Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Spring has sprung, which means that a new crop of TV series on Blu-ray, 4K, and humble DVD is ready to harvest. Catch a deep whiff of that fresh-cut grass, then head inside to catch up on old favorites and discover shows that might have flown beneath your radar until now. We’ll also be showcasing an assortment of Japanese animation, starting with…

Beyond his unique and powerful visual sense, honed largely on an eclectic mix of music videos, director David Fincher also has a knack for choosing compelling scripts, resulting in several of the boldest, most original and memorable movies of the past three decades. He certainly hasn’t been rushing to make them all available on 4K disc, but two more titles from his catalog have recently dropped, which was apparently reason enough to revisit a third (which remains one of his best).

Miloš Forman’s Amadeus is a cinematic masterpiece that transcends the boundaries of traditional biopics, a complex dive into the intersection of genius, envy, and human creativity. Winner of eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture (Saul Zaentz), Best Director (Miloš Forman), and Best Actor (F. Murray Abraham), the film weaves a brilliant story with superb performances and excellent visual artistry. Based on Peter Shaffer’s stage play of the same name, Amadeus reimagines the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart through the lens of his rival, Antonio Salieri, creating a narrative that is as much about the torment of mediocrity as it is about the brilliance of genius.

I suppose we could Google the actual budget of Wicked, but it’s more fun to sit here and marvel, muttering, “This movie must have cost a fortune!” The production values are off the charts, with hundreds of impeccably costumed dancers hoofing their hearts out in brilliantly realized locales.

Newly arrived on Ultra HD Blu-ray from Lionsgate is this trifecta from the canon of auteur filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, all making their 4K disc debuts. Do they kill?

Jackie Brown 4K
For the longest time, I resisted watching Jackie Brown for the simple reason that I admire Quentin Tarantino first and foremost as a writer par excellence, and JB was him indulging his fondness of the great Elmore Leonard rather than conjuring wholly new realms as he had done with Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction before it. The resulting adaptation of the book Rum Punch can rightly be considered lesser Tarantino...