Blu-ray Movie Reviews

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This Week in Music and Blu-rays: September 27, 2011

Brett Milano | Sep 27, 2011 |

Thor: The Dark World

Josef Krebs | Aug 28, 2014 |

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The Dark World launches with a history lesson telling of an ancient battle between the Asgardians and the Dark Elves on their home world of Svartalfheim. The Elves, led by Malekith, not only use enhanced warriors called the Kursed, but also the Aether—a terrible force that gives them great power. Although Malekith is vanquished, the Convergence—an alignment of planets allowing travel between them—permits his return. This is all well and good and very Lord of the Rings-y, but thereafter the film’s exposition just keeps on coming; and unlike LOTR, which gave visual presentations, The Dark World relies on the mellifluous voices of Anthony Hopkins and Idris Elba intoning endlessly about unlikely mythology, leaving you begging for someone to just get on with the action. Once things get rolling, though, there are plenty of passages of great home theater.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Three Films by Luis Buñuel

Josef Krebs | Apr 09, 2021 |

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Closing an almost 50-year career that began with Un Chien Andalou, writer-director Luis Buñuel—aided by screenwriting partner Jean-Claude Carrière—created a trio of subversive amusements that savagely poke fun at pillars of French society, including church, military, and figures of the establishment. The master surrealist did so by playing with and disrupting conventional narrative structures, questioning the validity of his protagonists' rationality, and reducing their self-serving behavior and values to nonsense while upsetting cinematic expectations of viewers.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Timbuktu

Fred Kaplan | Jan 15, 2016 |

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Timbuktu is a film of soaring beauty, sly humor, and urgent sorrow. An Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Film, it should have won if the actual winner, the Polish masterpiece Ida, hadn’t. Shot in Mauritania, which stands in for Mali (of which Timbuktu is capital), it unspools the tragic ways in which a peaceful village is robbed of family, tradition, and the stuff of a full life when occupied by armed jihadists bearing the black flag of ISIL. At first, the dissonance seems comical: clueless outsiders, proclaiming a ban on music, soccer, and exposed female flesh, while camels block the roads and the locals lounge indifferent.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Tinker Bell

David Vaughn | Nov 05, 2008 |

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/tinkerbell.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Journey into the world of Pixie Hollow and discover the origins of Tinker Bell (voiced by Mae Whitman). Enter a land of adventure and mystery as she and her four best fairy friends turn winter into springand with the power of faith, trust, and a little pixie dust, learn the importance of being true to yourself.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue (Blu-ray)

David Vaughn | Sep 23, 2010 |

Tinker Bell (voiced by Mae Whitman) finds herself trapped in the bedroom of Lizzy (Lauren Mote), a polite and lonely nine-year-old in dire need of a friend. While Tink's friends launch a dangerous rescue mission braving the hazards of a summer rainstorm, Tink and the young girl develop a special bond during their time together.

Disney has created quite a franchise around the adorable Tinker Bell with a series of books, apparel and toys, video games, and these Tink-specific films. While my family is older than the intended demographic, the story is heartfelt and the animation is spectacular. Normally I shy away from direct-to-video releases but the house of mouse have given these films the A-list treatment.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure (Blu-ray)

David Vaughn | Oct 20, 2009 |

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/tinklost.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>It's autumn, and the fairies are on the mainland changing the colors of the leaves, tending to pumpkin patches, and helping geese fly south for the winter. The rare blue moon will soon rise to pass its light through the magical Fall Scepter so Pixie Hollow's supply of pixie dust will be restored. But when Tinker Bell (voiced by Mae Whitman) accidentally puts the community in jeopardy, she must travel across the sea in order to set things right.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

To Save a Life (Blu-ray)

David Vaughn | Aug 01, 2010 |

Jake (Randy Wayne) and Roger (Robert Bailey Jr.) were best friends up until the ninth grade and the two drifted apart. Jake became the star of the basketball team and landed the hottest girl in school and Roger didn't fit in with his new group of friends. Three years later Jake's world crashes down around him when Roger enters the school with a handgun and takes his own life. Wracked with guilt, Jake begins to question his life choices and wonders if there was anything he could have done to save his childhood friend.

Calling a film "religious" will ultimately alienate a large portion of the population, but as long as the script isn't too preachy, I can usually enjoy them. That's certainly the case here where the message being spoken—care about thy neighbor—is commendable, especially to the targeted teen audience. The script certainly has a Christian slant to it, which isn't too distracting, but the story is very melodramatic and runs about 20 longer than it should.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Tombstone (Blu-ray)

David Vaughn | Apr 29, 2010 |

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/tombstone.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>After a successful career as a lawman in Dodge City, Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) and his two brothers retire to Tombstone, AZ looking for peace and quiet as entrepreneurs. When a band of outlaws called the Cowboys descend upon the town, the Earp's and their good friend Doc Holiday (Val Kilmer) take-up arms in order to protect the town from the ruthless villains.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Tommy Boy

David Vaughn | Dec 15, 2008 | First Published: Dec 16, 2008 |

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/tommyboy.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>The good news is that Tommy (Chris Farley) has finally graduated from college after seven long yearsand no, he didn't go to medical school. Fully educated and ready to make his mark on the world, Tommy goes into the family business of selling car parts. When his father suddenly dies, he needs to save the company from financial ruin by hitting the road with company sycophant Richard (David Spade) to sell a new line of brake pads.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Tomorrowland

David Vaughn | Jan 22, 2016 |

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As a youth, Frank Walker is full of hope and aspiration, which is almost snuffed out when his entry into the 1964 World’s Fair science competition is shot down by one of the judges before he even gets a chance to enter it. But fate has a different plan for Frank, and with the help of Athena, a mysterious young girl, he’s taken to a magical place where his hopes and dreams can come true. Fifty years later, we meet Casey Newton, a science-minded teen who dreams of going to the stars and will stop at nothing to sabotage NASA’s efforts to dismantle the last remaining launch pad—that is, until the police catch her. Upon posting bail, she finds a mysterious pin among her belongings. When she touches it, she gets a glimpse of the magical world of Tomorrowland, a futuristic city that’s light-years ahead of Earth technologically.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Tooth Fairy (Blu-ray)

David Vaughn | May 10, 2010 |

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/toothfairy.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>When a professional hockey player (Dwayne Johnson) tries to spoil the belief of the Tooth Fairy of a young six year old, he gets a summons from the "Department of Dissemination of Disbelief" and is sentenced to two weeks hard time as the Tooth Fairy.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Top 10 Superhero DVDs

Mike Mettler | Jun 09, 2006 |

With a slew of superheroes in theaters this summer - X-Men: The Last Stand, Superman Returns, My Super Ex-Girlfriend - we feel a musclebound DVD assessment is in order. Batman Begins, a benchmark title, ascended beyond this list to the pantheon of torture test discs and will be revered in a future issue.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Touch of Evil

Josef Krebs | Jul 30, 2014 |

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Touch of Evil is a tale of two cities, or at least two opposite towns sharing the same border. Coming from one side is priggish, by-the-book Mexican drug enforcement official Mike Vargas (Charlton Heston), who finds himself taking on brilliant, highly respected American cop Captain Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles), who plants evidence to bring the guilty to justice.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Toy Story and Toy Story 2 (Blu-ray)

David Vaughn | Mar 17, 2010 |

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/ts1.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>The wizards at Pixar discovered that when left alone toys will come to life. In Andy's room his favorite toy is Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks), an old-fashioned cowboy doll whose status is usurped when Andy is given the latest and greatest space toy, Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen). With the social dynamics thrown into chaos, Woody and Buzz end up in the clutches of any toys worst nightmareSid, the toy-torturing boy next door.

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