Blu-ray Movie Reviews

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Midsommar
Al Griffin  |  Nov 29, 2019  | 
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Ari Aster's second feature—the first was 2018's thoroughly unnerving Hereditary—continues the director's preoccupation with family as a wellspring of horror. This time around, horrific familial events occur in the film's first fifteen minutes, and the main protagonist, college student Dani, ends up trailing her ambivalent, unsupportive boyfriend to a rural community in Sweden that's in the midst of celebrating Midsommar, a festival occurring only once every ninety years.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Miller's Crossing
Josef Krebs  |  Mar 18, 2022  | 
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In this classy, hard-boiled, Prohibition-era noir saga by writer-director Joel Coen and co-writer Ethan Coen—with uncredited lifting from Samuel Dashiell Hammett, who actually created the memorable, colorful characters, plot, and mood in his 1931 novel The Glass Key—Tom Reagan (Gabriel Byrne) is right-hand man and wise, cool-headed adviser to powerful political boss Liam "Leo" O'Bannon (Albert Finney).
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Million Dollar Arm
Chris Chiarella  |  Jan 15, 2015  | 
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Million Dollar Arm thankfully falls into that welcome category of sports movies that don’t demand a love of sports in order to click with audiences. Based on a true story, it introduces us to J.B. Bernstein (Jon Hamm), partner at a small sports agency in desperate need of a break, lest their doors close forever. He decides to think globally and soon cooks up The Big Idea: to hold a well-publicized contest in India with the intention of converting a cricket bowler into a baseball pitcher, with a seven-figure prize at stake. J.B. will secure some undiscovered talent, bring his winners home, and teach them the good old American pastime. Simple, right?
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3D Blu-ray Movie ReviewsBlu-ray Movie Reviews
Minions
Thomas J. Norton  |  Mar 18, 2016  | 
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We first met the Minions in the Despicable Me films. They were the henchmen of Gru, desperate to be seen as The Greatest Villain of All Time. But the Minions movie begins at the dawn of time when these funny, goggle-wearing creatures, babbling in their unique humina-humina-humina language, emerge from the primordial sea. They’re immediately driven to seek out the greatest villain they can find. But no sooner do they find one than they bumble into eliminating him.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Miracle at St. Anna
David Vaughn  |  Feb 19, 2009  | 

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/stanna.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Stationed in Tuscany, Italy, during World War II, four members of the U.S. Army's all-black 92nd Infantry Division are trapped behind enemy lines after one of them risks his life to save a traumatized boy. The group then works its way to a nearby village where the soldiers gather intelligence behind enemy lines.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day
Rad Bennett  |  Oct 02, 2008  | 
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Were you to first watch the
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Mission: Impossible - Fallout
Chris Chiarella  |  Jan 18, 2019  | 
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Say what you will about controversial superstar Tom Cruise, his dedication to the big-screen Mission: Impossible franchise he launched in 1996 is nothing short of inspiring. Performing stunts that would give a professional thrill-seeker pause, he literally throws himself into his work with unparalleled zeal. For this sixth go-round, secret agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is in hot pursuit of terrorists out to tear down our world order, bad guys armed with an apocalyptic manifesto, and some nuclear weapons. Expect betrayals and frame-ups that force Ethan to go rogue...again.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
David Vaughn  |  Apr 17, 2012  | 

When the first Mission: Impossible hit the theaters in 1996, I found the story to be a little confusing and flat. Subsequent viewings showed it to be a movie that got better with time. Unfortunately, the sequel in 2000 was a dud—the action was great, but the screenplay wasn't anything to brag about. Lucky for us, J.J. Abrams took over in 2006 and delivered the strongest movie in Mission: Impossible III with end-to-end action and a compelling story. The fourth installment is produced by Abrams and directed by Brad Bird (The Incredibles), who shows he can deliver a live-action film with fantastic pacing and intriguing characters. I guess Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is just like fine wine—he gets better with age. Not only do I think this is the best film of the bunch, the audio and video quality are demo-worthy with fabulous detail, rich colors, and one of the most engaging Dolby TrueHD 7.1 soundtracks available on Blu-ray.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol UHD
David Vaughn  |  Sep 28, 2018  | 
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When an IMF agent gets killed in the line of duty, critical files containing Russian nuclear launch codes that he was carrying fall into the wrong hands. With the help of two IMF colleagues, agent Ethan Hunt penetrates the Kremlin to find out the identity of “Cobalt,” a terrorist who wants the codes to start a nuclear war. Things go awry when Cobalt plants explosives in the fortress-like complex, and Hunt and his team get blamed for the resulting carnage. As tensions rise between the U.S. and Russia, the President is forced to disavow the IMF, leaving it up to Hunt and his team to solve the crisis.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol
Chris Chiarella  |  Aug 07, 2012  | 
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Tom Cruise returns as IMF agent Ethan Hunt for this fourth film in his big-screen Mission: Impossible franchise, and this might just be the best one yet. Hunt is the sort of fellow I secretly hope we have on the federal payroll: fearless, cool under pressure, and a quick study in almost everything. He’s a good man to have on our side when the going gets rough because he simply will not quit as long as he has a pulse.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Mission: Impossible--Rogue Nation
Chris Chiarella  |  Apr 22, 2016  | 
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As if their world-saving missions weren’t hard enough already, the entire Impossible Mission Force is shut down by an overzealous CIA director, and the IMF’s best agent, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), is now an international fugitive. Of course, those setbacks don’t stop him from continuing his search for the Syndicate. The Syndicate is ruthless, frighteningly effective, and worst of all, the CIA refuses to believe that it even exists, so the pursuit is uphill all the way.
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3D Blu-ray Movie ReviewsBlu-ray Movie Reviews
Moana
Chris Chiarella  |  Jun 16, 2017  | 
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The brave, spirited non-princess of the title is still learning how to lead her village when a when a mysterious curse befalls their island. Despite a lifetime of warnings from her father the chief, she sets sail upon an epic journey to save her people, seeking the help of a misunderstood demigod along the way. A tale of destiny, selflessness, and family, Moana is filled with beauty, magic, and wonder and is among the very finest films to ever come from Disney.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Modern Family: The Complete Second Season
David Vaughn  |  Sep 23, 2011  | 
The Pritchett clan has Jay (Ed O'Neill) as the patriarch who's married to his much younger Columbian wife Gloria (Sofia Vergara). Along for the ride is her old soul 11-year-old son, Manny (Rico Rodriguez), who is wise beyond his years but doesn't exactly mesh with his stepfather. Jay has two grown children from his first marriage, Claire (Julie Bowen) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), who have families of their own. Each family has their unique traits and when they all get together they form a very interesting and hilarious modern family.

I generally don't watch much TV, but Modern Family is a show that hooked me last year on Blu-ray and I couldn't wait to revisit the show on Blu-ray. This is by far the funniest show I've seen in years and the interactions between the characters are priceless. Whether it's Gloria's accent, Manny's phobias, or Jay's frustration with modern society, I'm laughing my rear-end off every episode. In fact, my wife and I laugh so much our kids have requested we don't watch the show if they are trying to sleep because we keep waking them up with our laughter!

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Monkey Kingdom
Brandon A. DuHamel  |  Jan 15, 2016  | 
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Directors Mark Linfield and Alastair Fothergill (Earth) return to Disneynature with the beautifully filmed documentary Monkey Kingdom, which follows a troop of macaques living in the ruins of a Sri Lankan temple. The story hones in on a female named Maya and her newborn son Kip. The lowborn Maya must work her way through the complex hierarchy of the macaques in her struggle to survive and feed her son.
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3D Blu-ray Movie ReviewsBlu-ray Movie Reviews
Monsters University
Chris Chiarella  |  Jan 23, 2014  | 
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Ever wonder how Monsters, Inc.’s Mike and Sully met? Me neither, since their friendship is so well defined in that vastly superior original film. But Monsters University takes us back to their college days anyway, when the optimistic Mr. Wozanski and the cocky Mr. Sullivan first crossed paths. Since childhood, the bookish, hardworking Mike has dreamed of becoming the greatest scarer ever, but after a disastrous first semester, he must win the campus Scare Games if he’s to have any hope of continuing his education. That means teaming up with a ragtag bunch of underdogs—and with Sully, who is rather a shallow jerk before he learns to play nice. This prequel is fraught with clichés and soon feels too darned long. As we used to say back when I was in school, that’s a bummer.
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