Blu-Ray Review: 3:10 to Yuma

Now if you told me 3 months ago that I would be reviewing 3:10 to Yuma, I would laugh at you.  Now I know it's got high praise and all, but just I'm not a big fan of westerns.  But I saw the trailer and it looked good so I figured "Why not give it a shot".  I got a good deal on it ($12 on eBay.  I really recommend eBay for all Blu-Ray purchases.  They have deals) and today I finally got it in the mail.  

3:10 to Yuma takes place of course in the early days of the US during it's movement to the west.  An outlaw named Ben Wade (Russell Crow) who gets captured by sheriffs and a farmer named Dan Evans (Christian Bale).  So the movie is basically about them taking this outlaw to the 3:10 Train to Yuma.  But Wade's outlaw crew is not far behind and the chase is on to see who will get to the station first.

The movie was very entertaining.  It was not bad but I was going in thinking it would be a lot better.  Maybe I just built up my hopes to much for the movie.  The Blu-Ray itself on the other hand did no let down at all.  It's got perfect picture.  The colors and detail are some of the best I have seen on Blu-Ray.  It's one of the few I own that even has 7.1 PCM Uncompressed audio.  But dont expect much of it since the movie isn't a bass thumper like a lot of my movies in my collection.  

Overall I was happy with the whole package.  The movie itself was very good and I really was looking forward to Bale's performance since I know how dedicated an actor he is.  But I was kinda let down.  Not that it was bad but it was not breathtaking.  I was more impressed with Patrick Batemen from American Psycho or hell even Bordon from The Prestige.  But this movie was mainly about Russell Crow and Ben Wade.  He was just a character that just kept on making you think "Should I be going for or against this guy."  He's a villain that just gets you involved and thats what makes movie goers interested.  Overall, I recommend the movie as a rental.  The characters are really great and the movie itself is good but I dont think some people might see replay value in this movie.  

Rating: 8 out of 10 (Good)      

Blu-Ray Review: The Prestige

The Prestige is Chris Nolan (Director: Batman Begins, Memento, The Dark Knight) first movie after being at the helm for Batman Begins.  Not many general movie goers knew about Nolan until Batman; I for one was one of them.  After Begins, I could not wait to see what his next film was gonna be.  When heard about The Prestige and the movie having Christian Bale, Micheal Caine, and Hugh Jackman in it, I was very excited to see what he had up his sleeves.  Unfortunately I never got to see it in theaters but I finally got to see it when it was released on DVD a few years ago.  I was very impressed with it and knew that I would defiantly see it multiple times in the future.  Now after a year or two, I finally got around to getting a copy for Blu-Ray.

The story takes place in London during the late 1800's.  Bordon (Christian Bale) and Angier (Hugh Jackman) are up-and-coming magicians that are friends when a tragic accident forces them to become bitter rivals.  Both try to out do each other until Bordon creates a trick that is basically pure magic.  The magic trick drives Angier crazy and thus begins his quest to find out exactly what Bordon is doing.

The film is great in general.  It's got great characters but more importantly is has great story.  You get involved in this feud between the two and it's hard to pick a side because both have much good but at the same time have their dark sides.  But we are not hear to just judge the story, it's a blu-ray review for a reason.  The video transfer is very good.  It's nothing jaw dropping but almost all of the jaw dropping blu-rays either have gigantic robots fighting, superheroes, or futuristic stuff.  That does not mean the movie is ugly in anyway.  It's got dark blacks and no color issues at all.  The movie comes with a 5.1 Uncompressed audio soundtrack but no 7.1 (sorry for those who actually have one).  But overall I was very impressed with the movies, especially since I bought it for $9.

I'm gonna go off and say right now that I am an big fan of Nolan's work.  Of course with me being a big comic book fan, my first movie I saw of his was Batman Begins.  Nolan is one of if not the best director in Hollywood right now and I think when it's all said and done, will go down as one of the best directors of all time.  It isn't just his cinematography and directing of great actors such as Micheal Caine, Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, and Morgan Freeman but it's his storytelling that grabs you.  After seeing Batman Begins, I saw Memento and The Prestige and was just utterly impressed by both films.  Now with The Dark Knight, he has his name connected with great films of our decade.  He has not just changed the world of comic book movies, but for cinema in general.  I highly reccomend  The Prestige to all.  It's a great looking film but it's a great story and that is something that Hollywood has been lacking lately.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Blu-Ray Review: Terminator 2: Skynet Edition

Terminator 2: Judgement Day is one of movie industries most successful movies of all time and set the bar not just for special effects, but also set the bar for sequels in general.  Now Terminator 2 had a very early Blu-Ray release which I did not buy because the transfer did not have great quality and there were not that many bonus features.  Because of this, many knew that there had to be another T2 Blu-Ray sometime in the not distant future.  Not long after, the release of the Terminator 2: Skynet Edition was released.  But was it the Blu-Ray that all of us have been waiting for?

I went to Best Buy about a week ago and purchased the Skynet Edition on sale for $14.  It was a steal because with traditional Blu-Rays around the $29-$35 range, I considered it a great buy when your getting a great movie like that on blu-ray for a DVD price.  In the end I was not disappointed.  They did a good job at restoring the footage, the sound is incredible like all blu-rays, and it comes packed with a lot of bonus features.  My favorite feature is that you can watch the movie in 3-ways.  You can watch the original 1993 Theater Release, the 1996 Special Edition Release, or a newer special edition that adds another 2 minutes but you need a code to watch it (I dont have the code but didnt bother watching it either).  

In the end, The movie still lives up to all of it's awesomeness.  Terminator 2 has been one of my favorite movies for a lot of my life.  I loved it when I was a little kid and still love it now.  The Blu-Ray is great and is defiantly worth the addition to anybody's collection.  The only problem I had with the Blu-Ray is the quality of the movie it self.  The video itself is very good but it does not live up to the quality that Blu-Ray can offer.  Because of how old the movie is and how bad the original source material is, I fear that we will never get better quality then what we see in this version.  I doubt that this is the version of Terminator 2 that ends all but it is a really good buy if you can get it for a good price.  

RATING: 8.5 Out of 10

Movie Review: Transformers 2

So I saw Transformers at midnight last night.  I went into last night pretty scared.  First I heard a lot from critics that it was WAY too long with a runtime of 2 hours and 24 minutes (which is pretty long) and then I saw that it got a RottenTomatoes rating of 30% (OWCH!).  Well I sat down in the back of a packed theater at the midnight showing texting friends and such who were in other theaters and then the lights dim down and the movie starts.  If you dont want to go into the movie with any idea of whats going on, then skip the next paragraph and go to my final thoughts on the movie.

The movie takes place two years after the first movie.  Sam (Shia LaBeouf) is heading off to college and apparently things are going rough between him and Makaela (Megan Fox).  Sam stumbles on a piece of the All Spark from the first movie and it trigers him to start seeing the ancient transformers writing.  All of the information that was in the All Spark is now in his mind so now Megatron and the Deceptacons are after Sam.  

After the movie ended, I was happy.  I did not see the really big fuss of why critics hate this movie.  It is EXACTLY like Transformers 1 with all of it's action, comedy, and epicness.  Now there was one moment near the end where I had this feeling of things being stretched on and that could have been cut a lot shorter but I really did not care because I was having fun.  The action is very badass and after seeing the first movie, the fights are a lot easier to comprehend (you actually see things better, it is not just a blur of moving parts.)

I feel like people are trying to hate on this movie because they are diving into the movie to deep or critiquing the movie too harshly.  Yes it's a Micheal Bay movie so it has weak characters, lots of explosions, and cheap comedy.  But I'm not critiquing this movie for Best Picture for the Academy, the movies purpose is to make you have fun at the movies.  Have people forgotten about that?  The people who are hating on this are the same people who hated Bale's growl as Batman in "The Dark Knight".  Did those people ever notices that he did it in Batman Begins?  All of this stuff happened in Transformers 1 so what more do you expect?  All they did differently is that there is more of it which I enjoyed.  I mean thats what sequels are about right?  

In conclusion, if you liked Transformers 1, you will like Transformers 2.  The movie is a lot of fun and thats what it is for.  It is just a fun summer blockbuster and if your trying to see past that and look deeper, then you did not get the point at all.  If you need strong characters, deep emotions, and less action, then Transformers 2 is not the movie for you.  To best judge if you will like Transformers 2 and have not seen Transformers 1, go rent the first one on DVD or Blu-Ray (which is a great Blu-Ray may I add) and see if you enjoy watching it.  If you do, then you will like Transformers 2.

RATING: 7.5 out of 10 (Good)

Welcome!

Well it is about time I finally get into the blogging business.  Hello and welcome to my movie review blog.  Now I know what you might be wondering.  "Why do we need another stupid idiot telling us what movies to go see or not?"  Well the reason that I am making this blog is that I a filmmaker but also I am a fan of movies just like you.  

I remember where you could go and basically listen to critics and find out what movies were good and what were not.  But with all of these critics who are in love with these artsie movies now a days, it's like they forget what it is to just lay back and have fun at the movies...you know....the way it use to be.  

As of today I am creating this blog as a way to tell you all the good and the bad in the movie industry.  I wont just do brand new movies, I'll dive back and do some re-releases or also some request if I ever get any.  What I look for in a movie is something enjoyable.  This can be a lot of things.  No Country For Old Men was enjoyable and it won an Academy Award.  But at the same time Transformers was a enjoyable movie also and it gets blasted all the time because it is a "Micheal Bay movie".  

So hopefully this all works out and I can help a lot of movie goers out there enjoy themselves at the movies and will never have to see or be coaxed into a bad movie again.