blu-ray review

Neil Middlemiss The Silence of the Lambs Blu-Ray Review (Criterion) Crafted with a gift for capturing the layers of complex characters, investigative pursuit, and the tightening screws of tension, The Silence of the Lambs builds its effective psychological horror. It is mesmerizing cinema...

Neil Middlemiss Goodbye Christopher Robin Blu-ray Review A handsomely produced story showing the effects of fame and familial mistakes. Despite brilliant performances, the drama doesn’t always connect as deeply as expected, though the film still creates emotional resonance (through those...

Neil Middlemiss Battle of the Sexes Blu-ray Review Battle of the Sexes, with its fine performances, superb recreation of 1973 with period details and flourishes, and presciently timed story, is compelling if imperfect. It’s a fun watch and worthy of your time, even if that’s just via...

Neil Middlemiss mother! Blu-ray Review mother! is unmistakably an Aronofsky film. The intimacy with which he filmed and staged the entire production contains, unassailably, his signature. His best work comes when he grapples with things he wants to make sense of. You find it in his...

Neil Middlemiss Hellraiser (Arrow) Blu-ray Review As an admirer of horror films of all shapes and sizes, Hellraiser is certainly one of the very best. Its sequels have been a series of increasingly diluted and evermore generic episodes that capitalized on the Cenobites and Pinhead in...

Neil Middlemiss Dreamgirls Director's Extended Edition Blu-ray Review 10 years after it was the talk of the town, Dreamgirls remains a delightfully well-crafted film filled with rousing musical numbers and a fascinating journey through the lives of newcomer artists and established acts at a...

Neil Middlemiss Children of the Corn Blu-ray Review (Arrow) Though failing to conjure up many thrills and scares, Children of the Corn remains an entertaining excursion into 1980’s horror happenings. The darkness that King seems to frequently see in the simple, innocent, and quiet life of...

Neil Middlemiss Transformers: The Last Knight Blu-ray Review Transformers: The Last Knight continues the series’ proclivity for weaving in a new thread of the transformers history on planet earth, this time inserting the metallic race into the mythology of Arthur, Merlin and the Knights of...

Title: Cold in July (2014) Tagline: How many men can one bullet kill? Genre: Drama, Thriller Director: Jim Mickle Release: 2014-05-23 Runtime: 109 Plot: While investigating noises in his house one balmy Texas night in 1989, Richard Dane puts a bullet in the brain of a low-life...

Neil Middlemiss Ghost in the Shell Blu-ray Review Ghost in the Shell is an ambitious, stylized, visually impressive film with a good cast. While it may not have satisfactorily explored the moral questions of who we are and what makes us human, it makes a genuinely earnest attempt at probing...

Kevin EK A League of Their Own 25th Anniversary Blu-ray Review A League of Their Own hits a ground rule double on Blu-ray. [review]

Kevin EK Underworld: Blood Wars Blu-ray Review Underworld: Blood Wars inflicts some incoherent mayhem on Blu-ray for its fans. [review]

Neil Middlemiss Rings Blu-ray Review The image of Samara, drenched and contorted, emerging from a television screen, remains powerful horror iconography, but without the mystery and mythos that comes from a compelling story, the potent imagery loses luster. Rings, therefore, dulls the glow...

Matt Hough A Dog's Purpose Blu-ray Review Man’s best friend? There won’t be any doubts about who occupies that position in Lasse Hallström’s version of the best-selling book A Dog’s Purpose. [review] Read more.

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Neil Middlemiss Fences Blu-ray Review A masterfully performed, beautifully written and faithfully directed feature from Denzel Washington, Fences has the power to stay with you once the film has finished. The film never attempts to stray too far from the atmosphere of the originating...

Todd Erwin American Pastoral Blu-ray Review Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Philip Roth, American Pastoral marks the directing debut of star Ewan McGregor. The novel was long thought to be unfilmable due to its narrative structure, and despite some fine performances by its...

Neil Middlemiss Pan's Labyrinth Blu-Ray Review The dark and magical originality of Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth is most deserving of its continued praise and popularity. A labor of love that saw del Toro waive his directorial fee and other remunerations to protect realization of his...

Todd Erwin Deepwater Horizon Blu-ray Review Peter Berg's docudrama disaster film, Deepwater Horizon, which chronicles the worst oil disaster in U.S. history, arrives on Blu-ray with a reference quality Dolby Atmos track and almost reference quality video. [review] Read more.

Neil Middlemiss Boyhood Blu-ray Review (Criterion) Revisiting Boyhood, following my review of the first Paramount release (largely unchanged below), I am struck by the unassuming and understated power of this film. The natural feel and flow of the film, the non-traditional narrative, and...

Neil Middlemiss Cartoon Roots: The Bray Studios Animation Pioneers Blu-ray Review In the history of animation, before the thick section dedicated to Walt Disney, Bray Studio’s is firmly planted and deservedly so. Without the pioneering work of Bray Studios, and founder John R. Bray himself...

Todd Erwin Game of Thrones: The Complete Sixth Season Blu-ray Review The sixth season of HBO’s popular series Game of Thrones answers and resolves a number of questions viewers were left with at the end of season five. The season also has some surprising guest cameos and the return of some...

Richard Gallagher The Chase (1966) Blu-ray Review Arthur Penn's The Chase is a fascinating combination of small town soap opera and a story about an escaped convict on the lam. Produced by Sam Spiegel and featuring an outstanding cast, it was lambasted by some critics when it was released...

neil-middlemiss Star Trek Beyond Blu-ray Review Star Trek Beyond is the third film in the reboot series that take place in an alternate timeline of Kirk and crews early years (known as the Kelvin timeline). It’s a solid Star Trek film and an exciting action film that for many reason, some...

ken_mcalinden Central Intelligence Blu-ray Review Central Intelligence teams massive action star Dwayne Johnson with compact comedy star Kevin Hart in an action comedy blending spy movie and high school reunion movie tropes. As one might guess from Director Rawson Marshall Thurber's prior...

ken_mcalinden It Blu-ray Review The 1990 miniseries of Stephen King's It took on the daunting task of adapting the massive (>1100 pages in my paperback edition) and massively popular (14 weeks at the top of The New York Times Best Sellers list in 1986 and 1987) novel into a two episode...

ken_mcalinden Salem's Lot Blu-ray Review The 1979 television miniseries Salem's Lot was only the second filmed adaptation of a Stephen King novel (following Brian De Palma's film of Carrie from 1976). While its made for TV budget imposed certain limitations on the production, Producer...

What can I say? I love 3D! From the moment I began watching 3D content in my home I quickly discovered that I needed more content. I suspect that those of you just purchasing your first 3D hardware will acquire the same ferocious appetite. That's why I became the HTF 3D ADDICT. I personally love...

ken_mcalinden The Conjuring 2 Blu-ray Review [LEFT]Director James Wan's The Conjuring 2 reunites Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga and the key creative talent behind the 2013 hit horror film The Conjuring for another cinematic dramatization from the files of demonologists and psychic...