Blu-ray Movie Reviews

In an effort to outperform the original, sequels invariably spend more money, have more explosions, more action, more stunts and more special effects. In this spirit I suppose it's inevitable that Kevin Smith's <I>Clerks II</I> would turn to bestiality (er, "interspecies erotica") in an effort to go where even the original <I>Clerks</I> hadn't gone before. The original did feature necrophilia as a set piece after all. And there's also a hilariously wrong homage to <I>Silence of the Lambs</I> here that anyone who sees this film will never forgive Kevin Smith or Jason Mewes for.

Video: 5
Audio: 5
Extras: 5
It was with some trepidation that I watched this movie. After all, Joel Schumacher and Akiva Goldsman did their incompetent best to ruin the franchise for anyone who can sound out the word h-a-c-k-s. I shouldn’t have worried. Christopher Nolan knows his stuff and made a movie that is the equal to if not (dare I say it) better than Tim Burton’s classic. Unlike Brian Singer’s passable rebirth/continuation of the Superman franchise, Nolan starts fresh and does as the title says, showing the beginnings of Batman.

This action thriller may deepen the paranoid fever dreams of those who imagine that the feds are watching, listening-in on, and recording every aspect of their routine lives. But for those of us who know better, it's nevertheless an entertaining action thriller that moves along at a heady pace and is populated by a superb cast.

Batman Begins is not only the best Batman film ever produced, and arguably the best superhero movie ever, but it was one of the best films of 2005.

This witty take on the fashion industry, with its dedicated, nearly obsessed careerists, should appeal to anyone who can get over the idea that it's just a chick flick. In fact, there are parallels here to any industry that demands total dedication. When I first saw the scenes of the big annual fashion gathering in Paris, I thought "CES!" OK, Vegas isn't Paris (not even at the Paris), and CES parties don't have as many gorgeous, skinny women. But you get the idea.

I haven't seen director Peter Jackson's extended cut of this movie, now available on ordinary DVD. And I don't plan to do so until Universal sees fit to release it in high definition. After viewing this gorgeous HD DVD release of the original, theatrical version, I don't think I ever want to see the film again in standard definition.

Tim Burton loves the bizarre, and his Corpse Bride (he shares director credit here with Mike Johnson) is nothing if not that.