Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Dune: Part Two is the second installment in director Denis Villeneuve’s film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel. It explores the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a path of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he endeavors to prevent a terrible future.

After early stints writing comic books and the screenplay for Richard Donner’s Assassins, the Wachowskis (Lana and Lilly) were ready to make their directorial debut with Bound, an edgy suspense thriller with a surprisingly sweet, intense love story at its core. Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon star as two women who concoct a risky scheme to steal $2 million from the mob as a way out of their mob-connected lifestyles. As often happens, their careful plotting counts for nothing when miscalculations send the plan sideways.

A woman who has committed suicide is given a baby’s brain by a brilliant but demented surgeon (Willem Dafoe) before being reanimated using traditional mad-scientist electrical feats. Thereafter, Bella (Emma Stone) must gradually learn everything from scratch, just as a child must. In this unique film (nominated for 11 Academy Awards, winning four), a Frankenstein-like tale is told in unique episodes as Bella conquers various stages of understanding people, books, and the ways of the world while experiencing new adventures as she travels from Victorian London to Lisbon, Africa, and Paris.

The Departed is director Martin Scorsese’s hard-hitting drama that tells the story of undercover South Boston rookie cop Billy Costigan, gangland chief Frank Costello, and Colin Sullivan, Costello’s state police mole. Costigan is assigned to get close to Costello to obtain the evidence necessary to bring down his criminal empire. Sullivan’s job is to keep Costello informed of all police movements and thwart their efforts. It isn’t long before it’s discovered by both sides that there are informers in their midst, which escalates the paranoia and the violence, leaving Billy and Colin to figure out each other’s identities in order to save their own lives.

In Jason Statham’s latest action-thriller, The Beekeeper, he portrays Adam Clay, a retired operative from a clandestine organization known as “Beekeepers.” After the tragic loss of someone close to him, due in part to the actions of professional online scammers, Clay comes out of the shadows, embarking on a mission to dismantle a system that has corrupt ties to the highest levels of government.

By 1985, DC Comics was juggling a vast stable of characters with too many variations across an unwieldy menagerie of alternate planes of existence. How to simplify matters and also make an honest buck? The answer arrived in the form of Crisis on Infinite Earths, a popular and influential crossover comic book maxi-series by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez that effectively reset the lineup for a new generation of fans.

Hang on for a wild ride through ‘90s Scotland as Trainspotting returns, nastier than ever. Adapted from the book by Irvine Welsh, it traces the ups and downs of a group of working-class young friends, most of whom are habitual intravenous drug users. The movie gets right to the heroin and not in the way audiences of the era likely expected, proclaiming narrator Mark Renton’s (Ewan McGregor) love for the stuff even as it sends his life out of control.