Moneyball (2011)

"It's hard not to get romantic about baseball"

I give this movie a 4.8 out of 5 stars and a 90% on RT although if I could I would give it a 98%

I should start by saying that not only is one the best sports movies I have ever seen this was one of the best movies I have seen. I don’t throw those words around lightly, I loved this film! I guess I should start by saying that I am a huge fan of the game of baseball. I am an even bigger fan of movies based on what can lovingly be referred to as "our fathers game" This movie not only will manage to please the die-hard baseball fans out there but just about anybody who watches this compelling and true story. They have managed to do something very difficult and that is make a movie about baseball statistics interesting. Billy Beane is a fascinating individual and going into this film I did not know much about him other than what I knew from the press and that was he was shaking things up a bit in the baseball world and this movie is his story. He managed to do something in baseball that nobody has ever done and I’ll tell you folks it’s fascinating to watch. I knew I was excited to see this and I had high expectations and when this happens I am usually very leery. This film however remarkably managed to surpass them. This movie is early in the Oscar race but it won’t be forgotten come February. I don’t know if it will get a best picture or best director nom, even though it is easily worthy of it, however I do feel that Brad Pitt will get a nomination for sure. Jonah Hill was excellent playing a role like you have never seen him play before. He is not focusing on the funny and really for the first time I have got a chance to see him as a serious actor and I liked what I saw. He was very good but in this film Brad Pitt steals the show. If that weren’t enough, the old Oscar veteran Philip Seymour Hoffman is there for support as well. He is just as good as always in what seems like flawlessly finding his character and fleshing it out on screen. The acting was great but so was the overall structure of the movie. I won’t go into detail but I will say the way this movie is edited and put together really looks great and tells a great story. I was also really impressed with the director’s choice in the use of sound or lack thereof. Nothing can set a lonely tone or can allow the user to feel isolation than dead silence and while the entire movie is obviously not silent, there are scenes where that silence is used and boy it is certainly very effective. Everyone involved with this film simply hit a home run here. The movie fires on every level and keeps the audience engaged from start to finish. There is a reason this was my favorite movie of the year so far and in my opinion it’s also the best so far, weather that remains top be seen with all of the Oscar bait coming out we shall see, but this is the first truly impressive film I have seen on every aspect this year. Well I could probably include The Help with that sentence as well but Moneyball is a sure fire hit for baseball fans and a great movie for those who don’t even like the game. I can’t recommend this movie enough and I highly, highly recommend this film to everyone! You don’t have to take my word for it though it is easily certified fresh on RT and sitting at a 94% on the tomatometer, the numbers don’t lie, you know what to do just go see it and enjoy.

Modern Family Season Two Blu-Ray

I give the Video a 4.5 out of 5 and the audio of the discs a 4.0 out of 5 and the special features a score of 3.5 with an overall score of 4.5 out of 5

The 2 time Emmy award winning comedy makes its way to Blu-ray for a second time. The second season of Modern Family exceeds that of the first and therefore doing what many shows cannot do and that is beat the sophomore slump. It’s the opposite, I truly believe Modern Family to best and funniest show on television since Arrested Development and the second season of the show really shines. The actors are hitting their stride even more so than the Emmy winning first season. Last year Eric Stonestreet won the Emmy for his portrayal of Cameron. This year the show was given even more Emmy nominations and surprise, surprise they won more. This year in addition to taking home the statue for best comedy for the second year in a row also two of the 6 nominated actors from the cast won, meaning 3 out of the 6 main adult cast members have won Emmy’s for their performances. That is incredible! In season two it was Julie Bowen who plays Claire Dunphy and my personal favorite Ty Burrell won for his performance of Phil Dunphy. The laughs come nonstop on an excellent season and an excellent three disc set. Even if you don’t take the awards seriously this show is funny for everyone. I have had several people who randomly stop by when the show is on and have to ask what it is because they laugh so much. So I highly encourage you to check it out and see for yourself.

Enough gushing over the quality of show, let’s talk about the Blu-ray. This is Modern Family's second time hitting the Blu-ray market and the first season was great and from a technical standpoint this season looks exactly the same. Shot natively in HD the transfer to Blu-ray is very easy and it shows. If you have watched shows like the office on Blu-Ray they are very comparable as they both look very similar in their mockumentary type style. The DTS-MA audio lossless track is nice to have but hardly necessary. I mean that is the standard pretty much for Blu-ray these days but this is a dialogue driven show so it’s not really necessary but it’s nice to know it’s there when its needed like showing a beastly mustang racing down the street you are reminded that you are listening to the lossless audio and the dialogue come through clear as a bell, No lines are dropped or are hard to hear and really sounds pretty great. The extras are a small smattering of a few gems deleted scenes, extra family interviews and a few commentaries and such. I don’t know about you but I don’t really get into the special features of TV shows, they just don’t hold my interest like Blu-ray movie special features do but the ones included here are solid and worth a look after you have gone through the set. Overall this hardly needs a recommendation, the show has won two Emmy’s, one for each year it has been on, the actors are Emmy laden and pitch perfect in fleshing out these ridiculous characters based on the real life families of the writers Christopher Lloyd (not Doc Brown but another Chris Lloyds) and Steve Levitan. Those guys won Emmys also by the way for writing, so what are you waiting for if your still reading you know you want it. Very highly recommended!

Star Wars: The Complete Saga 1977-2005 Blu-Ray

Let me start out by saying this and just get it out of the way. Regardless of how you feel about the changes that George Lucas has made to his movies you would be doing yourself a large dis-service to not watch these blu-ray discs. The very fact that you are reading this review means you have an interest in the best possible picture and audio quality and that is what Lucas delivers here. That being said these blu-rays are not going to be the greatest thing you ever saw on Blu-Ray just because it is Star Wars and while your hopes are justifiably high you have to realize that the original trilogy is over 30 years old there are only so many things you can do to old film. Don’t be discouraged however because this is a top notch set of discs and rest assured you are getting them in the highest quality that they will ever achieve, and quite frankly they look un friggin believable. The final disclaimer, there is a very good chance that George Lucas will ever release a set that is absolutely perfect, there are just way to many fans to try to please them all with everything you have ever wanted and the biggest question everybody has is, are the original untouched versions of the original trilogy included in this set? I’m just going to rip the band aid off right now, no they are not. Why they are not I can’t really come up with an answer, people have wanted them for years and as far as I know they were only released on DVD once in a set that I bought in 2006 at best buy with an exclusive tin that had the 1997 released Special Edition copies and a bonus disc with a full screen version of the original un altered films, you know the one where Han Solo was the only one that shot, not Greedo. As for now it looks to stay that way, I was really hoping that they would be included in a remastered wide screen format and they were not. That was the biggest let down for me. But enough about the negative let’s move on to the tech specs. Below is the limited edition Best Buy collector set that included the original untouched trilogy

I am not going to give everyone or judge the merits of this set the details of the movies. Everyone has seen them probably multiple times and there really is no point to it. Your feelings on the Prequels vs. the original trilogy does not really matter in this set. Simply if you don’t like the prequels you don’t have to buy them they make separate sets but I’ll tell you this if you skip the prequels you will miss out on the best looking disc of the set and if you don’t get the complete saga you will miss out on three bonus blu-rays filled with over 40 hours of special features. So if you want to get it I strongly recommend you spend the extra to grab the entire set. The format will be as follows, I have not done a review of this size and quite frankly this important to home video so I will go in order by movie and give a couple of general thoughts and a number rating for those who want something concrete, the number system will be out of 5 stars and after the films are discussed I will give a brief breakdown on the special features.

Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Strangely this is the worst looking of the entire set, and also the worst movie if you want to know my opinion. That being said it still looks nice, in fact it looks easily better than you have ever seen it, no joke. It’s almost so good you can look past the terrible acting and Jar Jar Binks. This movie was shot on 35mm film back then and it was before George Lucas and Lucas film ltd. switched over to digital and you can tell in some spots. To use a technical term there is a lot of DNR Digital Noise Reduction which is a technique done to try and clean up an image digitally without the proper full and much more expensive way. When this is used too much it can wash out your black levels and give a soft appearance to the film and that happens in episode I more than a few times. It also can take away from some fine detail and that is what episode I was lacking in more than ever was lack of extreme detail. It's not all bad though it’s really not. A lot of the film looks incredible, mostly the stuff done with cgi. The battle of Naboo, the underwater world of the Gungans and The pod races at Tatooine all look incredible and are the highlights of the disc. Also the first of the changes occurs; they swapped out the puppet Yoda with that of a CG Yoda that matches up with the other two films of the prequels. Picture quality is a 3.5 borderline 4 The Audio is a perfect 5!

Episode II - Attack of the Clones

Episode II fares much on Blu-ray, a lot of the detail has been restored and much less of DNR is present. Lucas had started the switch over to digital at this point and you can tell. The end battle and the scenes on Camino look the best out of this disc and the Naboo scenes look impressive as always and an upgrade from episode I. This happens to be a much better movie in my opinion as well. The Picture quality of this disc is a 4.0 borderline 4.5 and the audio is a perfect 5!

Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

This movie is a pure Stunner! Easily the best looking of the entire set and it is also the 2nd best looking blu-ray I have ever seen behind Avatar and some scenes came close to even that. This disc is incredible people I cannot state that enough! It looks light-years ahead of the other movies as Lucas was shooting all digital by this time. The colors leap off the screen, the black levels are perfect and just the general sense of the magnitude of what you’re watching followed by the technical flawlessness of it all just makes for a world class experience. The opening space fight sequence, the light saber battles with General Grieveace, the laser beams, the end climax on the lava planet, it all just looks so incredible! You have never seen Star Wars like this and it is 100% pure awesome! Call it reference quality if you will but this disc is perfect! Picture and audio quality are perfect 5's

The Original Trilogy Episode IV - A New Hope, Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, and Episode VI - The Return of the Jedi.

I am reviewing these all together because they all do not differ very much if at all. If you are like me these are the ones you wanted to get your hands on the most and were hoping the quality is up to snuff. Rest easy my friends our beloved childhood classics have never EVER looked better. I can say that with ease. Black levels look great the exterior shots look gorgeous and a lot of care has gone into making these beloved films look the best that they possibly can. I mean that too, I really don’t see how these movies could look any better than this, they certainly won’t sound better. You can see the scuffs on Darth Vaders helmet and some of the details you were never able to tell before you can now because of the upgrade in clarity and fine detail. I give the picture quality on all three 4.0 borderline 4.5 and the audio is a perfect 5.

 Changes of note, in episode I Obi Wan makes a different sounding call to scare off the sand people, it doesn’t really make any difference but its weird if you watched the movies as many times as I have. The Ewoks blink, and it’s really kind of creepy and weird and Darth Vader says "No, Nooooo" before he throws the emperor over the side. There were a couple other minor changes but those were the major ones.

 A note on the audio and that is that it really is perfect. I don’t just use the term lightly I mean it’s the best thing I have ever heard in a home theatre setting. I have never watched movies in my house that have sounded better. Perfectly mixed with sounds coming at you from every direction. The DTS 6.1 Master Audio Lossless track is absolute perfection and it will blow you away!

 The special features rounding out this epic set are spread over 3 blu-ray discs and features all kinds of stuff such as new documentaries and deleted scenes and more, the deleted scenes are around a hour and a half or so as well over 90 minutes of Star Wars spoofs from all kinds of sources and it was pretty awesome, plus a history channel feature on Star Wars technology and so much more great stuff.
 The Packaging is a very nice booklet like appearance with painted artwork on the inside for each movie and bonus discs. It is very much like the Alien ultimate Anthology set that came out earlier this year. I found the artwork and packaging to be sturdy and beautiful. Looks great on any shelf!

The movie alone should be enough for anyone to run, not walk out and buy this set. It is arguably the biggest and most anticipated set to ever hit blu-ray and it does not disappoint. No it’s not the most perfect and complete set you’ve always wanted but its close and I don’t think anyone will ever get the perfect set, so don’t be stubborn and neglect yourself from seeing something you love in a totally different light. The quality of the films themselves is epic whether it be love or hate for these films, but that’s not what this review is about and from a technical standpoint I’m pretty sure these movies will never look or sound any better than they do right now. No Brainer folks this is THE must own set along with the extended Lord of The Rings that will define your Blu-ray collection! It gets my Highest recommendation.

O Brother Where Art Thou? Blu-Ray

I give the Picture Quality on this disc a 5 out of 5 and a 5 out of 5 for the DTS 5.1 Master Audio. The overall rating of this disc easily give a 5 out of 5.

When I picked this up last night I didn’t really know what to expect on picture quality other than I know almost all of the Coen Brothers Blu-Ray releases look incredible. Well I am happy to report that this one is no different. This is one of my all-time favorite movies by the Coens and just in general and one of my favorite movie soundtracks of all time as well so I was hoping it would get the golden treatment and from what I saw this afternoon it did. I have not seen black levels that could look any better than this film; it is on par with Alien for the best black levels I have ever seen. The Night time camping scenes in this movie looked every bit as good as any new release in fact it may have looked a little better. It is clear a lot of time and care went into this transfer and you can tell it looks fantastic. All of the desired intent on the Coens designed color schemes to the great shots that got it nominated for a cinematography Oscar. Every aspect of the video looked great! The DTS Master Audio is just as great, every note of the soundtrack is heard in crystal clear tones. The gunshots that ring out from Baby face Nelsons car to thunder crashes when they are about to be hanged it all sounds so extremely good. When the Soggy Bottom boys take the stage so does this audio mix. Its great presentation all the way around and on Par with the Coens best and most recent releases. The only real disappointment was lack of the special features, sure they tossed in a few but this upgrade is purely for the visual and audio. If you love this movie then run out immediately and get it, it looks every bit as good as you hoped it would. The upgrade is well worth it, if you don’t own this movie on DVD and are looking to get it now is the perfect time. I was turned off at first on the spendy price tag on it, I would have liked to see it about 5 dollars cheaper but after watching it I am perfectly satisfied and it is surprisingly one of the best looking Blu-Ray's I have in my collection, and believe me folks I have a lot of blu ray discs, just look at my HT photos. This disc is very highly recommended!

Thor Blu-Ray (2011)

"Whoever wields this Blu-Ray, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor."

I rate the movie a 4 out of 5 stars and an 80% on RT, I rate the Blu-Ray Video quality a 5 out of 5 Stars and the 7.1 DTS Master Audio a 5 out of 5.

Thor was another one of my favorite movie releases of the year thus far. I had been waiting for Thor for a while before it hit theatres in May and when I saw it, it was the first comic book movie I had seen all year and the first real movie kicking off the Summer movie season. Needless to say I was ready for it and for me it really delivered the goods. There are a lot of people out there who did not care for this movie for various reasons. Weather it be problems with the script or the acting, I did not have those problems. I took this movie at what it was and that was a comic book movie, so I did not expect an Oscar caliber script or anything, I went in expecting to have fun and that is what I had. So much fun I had that I saw this three times in the theatre, twice regular and once in IMAX. The IMAX is still the best overall theatre going experience I have ever had. The movie isn't perfect, its far from it, but I find it to be better than most comic book movies and I think its a lot of fun to watch. It's different than other comic films, what I mean by that is it takes itself pretty seriously and that is where I think some people had problems with it. The Movie is directed by Kenneth Brannah who loves his Shakespeare and I think he tried to bring in a bit of that Shakespearean element and I can see in some instances where he succeeded and I can see some spots where it failed in its attempt. But enough about the movie and what it did right and what it did wrong, you know where I stand on it and if you go into it expecting to have fun and watch a good story your really going to enjoy it. If you go in expecting it to be Hamlet or something you might leave a bit disappointed.

This movie from a Blu-Ray standpoint is incredible. Many times during the viewing of this disc I found myself rewinding scenes just to re watch them again in all their high def glory. From start to finish the picture quality of this disc will leave you gap jawed in amazement. Especially the first 30 mins of the film and all of the Asgard scenes with their warm and almost glowing color tones to the cool look and feel of Jotunheim the realm of the frost giants all the way to the nice crisp clean images of Earth, they all look stunning! The Audio on this disc is just as good if not better than the picture, this disc contains a 7.1 DTS Master audio track that brings the Thunder (see what I did there) This track is loud and proud and fires on every speaker, the dialogue is crisp and your sub woofer will flex to the max. Your rear and mid speakers will be particularly aggressive as well. When I watched this sounds came at me from every direction and was one of the better audio tracks I have heard. Only a few I have heard have sounded better. There are some special feature that add up to about 2 hours or so maybe a bit more. There are 7 featurettes and a couple of trailers and a quick look at The Avengers (which was awesome but way to short) and then another video helping you tie together various though lines between all of the films that led up to the upcoming Avengers film. Not too shabby a pack of supplements, not enough to overwhelm you but enough to keep you busy. This disc is a really easy recommendation to almost everyone, unless you don't like comic book movies this movie is very enjoyable and fun. Fans of Thor should immediately add this to their collection as it is a pretty decent way to introduce a beloved comic character to the big screen. So for Comic and Thor fans this disc is a must buy. The blu-ray from a tech standpoint is damn near flawless and it makes for a very enjoyable home movie experience. This movie is a popcorn flick in just about every way so grab some corn and beverage and settle in for one awesome blu-ray experience!   Highly & easily recommended!

Contagion 2011

I give this movie 3 borderline 3.5 out of 5 stars and a 60% on RT although if I could I would have given it about a 67%

Let me start by saying that Contagion is not a bad movie, it's really not. The problem is it just has some hampering flaws from letting it be a truly great movie. If you check the other reviews they are all fair to pretty good and I cant argue that it is not a decent movie, but this is the important part and that is it is worth your movie monies to go out and see it. The answer to that is a resounding no! I went last night and dropped my 30 bucks for two tickets a drink and some corn and that was the standard 30 dollars which I normally do not mind plunking down. However when the movie does not pay off I get a bit of buyers remorse and that is what happened with this movie. It drew me I mean hey whats not to like its got a decent story an Oscar nominated director and a Jam packed star studded cast whom most of were nominated for Oscars as well. So whats not to like about the idea of going to see it in the theater with all that going for it, well I tell you. The opening of the movie was great I was drawn in immediately, things were happening and I was thinking alright I love the start and lets get settled and that's what happened after the opening, the movie settled, settled a little too much. I love watching the drama unfold but where they falter a bit here is what they were going for is what they got, they wanted to be very technical in discussing the virus, and spreading rate and such. So much at times I felt like I was in math class. That may be a bit extreme but my point is that was a lot of the technical dialogue was very boring to watch, even with a great actress such as Kate Winslet. There were too many lulls in between the stuff you really wanted to see. So after a bit of the bore fest they try to spice it up again by showing more of the virus and such. That being said I am sure that anyone who works for the CDC (Center for Disease Control) would love it as it felt very authentic for a movie. The acting in this movie was great though and there were many familiar faces in the film and all of them turn in pretty solid performance. That was the movies saving grace was the performances were good, especially Matt Damon who is one of my very favorite actors to watch, and the story was good enough to keep your interest, when you could actually see the affects of the virus, not when they talk about it. The cinematography is cool with the empty city shots but its nothing new or better than we have seen before in these types of movies. I am Legend is still the staple to me for an empty city shot. Overall that was the problem with the film and that was it never really delivered for me or the person I was with. We just kept waiting for something more serious to happen and it never did and then it was over, very abruptly. I like they way you find out what the virus is and they way they handle showing the spread of it, I thought it was probably the best thing about the movie and again the true back story was only handed out in doses but the pay off is nice. I don't usually like to re hash plot points in the reviews because I feel audiences need to have a sense of wonder before going to see some movies and this movie is no different. In the end as I said before in the first sentence and that is that Contagion is not really a bad movie its actually a decent movie however this movie is a rental in the truest since of the word. Plan on seeing it, but you should really try to wait, in retrospect I wish I would have but the allure Drew me in so I write this review to tell you the same, unless you dying to see it (see what I did there) Plan on saving the 15 to 30 dollars and wait till the Blu-ray hits and give it a rent. Because for the right price it it an enjoyable film, just not really a great theatre experience.

X-Men First Class Movie & Blu-Ray Review

I give this movie 4.5 of 5 Stars and a 90% on RT, although if I could I would have given it a 97%

I will start out by saying that this is possibly my favorite movie of the year so far, its back and forth with me between this and The Rise of the Planet of the Apes. This is a really groovy flick. It is highly stylized in the fashion of James Bond and it is a great throwback. It manges to have the look and feel of a retro film while keeping its mainstream appeal and producing some really great looking images. The film also manages to do one of my very favorite things and that is blend in fiction with real life history. In the case of X-Men First Class the real history situation blended in was the Cuban Missile Crisis and that is just perfect to symbolize the boiling point of two sides, USA vs Russia and Eric, Xavier. Another way this film truly exceeds its counter parts is its knowledge of the comics and the homage it pays to its fans and it really ties itself in great with the other movies of the franchise, especially the first one released in 2000. X-Men First Class is easily the best of the entire series. The film is rounded out by a great young cast of up and comers and they do a bang up job here. Michael Fassbender is fantastic as Eric (Magneto) as well as James McAvoy as Xavier. Jennifer Lawrence and Kevin Bacon also stand out with some charismatic performances and January Jones, well......She just looked real pretty. All of these things combined are the makings of a great film and if you missed it in the theatres you defiantly don't want to miss the Blu-Ray release.

The Blu-Ray from a technical standpoint is really pretty solid I give the video quality a 4.5 and the audio 5.0. The Special features a 3.5. The video is really sharp and quite colorful, some scenes more than others but this blu-ray really benefits from the films retro look. Detail is very sharp, the picture has an overall warm look to it but the image is crisp. There is only minor crushing that I saw and that was in the beginning and was only for a brief moment. The blacks levels were solid and there was a very fine level of grain to give it a very film type look. The picture quality is really quite nice. My only complaint and its minor is that there seemed to be an error on the disc involving blu lines, while sometimes you see this as a refraction of natural bright light it looked very out of place on this disc and I had to wonder if it wan error or if it was in the original film. It defiantly looks out of place and though I would have remembered seeing something like that in the theatre but maybe not either way it was only very briefly and in two moments. When Magneto is in the restaurant in the beginning and when Havok is testing out how to control his energy beams. The audio on the other hand is just about as perfect of a DTS 5.1 Master lossless audio track could be. You never lost any of the dialogue and sounds were full and booming. The special features rounds out at about 2 hours. There are some decent deleted scenes at about 14 mins and there is an excellent 1 and 10 minute documentary called Children of the Atom and its well worth a watch of all things behind the scenes. There is also a mode called X marks the spot mode which adds about 20 minutes to the film by cutting away to interviews and such. These can also be viewed by themselves in the special features. Overall this is a rock solid disc from the quality of the movie itself to the tech specs to the special features. This one is a no brainer to almost anyone and get my Highest Recommendation