Kris Deering

Blu-ray Movie Reviews
27 Dresses—20th Century Fox (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Apr 22, 2008  |  0 comments
Video: 3/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 2.5/5
My wife had been pretty excited about seeing this one. We've been seeing trailers for it on several Blu-ray discs from Fox. Both of us are romantic comedy fans and we both really enjoyed Katherine Heigl's work in the recent Knocked Up. Unfortunately this one was a bit of a disappointment. It has a few good laughs but was weak on the romance and we didn't connect with the characters at all. Heigl is good but the rest of the characters were a bit one dimensional and I think this could have been the most cut and dry performance to date from Ed Burns. With so many great romantic comedies out there, I would suggest looking elsewhere on date night.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Damages—Sony Pictures (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Apr 22, 2008  |  0 comments
Video: 3/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 3/5
I've never been much of a TV watcher. I lived overseas for the later part of my teen years and it just put me in a mindset that I wasn't interested once I came back. Occasionally I see a show on TV that catches my eye but I rarely follow through with a whole season. I will say though, if all shows were as good as this one I'd be making a lot of time for TV. I had never heard of Damages before receiving it for review and it took awhile before I had the time to watch the whole thing but once my wife and I sat down to start it, it was hard to stop. We were always looking for an opportunity to watch another episode and never found a single one boring or useless fill in any way. Fans of legal thrillers should definitely put this on the must see list!
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Blu-ray Player Reviews
Denon DVD-2500BTCI Blu-ray Player
Kris Deering  |  Apr 18, 2008  |  0 comments
Breaking new ground in HD.

Since the arrival of Blu-ray, I’ve been waiting for a player from Denon, whose high-end DVD players have served as references for me for years. So far, the standalone Blu-ray players I’ve used have left me wanting. Pioneer and Sony are the only manufacturers offering players with the construction quality I expect from a top-end player. But both of these manufacturers have delivered products with their own issues, including extremely slow response times and lack of support for cutting-edge Blu-ray features.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Dogma—Columbia Pictures (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Apr 14, 2008  |  0 comments
Video: 3.5/5
Audio: 3.5/5
Extras: 3/5
Kevin Smith's religious epic caused a bit of a stir upon its first release. The comedy epic is witty and makes a nice satire out of the holy verses with a touch of Jay and Silent Bob. I'm on the fence about which Kevin Smith film is my favorite but this is definitely one of the front runners. The writing is excellent and the cast does a great job with the material. As long as you don't take it too seriously, this film is a lot of fun.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Alvin and the Chipmunks—20th Century Fox (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Apr 14, 2008  |  0 comments
Video: 4/5
Audio: 4.5/5
Extras: 2/5
Can't say I had high hopes for this one going in but Alvin and the Chipmunks ended up being one of the most enjoyable family films I saw this last year. I used to watch the cartoon when I was a kid and this feature film did a good job capturing the spirit and humor of the original show. There are some great laughs here and the music is catchy enough that my daughter had to get up a boogie a bit during the movie. Sure it has a lot of comedy clichs and Hollywood formula, but it was still solid family fun.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The 6th Day—Columbia Pictures (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Apr 14, 2008  |  0 comments
Video: 4/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 3/5
You would think the "govenator" had a new film coming out this summer with all the Schwarzenegger films hitting Blu-ray shelves this past month. Sony throws their bid in with The 6th Day, an action thriller that takes a rather disturbing look at a possible near future where cloning has become common practice. We've seen these before and it seems like Hollywood always tries to cash in on the latest science buzz. The script is pretty horrendous when it comes to dialogue and delivery, but the action sequences and production make up for it a bit. One of Arnold's weaker films, but still a decent popcorn piece.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story—Columbia Pictures (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Apr 14, 2008  |  0 comments
Video: 5/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 4/5
Parodies are always really hit or miss with me. The trailers for this one didn't do anything for me but Judd Apatow has been delivering some great comedies lately (Knocked Up and Superbad) so I was curious to give this one a spin. Unfortunately this wasn't the movie for me. I like comedies, but this one was just too silly for its own good. The longer director's cut didn't help either. Don't get me wrong, there are some incredibly funny moments in this film, but it gets bogged down by some of the over the top moments similar to Apatow's other disappointment, Talladega Nights. Fans of that film will probably find this one appealing in all areas, but I can't say I was much of a fan.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Underdog—Walt Disney Pictures (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Apr 14, 2008  |  0 comments
Video: 4.5/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 3/5
I'd been holding off on watching this one until my daughter was visiting. She is five so I thought this would be a great one to sit down and watch with her. Unfortunately she got pretty bored with it, and so did I. The humor goes above their head most of the time, and falls pretty short of mine. The concept is cute and talking animals are always pretty funny, but the movie moves along at a slower pace than I would expect given its target audience. As far as family films go it is nice to see something with no real adult humor or innuendo, I just wish there was more to have fun with for 90 minutes.
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Surround Processor Reviews
Integra DTC-9.8 A/V Processor
Kris Deering  |  Apr 07, 2008  |  0 comments
Next-generation audio/video controller.

Integra raised a lot of eyebrows when it announced the new DTC-9.8 A/V processor at CEDIA last year. Not only was this the first pre/pro on the market to offer decoding of the next-gen audio codecs from Dolby and DTS, it also boasts Silicon Optix video processing and highly sophisticated Audyssey room correction. And its $1,600 price point was almost unheard of in the separates market.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
AVP: Requiem—20th Century Fox (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Apr 02, 2008  |  0 comments
Video: 4.5/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 3.5/5
I completely avoided this one during its theatrical run due to the bad taste left in my mouth from the first AVP. The first film had a reasonably good premise, but I didn’t care for the execution. Surprisingly this follow up was far more satisfying, though still short of the original Alien and Predator franchises. The film picks up right where the last one left off with the predator/alien half-breed. The ship gets taken over by the new breed and crashes in the woods in Colorado. From there a small town is essentially taken over by the alien. Back on the Predator home world a warrior is sent out to deal with the issue and essentially becomes the primary source of hope for the small town. There are definitely points in this film where the cheese gets a bit much, but I thought the execution was a bit better this time around and fans of the franchise will probably find this a more satisfying addition.
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