Blu-ray Movie Reviews

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/inkheart.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Mortimer "Mo" Folchart (Brendan Fraser) has an extraordinary gift for bringing characters from books to life when he reads aloud. But there's a danger&#151;when a character is brought to life from a book, a real person disappears into its pages. On a trip to a secondhand-book shop, Mo hears voices from <i>Inkheart</i>, a book he's been searching for since his wife vanished into its mystical world 12 years earlier, at which point Mo vowed that he would stop at nothing to reunite his family.

Once again, writer/director Pete Docter has crafted a tale that entertains the youngest viewers while also challenging even the smartest adults in the room. The underlying psychology is brilliantly laid out, allowing us to explore the relationship between emotions, memories, and personality. Dialogue is deliciously witty (star Amy Poehler is comedy gold in any medium), and in revealing the delicate balance between happiness and sorrow, the story achieves its greatest poignancy.

The story cleverly weaves together four fairy tales through a plot device centering on a baker and his wife who are unable to have children because of a witch’s curse. In order for the witch to lift the curse, the baker must bring her the cow from Jack (of the beanstalk), Little Red Riding Hood’s cape, Rapunzel’s hair, and Cinderella’s slipper.

Another sports flick about a new coach, a team down on its luck, and a player struggling to succeed. But the variations on that theme are seemingly endless. In the Hollywood vernacular, this one was "inspired by the true story" of a 30-year old substitute teacher/bartender who never played college football but won a shot at a spot on the Philadelphia Eagles roster thanks to an open tryout held by the NFL team's new coach. The tryout was little more than a publicity stunt, but for the player, die-hard Eagles fan Vince Papale, it was a chance to prove himself.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/ironman.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is a self-absorbed engineering genius who runs Stark Enterprises, a technology company that specializes in military hardware. Surviving an unexpected attack while in Afghanistan demonstrating his latest missile system, he builds a high-tech suit of armor to escape and vows to protect the people his company has put in harm's way with the weapons it has developed.