Blu-ray Movie Reviews

A group of kids discover an old video game console in the basement of their school with an unknown game called Jumanji. After choosing their avatars, the foursome is transported into the game’s jungle setting and assume their roles. They soon discover that not only have they taken on the look of the characters, but have inherited their strengths and weaknesses. To survive the game and get back home, all must work together to pass the obstacles placed in front of them, but the stakes are higher than they could have ever imagined.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/415juno.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Juno (Ellen Page) is a confident and candid teenage girl facing an unplanned pregnancy. Instead of taking the expedient way out with an abortion, she sets out to find the perfect parents to adopt her baby. With the support of her family and friends, she struggles with the physical changes that her body undergoes as well as the challenges of the social stereotypes associated with teenage pregnancy.

On a remote tropical island, an amazing living theme park becomes a game of survival for humans foolhardy enough to set foot on it. Meticulously recreated dinosaurs spring to astonishing life as a multimillionaire (Richard Attenborough) bankrolls an effort to use advanced DNA technology to bring dinosaurs back to life. When an employee shuts down the security system for personal monetary gain all hell breaks loose when the dinosaurs escape forcing the visitors to play a game of cat and mouse with the deadly prehistoric creatures.

Throughout movie history there are certain films that change the way movies are made and Jurassic Park certainly qualifies due to its cutting-edge use of CGI effects. Even to this day, the dinosaurs depicted in the film look so lifelike it's kind of creepy. When it hit theaters in 1993, it blew audiences away and became an instant classic.

After telling his new girlfriend that he's married as a means of avoiding real commitment, a plastic surgeon (Adam Sandler) must recruit a fake family to prove his honesty. His loyal assistant (Jennifer Aniston) agrees to play the soon to be ex-wife in order to score a free trip to Hawaii, but things don't go according to the plan when the two discover there's more to their friendship than meets the eye.

After Friends, many people wondered which of the ensemble cast would be the most successful and Aniston has been the most visible with movie projects. Here she plays the same character we've seen hundreds of times before in the romantic comedy genre as the loyal friend who discovers she's fallen in love and must overcome long odds in order to fulfill her dreams. Yawn!

When you think about the serial nature of comic books and the virtually limitless stream of new stories published each month, big-screen sequels in this genre should be a slam-dunk, right? Unfortunately, Kick-Ass 2 loses its way; its themes becoming at once muddled and more clichéd. High-schooler/hero Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is upping his crime-fighting game under the tutelage of 15-year-old Hit-Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz), who soon faces her own identity crisis. Inspired by the duo’s exploits, an all-new team of masked heroes has assembled, just as the vengeful son of a dead mob boss begins recruiting his own evil army, and a showdown is inevitable.

Will Blu-ray’s state-of-the-art audio codecs become the format’s killer apps?

High-resolution audio is like a drowning man who, just when all seems lost, suddenly bobs back up to the surface for a convulsive gulp of air. CD replaces vinyl—he’s down. CD mastering improves—he’s up. Bad CD mastering squashes dynamic range—he’s down. SACD and DVD-Audio make their debuts with new 5.1-channel recordings and/or mixes—he’s up. The high-rez audio formats tank—he’s down. Vinyl makes a comeback—he’s up. Low-quality lossy downloads gut CD sales—he’s down. Oh Lord, he’s been down there a long time now. Will we ever see his head above water again?

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/kingkong.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>A desperate young actress, Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts), and an ambitious and unscrupulous movie producer, Carl Denham (Jack Black), travel to a mysterious jungle island to shoot a film. There they discover an extraordinary lost world and encounter Kong, a gigantic, savage gorilla who becomes enthralled with the leading lady. Their mutual empathy and affection eventually leads to the beast's tragic downfall.