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Meet the Parents & Meet the Fockers (Blu-ray)

David Vaughn | Dec 03, 2010

Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) is a male nurse who is ready to propose to his girlfriend Pam (Teri Palo) during a weekend visit to her parents' home, but her father (Robert De Niro) takes an immediate dislike to him. Despite his best efforts, Greg can't seem to make any headway with the old man, and disaster looms around every corner.

In the hilarious sequel, Greg is set the marry Pam, and the pair travel via motor home to meet Greg's parents, but there's a catch. Pam's parents decide to make the trip, and when the two families get together, they realize how different they are.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Megamind

David Vaughn | Feb 28, 2011

It's a case of nature versus nurture when super villain Megamind (voiced by Will Ferrell) finally defeats his arch nemesis Metro Man (Brad Pitt) and gains control of Metro City. With the hero out of the way, the villain grows bored of tormenting the humans and creates a new hero, Tighten (Johah Hill), in order to put a little fun back in his life. But when the hero turns out to be evil, will Megamind do the right thing and save the city and people he's grown fond of?

While not as good as How to Train Your Dragon or Toy Story 3, this is a lot of fun to watch, and you could tell the voice actors were having a blast in the recording studio. Sadly, the video presentation is not up to par with other animated titles and exhibits some banding and rampant aliasing that degrades the otherwise visually stunning disc. The audio suffers no such faults, and the Dolby TrueHD 7.1 soundtrack is definitely demo-worthy.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Men in Black

David Vaughn | Jun 13, 2008

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/061308mib.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Agent "K" (Tommy Lee Jones) and Agent "J" (Will Smith) are members of a top-secret government agency charged with monitoring and policing alien activity on Earth. Clothed in their sharp black suits, the men must stop a deadly plot by a bug-like terrorist (Vincent D'Onofrio), who intends to start an intergalactic war by assassinating two ambassadors from opposing galaxies who are currently in New York.

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.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Middle Men (Blu-ray)

David Vaughn | Feb 04, 2011

An ordinary businessman (Luke Wilson) becomes embroiled in a dark and dangerous world of questionable morals and organized crime during the early days of the Internet. The family man has a successful career and idyllic live until he gets involved with two troubled geniuses who need business advice on getting their Internet scheme off the ground.

One would think a story about the birth of Internet porn would sizzle with excitement, but that's far from the case here. The screenplay lacks direction with silly subplots and then suddenly takes a bizarre turn in the third act. It can be funny at times, but mostly it's boring and uninteresting.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Miracle at St. Anna

David Vaughn | Feb 19, 2009

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/stanna.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Stationed in Tuscany, Italy, during World War II, four members of the U.S. Army's all-black 92nd Infantry Division are trapped behind enemy lines after one of them risks his life to save a traumatized boy. The group then works its way to a nearby village where the soldiers gather intelligence behind enemy lines.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

David Vaughn | Apr 17, 2012

When the first Mission: Impossible hit the theaters in 1996, I found the story to be a little confusing and flat. Subsequent viewings showed it to be a movie that got better with time. Unfortunately, the sequel in 2000 was a dudthe action was great, but the screenplay wasn't anything to brag about. Lucky for us, J.J. Abrams took over in 2006 and delivered the strongest movie in Mission: Impossible III with end-to-end action and a compelling story. The fourth installment is produced by Abrams and directed by Brad Bird (The Incredibles), who shows he can deliver a live-action film with fantastic pacing and intriguing characters. I guess Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is just like fine winehe gets better with age. Not only do I think this is the best film of the bunch, the audio and video quality are demo-worthy with fabulous detail, rich colors, and one of the most engaging Dolby TrueHD 7.1 soundtracks available on Blu-ray.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol UHD

David Vaughn | Sep 28, 2018

Picture
Sound
Extras

When an IMF agent gets killed in the line of duty, critical files containing Russian nuclear launch codes that he was carrying fall into the wrong hands. With the help of two IMF colleagues, agent Ethan Hunt penetrates the Kremlin to find out the identity of “Cobalt,” a terrorist who wants the codes to start a nuclear war. Things go awry when Cobalt plants explosives in the fortress-like complex, and Hunt and his team get blamed for the resulting carnage. As tensions rise between the U.S. and Russia, the President is forced to disavow the IMF, leaving it up to Hunt and his team to solve the crisis.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Modern Family: The Complete Second Season

David Vaughn | Sep 23, 2011

The Pritchett clan has Jay (Ed O'Neill) as the patriarch who's married to his much younger Columbian wife Gloria (Sofia Vergara). Along for the ride is her old soul 11-year-old son, Manny (Rico Rodriguez), who is wise beyond his years but doesn't exactly mesh with his stepfather. Jay has two grown children from his first marriage, Claire (Julie Bowen) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), who have families of their own. Each family has their unique traits and when they all get together they form a very interesting and hilarious modern family.

I generally don't watch much TV, but Modern Family is a show that hooked me last year on Blu-ray and I couldn't wait to revisit the show on Blu-ray. This is by far the funniest show I've seen in years and the interactions between the characters are priceless. Whether it's Gloria's accent, Manny's phobias, or Jay's frustration with modern society, I'm laughing my rear-end off every episode. In fact, my wife and I laugh so much our kids have requested we don't watch the show if they are trying to sleep because we keep waking them up with our laughter!

Subwoofer Reviews

Monoprice Monolith 12" and 15" THX Ultra Subwoofers Review

David Vaughn | May 10, 2018

Monolith 15"
Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value

Monolith 12"
Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value

PRICE $800, $1,300

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Clean, copious, and articulate bass
Outstanding build quality
Five-year replacement warranty
Minus
No parametric equalizer
No app control
Extremely heavy

THE VERDICT
Entry into the crowded internet-direct subwoofer market is a bold move from Monoprice, but the performance of these subs will surely make some waves and breed some fierce competition.

Reproducing a movie soundtrack in a home environment isn’t an easy task. At your local cinema, the theater will hopefully have sound dampening so you don’t hear outside noise. And if you’re lucky, the system will be calibrated properly and provide enough headroom so there’s no clipping or distortion during the dynamic portions of the soundtrack.

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