Director Jeremy Saulnier, who has gone on to direct films like the revenge thriller Blue Ruin, the neo-Nazi horror film Green Room, the mystery thriller Hold the Dark, and the crime thriller Rebel Ridge, as well as episodes of True Detective season 3, made his feature debut back in 2007 with the awesome horror comedy Murder Party (watch it HERE) – and now Murder Party, which was previously only available on DVD when it comes to physical media releases, is finally set to reach Blu-ray!

Variety reports that OCN Distribution, sister company of the genre-centric home video label Vinegar Syndrome, has secured a deal with distributor Magnolia Pictures and their genre imprint Magnet Releasing to bring several of their titles on Blu-ray and 4K UHD. Magnolia and Vinegar Syndrome previously teamed up to bring the 2021 British horror film Censor to Blu-ray, but the first movie to get a Blu-ray release as part of this OCN Distribution deal will be Murder Party.

Written and directed by Saulnier, Murder Party begins when a man gets a random invitation to a Halloween party, and when he arrives he finds he’s the guest of honor at his very own gut-wrenching murder.

Made on a budget somewhere in the $200,000 range, the film stars Chris Sharp, Sandy Barnett, Macon Blair, Paul Goldblatt, William Lacey, Stacy Rock, Skei Saulnier, Bill Tangradi, Beryl Guceri, Beau Sia, and a dog named Puff Snooty.

Saulnier provided the following statement: “It’s a delight to finally answer ‘f*ck yes!’ to fans who’ve been asking for a Murder Party Blu-ray. I’m really stoked about higher resolution video and amazing new art from Chris at Brutal Posters. Working with Justin LaLiberty at Vinegar Syndrome for this release has been exciting and collaborative, and it’s a great comfort to know my first film is in the right genre-loving hands.“

A Magnolia spokesperson added, “Our partnership with Vinegar Syndrome [and OCN Distribution] further opens the door for us to meet the evolving needs of the fans of our films in a way that focuses on heightening the collectability of physical media by celebrating the uniqueness of our illustrious indie film pedigree. This new partnership highlights the importance that physical home video releases still hold for some consumers, and it affords us the opportunity to reinvigorate our catalog in a way that is evocative of the expansive needs of the home entertainment market.“

Vinegar Syndrome / OCN Distribution’s Justin LaLiberty said, “Adding Magnolia to the OCN family only strengthens what we have been building over the past few years, aiming to give the very best physical media presentation to the films that we, and many others, are eager to have on our shelves.” OCN Distribution has also extended an existing deal with IFC Films and Shudder through 2025.

Are you a Jeremy Saulnier fan, and are you glad to hear that Murder Party is getting a Blu-ray release? Let us know by leaving a comment below. I have been a big fan of this movie ever since it was released, so I’m glad to see it finally make its way beyond DVD.

The post Murder Party: Jeremy Saulnier’s horror comedy is coming to Blu-ray! appeared first on JoBlo.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows was supposed to be one of the biggest games of the fall. It will now come out on February 14, 2025 instead. Publisher Ubisoft blamed the delay on “soft” sales from Star Wars Outlaws, and said it would be using “learnings” from that game in order to improve the latest Assassin’s Creed game…

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Assassin’s Creed Shadows was supposed to be one of the biggest games of the fall. It will now come out on February 14, 2025 instead. Publisher Ubisoft blamed the delay on “soft” sales from Star Wars Outlaws, and said it would be using “learnings” from that game in order to improve the latest Assassin’s Creed game…

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The long wait to find out what director Len Wiseman (Underworld, Total Recall, Sleepy Hollow TV series) and Ana de Armas are cooking up with the John Wick spinoff Ballerina is finally ending. Lionsgate pulled the curtain back on a Ballerina teaser on Wednesday, announcing that a full trailer danced onto the scene on Thursday.

Today’s Ballerina teaser includes a chilling rendition of Beethoven’s “Furelise” playing from a wind-up music box. As the camera slowly pans through a study crowded with books and fancy decor, a porcelain dancer spins beneath a glass dome with the words “Trailer Tomorrow” inscribed at the bottom of the keepsake.

Ballerina stars Ana de Armas as a young woman with killer skills who sets out to get revenge when hitmen kill her family. As the film takes place in the John Wick universe, it will feature appearances from several franchise characters, including Ian McShane as Winston, the owner of the Continental Hotel, the late Lance Reddick as Charon, the Continental’s concierge, and Anjelica Huston as the Director, the head of the Ruska Roma. Other cast members include Keanu Reeves, Norman Reedus, Catalina Sandino Mareno, David Byrne, David Castañeda, and more.

Anticipation for Ballerina is high, as fans who provided the studio with their smartphone information received a message about the trailer’s release earlier today. In the beginning, Ballerina was separate from the John Wick franchise, but filmmakers reworked the project to take place in the world of The Continental. To help preserve the John Wick franchise’s legacy, Ian McShane and Chad Stahelski boarded the upcoming film.

In November, reports of a script for a direct follow-up to John Wick: Chapter 4 started making the rounds. While John Wick: Chapter 4 has a definitive ending, the boogieman is too iconic to slip into the shadows when more money waits in the wings. The franchise may move beyond Reeves’ Baba Yaga at some point, but that time is not now.

Are you excited to watch the Ballerina trailer tomorrow? What do you think about the teaser? Did you get the text message? Let us know in the comments section below.

The post A teaser for the John Wick spinoff Ballerina dances around tomorrow’s full trailer drop for the Ana de Armas-led action film appeared first on JoBlo.

For more than thirty years (and more than thirty novels), author James Patterson has been writing stories about Metropolitan Police Department detective Alex Cross, a character who was played by Morgan Freeman in the films Kiss the Girls (1997) and Along Came a Spider (2001), and by Tyler Perry in the 2012 film Alex Cross. The latest actor take on the role is Aldis Hodge, whose credits include Die Hard with a Vengeance, A Good Day to Die Hard, Straight Outta Compton, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Hidden Figures, The Invisible Man, One Night in Miami, and Black Adam. Hodge will be playing Cross in the Prime Video series Cross, which is set to premiere on November 14th. All eight episodes of the show’s first season will be available to watch on that date – and Prime Video has already ordered a second season. With the premiere date not far off, a trailer for Cross has arrived online and can be seen in the embed above.

Produced by Amazon MGM Studios, CBS Studios, and Skydance Television, Cross centers on a detective and forensic psychologist who’s uniquely capable of digging into the minds of killers and victims in order to identify and catch them. A doting father and family man, Cross is single-minded to the point of obsession when he hunts killers. He is desperate for love, but his wife’s murder has left him too damaged to receive it. 

Hodge is joined in the cast by Isaiah Mustafa (It: Chapter Two), Juanita Jennings (Runaway Jury), Alona Tal (Supernatural), Samantha Walkes (Murdoch Mysteries), Caleb Elijah (True Story), Melody Hurd (Them), Jennifer Wigmore (Malory Towers), Eloise Mumford (The Right Stuff), and Ryan Eggold (New Amsterdam).

Ben Watkins developed the series for television and serves as showrunner. Watkins also executive produces under his Blue Monday Productions banner. Sam Ernst, Jim Dunn, and Craig Siebels also executive produce, as do Patterson, Bill Robinson, and Patrick Santa for James Patterson Entertainment. David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Bill Bost executive produce for Skydance Television. 

What did you think of the Cross trailer? Are you a fan of the Alex Cross character, and will you be watching this show on Prime Video? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The post Cross trailer: Aldis Hodge is Alex Cross in Prime Video series premiering this November appeared first on JoBlo.

PLOT: A ride-share turns into a high-stakes game of cat and mouse after it follows a car fitting the description of an AMBER ALERT.

REVIEW: As you can probably guess by the title, Amber Alert is going to be tough viewing for any parent. The sheer idea of the abduction of a child is rough subject matter. And when the film is taking a more grounded approach, it can be quite uncomfortable. And as much as the movie seems to want to make a salient point about kidnapping, it devolves into standard tropes at every turn. Despite releasing in 2024, Amber Alert feels like a narrative straight out of the 90’s.

The story follows Jaq and her rideshare driver Shane as they’re following a car described in an Amber Alert. Despite being strangers, they clearly have strong morals. Hayden Panettiere and Tyler James Williams play the concerned citizens and they have decent chemistry. There are times where it feels like they’re trying to spark a romance between the two, which feels very inappropriate given the situation. Thankfully it doesn’t lean into it further but it does make for a strange dynamic. But I was most impressed with Katie McClellan who plays the mother of the abducted girl. She sells the trauma and earns every bit of audience sympathy.

Amber Alert is the kind of film that you really have to check your brain at the door and just watch it strictly for entertainment. The more you pick it apart, the more absurd it gets. But I still found myself along for the ride. It’s an intriguing tale about child abduction. In an effort to keep the story going for an entire runtime, there are some really boneheaded story decisions. I understand that it’s very difficult to try and keep this kind of story going in a logical manner but it just results in Jaq and Shane looking really stupid.

It’s also very strange that they have this whole subplot with Shane missing his son’s birthday. They treat it like he’s clearly messed up before and this is par for the course. Yet all he has to do is just say that he’s helping the police out and that should completely clear up the confusion. Instead, because this is a movie and we need conflict, he just doesn’t say anything and instead leaves his son thinking he skipped out on his birthday. Williams is a very charismatic actor but stuff like this made Shane really difficult to like.

One of the dumbest moments comes when the authorities issue a falsely submitted Amber Alert update. This would never happen because, like highlighted in the film, it will cause other trails to go cold. This shows why you don’t send out plates for a non-100% confirmed sighting. Yet the film acts like there aren’t standard procedures in place to prevent this exact thing from happening, thus allowing another dramatic hurdle to overcome in the narrative. Comes across as sloppy writing. And I love that Shane and Jaq are the best option and are closer than any cop in the area. Outside of the call areas, the police may as well be nonexistent as they track this car for miles without police intervention.

Oddly enough, Amber Alert is actually a remake of a 2012 film from the same filmmaking team. So this is clearly a story that means a lot to them and they do treat it with care in its execution. The acting, editing, and cinematography are all fine. There are just too many logic leaps and silly moments contrasting with serious ones to not criticize the story. But it’s clearly got its head in the right place with its messaging. If only they’d let reality dictate the script versus the script dictating a false reality.

AMBER ALERT will release in select theaters and on demand this Friday, September 27^th.

Amber Alert

AVERAGE

6

The post Amber Alert (2024) Review appeared first on JoBlo.

During this week’s Sonic Central stream, Sega and its partners teased several partnerships, frommerch to a Topgolf game, Sonic the Hedgehog is getting around. But perhaps the most exciting among these collaborations is the upcoming one with DC Comics, which was first teased with a brief animated clip of Sonic’s rival…

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During this week’s Sonic Central stream, Sega and its partners teased several partnerships, frommerch to a Topgolf game, Sonic the Hedgehog is getting around. But perhaps the most exciting among these collaborations is the upcoming one with DC Comics, which was first teased with a brief animated clip of Sonic’s rival…

Read more…

Deadpool & Wolverine, the movie that restored the Marvel Cinematic Universe for many, is coming home to digital platforms and physical media in October! The R-rated, fourth-wall-breaking celebration of all things in Marvel cinema becomes available to rent/purchase on digital platforms like Prime Video and Apple TV+ on October 1, with 4K Blu-ray and DVD formats to follow on October 22.

Like the movie, the digital and physical releases of Deadpool & Wolverine are chock full of extras, giving fans more reasons to want to bring the Assassin in the Red Pyjamas and the cantankerous Canadian home for the whole family. Well, maybe not the kids. It depends on how you feel about them getting exposed to foul language. Extras for the home release include “Finding Madonna: Making the Oner,” featuring director Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds for a breakdown of the now-iconic slow-walk scene; “Practical Approach: Celebrating the Art of Ray Chan,” which pays tribute to the longtime Marvel contributor; “Loose Ends: The Legacy Heroes,” for exploring the film’s shocking cameos, and a gag reel to add more laughs to a movie already overstuffed with jokes, jabs, and joyous carnage.

If exclusive extras make your pants tight, you could check out Prime Video’s digital release, which includes exclusive features like Deadpool doodles, pros and cons of the film, and fact-checking trivia for hardcore Marvel fans. Physical release plans include limited edition steelbooks with exclusive art and packaging. Owning the steelbook versions could inspire double-dipping, as there’s a Deadpool version and a Wolverine version to collect.

With $1,317,503,647 earned at the worldwide box office, Deadpool & Wolverine is a record-breaking success and one of the best MCU movies in recent memory. With Marvel slowing its roll regarding feature film releases, the next film in the franchise, Captain America: Brave New World, doesn’t arrive in theaters until February 14, 2025. Thankfully, we’ve got Agatha All Along to tide us over, with Kathryn Hahn chewing scenery like a pro and Aubrey Plaza lighting up the screen with her dark-hearted witchiness.

Are you excited for Deadpool & Wolverine to get digital and physical releases? Which version would you like to own? Let us know in the comments section below.

The post Deadpool & Wolverine slow walks its way onto digital platforms, 4K Blu-ray and DVD this October appeared first on JoBlo.

The Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 was a cool idea that didn’t live up to its promise when it arrived in August 2023. Missing features, adding frustrating bugs, and lacking upgrades across certain platforms made it feel like a lackluster port of all-time classics. Konami is trying to make good on that…

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