Blu-ray Movie Reviews

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/valentine.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>A day in the life of a diverse group of Los Angelenos as they navigate their way through romance and heartbreak over the course of one Valentine's Day. Couples and singles live through the pinnacles and pitfalls of finding, keeping, or ending relationships in a day in the life of love.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/valkyrie.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>After filming <i>Superman Returns</i> with HD cameras, director Bryan Singer used 35mm film in the loosely based true story <i>Valkyrie</i>, in which Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler. The film opens in North Africa with a rich golden hue; when Stauffenberg ventures back to the fatherland, the color palette opens up with bold reds and lush greens. Although the film is a middling affair, the audio and video presentation is stupendous and a demo showpiece.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/vantage.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>During a counter-terrorism summit in Spain, the President of the United States (William Hurt) is gunned down by an assassin's bullet. Eight strangers have a perfect view of the kill, but what did they really see? Replayed through the eyes of these witnesses, the minutes leading up to the fatal shot are repeated from different vantage points to solve the mystery of the shooting.

Directed by noir great Robert Aldrich, 1962’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? was a shocker in its day, from the lurid subject matter to the monumental uniting of two of the silver screen’s greatest actresses (and fiercest rivals), Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, each in her mid-fifties then. It’s a twisted tale of two once-famous, now codependent sisters: Davis’ Jane was famous in childhood as Baby Jane Hudson, while Crawford’s Blanche went on to greater stardom in Hollywood before being hit by a car, presumably driven by jealous Jane, and crippled.

Director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) takes a close look at the public-education system in the United States by following five students as they apply to charter schools. The film depicts the moving and poignant struggles of real-life students and their families and the efforts of educators and reformers who are working to find viable solutions within a dysfunctional system.

Growing up, I had the benefit of attending both public and private schools and was fortunate enough to receive a decent education. But without parental support at home, I doubt I would have gotten good grades and been pushed to go to college. I'm sure most teachers will agree that it all starts at home, and they can only do so much during the time they spend with our kids.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/wall-e.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>After hundreds of lonely years of doing what he was built for, waste-disposal robot WALL&#183;E (voiced by Ben Burtt) discovers a new purpose in life when he meets EVE (Elissa Knight), a sleek exploration robot looking for signs of life on a desolate, depopulated Earth. WALL&#183;E inadvertently stumbles upon the key to the planet's future and shares the discovery with EVE, whereupon she races back to space to report her findings to the humans who have waited generations to return home.

War for the Planet of the Apes concludes a trilogy that began with Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011. It tells the story of Caesar, from a nascent, intelligent ape to the leader of a band of smart simians. Humankind here has been nearly wiped out, with the survivors fighting to retain their freedom and humanity. In a twist from the classic 1968 original, however, the humans here are the villains, and the apes, fleeing the remnants of an army led by an obsessed, Ahab-like colonel, are the heroes. We’re driven to root for the Apes, from the story’s beginning to its near-biblical conclusion.