Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Sort By: Post DateTitle Publish Date
Thomas J. Norton  |  Feb 23, 2018  |  0 comments
Picture
Sound
Extras
In the original Cars, from 2006, hotshot racecar Lightning McQueen learned to be a gracious winner but a winner nonetheless. In Cars 2, Pixar learned that they could produce a less than sparkling sequel. Now, in Cars 3, the second Disney-Pixar property to produce a threequel (after Toy Story 3), McQueen is getting older, losing his edge, and suffering both losses and trash talk from newer, sleeker, faster racers. But he goes back into training, gets up to speed (so to speak), and is on the verge of motoring back to the top when….OK, you don’t expect spoilers, do you?
Ralph Potts  |  Dec 16, 2022  |  0 comments
Picture
Sound
Extras
As a film enthusiast and writer, I often find myself involved in discussions revolving around what are my favorite films, and what I consider to be The Best Film of All Time. Neither question can be simply answered, however there is no doubt that Casablanca will always be a part of the conversation.
Chris Chiarella  |  Oct 28, 2022  |  0 comments
Picture
Sound
Extras
Chucky, the possessed plaything who would go on to become one of the premier icons of late 20th-Century horror, got his start right here in this 1988 outing. When a dying serial killer with a fondness for the occult transfers his soul into the only vessel available—the hot new talking doll on display at a toy store—little Chuck winds up going home with a single mom and is soon in the hands of a cherubic six-year-old boy.
Thomas J. Norton  |  Aug 24, 2018  |  1 comments
Picture
Sound
Extras
Miguel, a feisty youngster in small town Mexico, loves music, particularly the work of his hero, the long dead guitar and singing star, Ernesto de la Cruz. But because his great-great grandfather abandoned his wife and daughter for a career in music, his family remains virulently opposed to music and forbids Miguel’s having anything to do with it.
Chris Chiarella  |  Jun 12, 2020  |  8 comments
It's around this time of year that a few disparate "guy" movies new to the format or re-released usually pop up on Blu-ray or Ultra HD Blu-ray. That's because, as I've said since the early DVD days, discs make fantastic gifts, and not just for Father's Day. But Sony chose a different path for 2020, opening the door of its vast and prestigious Columbia Pictures vault to debut six titles on 4K Blu-ray as the Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection: Volume 1.
Chris Chiarella  |  Jan 28, 2022  |  0 comments
Once the Ultra HD Blu-ray disc format showed that it had legs, one question I found myself regularly being asked was, "When is The Criterion Collection going 4K?" The esteemed boutique label certainly didn't rush in, but by the end of 2021, fans and collectors were offered four premiere releases: Citizen Kane, Menace II Society, Mulholland Dr., and Uncut Gems.
Chris Chiarella  |  Oct 05, 2018  |  1 comments
Picture
Sound
Extras
Although never quite as disturbingly dark nor as overtly sexual as the original, Deadpool 2 is nonetheless a more-than-worthy sequel, recapturing that sublime balance between raunchy comedy and edgy action. The story has surprising heart, as super-powered contract killer Wade/Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) struggles to cope with a sudden loss while reluctantly coming to the aid of Firefist, a powerful teenage mutant in crisis.
David Vaughn  |  May 19, 2017  |  0 comments
Picture
Sound
Extras
April 20, 2010 started out like any other day for oil rig chief of maintenance Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg) and superintendent Jimmy Harrell (Kurt Russell). As its shore leave ends, the crew boards a helicopter for the flight out into the Gulf of Mexico to begin their duty on Deepwater Horizon, an offshore rig. Standard protocol is broken when the old crew leaves and the new one arrives, raising the suspicions of Harrell that something is amiss. The project is overdue and over budget, and BP is doing whatever it can to cut costs—penny wise, pound foolish.
Chris Chiarella  |  Aug 03, 2018  |  1 comments
Picture
Sound
Extras
In the 30 years since its debut, Die Hard has been riffed on and ripped off beyond count, and been sequelized no less than four times. This crown jewel of the Fox catalog, unleashed upon audiences with a ferocity, personality, and originality that we never saw coming, will likely never be topped. A very 1980s interpretation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, it finds grouchy New York City police detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) stuck in an under-construction Los Angeles skyscraper on December 24th.
Chris Chiarella  |  Aug 01, 2023  |  2 comments
As students on their warm weather break wend their way through their summer reading lists, we tender to SoundandVision.com’s visitors our first-ever Summer Watching List, a menagerie of 4K discs, HD Blu-rays and DVDs selected to entertain us and perhaps even distract from the worldwide heat records that have been broken thus far.

From debut seasons of hot TV shows to complete series, from kid-friendly to adults-only animation, from magnificent restorations of genre classics to reissues of popular film franchises that are returning to the multiplex this season, you’ll find plenty of reasons to hole up in the home theater with the air conditioner blasting and your ice cubes clinking.

Chris Chiarella  |  Dec 11, 2020  |  0 comments
Picture
Sound
Extras
District 9 rises above its disparate components—there are multiple strong influences, everything from Alien Nation to the faux-documentary feel of The Office—to deliver a socially resonant story that's even more relevant a decade after its release. Like all good science fiction, its impact derives from how it weaves in the trappings of everyday life, perhaps illuminating our own foibles.
Josef Krebs  |  Sep 20, 2019  |  0 comments
Picture
Sound
Extras
Tensions, rivalries, banter, squabbling, self-aggrandizement, and, above all, putdowns add to the hot air on this day in the life of Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn as the 98 percent Black (down to 70 percent in the last census) community and small mix of Hispanics, Whites, and Asians try to get along during a sweltering summer.
Brandon A. DuHamel  |  Aug 20, 2021  |  0 comments
Picture
Sound
Extras
It's the end of the world and Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) doesn't feel fine. He's unhinged and uneasy. He's been sleep- walking, waking up in the middle of golf courses, and experiencing waking daydreams. A jet engine has fallen from the sky and crashed into his bedroom and a giant rabbit named Frank is telling him the world will end soon unless he stops it. But how?
Brandon A. DuHamel  |  Feb 13, 2023  |  0 comments
Picture
Sound
Extras

The cover art and title for filmmaker Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling is rather misleading. We could be excused for thinking that we are about to sit down to watch some sort of romantic drama, but on the contrary, the film is a psychological thriller in the vein of The Stepford Wives, if not an indirect remake of that film.

Chris Chiarella  |  Aug 14, 2023  |  3 comments
Avatar (2009)
Picture
Sound
Extras
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
Picture
Sound
Extras
Are we officially in the post-originality era of film? Is everything now based on, inspired by or an homage to something else? When Avatar premiered in 2009, critics sussed it as a sci-fi riff on Dances with Wolves, an observation writer/director James Cameron apparently accepted, compliment or not. Here’s the thing, though: Does the story even matter here? The script — while certainly clever in places — served its purpose to set up a new generation of visuals effects that utterly dazzled audiences, making Avatar the highest-grossing film in history, for a time.

Pages

X