Odds & Ends: Trekking into Justice
When I’m pressed for time to write at length, I will occasionally gather together compilations of recent news stories that might be of interest to this blog. I encourage our readers to discuss further...
View Article‘How to Train Your Dragon 2′ Review: How to Make a Decent Sequel
‘How to Train Your Dragon 2′ might not have the advantage of being a pleasant surprise like the original film, but it recaptures almost all of the charms of its predecessor with ease. The action is...
View ArticleBlu-ray Highlights: Week of June 22nd, 2014 – I’ve Been Working Like a Dog
You know I work all day, to get you money to buy you things. And it’s worth it just to hear you say, you’re gonna give me… a new Blu-ray! New Releases ‘300: Rise of an Empire‘ – On the one hand, I...
View Article‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’ Review: LOUD NOISES!!
‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’ feels like watching all of the previous ‘Transformers’ movies back to back in both the best and worst possible sense. It sure is dumb and action packed, but it’s also...
View ArticleSneak Preview: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ in Dolby Atmos
Thanks to our good friends at Dolby Labs, High-Def Digest was invited to attend the world premiere of Marvel’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’. Other than driving onto a historic studio backlot, nothing...
View Article‘Hercules’ Review: Busted Myth
As Dwayne Johnson continues his ascent to superstardom, the challenge becomes figuring out just what to do with the guy on the big screen. Obviously he can’t play some nameless office drone. He has to...
View Article‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Review: Heroes with a Half-Brain
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have returned, possibly signaling the moment when ’90s nostalgia hits the mainstream. There’s a problem with nostalgia, though. Fond memories tend to make things seem...
View Article‘Sin City: A Dame to Kill For’ Review: Boobs, Booze and Blood… in 3D
Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller might have taken almost ten years to mount their sequel to ‘Sin City’, but within seconds it feels like they never left. This isn’t so much a sequel as it is a second...
View ArticleSteelBook Alert: Me Grimlock Kick Butt
It seems foolish to call a movie that grossed over $240 million domestically (and is currently the top-earning film for the year worldwide) a box office disappointment, but the studio definitely hoped...
View Article‘The BoxTrolls’ Review: Creep-Outs for Kiddies
‘The BoxTrolls’ is a spectacular children’s animated feature, but it’s not a film for anyone whose idea of family entertainment starts and ends with Disney. It’s dark to the point of being horrific,...
View ArticleBlu-ray Highlights: Week of September 28th, 2014 – Less Than Meets the Eye
This week is all about those Robots in Disguise as Michael Bay’s latest rock ‘em sock ‘em sequel hits Blu-ray, and everything else moves out of its way. New Releases ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction‘ –...
View ArticleGo! Go! Go! Run! Run! Run! – Win ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’ on Blu-ray!
For as much as we may gripe about Michael Bay’s ‘Transformers’ franchise around here, the movies sure do make splendid home theater eye candy. If you’re looking for a new show-off demo disc, we’re...
View ArticleBlu-ray Highlights: Week of October 12th, 2014 – Future Tense
Time travel seems to be a major theme on Blu-ray this week. From mutant superheroes to talking dogs, everybody’s zipping back and forth from past to future, or vice versa. New Releases ‘X-Men: Days of...
View ArticleBlu-ray Highlights: Week of November 2nd, 2014 – Woke Up This Morning, Got...
This week’s new Blu-ray slate brings us one of the greatest TV shows of all time, an extended cut of a movie that was already too long, and some 3D movies that the studios aren’t bothering to release...
View ArticleBlu-ray Highlights: Week of November 9th, 2014 – KAPOW! ZWAPP! SPLATT!
Holy high definition, Batman! Heaven and Earth had to get moved to bring one of this week’s new Blu-ray releases to disc. Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na… For decades, the 1960s...
View Article‘The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet’ Review: An Overload of Whimsy
Few tones in all of filmmaking are more difficult to pull off than whimsy. One of the few directors who has managed to master that cutesy craft is Jean-Pierre Jeunet. (His ‘Amélie’ is the cinematic...
View Article‘San Andreas’ Review: The Rock Punches an Earthquake in the Face
One of the last pure action stars, Dwayne “Always the Rock” Johnson towers over every co-star he’s ever been assigned. In a world where few mere mortals can hope to win in a battle against the biggest...
View Article‘Everest’ Review: Such Great Heights
The mountaineering sport is not new to feature films. Amongst others, we’ve seen it in the action-thriller ‘Cliffhanger‘ and in the drama ‘Vertical Limit‘. Telling the true story of a tragic guided...
View ArticleTIFF Journal: ‘Love’
After a few years away getting up to god knows what (presumably debauchery of some sort), bad boy filmmaker Gaspar Noé has returned. For over a decade, the director has hyped up a dream of making an...
View Article‘The Walk’ Review: An Epic Stumble
James Marsh’s remarkable ‘Man on Wire’ was such a purely enjoyable and crowd-pleasing documentary that it was likely inevitable that someone would make a super-powered Hollywood version. After all, the...
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