Blu-ray Movie Reviews

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/primal.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Ambitious and famed defense lawyer Martin Vail (Richard Gere) volunteers his services to Aaron Stampler (Edward Norton), a Kentucky teenager charged with the murder of a Chicago archbishop. Vail uncovers evidence that the archbishop was involved in a corrupt land scheme and may have molested young parishioners. The case is further complicated by a psychologist's diagnosis that Stampler suffers from multiple personality disorder.

It's a race against time when a rogue prince (Jake Gyllenhaal) reluctantly teams up with a rival princess (Gemma Arterton) to safeguard a magical dagger that gives its possessor the power to reverse time and rule the world.

Adapting a video game into a feature film is a challenging task, but producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Mike Newell actually pull it off here. Sure, the story isn't very thought-provoking, but there's plenty of action and enough comic relief from Alfred Molina to entertain the family for a couple of hours. The demo-worthy DTS-HD MA soundtrack features everything you'd want from an action movie—impressive dynamics, ample bass, and 360-degree envelopment.

A wayward traveler (Janet Leigh) comes upon the Bates Motel and makes the fatal decision of stopping for the evening and partaking in a shower. In one of the most memorable scenes in Hollywood history, she's sliced and diced by a mysterious psychopath (Anthony Perkins).

The Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, lulls his audience into a state of comfort throughout the first act of the film only to shock them with the famous shower scene and then slowly unwind the mystery over the last hour. I'm generally not a fan of horror films, but I've seen Psycho countless times over the years and Norman Bates still sends a chill down my spine. One thing's for sure, Hitchcock certainly knew how to keep an audience on the edge of their seat.

I was thrilled with Punch-Drunk Love when it came out: such loopy energy, zigzag surprises, so preposterous but insouciantly so oddly appealing—a mess but a dazzling mess, like most of P.T. Anderson’s movies. A decade-and-a-half later, it’s lost a lot of its punch. I don’t know if I’ve changed, if imitations have sucked out its novelty, or what, but its shortcomings now shine too clearly. Adam Sandler plays a plumbing-parts salesman who’s out on the spectrum (a bit of Benjamin Braddock crossed with Rain Man), who’s never traveled or had a girlfriend, who’s always been tormented by seven playful sisters who don’t know the madness they’re inflicting.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/quantum.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Picking up shortly after the end of <i>Casino Royale</i>, Bond (Daniel Craig) pursues those responsible for killing the woman he loved. The quest leads him to a mysterious criminal organization known as Quantum and one of its members, Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), an environmentalist who brokers the overthrow of a South American country in exchange for the world's most valuable resource. Along the way, he partners with hottie Camille (Olga Kurylenko), who's in search of her own vengeance.

Becca (Nicole Kidman) and Howie (Aaron Eckhart) are returning to their everyday existence in the wake of a shocking, sudden loss. Just eight months ago, they were a happy suburban family with everything they wanted. Now, they are only posing as normal, blindly looking for footing in a sea of new emotions after the loss of their young child.

Adapted from David Lindsay Abaire's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Rabbit Hole is one of the more disturbing films I've watched in a long time. It hit home with my wife and I since one of our friends lost a child last year and we've seen firsthand how difficult it can be for a young couple to put their lives back together after such a devastating loss. Kidman certainly deserved her Oscar nomination for her gripping performance as the emotionally strapped mother, but this certainly isn't a pick-me-up by any stretch.

Wreck It Ralph and his new BFF Vanellope have settled into a familiar routine—starring in their arcade games by day, playing other games after work, and hanging out later at Tapper's (root) beer joint. But Vanellope's Sugar Rush game breaks, and to find the part needed to fix it they sneak into a new WIFI portal at Game Central Station. It takes them to the totally unfamiliar world of the Internet, where chaos is inevitable given Ralph's natural talent for wrecking things.