Blu-ray Movie Reviews

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Blu-ray Review: Barry Lyndon
Josef Krebs  |  Jun 01, 2011  | 

William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1844 novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon relates the colorful adventures of an Irish itinerant who tries his hand at war, gambling, and financially profitable marriage while traveling through 18th-century Europe. Stanley Kubrick’s 1975 adaptation, like many of the director’s other films (including Paths of Glory, Dr.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
True Blood: The Complete Third Season (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Jun 01, 2011  | 
Season three finds Bill (Stephan Moyer) kidnapped and Sookie Anna Paquin) heading to Mississippi to find him. There she becomes entangled in a world ruled by a powerful Vampire King and the werewolves who do his bidding. Meanwhile, back in Bon Temps, new threats emerge that make previous problems seem tame by comparison.

Am I the only guy that's sick of vampires? I've never been a huge fan of this series but have stuck with it for the sake of our readers, but I'm not sure I can handle another season of it. Sure, through its 12 episodes there is the occasional winner, but overall it's an up-and-down affair and isn't one of HBO's greatest hits.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Gettysburg: Director's Cut (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  May 30, 2011  | 
History comes alive with intense and spirited battles during the bloodiest three days on American soil that were the beginning of the end of the South's battle to secede from the Union. Ronald F. Maxwell takes viewers into the strategy sessions of both forces and shows the minor skirmishes that lead General Lee (Martin Sheen) to order a full-scale frontal assault and how the battle impacted the outcome of the war.

My biggest complaint with this film has always been its length, so I'm not exactly thrilled with the additional 17 minutes in the director's cut. Frankly, Maxwell would have been better served by cutting the run time down at least an hour. It's nearly impossible to get through the entire 271 minutes in one sitting, but having watched it over two nights, I have to admit the history lesson was an enlightening experience.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Battle: Los Angeles—Columbia Pictures
Kris Deering  |  May 27, 2011  | 
Video: 5/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 3.5/5
For years, there have been documented cases of UFO sighting around the world - Buenos Aires, Seoul, France, Germany, China. But in 2011, what were once just sightings will become a terrifying reality when Earth is attacked by unknown forces. As people everywhere watch the world's great cities fall, Los Angeles becomes the last stand for mankind in a battle no one expected. It's up to a marine staff sergeant and his new platoon to draw a line in the sand as they take on an enemy unlike any they've ever encountered before.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Gods and Generals Extended Director's Cut (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  May 27, 2011  | 
Recounting the fierce allegiances and combat of the early Civil War, Gods and Generals recreates the two years prior to the historic battle of Gettysburg and delves into the lives of Stonewall Jackson (Stephen Lang), Joshua Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels), and Robert E. Lee (Robert Duvall).

I love history (especially American history), so I really wanted to like this film. Unfortunately, the script is all over the place and the pacing is downright awful. It doesn't help that it's been expanded with an additional hour of footage and clocks in at 280 minutes in order to lengthen certain scenes and adds a subplot of John Wilkes Booth (Chris Conner). On the plus side, the battle scenes are well done and Duvall's depiction of Lee is marvelous.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Blu-ray Review: I Am Number Four
Marc Horowitz  |  May 26, 2011  | 

When Michael (Transformers) Bay is attached to a project, you know you’re not in for an intellectual workout. So crank up the surround channels and the subwoofer, cue the safely rebellious (and very pretty) boys and girls, and let’s take a PG-13-sanctioned trip into fantasy adolescence.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Blu-ray Review: Solaris
Josef Krebs  |  May 25, 2011  | 

A brown leaf floats on brilliantly clear water that flows over rich green seaweed. That’s just one of the many lyrical images that fill the opening sequence of Solaris. A horse trots along in the background. A cup of tea overflows in a momentary thunderstorm — the rain stopping as quickly as it started, leaving the sound of dripping water and then a serene silence.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Company Men (2011)—Anchor Bay
Kris Deering  |  May 25, 2011  | 
Video: 5/5
Audio: 3.5/5
Extras: 2.5/5
Bobby Walker is living the proverbial American dream: great job, beautiful family, shiny Porsche in the garage. When corporate downsizing leaves him and co-workers Phil Woodward and Gene McClary jobless, the three men are forced to re-define their lives as men, husbands and fathers. Bobby soon finds himself enduring enthusiastic life coaching, a job building houses for his brother-in-law that does not play to his executive skill set, and perhaps - the realization that there is more to life than chasing the bigger, better deal.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
True Grit (2011)—Paramount Pictures
Kris Deering  |  May 25, 2011  | 
Video: 4.5/5
Audio: 4.5/5
Extras: 3.5/5
"True Grit" is a powerful story of vengeance and valor set in an unforgiving and unpredictable frontier where justice is simple and mercy is rare. Mattie Ross, is determined to avenge her father's blood by capturing Tom Chaney, the man who shot and killed him for two pieces of gold. Just fourteen, she enlists the help of Rooster Cogburn, a one-eyed, trigger-happy U.S. Marshall with an affinity for drinking and hardened Texas Ranger LaBoeuf to track the fleeing Chaney. Despite their differences, their ruthless determination leads them on a perilous adventure that can only have one outcome: retribution.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
I Am Number Four (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  May 25, 2011  | 
John Smith (Alex Pettyfer) is an extraordinary teen masking his true identify to elude a deadly enemy sent to destroy him. Living with his guardian (Timothy Olyphant) in a small town, John encounters life-changing events such as his first love (Dianna Agron), powerful new abilities, and a secret connection to the others who share his destiny.

With a decent premise to build upon I thought Disney/Dreamworks had the possibility of a new teen franchise on their hands, but boy was I wrong. The paper-thin plot is predictable and bland, the acting is atrocious (especially the two teen leads), and I couldn't help feeling that I was watching the movie of the week versus a feature film.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Anton Chekov’s The Duel—Music Box Films
Kris Deering  |  May 24, 2011  | 
Video: 3.5/5
Audio: 3/5
Extras: 0/5
Laevsky clings to ephemeral pleasures such as drinking, gambling, and romancing his alluring mistress, Nadya, in the Russian provinces -- putting all of the said pursuits far ahead of disciplined action -- but he soon grows listless and disenchanted with Nadya, falls into financial ruin, and ultimately must fight Von Koren in a vicious duel thanks to Nadya's sexual liaisons with the man.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Hotel Rwanda (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  May 23, 2011  | 
Hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle) is put between a rock and a hard place when he's confronted with saving his family or doing whatever he can to save over 1,200 Tutsi refugees from being massacred by Hutu extremists.

The world can be an ugly place and in 1994 the situation in Rwanda resulted in over 1 million deaths. Men such as Rusensabagina show us that despite all the bad in the world, there are truly good people that will stop at nothing to do what is right, even if it means sacrificing their own life. Cheadle's performance earned him an Oscar nomination, but in my opinion he was robbed when Jamie Foxx won for his portrayal of Ray Charles.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
I Saw The Devil—Magnet/Magnolia
Kris Deering  |  May 22, 2011  | 
Video: 4/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 2/5
Choi Min-Sik plays Kyung-chul, a dangerous psychopath who kills for pleasure. The embodiment of pure evil, he has committed horrifying and senselessly cruel serial murders on defenseless victims, successfully eluding capture by the police. On a freezing, snowy night, his latest victim is the beautiful Ju-yeon, daughter of a retired police chief and pregnant fiancee of elite special agent Soo-hyun. Obsessed with revenge, Soo-hyun decides to track down the murderer, even if doing so means becoming a monster himself. And when he finds Kyung-chul, turning him in to the authorities is the last thing on his mind as the lines between good and evil fall away in this diabolically twisted game of cat and mouse.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Usual Suspects (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  May 20, 2011  | 
A $91 million cocaine heist...a devastating boat explosion...two survivors. U.S.Customs agent David Kujan (Chazz Palminterir) is determined to find out who and what's behind the melee. As he pieces the clues together with the help of a half-charred Hungarian gangster and an outspoken, crippled con man from New York (Kevin Spacy), Kujan soon finds out this story actually begins with five criminal minds and one infamous mastermind.

Second-time director Bryan Singer showed he had the chops to direct feature films with this classic hit from 1995. The ensemble cast includes Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollack, and Benicio Del Toro, but it's Spacey who steals the show as the con man Verbal Kint. Like The Sixth Sense, this is a movie that actually gets better the second time around because you start to notice the subtle hints that point towards the surprising resolution at the end of the film.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
True Blood Season 3—HBO
Kris Deering  |  May 19, 2011  | 
Video: 4.5/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 3.5/5
The Maenadian reign of terror may be over, but Sookie Stackhouse and the townspeople of Bon Temps face a new calamity that makes the bacchanalian evils of Maryanne Forrester seem tame by comparison. In Season 3, Sookie desperately tries to locate her fiancee, ending up in a netherworld of human and undead interlopers, among them the powerful Vampire King of Mississippi, Russell Edgington.
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