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: “Unbreakable” M. Night Shyamalan’s “Unbreakable” came out at a time when superhero movies weren’t yet the box office force that they are today, so it never performed quite as well as it might have under different circumstances. Then again, “Unbreakable” is a different kind of superhero movie — one that’s more interested in exploring identity and the mythology of comic book heroes…

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 Shawshank Redemption” Frank Darabont’s “The Shawshank Redemption” may have bombed at the box office during its initial release in 1994, but it has since gone on to become one of the most respected and loved films in movie history, maintaining its place atop the IMDb Top 250 list for what seems like forever. There have been numerous think pieces about why…

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: “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” The full story behind “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” will certainly make for a great book one day, but the basic facts are already well known. After Snyder famously stepped away from 2017’s “Justice League” in the middle of post-production due to a family tragedy, Warner Bros. brought in Joss Whedon to complete the project. That version — a…

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: “Coraline” Pixar may get all the love, but over the past 15 years, LAIKA Studios has come into its own as a company that you can usually expect great things from. Not only has the animation house breathed new life into the underappreciated art of stop-motion, but they’ve done so with an offbeat style unlike any of their competitors, beginning with their…

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 Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” The Conjuring Universe has had a pretty good run over the past decade thanks to its numerous spin-offs and sequels, but the core series has always been the glue that held it all together, which is what makes this latest installment such a disappointment. Though the shift from paranormal horror to occult procedural is…

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: “Riders of Justice” This pleasantly surprising (and darkly comic) Danish revenge thriller is easily one of the best films from the first half of the year. The movie follows an unlikely band of misfits as they investigate a tragic train accident that they believe was actually an orchestrated assassination attempt by a local biker gang. Written and directed by Anders Thomas Jensen,…

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: “Profile” Kazakh-Russian filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov may be most famous for the 2008 comic book movie, “Wanted,” but in recent years, his name has become synonymous with the screenlife format — a subgenre of films in which the story plays out entirely on a computer, tablet or smartphone screen. In addition to producing a number of these movies, such as “Searching” and the…

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: “Luca” Pixar’s animated films have always been at least one step ahead of the competition. They’re often magical, emotion-filled movies that play well to both kids and adults. In recent years, however, they haven’t felt quite as magical, and “Luca” is a prime example of this. The movie is still better than most films in the medium, but it lacks the creativity…

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: “A Quiet Place Part II” 2018’s “A Quiet Place” was not only one of the surprise hits of the year — it was one of the best films of the year period. The movie’s success made a sequel all but likely, and though there was certainly room for more story, the risk of tarnishing the original loomed overhead. Fortunately, “A Quiet Place…

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: “Gangs of London: Season One” Created by writer/director Gareth Evans and his creative partner Matt Flannery, who served as cinematographer on all five of Evans’ feature-length films, “Gangs of London” is a pulpy British crime drama about an ongoing conflict among the city’s criminal factions. Like a lot of British television, the show is restricted by its limited budget, though Evans and…