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Director's Intent: Kaleidescape 4K
Everything Everywhere All At Once
David Vaughn  |  Mar 12, 2023

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Written and directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, this is my personal favorite to win multiple Oscars this year. The film follows the story of Maureen Folan, who during a contentious IRS audit discovers she is connected to multiple parallel universes and must navigate through them in order to save her family from an ancient evil.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Ex Machina
David Vaughn  |  Oct 02, 2015
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Computer programmer Caleb Smith wins an inter-company competition to spend a week at the remote estate of the company’s brilliant, yet quirky CEO and founder, Nathan Bateman. He soon learns that the vacation will be anything but when he’s coerced into signing a nondisclosure release in order to administer a Turing Test on a new AI program that could revolutionize the world. It turns out that the AI has been placed in a fully functional—and human-looking—robot named Ava, who has been locked in a glass enclosure and can’t be freed unless she proves to Smith and Bateman that she’s achieved full consciousness and is not just copying human behavior.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Extract (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Dec 23, 2009

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/extract.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Joel Reynolds (Jason Bateman) is sitting pretty with a beautiful wife, a comfortable home, and the almost finalized acquisition by General Mills of the culinary extracts business he has built with his loyal lieutenant Brian (J.K. Simmons). Joel seems to have it all, but his wife isn't interested in him, his employees want a big payoff, and the new office hottie (Mila Kunis) is really a con artist with ulterior motives.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
David Vaughn  |  Mar 30, 2012

September 11, 2001, is a day that I doubt anyone in the world will ever forget. For young Oskar, it was the day he lost his best friend—his dad. Based on the bestseller by Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is an emotional rollercoaster about a preteen trying to cope with the loss of his father in his own unique way. I enjoyed the film a lot and was especially impressed with the AVC video encode with its outstanding level of detail and rich color saturation. The enveloping DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack is no slouch either and features crisp dialog and pinpoint imaging.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Falling Down (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  May 27, 2009

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/fallingdown.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>D-FENS (Michael Douglas) is a recently laid-off defense worker who's having a bad day. Stuck in the mother of all traffic jams, he abandons his car and sets out on foot to his daughter's birthday party. When a Korean store owner charges an insane price for a can of Coke, he snaps and trashes the store with a newly confiscated baseball bat. Now armed and dangerous, he sets out toward Venice, California with a severe case of road rage and leaves a trail of destruction in his wake.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Fame (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Jan 27, 2010

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/fame.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>The High School of Performing Arts in New York City was created in 1947 by Franklin J. Keller offering music and speech programs along with traditional trade skills. Promising seven classes a day and a hot lunch, the school trains teenage musicians, actors, and dancers who have dreams of making it big except some dreams will be shattered along the way.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Family Guy – Something, Something, Something, Darkside (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Dec 24, 2009

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/famguy.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT><i>May the laughs be with you as (Chris) Skywalker joins forces with (Peter) Solo and Princess (Lois) Leia to battle (Stewie) Vader and his Imperial minions. A host of new characters come along for the wild ride, including Mort Goldman as Lando Calrissian, Chris' boss Carl as Yoda, and the Giant Chicken as the nefarious Boba Fett.</i>

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Family Guy: It's a Trap! (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Dec 23, 2010
The Family Guy alliance is in for one last outer-space adventure, as Han Solo (Peter), Chewbacca (Brian), and Princess Leia (Lois) battle against the Evil Empire. Meanwhile, Darth Vader (Stewie) and the Emperor (Carter) try to recruit Luke (Chris) to the dark side of the Force with free tacos and T-shirts.

Just like its two predecessors, this parody is crude and obnoxious and occasionally funny. I would have preferred to have seen the TV version to eliminate the "F" word, which I don't particularly care for in this context.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Fanboys (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Jul 26, 2010
Four estranged buddies embark on a road trip across the country in a last ditch effort to reclaim their friendship. Star Wars fans since childhood, their goal is to break into George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch in an attempt to see a rough cut of Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace before its worldwide theatrical release in 1999.

My name is David Vaughn and I have been a Star Wars fanboy since 1977. Yes, I stood in line for more hours than I would like to admit to see The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi when I was an adolescent. Furthermore, I did the same in 1999 at the ripe young age of 30 in order to be one of the first to see The Phantom Menace.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Fantasia/Fantasia 2000 (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Dec 01, 2010
Initially released by Walt Disney in 1940 as a "road show" release, Fantasia has gone on to become one of the most popular movies of all time. Featuring the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski, the film has eight musical pieces set to wonderful animation and is narrated by Deems Taylor. (Interestingly, while the music was recorded by the Philadelphia Orchestra, the on-screen musicians seen in silhouette between the musical selections were members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and UAV editor Scott Wilkinson's grandfather was one of them.)

Fulfilling Walt Disney's original vision of continuing to create unique fusions of animation and classical music, Fantasia 2000 picks up where the first one left off with seven completely new segments and the return of the popular "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." Roy E. Disney orchestrated a collaboration of more than 1200 artists and technicians to present this tour de force.

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