Blu-ray Movie Reviews

David Vaughn | Dec 02, 2009 |

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/kevinsmith.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Writer/director Kevin Smith made his feature-film debut in 1994 with the cult-classic comedy <i>Clerks</i>, a hilarious story about a pair of witty counter clerks in New Jersey starring Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson as the two main characters Dante and Randal. Also debuting in the film are Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith), who will show up in many more of Smith's productions.

The Kid With a Bike

Fred Kaplan | Jun 19, 2013 |

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The Kid With a Bike is a heartbreaking, gripping, ultimately unsettling, but very satisfying film—an odd jumble of adjectives, I know, but the Dardenne brothers of Belgium routinely provoke these dissonances in the works they jointly write and direct. Their earlier films (The Child, The Son, La Promesse, among others) are notoriously hard to warm to: The characters are obstinate, the pace slides and rambles. The Kid With a Bike, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes, is sunnier, more kinetic, but it, too, disrupts assumptions, snaps you in unexpected directions: just like life.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The Killing

Fred Kaplan | Sep 23, 2011 |

Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing is a nifty film noir with brisk dialogue (by noir novelist Jim Thompson) and brushstroke characters. It features a taut narrative within a daringly fitful structure (the plot starts over and over, charting the events from different points of view, leading up to the climax) and an ending straight out of O. Henry. The story line is fairly conventional—a racetrack heist, the mastermind who devises it, and the gang of misfits who try to pull it off. But the theme—human foibles trumping the best-laid plans—anticipates many Kubrick films to come, notably Paths of Glory, Dr. Strangelove, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. This is also the first film where Kubrick, just 28 years old, displays a master director’s touch: a keen visual sense, both for the composition of the frame and for the fluid camera motion (it seems to be moving almost constantly). The acting is a bit outsized, but so it is in most Kubricks, and as with most, it fits the movie’s mood. This one marks his first association with Sterling Hayden, who’s very fine as the methodical planner: mordantly witty, slow-burning with desire to break through life’s trappings, and in the end stoic about his prospects.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The King of Swing

Jamie Sorcher | Nov 03, 2002 |

(Movie Images Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.)

"This, like any story worth telling, is all about a girl," Peter Parker tells us at the beginning of Spider-Man-not what you'd expect to hear from a superhero. But, as delighted audiences soon discovered, Spider-Man doesn't play by the rules.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The Kingdom

David Vaughn | Nov 23, 2008 |

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/thekingdom.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>When Islamic terrorists attack United States citizens in Saudi Arabia, the FBI wants to dispatch an investigative team to track down the people responsible. Unfortunately, the Attorney General and the State Department are more worried about politics and diplomacy than justice, so the FBI takes matters into its own hands. Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) and his three-man team circumvent the system and gain access to the crime scene only to find the local authorities stonewalling them at every turn.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The Kings Speech (Blu-ray)

David Vaughn | Apr 18, 2011 |

After the death of his father and the scandalous abdication of his brother King Edward VIII (Guy Pearce), Bertie (Colin Firth), who has suffered from a debilitating speech impediment all of his life, is suddenly crowned King George VI of England. With his country on the brink of war and in desperate need of a leader, his wife, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter), arranges for her husband to see an eccentric speech therapist, Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). After a rough start, the two delve into an unorthodox course of treatment and eventually forge a genuine friendship.

Taking home the Oscars for Best Picture,

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Best Actor (Firth), Best Director (Tom Hooper), and Best Original Screenplay (David Seidler), I had extremely high expectations of this film and they were mostly met. That being said, I don't think this was the best picture of 2010, my pick would be The Social Network, but I can see why the Academy chose this film due to the lavish sets, decadent costumes, and historically significant story.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The Kite Runner Rad Bennett | Jul 31, 2008 |

DreamWorks

Movie •••^½ Picture •••^½ Sound •••• Extras •••

In Kabul, before the Russians invad

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The Last Emperor Josef Krebs | Feb 23, 2009 |

The Criterion Collection

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In 1987, director and co-writer Bernardo Be

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The Last Kiss (Blu-ray) David Vaughn | Apr 18, 2009 |

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/lastkiss.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Michael (Zach Braff) is immature and dreads both his 30th birthday and marrying Jenna (Jacinda Barrett), who's carrying his unborn child. When he meets Kim (Rachel Bilson) at a wedding, she makes him feel 10 years younger, and he questions whether he should be taking himself off the market.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The Last Song (Blu-ray)

David Vaughn | Aug 24, 2010 |

Banished by their mother (Kelly Preston) to spend the summer with their father (Greg Kinnear) in Georgia, Veronica (Miley Cyrus) and her younger brother Jonah (Bobby Coleman) get a chance to reconnect with him since their parents divorced a few years earlier. Before the split, Veronica would spend countless hours together at the piano and since he left she has refused to play despite receiving a scholarship offer to Julliard. Can a summer with her father rekindle her desire to play or will other circumstances alter her life?

Written by Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook), The Last Song certainly caters to a female audience but I can't say I didn't enjoy certain aspects of the production. The screenplay is very melodramatic with pitfalls lurking behind every corner, although I felt the performances by Kinnear as the loving father was genuine and young Coleman steals the show with some great one-liners. Cyrus has improved as an actress, but still has quite a ways to go to graduate to more adult productions.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The Last Stand

Chris Chiarella | May 08, 2014 |

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High on the list of stars needing a good movie under their belt we would find the beleaguered Mr. Schwarzenegger. His box office clout was waning, then he spent many years away from show business to run California. At one point his most promising comeback vehicle seemed to be a bizarre "Governator" cartoon, and then it all came crashing down amid a horrible public scandal. But could he still hold his own on the big screen if he wanted to?

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The Last Starfighter

Tom Norton | Sep 20, 2007 | First Published: Sep 21, 2007 |

I confess to a serious weakness for <I>The Last Starfighter</I>. Even by 1984 standards, the year of its release, it wasn't a great science fiction film. But there is something immensely appealing in its old-fashioned innocence.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The Last Starfighter (Blu-ray)

David Vaughn | Aug 15, 2009 |

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/laststar.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>After attaining the highest score in the Starfighter video game, Earthling Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) is recruited by the mysterious Centauri (Robert Preston) to be a part of an elite legion of fighters defending the interstellar frontier against Xur and The Kodan Armada. Leaving behind his trailer-park home for outer space, Alex is the last hope for the galaxy.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The Last Word (Blu-ray)

David Vaughn | Apr 17, 2009 |

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/lastword.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Evan Merck (We Bentley) is one weird dude who makes a living writing suicide notes for people planning their own demise. His world turns topsy-turvy when he meets Charlotte (Winona Ryder), the sister of a former client, and he's forced to lie about his relationship with her now-departed brother in order to pursue a relationship.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The Legend of Tarzan

Corey Gunnestad | Mar 10, 2017 |

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The Legend of Tarzan nearly functions as a sequel of sorts, picking up where most other Tarzan movies leave off. It’s 1890 and the man formerly known as Tarzan, John Clayton III the Earl of Greystoke, and his beautiful wife Jane are happily married and living as aristocrats in England.

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