Ransom is a well made crime-thriller propelled by some great performances from Mel Gibson and Rene Russo and the story never gets old or is overly complicated and instead plays it straight as a thrilling cat-and-mouse game.
The Meatballs Blu-ray release is a mixed bag with decent audio and video transfers but disappointing in the features department especially considering the making-of featurette was not transferred over (no doubt due to the rights being with Sony).
Bettie Page: Dark Angel is an all around bad movie, poorly acted and gives no insights into the character and instead is more of a porn film than anything of substance. The lead actress certainly has the look down but the acting is poor, although I can’t blame her too much given the director doesn’t have much going for him.
Clueless is a timeless classic that even 17 years later is still relevant today as it was then even when styles and lingo changes. The movie features some great performances especially from Silverstone who probably deserved more award recognition than she got.
Lionsgate has repackaged these re-releases in anticipation for the upcoming Avengers live action summer blockbuster, so if you already owned these you’re getting the exact same content except in a more convenient single Blu-ray case.
This “High-Powered Action Pack” might not have the greatest movies – Equilibrium and The Lookout are the best – but at a low SRP of $30, it comes to $5 per movie and maybe less depending on which store you go to (i.e. Best Buy had it for $10), so if you’ve enjoyed any of these and don’t care about features or average audio/video transfers, then by all means check it out.
American Wedding despite the issues I had with Stifler as he changed from obnoxious to plain annoying, still has some funny scenes and even though it doesn’t nearly stack up to its predecessors, retains some of the charm that made them so good and memorable.
American Pie is still a fun movie that might not have any sense of reality given most of these characters only exist on celluloid, but even so, it’s a movie that even with its age still manages to make me laugh be it for the gross-out, raunchy jokes or sex humor.
Striptease isn’t a good movie yet at the same time I have to admire the energy Demi Moore and the supporting cast brought despite a poorly written screenplay.
Reindeer Games isn’t too bad of a movie and although it does feel too long, it’s still passable entertainment headlined by a unique performance from Gary Sinise. However, I cannot say this Blu-ray release is any good.
Airplane is a timeless comedy, one where one doesn’t necessarily have to get the references in order to find it funny. The Blu-ray, a Best Buy exclusive at the time of this writing, has a good video transfer and adequate audio.
Scary Movie 2, while not an awful film, is just simply not very funny. It pales in comparison to the original and makes the two other sequels look absolutely brilliant. I’ve now seen this film twice and nothing has changed over the years; I might’ve chuckled a couple of times but otherwise I just had a blank stare counting down the minutes until it was over.
Demolition Man is a fun ride and one of Stallone’s better entries in the 1990s second maybe to Cop Land and just ahead of Cliffhanger. One can’t discount Wesley Snipes who to that point had been the hero and takes a fun villainous turn with an over-the-top performance that matched up well with Stallone’s macho personality.
The Specialist is the tale of three movies: Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone are in one (average film); James Woods in another (an over-the-top but fun one); and Rod Steiger, with help by Mr. Camp himself Eric Roberts (in a bad film) who seemed to be on a different page from everybody else. As a whole, this is an uneven movie with poor pacing for the first two-thirds and it wasn’t until the action-packed finale that things come together.
Bridget Jones’s Diary is still after all these years, 10 to be exact, is a great British comedy with three fine performances. The Blu-ray itself is decent enough with good video and audio transfers and all the features from the DVD were ported over so anyone thinking of upgrading will not miss anything.