Into the Blu

Back in the late 1980′s, the subject of Autism was not well known throughout America. It was the film that is the subject of this review, Rain Man, that thrust the topic of Autism into the mainstream of the collective American consciousness. Since then, Autism has been in the news more and more, with the incidents of the diagnosis of Autism on the upswing and with the since discredited concerns about the role of vaccinations in the rise of the of the incidents of Autism over the past decade or so. Continue Reading

With The Kids are All Right winning the Golden Globe for Best comedy, the film was definitely moved to the top of my “must watch soon” list and upon seeing the many awards this film has been collecting my expectations were raised accordingly. With a very edgy premise and an ensemble cast of great actors it begs the question… Does the film live up to all of this?

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The folks at Disney have sure been busy restoring and releasing some of their masterpieces on the Blu-ray format. Since the inception of the format, Disney has released classics such as Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs all of the which look spectacular and better than they ever have in the home environment by a wide margin. To that list of Disney classics you can now add Alice in Wonderland, which is coming to Blu-ray on its 60th Anniversary. Will it hold up to the other films in terms of picture and audio quality? Continue Reading

As anyone who has been following this website or Blu-ray in general knows that 2010 has been quite a year for releases on Blu-ray. There have been several highly anticipated catalogue releases this year (Including the recently released Alien Anthology and Toy Story 3). One of the releases that has been at the top of many film fans’ wish list has been Back to the Future, which has undergone a restoration and new transfer for its debut release on Blu-ray. Was it worth the wait? Continue Reading

For the penultimate movie in my review of the Mel Brooks Collection, I selected the classic Spaceballs, Mr. Brooks’ send up of science fiction movies.  Although I thought I had watched this movie previously, I was surprised to discover that I had only watched it in parts and not as a whole.

When viewing the film previously, I had been struck by its obvious wink to Star Wars, emphasized through characters such as Barf, Dot, Yogurt, Pizza the Hutt, and Dark Helmet.  As a long-term lover of science fiction films, Spaceballs was treading dangerous ground.  My question was, was this film sublime satire, or pure farce. Continue Reading

There is no question that animated films have universally looked great on Blu-ray, whether they be computer based animation such as the Pixar films, hand drawn films or stop action animation. Unfortunately, the subject of this review, James and the Giant Peach is an exception to this general rule. Continue Reading

I always thought that The Thomas Crown Affair starring Pierce Brosnan was an overlooked film. This may be due to the fact that it was a remake of a 1968 film of the same name starring Steve McQueen. While it is an updating of the original, it certainly has plenty going for it in its own right, especially the stunning “visuals” provided by Rene Russo, who has never looked better than she does in this film. When I saw that this film was being released on Blu-ray, I couldn’t wait to get a copy to see how much an improvement a high def treatment would be over the prior DVD release. Thankfully, quite a bit as it turns out. Continue Reading

Tarantino’s epic spaghetti western set within World War II has been in pre-production since before the Kill Bill movies, due to the fact Tarantino wanted to make sure the script was perfect. He considered it his masterpiece and reworked the story over the course of over a decade. Through many rewrites and various casting changes the film was released in 2009.

Did it live up to the hype? Continue Reading

I can’t recall when I laughed harder in the theater than I did when we went to see Borat. That was one outrageous comedy. However, the problem with being outrageous is when you have to follow-up with your next film. The natural inclination is to be even more outrageous which can result in a film rather than being funny and thought provoking, is simply crude and embarrassing. Such is the fate that befell Sacha Baron Cohen with Bruno, his not so successful follow-up to his outrageously successful Borat. Bruno gives a whole new meaning to the phrase no holds barred comedy and not, unfortunately, in a good way. Continue Reading

I can’t really say that I was all that familiar with the X-Men comic book prior to the first film coming out. I had heard about the comic but never really had the inclination to read it. I guess I am told old to read comics anyway. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the first two X-Men films. Perhaps it was helpful that I could watch the films with a clean slate and not be biased in any way based on the comic’s long history, second guessing the plot and character development. While I enjoyed the first two films, I thought that the third was really dreadful. It was with interest that I waited for the fourth installment in the X-Men film library, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Unfortunately, I found this film to be even less worthwhile than the prior film, X-Men: The last Stand. Continue Reading

Hot Fuzz was one of my favorite if not my most favorite release on the late and lamented HD DVD format. Besides being a hilarious film, it featured excellent video and audio presentations. It was one of the films that I looked forward to seeing on Blu-ray to see if the increased storage capacity and higher bit rate of Blu-ray could improve on the already outstanding audio and video presentations on the HD DVD. Well, Hot Fuzz is finally making its debut on Blu-ray and I was anxious to put the disc through its paces. Was it worth the wait? Yes indeed it was. Continue Reading

Having just experienced two 10+ hour plane flights in the past two weeks, I sure have had my fill of bad films. When you are on flights of that duration and have a hard time sleeping on planes like I do,you will watch almost anything to help pass the time. Most of that time on this trip was filled with bad films a couple of which I may review when they arrive on Blu-ray in the next couple of months. It was therefore a pleasure once I returned home, to pop in State of Play, a well written and acted thriller that I enjoyed immensely, making up for all the bad films I watched on those flights, well almost. Continue Reading