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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter—Warner Bros. (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Mar 14, 2009
Video: 4.5/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 3.5/5
From the director of "Watchmen" comes two tales from the celebrated graphic novel that do not appear in the extraordinary "Watchmen" Theatrical Feature. "Tales of the Black Freighter" brings to strikingly animated life the novels richly layered story-within-a-story, a daring pirate saga whose turbulent events may mirror those in the Watchmen's world. Stars from the "Watchmen" movie team in the amazing live-action/CGI "Under The Hood", based on Nite Owl's powerful first-hand account of how the hooded adventurers came into existence.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Two Evil Eyes—Blue Underground (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Mar 14, 2009
Video: 4/5
Audio: 2.5/5
Extras: 3.5/5
The masters of modern horror - George Romero and Dario Argento - bring you an unprecedented pair of shockers inspired by the tales of Edgar Allan Poe. In Romero's "The Facts In The Case Of Mr. Valdemar," a conniving wife and her lover use a hypnotic trance to embezzle a fortune from her dying husband, only to receive some chilling surprises from beyond the grave. Then in Argento's "The Black Cat," a deranged crime scene photographer is driven to brutal acts of madness and murder by his girlfriend's new pet. But will this cunning feline deliver a final sickening twist of its own?
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Synecdoche New York—Sony Pictures Classics (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Mar 14, 2009
Video: 4.5/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 3/5
Theater director Caden Cotard is mounting a new play. His life catering to suburban blue-hairs at the local regional theater in Schenectady, New York is looking bleak. His wife Adele has left him to pursue her painting in Berlin, taking their young daughter Olive with her. His therapist, Madeleine Gravis, is better at plugging her best-seller than she is at counseling him. A new relationship with the alluringly candid Hazel has prematurely run aground. And a mysterious condition is systematically shutting down each of his autonomic functions, one by one. Worried about the transience of his life, he leaves his home behind. He gathers an ensemble cast into a warehouse in New York City, hoping to create a work of brutal honesty. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a growing mockup of the city outside. The years rapidly fold into each other, and Caden buries himself deeper into his masterpiece, but the textured tangle of real and theatrical relationships blurs the line between the world of the play and that of Caden's own deteriorating reality.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Silence of the Lambs—MGM (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Mar 14, 2009
Video: 3.75/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 3.5/5
A vicious psychopath is murdering women throughout the Midwest. Believing it takes one to know one, the F.B.I. sends Agent Clarice Starling to interview a prisoner who may provide clues to the killer's actions. That prisoner is Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant, demented cannibal who agrees to help Starling only if she'll feed his morbid curiosity with details of her own complicated life. But as their relationship develops, Starling is forced to confront not only her own hidden demons... but also an evil so powerful that she may not have the courage or strength to stop it.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
South Park: The Complete Twelfth Season—Comedy Central (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Mar 14, 2009
Video: 4/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 3.5/5
In this collection, "South Park" follows the new President-elect from his acceptance speech to his first official day of duty as Commander in Chief. The boys keep busy helping a pop-princess who's down on her luck, negotiating a truce for striking Canadians, and preventing giant rodents from destroying the world. For them, it's all part of growing up in "South Park".
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Role Models—Universal (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Mar 14, 2009
Video: 4/5
Audio: 4.25/5
Extras: 3.5/5
Seann William Scott and Paul Rudd star in "Role Models" as Danny and Wheeler, two salesmen who trash a company truck on an energy-drink-fueled bender. Upon their arrest, the court gives them a choice: do hard time or spend 150 service hours with a mentorship program. After one day with the kids, however, jail doesn't look half bad.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Punisher War Zone—Lionsgate (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Mar 14, 2009
Video: 4.25/5
Audio: 4.5/5
Extras: 3/5
Waging his one-man war on the world of organized crime, ruthless vigilante-hero Frank Castle sets his sights on overeager mob boss, Billy Russoti. After Russoti is left horribly disfigured by Castle, he sets out for vengeance under his new alias: Jigsaw. With the "Punisher Task Force" hot on his trail and the FBI unable to take Jigsaw in, Frank must stand up to the formidable army that Jigsaw has recruited before more of the evil deeds go unpunished.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Batman: The Motion Picture Anthology 1989-1997—Warner Bros. (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Mar 14, 2009
Video: 4.25/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 3.5/5
This year the BAT goes BLU... Batman: The Motion Picture Anthology" includes "Batman", "Batman Returns", "Batman Forever" and "Batman & Robin".
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Australia—20th Century Fox (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Mar 14, 2009
Video: 4.5/5
Audio: 4.5/5
Extras: 3/5
A romantic action-adventure epic set in Australia prior to World War II that centers on an English aristocrat who inherits a large ranch. When English cattle barons plot to take her land, she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn cattle drover to protect her ranch. Together they experience four life-altering years, a love affair and the bombing of Darwin during World War II.
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AV GlossaryHDTV Tech
Color Points and Kelvins
Thomas J. Norton  |  Mar 14, 2009
How does color accuracy measure up?

There’s more that goes into making a good display than accurate color, but it’s certainly one of the biggies. Color in a video display may seem like a relatively simple subject, but it’s not. In this Gear Works, I’ll outline the two most important factors in assessing and measuring the color accuracy of the HDTVs we review—color tracking and color gamut. I’ll also show you how we present this in the HT Labs Measures graphics that accompany our reviews. This article will shed some light on what these important measurements tell us about the color accuracy of the displays we test here at Home Theater.

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