivering on a wave of horror, teen comedy, blood and camp. 
When I first saw the trailer for 2013 action thriller Homefront I thought that “could” be a good one considering in my book Jason Statham films are usually hit or miss. It has a great cast to roast and boast about with the likes of James Franco, Winona Ryder and Kate Bosworth, but perhaps one of the greatest assets it had going for it, again in my opinion only, was the fact that it was penned by none other than Rocky Balboa himself, Sylvester Stallone. Now I have to admit, I wasn’t completely sold on it until WSB reviewer Aaron Neuwirth got an early screening of it over at the Open Road offices last week and later exclaimed his enthusiastic love for it on our WSB chatline. That’s when I knew that I could not pass an early screening of this upcoming Thanksgiving feature up. Gobble, gobble. Let’s talk some Homefront! 
If you’ll remember a few weeks ago, I posted a list of Blu-rays I was hopeful for next year. Well, had I been writing here at Why So Blu? last year, my hopefuls for 2013 would have included 1981’s Just Before Dawn. Code Red has answered my call by delivering one right as the year is coming to a close. Along with another cult title, Just Before Dawn is Code Red’s first foray into the Blu-ray format. This film has a very cult status as it briefly enjoyed a theatrical release. Previous home video incantations of the film have come through very poor quality VHS and DVD releases. Would Code Red be able to finally give us a good looking presentation of this back woods thriller? Let’s take a dive into this then, shall we? 
I love it when a movie really delivers on its promise. Make no mistake, Homefront is a B-movie, but it is a damn good one. It is the kind of action film that roots itself in the actions of characters and only feels gratuitous in the presentation of certain action scenes, but not in the cause. There was an initial thrill that came from hearing the premise and seeing the trailer for this film, but I was incredibly happy to be very entertained by the actual film and really rooting for certain outcomes to take place. Jason Statham may not ever break away from doing fun action movies, but at least he is adding different shades to the roles he takes and choosing projects that I like seeing.
Even after taking home an Eisner Award for Best Ongoing Series, I’m still going to argue that the documented work of Tony Chu does not get nearly enough credit. Chew, written by John Layman and drawn by Rob Guillory, has had significant ongoing success; enough to draw (no pun intended) artist Guillory to the 2013 Austin Comic Con. The master with a marker filled me in a few details on the future of Chew as well as his own future works.
It can be hard to try and critique a film, when it comes to addressing one that uses the basis of another film that one already loves. It is hard to critique a film at any time really, as it requires a certain amount of consideration that really drags in all of what it going on in one’s life at the time, regardless of whether or not it was intended. The 2003 revenge-thriller Oldboy is a favorite film of mine. I was intrigued by the notion of a remake mainly because of the strong talent that seemed to be standing behind it. Josh Brolin is a capable lead actor, Elizabeth Olsen already had my eye from her breakout work in Martha Marcy May Marlene, and Sharlto Copley has impressed me with his wildly different turns in various films. Having Spike Lee serve as director was the strangest piece of the puzzle, as the story of Oldboy feels like nothing he has tackled before. Unfortunately, the film does not come together in any way that really properly makes a case for why this story needed to be told again.
Here’s one of those titles where I was just so busy in life at the time that I was regrettably not able to check out theatrically despite wanting to over the many positive reviews out there. I do pride myself in the fact that I own the soundtrack, which in my opinion is pretty killer for a live concert. So it looks like I am in luck! While I can’t find any pre-order information online, I do have the below press release in my possession which states there will be multiple versions released of Through The Never on the magical day of January 28th…just in time for the Super Bowl, huh? Check it out below! 
TV movies aren’t quite what they used to be decades ago. Made for TV films were big deals leading all the way up to the start of the 2000s. There were big events, like a mini series or a movie of the week. I think we could all recall our favorite Stephen King mini-series event or getting hyped up for the next one. People loved sitting around for a Sunday night movie that was all new and didn’t require going to the theater. Somewhere along the line, the quality of these or audience expectation and desire for them dropped significantly. Now the big ones are intentionally campy exploitation films like Sharknado. Scream Factory is digging up history and trying something new out here with TV Terrors, resurrecting two made for TV horror films from 1978. This is a “feeler” release. So if there are titles you’re hoping they’d pick up and put out, you best show this one some love. And I would love for you to preorder it below as always. 
Plain and simple…this review is going to suck. It’s not because I hated the movie or anything like that. It’s because this review is going to p1$$ off a lot of people and completely contradict everything that’s sane and which makes sense in this universe according to the gospel that is, Rotten Tomatoes. I know this and I completely understand this. That’s why I’m issuing the following disclaimer to anyone brave enough to read the below Blu-ray review. If you never go against the grain, have any opinion of your own contrary to popular consensus or are just a hateful person in general who likes to cause unnecessary drama, PLEASE I want you to stop reading this now. Be forewarned that I’m taking away everyone’s First Amendment rights here because I will NOT entertain or harbor any comments of hate or ill-sentiments against this movie below. 
