Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Even in the face of streaming’s runaway success, TV shows on physical media remain pretty damned popular, aided in large part by the studios’ aggressive ongoing HD and 4K remastering of the classics—largely in service to archiving and to providing the best possible quality on the aforementioned streamers—in addition to the collectability of the latest and greatest series. Whatever the reason, a generous and eclectic new crop has arrived for our viewing enjoyment, so clear some room on those shelves.

Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire is the latest entry in the Monsterverse film franchise, pitting Kong and Godzilla, against an undiscovered threat while delving further into the histories of these Titans and the mysteries of Skull Island and beyond.

Anne Parillaud stars as La Femme Nikita (or just plain “Nikita” on the title card), a feral young heroin addict convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, before a shadowy government organization swoops in and procures her for an elite training program. Her old life is over as she is polished into a resourceful super-agent, ready to do whatever her bosses ask whenever they call, even if it means killing at a moment’s notice. The 1990 French spy thriller is superbly restored on 4K Blu-ray.

Chinatown, starring Jack Nicholson as a world-weary private investigator, is an entertaining and brilliantly constructed period fiction about the very real history of Los Angeles. Paramount’s new 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition offers up a generous complement of bonus content that teaches us plenty about the true events on which the story is based as well as behind-the-scenes drama.

Pi tells the story of Max Cohen, a tortured mathematical genius who sees the world as few do, detecting the patterns that exist all around us. He’s searching for an elusive 216-digit number that could have applications in the stock market and even in the divine, but his obsession might be killing him, or driving him insane, or both. And then paranoia creeps in, as forces seek to exploit his not-so-beautiful mind. What the filmmakers lacked in dollars they more than made up for in creativity, yielding a brisk, gripping tale told with genuine tension.

Three desperadoes await their revenge-crazed leader, arriving at an isolated frontier town on the 12 o’clock train. Their target is the marshal, an honor-bound man of conscience who, despite this day being his wedding day, is committed to stand and fight rather than spend the rest of his life running. The impending gunfight will be four against one, so our hero seeks to form a posse, only to fail in every attempt as the fateful hour draws nearer.

Across a career now spanning 40 years (if we use the version of his résumé that lists The Terminator as his debut), James Cameron has proven himself as one of our most popular filmmakers. His oeuvre totals fewer than 10 movies, yet they have been much-appreciated mdash; including two that were top box office champs — so newer, superior disc releases are seemingly forever at the top of fans’ wishlists. Fox/Disney recently sent us a trio of long-demanded Cameron films in so-called Ultimate Collector’s Editions, available for the first time on 4K disc: Aliens, The Abyss, and True Lies. Let’s explore them in the order of their theatrical release.