DVD & Blu-ray
DVD — Latest
Strictly Ballroom (Blu-ray) (1992)
Baz Luhrmann, director of The Great Gatsby, started out with this funny, charming comedy–romance, now on Blu-ray.DVD — Recent
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (60 Sec)
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter in 60 seconds: my “Reel Faith” review.Amazing Spider-Man, The (2012)
For all that, the new film bungles who Spider-Man is, where he’s coming from. This isn’t the only problem (there are notable issues around the plot and the interpretation of Spider-Man’s reptilian foe, the Lizard), but for me it’s the most intractable, because it undermines the hero’s moral center.Avengers, The (2012)
If The Avengers isn’t necessarily the best superhero movie ever made, it is unquestionably the most superhero movie ever made — and, in that capacity, it is more than well-made enough to take comic-book entertainment to unprecedented levels.Brave (2012)
Among Hollywood animated films, it may be the most positive affirmation of family since The Incredibles and the best fairy tale since Beauty and the Beast.Cinderella (Blu-ray) (1950)
Disney’s Cinderella emerges from the vault in a “Diamond Edition” 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo package.Dark Knight Rises, The (60 Sec) (2012)
The Dark Knight Rises is very nearly the thunderous finale that Christopher Nolan’s unprecedented super-hero trilogy needed after the pitch-black nihilism that Heath Ledger’s Joker brought to The Dark Knight … Yet something crucial is missing — a major omission that lingers over the whole trilogy, a question raised ever more insistently in all three films, and at best left unanswered, if not answered negatively.Dark Shadows (2012)
If you are in love with the 1970s and Johnny Depp, perhaps you will enjoy this. Andrew O’Hehir says he knew he would love the film when he spotted a banana-seat Schwinn bicycle leaning against the front porch of Collinwood in an early scene. All right. But then comes a “happening” featuring Alice Cooper as himself (!), with a disco ball and cage dancers. At Collinwood. Is this really anyone’s idea of a good time?Finding Nemo (2003)
(New review for 3-D rerelease) Andrew Stanton’s Finding Nemo is the best father-son story in all of Hollywood animation, and maybe animation generally. It’s also a stunningly gorgeous film that exploits the potential of computer animation like no film before it and few films after it.Flight (60 Sec)
Flight in 60 seconds: my “Reel Faith” review.Frankenweenie (60 Sec)
Frankenweenie, Burton’s best film in years, is available in a number of editions: four-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo with 3-D Blu-ray and digital copy; 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo, and 1-disc DVD.Ghosts of the Abyss
If you see only one James Cameron-directed movie about the Titanic — and you should — see the one that doesn’t star Kate and Leo.Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)
Ice Age: Continental Drift is more like a Happy Meal than a movie. It’s another serving of exactly the same product that millions of families have been served before and will come back to again and again. Its brand-name familiarity and reassuring sameness are its stock in trade. Nothing is different except for the toys; last time it was dinosaurs, this time it’s pirates. It’s more resolutely like the three previous Ice Age movies than they are like themselves.Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
One of the cinema’s grandest spectacles, Lawrence of Arabia is at turns exhilarating, devastating, and puzzling as it ponders the mystery of a man who was a mystery to himself.Les Misérables (60 Sec)
Les Misérables in 60 seconds: my “Reel Faith” review (plus product notes).Lincoln (2012)
Steven Spielberg’s masterful Lincoln might more accurately have been called The 13th Amendment — and while the choice of the more marketable title is easy to understand, the more crucial decision to limit the scope of the film to the last few months of Lincoln’s life, and to focus less on Lincoln himself than on the political machinations of bringing about his most enduring legal legacy, must have been harder to make.Looper (60 Sec)
Looper in 60 seconds: my “Reel Faith” review.Lorax, The (2012)
Well … its heart’s in the right place. Give the filmmakers that.This isn’t The Grinch or The Cat in the Hat.
It’s not outright ugly, though it slips off the rails.
It wants to be decent. It tries. But it fails.