# An assortment of recent (Q2 2008) Blu-ray, HD-DVD and DVD reviews



## bdowell (Mar 4, 2003)

I've been neglectful in not putting these up here until after the movies have been showing up in the premium channels, normally much later along the way. Since I have a little time as I type this, I'll try to be smart and include some links and quick comments on the Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs I've been watching lately. Hopefully someone finds them useful (if you do find the reviews at Amazon.com useful, please click the appropriate link to give the reviewer credit, it does help tell them that their efforts are appreciated).

(Note the reviews below are primarily for Blu-ray and HD-DVD releases, though I've included a couple of DVD releases and noted those as DVD releases as appropriate...)

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Working from most recent to farthest back in the last quarter (give or take) of the releases of the year, I'll start with the movie I watched just last nite: Semi-pro on Blu-ray, the two-disc, un-rated "Let's get sweaty" edition. I had wanted to see it when it was out in theatres, then interest waned when reviews came out that were not all that favorable. I should have stuck with my first instinct and gone to see it on the big screen. I enjoyed it a lot.

I have to correct the misconception that this was just another Will Ferrell movie. That wasn't the case at all. Yeah, I know that Ferrell's act is getting old and repetitive for most people, but this wasn't just as Ferrell movie and really wasn't dominated by Ferrell. The movie was a great salute to the last season of the ABA (the American Basketball Association, a competitor to the NBA back in the late 60's to mid-70's) and you can see the love that the writer and director had for that league and those times shining through.

I'll stop there for now, as you can just click the link above to see the complete Amazon review if you want, but I give the movie decent marks and recommend it to people that would remember the ABA or would be interested in learning more about the league. If you do get it (rental or otherwise) definitely check the extras. :up:

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About a week or so ago I sat and watched Rambo. Be glad I watched it so you don't have to. (I keed, I keed). It was in some ways better than I thought it would be, in other ways a bit more than disappointing. Stallone's bloatedness on the screen reminded me of TNT stretch-o-vision and I really loathe that effect. Too bad for Stallone that it wasn't stretch-o-vision and instead was just his real size. :eek2: Decent story, plenty of action, lots of blood, guts, and gore. Worth a rental, not something I'd buy, but I can see where some people might like it a lot.

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Before I continue here, I must ask that no one take my guy card for this one. I got (rental from Blockbuster or Netflix) the Blu-ray of 27 Dresses, the Katherine Heigl starring vehicle movie that tells the story of a frequent brides maid and the dresses she wore in a long series of her friend's weddings. On the guy card side, I got this for my wife to watch, and figured that if the worst for me was that I'd be sitting and watching Katherine Heigl on my screen I could tolerate it for the 90 minutes (give or take) that the movie would run.

It wasn't bad, but wasn't that memorable either. The dresses pretty much steal the show, though Heigl does look mighty purty 

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Ack! Back to back 'chick flicks'. Yet another disc that I got more for my wife than myself. Seriously, I figured it would be a tolerable 'date night' type movie that would earn me a few brownie points. (I needed the brownie points as I had been talking up the idea of buying another PS3 as I wanted to put another Blu-ray player in the house and take back my PS3 rather than leaving it relegated to playing movies!).

Anyway, the subject here would be: P.S. I love You. Mostly a film dealing with grief. Hilary Swank looks nice throughout. Better than I expected really, though the subject matter has been done in other films before. Some comparison included in the Amazon review.

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Older movie that I only recently got around to watching. I really wish I had just kept avoiding it. Bleh. The Heartbreak Kid. Ben Stiller in a 'Something About Mary' type film that does an excellent job of showing what a comic genius and talent Cameron Diaz was. It's coming up in another month or so on one of the premium channels. Really not something I'd tell someone to waste time on.

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DVD based content: Charlie Wilson's War was a pretty good movie. I wish it had been released on HD-DVD as originally planned, but sadly HD-DVD died as a format too quickly and rather than continuing publishing in that format (as Warners did with their releases), the publisher for this film dropped the format like a hot rock.

The film was pretty good. Had I known in advance that the script was an Aaron Sorkin product I would have known that going in. I figured out it was Sorkin's work pretty quickly as I watched, and liked the film a lot. Knowing that Sorkin was involved made the time spent watching the extras all the more valuable.

If you do watch this I highly recommend getting the History Channel's look at 'The Real Charlie Wilson'. That's available as a rental at Netflix (as an example). You could also look for it on History channel as it will likely be brought back when the movie hits the premium channel cycle.

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For an award nominated movie, I expected more out of Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. It wasn't bad, but wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be. I'll keep it brief here and just say check the reviews at Amazon (including the one linked here ).

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Lions for Lambs was a weird movie really. The writing/dialog borrows heavily from Sorkin's style, but the story itself wasn't the greatest and was somewhat predictable. Worth a rental at least, just don't expect it to be great and you won't be disappointed.

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That's it for now. I'll try to remember to put up reviews more frequently as I watch rental discs and such along the way. Again, hopefully someone will find the info helpful.


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## bdowell (Mar 4, 2003)

Updating with this additional note:

I'm behind in the brownie points again  I got the rental Blu-ray of a film called The Air I Breathe from Blockbuster and sat down to watch same with the Mrs. tonite. I really should have just watched it alone as the violence there-in left the Mrs. irritated and unhappy.

All star cast including Brendan Fraser, Forest Whitaker, Andy Garcia, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Kevin Bacon and more. 4 stories that make up part of a bigger story.

Somewhat depressing, dark, and graphically violent. Rental before purchase recommended.


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## bdowell (Mar 4, 2003)

A few more recent movie releases (recent to Blu-ray at least) ...

Again, working in reverse order a bit.

*Jumper* was reasonably satisfying as a sci-fi/action/adventure flick. 3.5 stars (if Amazon allowed for half stars) out of 5. Full review at link (to Amazon.com)

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Soon after I got to see *The Bucket List* with my wife. A long distance friend had tried to get us to go see the film when it was released. Her and her husband were supposed to go in the local area, my wife and I were supposed to go see it in our area, then both sides would talk about the flick. Well, things didn't work out so that we could see the film at the same time and the long distance friends saw it before we could. They came back and quickly recommended that we NOT see this movie because to them it was too sad and too depressing.

We pretty much knew that (that the film was going to be sad and depressing) going into watching the disc rental but found the film to be a lot better than we had hoped, at least in some ways. It wasn't the laugh fest that was implied by the trailer and commercials that were out at the film's release, at least not at first. It got closer to being that comedy later in the movie and was solidly entertaining with a few laughs mixed in.

Well worth watching, renting rather than buying recommending though.

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Still sitting on my shelf half-watched is the Larry the Cable Guy movie: *Witless Protection*.

I can enjoy stupid and silly movies here and there, but this one was really trying my patience and really didn't do much for me. My wife wants to see the remainder of the film, but I was more inclined to send this disc back without bothering. I hope my PS3 can get through the remainder of the film without puking.

Rated: don't bother.

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Finally, the last of the recent movies/discs that I've watched is: *Broken Trail*.

Broken Trail was a made for TV movie/miniseries event a few years back. I found it entertaining and enjoyable, though it seemed to be an overly familar story to me, or at least seemed too similar to many other movies in the western genre.

Worth watching, but again not necessarily something I'd go crazy to own on disc.

That's it for now. Hopefully I'll have more to add later. :up:


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## bdowell (Mar 4, 2003)

Most recent viewing was of a rental copy of Blu-ray disc version of *Be Kind Rewind* with Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover, Mia Farrow and others.

It's an interesting film that takes a little while to get started and find it's direction (or so it seems), then delivers on the promised materials that were hyped in the trailers/commercials for the movie when it was out in wider release for theatres. Unfortunately it takes a bit of a turn again (actually circles back around) by the end of the film. In reality it's mostly closing a loop that was started at the beginning of the film, but for many viewers, especially viewers that were watching for what they were promised in the trailers, the changes in apparent direction may distract too much and lessen the enjoyment of the film.

I rated it at about 3.5 stars out of 5. Not bad, not great. Middle of the road. Some parts quite funny and enjoyable, others more reflective and less obvious, and others still that are just harder to enjoy.

*Warning for those that are light sensitive, or better phrased, sensitive to strobing lights:* this film starts out with some nasty strobing effects and those come back late in the film as well. Be aware of that before renting and watching (or purchasing).


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