Blu-ray Movie Reviews

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: Joker's Wild
Marc Horowitz  |  Apr 03, 2006  | 

"A guy walks into a talent agent's office.... " From that humble beginning spring 100 or so different riffs on perhaps the most vile, grotesque joke ever told. And the tellers here include everyone from Don Rickles, George Carlin, and Martin Mull to Whoopi Goldberg, Gilbert Gottfried, and Jon Stewart.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: La Différence
Josef Krebs  |  Oct 02, 2005  | 

"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).

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: Last Minute Shopping!
Josef Krebs  |  Dec 07, 2005  | 

Film Special Editions

Ben-Hur Collector's Edition (Warner, 4 discs)

Sin City Recut & Extended Edition (Dimension, 2 discs)

The Sound of Music 40th Anniversary Edition (20th Century Fox, 2 discs)

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: Law & Disorder
Mike Mettler  |  May 09, 2006  | 
  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.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: Little Black Dress
Rad Bennett  |  Dec 09, 2005  | 

One is blonde, the other brunette. One radiates as an earth mother, the other is everyone's favorite big sister. But when the chips are down, each babe is a trained killing machine who can kick terrorist ass.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: Match Point
Josef Krebs  |  Jun 09, 2006  | 

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.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: Mer de Malle
Sol Louis Siegel  |  Sep 06, 2006  | 

Director Louis Malle made his feature debut in 1958 at age 24 with Elevator to the Gallows (The Criterion Collection; Movie •••½, Picture/Sound •••½, Extras •••½), a coolly controlled tale of a murder plot gone awry.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: Movies of Tony Scott
Ken Korman  |  Sep 06, 2006  | 
Crimson Tide Touchstone Unrated Extended Edition
Movie •••• Picture/Sound •••• Extras
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: Re-release of the Star Wars Trilogy
Rad Bennett  |  Nov 09, 2006  | 

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: Reference Disc
Al Griffin  |  Oct 02, 2005  | 

The original xXx achieved almost lyrical heights of excess through its digitally enhanced, over-the-top action sequences.

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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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