Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews

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Halloween Kills
Roger Kanno  |  Apr 08, 2022  | 
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Halloween Kills, the twelfth film in the Halloween franchise, picks up immediately following the events in the 2018 reboot of the original film of the same name. These latest entries were directed by David Gordon Green with a third installment, Halloween Ends, also to be directed by Green, planned for release later in 2022.
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Encanto
Thomas J. Norton  |  Apr 01, 2022  | 
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As young Alma and Pedro Madrigal flee from war in their native Colombia, Pedro is killed. Alma clutches their children as a magic candle appears, smiting Pedro's killers and promising endless magical gifts for the Madrigal family—as long as the candle burns. Alma and her children settle in a small village where the candle creates an enchanted Casita (home) for them.
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The Piano
Chris Chiarella  |  Mar 25, 2022  | 
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One of the most sensual movies I have ever seen, The Piano owes much to Holly Hunter's central depiction of the voluntarily mute Ada, who communicates through her music (she tickled her own ivories for the role), through sign language, and through her remarkably expressive face. A single mother dispatched with her daughter from Scotland to New Zealand for an arranged marriage, Ada soon finds herself the unwitting target of the affections of an unexpected admirer, igniting love, lust, and no small measure of understandable jealous rage.
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Last Night In Soho
Roger Kanno  |  Mar 11, 2022  | 
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Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho starts off a little slowly, but like many of the director's previous films (Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Baby Driver), it oozes style. The story centers around Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie), a talented fashion design student who is transported back to the 1960s in her dreams where she witnesses scenes from the life of an aspiring young singer, Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy). Along with her dreams, Eloise has increasingly frightening visions where Sandie's life is beginning to spiral downward. Through her dreams and visions, Eloise ultimately learns the fate of Sandie and those around her in London's Soho District during the 1960s.
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Eternals
Chris Chiarella  |  Mar 04, 2022  | 
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When you're all-in with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you take the good with the bad, and Jack Kirby's lesser-known 1970s comic book has yielded the latter. With Eternals, we are introduced to a diverse team of never-aging otherworldly protectors, each with a different superpower, who are tasked with defending humanity from some nasty creatures.
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Dune
Brandon A. DuHamel  |  Feb 18, 2022  | 
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Frank Herbert's Dune had turned into a sort of creative graveyard for filmmakers over the years, causing the beloved sci-fi novel to be labeled unadaptable. The first attempt was made by Alejandro Jodorowsky, who started his adaptation in 1974, working with artists including H. R. Giger, Chris Foss, and Jean "Moebius" Giraud for set and character designs, resulting in over 3,000 storyboard sketches.
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No Time to Die
Chris Chiarella  |  Feb 11, 2022  | 
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Daniel Craig's fifth and final outing as the world's most famous secret agent (umm...) is a fitting farewell to an era that saw old-school spy James Bond struggling to find his place in the contemporary world. That's no small task when his reputation as a gun-toting, martini-swilling, two-fisted womanizer precedes him, and so the plots often revolve around his apparent unsuitability for the job of protecting England and the rest of the planet—before he proves the haters wrong, of course.
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Criterion Collection in 4K: The First Wave
Chris Chiarella  |  Jan 28, 2022  | 
Once the Ultra HD Blu-ray disc format showed that it had legs, one question I found myself regularly being asked was, "When is The Criterion Collection going 4K?" The esteemed boutique label certainly didn't rush in, but by the end of 2021, fans and collectors were offered four premiere releases: Citizen Kane, Menace II Society, Mulholland Dr., and Uncut Gems.
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The Suicide Squad
Chris Chiarella  |  Jan 21, 2022  | 
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Blurring the line between sequel, reboot and remake, The Suicide Squad fairly leaps off the screen with something too often conspicuously absent from the DC Cinematic Universe: a sense of fun. Written and directed by James Gunn after his famous firing from Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy series (and before he was rehired), The Suicide Squad gleefully embraces excess in every way imaginable. It's rated R for its gore, language, and nudity, yet seldom misses an opportunity to pause and appreciate the absurdity of it all—a drastic tonal shift from its joyless 2016 predecessor, simply titled "Suicide Squad."

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Free Guy
Thomas J. Norton  |  Dec 31, 2021  | 
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Guy is an NPC (non-player character) in the hit video game, Free City. He "lives" a happy but chaotic life as the game's active player characters, identifiable by their sunglasses, ravage the city. The NPCs simply go about their business as best they can in the only world they know.
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The Green Knight
Al Griffin  |  Dec 10, 2021  | 
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The Green Knight, director David Lowery's film adaptation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, an anonymous 14th century poem, is a fantastical, visually intoxicating take on Arthurian legend. Following a night of drinking and carousing at the local brothel, carefree young Gawain of Camelot (Dev Patel) is summoned on Christmas morning to the Round Table, where he is invited to sit beside his uncle, the king. Gawain's feeling of unworthiness is only deepened by Arthur's graciousness, and by his request for the young man to share a story of himself so they may know each other better.
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F9: The Fast Saga
Roger Kanno  |  Nov 26, 2021  | 
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The Fast & Furious franchise is going on two decades and showing no signs of slowing down with the 2021 release of F9: The Fast Saga and several sequels and spin-offs in the works.

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Labyrinth
Chris Chiarella  |  Nov 05, 2021  | 
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After making Return of the Jedi, Executive producer George Lucas was looking for fresh creative frontiers, and he would embark upon new cinematic collabs with previous and first-time cohorts. One such experiment was his team-up with mastermind Jim Henson for the family-friendly fantasy, Labyrinth. With a playful script by Monty Python alum Terry Jones, the story follows an angry teenager Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) with a fondness for fairy tales.
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Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Spiral
Chris Chiarella  |  Oct 29, 2021  | 
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An attempt to revive the popular Saw franchise, Spiral (full title "Spiral: From the Book of Saw," whatever that means) continues the legacy of creative torture-horror under the direction of Darren Lynn Bousman who long ago helmed Saws II-IV. The sadistic madman-with-an-axe-to-grind known as Jigsaw is long dead and now a new serial killer is on the loose, an apparent copycat except this time the murderer is specifically targeting dirty cops with his elaborate, painful deathtraps. Once again, the victims must make the brutal choice to do something horrible to themselves to escape or die in gruesome fashion.

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The Silence of the Lambs
Chris Chiarella  |  Oct 22, 2021  | 
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Serial killers. Cannibalism. A disturbing journey into the darkest recesses of the human psyche. The Silence of the Lambs has more than its share of horrors, yet, through it all, the movie tells the very personal story of FBI trainee Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster, nabbing a second Best Actress Oscar here). Haunted by loss and her guilt over a childhood failure, she seeks redemption in a high-profile missing persons case that requires her to work closely with notorious murderer Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins, who netted a Best Actor Oscar). An outstanding piece of filmmaking in every way, Silence of the Lambs has transcended the thriller genre to become a genuine classic.
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