James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction is a must-watch for any fan of cinema, science fiction or otherwise, and while you’re not going to really learn very much new information but do hear from some experts in the genre or involved with it over the years.
Alien is of course a sci-fi/horror classic and obviously a cash cow for the studio with numerous re-releases on various formats and now it has come to 4K UHD and it does look excellent and ported over an already great lossless track.
The Cabin in the Woods is a well made and darkly humorous horror film that takes on the tropes of the genre quite well and has a pretty good bloody creature clash in the end which was wonderful before an ending that wasn’t nearly that satisfying.
The Assignment had an interesting premise and starts off well, if not weird, enough before devolving into familiar territory for the remainder of the film. On the plus side, Michelle Rodriguez isn’t bad once she’s rid of the hilariously bad fake beard and you can never have enough Sigourney Weaver in a movie.
Ghostbusters (2016) isn’t the hot mess the trailers showed it could’ve been (this year’s Alice Through the Looking Glass was far worse) and yet for all of the potential with a talented cast, the screenplay which was co-scripted by Paul Feig, was pretty bad, with the jokes falling utterly flat.
I’m giving this a 2.5/5 not because Aliens is a bad movie, far from it, but that it’s a blatant cash grab by Fox. Now, one could argue this is for the casual movie watcher but for fans, all you’re getting is new packaging and “collectable art cards” and a booklet.
Heartbreakers is an entertaining and all around fun crime-comedy featuring good performances all around but especially Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt who are wonderful together and the sole reasons this movie still works today going on 14 years.
Neil Blomkamp’s Chappie isn’t quite the homerun some expected it to be with a thin story and even thinner characters but like District 9, it impresses in the technical department with excellent motion capturing and all around solid visual effects. The Blu-ray itself has a nice selection of bonus material while the audio/video transfers are both demo worthy.
Exodus: Gods and Kings had the best of intentions especially in the technical departments from costumes, construction and visual effects, but for all the talk and lengthy running time, it all feels empty, void of any interesting actors not to mention some unintentional humor. The Blu-ray release offered by Fox is pretty basic with an OK commentary track and selection of deleted scenes, but little else given the bulk of features were reserved for the 3D Blu-ray combo pack.
This Ghostbusters two-film set is not perfect but it’s pretty close with a decent selection of bonus material, though the MST3K-style commentary is still only a DVD exclusive but the audio and video transfers for both films are great. Given the low SRP, this is a set worth picking up if only to have it in one package.
Ghostbusters is a fantastic sci-fi/supernatural comedy which has stood the test of time quite well and is just as entertaining when I first saw it back in the 1980s. As far as this “Mastered in 4K” re-release, I will say the video is most certainly a big improvement over the original Blu-ray release.
Dave is a nice movie filled with fine performances from Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver. Sure, it’s predictable and more than outlandish in its premise (bit of a stretch that he looks exactly like the President), but it’s one I’ve had fun watching throughout the years.
To say the least, Abduction is not a very good movie, the acting from Lautner is pretty bad (and at best just OK) while the talented supporting cast can’t overcome a lame script and overwrought storyline. The action sequences are all fairly average but at the same time I at least found some of it to be entertaining even when things get bad.
Copycat has been compared to Silence of the Lambs and Se7en. I don’t quite agree as both of those are easy suspense-thriller classics in my book, but it still is a solid thriller that features a couple good performances and is well written and finely directed.
After a long delay, I finally got the entire review done of this massive 6-disc Blu-ray set and I will admit, this is easily the best movie collection on Blu-ray that I’ve encountered as it not only ported over every feature from not only the 9-disc DVD set.