David Vaughn

Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Ghost in the Shell (2017)
David Vaughn  |  Dec 15, 2017  |  2 comments
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In a world where people are enhanced with technology, Major (Johansson) is rescued from near death, or so she believes. Her cybernetic implants make her the first of her kind as she fights criminals with an upper hand, but things are not always what they seem to be. She begins to have visions of her past and starts to believe that the corporation that “saved” her is actually trying to control her. She makes it her personal mission to unravel her mysterious past and find out what truly happened.
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Blu-ray Player Reviews
Samsung UBD-M9500 Ultra HD Blu-ray Player Review
David Vaughn  |  Nov 13, 2017  |  14 comments

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $400

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Plethora of streaming options
Outstanding picture quality
Dual HDMI outputs
Minus
No 3D support
Flimsy disc tray
No Dolby Vision support

THE VERDICT
This second-generation Ultra HD Blu-ray player delivers exceptional performance and value, especially for heavy Netflix or Amazon users.

I’m in my 13th year of reviewing consumer electronics, and I’m continually amazed at the industry’s pace of innovation. In the span of about 20 years, we’ve gone from bulky, backbreaking CRT displays to flat-panel TVs that hang on the wall, as well as projectors that are smaller than the base of a vacuum cleaner—all at prices that the middle class can easily afford.

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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
David Vaughn  |  Nov 03, 2017  |  1 comments
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Robbed of his birthright when his father is murdered by his uncle and ascends to the throne, Arthur somehow escapes. He’s found floating down the Thames by some prostitutes doing their laundry, and the young man ends up being raised in a brothel and learns how to survive on the streets of the big city until that fateful day he pulls Excalibur from the stone.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Life
David Vaughn  |  Oct 13, 2017  |  0 comments
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Discovering life on Mars would be the crowning achievement in any scientist’s career, so when a team on the International Space Station receives a care package of samples from the red planet, they can’t wait to begin their experiments. To their surprise, they discover there was once life on Mars after all, and they unleash a creature that evolves at an accelerated pace that has its eyes on the planet below them.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Fifth Element
David Vaughn  |  Sep 29, 2017  |  2 comments
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Korben Dallas, a retired space fighter pilot, has been relegated to driving a cab in New York City, and since leaving the military, his life has been on a downward spiral. His luck begins to change when a beautiful girl named Leeloo drops into the back of his cab, and before he knows it, he’s stuck in the middle of an intergalactic feud that happens every 5,000 years. It turns out the lovely young lady is the Fifth Element, who when combined with earth, wind, fire, and water becomes the perfect weapon to save the human race from destruction.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
XXX: Return of Xander Cage
David Vaughn  |  Sep 22, 2017  |  1 comments
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It’s been several years since Xander Cage has been on the scene, but he’s brought back into the fold when a device called Pandora’s Box falls into the wrong hands. It has the ability to bring down any satellite and turn it into a weapon of mass destruction as it crashes down on the planet. One of his conditions for coming back to the CIA was that of recruiting his own team so he can ensure their absolute trust and his own personal safety.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
John Wick - Chapter 2
David Vaughn  |  Aug 25, 2017  |  0 comments
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Extras
When we last saw John Wick, he’d come out of retirement to take out the Russian mobsters who were responsible for stealing his prized muscle car and killing his puppy. In this well-made sequel, we are greeted by an angry Wick who’s still on the hunt for his Mustang Mach 1, which he finds in a local chop shop. Needless to say, Wick dispenses some brutal street justice on the thugs—and he does recover his car.
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Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Ultimate Demo Disc? Planet Earth II on 4K Blu-ray
David Vaughn  |  Aug 01, 2017  |  0 comments
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It was about ten years ago that BBC debuted their original Planet Earth on both Blu-ray and HD DVD here in the United States to much critical acclaim. Not resting on their laurels, the Planet Earth team went to work on their next project, appropriately named Planet Earth II. While 1080p was cutting-edge a decade ago, simple HD wouldn’t cut the mustard any longer since we are living in a 4K world that expects wide color gamut (WCG) and high dynamic range (HDR)—or at least readers of Sound & Vision do.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Hacksaw Ridge
David Vaughn  |  Jul 07, 2017  |  0 comments
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One of the bloodiest battles in World War II happened on Okinawa in 1945, and it definitely wasn’t the place you wanted to be if you didn’t carry a weapon. But for conscientious objector Desmond Doss, this wasn’t an option. While he believed the war was justified—which is why he volunteered—his personal belief was that killing was wrong and he wasn’t going to be a party to it. He was in the war as a medic, and he was there to save lives, not take them. And save lives he did—75 of them over the course of one night when he was stuck behind enemy lines.
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3D Blu-ray Movie ReviewsBlu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
David Vaughn  |  Jun 23, 2017  |  0 comments
Picture
3D-ness
Sound
Extras
Director Ang Lee’s middling story really isn’t the reason to force your way through this film; it’s the innovative photography that’s worth your time. Lee shot the film at 120 frames per second, which is a perfect multiplier of the UHD Blu-ray’s 60 fps and Blu-ray/Blu-ray 3D’s 24 fps, so it made it easy on Sony to release the film on multiple formats and into theaters.
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