Blu-ray Movie Reviews

When the US loses a diplomat over enemy lines, Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his covert military team are sent to find them and get out of dodge without being detected. Once on the scene, they find some special forces personnel skinned alive and wonder who or what could have done it.

The 1980s had its share of sci-fi/horror classics and Predator is one of the best and spawned a number of sequels including the upcoming theatrical release of Predators. Schwarzenegger is outstanding as the action hero and director John McTiernan takes a promising concept and delivers the goods with plenty of action and intensity.

An alcoholic movie star (James Mason) stumbles on stage when a young singer (Judy Garland) is performing. The kindness she shows him after the incident makes an impression on him and he convinces her to leave her band and take a shot to be a movie star. The two eventually marry and when her star shines brighter than his there's bound to be problems.

For the record, I generally like musicals but for some reason I couldn't get into this film. The dramatic elements are great, but just when things start to get interesting Garland will burst into an overlong and unmemorable song. At nearly three hours, the films pacing is severely challenged and I can see why Warner shortened it over 30 minutes for its theatrical run in 1954. The restored cut includes some still shots since the original footage was destroyed, but the studio found the original full-length audio tracks to make thing coherent.

Movie: 4
Picture/Sound: 3.5/4.5
Extras: 4

Movie: 4.5
Picture/Sound: 5/4
Extras: 2

After being killed by a suicide bomber in an overseas nightclub, Matt (Tahmoh Penikett) awakes on a mysterious planet populated by other resurrected Earthlings from across history. Determined to find the woman he loves (Laura Vandervoort), he joins forces with a 13th century female warrior (Jeananne Goossen) and riverboat captain Mark Twain (Mark Deklin) as they travel the mysterious waterways of the planet in search of lost love and some answers about the peculiar planet.

Based on a series of novels written by Phillip Jose Farmer, Riverworld had the potential to be a very entertaining sci-fi show. Sadly the excellent first act is wasted with a meandering story that drags through its nearly three-hour runtime. By the final hour I was bored with the characters and couldn't wait for the predictable ending to finally arrive.

Movie: 3.5
Picture/Sound: 4.25/4
Extras: 2