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By admin, on November 21st, 2011%
Super 8 (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy) (2011) – Few filmmakers have ever had a run at the tables like Steven Spielberg, whose output from 1971′s Sugarland Express to, say, 1982′s E.T. displayed an amazingly unforced melding of huge set pieces and small human gestures. Even at their most chaotic, they somehow felt organic. Super 8, writer-director J.J. Abrams’s authorized tribute to classic Spielbergisms, hits all of the marks (Lived-in suburbia backdrop, check. Awestruck gazes upwards, check. Parental discord, check. Lens flares, amazingly huge check), but its adherence to the formula squelches much of its own potential. Appealing as it is to see a summer movie that retro-prioritizes character development over jittery quick-cut explosions, Continue reading Super 8 (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy) (2011)
By admin, on September 8th, 2011%
X-Men: First Class (+Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] (2011) – When Bryan Singer brought Marvel’s X-Men to the big screen, Magneto and Professor X were elder statesmen, but Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) travels back in time to present an origin story–and an alternate version of history. While Charles Xavier (Laurence Belcher) grows up privileged in New York, Erik Lehnsherr (Bill Milner) grows up underprivileged in Poland. As children, the mind-reading Charles finds a friend in the shape-shifting Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) and Erik finds an enemy in Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), an energy-absorbing Nazi scientist who treats the metal-bending lad like a lab rat. By 1962, Charles (James McAvoy) has become a swaggering genetics professor and Erik (Michael Fassbender, McAvoy’s Band of Brothers costar) has become a brooding agent of revenge. CIA agent Moira (Rose Byrne) brings the two together to work for Division X. Continue reading X-Men: First Class (+Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] (2011)
By admin, on April 18th, 2011%
Tron: Legacy (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) (2010) - The luminescent lines and shimmering surfaces of Tron: Legacy will tantalize anyone who’s lusted after the latest smartphone. The long-ago disappearance of his computer-genius father has left Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund, Four Brothers) with existential ennui and a lot of money. When he discovers his father’s secret workshop, he gets sucked into a computerized realm ruled by a megalomaniac computer program named Clu–who just happens to be his father’s virtual doppelganger. Continue reading Tron: Legacy (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) (2010)
By admin, on March 28th, 2011%
The Fighter (Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy) (2010) - It would be a mistake to confuse The Fighter with the story of Mark Wahlberg, though the similarities are striking. Completely convincing as a boxer, Wahlberg plays welterweight Micky Ward, who grew up in working-class Massachusetts. Like the actor-producer, he had eight siblings, one more famous than the rest. Ward’s half-brother, Dicky Eklund (a gaunt, crazy-eyed Christian Bale), turned to boxing first, just as Mark’s brother, Donnie, preceded him as a performer (first by singing, then by acting). The similarities end there: Dicky, once known as “The Pride of Lowell,” traded his promising pugilistic career for a crack pipe (Sugar Ray Leonard cameos as his best-known opponent). Continue reading The Fighter (Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy) (2010)
By admin, on February 16th, 2011%
Dances with Wolves (20th Anniversary Extended Cut) (Blu-ray) (1990) - Kevin Costner’s 1990 epic won a bundle of Oscars for a moving, engrossing story of a white soldier (Costner) who singlehandedly mans a post in the 1870 Dakotas, and becomes a part of the Lakota Sioux community who live nearby. The film may not be a masterpiece, but it is far more than the sum of good intentions. The characters are strong, the development of relationships is both ambitious and careful, the love story between Costner and Mary McDonnell’s character is captivating. Only the third-act portrait of white intruders as morons feels overbearing, but even that leads to a terribly moving conclusion. Costner’s direction is assured, the balance of action and intimacy is perfect–what more could anyone want outside of an unqualified masterpiece? — By Tom Keogh Continue reading Dances with Wolves (20th Anniversary Extended Cut) (Blu-ray) (1990)
By admin, on January 13th, 2011%
The Social Network (Blu-ray) (2010) - They all laughed at college nerd Mark Zuckerberg, whose idea for a social-networking site made him a billionaire. And they all laughed at the idea of a Facebook movie–except writer Aaron Sorkin and director David Fincher, merely two of the more extravagantly talented filmmakers around. Sorkin and Fincher’s breathless picture, The Social Network, is a fast and witty creation myth about how Facebook grew from Zuckerberg’s insecure geek-at-Harvard days into a phenomenon with 500 million users. Sorkin frames the movie around two lawsuits aimed at the lofty but brilliant Zuckerberg (deftly played by Adventureland’s Jesse Eisenberg): a claim that he stole the idea from Ivy League classmates, and a suit by his original, now slighted, business partner (Andrew Garfield). Continue reading The Social Network (Blu-ray) (2010)
By admin, on December 22nd, 2010%
Inception (Three-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy) (2010) - Science-fiction features often involve time travel or strange worlds. In Christopher Nolan’s heist thriller Inception, the concepts converge through the realm of dreams. With his trusty associate, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, a fine foil), Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio, in a role that recalls Shutter Island) steals ideas for clients from the minds of competitors. Fallen on hard times, he’s become estranged from his family and hopes one last extraction will set things right. Along comes Saito (Ken Watanabe, Batman Begins), who hires Cobb to plant an idea in the mind of energy magnate Fischer (Cillian Murphy, another Batman vet). Continue reading Inception (Three-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy) (2010)
By admin, on December 3rd, 2010%
Avatar (Three-Disc Extended Collector’s Edition + BD-Live)(Blu-ray)(2009) - Experience the spectacular world of James Cameron’s Avatar as never before with this all-new three-disc extended collector’s edition. The journey begins with three movie versions: the original theatrical release, the special edition re-release, and the exclusive extended cut not shown in theaters. And that’s just what’s on the first Blu-ray disc. The set’s bonus feature run more than eight hours and include over 45 minutes of deleted scenes; actor’s screen tests; on-location footage; feature-length documentaries on the film’s groundbreaking production; an interactive scene-deconstruction feature that lets you explore different levels of production for 17 scenes; a comprehensive guide to the world of Pandora; and more. The greatest adventure of all time just got bigger and better. Continue reading Avatar (Three-Disc Extended Collector’s Edition + BD-Live)(Blu-ray)(2009)
By admin, on November 6th, 2010%
Back to the Future: 25th Anniversary Trilogy (+ Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] – Filmmaker Robert Zemeckis topped his breakaway hit Romancing the Stone with Back to the Future, a joyous comedy with a dazzling hook: what would it be like to meet your parents in their youth? Billed as a special-effects comedy, the imaginative film (the top box-office smash of 1985) has staying power because of the heart behind Zemeckis and Bob Gale’s script. High schooler Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox, during the height of his TV success) is catapulted back to the ’50s where he sees his parents in their teens, Continue reading Back to the Future: 25th Anniversary Trilogy (+ Digital Copy) [Blu-ray]
By admin, on November 2nd, 2010%
The Sound of Music (45th Anniversary Edition) (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo in Blu-ray Packaging) (1965) - When Julie Andrews sang “The hills are alive with the sound of music” from an Austrian mountaintop in 1965, the most beloved movie musical was born. To be sure, the adaptation of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s Broadway hit has never been as universally acclaimed as, say, Singin’ in the Rain. Critics argue that the songs are saccharine (even the songwriters regretted the line “To sing through the night like a lark who is learning to pray”) and that the characters and plot lack the complexity that could make them more interesting. It’s not hard to know whom to root for when your choice is between cute kids and Nazis. Continue reading The Sound of Music (45th Anniversary Edition) (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo in Blu-ray Packaging) (1965)
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