Blu-ray Movie Reviews

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: Reference Disc
Al Griffin  |  Nov 06, 2005  | 

Badly dubbed dialogue and exaggerated acting make martial-arts movies unintentionally funny (to Westerners, at least). But in Kung Fu Hustle (Sony; Movie ••••, Picture/Sound ••••½, Extras •••• ), director Stephen Chow sets out to grab laughs by mining the genre's clichés.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: Reference Disc
Al Griffin  |  Jan 14, 2006  | 

An edgy update, CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (Warner; Movie •••½, Picture/Sound ••••, Extras ••••) takes several liberties with Roald Dahl's classic book, but it also manages to convey the story's dark humor.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: Reference Disc
Al Griffin  |  Feb 03, 2006  | 

Do clones deserve the same rights as their human progenitors? That's the ethical dilemma that director Michael Bay grapples with in the sci-fi foray The Island (DreamWorks; Movie •••, Picture/Sound ••••½, Extras ••).

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: Reference Disc
Al Griffin  |  May 09, 2006  | 

David Lean's 1970 epic Ryan's Daughter (Warner; Movie •••½, Picture/Sound ••••, Extras ••••) gets the grand treatment in this two-disc special edition. Sourced from restored 65mm picture elements, the 2.2:1 transfer is consistently crisp, revealing every crag in stone houses.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: Reference Disc
Al Griffin  |  Jul 05, 2006  | 

The New World (New Line; Movie •••½, Picture/Sound ••••, Extras •••), Terrence Malick's film about the fateful collision of English settlers with Native Americans in 1607, is short on dialogue and long on trippy shots of sunlight leaking through virgin forests.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: Rehashed Horror
Brandon Grafius  |  Feb 03, 2006  | 

If something scared an audience the first time, it should work again, right? And the third, fourth, and fifth times, yes? Well, House of Wax (Warner; Movie •½, Picture/Sound ••••, Extras ••) steals its title from a Vincent Price vehicle, but it's little more than an amateurish excuse to slice and dice attractive teens.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: Sci-Fi Sequels
Steve Simels  |  Dec 01, 2003  | 
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: Tapped Out
Mel Neuhaus  |  May 09, 2006  | 

The greatest kaleidoscopic experience without the benefit of hallucinogens, the terrific six-disc Busby Berkeley Collection (Warner; Movies ••••½, Picture/Sound ••••½, Extras ••••) has five of the choreography genius's best-known works: Gold Diggers of 1933, Footlight Parade (1933), Dames (1934), Gold Diggers of 1935

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: The Bond That Ties
Josef Krebs  |  Jan 03, 2007  | 

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: The films of Henri Langlois
Sol Louis Siegel  |  Nov 09, 2006  | 
THE MATRIX RELOADED Warner
Movie •• DVDs •••••
Phantom of the Cinémathèque Kino
Movie •••½ Picture/Sound •••½
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: Three Burials By Mr. Jones
Ken Korman  |  Sep 06, 2006  | 

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Sony; Movie ••••, Picture/Sound ••••, Extras •••) didn't win any major American awards, but for many who saw the directorial debut of actor Tommy Lee Jones, this beautiful yet unsentimental take on the modern Western was the film to beat in 2005.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: TV Comedies
Mike Mettler  |  Nov 09, 2006  | 

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: Two Guys Named John
Mel Neuhaus  |  Jul 05, 2006  | 

One was a gregarious actor who became a cultural icon. The other was an erudite, poetic soul hiding in a sadistic, foul-tempered drunk ... and arguably America's greatest director.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: War Correspondents
Ken Korman  |  Jan 14, 2006  | 
War of the Worlds DreamWorks
Movie ••½ Picture/Sound ••••½ Extr
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: Worlds Apart
Josef Krebs  |  Jan 14, 2006  | 

It's amazing how many ways a story can be told. Byron Haskin's 1953 version of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (Warner; Movie ••••, Picture/Sound ••••, Extras ••••) has a completely different focus and tone than Steven Spielberg's gloomy take on the H. G. Wells fantasy.

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