Blu in Your Face: January 29th, 2013

Flight of the Navigator – Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed) has been attached to a remake of this ’80s sci-fi comedy, which seems a near-futile task, as the original’s success is almost entirely dependent upon a brilliant piece of stunt-casting. The plot surrounds a 12 year-old boy abducted by aliens, who returns to Earth un-aged when the spaceship he was in crashes. When the on-board computer tries to scan his brain for star charts to guide the way back home, it also absorbs a ton of U.S. pop-culture and adopts the voice of Pee-wee Herman (who acted under the pseudonym of “Paul Mall”).

The Blu-ray is pricey for having almost no extras – it looks like it’s simply the pre-existing UK version finally made available on U.S. Amazon as an import. Still, it’s worth a rental now if you’ve never seen it; save the purchase for when a cheaper version inevitably comes out timed to the remake.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 – Peter Weller as old Batman versus Lost‘s Michael Emerson as the Joker? Sounds good to us. And yes, (an unnamed) senile Ronald Reagan will be making an appearance as Superman’s boss, in an ’80s parody manner that’s sure to offend some. This is as close as you’re likely to get to a literal translation of the seminal Frank Miller comic, and with luck, it will remind the man himself of when he was more than just an angry self-caricature.

Die Hard: 25th Anniversary Collection – They always do this, don’t they? Release a “comprehensive” set right before a new one is set to come out and mess with the completeness of it all? For my money, part one is the only one you really need, but for nostalgia’s sake, it might be time to take a look back at the Renny Harlin sequel and the one where Samuel L. Jackson becomes John McClane’s reluctant partner because the original script was for a Lethal Weapon sequel instead. Includes an all-new disc of extras, and still costs about the same as the single-disc Flight of the Navigator.

White Zombie – Before Robert “Zombie” Cummings was even born, or George Romero established the modern-day, shoot-through-the-head shambler, Bela Lugosi was conjuring voodoo spells in Haiti. Considered the first American zombie movie, this cult classic is now finally availble in HD.

Paranormal Activity 4 – Because Canadian.Scott will buy this. And probably nobody else.