Blu-ray Movie Reviews

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21
David Vaughn  |  Jul 25, 2008  |  0 comments

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/21.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess), a senior at MIT, aspires to attend Harvard Medical School but lacks the means to pay the tuition due to his working-class background. He pins his hopes on winning a rare full-ride scholarship but lacks a "moving" story to separate him from the other applicants. Ben's lucky break comes when Professor Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey) discovers his uncanny ability to solve complex math equations in his head and recruits him to join his card-counting team of students with the express intent of winning as much money as possible in Vegas. While card counting isn't illegal, the casinos have their own methods of discouraging the behavior. For Ben, this experience will give him one hell of a story to tell Harvard.

Marc Horowitz  |  Oct 02, 2008  |  0 comments
Sony
Movie ••• Picture •••½ Sound •••½ Extras •••½
It may seem far-fetched, but this
Chris Chiarella  |  Oct 10, 2012  |  12 comments
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Adaptations of old TV shows are a mixed bag, especially when filmmakers take the risky step of amping up the comedy factor of the original. The new gold standard of this bawdy-yet-reverent approach is 21 Jump Street, with much of the credit belonging to star/executive producer/co-writer Jonah Hill. He plays a brainy high school loser who, years later, winds up enrolling in the police academy at the same time as his brawny erstwhile tormentor (Channing Tatum).
David Vaughn  |  Apr 27, 2008  |  0 comments

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/27dresses.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Always a bridesmaid and never the bride, Jane (Katherine Heigle) has filled this role 27 times and has a closetful of dresses to prove it. When her younger sister Tess (Malin Ackerman) comes to town and catches the eye of her boss George (Edward Burnes)&mdash;with whom Jane is secretly in love&mdash;she is inspired to put herself first for a change.

300
Chris Chiarella  |  Nov 27, 2020  |  0 comments
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Inspired by the 1962 Cinemascope epic The 300 Spartans that he saw as a lad, writer/artist Frank Miller would go on to create the five-issue graphic novel 300, a wildly stylized, heavily fictionalized account of the Battle of Thermopylae. In his telling, full of indelible images and gruesome violence, the historical events of brave King Leonidas and his 15-score soldiers' resistance against an innumerable horde are elevated to nigh-mythological status. Led by the self-proclaimed god-king Xerxes, Persia was mercilessly conquering much of the world, but the willful Spartans, still renowned as the greatest warriors ever, dared to stand their ground.
David Vaughn  |  Jul 18, 2009  |  First Published: Jul 19, 2009  |  0 comments

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/300.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller, <i>300</i> recreates the Battle of Thermopylae in 280 BC, when Persia's King Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) had his sights set on Greece as the next country to conquer. Xerxes brought his huge army to Thermopylae where he met King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and his 300 Spartans, which held the much larger force at bay for three days.

Chris Chiarella  |  Sep 25, 2014  |  0 comments
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In true comic book (excuse me, graphic novel ) fashion, Rise of an Empire presents the “origin” of the evil god-king of Persia and his hatred of all things Greek. Set ten years before the Battle of Thermopylae, this wild prologue is very much in the wheelhouse of writer/artist Frank Miller, whose as-yet-unreleased Xerxes comic provides the basis for this follow-up to the epic 300. A great Athenian warrior named Themistokles sets this dark destiny in motion, and we leap forward a decade to the resulting Persian invasion of Greece. An older Themistokles takes to the seas to stand against Xerxes’ overwhelming naval forces, as led by the savage, mysterious Artemisia, their deadly clashes concurrent with the legendary sacrifice of King Leonidas and his brave fifteen-score Spartans.

Kevin James  |  Jul 12, 2011  |  0 comments

If you were around during the launch of high-def TV, you may remember an interesting phenomenon: People with HDTVs became oddly knowledgeable about esoteric topics, such as the migratory patterns of North American birds or the concept of Dark Matter.

Kevin James  |  Jul 12, 2011  |  0 comments

If you were around during the launch of high-def TV, you may remember an interesting phenomenon: People with HDTVs became oddly knowledgeable about esoteric topics, such as the migratory patterns of North American birds or the concept of Dark Matter.

Kevin James  |  Jul 12, 2011  |  0 comments

If you were around during the launch of high-def TV, you may remember an interesting phenomenon: People with HDTVs became oddly knowledgeable about esoteric topics, such as the migratory patterns of North American birds or the concept of Dark Matter.

Geoffrey Morrison  |  Dec 20, 2010  |  0 comments

Most 3D TVs have some sort of faux-3D mode that can add a certain amount of depth to a 3D image. For that real 3D, though, you need original 3D content. There's a fair amount out there, but frustratingly, not all of it is available to everyone.

With this guide, we here at S+V will help you navigate the murky waters of the current state of 3D content.

BLU-RAY

Josef Krebs  |  Jul 30, 2008  |  0 comments
The Criterion Collection
Movie •••• Picture •••• Sound ••• Extras ••••

A self-taught independent filmmaker, Agnes

Chris Chiarella  |  Feb 24, 2023  |  0 comments
In Bruges, 107 mins.
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The Score, 124 mins.
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Tropic Thunder, 107/121 mins.
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The Usual Suspects, 106 mins.
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Boutique label Kino Lorber Studio Classics has been coming on strong the past couple of years, and their recent Ultra HD 4K output has been second to none. With the freedom to work with a variety of studios, they’re amassing an enviable catalog of time-honored films in uncompromising video quality. We spun four of their newest, all utilizing Dolby Vision HDR and proffered on roomy triple-layer 100GB discs. All of them use pre-existing DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtracks, maintain key legacy bonus features, and also include the movie on freshly minted 1080p Blu-rays.

David Vaughn  |  Oct 23, 2012  |  0 comments
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Four Atlanta businessmen set out in two canoes down the fictional Cahulawassee River before a dam is built to generate electricity for the growing population of Atlanta. Their adventure starts normal enough, but you get the impression that something isn’t right with the inbred people of the backcountry—and their enjoyable river ride turns into a horrific life-changing experience.
Corey Gunnestad  |  Jul 22, 2014  |  0 comments
It’s all in how you play the game

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There may be no crying in baseball, but for the longest time in America, there sure was no shortage of bigotry and intolerance in it. But in 1947, after nearly a century of incompliant segregation in the big leagues, two men changed the game forever when the color barrier was finally broken and baseball legitimately became America’s national pastime. When team owner Branch Rickey hand-picked a promising young player named Jackie Robinson from the Negro Leagues and brought him to play major league baseball with “dem bums,” the Brooklyn Dodgers, it truly was a milestone in American history.

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