Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Stop the presses. There's a new set of reference high definition discs in town, discs that in technical quality alone very nearly blow anything you've seen so far out of the water. It's the <I>Complete Matrix Trilogy</I>, available this Tuesday (May 22) only in a boxed set of three HD DVDs.

A seemingly random death initially appears to be unrelated to a devastating New Orleans ferry bombing that kills over 500 people. While the body is discovered in the same area as the explosion, and the cause of death is consistent with the tragedy, it turns up hours before the disaster. As Federal agent Doug Carlin investigates both the random death and the bombing, however, he suspects a connection. He soon has the opportunity to use a state-of-the art surveillance system that can seemingly look in on the most private and inaccessible activities, hoping that it will help him prove a link between the two events.

They say there's nothing new under the sun, and nothing drives home that old adage like the birth of a new format or two. The first movies that come out on a new format invariably aren't the <I>Citizen Kanes</I>, or even the <I>Titanics</I> of film history. No, it's the star-studded action warhorses that are considered at least somewhat tried and true that are trotted out by the studios.

From the time it was first announced all the way through the previews, reviewers and the general public alike roundly derided the idea of another Rocky movie. Stallone, now 60, still boxing on-screen?

Bond is back, and he's a bad man. Yes, 007 has blond hair and blue eyes for the first time, but it's his character that takes on much darker tones here. His license to kill is his primary occupation, not a smart-ass tagline and Daniel Craig is almost feral under the cool veneer of James Bond. This remarkable and gritty new entry takes the series out of the realm of gadgets (no Q anywhere to be found) and special effects, and back into the realm of hard, breathtaking physical stunts, which is something director Martin Campbell, of <I>Mask of Zorro</I> fame, excels at. Even the theme song is grungy, being sung by former Soundgarden front man Chris Cornell. And it's exhilirating from the opening foot chase to the finale. Not only is Bond back, I can't wait for him to return!