Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Not so much The Da Vinci Code meets Se7en but more The Bourne Identity meets Run Lola Run, director David Fincher's scene-by-scene remake of the original 2009 Swedish adaptation of the first part of novelist Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy is as if the original film had taken steroids. It's tight, tense, stylish, and very involving.

Between "message" pictures, a little sunshine, and a long-frustrated bandwagon for director Martin Scorsese, <I>Dreamgirls</I> was not nominated this year for a Best Picture Oscar. But it was, nevertheless, one of the best movies of 2006, and one of the most highly anticipated video releases of 2007. The Blu-ray discs are reviewed here. An HD DVD version, with identical contents, is also available, as well as two standard definition DVD sets.

My expectations were pretty low going into this, and for good reason. The trailers made it look like a complete rip-off of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, and unfortunately it isn't as funny as the classic John Candy/Steve Martin movie. The first act sets up the scenario pretty well, but then it quickly falls apart when the two protagonists hit the road.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/dunebd.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>In the year 10,191, the remote world of Arrakis is the only source for "Melange," or spice, which makes interstellar travel possible. When Duke Lito (Jurgen Prochnow) is murdered, his son Paul Atreides (Kyle MacLachlan) sets out to avenge his death by discovering the secret of the planet and uses its resources against his enemies in order to free the people from tyranny.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/duplicity.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Former MI-6 spy Ray Koval (Clive Owen) is hired by a CEO (Paul Giamatti) to help steal industry secrets from a rival corporation. To Ray's surprise, the mole inside said corporation is none other than Claire Stenwick (Julia Roberts), who's duplicitous behavior five years earlier cost him his career. How did he get himself into this mess?