LATEST ADDITIONS

Right out of the gate with Cronos, his first feature film, director Guillermo del Toro displayed a keen eye that would serve him well throughout his career. It’s a vampire story… kind of, as a rich old man is seeking a legendary device that can supposedly impart eternal life, but with some dark side effects. When the golden doodad comes into the possession of a humble antiques dealer, violent and unpredictable events begin to unfold. Anyone looking for a well-executed offbeat horror would do well to check out Cronos.

I suppose we could Google the actual budget of Wicked, but it’s more fun to sit here and marvel, muttering, “This movie must have cost a fortune!” The production values are off the charts, with hundreds of impeccably costumed dancers hoofing their hearts out in brilliantly realized locales.

Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Excellent clarity and detail
Three-dimensional soundstage
Supports HDMI ARC and CEC control
Full-featured remote
Attractive and compact
Minus
Modest maximum volume when used without a sub
No phono input

The Verdict
If you’ve ever been burned by a soundbar that looked sleek but sounded like a tin can, the REN might just restore your faith in compact all-in-one systems.

I’ve spent a little over a month with a pair of Kanto REN active speakers in my living room setup, and I’ve enjoyed every single minute of it.

Newly arrived on Ultra HD Blu-ray from Lionsgate is this trifecta from the canon of auteur filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, all making their 4K disc debuts. Do they kill?

Jackie Brown 4K
For the longest time, I resisted watching Jackie Brown for the simple reason that I admire Quentin Tarantino first and foremost as a writer par excellence, and JB was him indulging his fondness of the great Elmore Leonard rather than conjuring wholly new realms as he had done with Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction before it. The resulting adaptation of the book Rum Punch can rightly be considered lesser Tarantino...