AMAZON

Does anyone remember hearing about a the movie Replicas being released to theatres back in January? If your answer is no, don't worry you're not the only who's never heard of it either!

Replicas landed on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital earlier this month from Lionsgate Home Entertainment. 

Directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff and written for the screen by Chad St. John based on the story by Stephen Hamel, the film stars Keanu Reeves as William Foster, a neuroscientist who moved his family to Puerto Rico when he took a job working for the Bionyne Corporation. Along with cloning scientist Ed Whittle (played by Thomas Middleditch), William is attempting to transfer the mind of dead soldiers into robots. Despite many attempts, their experiments have failed.

While on a family trip, William, his wife Mona (played by Alice Eve) and their children Sophie, Matt, and Zoe are involved in a car crash. William is the only the survivor. Instead of calling the authorities, he ends up calling Ed to help him recover their bodies and take them back home, where he plans on cloning their bodies with technology that Ed sort of borrowed from the Bionyne Corporation. Sadly, there were only 3 cloning tank available, so William must make a horrible decision not to clone one of his children.

The cloning process only takes 17 days per clone, and during that time William brainstorms on how to successfully copy the human mind's neural pathways to an artificial mind. Luckily for him, he succeeds just in the nick of time. However, bringing his family back from the dead will have deadly consequences.

Blu-ray Special Features include:

• Audio Commentary with Director Jeffery Nachmanoff and Executive Producer James Dodson
• Imprint Collection: The Making of Replicas
• Deleted Scenes

Final Thoughts

Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @  Caffeinated Book Reviewer!

In the Mail

Rated R; $19.98; Amazon

There are not very many horror movies that can actually give me the hibbie jibbies. Sure, last year's A Quite Place and the Halloween reboot sequel were scary fun, but I was never once on the edge of my seat. However, that wasn't the case with the supernatural psychology The Hole in the Ground, which will land on DVD from Lionsgate Home Entertainment on April 30th! My expectations are always pretty low for horror films that I've never heard of before, so I was pleasantly surprised to learn the movie is truly frightening!

Directed and co-written by Lee Cronin, the 90-minute movie centers around Sarah O'Neill (played brilliantly by Seána Kerslake), a young woman who flees from her abusive husband to the Irish countryside along with her young son Chris (played by James Quinn Markey). Upon arriving at their new home, Chris disappears during the night and later reappears perfectly fine. Or is he?


After an odd encounter with their neighbors,Des and Noreen Brady (played by James Cosmo and Kati Outinen), Sarah starts to wonder if there's something not quire with her son, who isn't quite acting like himself. She fears something else from the beyond has replaced Chris. Scared for her life, Sarah is determined to learn the truth, which is somehow connected to the huge sinkhole located in the forest near their home.

Final Thoughts

AMAZON

It's been quite a long time since I've reread a book! And I'm not referring to a "need-to-review" book because I have had to reread quite a few of those; mostly due to the fact that it took me so long to write my reviews, so rereading was a way to refresh my mind. Instead, I'm referring to my favorite reads that I've always wanted to reread but have never had the time to do so.

A few weeks ago, the remake of 1989's Pet Sematary arrived in theatres. I haven't seen the movie yet, as I'll probably just wait until it's released on DVD or Blu-ray. The movie's release got me in the mood to reread the original 1983 novel by Stephen King; which in my opinion is the author's scariest work.

The novel centers on Louis Creed, his wife Rachel, their five-year-old (or is it six?) daughter Ellie, and their two-year-old son Gage moving from Chicago to Ludlow, Maine. Louis has a taken a director position at the small University of Maine's campus medical center. They'd purchased an older house a little bit outside of town, and their only closest neighbor is an elderly couple, Jud Crandall and his ailing wife, Norma.

Upon arriving, Jud warns Louis that his children should stay clear of the highway, which is located right in front of their house, as many animals (and pets) have died trying to walk across it. Many of the animals are buried behind the Creed's home in what has been dubbed the Pet Sematary, a place where devastated children have buried their deceased pets.

Sadly, Ellie's cat, Church, meets his doom on the highway. This is when Jud tells Louis there's a way to bring Church back from the dead. The old man takes Louis beyond the Pet Sematary to an ancient Miꞌkmaq Tribe burial ground, where anything buried there will be brought back to life. Louis buries Church and the very next day the cat returns to life. While the cat might have a bad odor and acts a little odd, Church is still Church!

The family was just starting to adjust to their new home then the unthinkable occurs  - Gage is killed by a speeding truck!!!

After the funeral, Louis sends Rachel and Ellie to stay with his in-laws in Chicago. He tells them he will join them once the campus gets a replacement for him at the medical center. However, Louis has another agenda - he's going to bury Gage's corpse in the burial ground!!!

This is a Stephen King story, so you can probably guess the story gets really scary and bloody!!!

Final Thoughts

Mill Creek Entertainment; Amazon

For those of you who actually follow this blog, then you would know I had reviewed Malibu Express Blu-ray last week; which was the first movie in the "Bullets, Bombs and Babes" series from the late director Andy Sidaris. The second entry, Hard Ticket To Hawaii, was released to theatres in 1987 and it landed on Blu-ray (R; $19.98; 96 minutes) for the first time last week from Mill Creek Entertainment.

Unlike the first film in the franchise, Hard Ticket To Hawaii is a James Bond meets Rambo spoof, but instead of a male lead, here we get two female heroines - Donna and Taryn (played by Playboy Playmates Dona Speir and Hope Marie Carlton), who are undercover agents for "The Agency."

The main plot involves Donna and Taryn teaming up with  Rowdy Abilene and his pal, Jade (played by Ronn Moss and Harold Diamond) to stop a drug lord and his henchmen from smuggling diamonds into Hawaii. And then there's the whole subplot about the giant rubber snake that gets loose and wrecks havoc. (Yes, that actually happens!)

Blu-ray Special Features include:

• Introduction by Director Andy Sidaris
• Audio Commentary
• Behind the Scenes Featurette
• Trailers

Final Thoughts

$7.99; B&N; Amazon

In the late summer of 1992, I recall browsing through the book section at a extremely small Walmart. It was there that I stumbled upon the first Goosebumps book (Welcome to Dead House) by R.L. Stine and I was instantly hooked. Fast forward to 2019, where I'm a lot older, but still a diehard Goosebumps fan!!

If you weren't already aware, the Goosebumps franchise is still going today with the latest spinoff "SlappyWorld," which features the #1 Goosebumps villain Slappy as the host of each installment. The 7th title in the series It's Alive! It's Alive! was released to bookstores in February by Scholastic.

The book centers around Livvy Jones, a young girl who's excited about participating in the Springdale Robots Meet, which is a Robotic competition. She has teamed up with her best friend, Gates Warwas, and between the two of them, they have created a life size robot, Francine, that has been programmed with the greatest abilities imaginable - cracking eggs and cooking an omelette!

Sounds exiting, right?

It's at least exciting for Livvy and Gates; well, until their robot goes berserk and attempts to do harm to the other robots on their team. Thanks goodness Livvy's parents are computer programmers and experts in artificial intelligence, as they can help reprogram the robot.

However, Francine continues to malfunction. Does the robot have a mind of its own?

Final Thoughts