Blu-ray Movie Reviews

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300
Chris Chiarella  |  Nov 27, 2020  |  0 comments
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Inspired by the 1962 Cinemascope epic The 300 Spartans that he saw as a lad, writer/artist Frank Miller would go on to create the five-issue graphic novel 300, a wildly stylized, heavily fictionalized account of the Battle of Thermopylae. In his telling, full of indelible images and gruesome violence, the historical events of brave King Leonidas and his 15-score soldiers' resistance against an innumerable horde are elevated to nigh-mythological status. Led by the self-proclaimed god-king Xerxes, Persia was mercilessly conquering much of the world, but the willful Spartans, still renowned as the greatest warriors ever, dared to stand their ground.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Wretched
Brandon A. DuHamel  |  Oct 30, 2020  |  0 comments
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Supernatural horror film The Wretched, from sibling filmmaking duo The Pierce Brothers, follows a wayward teenage boy named Ben (John-Paul Howard) who goes to live with his divorced father over the summer and discovers a malevolent spirit has infiltrated the family living next door.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Marriage Story
Josef Krebs  |  Sep 25, 2020  |  0 comments
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At first glance, Marriage Story seems like six (or so) characters in search of a Woody Allen film. But it soon settles into writer-director Noah Baumbach's own rhythm and whine as two self-absorbed, narcissistic artistic personalities move toward a break-up and into the clutches of divorce lawyers.
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Spartacus
Chris Chiarella  |  Sep 11, 2020  |  1 comments
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The timeless overclass/underclass struggle was never more memorably explored than in Spartacus, a film adapted from Howard Fast's fact-based, heavily dramatized book. Directed by young up-and-comer Stanley Kubrick and starring old-school movie idol Kirk Douglas in the title role, it's the sort of epic spectacle often aspired to but seldom achieved.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Flash Gordon
Chris Chiarella  |  Sep 04, 2020  |  1 comments
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Star Wars imitators were both inevitable and plentiful in the late 1970s. The Buster Crabbe science fiction/adventure serials of old were a strong influence on that blockbuster, and whereas Buck Rogers was destined for a television reboot, mega-producer Dino De Laurentiis had already acquired the movie rights to Flash Gordon years prior. And so the space-faring hero returned to the big screen, reimagined in a lavish international production.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Metallica & San Francisco Symphony: S&M2
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 28, 2020  |  0 comments
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Composer Michael Kamen had a vision. Back in April 1999, he convinced Bay Area metal overlords Metallica to team up with the San Francisco Symphony in Berkeley, California, for S&M, a 2.2-hour concert wherein classical music met aggro-rock head-on. Not only that, but Kamen's skilled orchestral re-arrangements of 20 Metallica classics also revealed how many of the band's subversive originals were perhaps more progressively inclined than others may have previously thought.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Deer Hunter
Brandon A. DuHamel  |  Aug 07, 2020  |  0 comments
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With a heavyweight cast including Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale, and Meryl Streep, 1979's five-time Academy Award-winning (including for Best Picture and Best Director) The Deer Hunter is an at times elegiac look at an America that was. It also explores the domestic woes of the working class, and later takes a brutal view of the experiences and consequences of war.
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Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Chris Chiarella  |  Jul 31, 2020  |  1 comments
There is nothing like Star Wars. Across its three trilogies of Roman-numeraled Episodes, creator George Lucas and the inheritors of his galaxy far, far away opened the minds of audiences across the globe as well as across generations of fiercely devoted fans, thanks to their unique spin on epic fantasy. Love it, hate it, or anywhere in the middle: Star Wars has left an undeniable mark on the world of entertainment.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
5 More Top Concert Blu-ray Discs
Mike Mettler  |  Jul 24, 2020  |  2 comments
"I miss going to concerts."

It's a common refrain these days. Perhaps you've even said it yourself out loud on occasion to no one in particular but yourself, and/or to whomever you're jointly commiserating and quarantining with, and/or have typed it out as a comment-cum-lament underneath one of those incessant social media "memories" reminders that really only serve to bum you out about what you're missing—not to mention what you most decidedly won't be able to replicate in a comparable fashion in the near future.

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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Jaws
Chris Chiarella  |  Jul 10, 2020  |  2 comments
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When we think shark, we think scares, but the incredible thrills that helped propel Jaws to the #1 box office crown in 1975 would not have been nearly as effective without a rock-solid story and engaging characters. (That's one explanation for the many awful rip-offs.) Peter Benchley's best-selling first novel gave director/ uncredited screenwriter Steven Spielberg tremendous fodder, with concrete plot points, clear motivations, and rich backstories.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band From Texas
Mike Mettler  |  Jun 26, 2020  |  0 comments
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ZZ Top ain't been nicknamed That Little Ol' Band From Texas for nothing, you know. But just in case you don't, please bear witness to this highly informative 2019 Banger Films documentary, which delves Rio Grande-deep into the true origins of this tight-knit blues 'n' boogie trio. (Incidentally, said trio also happens to comprise the longest-running unchanged lineup in rock history—51 years and counting, as of presstime.)
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Jumanji: The Next Level
Roger Kanno  |  Jun 19, 2020  |  0 comments
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Jumanji: The Next Level is an adventure-comedy with a winning cast featuring Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan. The plot is a bit formulaic and doesn't quite take this episode in the Jumanji franchise to the next level as stated, but the action is plentiful and there's enough humorous and family-friendly dialogue to keeps things moving apace. As far as Hollywood blockbusters go, Jumanji: The Next Level is a pretty good offering, with plenty of exciting stunts and special effects and high production values.
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Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection: Volume 1
Chris Chiarella  |  Jun 12, 2020  |  8 comments
It's around this time of year that a few disparate "guy" movies new to the format or re-released usually pop up on Blu-ray or Ultra HD Blu-ray. That's because, as I've said since the early DVD days, discs make fantastic gifts, and not just for Father's Day. But Sony chose a different path for 2020, opening the door of its vast and prestigious Columbia Pictures vault to debut six titles on 4K Blu-ray as the Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection: Volume 1.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsMusic Disc Reviews
Def Leppard - London To Vegas
David Vaughn  |  May 29, 2020  |  1 comments
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Def Leppard got its start back in 1977 in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England when Rick Savage, Tony Kenning and Pete Willis formed a band called Atomic Mass. Joe Elliott joined the band a short time later and became the lead singer and proposed a new name for the band, "Deaf Leopard," which was ultimately adopted with some modified spelling. Kenning ended up leaving the shortly before their first recording session and was replaced by a fifteen-year-old drummer by the name of Rick Allen.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Remaster Class: Star Wars
Chris Chiarella  |  May 22, 2020  |  2 comments
Enthralling in every way a movie can be, George Lucas' Star Wars (retconned as Episode IV: A New Hopein 1981) is simply one of the greatest achievements to ever hit the screen. A wildly imaginative yet classically inspired adventure, it has been entertaining audiences—and spawning prequels, sequels and spinoffs—since 1977.
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