Back in the day (I’m talking about the 80’s here), there were several movies that came out that were over the top in gore and humor (okay, sick humor); movies such as RE-ANIMATOR, FROM BEYOND, FRANKEN HOOKER, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD -- just to name a few. Included among that select group is the title of the DVD on review here: 1989’s BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR, the first sequel to the cult classic RE-ANIMATOR, and a bona fide cult classic in its own right.

In this day of serious gore movies, watching this remastered 3-disc set from Arrow Video was a breath of fresh air -- fresh, because these movies allowed creativity to be absurd as well as shocking. I mean, when the first billed special effects artist is named Screaming Mad George -- the man behind the infamous “shunting scene in SOCIETY, which, if you have never seen, gives new meaning to the term “over the top”! You can imagine right off the bat some “interesting” special makeup effects to say the least.

If you've been following along, you'll know that we here at Critical Blast are big fans of DC Super Hero Girls. Having an animated show specifically tailored for girls (while still able to be enjoyed by all) is something that's was long overdue. Now, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment announces that you can bring the world's most powerful female super heroes, DC Super Hero Girls, home on DVD on August 23rd, 2016!

After a series of YouTube videos launched on their channel, it didn't take long before they launched a toyline that includes dress-up kits, action figures and dolls. There is also a clothing line that features many of the characters sporting themes of girl power and togetherness.

When there's trouble, you know who to call. From their tower they can see it all.

That better be the Justice League you're thinking of these days, because this Teen Titans team is a different breed of superhero, far more interested in leaving butt-impressions on the couch, raiding the fridge, and putting up with Robin trying to impart his questionable wisdom.

By now anybody familiar with DC Comics related animation knows that TEEN TITANS GO is basically a stiffly animated Looney Tunes using familiar superhero faces. It isn't the TEEN TITANS, it certainly isn't YOUNG JUSTICE, and yet the younger viewers -- those whose ages haven't crossed the double-digit line -- can't get enough of dooky and toot jokes (as appalling as it may be to parents to see Beast Boy shaking his tighty whities at the screen, to be later emulated by their child; believe me, I know of where I speak).

Supergirl, Winner of the 2016 People’s Choice Award for Favorite New TV Drama, will arrive on Blu-Ray and DVD on August 9th 2016!

The series arrived on CBS with a great amount of fanfare. Delivering 10.9 million Total Viewers weekly, Supergirl is the #2 series on CBS amongst Men 18-49, just behind The Big Bang Theory and a Top 5 series on the network with Men 18-34, Men 25-54 and Tweens 12-17*.

*Source: Nielsen National TV View  L+7 US AA%; excluding repeats, specials, sports, and <5 TCs; Season To-Date = 9/21/15-2/7/16

THE STUFF on Blu-ray from Arrow Video is a release of one of those mid-eighties schlocky-horror movies that you just love to watch because it brings back memories. At least for me it did. It should also serve as a reminder to networks such as SyFy on how to do it right.

I am tempted to use the name of the movie in more than one pun here, but I will try to refrain.

THE STUFF is about, well…stuff: white, gooey, whipped cream looking stuff that is found bubbling up from the ground somewhere up in the frozen north at an oil refinery. And of course the first thing you do when you see something bubbling up from the Earth is to taste it, right?

DEATH WALKS TWICE is a 2-film, 4-DVD Limited Edition set on BluRay and DVD from Luciano Ercoli comprising his classic GIALLO Italian Horror classics: 1971’s DEATH WALKS ON HIGH HEELS and 1972’s DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT.

Both of these movies are considered two of the finest examples of the Giallo genre (think crime, mystery, blood and horror all in one, done in 70’s Italian style) and both star Nieves Navarro (billed in the movies under her adopted stage name of Susan Scott).

Beth Harrington directs and co-produces this important and informative documentary that follows the modern river of country music back to the winding stream that is it's source -- The Carter Family.

Before there was country music, before there was a Grand Ole Opry, there was A.P, Sara and Maybelle Carter. THE WINDING STREAM follows in great detail how these three family members became the foundation cornerstone of American country music, without glossing over the family tragedies and heartaches, including A.P.'s singular focus on collecting songs from the mountains and Sara's eventual divorce. The documentary is never dry, and is wholly engrossing, telling the story without the benefit of any dramatic re-enactments, relying instead on actual footage, photography and, of course, recordings of the songs and interviews.

The weather is warm, the sun is shining, and it's time to get outside and get active. Everyone's getting into the athletics -- even Mickey Mouse and the Clubhouse gang as they assemble or the first ever Sport-Y-Thon! There are all kinds of games to play -- even Martian Mickey, Martian Minnie and Pluto from Pluto have showed up to participate. And there lies the mechanism for the episode's lesson: Mars doesn't have sports, so the visitors have no idea about what it means to show good sportsmanship and put in extra effort. Not that they're mean whiny cheaters, they just don't know better. So Martian Minnie has to learn that using a jetpack in a basketball game isn't fair, Pluto from Pluto has to learn he has to let other players participate in Volley-Bop, and Martian Mickey has to learn not to give up in a relay race just because it's hard work. In the end, everyone wins -- including color commentary provider, Donald Duck.

When I first saw Dolly Parton's COAT OF MANY COLORS in its broadcast debut, I only heard one thing: "When this comes to DVD, you're getting it for me." I imagine this was something many husbands heard from their wives. And, unlike almost every other time I hear this statment, this was a time I didn't mind at all.

This heartwarming -- and heartbreaking -- biopic features Olyvia Alyn Lind as a young Dolly, playing the roll with all the spitfire energy and feisty verve the real Dolly has exuded all her life.

Through her eyes we see how it was for a large family growing up in the mountains of Tennessee. Ricky Schroder plays Dolly's father, Robert Lee Parton, a tobacco farmer struggling against drought. Jennifer Nettles is matriarch Avie, a preacher's daughter holding everything together with faith and song. But when she miscarries, the impact on the entire threatens to shatter that faith, and serves to drive a wedge between her and Robert.

JUSTICE LEAGUE VS. TEEN TITANS continues the DCAU continuity that includes such titles as JUSTICE LEAGUE: WAR and BATMAN VS. ROBIN, retaining Jason O'Mara and Stuart Allan as the voices of Batman and Robin.

The story opens with the Justice League in open battle with the Legion of Doom -- Luthor, Solomon Grundy, Cheetah, Weather Wizard and Toymaster -- at the grand opening of the new Justice League headquarters, which the public has deemed the "Hall of Justice." During the aftermath of the battle, Weather Wizard attempts to run, and is suddenly possessed by a shadow demon that longtime fans will recognize as being the influence of Trigon. Weather Wizard is released from the demon's control, but it takes over Superman and goes silent.

Jordyn Kane is a talented young artist who wrote and performed the theme for DC's Super Hero Girls. Last week on twitter she announced the next project she'll be involved in...

Barbie: Star Light Adventure!

With DC's Super Hero Girls, Ms. Kane's work was focused on creating the girl-powered anthem 'Get Your Cape On'. This time around, not only was she involved with the music, but she'll lend her voice to the one-and-only Barbie! Having voiced the character 'Courtney', in BARBIE: ROCK 'N' ROYALS, this won't be her first time performing as a voice actor.

I count myself among those who discovered Suzanne Collins' THE HUNGER GAME series organically. I was there from the first printing, and I was immediately drawn into the first novel. When the second novel came out, I was just as drawn into that, surprised that I could be as solidly hooked again into this world.

And, like many readers, I found the third novel, MOCKINGJAY, to be less-than-thrilling, and was rather cynical that the movie makers (not to be confused with the game makers -- although...) planned on splitting the least of the series into two parts. To me, that plan could only have made the screen adaptation twice as boring.

THE HATEFUL EIGHT on Blu Ray/DVD and Digital copy is Quentin Tarantino’s Eighth movie. It takes place in Wyoming 6 or 8 or 12 years after the civil war. It tells the story of 8 people…8 hateful, untrusting, uncouth, belligerent individuals thrown together by fate into a one room haberdashery in the middle of a blizzard. Somehow these 8 individuals have more in common than we are first led to believe, and as they all antagonize each other and “stir the pot,” we find out just how hateful these individuals are.

Carol Burnett and Lucille Ball delighted audiences for years; Burnett by way of her variety show and Ball with her sitcom. Now, for the first time ever, audiences will enjoy their talents simultaneously in the never before seen CAROL+2: THE ORIGINAL QUEENS OF COMEDY!

Before Carol Burnett could begin her career as a prime time star, the last major step occurred in 1966. CBS promised Burnett her own special if she could deliver a big star. As the story goes, she hesitantly phoned one of her biggest influences: Lucille Ball. Her reply?

"When do you need me there?"

From the press release:

When the banking crisis was happening, I was -- perhaps ironically -- working at a bank as an acquisitions analyst. (Not that I'm taking the blame for the collapse or anything.) But even then, hip-deep as I was in the business, the whole "housing bubble" was something I just couldn't wrap my head around. And if I couldn't understand it then, as a part of the industry, how could any average person figure out just how badly they were being screwed over?

Charles Randolph and Adam McKay do a bang-up job of making this elusive concept somewhat manageable in THE BIG SHORT. Adapting the book by Michael Lewis, Randolph and McKay break down a cerebral and dry subject and turn it into something informative and entertaining through fourth-wall breaks, cutaways to explanatory skits starring celebrities, and a focus on the quirkiness of the main players. This goes a long way to explaining why they won the Oscar for Best Screenplay.

Maura Ellis (Amy Poehler) is a divorcee who has put all her efforts into helping other people at the expense of her own happiness. Kate Ellis (Tina Fey) is a wild-child single mother who can't keep a job. When they return to their childhood home to reconnect, they learn that their parents (James Brolin, Dianne Wiest) have just sold the place. So how do the titular SISTERS deal with this latest -- and seemingly heaviest -- blow to their self-esteem?

By reliving their high school days and throwing a wild party, inviting all their high school friends (and excluding all their high school rivals). But age has taken its toll on their old crew: parenthood, middle-life maladies, and the dreaded monster, Responsibility, have overtaken them. But this is nothing that a boat-load of booze and a buffet of illegal drugs won't conquer, courtesy of Dave (John Leguizamo) and his frighteningly built connection, Pazuzu (John Cena).

THE GOOD DINOSAUR asks the question: What if the asteroid that destroyed the dinosaurs missed? Well, apparently the answer is that the dinosaurs would have learned how to talk, build houses, plow fields, and raise giant chickens, all without the benefit of any evolutionary advances like opposable thumbs.

Arlo (Raymond Ochoa) is the titular dinosaur, the runt of his nest. But his family loves him nonetheless, despite his overwhelming fear of the giant chickens. (I know they're something else, but I'm not a paleontologist, and they are treated like giant chickens so I'm calling them giant chickens.) But until Arlo can pull his weight on the farm, he can't make his mark on the grain silo his father built. So his Poppa (Jeffrey Wright) gives Arlo a special mission -- put an end to the "critter" who is stealing corn from their silo.

Turning the characters and setting of THE LION KING into a series is something that's far past due for Disney. In THE LION GUARD, viewers once again meet Simba, Timon, Pumbaa, Rafiki and Zazu -- however, they are minor players in the story, as the focus shifts to the next generation.

In this introductory pilot, THE LION GUARD: RETURN OF THE ROAR, we meet Simba's son, Kion, who's happy that he's not in training to take over as ruler of the Pride Lands (that honor going to his older sister, Kiara) so that he can play with his friend Bunga, the honey badger. But their games take them to where they shouldn't be, putting Bunga in danger of attack by the hyenas -- and when Kion tries to warn them off with a roar, it's more than anyone anticipated.

Disney Junior Buccaneer Jake and his crew of Neverland Pirates are in for another adventure when Captain Hook looks for the treasure of the shipwrecked Colossus when, at the same time, the mer-wizard Lorth Fathom (Malcolm McDowell) escapes his imprisonment and looks to take over the Never Sea. In fact, it may be more than Jake and his crew can handle -- so they get help from Captain Flynn (Josh Duhamel), Captain Frost (Harland Williams) and Captain Beatrice Le Beak (Teri Hatcher).

The film FROM DUSK TILL DAWN was such a cool event for me.  Think about it, this was the team up of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.  At the time, it seemed otherworldly and more akin to a comic book than a movie theater.  As a film, it was wasn't perfect, but it was funny, featured great performances, and was a hybrid of action and horror.  If nothing else, it was unforgettable.