blu-ray reviews

matt-hough Bad Moms Blu-ray Review The cartoonish characters at the heart of Jon Lucas and Scott Moore’s Bad Moms may exhibit facets of real life people, mothers or otherwise, whom we encounter in everyday life, but like so many modern-day comedies, everything’s exaggerated for comic effect...

matt-hough The Quiet Man: Olive Signature Collection Blu-ray Review John Ford’s Irish-tinged tale of a charming people and their romantic and conflicting entanglements gets vivid Technicolor treatment in The Quiet Man, one of the director’s true classics and most fondly remembered films...

matt-hough Café Society Blu-ray Review Woody Allen’s Café Society, another of his bittersweet ruminations on romantic roads not taken, echoes with memories of triumphs past, particularly Annie Hall and Manhattan, two films with similar love triangle scenarios. [review] Click here to read...

matt-hough Barbie & Her Sisters in A Puppy Chase Blu-ray Review For its target audience, Barbie & Her Sisters in A Puppy Chase will offer a lot of adventure and will guarantee repeat viewings so crammed is the narrative with plot incidents and dazzling use of color and sound. [review]...

matt-hough Independence Day: Resurgence 3D Blu-ray Review The aliens are back and they’re more numerous, more insidious, and more lethal than ever before in Independence Day: Resurgence. [review] Click here to read the original article.

matt-hough Captain Fantastic Blu-ray Review An interesting dichotomy between philosophies of living gives Matt Ross’ Captain Fantastic its unique personality and flavor. [review] Click here to read the original article.

matt-hough Boy on a Dolphin Blu-ray Review The glories of Cinemascope were never better on display than in Jean Negulesco’s Boy on a Dolphin, a dramatic adventure featuring one of the world’s most picturesque stars, Sophia Loren, and with location filming off the Greek Isles and in Athens...

matt-hough The Laughing Policeman Blu-ray Review A solid crime drama of its era, The Laughing Policeman features excellent performances from Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern in an atmospheric production which vividly brings back memories of the 1970s. [review] Click here to read the original...

matt-hough Gregory Peck Centennial Collection Blu-ray Review One of the iconic actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood, Gregory Peck appeared in his fair share of classics, and Universal has bundled two of his outstanding movies from the 1960s into the Gregory Peck Centennial Collection...

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matt-hough American Horror Story: Hotel Blu-ray Review The fifth installment of FX’s hit series American Horror Story subtitled Hotel is the least effective yet of the ongoing series, offering a decent set-up for horror that instead comes down on the side of sentimental domesticity and...

matt-hough 9 to 5 Blu-ray Review A satirical farce of uncommon intelligence and foresight, Colin Higgins’ 9 to 5 seems even more impressive today than it was in 1980 when it premiered to lukewarm critical response but huge box-office returns. [review] Click here to read the original article.

matt-hough Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins Blu-ray Review Based on a long series of pulpy adventure novels, Guy Hamilton’s Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins obviously was intended to be the first in a film dynasty that never materialized. [review] Click here to read the original article.

matt-hough Murphy's Law Blu-ray Review J. Lee Thompson’s Murphy’s Law is a nasty piece of goods, a violent and not-well-thought out revenge story with its protagonist as the victim rather than as the attacker. [review] Click here to read the original article.

matt-hough Laid in America Blu-ray Review No clearer evidence exists as to the desperate state of American film comedy than with Sam Milman and Peter Vass’ Laid in America. With an almost total lack of invention in plotting, casting, and direction, the film drags on for almost ninety...

matt-hough The Purge: Election Year Blu-ray Review A decent enough thriller with political overtones that one can easily associate with the current uneasy climate in our country, The Purge: Election Year comes to Blu-ray with a fine audio and video presentation and enough action and thrills...

matt-hough Welcome to Monster High Blu-ray Review In an effort to stretch more miles out of its Monster High franchise, Mattel has created a new origin story for its creation in Welcome to Monster High. [review] Click here to read the original article.

matt-hough Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates Blu-ray Review A typical raunch-infested comedy with all of the predictable twists and turns that such films always include, Jake Szymanski’s Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates offers fine performers doing improvisational riffs in scene after scene...

matt-hough From Noon Till Three Blu-ray Review A decidedly offbeat change of pace for star Charles Bronson, Frank D. Gilroy’s From Noon Till Three works in fits and starts, a love story that passes into legend with some unquestionably nasty aftereffects. [review] Click here to read the...

matt-hough Beauty and the Beast: 25th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Review From its opening song to its closing waltz, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is a perfect piece of screen entertainment: a charming (though definitely not cloying), stylish, and interesting version of Mme. LePrince de...

matt-hough Warcraft Blu-ray Review Fans may be deliriously happy with the transcription of the game Warcraft onto the big screen, but it’s actually a rather ordinary fantasy combat adventure with a very predictable narrative and a mixture of visual effects which vary from spectacular to...

matt-hough Cat People (1942) Blu-ray Review One of the greatest fright pictures of the era, Jacques Tourneur’s Cat People, has very little outright gore, and yet its creative use of light and shadow and its uses of sound to suggest things into the audience’s imaginations results in suspense...

matt-hough Night Train to Munich Blu-ray Review Night Train to Munich was an excellent learning project for director Carol Reed who obviously used his experiences with this thriller to later turn out a handful of real masterpieces in the genre. [review] Click here to read the original article.

matt-hough Aliens: 30th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Review In the world of cinematic sequels, there are only a few that either equaled or surpassed their original films: The Godfather Part II, The Empire Strikes Back, Toy Story 2 are among the chosen few and added to that list must be James...

matt-hough Honey 3: Dare to Dance Blu-ray Review If hip-hop dance is your thing and the Step-Up musicals didn’t satiate the need to watch more of them, Honey 3: Dare to Dance will likely satisfy despite its piddling script and a lack of variety in the dancing. [review] Click here to read...

matt-hough Hard Target 2 Blu-ray Review Ostensibly an homage to John Woo’s original 1993 action hit, Roel Reiné’s Hard Target 2 makes much of its $4 ½ million budget in some striking action scenes, but it breaks down quite painfully in its narrative structure and flow. [review] Click here...

matt-hough A Bigger Splash Blu-ray Review Ah, the lives of the rich and famous: how complicated they are! Luca Guadagnino’s A Bigger Splash, an English language rethink of the film La Piscine, allows us to luxuriate in the trappings of the wealthy while peeking behind closed doors at the...

matt-hough The People V. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story Blu-ray Review Covering probably the most sensational murder trial in the last years of the 20th century, The People V. O.J. Simpson marks the first installment in Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story series. [review] Click here to...

richard-gallagher Hardcore Blu-ray Review Paul Schrader's 1979 film Hardcore is an unrelentingly grim but fascinating look at the sordid world of low-budget pornography and prostitution in California. It is not for all tastes, but it has been brought to Blu-ray by Twilight Time with...

matt-hough Captain America: Civil War 3D Blu-ray Review As the culmination of three Iron Man movies, two Captain America films, and two adventures featuring The Avengers, Anthony and Joe Russo’s Captain America: Civil War is something of a masterpiece. [review] Click here to read the...