Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews

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Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Poor Things
Josef Krebs  |  Jul 26, 2024  | 
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A woman who has committed suicide is given a baby’s brain by a brilliant but demented surgeon (Willem Dafoe) before being reanimated using traditional mad-scientist electrical feats. Thereafter, Bella (Emma Stone) must gradually learn everything from scratch, just as a child must. In this unique film (nominated for 11 Academy Awards, winning four), a Frankenstein-like tale is told in unique episodes as Bella conquers various stages of understanding people, books, and the ways of the world while experiencing new adventures as she travels from Victorian London to Lisbon, Africa, and Paris.

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Power Rangers
Brandon A. DuHamel  |  Sep 29, 2017  | 
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The long-running Japanese franchise Power Rangers is rebooted in this 2017 film from director Dean Israelite and writer John Gatins. The somewhat camp story follows a group of teen misfits who uncover a collection of ancient artifacts and a buried alien ship; endowed with superpowers, the teens must muster their new powers and learn to work together to save the world. Power Rangers is hardly high art, and it never has been. The American version of the series was culled from stock Japanese footage edited together with new English-speaking scenes.
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Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Prey
Ralph Potts  |  Jan 26, 2024  | 
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Prey is the latest installment in the iconic Predator film franchise. Set in the year 1719, it tells the story of a young woman, Naru, a skilled yet untested warrior of the Comanche Nation who has been raised in the shadow of some of the most legendary hunters to roam the Great Plains. When a mysterious danger arises, she fights to protect her tribe against one of the first highly evolved Predators to visit Earth.

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Ralph Breaks The Internet
Thomas J. Norton  |  Mar 15, 2019  | 
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Wreck It Ralph and his new BFF Vanellope have settled into a familiar routine—starring in their arcade games by day, playing other games after work, and hanging out later at Tapper's (root) beer joint. But Vanellope's Sugar Rush game breaks, and to find the part needed to fix it they sneak into a new WIFI portal at Game Central Station. It takes them to the totally unfamiliar world of the Internet, where chaos is inevitable given Ralph's natural talent for wrecking things.
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Ready Player One
Chris Chiarella  |  Sep 14, 2018  | 
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How many more movies and TV shows will simulate virtual reality to tell a “thought-provoking” story about the fate of society? I gave up on Netflix’s Black Mirror because I could not bear another tale of VR gone awry, but Ready Player One brings the pedigree of Steven Spielberg, plus Ernest Cline’s bestselling novel. How could it miss?
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Rebel Without a Cause
Ralph Potts  |  Jun 02, 2023  | 
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In Rebel Without a Cause, James Dean captured the nation’s attention with a performance that still electrifies the screen decades after his untimely death. Its archetypal coming-of-age drama involves three high school students whose seemingly idyllic suburban lives crack under the weight of teenage angst and rebellion in post-war America.

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Remaster Class: Alien
Chris Chiarella  |  Aug 09, 2019  | 
An unprecedented fusion of science fiction and horror, Alien burst upon the scene some 40 years ago in a spray of blood to the screams of audiences everywhere. Envisioned by artist H.R. Giger, realized by craftsman Carlo Rambaldi, and brought to life by performer Bolaji Badejo, the intruder of the title has remarkably little screen time, which only enhances his terror, Jaws-style, as he stalks the hapless crew of the spaceship Nostromo.
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Remaster Class: Star Wars
Chris Chiarella  |  May 22, 2020  | 
Enthralling in every way a movie can be, George Lucas' Star Wars (retconned as Episode IV: A New Hopein 1981) is simply one of the greatest achievements to ever hit the screen. A wildly imaginative yet classically inspired adventure, it has been entertaining audiences—and spawning prequels, sequels and spinoffs—since 1977.
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Remaster Class: Superman
Chris Chiarella  |  Feb 07, 2019  | 
In part because it has now endured for 40 years, but also because it is the sort of thrilling cinematic entertainment we never seem to tire of, Superman has appeared on just about every home entertainment format, and deservedly so. The first comic book blockbuster, director Richard Donner's visually stunning epic stars Christopher Reeve as the only survivor of a brilliant but arrogant alien culture who finds his place in our world as a god-like protector.
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Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction
Chris Chiarella  |  Dec 31, 2022  | 
Reservoir Dogs, 99 mins.
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Pulp Fiction, 155 mins.
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When an immensely talented young screenwriter with something to prove fights to make his movie his way—and wins—every once in a while, we get a Reservoir Dogs. Quentin Tarantino's auspicious directorial debut is rough and raw and all the better for it, the story of a heist gone wrong and the rat in the criminals' midst, with copious amounts of blood spilling and bodies piling up as plans spin wildly out of control.
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Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
Corey Gunnestad  |  Sep 15, 2017  | 
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In 2002, Sony Entertainment kicked off the Resident Evil film series based on the popular zombie apocalypse video game of the same name. Fifteen years and five sequels later, the beleaguered franchise comes to a close… sort of. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is technically the last installment in the long-running series, but plans are already afoot to reboot the entire franchise and start over again from square one. The expression “beating a dead horse” springs to mind, but I digress.
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Resident Evil: Vendetta
Brandon A. DuHamel  |  Nov 10, 2017  | 
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Resident Evil: Vendetta picks up the mantle yet again for the Capcom strain of this popular video-game franchise. Sticking to the animé-oriented roots and offering some visceral action without the frenzied camera panning and ADD editing of the live-action The Final Chapter, the film brings together favorites from the franchise. Game characters Leon S. Kennedy (voiced my Matthew Mercer), Chris Redfield (Kevin Dorman), and Rebecca Chambers (Erin Cahill) battle wanted bioterrorist Glenn Arias (John DeMita), who plans to release a deadly virus in New York City as revenge for the government killing his wife.
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Rio Bravo
Ralph Potts  |  Dec 01, 2023  | 
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Director Howard Hawk’s Rio Bravo is based on the short story of the same name by B.H. McCampbell. It takes place in the American West and tells the story of a small-town sheriff, John T. Chance (John Wayne), who enlists the help of “Dude,” a hard drinker with a past, “Stumpy,” an ornery codger with a bum leg, and “Colorado,” a quick-with-a-gun whippersnapper, to help him prevent the leader of a local band of outlaws from busting his brother — whom Chance arrested for murder — out of jail.

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RoboCop
Chris Chiarella  |  Apr 29, 2022  | 
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Let's get right to the point: This new RoboCop boxed set gets my highest recommendation. For starters, director Paul Verhoeven's cheeky tale of a crimefighting cyborg is still thrilling, still funny, and still uniquely satisfying.
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Rocketman
Mike Mettler  |  Nov 22, 2019  | 
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Few biopics could get away with recurring nonlinear narrative beats the way Rocketman does, but given the larger-than-life nature of its titular subject, Sir Elton John, the movie's storytelling trajectory makes perfect sense. Director Dexter Fletcher's unabashed commitment to occasionally mirroring those classic MGM musical moments of yore—with Elton's full blessing, of course—succeeds with much audio/visual aplomb.
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