Chris Chiarella

Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Skyfall
Chris Chiarella  |  Jun 11, 2013
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Half a century after the release of Dr. No, director Sam Mendes and a gifted team of screenwriters have managed to give audiences a James Bond film unlike any other. Skyfall is Daniel Craig’s third outing as 007, and yet the star is unafraid to show his advancing age, as we are reminded that the job of international secret agent apparently takes a heavy toll on all who dare to sign up for it.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Bourne legacy
Chris Chiarella  |  Jun 05, 2013
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I knew Jason Bourne. Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), you’re no Jason Bourne.

The first Bourne movie not based on an actual Robert Ludlum novel, Legacy gets quite a lot wrong, frankly. The story brings us back to the era of 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum, when extreme measures were being taken to maintain the secrecy of the covert, overly ambitious super-soldier program that created Jason. A whole new crop of men has become the subject of some risky new behavior/performance-enhancing experiments, and as one of these lethal lab rats, Aaron is desperate for answers—and the necessary meds to keep his edge—despite the nasty opponents pursuing him at every turn.

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Out Of The Blu
LEGO Batman: The Movie, Perfect Understanding and It's a Disaster
Chris Chiarella  |  May 31, 2013
The toys are back in town, another classic is rescued from obscurity, and a bunch of really good actors behave really badly as doom approaches.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Django Unchained
Chris Chiarella  |  May 27, 2013
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The antebellum South returned to modern screens by way of ’60s/’70s-style Blaxploitation in Quentin Tarantino’s electric Django Unchained. A surprisingly good-hearted, forward-thinking bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz, Oscar'd again here) purchases and frees the slave of the title (Jamie Foxx) in exchange for his help in tracking down three big-ticket wanted men.
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Audio Video News
Top 10 iPad Accessories for the Home Theater Crowd
Chris Chiarella  |  May 22, 2013
Okay, you’ve got the iPad. Now are you ready to find out just how much it can really do? From covers and stands to speakers and subwoofers (yes, subwoofers) and more, here are 10 accessories worth checking out.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Dark Knight Rises
Chris Chiarella  |  May 21, 2013
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Eight years have passed since the complicated events of The Dark Knight. The Batman (Christian Bale) has taken the blame for the death of district attorney Harvey Dent in an attempt to inspire the people of Gotham City to stand strong against crime. With the subsequent passage of the Dent Act, Gotham is tougher on criminals than ever, even while The Bat has disappeared, his alter ego Bruce Wayne living in self-imposed exile.
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Out Of The Blu
Witness WWII from Space, Superman: Unbound and Open Road
Chris Chiarella  |  May 18, 2013
It's World War II as you've never seen it before, while The Man of Steel pays us Earthlings an early visit and a drifter runs the risk of developing roots.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
A League Of Their Own
Chris Chiarella  |  May 14, 2013
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With each passing year, we seem to be witnessing the further shrinkage of the gender gap, and so movies like A League of Their Own are ever-more fascinating. It shares with modern movie audiences the little-known true tale of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, created to help keep the national pastime alive while the menfolk were off fighting World War II. The idea was met with much resistance at the time, and so the girls face challenges off the field as well as on.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Guts and Glory: 10 Great Comic Book Movies on Blu-ray
Chris Chiarella  |  May 10, 2013
When an older and quite esteemed film expert asked me not long ago what my favorite genre was, I was honestly flummoxed. Pixar isn’t a genre, and I’ve just seen too many lame science-fiction flicks. Looking back over a life of film fandom and the past decade in particular, I finally came up with an eyebrow-raising response: comic book movies.
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Soundbar Reviews
Atlantic Technology FS-7.1 Soundbar Speaker System
Chris Chiarella  |  May 10, 2013
FS-7.1 Soundbar
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SB-900-BLK Subwoofer
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Price: $1,300 At a Glance: Multichannel speaker reproduces all seven channels • No onboard amplification or processing • Optional subwoofer

Writing about consumer electronics for the past two decades has taught me a few things: Always take good notes, don’t believe everything you read in press releases, and at least try to keep an open mind. Case in point, the soundbar. The very idea of a single box containing the amplification, processing, and all of the loudspeakers necessary to adequately present home theater audio was met with early disdain. But hearing was believing, and now it’s a viable (and thriving) product category.

Then a crate recently arrived containing the Atlantic Technology FS-7.1, a redesigned, upgraded version of the company’s well-regarded FS-7.0 seven-channel home theater soundbar.

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