Blu-ray Movie Reviews

A ruthless killing machine (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is sent back in time by Skynet in order to kill Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton), the woman who will soon give birth to the leader of the resistance movement in the future. But her future son isn't going to let his mother be exterminated and sends Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) back in time in order to save her from certain destruction and give the human race a chance to survive.

This is about the umpteenth time this classic sci-fi/horror/action film has been released on home video, but I'm sure the fans will pick it up agian in order to have the digibook packaging. Regardless, this is one of the best movies of the late 20th Century and launched the careers of both Schwarzenegger and writer/director James Cameron.

A mysterious woman (Angelina Jolie) and a vacationing math teacher (Johnny Depp) from America become involved in an international manhunt after meeting on a train traveling from Paris to Venice. A case of mistaken identity puts poor Frank (Depp) in the crosshairs of a British gangster looking to reclaim his lost fortune from a former associate.

Depp is one of the hottest stars in Hollywood and I had high hopes for this international spy thriller. Sadly, the star power of Depp and Jolie couldn’t overcome the meandering and predictable script from the trio of writers which includes the director (Florian Heckel von Donnersmarck - The Lives of Others). Character development is nonexistent and there’s no real drama or suspense throughout the film and anyone with half a brain can see the ending coming from a mile away.

Two hard-luck drifters (Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt) team up with an experienced gold prospector (Walter Huston) and venture into the Mexican wilderness in search of gold. As their pile starts to grow so does their greed and paranoia, especially for Dobbs (Bogart), who thinks everyone's out to steal his stash.

With his breakout performance in The Maltese Falcon, Bogart became one of Hollywood's good guys, which makes his performance here even more impressive. At the time, audiences were shocked and disturbed that Bogart would be cast as the bad guy, but it was Walter Huston's Oscar-winning role as the grizzled prospector that stole the show.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/uglytruth.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Abby Ricter (Katherine Heigl) is the romantically challenged producer of a Sacramento morning television show who squares off against a chauvinistic new correspondent, Mike Chadway (Gerard Butler), whose views on dating and relationships clash with her feminine sensibilities. Are guys just looking for one thing, or is her idea of Mr. Right out there somewhere?

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.

The first brick of The Wall was set in place over 72 years ago on February 18, 1944, the day British Army Second Lieutenant Eric Fletcher Waters was deemed “missing in action, presumed dead” during the Battle of Anzio in Aprilia, Italy in World War II. Ever since then, his son, Roger Waters, has attempted to come to grips with that loss and the ensuing ripple effects of the spoils of war in both his lyrics and music, best realized in Pink Floyd’s 1979 magnum opus, The Wall. Waters later took The Wall Live on the road in 2010–13 for 219 performances as a fully realized audio/visual extravaganza, and I can personally confirm it as being the bestlooking and best-sounding stadium concert I’ve ever attended.