Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Are movies more important than life? Are women magic? These two questions, repeatedly posed in François Truffaut's Day for Night (1973), often seem to be at the heart of French cinema, especially in a big batch of recent DVD releases.

These days, it seems like all the bad guys in the world have it in for America. Thankfully, someone is always looking out for us, whether they're dynamic marionettes or top-secret teenagers. Both these films have lots of fun with the spy movie genre. D.E.B.S. (Sony; Movie •••, Picture/Sound •••^½, Extras ••) is aimed squarely at family audiences.

"She ... the meaning of my life is she," crooned Charles Aznavour in his tribute to les femmes back in the early 1970s, when male French filmmakers were still inspired by that unfathomable sphinx: woman. French cinema doesn't have the same power today, and equality has normalized relations between the sexes (somewhat).

1. THE SOPRANOS (HBO, above - left). Jersey mafia don Tony Soprano: bigger than your average bear, and ten times as deadly. These movie-quality transfers set the standard, with excellent contrast, rich colors, and crisp, atmospherically lit images.
2. THE SHIELD (Fox). Det.

In Match Point (DreamWorks; Movie •••^½, Picture/Sound •••^½, Extras: None), Woody Allen creates a Shakespearean tale of ambition, passion, and madness that can only end in tears, and he does so in a uniquely cinematic way. By usual DVD standards, the quality of the picture and sound might seem lacking.