Justice League Blu Ray Release Date and Special Features

Jason Mamoa, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller and Ray Fisher

I was really hoping that WB would release an extended cut of Justice League to flesh out the film, and perhaps refine some of the issues with the theatrical cut.  At the very least, I was hoping we’d get more deleted scenes than are being offered, but this seems like a pretty boilerplate blu ray release.  Oddly, their big selling point is that if you can play the 4K version, it’s more colorful than the theatrical release was.  However opinions may vary, I don’t think the color palate was something that a ton of people were hyper focused on after the film came out.

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has officially announced that it will release on 4K Blu-ray3D Blu-ray, and Blu-ray Zack Snyder’s blockbuster Justice League. The three releases will be available for purchase on March 13. 

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My Favorite Scene: The Godfather Part III (1990) “Just When I Thought I Was Out”


Just as The Godfather Part II was a pioneer in showing what a sequel could do in terms of equalling (in some minds surpassing) the original film, The Godfather Part III is one of the first instances of what is all-too-common now: an unnecessary franchise film.  Made 16 years after the second installment, the ground The Godfather Part III treads is unnecessary to fleshing out Michael’s character.  If you take the trilogy as a whole, I think it diminishes Michael’s story arc to see him in his dotage trying to avoid damnation while being dragged back to his true nature.  The second film showed the consequences of his choices without having to check back in on him as a senior citizen.

Making the film in the first place was a misstep, but Coppola made an even bigger one when in the most famous case of film nepotism he cast his daughter Sofia as Michael’s daughter when Winona Ryder had to drop out of the film.  Though she’s proven to be a chip off the block in the directing department, Sofia is not an actress and her painful inability to act robs the plodding film of what should be its most poignant moment.  What IS unforgettable and iconic about the film is Al Pacino’s monologue about being dragged back into the real family business.  Pacino’s made a career out of iconic monologues, and whatever your other problems with the third Godfather, no one can deny the greatness of this scene.Al Pacino in The Godfather Part III

 

Ant-Man and the Wasp Trailer #1 (2018) *Real Heroes: Not Actual Size*


With Black Panther, MCU issue #18, almost upon us, and Avengers: Infinity War, MCU issue #19, ready to dominate the summer in May, today Marvel released the first official trailer for issue #20: Ant-Man and the Wasp.  Some people consider Ant-Man the slightest of the MCU movies, but I really loved it and it set a good foundation that this trailer is clearly building on by bringing in one of the best female characters in the Marvel Universe in The Wasp.  Also joining the cast this time are Walter Goggins, Michelle Pfieffer (as the original Wasp), and Laurence Fishburne.  It looks like the villain will be The Ghost, which is a fantastic character that I’m looking forward to seeing how they utilize on screen.

The film will clearly deal with Ant-Man’s fallout from his choices in Civil War, and the telegraphed storyline from the first film that the original Wasp may still be alive and trapped in a subatomic universe.  It’s funny, it builds on the original, and I’m looking forward to seeing Scott Lang, Hank Pym, and the rest of this corner of the MCU in July.


Evangeline Lilly in Ant-Man and the Wasp

Movie Review: The Shape of Water (2017) *Del Toro Returns to Fairy Tales*

Sally Hawkins and Octavia Spencer in The Shape of Water
Most people think fairy tales are for children, and maybe they are in modern times but that was never their intent.  Fairy tales, the Grimm kind, were morality plays full of fear, violence, and horror.  Guillermo del Toro started his career making these kinds of fairy tales with his early films like Chronos, The Devil’s Backbone, and his masterpiece: Pan’s Labyrinth (even the Hellboy films have elements of fairy tale storytelling to them).  The Shape of Water is del Toro’s return to this style of storytelling after a decade, and he’s been showered with critical acclaim.  However, despite being a technically perfectly made motion picture, The Shape of Water is no Pan, and lacks the storytelling magic del Toro usually brings to a film. Continue reading Movie Review: The Shape of Water (2017) *Del Toro Returns to Fairy Tales*

Coco Blu Ray Release Date and Special Features

Coco Blu Ray
Walt Disney Home Entertainment has officially announced that it will release on 4K Blu-ray and Blu-rayLee Unkrich and Adrian Molina’s animated film Coco (2017), featuring the voices of Anthony Gonzalez, Benjamin Bratt, Gael García Bernal, Ana Ofelia Murguía, and Renee Victor. The two releases will be available for purchase on February 27.
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