Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Jurassic World: Rebirth takes place five years after the events seen in 2022's Jurassic World: Dominion. The story follows high stakes security operative Zora Bennett, who is hired by a representative of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies to lead a team to the most dangerous place on Earth, an island research facility for the original Jurassic Park, which was abandoned after a horrific accident 17 years earlier.

Dean DeBlois, the writer/director of the 2010 animated How to Train Your Dragon (with Chris Sanders, also partnered on Lilo & Stitch) spared no expense for his return to the tale, bringing it into the live-action realm in grand fashion. Full disclosure: This is my first exposure to the popular franchise, its success across movies, TV and even theme parks notwithstanding. Looks and feels like it’s giving Game of Thrones with a bit of Avatar thrown in, but overall it’s a fun and smartly executed take on the coming-of-age archetype.

The Amateur is based on the novel by Robert Littel, and is an espionage thriller, that tells the story of Charlie Heller, a brilliant, but deeply introverted decoder for the CIA, working out of a basement office at headquarters in Langley, whose life is turned upside down when his wife is killed in a London terrorist attack. After pressing his supervisors to, not only take action, but allow him to be a part of the investigation, Heller, played by Rami Malek, discovers that they seem to be reluctant to get to the bottom of who may be involved. Despite their objections, he decides to take matters into his own hands, embarking on a dangerous trek across the globe with his intelligence serving as the ultimate weapon for eluding his pursuers, and achieving his revenge.

Sinners is a joy to watch and a challenge to review simply because it manages to tread new ground in such an entertaining fashion. Set in the Jim Crow South of 1932 Mississippi, the story is very much about Black empowerment as twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both played with simmering intensity by Michael B. Jordan) return home from adventures in Chicago and elsewhere, looking to open a juke joint for their old community.