Blu-ray Movie Reviews

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Life Before Her Eyes—Magnolia Pictures (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Aug 24, 2008
Video: 5/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 3/5
"The Life Before Her Eyes" is an intense and visually evocative drama about the loss of youth, investigating how a single moment in time can define an entire life. Based on Laura Kasischke's visionary novel, the story hinges on a pivotal confrontation: two high school girls held captive by a gunman and forced to make the terrifying choice as to who will live and who will die. "The Life Before Her Eyes" explores the reverberations stemming from the collision of past and future, reality and dream. Life can end in an instant - yet the echoes of possible futures remain inescapable.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Felon—Sony Pictures (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Aug 24, 2008
Video: 3.75/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 2/5
A loving family man with a promising future, Wade Porter suddenly loses everything when he accidentally kills the burglar who broke into his home. Convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Wade is sentenced to spend the next three years inside a maximum security facility where the rules of society no longer apply. Forced to share a cell with a notorious mass murderer and subjected to brutal beatings orchestrated by the sadistic head prison guard, Wade soon realizes he's in for the fight of his life and must become the toughest "Felon" of them all if he's to survive the block. For what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. And in state prison, only the strongest will survive.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas—Walt Disney Pictures (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Aug 24, 2008
Video: 4.5/5
Audio: 4.75/5
Extras: 4/5
Enter an extraordinary world filled with magic and wonder - where every holiday has its own special land... and imaginative, one-of-a-kind characters! "The Nightmare Before Christmas" tells the heartfelt tale of Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, and all things that go bump in the night. Bored with the same old tricks and treats, he yearns for something more, and soon stumbles upon the glorious magic of Christmas Town! Jack decides to bring this joyful holiday back to Halloween Town. But as his dream to fill Santa's shoes unravels, it's up to Sally, the rag doll who loves him, to stitch things back together.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
U-571—Universal (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Aug 24, 2008
Video: 3.5/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 2.5/5
A U.S. Navy Captain and his crew are just beginning to enjoy 48 hours of leave when they receive word to immediately return to duty. On a top-secret assignment, they must disguise themselves as Nazis and infiltrate a severely damaged Nazi U-boat. Once on board, they are to steal the Nazi's top-secret decoding device and sink the sub before the Germans catch on to what's really happening. Their mission is more dangerous and frightening than anything they could have ever imagined, but one which has the power to turn the tide of battle.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Transformers—Dreamworks Pictures (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Aug 24, 2008
Video: 5/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 4.5/5
When their epic struggle comes to Earth, all that stands between the Decepticons and ultimate power is a clue held by young Sam Witwicky. Unaware that he is mankind's last chance for survival, Sam and Bumblebee, his robot disguised as a car, are in a heart-pounding race against an enemy unlike anything anyone has seen before.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Fall—Sony Pictures Classics (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Aug 24, 2008
Video: 4.5/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 2.5/5
Los Angeles, circa 1920‘s, a little immigrant girl finds herself in a hospital recovering from a fall. She strikes up a friendship with a bedridden man who captivates her with a whimsical story that removes her far from the hospital doldrums into the exotic landscapes of her imagination. Making sure he keeps the girl interested in the story he interweaves her family and people she likes from the hospital into his tale.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Heroes Season One and Two—Universal (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Aug 24, 2008
Video: 4/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 4.5/5
Experience the suspense, mystery, and electrifying twists as this astonishing series follows seemingly unconnected, ordinary people around the globe who discover they have extraordinary powers. As they come to terms with their unique abilities, their risky decisions will affect the futures of everyone around them …and the world.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Miami Vice
David Vaughn  |  Aug 22, 2008

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/miamivice.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>The title <i>Miami Vice</i> conjures up memories of the hit TV series from the 1980s, but this 2006 reincarnation is similar in name only. Its slow start develops into a more fast-action pace when a confidential informant contacts Crocket (Colin Farrell) and Tubbs (Jamie Fox) and lets them know that his cover was blown from "the inside." Forced to go undercover as drug and weapons runners, the pair attempt to get close enough to the cartel leader in order to bring him down.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Transformers
David Vaughn  |  Aug 22, 2008

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/transformers.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Two competing factions from Cybertron&#151;the Autobots and Decepticons&#151;arrive on Earth seeking the Allspark, a device with enough power to save their planet. A human teenager (Shia LaBeouf) holds the key to where the Allspark is hidden, and unbeknownst to him, his recently purchased Camaro is an Autobot serving as his protector from the evil Decepticons until help can arrive.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Nightmare Before Christmas
David Vaughn  |  Aug 20, 2008

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/nightmare.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Bored with his perennial role as Halloween Town's frightening Pumpkin King, Jack Skellington discovers the cheerful village of Christmas Town. Determined to shake things up in Halloween Town, he schemes to kidnap Santa Clause and takes over the job of delivering gifts to the children himself. When his plan goes awry, Jack attempts to restore Santa to his rightful place, but he must first rescue him from the evil clutches of Oogie Boogie.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Perfect Storm
David Vaughn  |  Aug 20, 2008

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/Perfectstorm.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Based on the book by Sebastian Junger, <i>The Perfect Storm</i> centers around one of the deadliest storms in recorded history. In 1991, three weather fronts collided in the North Atlantic&#151;one of them being Hurricane Grace&#151;which caused swells 100 feet tall and winds that reached 160MPH.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
What Happens In Vegas—20th Century Fox (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Aug 15, 2008
Video: 4/5
Audio: 3.5/5
Extras: 2.75/5
Two strangers awaken together to discover they've gotten married following a night of debauchery in Sin City, and one of them has won a huge jackpot after playing the other's quarter. The newlyweds devise ever-escalating schemes to undermine each other and get their hands on the money - only to find themselves falling in love amid the mutual backstabbing.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Smart People—Miramax Films (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Aug 15, 2008
Video: 3.5/5
Audio: 3.25/5
Extras: 2.5/5
Professor Lawrence Wetherhold might be imperiously brilliant, monumentally self-possessed and an intellectual giant - but when it comes to solving the conundrums of love and family, he's as downright flummoxed as the next guy. His collegiate son won't confide in him, his teenage daughter is an acid-tongued overachiever who follows all too closely in dad's misery-loving footsteps, and his adopted, preposterously ne'er-do-well brother has perfected the art of freeloading. A widower who can't seem to find passion in anything anymore, not even the Victorian Literature in which he's an expert, it seems Lawrence is sleepwalking through a very stunted middle age. When his brother shows up unexpectedly for an extended stay at just about the same time as he accidentally encounters his former student Janet, the circumstances cause him to stir from his deep, deep freeze, with often comical, sometimes heartbreaking, consequences for himself and everyone around him.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Shutter—20th Century Fox (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Aug 15, 2008
Video: 4/5
Audio: 4.5/5
Extras: 3.25/5
A young photographer and his wife discover mysterious shadows in their photographs after a tragic accident. They soon learn that you can never escape the past as a ghost continuously haunts them.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Kiss of the Spider Woman—City Lights Pictures (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Aug 15, 2008
Video: 2.75/5
Audio: 3/5
Extras: 3/5
This groundbreaking film (the first independent ever to receive the top four Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Director for Hector Babenco), adapted for the screen by Academy Award nominated screenwriter Leonard Schrader from Manuel Puig's novel set in a non-specific Latin American country, takes a penetrating look at the role of sex and politics under an oppressive right-wing regime. The timeless story, more relevant today than ever, follows the complex relationship between two distinctly different men with opposite views about life - building with powerful emotional crescendo as they gradually come together in a stunningly transcendental conclusion.
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