They say that truth is stranger than fiction and in the case of The Blind Side, that is certainly true. Had the book and the film been a work of fiction, we all would have rolled our eyes and said, you’ve got to be kidding me! What a tall tail! However, die to the confluence of too many improbable circumstances to count, The Blind Side is true. While it is a an enjoyable film featuring several wonderful performances, the question to be answered today is how well does it look and sound on Blu-ray? I guess you will just have to keep on reading. Read the full story

Ever since Toy Story burst on the scene with its incredible computer generated images, hand drawn animation began to fade away. After the release of Toy Story, each new CGI feature seemed to outdo the others, advancing the state of art even further, with more realistic and lifelike animation and movement. When it comes to CGI, the sky really seems to be the limit. However, lost in all this technical advancement was the sheer beauty of hand drawn animation, the kind that the folks at Disney Studios made so famous. I guess it was fitting that Disney, under the helm of John Lassiter of Pixar fame, would be the ones to bring hand drawn animation back to the screen with 2009’s The Princess and the Frog, which has finally made its way to Blu-ray. Read the full story

Making a movie out of a popular book is hard enough. Having the condense several hundred pages of text into a coherent two hour film can be quite a daunting task. The list of great books being made into mediocre films is long indeed. Even more difficult I would imagine is taking a very popular short illustrated children’s book and fleshing it out into a full length motion picture, while keeping true to the spirit of the book. Well that is just what director Spike Jonze has accomplished with the subject of today’s review. Where the Wild Things Are. Read the full story

I guess you can say that I am in the very distinct minority in the US when it comes to soccer. I love it, especially English football, which has a rick, deep and at times, crazy history. Teams like Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Everton, Leeds United, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forrest, Reading and Derby Country, just to name but a few. Even the names of the stadiums evoke the richness of that history, with monikers such as Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge, Anfield and Craven’s Cottage immediately coming to mind! Better than the Wachovia Center don’t you think? Read the full story

Steven Soderbergh’s films are if nothing, very complicated, with layer upon layer of intrigue. From Ocean’s 11,12 and 13 to Traffic it can get to be very difficult to keep up with the action and figure out where the film is heading. Dealing with an actual historical event and the lives of real people, it is a bit easier to follow a film as you already know the actual outcome. Making these characters and these stories into a great film is much more difficult than with works of pure fiction. Which brings us to the subject of today’s review, The Informant. Read the full story

As a reviewer, I am man enough to admit that I occasionally prejudge a movie based on its box.  And when I see that “WWE  Studios Presents” a Blu-ray starring Ted DiBiase (Jr. the wrestler) in The Marine 2, I could already feel the bad review writing itself.  Not only does this movie suffer from a weak pedigree (like “The Marine” really needed a sequel), and star a previously untested wrestler as the lead, but it also suffers from the stigma of “direct to video” from a barely credible production house. Read the full story

Wow, has it really been 20 years since The Simpsons has been on the air? I can still remember when the Simpsons appeared as a regular short feature on the old Tracy Ullman show before the folks at Fox decided to make it into a 30 minute show. Now into their 21st season (and still going strong), The Simpsons 20th season has now made its way to Blu-ray and is the subject of today’s review. Read the full story

One of the more interesting experiences one can have as a movie reviewer is to be asked to review a movie you’ve never heard of.  This can be good as you see the movie with no preconceptions, and there is always the opportunity to find a “hidden treasure”. Read the full story

I  feel the need to get something off my pulmonary cavity before I even begin here.  Make no mistake; I am a gargantuan fan of the Diablo Cody horror comedy film Jennifer’s Body.  Since owning the Blu-ray disc last Tuesday it has frequented my Blu-ray drive a total of seven majestic times.  I just can’t seem to get enough of it.  Like most movies I have seen this past year, the second viewing at home has been the most crucial in determining its cultural relevance within my life and usually the most applauding, as is the case here.  Let’s take a closer look to see why Jennifer’s Body may not have been the most successful film at the box office last year, but why it will live on in the hearts of many as an instant cult classic in their home video collection. Read the full story

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is the third film in the Ice Age trilogy and is making its way to Blu-ray this month. While I enjoyed the first film, Ice Age a lot, I found the second installment, Ice Age: The Meltdown, to be a bit of a let down although is sure did well at the box office. Will the third installment continue the downward slid or match the level of the first? Read the full story

I am always wary when I see little snippets of film reviews declaring a particular film to be “The year’s best Comedy…” or “Laugh-Out-Loud Funny…” as they are usually indicative of just the opposite, especially if they are from film reviewers I have never heard of. Well, such is the case with the subject of today’s review, The Proposal starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, which is declared to be “The Years Best Comedy” by Pete Hammond and “laugh out loud funny” by Leonard Maltin (who I have heard of!). While the film does have its moments, it is hardly the year’s best comedy. Read the full story

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. That may be the case but it sure doesn’t usually lead to good films. Hollywood has a tendency to copy films that are successful at the box office in the hope that something similar will have to do well, right? That leads them to copy both good and bad films with predictable results. This year it was the mall cop genre that received the copying treatment. With Paul Blart Mall Cop doing so well at the box office, you just knew that another film featuring an overweight and intellectually challenged mall cop would be following and it did, namely Observe and Report, which is the subject matter of today’s review. Read the full story

Nature documentaries and Blu-ray go together like peanut butter and jelly or macaroni and cheese. In this humble writer’s opinion, the two best nature documentaries on Blu-ray to date are Planet Earth and Galapagos, both produced by the BBC, which feature some compelling storytelling and above all else, stunning video presentations. Now along comes another nature documentary showing great promise, Earth. Snappy title huh? While Earth is released by Disneynature, it is a co-production with the BBC and the Discovery channel along with Green Light Media. Given this pedigree, it will be interesting to see how Earth stacks up against the best. Read the full story

Big Trouble In Little China is somewhat of a cult classic and frankly, a film that I have always enjoyed. I didn’t see the film in the theater when it was released back in 1986 but did see it when I rented the laserdisc when the film was released on that format in the late 1980’s or early 1990’s. I immediately added the film to my collection on that long dead format ( I still have my copy today). I was not really all that happy with the video quality on the laserdisc but loved the film. When the film was released on DVD many years later, I picked up a copy of that as well. While the DVD offered an improvement over the laserdisc in all respects, I was never really happy with the video quality on the DVD either. Now Big Trouble in Little China has been released on Blu-ray. I happy to report that it offers a significant upgrade over all prior video releases in terms of both picture and sound quality. Read the full story

Wholesome family entertainment. That seems to be a very common buzzword these days when it comes to films. Families with kids are complaining that there is just too much violence and sexual content in films that are designed to appeal, in part, to children and pre-teens. Frankly, I feel that that is a bit of an overstatement but I do understand the desire of parents to have available good quality age appropriate entertainment for their kids. Read the full story

It seems more and more films are showcases for the big car chase, explosions, alien invasions and large robots, often times featuring mindless action and even more forgettable dialogue. Don’t get me wrong, I love a great action film but also love to view a film that features an excellent script, steady direction and nuanced storytelling, where what isn’t said in a given scene is more important than what is said. Just such a film is A River Runs Through It which is making its high def debut on Blu-ray this week and is a real keeper. Read the full story

Normally when there is a sequel to a film, the first film was popular enough that it makes financial sense to do go to the well once more to see if more money can be squeezed out of the moviegoers. Even if the film wasn’t a hit with the populace, a sequel may be justified financially if the first was a great but overlooked film. It makes no sense however, to proceed with a sequel for a film which was neither successful at the box office nor artistically. Which brings us to The Pink Panther 2. Read the full story