THE PLOT THUS FAR

WHAT WE THOUGHT

It seems that the first few seasons were heavily character and ensemble driven, exploring the tension between the lab rats and the field investigators, and laying out the basic foundation of Bones’ and Booth’s interpersonal relationship. We are also provided with the large details of her life, the mystery of her family and the pain of her upbringing. In the writing the emphasis is on the creativity of the team in solving odd circumstances surrounding a death. Still, there’s things that bug me like the dynamic between Bones and Booth becoming somewhat un-genuine in the light of overt probing by Dr. Sweets.

The two lead characters are wonderfully balanced with each other: their approach to life, to their work, to the pursuit of this week’s mystery. Their relationship rings true. Through agreements, disagreements and the sense of humor it takes to weather both, Deschanel and Boreanaz always deliver the wry portrayal these two staunchly serious, but genuinely human characters deserve. Each character’s work is expertly accomplished and equally important to the solutions they unravel together.

The Blu-Ray comes with deleted scenes, commentary, featurettes and a gag reel. The DTS-HD 5.1 master audio track keeps the crime antics alive. However, the 1080p transfer feels unbalanced when it comes to darker scenes. It’s a frequent complaint of recent cop/criminal investigation shows, but it keeps happening. Still, I’d recommend a purchase to fans.

RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!

THE PLOT THUS FAR

Brady Hawkes, The Gambler, receives a letter from his son indicating he needs help. This sends Brady to the rescue. Along the way Brady meets up with Billy Montana, a young man who thinks he knows everything about playing cards. Brady teaches Billy a few lessons along the way and they end up forming a strong friendship and team up together.

WHAT WE THOUGHT

“The Gambler” is one of those movies that reminds me of childhood. It’s not like my family had a huge Kenny Rogers hang-up, but The Gambler or one of its many sequels was always on television at some point. Now, Kenny Rogers is more of a hipster joke about bygone eras. If you will, I’d like to have you stop watching the World Series and take a chance on a rather flawed, but strong TV-movie Western. It’s got the guy from Tron in it!

Jim Byrnes’ hackneyed, by-the-numbers script offers no unusual or surprising plot developments, but fortunately Dick Lowry’s competent direction, Larry Cansler’s robust, rousing, flavorsome score, and Joseph Biroc’s handsome cinematography compensate for the trite story. The top-rate cast qualifies as another major asset: Harold Gould as a powerful, arrogant railroad baron, Christine Belford as Rogers’ neglected, estranged wife, Lee Purcell as a plucky former lowly whore turned proud high society lady, Lance LeGault as a cunning, but honorable card sharp, and Clu Gulager as a mean, grasping brute with a secret grudge against Rogers.

The Blu-Ray comes with a DVD copy. What makes the presentation so killer is that 1080p transfer that is accurately framed for the first time in the film’s release. The DTS-HD 2.0 master audio track does the best with the original audio sources. It’s not like this film could’ve looked any better. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase to fans.

RELEASE DATE: 11/05/2013

THE PLOT THUS FAR

Pixar’s landmark classic goes full throttle off the screen and into your living room for the first time ever in spectacular Blu-ray 3D. From the acclaimed creators of Toy Story, The Incredibles and Finding Nemo comes a high-octane adventure comedy that shows life is about the journey, not the finish line.

Hotshot rookie race car Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is living life in the fast lane until he hits a detour on his way to the most important race of his life. Stranded in Radiator Springs, a forgotten town on the old Route 66, he meets Sally, Mater, Doc Hudson (Paul Newman) and a variety of quirky characters who help him discover that there’s more to life than trophies and fame. Treat your crew to turbocharged entertainment with this Cars 3D Ultimate Collector’s Edition. It’s flat-out fun with a sensational soundtrack, thrilling bonus features and revved-up picture and sound.

WHAT WE THOUGHT

“Cars” is about rural folk teaching racing hot star Lightning McQueen how to behave. In this hillbilly hell of a town, he is punished for speeding and tearing up the road by the sheriff. As he serves his sentence with community work, he discovers the town is inhabited by rejects and misfits, who all have hearts of gold. Can they change Lightning and make him over to have positive traits like honesty, integrity, respect, honor, sacrifice, humility, and compassion? That’s the drama that unfolds. Lightning is a hard case, and the outcome is always in doubt.

The cars/people are incredible. Shortly into the movie you forget that the people are cars or the cars are people, you suspend disbelief, and you just begin to watch an engaging story about real people. The windshields are their eyes, and the grilles are their mouths, and they display emotions as well as any human actor. The story is serious and light-hearted at the same time. The puns are too numerous to catch. And this is a must-see-twice-to-get-it-all movie.

But what’s really nice about this film is how director John Lasseter and the writers effectively tell the story and how they pump up the visual feast with humor and sincere emotions. It still all boils down to the story and how it is told – the very essence of cinema. Granted, when it comes to the standards set by previous Pixar films, it isn’t quite up there with it’s predecessors; but considering how lofty the bar has reached and the mediocrity that has become of the genre in general, “Cars” more than gets the job done.

The Blu-Ray comes with a 2D and 3D transfer, Digital Copy and a DVD copy. You also get bonus shorts, featurettes, gag reel, epilogue, games and documentary shorts. The audio track has been upgraded from a PCM track on the 2007 disc to a rocking DTS-HD 5.1 master audio track. That opening in the raceway will make your home theater shake to its core. But, let’s talk about that 1080p transfer.

The 2D presentation is on par with the initial release. However, the 3D transfer is where we see field of depth and range on par with the 3D presentation of “Prometheus”. Sometimes, 3D works better when it’s about bringing you into a world rather than just chucking stuff out of a screen at you. It’s truly revolutionary and it leaves me to applaud Disney/Pixar’s stunning work here.  In the end, I’d recommend a purchase.

RELEASE DATE: 10/29/2013

THE PLOT THUS FAR

The laughs – and the awards – just keep on coming for the #1-rated Modern Family, winner of three consecutive Emmy Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series! With Jay and Gloria’s baby on the way and Haley going off to college, the entire Pritchett/Dunphy clan faces some major surprises as they bicker and bond over house-flipping headaches, unwanted play dates, and everything from hot-tempered hormones to in utero karaoke. Featuring a stellar array of guest stars including Matthew Broderick, Shelley Long and Elizabeth Banks, Season Four takes a heartfelt and laugh-out-loud hilarious look at what it means to be a Modern Family.

WHAT WE THOUGHT

“Modern Family” wants to be everything to everyone. However, it only tries to be funny when it’s incidental to the plot. The little adopted girl continues to steal the show for me, as the kid actors struggle to find an identity of their own. Claire’s a bitch now and most of the men seem to stumble around. If that wasn’t enough, they keep trying to trot out Vergara to do her estrogen powered Ricky Ricardo act. It’s a mess, but somehow it works.

The show feels forced and predictable once in a while. Especially in the first season the writers seemed to have a hard time make their protagonists quirks believable, which are responsible for the humor. Most of all Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell seemed to be skeptical of some ideas of their roles, which is most feel-able in the first role-play-sex-episode. Phil Dunphy being such a perfect charming seducer with almost Bond-qualities seemed to openly contradict his character definition as the clumsy but lovable family dad, even though the actor sure pulls it off acting-wise.

The Blu-Ray comes with deleted scenes, alternate scenes, commentaries and a gag reel. The DTS-HD 5.1 master audio track kicks in where it’s needed. Still, the 1080p transfer ranges from adequate to a little too crisp at times. Maybe, I’m getting spoiled by modern TV on Blu-Ray. However, it stood out. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase to fans.

RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!

THE PLOT THUS FAR

When an invasion of prehistoric creatures terrorizes North America, visionary inventor Evan Cross (Niall Matter) assembles a team of highly-trained scientists and animal experts to handle the threat. From their cutting edge headquarters, The Tank, they hunt these deadly predators and investigate the anomalies that bring them through time.

WHAT WE THOUGHT

After witnessing his wife die in a freak Tyrannosaurus Rex accident years earlier, Evan Cross became obsessed with discovering the origins of the strange magnetic anomalies which appear out of nowhere and seem to be portals to Jurassic Park. With his faithful CFO Ange Finch keeping his business solvent and his agenda clear, Cross dedicates his time and considerable resources to solving the mystery, unaware that across the pond in the mother country, savvy secret agents have been spanking the same lizards for years.

The show has lots of promises and becomes a great show, if the writers keep up the pace and keeps its audience on their edge, and blend in some hints and maybe some of the old cast here and there, its after all a crossover show from the original series, and that means that they need to keep it true to its original show but still be able to bring in new stories and get the show to flow in both new directions and still be a series they can call Primeval.

The Blu-Ray comes with featurettes. The A/V Quality is pretty sharp for what I’m assuming is a Canadian production. The 1080p transfer shows off a smidge of that TV digital shimmer. Still, the DTS-HD 5.1 master audio track is lossless and shines throughout the presentation. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase to fans.

RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!

THE PLOT THUS FAR

Danny Trejo (Machete), Anthony Michael Hall (The Dark Knight) and Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) star in this unrated, action-packed battle for vengeance. As a ruthless gang overruns a small mining town, they murder their own leader, Guerrero Hernandez (Trejo), in a cold-blooded power grab. Sentenced to eternity in hell, Guerrero finds himself confronted by Satan himself (Rourke), offering a daring proposition: deliver the six souls of his former gang and he will escape damnation. With time running out, he sets out on a brutal rampage to avenge his own death!

WHAT WE THOUGHT

“Dead in Tombstone” is an odd as hell movie. But, the Direct to Video market is flourishing as former A list talent are coming together to work on these weird genre benders. Mickey Rourke playing Satan is cool as hell, but what else is there? Trejo is playing Trejo just in a different locale. Anthony Michael Hall is trying like hell to keep the story going forward. Is it a failure? Oh yeah. Is it bad? Hell no. If anything, we need more movies like this.

The western elements are played for full cartoon caricature stereotype and look decent enough while being obviously anachronistic, there’s just no real excitement to the movie at all. It’s very standard revenge plot action wannabe without the budget and flash to carry it off. You know everything you need to know in the first 5 minutes of the movie and if you are like me and have seen a lot of action movies you’ll even be able to accurately predict many of the set action sequences before they happen.

The Blu-Ray comes with a Digital and DVD copy. Plus, you get a commentary, deleted scenes, featurettes and a few HD exclusives. The A/V Quality is sharp for DTV with a supportive 1080p transfer. However, I felt that the sound mix on the DTS-HD 5.1 track was a little too aggressive during the shootouts. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase.

RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!