Author: Jason Zingale

Blu Tuesday is a weekly column where we review the newest Blu-ray and 4K releases, along with a brief rundown of the included bonus material, to determine whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping. Pick of the Week: “Wonka” An origin story about Willy Wonka may have sounded like a horrible idea when it was first announced, but Paul King’s musical comedy is a charming delight that, much like his “Paddington” films, wears its earnestness on its sleeve. Timothée Chalamet is an inspired choice to play the iconic chocolatier, delivering a winning performance that’s bursting with joy and whimsy, while…

Blu Tuesday is a weekly column where we review the newest Blu-ray and 4K releases, along with a brief rundown of the included bonus material, to determine whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping. Pick of the Week: “Paprika” Director Satoshi Kon’s 2006 anime classic may be nearly two decades old, but with the rise of commercial VR headsets and the growing scientific interest in neural implants, the futuristic vision of “Paprika” suddenly feels timelier than ever. And with a live-action series (also based on the Yasutaka Tsutsui novel of the same name) in development at Amazon, it’s the perfect…

Blu Tuesday is a weekly column where we review the newest Blu-ray and 4K releases, along with a brief rundown of the included bonus material, to determine whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping. Pick of the Week: “The Marvels” At a time when audiences are experiencing superhero fatigue, it probably wasn’t the wisest decision to tie the latest MCU film to so many different properties. To fully understand and appreciate “The Marvels,” one will need to have seen “Captain Marvel,” “WandaVision” and “Ms. Marvel” at a bare minimum. That’s a lot of homework for a movie that doesn’t feel…

Blu Tuesday is a weekly column where we review the newest Blu-ray and 4K releases, along with a brief rundown of the included bonus material, to determine whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping. Pick of the Week: “The Holdovers” Following the disappointment of 2017’s “Downsizing,” director Alexander Payne makes his long-awaited return with this funny and heartfelt dramedy about a history teacher at a prestigious boarding school who is forced to remain on campus during the Christmas break to babysit the students with nowhere to go. The film starts out promising enough, but it doesn’t truly find its footing…

Blu Tuesday is a weekly column where we review the newest Blu-ray and 4K releases, along with a brief rundown of the included bonus material, to determine whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping. Pick of the Week: “The Exorcist: Believer” When it comes to exorcism movies, if you’ve seen one, you’ve pretty much seen them all, and that holds true of director/co-writer David Gordon Green’s legacy sequel to the 1973 horror classic “The Exorcist.” Not only does Green’s film fail to bring anything new to the table, but there doesn’t appear to be any actual reason for it to…

Blu Tuesday is a weekly column where we review the newest Blu-ray and 4K releases, along with a brief rundown of the included bonus material, to determine whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping. Pick of the Week: “The Mandalorian: The Complete First Season” / “The Mandalorian: The Complete Second Season” The idea of a live-action “Star Wars” TV show has been brewing since George Lucas was still in charge, but there was no guarantee that “The Mandalorian” would be a success, as many questioned whether the franchise would be able to make the jump to the small screen without…

Blu Tuesday is a weekly column where we review the newest Blu-ray and 4K releases, along with a brief rundown of the included bonus material, to determine whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping. Pick of the Week: “Titanic” It’s hard to explain just how big of a cultural phenomenon James Cameron’s “Titanic” was to those who didn’t experience it. The movie played in theaters for nearly 10 months, with many people seeing it multiple times, while Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” dominated radio waves for just as long. Prior to the film’s 1997 theatrical release, no film…

Blu Tuesday is a weekly column where we review the newest Blu-ray and 4K releases, along with a brief rundown of the included bonus material, to determine whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping. Pick of the Week: “WandaVision: The Complete Series” As the first official MCU series out of the gate, “WandaVision” had a lot of pressure on its shoulders, as many fans wondered whether Marvel would be able to translate its big-screen success to the small screen. In hindsight, an experimental show like “WandaVision” probably wasn’t the best choice to launch Marvel’s Phase Four — “The Falcon and…

Blu Tuesday is a weekly column where we review the newest Blu-ray and 4K releases, along with a brief rundown of the included bonus material, to determine whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping. Pick of the Week: “Oppenheimer” “Oppenheimer” feels like the kind of movie that only Christopher Nolan could make — it’s incredibly intimate yet massive in scope, bouncing between different time periods and perspectives to tell the story of one of the most influential and controversial figures of the 20th century. At three hours long, “Oppenheimer” will definitely test some viewers’ patience, but it’s rarely boring and anchored…

Blu Tuesday is a weekly column where we review the newest Blu-ray and 4K releases, along with a brief rundown of the included bonus material, to determine whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping. Pick of the Week: “Terms of Endearment” It says a lot about the period in which “Terms of Endearment” was released that the movie was not only nominated for Best Picture but actually won, as it’s not a particularly great film. In fact, it’s a rather depressing dramedy about a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship that’s filled with unlikable characters. Though Shirley MacClaine and Debra Winger (the movie’s…