Blu-ray Movie Reviews

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Ultimate Matrix Collection
David Vaughn  |  Oct 17, 2008  |  0 comments

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/thematrixcollection.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT><i>"Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?"</i>

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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Brandon A. DuHamel  |  Sep 02, 2022  |  0 comments
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In The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, co-written and directed by Tom Gormican, Nicolas Cage plays "Nick Cage," a fictionalized version of himself. Facing mounting expenses, dried-up roles, and struggling to take care of his daughter and estranged wife, the aging actor is forced to take a million-dollar gig in Mallorca, Spain to attend a birthday party for superfan Javi (Pedro Pascal). Javi turns out to be a dangerous mobster also trying to sell his screenplay and wanting to collaborate with Cage. All of which leads to the Oscar winner being enlisted by a CIA agent (Tiffany Haddish) to go undercover and spy on Javi to help the government bring down his criminal enterprise.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Untouchables
Chris Chiarella  |  Aug 05, 2022  |  0 comments
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Those seeking an accurate account of notorious gangster Al Capone's downfall should continue their search elsewhere. But anyone wanting two thrilling hours of fact-influenced entertainment need look no further. Director Brian De Palma's artful take on Eliot Ness and his squad of incorruptible treasury agents on a quest to clean up Prohibition-era Chicago blends hard-hitting dialogue and career-best performances in an almost operatic tale of good versus evil.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Usual Suspects (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  May 20, 2011  |  1 comments
A $91 million cocaine heist...a devastating boat explosion...two survivors. U.S.Customs agent David Kujan (Chazz Palminterir) is determined to find out who and what's behind the melee. As he pieces the clues together with the help of a half-charred Hungarian gangster and an outspoken, crippled con man from New York (Kevin Spacy), Kujan soon finds out this story actually begins with five criminal minds and one infamous mastermind.

Second-time director Bryan Singer showed he had the chops to direct feature films with this classic hit from 1995. The ensemble cast includes Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollack, and Benicio Del Toro, but it's Spacey who steals the show as the con man Verbal Kint. Like The Sixth Sense, this is a movie that actually gets better the second time around because you start to notice the subtle hints that point towards the surprising resolution at the end of the film.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Velvet Underground
Mike Mettler  |  Mar 24, 2023  |  36 comments
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The Velvet Underground is not for everyone—nor were they ever intended to be. The critically regarded avant-garde darlings of Andy Warhol's Factory scene of late-1960s New York, the VU forged a truly groundbreaking style of music that saw the doo-wop/pop songwriting and seedy poetry predisposition of guitarist/vocalist Lou Reed embed with the hypnotic, drone-centric playing style of violist/pianist/composer John Cale.

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3D Blu-ray Movie ReviewsBlu-ray Movie Reviews
The Walk
Chris Chiarella  |  May 20, 2016  |  0 comments
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We often live in a locked-down world of dread these days, especially when the subject of the World Trade Center arises. But in the summer of 1974, one week before his 25th birthday, Philippe Petit made headlines with a self-propelled trip between the rooftops of the Twin Towers, and it has become a modern legend almost too daring to be believed. Driven by an all-consuming passion for his wire-walking art and unable to resist the majestic pull of those magnificent skyscrapers since first learning of their construction, Philippe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) truly risked everything to fulfill his dream.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Wall
Mike Mettler  |  Apr 15, 2016  |  1 comments
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The first brick of The Wall was set in place over 72 years ago on February 18, 1944, the day British Army Second Lieutenant Eric Fletcher Waters was deemed “missing in action, presumed dead” during the Battle of Anzio in Aprilia, Italy in World War II. Ever since then, his son, Roger Waters, has attempted to come to grips with that loss and the ensuing ripple effects of the spoils of war in both his lyrics and music, best realized in Pink Floyd’s 1979 magnum opus, The Wall. Waters later took The Wall Live on the road in 2010–13 for 219 performances as a fully realized audio/visual extravaganza, and I can personally confirm it as being the bestlooking and best-sounding stadium concert I’ve ever attended.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The War of the Worlds
Tom Norton  |  Nov 25, 2022  |  1 comments
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The War of the Worlds was a huge movie hit in 1953, based loosely on H.G. Wells 1898 classic novel of an invasion from Mars. We're at the center of the action during our military's initial encounter with the Martians' unstoppable machines (the latter very different from Wells' tripod conception). Later we're trapped in a trashed farmhouse and get a frightening glimpse of a live Martian. In a gripping conclusion, the Martians appear on the verge of total victory.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Water Diviner
Josef Krebs  |  Mar 04, 2016  |  0 comments
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As directed by Russell Crowe from the book of the same name by Andrew Anastasios and Dr. Meaghan Wilson-Anastasios, The Water Diviner is part (anti-) war story, part romance, part history lesson, and part travelogue. Four years after the Battle of Gallipoli in which he lost his three sons, Joshua Connor (Crowe) is driven by the suicide of his wife to leave his Outback farm to go to the battlefield in search of their remains.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep
Rad Bennett  |  Jul 16, 2008  |  0 comments
Sony
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When I was a kid, I always wished there w

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Wedding Crashers
David Vaughn  |  Dec 31, 2008  |  0 comments

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/weddingcrashers.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>John (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy (Vince Vaughn) are best friends who look forward to that special time of year where people gather to be with their families. No, not the holiday season&#151;wedding season! Guided by the closely guarded set of "wedding crashing rules," the pair descend on as many Washington D.C. weddings they can during the season to romance unsuspecting bridesmaids.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Wild—Blu-ray
Thomas J. Norton  |  Dec 28, 2006  |  First Published: Dec 29, 2006  |  0 comments

Stop me if you've heard this one. Wild animal breaks out of a New York zoo to return to the wild. Other animal friends follow to bring him back. They travel by boat to a strange, jungle environment.

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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Wizard of Oz
Chris Chiarella  |  Dec 27, 2019  |  2 comments
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With its childlike innocence and a universal charm that's born of its exquisite characters, The Wizard of Oz is likely the greatest family film of all time, the sort we may never see again. The adventure of a willful Kansas farmgirl transported to a strange, wondrous land is a heart-tugging journey of music and laughter that should continue to enthrall generations to come. There are 80 years' worth of observations for me to draw upon here, but I'll just go with this: Not enough can ever be said of Margaret Hamilton's turn as the gleefully, irresistibly, deliciously wicked villain.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Wizard of Oz - 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition (Blu-ray) The Wizard of Oz - 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Sep 29, 2009  |  0 comments

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/woz.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Adapted from L. Frank Baum's timeless children's tale, Dorothy (Judy Garland) and her dog Toto are caught in a tornado and end up in the Land of Oz. In order to return home to Kansas, she must follow the yellow brick road to visit the Wizard of Oz (Frank Morgan). Along the way she meets the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger) who wishes for a brain, the Tinman (Jack Haley) who's longing for a heart, and the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr) in search of some courage.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Wizard of Oz – 70th Anniversary Edition
David Vaughn  |  Oct 06, 2009  |  0 comments

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/woz.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>The American Film Institute's #10 film of all time makes its glorious debut on Blu-ray. Warner has done a marvelous restoration job, as <I>UAV</I> Editor Scott Wilkinson explains in <A href="http://blog.ultimateavmag.com/ultimate-gear/behind_the_curtain/">this report</A>. Here, I'll highlight a couple of jaw-dropping scenes that illustrate how this work translates to the finished project. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio track won't shake the foundation, but given its age, it sounds remarkably good, especially when Judy Garland belts out a tune.

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