Chris Chiarella

Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Triple-Fincher: Se7en, Panic Room and The Social Network on 4K
Chris Chiarella  |  Mar 04, 2025
Se7en (1995)
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Panic Room (2002)
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The Social Network (2010)
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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).

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Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Cronos 4K
Chris Chiarella  |  Feb 14, 2025
Cronos
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Right out of the gate with Cronos, his first feature film, director Guillermo del Toro displayed a keen eye that would serve him well throughout his career. It’s a vampire story… kind of, as a rich old man is seeking a legendary device that can supposedly impart eternal life, but with some dark side effects. When the golden doodad comes into the possession of a humble antiques dealer, violent and unpredictable events begin to unfold. Anyone looking for a well-executed offbeat horror would do well to check out Cronos.

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Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Wicked: 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Review
Chris Chiarella  |  Feb 04, 2025
Wicked
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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.

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Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Inglourious Basterds, Incubus and The Cell on Limited Edition 4K from Arrow
Chris Chiarella  |  Feb 04, 2025
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
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Incubus (1966)
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The Cell (2000)
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Arrow’s January slate of new 4K discs includes three eclectic films in elegant limited editions. We took them for a spin to see if they have the goods under the hood.

The news that Quentin Tarantino’s violent, brilliant World War II epic Inglourious Basterds was coming to Arrow 4K is, for me at least, a perfect example of mixed emotions...

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Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
It’s a TaranTRIO: Kill Bill Vols. 1&2 + Jackie Brown on 4K
Chris Chiarella  |  Jan 26, 2025
Jackie Brown (1997)
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Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)
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Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)
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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...

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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Coolest 4K Collector's Edition SteelBooks
Chris Chiarella  |  Jan 08, 2025
So yeah, steelbooks are totally a thing now, as collectors are driving a growing segment of the physical media market, looking for something that feels special in the hand and looks distinctive on the shelf. It also helps if there’s a good movie inside and the studios have been happy to oblige, mostly revisiting catalog titles to bring us noteworthy releases like these picks from this past summer.
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Special Features
Sound & Vision's Wintertime Gift Guide
Chris Chiarella  |  Jan 05, 2025  |  Published: Nov 25, 2024
This season, there are a lot of ways to bring joy to A/V enthusiasts. Movies and TV shows on disc are a great start, so much so that they get their own separate guide, whereas here we take a look at and give a listen to the gear, accessories and music—particularly on vinyl—that are destined to bring a little warmth to the winter months.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
2024 End-of-Year 4K Blu-ray Blowout
Chris Chiarella  |  Dec 29, 2024
For reasons known only to them, the studios have been saving some of their absolute best and most interesting 4K releases for the waning days of 2024, among them the most hotly debated movies of the past 12 months, as well as cult favorites and a few outright classics. In between the egg nog and the champagne, we pulled together this list of must-see-in-Ultra-HDs for your consideration as we toss another calendar into the recycling bin.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
A Pair of B&W Gems from Criterion: Seven Samurai and Paper Moon 4K
Chris Chiarella  |  Dec 09, 2024
The Criterion Collection has added new 4K editions of two very different period pieces: an American production from the 1970s that takes us back to the Depression era, and an epic Japanese adventure set in the country’s feudal 16th century.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Here's Your 2024 4K/Blu-ray Holiday Gift Guide!
Chris Chiarella  |  Nov 27, 2024
Disc aficionados like us are stalwarts in the face of continued seismic shifts in the physical media landscape, so perhaps the greatest gift the studios can give us is another season filled with their finest offerings. The past few months have brought us some of the most enjoyable releases of the entire year, from back-breaking boxes and single-movie deep-dives to multimedia indulgences that defy simple explanation. So read on, dear collector/gift-giver, and be inspired.
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