Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews

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TV on Disc: Spring 2025 (Updated)
Chris Chiarella  |  Jun 18, 2025  |  First Published: Mar 25, 2025

Spring has sprung, which means that a new crop of TV series on Blu-ray, 4K, and humble DVD is ready to harvest. Catch a deep whiff of that fresh-cut grass, then head inside to catch up on old favorites and discover shows that might have flown beneath your radar until now. We’ll also be showcasing an assortment of Japanese animation, starting with…

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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Twisters
Chris Chiarella  |  Oct 28, 2024
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The sequel that no one asked for but seemingly everybody enjoyed, Twisters takes advantage of decades of advances in meteorology and special effects technology to bring us a modern take on feisty storm chasers in the American Midwest.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Two “Killer” Classics Slay on 4K
Chris Chiarella  |  Sep 28, 2024  |  First Published: Sep 29, 2024
The Ladykillers (1955)
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Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
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This month, Kino Lorber Studio Classics has dropped a pair of classic crime flicks, a dark comedy and one of the all-time great whodunnits. I first discovered The Ladykillers back in film school, and its endearing British charm remains central to its enduring appeal.
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Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Ultimate Demo Disc? Planet Earth II on 4K Blu-ray
David Vaughn  |  Aug 01, 2017
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It was about ten years ago that BBC debuted their original Planet Earth on both Blu-ray and HD DVD here in the United States to much critical acclaim. Not resting on their laurels, the Planet Earth team went to work on their next project, appropriately named Planet Earth II. While 1080p was cutting-edge a decade ago, simple HD wouldn’t cut the mustard any longer since we are living in a 4K world that expects wide color gamut (WCG) and high dynamic range (HDR)—or at least readers of Sound & Vision do.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Unforgiven
Brandon A. DuHamel  |  Aug 25, 2017
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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.
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Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Unwrapping the Best in 4K & Blu-ray, 2025
Chris Chiarella  |  Nov 27, 2025
In a world dominated by dubious digital streams, the physical media community stands fast as the champions of A/V quality and perpetuity. Thankfully, major studios and boutique labels haven't just held the line, they've mounted a spectacular offensive. These final months of 2025 have delivered a bountiful barrage of discs, from lavish boxed sets to impeccably restored classics for discerning viewers and collectors, sure to satiate the hungriest disc player. So quit fretting over your gift list and prepare to be inspired by some of the finest in entertainment.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Us
Chris Chiarella  |  Jun 21, 2019
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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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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
Avi Greengart  |  Mar 02, 2018
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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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WALL-E
Chris Chiarella  |  Mar 17, 2023
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Does anyone else miss the glory days of Pixar, when they were cranking out hit after hit, putting story and character above all? This was the era of WALL·E, a film of overwhelming visual and emotional beauty about the last working waste allocation load lifter assigned to Earth cleanup in the distant future. His endearing combination of kindness, a yearning for companionship and an eagerness to find value in all things set the stage for a memorable, nigh-wordless first act wherein he falls for the newly arrived EVE, a very different robot with a very different directive…

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War for the Planet of the Apes
Thomas J. Norton  |  Mar 09, 2018
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War for the Planet of the Apes concludes a trilogy that began with Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011. It tells the story of Caesar, from a nascent, intelligent ape to the leader of a band of smart simians. Humankind here has been nearly wiped out, with the survivors fighting to retain their freedom and humanity. In a twist from the classic 1968 original, however, the humans here are the villains, and the apes, fleeing the remnants of an army led by an obsessed, Ahab-like colonel, are the heroes. We’re driven to root for the Apes, from the story’s beginning to its near-biblical conclusion.
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Warm Bodies
David Vaughn  |  Feb 16, 2018
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This is the classic story of boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, girl wakes up one day and realizes she loves boy and can’t live without him. Will daddy approve? Not likely since the boy comes from the group that daddy is trying to wipe off the face of the Earth, so the young couple must overcome long odds to live happily ever after. Although there’s a twist here that you don’t often see—the boy is a zombie who can’t even remember his name other than it begins with an R.
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Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Waterworld
Chris Chiarella  |  Sep 22, 2023
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Funny how some movies debut to great negativity; either due to controversy or harsh criticism, possibly both; and yet possess that certain something that enables them to transcend over time. Waterworld is a fine example, plagued by countless production woes and subsequent budget overruns, considered a flop despite its big box office, and now years later, a great many folks appreciate its charms and have even granted it cult status.

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Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Chris Chiarella  |  Mar 22, 2024
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Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is about a boy with a dream and an accordion who makes it big swapping his own hilarious lyrics into other people’s songs. It’s also an unapologetic parody of the celebrity biography and its many clichés.

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West Side Story
Thomas J. Norton  |  Jun 24, 2022
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Based on the Broadway musical from Leonard Bernstein, Steven Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents, West Side Story involves two teenage gangs, one Anglo (the Jets) and the other Puerto Rican (the Sharks), that fight constantly over turf and ethnicity in the mean city streets of 1950s New York. When Jets-member Tony falls head-over-heels for Maria, the sister of a Shark, you don't need a roadmap to see where this will end up. Hint: Think Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
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Westworld Season One - The Maze
Brandon A. DuHamel  |  Mar 29, 2018
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In a not too distant future, the wealthy plunk down big bucks to enter Westworld, a Disneyland for adults populated by “hosts”—human-like A.I. androids capable of fulfilling their every desire. With a cast of A-list names such as Evan Rachel Wood, Anthony Hopkins, Jeffrey Wright, and Ed Harris, this psychological, character-driven drama series goes beyond the gimmickry of its 1973 original to offer up a well-crafted exploration of what it means to be human as well as the blurred lines between good and evil and past and present. Could it be a replacement for Game of Thrones? Only time will tell.
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