Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Video: 3
Audio: 2
Extras: 4
Rarely before this movie had such bad people been seen getting away with bad things. You love Steve McQueen’s Carter despite the fact that he’s a bank robber and he kills people. Add in Ali MacGraw, explosions, and the fact that this is one of the only movies made almost entirely in sequence (as in the first scene was shot first, the last one last), and you have a classic of American cinema.

Who can forget <I>Seven Years in Tibet</I>? In the early days of DVD, almost ten years ago, it was one of the first great releases. It offered stunning picture quality with video imagery that took full advantage of the top-of-the-line production values. The move is "panoramic." It shows vast Tibetan vistas, as well as exotic and colorful religious dress of the era – the late 1930s and early 1940s. Eventually, Sony even put out a "SuperBit" version, which was said to have even better picture quality.

Mel Gibson may or may not have terminally damaged his impressive film career with his well-publicized antics last summer, but no one can accuse him of being a hack filmmaker. His box office draw as an actor may not be what it once was, but he does know how to direct a movie.

Video: 4
Audio: 5
Extras: 1
The biblical Babel is the place where God, frustrated yet again by man’s hubris and sin, chooses to scatter a united people and confuse their tongues so that they can no longer understand one another. It marks our division. Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu’s Babel serves to remind us of our commonality; despite those differences of language, culture, and geography, we are inherently united in our humanity—in the love, fear, jealousy, loneliness, and hope that drive us. The story begins when two Moroccans accidentally shoot an American tourist and set off a series of events that will reach as far as Mexico and Japan.

Video: 3
Audio: 3
Extras: 1
Before American Beauty and X-Men, there was Kevin Spacey in Bryan Singer’s The Usual Suspects. Easily one of the most engaging crime thrillers of modern film, The Usual Suspects brings you through a dope deal gone wrong, and what led to it, through the eyes of Roger “Verbal” Kint (Spacey). To go into further detail would be to ruin a fun ride with one of the most notorious reveals in cinema.

Video: 2
Audio: 2
Extras: 4
What’s amazing about watching this movie now is how trite it seems. From the car chase through San Francisco to Steve McQueen’s effortlessly cool lead as an insubordinate cop, it has all been done countless times. But what many people have forgotten is that this was the first time any of that had been done in any real way. The plot is almost inconsequential. This movie is about watching McQueen be the badass that he was—and one of the greatest car chases ever put on film.

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.