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: “Snowpiercer: The Complete First Season” When it was first announced that Bong Joon-ho’s 2013 film “Snowpiercer” was being adapted into a TV series, my initial thought was that the show was setting itself up for failure. But while “Snowpiercer” undoubtedly gets off to a slow and bumpy start, it improves as the season progresses. Whereas the film version has a pretty clear-cut…

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: “Joint Security Area” Before garnering worldwide acclaim for his 2003 revenge thriller “Oldboy,” director Park Chan-wook helmed this gripping military drama that centers on the mysterious deaths of two North Korean soldiers at the DMZ, the heavily guarded border separating North and South Korea. But what starts out as a relatively straightforward procedural becomes much more complex (politically and emotionally) as Park…

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: “Lupin III: The First” Gentleman thief Arsène Lupin III has been entertaining audiences for decades, both in the original Japanese manga and the various TV series and films starring the character. Though Lupin III is perhaps best known in the U.S. for Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Castle of Cagliostro,” the character never really caught on like it did in Japan, and it’s hard…

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: “Love and Monsters” Director Michael Matthews’ sophomore feature is one of the few pleasant surprises of an otherwise disappointing 2020. A fun and inventive genre flick that never takes itself too seriously, “Love and Monsters” plays like a spiritual successor to “Zombieland,” deftly blending comedy, horror and action with a coming-of-age love story. Dylan O’Brien delivers a solid performance as the film’s…

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 Craft: Legacy” 1996’s “The Craft” is by no means a great movie, but it’s become somewhat of a cult classic in the years since its release, which likely played a role in spawning this sequel/reboot following a new generation of teenage witches. Unfortunately, it’s hard to imagine that “The Craft: Legacy” will leave the same mark. Though it’s a decent continuation…

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 Wolf of Snow Hollow” Writer/director Jim Cummings’ sophomore feature is one of the year’s biggest surprises — a sharp, eccentric and consistently entertaining genre flick that juggles its varying tones remarkably well. Cummings packs a lot into the film’s brisk 85-minute runtime, subverting a classic subgenre — the werewolf movie — to create something wholly unique and unexpected. “The Wolf of…

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: “Collateral” This gritty crime thriller is not only one of Michael Mann’s best films but arguably his most underrated as well. Though the movie flew under a lot of people’s radars when it was originally released, “Collateral” has gained many admirers in the years since, thanks largely to its tight script and great performances from Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. Cruise, in…

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 Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy” It’s been almost 20 years since the release of the first installment in Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and to this day, it remains one of the best movie trilogies ever made. Jackson’s big screen adaptation of the J.R.R. Tolkien novels is a near-perfect piece of cinema that’s both technically…

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 Irishman” Martin Scorsese and gangster movies go together like peanut butter and jelly, so it’s really no surprise that his ambitious, long-in-development crime epic marks another win for the director. Based on Charles Brandt’s 2004 book “I Heard You Paint Houses,” “The Irishman” tells the story of Frank Sheeran, a real-life Mafia hitman who claims to have played a role in…

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: “Westworld: Season Three” Over the course of its first two seasons, “Westworld” never quite became the monster hit that HBO envisioned. It was intriguing yet underwhelming, and though Season Three aims to shake things up by taking the series in a new direction, it’s plagued by the same overly complex plotting and glacial pacing. With that said, there’s quite a bit to…