LATEST ADDITIONS

Flicka—20th Century Fox
Aimee Giron  |  May 18, 2007
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 2
If you think this is a story about a horse, you’re only halfway there. On the surface, Flicka is a film about a wild horse that is accidentally found by Katy (Alison Lohman), a headstrong, horse-loving teenager, while she tries to escape the confines of her father’s expectations—and a mountain lion. The parallel between the struggles of Katy and Flicka—man trying to contain nature—is typical at best. But, for this horse enthusiast, it works.
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Gridiron Gang—Sony Pictures
Mike Prince  |  May 18, 2007
Video: 3
Audio: 4
Extras: 3
I might lose your respect for this, but I enjoy The Rock. Even when his material is lacking (which it often is), I find that The Rock rises above it all and makes something solid (pun sadly intended). Gridiron Gang continues to prove my theory, telling a “true story” that manages to combine troubled inner-city kids finding guidance and a football team rising above the odds. It’s a very conventional movie, complete with montages, but Dwayne Johnson makes it tolerable.
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Stranger Than Fiction—Sony Pictures
Mike Prince  |  May 18, 2007
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 3
The log line “Will Ferrell hears narration” can conjure up a number of scenarios in one’s mind, some glorious, but most misguided and painful. Thankfully, Stranger Than Fiction turns out to be a rather subtle and charming “meta” comedy. Ferrell plays Harold Crick, a straight-laced, borderline-obsessive-compulsive IRS auditor who begins hearing the dulcet tones of narration. This sets in motion a chain of events that covers the broad spectrum of life, death, love, loss, and all creative endeavors, fictional and non.
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Idiocracy—20th Century Fox
Mike Prince  |  May 18, 2007
Video: 2
Audio: 2
Extras: 1
The world is full of idiots, and we’re only getting dumber. That’s the premise behind Mike Judge’s Idiocracy, a sly satire on the state of our collective intelligence. Luke Wilson plays an average soldier who’s frozen in an experiment and wakes up in the year 2505. There, he is the smartest man on the planet. This is the launching pad for jabs at corporate culture and the dumbing down of America, most of it spot on, all very funny.
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Spider-Man 2.1—Sony Pictures
Chris Chiarella  |  May 18, 2007
The Spider-Man film franchise has millions of satisfied fans, which is quite an accomplishment by the filmmakers, considering the persnickety nature of comic-book devotees and the quality of most sequels. These fans must be confused by the apparent eagerness to modify one of the great superhero movies of all time, but they need not fret. Sony Pictures’ re-edited Spider-Man 2.1 preserves everything we enjoyed theatrically and on DVD in 2004, plus it offers about eight more minutes of footage, every second of it enjoyable in its own right.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Babel—Paramount (HD DVD & Blu-ray)
Adrienne Maxwell  |  May 18, 2007
Video: 4
Audio: 5
Extras: 1
The biblical Babel is the place where God, frustrated yet again by man’s hubris and sin, chooses to scatter a united people and confuse their tongues so that they can no longer understand one another. It marks our division. Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu’s Babel serves to remind us of our commonality; despite those differences of language, culture, and geography, we are inherently united in our humanity—in the love, fear, jealousy, loneliness, and hope that drive us. The story begins when two Moroccans accidentally shoot an American tourist and set off a series of events that will reach as far as Mexico and Japan.
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Blu-ray Player Reviews
Blu-ray Players Arrive
Geoffrey Morrison  |  May 18, 2007  |  First Published: Apr 18, 2007
No, for real this time.

After a rocky start with the flawed-out-of-the-box Samsung BD-P1000 player, Blu-ray finally hit the stores for real at the turn of the year with several new players. These range from the top-of-the-line Pioneer BDP-HD1 ($1,500), to Philips' the more sedate BDP9000 ($1,000), to the Sony PlayStation 3 ($499 or $599).

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Audio Video News
Did Wal-Mart Kill the TV Business?
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 18, 2007
At the root of recent woes in the TV-retailing business is the legendary "Wal-Mart effect," according to a news analysis by Business Week.
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Audio Video News
'Attempted Copyright Crimes' Law Proposed
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 17, 2007
Copying music or movies? Don't even think about it, says attorney general Alberto Gonzales. He's supporting a new law that would make even attempting copyright infringement a new federal offense.
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Audio Video News
Pioneer's New Plasmas, And More!
Thomas J. Norton  |  May 16, 2007

Kuro is a Japanese word meaning deep, black, and penetrating. And on the tenth anniversary of its entry into the plasma display business, Pioneer announced the culmination of its <I>Project Kuro</I> to the assembled consumer electronics press in New York.

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