Blu-ray Review: Doctor Strange
It took a few years, but Doctor Strange has finally entered the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse by way of a self-titled origin story. Though saddled with mandatory elements, the story offers enough ingenuity and excitement to keep viewers engaged. For those unfamiliar with his story, when we first meet Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), he is […]
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (Blu-ray)
While all of The Lord of the Rings films received Oscar nominations for Best Picture, The Hobbit Trilogy hasn’t lived up to those achievements, but nonetheless, had its moments despite obvious flaws. With The Battle of the Five Armies, we are now at the end of Peter Jackson’s odyssey. Unlike The Lord of the Rings […]
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Extended Edition (3D Blu-ray)
Editor’s Notes: Portions of this review also appear in our coverage of the previous Blu-ray release of ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.’ Picking up where An Unexpected Journey left off, just after their escape from a pack of Orcs, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), Gandalf the Grey (Sir Ian McKellen), and a band of dwarves […]
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Blu-ray)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the second film in Peter Jackson’s prequel to The Lord of the Rings, is beginning to show the strain of the director’s determination to stretch the adventure into three books. While still enjoyable, Smaug has difficulty maintaining the fantasy for its 161 minute runtime, finding it necessary to resort […]
August: Osage County (Blu-ray)
Based on Tracy Letts Pulitzer Prize winning play, August: Osage County is the kind of drama many actors love to do: thick with dialogue, it gives multiple performers a chance to really chew some scenery. Packed with fighting, crying, drinking, and smoking, it lends itself to moments of great acting, both comic and tragic. At […]
The Fifth Estate (Blu-ray)
Chronicling the rise to prominence of whistle blowing website WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch), The Fifth Estate is told from the perspective of Daniel Dumsheit-Berg (Daniel Brühl), former spokesperson for the site, a computer genius who was committed to Assange’s mission to expose government cover-ups and lies. The Fifth Estate attempts to […]
Blu-ray Review: The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey
Director Peter Jackson has returned to Middle Earth with co-writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens to bring J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit to the big screen over the course of three films. Certainly, the question of whether a 310 page novel needs three films is a fair one, as we consider the first offering in the […]
Blu-ray Review: War Horse
Based on the children’s novel and stage adaptation of the same name, War Horse tells the story of the special relationship between a young man and his horse. While the story of this relationship does have moments of charm, it’s the re-creation of the Great War’s battlefields and some stunningly beautiful camerawork by cinematographer Janusz […]
Blu-ray Review: The Whistleblower
Based on the true story of Kathryn Bolkovac, The Whistleblower explores the horrors of sex trafficking in vivid detail. When Atlanta policewoman Kathy Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz) decided to accept a position as a UN peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia, her plan was to earn $100,000 in 6 months in order to move closer to her ex-husband, […]
DVD Review: Wild Pacific
BBC | 2009 | 353 mins | Not rated A while back, I had the pleasure of watching the colossal Planet Earth: The Complete Collection. Its sets like those that make the life of a DVD reviewer sometimes feel like a special little place in the world. Planet Earth remains one of the most beautiful […]