Blu-ray Movie Reviews

David Vaughn | Jun 07, 2011 | 0 comments

Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) wants justice when her father is killed by Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). Headstrong to the nth-degree, the teenager hires U.S. Marshall "Rooster" Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) and insists she's part of the posse. Cogburn grudgingly approves but Matty isn't happy when he allows a Texas Ranger (Matt Damon) into the group who's in search of the same man for a murder in Texas.

Filling the shoes of John Wayne is an impossible task, but Bridges did the best he could do and still doesn't measure up to Wayne's Oscar-winning portrayal of the gruff Cogburn. Having watched the original less than six months ago I couldn't help compare each of the respective roles and other than Bridges impossible undertaking, the other two main characters (Damon and Steinfeld) more than make up the difference.

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True Romance

Chris Chiarella | Aug 26, 2022 | 1 comments

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These days you're not likely to see a Quentin Tarantino script directed by someone else, but there was a time when the young filmmaker-cum-video-store-clerk was raising funds to make his directorial debut (Reservoir Dogs) and sold True Romance, which was ultimately helmed by Top Gun's Tony Scott. The movie took a few years to find its audience—and current cult status—but is now hard to see it as anything but inspired and uniquely entertaining.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

True Romance (Blu-ray)

Kris Deering | Jun 10, 2009 | 0 comments

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/truerom.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT><i>Runaway lovers Clarence (Christian Slater) and Alabama (Patricia Arquette) play a dangerous game when they come to possess a suitcase of mob contraband. They head for Los Angeles, where they'll sell the goods and begin a new life. But both sides of the law have other ideas.</i>

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

True Stories

Roger Kanno | Jan 04, 2019 | 0 comments

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Fresh off the success of his band's appearance in Jonathan Demme's seminal concert film, Stop Making Sense, Talking Heads front man David Byrne tried his hand at making his own feature film in 1986. A comedy styled as a documentary about the fictional town of Virgil, Texas, True Stories centers on the town's quirky residents, whose lives are reminiscent of tabloid newspaper stories. Written by Byrne, Beth Henley, and Stephen Tobolowsky (whom you might remember from memorable roles in Groundhog Day, Thelma and Louise, Californication and Glee), it is also directed by and stars Byrne as the narrator and main character. This enjoyable, offbeat film offers clever and sometimes even brilliant takes on Americana.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Truffaut in Blu

| May 17, 2009 | 0 comments

The Criterion Collection

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The increased visual resolution of the Blu-ray Disc format isn't only there to bo

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Tut

Thomas J. Norton | Feb 16, 2016 | 1 comments

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Egyptian history is astonishingly long by modern standards. The pharaoh Tutankhamun lived roughly 13 centuries after the pyramids were built, and another 13 centuries would pass before Cleopatra friended an asp.

The plot of this two-disc, 4.5-hour miniseries is centered on the limited facts we know about Tut. He was the son of Akhenaten, whose worship of the sun god Aton and rejection of Egypt’s traditional deities nearly tore the country apart. Tut became pharaoh around age nine and eventually restored the old gods and stabilized the kingdom. But by the time of his death at a young 19, he had failed to produce an heir by his wife and half-sister Ankhesenamun.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

TV Nation: Behind the Candelabra, Arrow and Spartacus: War of the Damned

Chris Chiarella | Sep 14, 2013 | 0 comments

The small screen serves up some big drama in these three TV-on-Blu-ray releases, from Liberace to slave revolt to big-city vigilante justice.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

U-571 Blu-ray review

Brent Butterworth | Nov 11, 2008 | 0 comments

Universal

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At home, U-571 has always suffered a reputation as a

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Ultimate Demos' New Look

Scott Wilkinson | Nov 23, 2011 | 6 comments

If you have a home theater, you probably enjoy showing it off to your family and friends. But which Blu-ray titles are best for demonstrating the audio and video capabilities of your system? That's easy—they're listed in HT's exclusive blog called Ultimate Demos, which identifies Blu-rays of superior technical quality and calls out specific scenes, right down to the chapter and time-code second, that let your theater really shine.

And now, Ultimate Demos are new and improved, with icons that let you instantly see which titles have exemplary video, audio, or both. If the stylized eye is red, you know that disc provides exceptional visual imagery, while a red ear icon indicates outstanding sound. If either icon is orange, the corresponding content is very good, but not quite up to reference quality, while a gray icon means there's nothing special about that part of the presentation.

Keep in mind that Ultimate Demos are not movie reviews—they will always provide top-quality audio and/or video, even if the movie itself doesn't measure up to the disc's technical merits. So if you've been looking for Blu-rays that kick some serious home-theater butt, look no farther than HT's Ultimate Demos.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Unbreakable

David Vaughn | Apr 03, 2008 | 0 comments

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/403unbreakable.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Bruce Willis stars as David Dunn, the sole survivor of a horrific train accident who escaped not only with his life, but without any injuries to speak of. Dunn's survival prompts a visit from Elijah Prince (Samuel L. Jackson), a crazed man who believes that David possesses superhuman strength and is a comic-book hero come to life.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Unbroken

Brandon A. DuHamel | Jun 18, 2015 | 1 comments

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The incredible true story of Olympian and World War II veteran Louis Zamperini languished in Hollywood for decades. It was initially licensed as a project for Tony Curtis, who later abandoned it to star in Spartacus. Then came Laura Hillenbrand’s bestselling book, Unbroken, which caught the attention of producer/director Angelina Jolie and others, and Zamperini’s moving story has finally found its moment to shine.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Uncut Gems

Josef Krebs | May 01, 2020 | 0 comments

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Uncut Gems, like its lead character, Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler), is challenging. A brash, lying, motor-mouthed, but charming hustler trading in precious gems and jewelry from a store he owns in Manhattan's Diamond District, Howard's real talent is upsetting people—along with other self-destructive behavior like pissing off the loan sharks he's heavily in debt to.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Under the Skin

David Vaughn | Nov 05, 2014 | 1 comments

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An alien being comes to Earth and assumes the form of a gorgeous and seductive young woman and proceeds to drive around Scotland in a cargo van trying to lure unsuspecting male victims back to her lair. Once there, she begins to strip onto an inky-black floor walking backwards into the room. Hypnotized by her beauty, the men strip as they slowly sink into a black pool of death so their bodies can be harvested for some unexplained nefarious purpose. As the film progresses, our alien vixen begins to change and wants to explore what being human is about and is introduced to an Earthly phenomenon known as karma.

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Unforgiven

Brandon A. DuHamel | Aug 25, 2017 | 0 comments

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Unforgiven marked another turning point for Clint Eastwood and the Western genre. The deconstructed Western stars Eastwood as aged outlaw Bill Munny, who, after years of living a reformed life, is dragged back into his old ways. His wife has passed, and his pig farm is struggling, so an offer to avenge a brutalized prostitute is too much to pass up. He enlists his old running mate, Ned (Morgan Freeman), and they set off with the young “Schofield Kid” to collect the bounty.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Unknown (Blu-ray)

David Vaughn | Jun 17, 2011 | 0 comments

Arriving in Berlin for a technology conference, Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) must make a mad dash back to the airport in order to find his left-behind briefcase that contains some valuable information and his passport. In his haste, he leaves his wife (January Jones) at the hotel check-in and doesn't tell her where he's headed. After a horrific accident, he awakens in a hospital four days later and is troubled to learn that no one has come looking for him. He tracks down his wife at the conference and discovers that she doesn't recognize him, and another man (Aidan Quinn) has assumed his identity. Is he going mad?

With his starring role in Taken, Neeson showed he had the chops to handle the action genre and he delivers another solid performance here. The pacing is fantastic and the story keeps you on the edge of your seat until the tidy and disappointing ending.

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