Blu-ray Movie Reviews

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Eye in the Sky
Josef Krebs  |  Nov 04, 2016  | 
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A godlike eye in the sky that can send down hellfire; fake-fly-on-the-wall drones capable of entering anyone’s home to observe their most intimate moments; militia and religious police who, in the name of God, watch, search, and regulate every aspect of a person’s existence or end it with guns and explosive. In a place with no privacy, your life is not your own.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsBlu-ray Player Reviews
Eye on UHD: 14 Ultra HD Blu-ray Movies Reviewed
SV Staff  |  May 12, 2016  | 
No format launch would be complete without movies to play, and UHD Blu-ray Disc boosters got more than they could have hoped for, with more than two-dozen titles from Sony, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, and Lionsgate available concurrent with the debut of the Samsung UBD-K8500 player and all mastered with HDR10 high dynamic range. We asked our movie reviewers Tom Norton and David Vaughn for their top-line observations on 14 titles in the first batch to help you separate the demo-worthy from the duds.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
F8: Fate of the Furious
Corey Gunnestad  |  Oct 06, 2017  | 
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I never understood why MI-6 always gave James Bond the most expensive and exotic sports cars on the planet to take with him on his missions. Q Branch must know by now there’s no way in hell that thing is coming back in one piece. That same basic logic applies to the Fast & the Furious films: Why would you ever give a Lamborghini to someone who’s going to a demolition derby?
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
F9: The Fast Saga
Roger Kanno  |  Nov 26, 2021  | 
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The Fast & Furious franchise is going on two decades and showing no signs of slowing down with the 2021 release of F9: The Fast Saga and several sequels and spin-offs in the works.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Falling Down (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  May 27, 2009  | 

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/fallingdown.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>D-FENS (Michael Douglas) is a recently laid-off defense worker who's having a bad day. Stuck in the mother of all traffic jams, he abandons his car and sets out on foot to his daughter's birthday party. When a Korean store owner charges an insane price for a can of Coke, he snaps and trashes the store with a newly confiscated baseball bat. Now armed and dangerous, he sets out toward Venice, California with a severe case of road rage and leaves a trail of destruction in his wake.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Fame (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Jan 27, 2010  | 

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/fame.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>The High School of Performing Arts in New York City was created in 1947 by Franklin J. Keller offering music and speech programs along with traditional trade skills. Promising seven classes a day and a hot lunch, the school trains teenage musicians, actors, and dancers who have dreams of making it big except some dreams will be shattered along the way.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Family Guy – Something, Something, Something, Darkside (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Dec 24, 2009  | 

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/famguy.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT><i>May the laughs be with you as (Chris) Skywalker joins forces with (Peter) Solo and Princess (Lois) Leia to battle (Stewie) Vader and his Imperial minions. A host of new characters come along for the wild ride, including Mort Goldman as Lando Calrissian, Chris' boss Carl as Yoda, and the Giant Chicken as the nefarious Boba Fett.</i>

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Family Guy: It's a Trap! (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Dec 23, 2010  | 
The Family Guy alliance is in for one last outer-space adventure, as Han Solo (Peter), Chewbacca (Brian), and Princess Leia (Lois) battle against the Evil Empire. Meanwhile, Darth Vader (Stewie) and the Emperor (Carter) try to recruit Luke (Chris) to the dark side of the Force with free tacos and T-shirts.

Just like its two predecessors, this parody is crude and obnoxious and occasionally funny. I would have preferred to have seen the TV version to eliminate the "F" word, which I don't particularly care for in this context.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Fanboys (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Jul 26, 2010  | 
Four estranged buddies embark on a road trip across the country in a last ditch effort to reclaim their friendship. Star Wars fans since childhood, their goal is to break into George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch in an attempt to see a rough cut of Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace before its worldwide theatrical release in 1999.

My name is David Vaughn and I have been a Star Wars fanboy since 1977. Yes, I stood in line for more hours than I would like to admit to see The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi when I was an adolescent. Furthermore, I did the same in 1999 at the ripe young age of 30 in order to be one of the first to see The Phantom Menace.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Fantasia/Fantasia 2000 (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Dec 01, 2010  | 
Initially released by Walt Disney in 1940 as a "road show" release, Fantasia has gone on to become one of the most popular movies of all time. Featuring the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski, the film has eight musical pieces set to wonderful animation and is narrated by Deems Taylor. (Interestingly, while the music was recorded by the Philadelphia Orchestra, the on-screen musicians seen in silhouette between the musical selections were members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and UAV editor Scott Wilkinson's grandfather was one of them.)

Fulfilling Walt Disney's original vision of continuing to create unique fusions of animation and classical music, Fantasia 2000 picks up where the first one left off with seven completely new segments and the return of the popular "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." Roy E. Disney orchestrated a collaboration of more than 1200 artists and technicians to present this tour de force.

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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Fantastic beasts and Where to Find Them
Avi Greengart  |  Jul 07, 2017  | 
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In the Harry Potter universe, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a school textbook. The movie of the same name provides the back story of its author. I hope there is no test, because I found the movie long and overstuffed.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Chris Chiarella  |  May 29, 2014  | 
In 2009, one of the kings of quirky dramedy, Wes Anderson, managed to surprise us again with a star-studded, fully stop-motion-animated adaptation of Roald Dahl’s deliciously absurd Fantastic Mr. Fox. This laid-back bad boy has settled down with his wife and pup, but can a fox ever really change his nature?
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsA/V Veteran
Farscape Far Away
Thomas J. Norton  |  Dec 23, 2013  | 
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If you’re a fan of science fiction and haven’t heard of the TV series Farscape (1999-2003) you don’t get out much. If you’re not a sci-fi fan, this series might just make you one. It offers more compelling characters, action, humor, drama, weird plot twists, sudden mood shifts, poignancy, and stunning performances than any other dozen TV shows you might name.

It all begins when astronaut John Crichton encounters a wormhole on an experimental mission. He’s flung to a distant quadrant of the galaxy, encounters a gigantic vessel nearby, and docks with it. It turns out to be a living ship, know to the locals a leviathan, operated by a bonded pilot. The ship’s occupants are alien prisoners escaping from their captors. The latter, the Mr. Bigs in this area of space, call themselves the Peacekeepers, and from all appearances (externally at least) appear indistinguishable from humans.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Fast & Furious
David Vaughn  |  Jul 29, 2009  | 

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/fastfurious.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>When tragedy brings fugitive ex-con Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) back to Los Angeles, his long-dormant feud with FBI agent Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) threatens to reignite&#151;until they discover a common enemy. Unfortunately, this film is about six years too late&#151;Vin Diesel should have been in the first sequel rather than skipping to the third&#151;but it's quite the demo showpiece. The video encode has excellent shadow detail with bright colors, and the first-rate DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio track exhibits outstanding surround imaging and impressive frequency response.

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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
Roger Kanno  |  Jan 17, 2020  | 
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The titular characters in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw were introduced in earlier Fast & Furious films, but you don't have to know much about their backstories to enjoy this film, an extremely serviceable action-comedy that leans heavily on the charm and chemistry of its stars, Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw.
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