Blu-ray Movie Reviews

With all due respect to director Ridley Scott's other efforts, including Black Hawk Down, this medieval crusade drama may well be his finest work to date. The theatrical cut was seriously compromised when it was cut down from the director's preferred length, but this version is far more coherent.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/knockedup.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Ben (Seth Rogan) and Alison (Katherine Heigl) have nothing in common. He is a stoner meandering his way through life without a job or any long-term goals. She is an up-and-coming career-minded girl recently promoted to host a show on E!. To celebrate, she and her married sister (Leslie Mann) venture out for some drinks when they meet Ben in a bar. Although Alison isn't physically attracted to Ben, he makes her laugh. They have quite a few drinks together, ending the night drunk and in bed. When the condom doesn't work due to operator error, both are in for the surprise of their lives when the pregnancy test is positive eight weeks later.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/knowing.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT><i>In 1958, as part of the dedication ceremony for a new elementary school, a group of students is asked to draw pictures to be stored in a time capsule. But one mysterious girl fills her sheet of paper with rows of apparently random numbers instead. Fifty years later, a new generation of students examines the capsule's contents and the girl's cryptic message ends up in the hands of young Caleb Koestler (Chandler Canterbury). But it's Caleb's father, professor John Koestler (Nicholas Cage), who makes the startling discovery that the encoded message predicts with pinpoint accuracy the dates, death tolls and coordinates of every major disaster of the past 50 years. As John further unravels the document's chilling secrets, he realizes the document foretells three additional events - the last of which hints at destruction on a global scale and seems to somehow involve John and his son.</I>

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/kungfupanda.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Po (voiced by Jack Black) is an enthusiastic panda who works in his family's noodle shop while daydreaming about becoming a Kung Fu master. His dreams are soon realized when he is unexpectedly chosen to study the martial arts alongside his idols&#151;the legendary fighters Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Crane (David Cross), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), and Monkey (Jackie Chan)&#151;under the leadership of their guru, Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman). Before they know it, the vengeful and treacherous snow leopard Tai Lung (Ian McShane) returns, and it's up to Po to defend everyone from the oncoming threat.