Blu ray movie review of Push

Push is little better than Jumper and not as good as X-Men series. The science fiction film borrows heavily from previous movies that dealt with human evolution that manifest in super human abilities. While a lot of audiences and critics have dismissed it as waste of time and unoriginal, it has its charm and fun. If you watched the film expecting Schindler’s list caliber film, than you will be very disappointed. However, if you take the film for a nice waste of few hours, you might come out satisfied.

The story is not very original. As stated earlier, it resembles X-Men in the subject matter. Some humans attain super human powers through experiments. While X-Men deals with evolution, the overall concept is similar. We see pockets of people with special abilities scattered throughout the World. The various organizations organize or control these people for their country. The main plot deals with one of these “pusher” escaping the facility after surviving an injection of drug that can enhance the ability. Every organization goes after this subject as she is the only subject to survive the injection.

While the story plods along in a decent speed, the main attraction of the movie is the action. The battles between different types of “pusher” are fairly well choreographed and staged. The ideas behind each abilities are interesting enough. The Jumper had people that can teleport instantly while Push has people that can perform various abilities. Overall, it’s a fun movie if you don’t expect too much.

What do you think about this movie? Please leave your thoughts below.

Click here to buy above blu ray movie at 20% off or more on Amazon.com!!

Blu ray movie review of Miami Vice

Michael Mann’s epic movie, Heat, remains one of the best heist/action movies of all time. Almost all of the male movie goers will put Heat as one of their top 5 favorite movies. It is no surprise that Michael Mann has made the iconic Miami Vice series into a gritty feature length movie. Mann served as executive producer for the 1980s television series. Mann wrote and directed the 2006 movie adaptation with some mixed result. While not as epic as the Heat, the Miami Vice has plenty of edge and great action sequence that is the hallmark of Mann’s movies.

The plot is very straight forward. While on an assignment to break up a prostitution ring, they stumble across informant that has some good information regarding drug deals. This turns out to be a case being worked on by FBI task force. From this point on, there are nonstop actions from frame to frame. The biggest obstacle is the leak on the FBI’s side as Tubbs, Jaime Foxx, and Crockett, Colin Farrell, try to stop this drug ring.

The violence is not toned down in this movie. Mann goes for maximum realism in the action sequence. While Heat had more stylized violence, Miami Vice goes for bare knuckle street fighting mentality. Each gun fights are not mixed with some crazy jumps or shots. Instead, both sides go for most efficient way to kill each other. This makes some sequence very violent and brutal. The acting by Farrell and Foxx are top notch. While plot is not very original, the movie never gets boring.

What do you think about this movie? Please leave your thoughts below.

Click here to buy above blu ray movie at 20% off or more on Amazon.com!!

Blu-ray movie review of Taken

Don’t let Luc Besson’s writing credit on Taken turn you away from the film if you are not a Besson fan. Luc Besson seems to generate a polarizing effect on the movie goers. You either like his stuff or you don’t. Only the Leon seems to generally generate a positive reception across the board. From then on, he had hits and misses with the Transporter series as well as the Fifth Element. Besson returns to action genre with Taken. While not directed by him, he wrote the film along with Robert Kamen. The movie has largely been given positive reviews by most movie goers as well as the critics for good reason.

Besson goes 180 degrees away from the Transporter series. Instead, the film resembles the grittier and older version of Jason Bourne or James Bond. Casting Liam Neeson as the lead gives the movie instant credibility. Liam Neeson plays a retired spy named Bryan Mills, who takes on security jobs with his fellow ex-spies. His daughter Kim, played by Maggie Grace, decides to go to Paris with her friend for a trip. Bryan is opposed to his daughter going to a foreign country without adult supervision. However, his ex-wife Lenore, played by Famke Janssen, thinks it’s good idea and convinces him to let her go. While in Paris, Kim and her friends are kidnapped by Eastern European mobsters who deal in sex trade. During the kidnapping, Kim manages to get in contact with her father. This leads Bryan on a chase across France to save his daughter.

The film has no nonsense feel to it. There are flashy fight sequences or car chases. The fight scenes and the car chases scenes are done in realistic fashion, violent and brutal. Liam Neeson is the perfect ex-spy who is hell bent on getting his daughter back. The film plays out like Jason Bourne movies except Bryan Mills is more ruthless and unforgiving. The torture scene where he is trying to determine where they are keeping his daughter is both horrifying and satisfying at the same time. This is an excellent movie that has no similarity with the Transporter. You should definitely see this film if you enjoyed the new Bond films or the Jason Bourne series.

What do you think about this movie? Please leave your thoughts below.

Click here to buy above blu ray movie at 20% off or more on Amazon.com!!

Blu-ray disc movie review of The Spirit

The Spirit mostly bombed at the box office. For a good reason. Most of the people were probably expecting 300 or Sin City type of movie. The movie style and Frank Miller’s name attached to the movie most likely signaled movie closer to 300 and Sin City. The Spirit is entirely different movie. 300 was action packed stylish movie while Sin City was stylistic and gritty in its execution. The Spirit is more comedic than action. While it does retain that Sin City style, its over the top comic and corny lines make the movie barely enjoyable.

The story is about a cop who comes back from death to fight criminals, mainly the Octopus played by Samuel L Jackson. The basic story is that Octopus created some drug that could prolong the life. Needless to say, Octopus and the Spirit both take the drug and duke it out over the course of the movie. Eva Mendes plays the old fling who comes back to get her hands on some treasure. There are little bit more to the story but not much.

This is film that’s all style and very little substance. I know a lot of the viewers were expecting Sin City and instead, got this comedic effort. You really can’t go wrong with Samuel L Jackson for Octopus but rest of the characters and story are just boring. I was indifferent from start to finish and was neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. All in all, it is a very forgettable film from Frank Miller.

What do you think about this movie? Please leave your thoughts below.

Click here to buy above blu ray movie at 20% off or more on Amazon.com!!

Blu-Ray dvd movie review of The Road Warrior

The Road Warrior still remains to be an action film worthy of emulation. So many movies have copied and recopied this classic action thriller starring Mel Gibson. Even today, the car chase scenes are as great as any movies released today. The sequel to the Mad Max lives up to the first one and even surpassing it in my opinion.

The film picks up few years after the end of the first movie where the world has been laid waste by the last great war. This post apocalypse world is where we once again meet Max, Mel Gibson, who is still wandering around in Australian wasteland. He is in search of gasoline when he runs into someone who tells him that there is a place where gas is being produced. He and this informant heads out to find the compound only to realize band thugs have been attacking them to steal the gasoline. Max makes a deal with to deliver the fuel from refinery in exchange for some fuel. This sets up the thrill ride with bunch of deaths and mayhem.

Mad Max put Mel Gibson on the map as a great actor. The car chase scenes remain the hall mark of this great franchise. The final chase scene is particularly exciting and one of the greatest car chase scenes in the cinema. It’s fitting that Mel Gibson has attained a great success as actor just like Harrison Ford after the Star Wars saga. This was one of his best performances as actor. Mad Max remains one of the most entertaining films ever produced.

What do you think about this movie? Please leave your thoughts below.

Click here to buy above blu ray movie at 20% off or more on Amazon.com!!

Blu-Ray movie review of Quantum of Solace

The second Bond movie by Daniel Craig seems too veered off from the great start by the Casino Royale. It isn’t a bad movie by any measure. It just seems to try little too hard to emulate the Casino Royale’s success. The great action sequences are all present. The foot chase, the car chase, and some all out shootouts. All the great elements of a great action film are present in the Quantum of Solace. But, incoherent plot that is thin on central focus takes away from a great movie.

The plot picks up where Casino Royale left off. That is, with Vesper dead and James Bond stinging from the loss. One thing leads to another and Bond is on the trail of the people responsible for her death. The movie jumps from location to location with inevitable car chase and shoot em ups in between. At each location, Bond uncovers little more of the menace. However, M is unconvinced that there is menace and Bond is after revenge. Eventually, Bond and the obligatory female character, Olga Kurylenko, arrive in South America dealing with the bad guys.

This isn’t the best Bond film nor is it the worst. After the Casino Royale set the bar high, it was expected that this effort wouldn’t be as good. Regardless, it certainly is not a big disappointment. All the action sequences are top of the line. The opening car chase sets the tone for the entire movie and the subsequent action sequences don’t disappoint. The female characters were on the weak side but that was to be expected after the death of Vesper. Overall, it is an enjoyable action flick if you don’t have big expectation from the Casino Royale.

What do you think about this movie? Please leave your thoughts below.

Click here to buy above blu ray movie at 20% off or more on Amazon.com!!

Underworld gets high def Blu-ray release

Underworld takes the old vampire versus werewolves and gives it a fresh spin. The Underworld takes two races from mythology, vampires and werewolves, and has them inhibit in the same setting. While the two are staples of the horror genre , this doesn't play out like a traditional horror movie. This action packed story will please horror fans and convert new ones due to the melding of movie types to create a fresh interpretation to a classic old genre.

A male human, Scott Speedman, unwittingly becomes involved in an on going war between vampires and werewolves. When a female vampire, Kate Beckinsale, notices the werewolves following this human, she becomes suspicious and begins to investigate why he is so important, even if it changes everything she has ever known about her life and vampire history.

The plot may sound like a typical horror story.  However, it plays more like a gangster movie. Both races participate in gunplay with specially modified bullets to instantly kill their opponents. The werewolves are brutish goons, wanna-be gangsters with more brawn than brains. On the flip side, the vampires are like a Corleone family with hierarchy, ancient customs and they're legitimate business owners which funds their criminal endeavours.

The Shakespearean relationship between Selene and Michael is well written and pleasantly portrayed, in the midst of all that darkness and drama. A bit of candle-light to shine hope into the darkness of despair, as it were. The story is an upgraded spin on a timeless classic, with enough additional plot and sub-plot to keep even the most common movie-goer interested. The war between the Vampires and the Lycan has raged for more than a thousand years. The Lycan, once the serving class to the Vampire, had risen against their masters and won their freedom. But was that the real story? Was their freedom truly the motivating force which stoked the fires of this war for this long? In the center of this war are Selene (Vampire) and Michael (Lycan). Their love of one another is forbidden by every Vampire Covenant written, but will that be enough to stop them from falling in love?

The acting in the movie is not the strong point.  The people who watch and enjoy this movie will be action/horror film fans.  I highly doubt the viewers will be dissapointed with the action or storyline.  However, like most action movies this movie does not have oscar worthy acting from the actors.  I think that maybe the script was more to blame. It's difficult to make a silk purse out of a sows ear, but I thought that Ms Beckinsale did her best. I found her character credible and even moderately complex at times. Perhaps this sounds like a get out, but maybe vampires express emotion in different ways to humans. I found the slow development of these emotion in Selene interesting. Speedman was rather wooden, but then his character was meant to be rather carried along in the torrent around him and maybe a degree of stupefaction on his behalf was consistent with this.

Bottom line is that UNDERWORLD does deliver on the action and never falls prey to cheese. Everything makes sense and comes together and you'll have great time getting there.

What do you think about this movie? Please leave your thoughts below.

Click here to purchase above blu ray movies at Amazon.com and save 30% or more!

Casino Royale benefits from high definition Blu-ray format

Casino Royale relaunches James Bond series in similar fashion to the Batman Begins.  Gone are the silly gadgets and plots.  Instead, Casino Royale covers the events leading up to James Bond's transformation into 007.  It is darker and grittier version than the previous Jame Bond films starting Pierce Brosnan.  Pierce Brosnan has been replaced by a young Daniel Craig, there is no Q, no campy gadgets, , no world-dominating super-colossus villains, and no silly one-liners after killing bad guys.

Craig has that natural feeling about him when you see him on the screen as Bond, that attitude, style, confidence matched only by Sean COnnery. The movie as a whole is extremely entertaining and exciting.The acting is awesome Eva Green actually does a great job and has really improved her acting from the last time i saw her (in kingdom of heaven), but then this is a totally different movie.

Craig doesn't have Connery's raw star quality, but he's easily the best actor to have played the part. I don't know if the film was shot in sequence but for the only time since OHMSS you get a sense of Bond changing throughout the film as his cockiness becomes confidence and his brutality becomes cold efficiency. He starts off unlikeable but human and gradually picks up the Bond traits we know until he becomes more likable but just a little less human. It's an interesting journey and Craig is up to it. It's not just his delivery, it's also his body language. Even his fighting style changes as he adapts.

Physically he's the most in your face Bond since Lazenby and the action scenes look realistic for once. Even the not very likely free running chase is spectacular but believable because you get the idea that this really is kill or be killed stuff. It's got a real feel of danger to it that hasn't been seen in the series in years. Only the torture scene feels like it's holding back but that's probably fear of the censors.

The entire cast is exceptionally good here, Judi Dench continuing to prove that casting her as M was an inspired choice. Mads Mikkelsen makes an excellent LeChiffre, and Eva Green is one of few Bond girls who is a quality actress and seems effortlessly classy. No bimbos to be found here, that's for sure. The film is very well-written and paced and for once it's hard to pick holes in it.

"Casino Royale" takes the Bond franchise in a bold, new, and fresh direction. Following installments will hopefully not become too formulaic and can certainly afford to be slightly more light-hearted and traditionalist (Q & Moneypenny never harmed anybody), but the tone was set just right by "Casino Royale" and hopefully it will stay this way at least for the duration of Craig's run in the role and not fall apart as Brosnan's era sadly did following "GoldenEye".

What do you think about this movie? Please leave your thoughts below.

Click here to purchase above blu ray movies at Amazon.com and save 30% or more!

Batman Begins reboots the frenchise

Christopher Nolan and cast have saved the Batman frenchise from the failures of Joel Schumacher's versions fo Batman sequels.  The first two Batman movies by director Tim Burton and Keaton as Batman were fantastic movies.  The third and fourth installment were very dissapointing.  The flops made by Joel Schumacher have effectively buried the popular DC comics frenchise until this reboot of the frenchise.  The recent success of many Marvel comics properties have helped revive the comic book adaptations.  And the rebooting of this frenchise was matter of time.  And to Nolan's credit, he has pulled of an outstanding movie.

The story covers the origin and the birth of Batman from Bruce Wayne.  The movie does not linger too long on the events leading up to the Bruce WAyne's transformation.  The background also covers how he comes up with the gadgets, car, and the cave.  The gadgets are not outlandish like in the past two movies and feel like they could exist in current times.  Scarecrow chosen as the first nemesis works perfectly in the movie.

Christopher Nolan creates darker and gritter version of the Batman than the previous two movies.  It is even darker than the Tim Burton's intepretation of the movie.  The screenplay written by Nolan and Daid S. Goyer exudes quality.  The plot is tight and the dialogues are right on the money.  The casting of Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Ken Watanabe, Gary Oldman, and Liam Neeson are absolutely perfect.  ONly weak link in the cast would have to be Katie Holmes as Bruce Wayne's love interest.

Nolan's preference for the real stunts to CGI is breath of fresh air in this age of CGI bloated action flicks.  There are very few CGI scenes to speak of.  You can see and have real feel for the action sequence.  The Gotham city has just right amount of dark and gritty feelings in the movie.  For a movie derived from comic book, the realism works remarkable well for this movie.

Overall, Batman Begin is must watch for any movie and is not just for comic book lovers.  It is well written and acted with just right mix of fantasy and realism.  It is a breath of fresh air after the debacle created by Schumacher.  This very successful relaunch of a great frenchise.

What do you think about this movie? Please leave your thoughts below.

Click here to purchase above blu ray movies at Amazon.com and save 30% or more!