Bringing the steamy trilogy of films together including the first film, ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’, which was directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, while the second and third installments, ‘Fifty Shades Darker’ and ‘Fifty Shades Freed’, were directed by James Foley. The trilogy was based on the popular novels by E. L. James, The films star Dakota Johnson as Anastasia Steele, playing opposite Jamie Dornan’s Christian Grey. Never got into the hype of these films. The books were so different and unique and this feels just like a regular movie with typical sex. Never raises the bar.

Series Premise: Ana (Dakota Johnson) is an inexperienced college student tasked with interviewing enigmatic billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan). But what starts as business quickly becomes an unconventional romance. Ana soon finds another side to Christian as she discovers his secrets and explores her own dark desires. What results is a thrilling romance as Christian and Ana test the limits of their relationship.

There are two cuts included in this release: Theatrical and Unrated in this six-disc set (three 4K UHD discs and three Blu-ray discs). A Digital Code, redeemable via Movies Anywhere, is also included. The 1080p transfers on Blu-ray are on point but the 4K 2160p transfers don’t really overly wow. I mean they are good but not better than the Blu-ray. The DTS:X Master soundtrack is, like the video quality, perfectly decent but doesn’t feel different from the soundtrack in the previous Blu-ray release. 

The special features though are a different shade. They definitely don’t disappoint. There are roughly 15 featurettes spread out over the three sets. There are a ton of deleted scenes as well as music videos. There is also a 360 degree tour of Christian’s apartment that is pretty cool. Includes plenty of content with E.L. James discussing the books and the film adaptations.

Warner Archive Collection brings us Broadway on the Big Screen Collection, which includes six musical favorites that weren’t featured in previous sets. We get 1954’s Brigadoon, 1955’s Guys and Dolls, 1957’s The Pajama Game, 1958’s Damn Yankees, 1962’s Gypsy, and 1971’s The Boyfriend. This is a pretty solid collection of musicals spanning over the years and includes all the great including Cyd Charisse, Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly.

Synopsis: 6 big stage musical favorites are brought together for this dazzling collection of musical favorites. Frank Loesser’s GUYS AND DOLLS starring Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra, Rosalind Russell and Natalie Wood star in GYPSY, the dynamic choreography of Bob Fosse adds zing to Doris Day in THE PAJAMA GAME and Gwen Verdon in DAMN YANKEES, Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse shine in Lerner and Loewe’s BRIGADOON, and Ken Russell’s wild imagination creates an homage to the genre as Twiggy stars in THE BOY FRIEND.

The technical specs vary on each of these releases but generally I would give them a pretty solid 4/5 score. The 1080p transfer are crisp and captures the musicals colors very well. It would have been nice to have seen a bump in the audio tracks but we are still given a decent DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track for each film. In terms of special features, there is some but not much included from previous releases of these films.

Brigadoon includes some deleted scenes and trailer included. Guys and Dolls features a bit more including a few featurettes including, From Stage to Screen and focused individual Musical Performances. The Pajama Game goes back to deleted scene and trailer. Damn Yankees includes two trailers. Gypsy includes two deleted scenes and trailer and The Boyfriend features a Vintage Featurette called All Talking . . . All Singing . . . All Dancing.

Resident Alien, based on the Dark Horse Comics property of the same name created by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse, arrive on Blu-ray. All 44 episodes are included in this ten-disc set that includes the four previously issued complete season releases. This show started on Syfy and ended on USA Network for season four only.

The series follows fan-favorite actor Allen Tudyk (‘Firefly’) as an extra-terrestrial living among humans in the town of Patience, Colorado as he works to complete an “evolving” mission. Along the way he finds love, learns to be a parent, builds friendships, and discovers what it means to be human.

Through the seasons, the series would feature a variety of guest stars include: Linda Hamilton (The Terminator), Clancy Brown (Highlander), Stephen Root (The Man in the High Castle), Star Trek alums George Takei and Nana Visitor, fellow Firefly vets Nathan Fillion and Jewel Staite, and Brent Stait (Rev Bem) from Andromeda.

The 1080p transfers look great for the show and it’s format. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track also is good for the show. The technical specs for this release are impressive…but that doesn’t say the same for the special features. There is only an assorted collection of deleted scenes on seasons 2 and 3…and that’s about it. Very disappointed in this release not giving us anything new at all from previous releases.

Cobra Kai was one of the rare IP revivals that actually was a success. They continued the timeline of iconic movie trilogy on the small screen. This show had great success from the start when it started out on YouTube Red/Premium but later moved up to Netflix. During the shows six-season run that began in 2018 and wrapped up in 2025. It is a rare show that actually holds up through the seasons and stays good from beginning to end. A long with a bunch of new faces, Cobra Kai reintroduced us to Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), John Kreese (Martin Kove). It was interesting to see where their paths have gone since the movie trilogy.

Official premise: Bitter enemies. Warring dojos. New blood. Daniel and Johnny reignite old West Valley rivalries in this follow-up series to the Karate Kid films. Created for Television by: Josh Heald & Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg. Based on the Characters Created by: Robert Mark Kamen. Cast: Ralph Macchio, William Zabka, Courtney Henggeler, Xolo Maridueña, Tanner Buchanan, Mary Mouser, Peyton List, Jacob Bertrand, Gianni, DeCenzo, Dallas Dupree Young, Vanessa Rubio, Thomas Ian Griffith, with Martin Kove as John Kreese

The shows 65 episodes are spread out over 13 discs. Season One (Discs 1-2), Season Two (Discs 3-4), Season Three (Discs 5-6), Season Four (Discs 7-8), Season Five (Discs 9-10) and finally Season Six (Discs 11-13). Even though we all are a bit disappointed that we had no 4K UHD release, this time around, they still delivered solid 1080p transfers in the original aspect ratio: 1.78:1. Same goes for the audio, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks sound just as good as one would hope.

The special features are good but honestly could have been a little more amped for this 65 episode series. Season one brought us commentary track only on the pilot episodes. There are some brief deleted scenes and featurettes on the music. Season two-five features deleted and extended scenes, blooper reels, Easter eggs, and two featurettes on the characters and fight choreography. Wrapping it up with season six, there is one more commentary track on the series finale and about 25 minutes in deleted and extended scenes.

Humphrey Bogart is one of the greats. This Warner Archive Collection includes four of Bogart’s classic films including “They Drive by Night” / “Passage to Marseille” / “Conflict 1945” / and “Chain Lightning”. The four films released from 1940-1950 are solid and are still a joy to watch. Just seeing Bogart in Blu-ray transfers is a trip in its own. I love seeing classic films getting a new life.

Official Premise: There was only one BOGART. Perhaps Warner Bros.’ most famous leading man during Hollywood’s golden age, Humphrey Bogart’s star shines bright in four classic dramas from the 1940s. Bogie shares the screen with George Raft, Ann Sheridan and Ida Lupino in THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT, while Bogie takes on the Nazis under the direction of Michael Curtiz in PASSAGE TO MARSEILLE. In the suspense thriller CONFLICT, he takes on a more off-beat role co-starring with Sydney Greenstreet and Alexis Smith, and he’s a former WWII flier playing opposite the lovely Eleanor Parker in the exciting CHAIN LIGHTNING.

The 1080p transfers for these old films are really sharp. The 1.37:1 aspect ratios with side mattes display the black and white films extremely well. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 also are fantastic – 4/5. There are no special features included for these films, which is not shocking but could’ve had a historian record a audio commentary track for the bonus footage.

Wally Gator was always a favorite cartoon of mine growing up. Hannah Barbera always delivered the goods for me. Wally Gator, voiced by Daws Butler, is a character that doesn’t get enough love. That is why I am in love with Warner Archive for keeping this show alive with this release. Including Wally Gator, there are also shorts from Touché Turtle, and Lippy the Lion. Classic HB characters.

Official Premise: A true people-person alligator, Wally is driven by his excessive curiosity and his bon vivant inclinations to seek out new experiences beyond the city zoo where he hangs his porkpie hat. Donning a variety of hilarious disguises, Wally escapes the care of dedicated zookeeper Twiddle only to end up crying Oh, fuddle-dee-doo! as he lands himself in a series of ever more ridiculous (and dangerous!) jams!

Similar to other cartoon’s out of the 60’s, the show packs a tight five-minute running time throughout its 52 episodes. And delivers the goods. The shows look and sound fantastic for its age. The DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio tracks deliver. The original source materials for Wally Gator, Touché Turtle, and Lippy the Lion were from 16mm original camera positives rather than 35mm. Sadly there are no extras included in this set but for the price is a must own for Hannah Barbera fans.

Never really got into the hype for “Falling Skies”. I love me a good alien show but this one never really locked me down, after being well through the second season. The main draw for this box set is to upgrade from previously released DVD sets to Blu-ray transfers. So if you are a fan of the show it is likely a no brainer to pick these up based on price and amount of shelf space.

Official Premise: Noah Wyle (“ER”) stars in this compelling series set in the wake of a devastating alien invasion of Earth, portraying a Boston-area professor who leads a ragtag band of survivors in an effort to rescue human society. As he and the members of his improvised army of resistance fight to overcome their losses, the extraterrestrials regroup for more attacks-mysteriously targeting children as part of their hidden plans of conquest. Moon Bloodgood, Drew Roy co-star.

Audio and video are solid enough with the 1080p transfer in 1.78:1 aspect ratio packed with soundtrack of Dolby TrueHD 5.1. Looks good sounds good – 4/5. There are 52 episodes are spread out on 15 discs. Special Features are plentiful. There is literally over 11 Hours of bonus content. A few highlights include a bunch of audio commentaries, various behind-the-scenes and production featurettes, a few Q&A panels with cast and crew members and “minisode” episode prequels.

Shameless features a star-studded cast, includes William H. Macy, Emmy Rossum, Ethan Cutkosky, Shanola Hampton, Steve Howey, Emma Kenney, Cameron Monaghan and Jeremy Allen White. The talent in this show is extraordinary. There is no shock why this show last 11 seasons, because its a powerhouse.

Official Premise: Eleven seasons. Six children. But there’s only one Frank Gallagher, the proud, working-class patriarch of the independent Gallagher family, who without him would be…perhaps better off. When Frank’s not at the bar spending what little money they have, he’s passed out, leaving his kids to fend for themselves.

Audio and video are typical for a TV series, I would say 4/5 stars. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks work well and the 1080p transfers in 1.78:1 aspect ratio looks solid.  This comes packaged with a slip box enclosing two bigger cases. The first one comes with seasons 1 through 7, while the second offers seasons 8 through 11. Each case has flip trays with hinges.

The special features aren’t terrible. The earlier seasons have a varied number of 2-4 featurettes circling the production as well as deleted scenes and commentaries. The later seasons feature deleted scenes primarily. There are also some unaired scenes included and a music video.

When it comes to crime drama series, you just immediately think about Law & Order. This show started it all. It was the biggest of all of them too running 20 seasons long over more than a decade. I mean don’t pick up this complete series unless you have A LOT of time on your hands. This DVD set includes over 345 hours of content, delivered with an Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track. If you are a fan of this show it is a must have for sure.

The Emmy® Award-winning series Law & Order is one of the longest-running crime series of all time. Law & Order: The Complete Original Series captures every powerful episode from the first 20 seasons.   Dick Wolf ‘s primetime series covered the dedicated New York City police who investigated crimes and the district attorneys who prosecuted the offenders. Known for its hard-hitting, ripped-from-the-headlines style, the series showcased the talents of numerous illustrious stars from stage, film, and television.   Rediscover Law & Order’s intelligent writing and the riveting acting that inspired a brand of successful dramas that continues to captivate audiences around the globe.

This DVD set doesn’t stop at just 20 seasons of television, it also includes a ton a special features including deleted and extended scenes, cast profiles, a set tour, crossover episodes and more. There are profiles on Jerry Orbach, Jesse L. Martin and Fred Dalton Thompson. There is an interview with Park Dietz. The crossover episodes are from Homicide: Life on the Street and lastly there are two featurettes including “The Creation of Law & Order” and “Law & Order: The First Three Years”. Great extras for a great release. Highly recommended!

Let’s start this off with, I am not a fan of Jason Sudeikis at all. I think he is incredibly overrated and that this show is nothing special at all. I know people love it and say its so great but I never caught on. This 4K release isn’t anything special either, in fact it is kind of disappointing. Besides Warner Bros.’ 2160p/HDR10/Dolby Vision transfer, which is clean and doesn’t give any issues. It is a good upgrade from the previous Blu-ray release.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is honestly disappointing since Warner Bros. didn’t give us the same Dolby Atmos audio like it was presented on Apple TV+. This eight disc set is differently packed than the Blu-ray. Season 2 is spread over three discs rather than two. Sadly, though, there are no bonus features  included again here and there is no poster either from the earlier set. This is really a let down due to the price and topped with the lazy 5.1 audio, this release doesn’t score a goal.

Season One – Discs 1-2
“Pilot”, “Biscuits”, “Trent Crimm: The Independent”, “For the Children”, “Tan Lines”, “Two Aces”, “Make Rebecca Great Again”, “The Diamond Dogs”, “All Apologies”, ” The Hope That Kills You”

Season Two – Discs 3-5
“Goodbye Earl”, “Lavender”, “Do the Right-est Thing”, “Carol of the Bells”, “Rainbow”, “The Signal”, “Headspace”, “Man City”, “Beard After Hours”, “No Weddings and a Funeral”, “Midnight Train to Royston”, “Inverting the Pyramid of Success”

Season Three – Discs 6-8
“Smells Like Mean Spirit”, “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea”, “4-5-1”, “Big Week”, “Signs”, “Sunflowers”, “The Strings That Bind Us”, “We’ll Never Have Paris”, “La Locker Room Aux Folles”, “International Break”, “Mom City”, “So Long, Farewell”

Starring: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis
Directed by: Yorgos Lanthimos
Rated: R
Running Time: 118 minutes
Focus Features

Film Score: 4 out of 5 Stars
4K Score: 1.5 out of 5 Stars

What used to be fringe is now mainstream. Conspiracy theories permeate American life, fueled by a mix of civic ignorance and algorithms designed to feed us junk science, paranoia, and rage. That’s why a film like “Bugonia” doesn’t just feel timely, but it feels uncomfortably real, like a mirror being held up to society while society refuses to look.

Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone) is the CEO of a pharmaceutical conglomerate and a rising star in the business world. That’s why it’s shocking, to her and to us, when she’s kidnapped by Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis). In the basement of Teddy’s mother’s house, Michelle is tied to a chair and has her head shaved. Teddy calmly explains that they know she’s an alien. Not just any alien, but one of the higher-ups tasked with keeping humanity subservient while destroying small communities and the planet itself; specifically, honeybees. Michelle, and the audience, can only look on in disbelief.

But this is a Yorgos Lanthimos film, and a remake of a South Korean original, so the central question isn’t just whether Michelle is an alien. That’s the film’s primary mystery. The secondary, and arguably more unsettling one, is Teddy’s conspiratorial mind. Is he delusional? Is he right? Or is he projecting his very real frustrations with a broken system onto a sci-fi fantasy that gives his suffering meaning? We’re also left wondering how fully Don understands or believes in a plan that grows increasingly violent and dangerous.

“Bugonia” is structured around these uncertainties, offering brief flashes of bleak humor while peeling back Teddy’s mental state and asking whether humanity really needs extraterrestrial villains to explain its own failures. At its core, this is a story about a terrified human watching his world collapse. Teddy’s mother is in a coma. His home is literally rotting. He’s unemployed, isolated, and convinced that nature itself is screaming in pain. The question isn’t just whether aliens are to blame, but it’s whether we’re too narcissistic as a species to accept that we’re sometimes, if not most of the time, the villains of our own story.

Plemons and Stone are exceptional, particularly in scenes where they engage in psychological sparring. Stone plays Michelle with just enough ambiguity to keep us guessing whether she’s a helpless victim, a ruthless capitalist, or an intergalactic executioner ready to end the human experiment. Plemons, meanwhile, brings surprising nuance to Teddy. He’s not framed as a traditional villain, but as a deeply pathetic figure. He’s incapable of reckoning with the world around him and desperate for a narrative that explains his powerlessness.

There’s no shortage of themes in “Bugonia”: environmental collapse, nihilism, conspiracy thinking, capitalism, and humanity’s place in the universe. I found myself viewing the film as a crossroads between our ancient need to believe we matter and the scientific reality that we’re specks of dust in an indifferent cosmos. If you lean into that interpretation, the film may feel bleaker and more sobering than entertaining, but at times that seems intentional.

You could read “Bugonia” as smiling through the apocalypse. I see it more as an invitation to embrace absurdity while staring straight at the fact sheet detailing our future. Either way, it’s a darkly funny, unsettling reminder that the scariest monsters aren’t aliens, they’re the stories we tell ourselves to avoid responsibility.

4K Review

THE BIRTH OF THE BEES: THE MAKING OF BUGONIA: Interviews with the cast and crew.

Trailers

Two and a Half Men is a show that I used to watch religiously. Each week, I would tune into the crazy antics of Charlie and Alan Harper and Alan’s son Jake. I watched very few sitcom shows, other than The Big Bang Theory but this show had an amazing run. From 2003 to 2015. It ran 12 seasons for 262 episodes. Honestly, the first eight seasons is where it’s at. After Sheen left the show should have hung up its towel. But it did push on for four more seasons with Ashton Kutcher taking over for Sheen.

Official Premise: Get set for an extended visit to Malibu’s most happening beach house with The Complete Series of one of the longest running live-action sitcoms in TV history, Two and a Half Men. Join brothers Charlie and Alan Harper; their estranged (and strange) kids, Jenny and Jake; gazillionaire Walden Schmidt; and housekeeper Berta for 12 years of hilarious high jinks with bad boys, funny men, gorgeous girls, celebrity neighbors, sexy stalkers, eccentric parents and more.

The set features full 1080p high definition presentations of every single episodes, which look great and are each paired with lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0 (for seasons 1-6) and DTS-HD MA 5.1 (for seasons 7-12). The 5.1 tracks obviously have a bit more depth than the earlier season’s 2.0 tracks.

There is a ton of great special features included even though there is only two commentary tracks included on “Tucked, Taped And Gorgeous” by Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn and on “Mr. McGlue’s Feedbag” by Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones. My favorite is the gag reels included on seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, and 12. There is a bonus episode – the “CSI” episode “Two And A Half Deaths.” Lastly there are fifteen featurettes included ranging from a behind-the-scenes look at production, interviews with Lee Aronsohn and Chuck Lorre and a featurette focusing on the 100th episode.

“House on Haunted Hill” is one of the best films to come out of the 50’s starring Vincent Price, Carolyn Craid and Richard Long and directed by schlock master William Castle. This shocker of the century was a smash hit upon its 1959 release and has been haunting fans for nearly 70 years. For architecture buffs, the home used for the exteriors of the haunted house was actually designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1924. In it’s original release the theaters used to have a wire and a ghost came down and made everybody jump out of their seats. This film still delivers the goods despite being a little schlocky.

Official Premise: Eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren and his 4th wife, Annabelle, have invited 5 people to the house on Haunted Hill for a “haunted House” party. Whoever will stay in the house for one night will earn ten thousand dollars each. As the night progresses, all the guests are trapped inside the house with ghosts, murderers, and other terrors.

The newly restored 1959 B&W (only) feature runs 75 minutes and is displayed in 1.85:1 aspect ratio with a DTS-HD Audio track. In previous releases of this film. The picture quality always received mixed reviews, with customers reporting poor quality. Film Masters didn’t hold out with delivering the goods here. The film looks great in Widescreen. In terms of special features though we just have a full-length commentary track by Heath Holland, who hosts of the popular podcast “Cereal at Midnight: Pop Culture in Analog”. and liner notes by professor and film scholar Jason A. Ney.

Alfred Hitchcock is and always will be the legendary Master of Suspense. In “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” the series ran for 263 episodes from 1955-1962. The most famous director in the world hosted, produced and occasionally directed the iconic anthology series that, in the words of Hitchcock himself, brought murder back into the home – where it belongs. It featured some of the most recognizable actors in Hollywood history including Robert Redford, Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, Joan Fontaine, Claude Rains, Walter Matthau, Thelma Ritter, Joseph Cotton, Peter Falk, Teresa Wright, Leslie Nielsen and Alfred Hitchcock’s daughter Patricia, along with so many more.

For fans of this series, this new Legacy Collection comes finally to DVD. Firstly, it is sadly that these episodes weren’t updated for a Blu-ray release. But at least they are getting released to begin with. If you have been collecting seasons 1-5 over the years, you can rest assure that you don’t need to buy this release since season 6 & 7 also just dropped solo allowing fans that have been collecting to complete their set. And this Legacy Collection is for fans who waited for the complete set.

“Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Legacy Collection” complete is a 34 DVD set. There are 6847 minutes of content on these episodes, presented in aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. There are a few features included as well: Alfred Hitchcock Presents: A Look Back and Fasten Your Seatbelt: The Thrilling Art of Alfred Hitchcock. “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” was and still is a groundbreaking series whose impact continues to resonate today. The fact that this show even received a Complete Series DVD release shows just that. Even though its not a Blu-ray release, this release still delivers the legacy collection in a big way.