Blu-ray Movie Reviews

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Marley & Me (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Mar 30, 2009  | 

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/marley.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Based on the best-selling book by John Grogan, this is a story about a young couple (Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston) who decide to get a puppy, Marley, in lieu of having a child at an early point in their marriage. Unfortunately, they adopt "evil" with the face of a dog that fails obedience school and is branded as "the world's worst dog."

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Marriage Story
Josef Krebs  |  Sep 25, 2020  | 
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At first glance, Marriage Story seems like six (or so) characters in search of a Woody Allen film. But it soon settles into writer-director Noah Baumbach's own rhythm and whine as two self-absorbed, narcissistic artistic personalities move toward a break-up and into the clutches of divorce lawyers.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Mars Needs Moms 3D
David Vaughn  |  Aug 14, 2011  | 
Nine-year-old Milo (motion-capture performer Seth Green and voice actor Seth Dusky) stows away on a Mars-bound alien spaceship as it races away with his mom (Joan Cusack), who has been abducted so the Martians can steal her mom-ness in order to raise their young. Once he arrives on the Red Planet, he's befriended by Gribbler (Dan Fogler), an immature young adult whose mother was also stolen by the Martians when he was a boy. It's a race against time as Milo struggles to save his mother from imminent doom at the hands of the aliens.

This is a decent family film that starts off pretty slow but picks up steam in the second act as you get to know the main characters. The motion-capture techniques developed by producer Robert Zemeckis in The Polar Express have improved over the years, especially with adult faces, but the children come across a little creepy. Despite the shortcomings in the story, both the 3D and 2D presentations are outstanding, and the DTS-HD MA 7.1 soundtrack is definitely demo-worthy.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Marvelous Monsters
Laura Evenson  |  Sep 09, 2002  | 
Photos by Terry Schmitt; Character images courtesy of Disney Enterprises

Also see: Measuring up Monsters

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
David Vaughn  |  Jun 13, 2008  | 

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/061308master.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Captain “Lucky Jack” Aubrey (Russell Crowe) of the HMS <I>Surprise</I> receives orders to sink or capture the French privateer <I>Acheron</I> off the east coast of South America. In his first encounter with the enemy vessel, the more powerfully built French warship gets the better of his crew and nearly sinks the <I>Surprise</I>. Dr. Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany), Aubrey's best friend and ship's surgeon, tries to convince him there is no shame in returning home given the conditions they face. Torn between duty and friendship, the fate of his crew weighs on his mind.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Maurice
Josef Krebs  |  Feb 02, 2018  | 
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Based the novel by E. M. Forster, Maurice is a groundbreaking room with a different view, projecting as much romance, passion, and class consciousness as producer Ismael Merchant and screenwriter-director James Ivory brought to their earlier hit adaptation of another Forster novel. In 1909, a student at Cambridge, Clive, urges college colleague Maurice to embrace the love of male physical beauty as described in classical literature and accept their mutual platonic love.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Fred Kaplan  |  May 19, 2017  | 
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McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Robert Altman’s best film by far, has often been called an “anti-Western,” but that’s a bit off. The plot is pure Western: A stranger comes to a frontier town, builds it up; bad guys come to kill him and take it away; he tracks them down on the street and kills them first; and oh, yes, there’s a whore with a heart of gold. The difference here is that the plot is infused with circa-1900 realism: The stranger’s a bit of a dunce; the town is a muddy mess; the bad guys are corporate poachers; our man kills them by shooting them in the back, and afterward he dies in the snow from gunshot wounds while the townsfolk put out a fire in an unused church; and, oh, the whore is also a shrewd merchant with an opium habit.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Meet the Parents & Meet the Fockers (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Dec 03, 2010  | 
Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) is a male nurse who is ready to propose to his girlfriend Pam (Teri Palo) during a weekend visit to her parents' home, but her father (Robert De Niro) takes an immediate dislike to him. Despite his best efforts, Greg can't seem to make any headway with the old man, and disaster looms around every corner.

In the hilarious sequel, Greg is set the marry Pam, and the pair travel via motor home to meet Greg's parents, but there's a catch. Pam's parents decide to make the trip, and when the two families get together, they realize how different they are.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Megamind
David Vaughn  |  Feb 28, 2011  | 
It's a case of nature versus nurture when super villain Megamind (voiced by Will Ferrell) finally defeats his arch nemesis Metro Man (Brad Pitt) and gains control of Metro City. With the hero out of the way, the villain grows bored of tormenting the humans and creates a new hero, Tighten (Johah Hill), in order to put a little fun back in his life. But when the hero turns out to be evil, will Megamind do the right thing and save the city and people he's grown fond of?

While not as good as How to Train Your Dragon or Toy Story 3, this is a lot of fun to watch, and you could tell the voice actors were having a blast in the recording studio. Sadly, the video presentation is not up to par with other animated titles and exhibits some banding and rampant aliasing that degrades the otherwise visually stunning disc. The audio suffers no such faults, and the Dolby TrueHD 7.1 soundtrack is definitely demo-worthy.

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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Men in Black
Chris Chiarella  |  Oct 14, 2022  | 
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Before comic book adaptations became their own industry, this earnest action-comedy take on Lowell Cunningham's lesser-known creation became a runaway hit, spawning a popular movie, TV and merch franchise. These supremely discrete "MIB" government agents monitor the comings and goings of Earth's rather frequent alien visitors, maintaining peace through secrecy. Their newest recruit, Jay (Will Smith), needs to step up when a particularly nasty creature lands with ill intent for the galaxy, and Jay's winning chemistry with his world-wearier partner, Kay (Tommy Lee Jones), combined with many highly imaginative sight gags, yields plenty of laughs. At a brisk 98 minutes--the plot was cleverly streamlined after negative test audience feedback--Men in Black is definitely a fun re-watch.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Men in Black
David Vaughn  |  Jun 13, 2008  | 

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/061308mib.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Agent "K" (Tommy Lee Jones) and Agent "J" (Will Smith) are members of a top-secret government agency charged with monitoring and policing alien activity on Earth. Clothed in their sharp black suits, the men must stop a deadly plot by a bug-like terrorist (Vincent D'Onofrio), who intends to start an intergalactic war by assassinating two ambassadors from opposing galaxies who are currently in New York.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Metallica & San Francisco Symphony: S&M2
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 28, 2020  | 
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Composer Michael Kamen had a vision. Back in April 1999, he convinced Bay Area metal overlords Metallica to team up with the San Francisco Symphony in Berkeley, California, for S&M, a 2.2-hour concert wherein classical music met aggro-rock head-on. Not only that, but Kamen's skilled orchestral re-arrangements of 20 Metallica classics also revealed how many of the band's subversive originals were perhaps more progressively inclined than others may have previously thought.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Miami Vice
David Vaughn  |  Aug 22, 2008  | 

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/miamivice.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>The title <i>Miami Vice</i> conjures up memories of the hit TV series from the 1980s, but this 2006 reincarnation is similar in name only. Its slow start develops into a more fast-action pace when a confidential informant contacts Crocket (Colin Farrell) and Tubbs (Jamie Fox) and lets them know that his cover was blown from "the inside." Forced to go undercover as drug and weapons runners, the pair attempt to get close enough to the cartel leader in order to bring him down.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Michael Clayton
Josef Krebs  |  Jul 17, 2008  | 
Warner Home Video
Movie •••½ Picture •••½ Sound •••½ Extras ••

"You load six

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Middle Men (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Feb 04, 2011  | 
An ordinary businessman (Luke Wilson) becomes embroiled in a dark and dangerous world of questionable morals and organized crime during the early days of the Internet. The family man has a successful career and idyllic live until he gets involved with two troubled geniuses who need business advice on getting their Internet scheme off the ground.

One would think a story about the birth of Internet porn would sizzle with excitement, but that's far from the case here. The screenplay lacks direction with silly subplots and then suddenly takes a bizarre turn in the third act. It can be funny at times, but mostly it's boring and uninteresting.

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