Blu-ray Movie Reviews

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Unstoppable
David Vaughn  |  Feb 23, 2011  |  0 comments
Director/producer Tony Scott is no stranger to action movies. His resume includes hits like Top Gun, Deja Vu, and Man on Fire, the last two starring Denzel Washington. The two team up again here in one of the better action movies to come out of Hollywood in 2010.

Based very loosely on a 2001 story of a runaway train in Ohio, writer Mark Bomback jazzes it up for the sake of entertainment and action. As in real life, the adventure begins when an idiotic engineer jumps from the slowly moving train in order to reposition a switch before the train can damage it. Successful in this task, he then tries to reboard the moving train as it gains speed, but to no avail.

From this point on, the facts go out the window as the fictional train loaded with toxic chemicals hurtles toward Scranton, PA, where an elevated curve in the track will cause the train to derail, creating an environmental catastrophe and costing many lives. Despite its best attempts, the rail company can't slow the train down, and two unlikely heroes emerge to hopefully save the day. Along the way, we witness a few narrow escapes, corporate incompetence, and one hell of a thrill ride.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Until The End Of The World
Josef Krebs  |  Mar 13, 2020  |  0 comments
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Is it the search for assorted MacGuffii—bank-heist loot, giant opal, camera that records brainwave images the blind can see—that sends self-destructive Claire, her writer ex, and a bounty hunter after thief Sam Farber? Or is it love? Threatening in the wings is a nuclear satellite plunging to Earth that, if shot down, could create a chain-reaction atomic pulse that wipes all electronic circuit boards, including the file of the novel the film is being based upon.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews3D Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Up
Thomas J. Norton  |  May 29, 2013  |  0 comments
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Interactivity
Threatened with eviction from his lifelong home, Carl Fredrickson cuts loose in an unexpected way and sets off on a journey to the South American wilderness he and his late wife had long yearned to visit. Along the way, he picks up a few unwelcome (at first) fellow travelers: Russell, an 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer; Kevin, a rare bird and a key plot McGuffin; and Dug, a talking dog. Carl also runs into his boyhood idol, explorer Charles Muntz, who turns out to be less of a hero than he had long imagined.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Up (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Oct 30, 2009  |  0 comments

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/up.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner) fulfills his lifelong dream of adventure and exploration when he ties thousands of helium balloons to his house and escapes the construction hell surrounding his Oakland, California, home for the beautiful surroundings of South America. But shortly after takeoff, there's a disturbing knock at the front door&#151;a local Wilderness Explorer named Russell (Jordan Nagai) looking to earn his "assisting the elderly" badge has stowed away for the trip.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Up in the Air (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Mar 17, 2010  |  0 comments

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/upair.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Ryan (George Clooney) doesn't have the easiest job in the world. He's a corporate grim reaper who constantly travels around the country breaking the news to unsuspecting employees that their services are no longer required by their company. His company is there to aid them in the transition and make it as painless as possible. When a young Cornell graduate (Anna Kendrick) wants to transition the job onto the Internet, it's up to Ryan to show her how the process <i>really</i> works in order to preserve his livelihood and jet setting lifestyle.

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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Us
Chris Chiarella  |  Jun 21, 2019  |  0 comments
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With Get Out, his first film as writer/director, Jordan Peele introduced us to a refined new form of horror. He was the only filmmaker who could do justice to his Oscar-bound script, finding just the right tone and wringing that last bit of mood from every line, every shot, every performance. Now, with Us, he has raised the stakes, telling a deeper story on a much grander scale.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
V for Vendetta
David Vaughn  |  Jun 07, 2008  |  0 comments

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/060608vendetta.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Remember, remember the 5th of November. The significance of this date in England goes back to 1605, when a Catholic terrorist by the name of Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament in protest over how Catholics were treated. Fast forward to the near future and meet V (Hugo Weaving), our tragic hero, who struts around town wearing a Guy Fawkes mask and is a terrorist in his own right&mdash;or at least the totalitarian government has labeled him as such.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
V: The Complete First Season (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Nov 10, 2010  |  0 comments
Massive mother ships arrive over 29 major cities throughout the world carrying the Visitors, human-like beings who know our languages and promise to provide gifts of technology and healing. Some consider them saviors but others aren't so trusting and form a resistance movement determined to find the true meaning of their appearance.

I was a fan of the 1980s miniseries and eagerly anticipated the release of this show on Blu-ray. The first four episodes are quite intriguing introducing the various characters although the show loses steam over the last eight as the narrative becomes rushed to get to the full-scale invasion that's on the horizon. The second season has been picked up by ABC due to good ratings among Adults 18-49, but if the writers don't get their act together I can see a Heroes-like loss of its audience.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Valentine's Day (Blu-ray) Valentine's Day (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  May 18, 2010  |  1 comments

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/valentine.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>A day in the life of a diverse group of Los Angelenos as they navigate their way through romance and heartbreak over the course of one Valentine's Day. Couples and singles live through the pinnacles and pitfalls of finding, keeping, or ending relationships in a day in the life of love.

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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
Avi Greengart  |  Mar 02, 2018  |  1 comments
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Valerian is director Luc Besson’s passion project: He wrote and directed it based on a French comic book he loved as a child. It’s also the most expensive independent film ever, with a budget of around $180 million. It’s quite the spectacle, and the plot—involving displaced aliens amidst a multi-species space station—could be a reasonable foundation for a sci-fi adventure or sci-noir procedural. Unfortunately, the acting, character development, and dialogue are simply terrible. Ironically, the only believable character is a shape-shifting burlesque dancer played by Rihanna.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Valkyrie
David Vaughn  |  May 27, 2009  |  First Published: May 28, 2009  |  0 comments

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/valkyrie.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>After filming <i>Superman Returns</i> with HD cameras, director Bryan Singer used 35mm film in the loosely based true story <i>Valkyrie</i>, in which Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler. The film opens in North Africa with a rich golden hue; when Stauffenberg ventures back to the fatherland, the color palette opens up with bold reds and lush greens. Although the film is a middling affair, the audio and video presentation is stupendous and a demo showpiece.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Valkyrie (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  May 27, 2009  |  0 comments

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/valkyrie.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) is one of many men who want to see the end of the Third Reich. He gets his opportunity when he's maimed in an attack in Africa and transferred back to the fatherland, earning a place in Hitler's inner circle. With the crazed leader's blessing, he changes an emergency plan, Operation Valkyrie, in order to gain control of Berlin once the F&#252;hrer meets his maker.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Vantage Point
David Vaughn  |  Jul 25, 2008  |  0 comments

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/vantage.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>During a counter-terrorism summit in Spain, the President of the United States (William Hurt) is gunned down by an assassin's bullet. Eight strangers have a perfect view of the kill, but what did they really see? Replayed through the eyes of these witnesses, the minutes leading up to the fatal shot are repeated from different vantage points to solve the mystery of the shooting.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
David Vaughn  |  Feb 02, 2009  |  0 comments

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/vicky.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) venture to Barcelona for a summer holiday when they meet a charming man, Juan Antonio Gonzalo (Javier Bardem), a local painter who offers to act as a tour guide&#151;among other things. A love triangle develops, and to further complicate matters, Juan's ex-wife Maria (Penlope Cruz) enters the picture.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Vintage Hollywood on Blu-ray: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Shane Buettner  |  Feb 06, 2013  |  0 comments
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Directed by noir great Robert Aldrich, 1962’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? was a shocker in its day, from the lurid subject matter to the monumental uniting of two of the silver screen’s greatest actresses (and fiercest rivals), Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, each in her mid-fifties then. It’s a twisted tale of two once-famous, now codependent sisters: Davis’ Jane was famous in childhood as Baby Jane Hudson, while Crawford’s Blanche went on to greater stardom in Hollywood before being hit by a car, presumably driven by jealous Jane, and crippled.
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