Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

If you read my review for the first Pirate's movie then you'll know that Disney disappointed me again with the same crap at the insertion of this Blu-ray Disc into my player.

Favorite line from the movie, "The Captain seems to be acting a bit strange... errrr."

This movie is more dark. First example is during the meeting at the beginning between Lord Beckett and Will Turner where it is said that in a shrinking world there is no place for a free man.

Later we see the Flying Dutchman's crew members gambling the only thing a slave has to offer, years of servitude.

In the talk between Elizabeth and Captain Jack Sparrow, she basically enlightens the Captain to the knowledge that all people have that one moment in their life where they can stand up and change things in the world. We don't do it because of fame or fortune, but because its the right thing to do. Atleast that's what I gather from their conversation.

Oddly the sound on this disc seems a tad bit lower than in the first movie.

Like with its predecessor, I would be willing to update to a new disc if it was in a high definition and/or in 3D.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

I hate Disney! Sorry, but I had to get that out there. After a lengthy time staring at their logo, I would have been forced to watch 5 trailers, an anti-piracy commercial, and a clip about how I can't hold them responsible for comments made in the interviews and alternative soundtracks. Thank goodness though I could skip each one but the clip.

The introductory menu is enchanting, however the main menu seems boring in comparison.

The video quality is amazing, and the sound is lovely.

The story is still as good as the first time I watched it. The special effects dazzling. The acting wonderful. Even after all these years.

If you've not seen the movie, you are in for a good action film. It is well rounded with comedy, wit, love, greed and adventure.

I upgraded to this Blu-ray Disc from my copy on DVD. So worth it. When the time comes that they release a 4k or better version, or 3-D, I'll be hard pressed not to upgrade again.

The Blind Side

Sandra Bullock is one of my most favorite actresses. While I don't like all of her movies, I love The Blind Side.

This Blu-ray Disc has great sound, and a crystal clear picture. The image fits perfectly onto my widescreen TV without any black bars.

Since buying this movie 3 years ago I have watched it once every year. I still need a box of tissues nearby.

Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) in theory hits the jackpot when Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) takes interest in him. She provides him a stable life, and makes sure he pursues an education. In the meantime Leigh Anne discovers that Mike has a gift for playing football.

As far as I'm aware there is no better version of this movie available at this time. I also can see no reason to upgrade if something better does come along.

8 Mile

The slightly grainy look this movie has actually lends to the grittiness of the story.

I believe this was my third time watching this movie since I bought it, based on the praises that my sister gave.

I personally don't like much in this music genre, and the life style that is promoted in this movie is far from desirable. However the awaking of the character through the movie is somewhat up lifting.

While its never going to be a classic, it is the classic tale of the underdog that rises to victory. In short it's one mans life story of coming to the reality that the only person he can truly count on is himself.

The extras include a music video from Eminem that basically tells his distrust about women. It's hard for me to get into a style of music that disrespects women so frequently. If you're in a relationship with a user, leave her and move on, call it a learning experience, don't taint a generation of people with your emotional baggage.

All said, the sound quality is great, and the picture is actually in widescreen and of decent quality. However, I am not interested in upgrading from my DVD copy.

102 Dalmatians 2-Pack (Part 2)

First thing I noticed after placing this disc in was that there where 4 commercials for other titles from Disney. Luckily I could keep pressing the Next button to skip them.

When starting the movie the THX introduction assured me that the sound was going to be much better than the first movie.

After looking on the Internet and finding that there was indeed a widescreen version of this movie, I'm left wondering why Disney put a full frame version in the 2-Pack when the copy of 101 Dalmatians was presented in widescreen.

I had totally forgot that the doctor who treated Ms DeVil in this movie is named Pavlov. Strikes me very funny knowing the history of the real life doctor of the same name. Knowing the real doctors experiments explains the return of Cruella to her old ways.

The movie seems slightly more grainy than the first. Sad since this movie was made about 4 years later. I expected to see a slightly cleaner picture than the older movie.

Very sad that none of the original cast other than Glenn Close and Tim McInnerny returned for the second movie.

This time around Cruella needs one additional puppy to accommodate the changes to her desired coat and hat into a hooded coat. Yes, the basic synopsis of the movie is the same with a light hearted romance entwined into the story.

Just for clarification this review is about the DVD. Since this is part of a set and I have no desire to improve the copy of 101 Dalmatians I will not acquire a new copy of this either. I would like to see how it differs from the widescreen version though.

The movie is still cute and entertaining, but slightly less than the first.

102 Dalmatians 2-Pack (Part 1)

The first movie in my collection is actually a double feature. It contains individual discs for each feature. These movies being the live action version of 101 Dalmatians with Glenn Close as DeVil and the sequel 102 Dalmatians.

I'm doing this review about the DVD version.

I was given this box set by my friend Annie who no longer desired it in her collection. Thank you Annie!

After placing the first movie into my player I immediately realize the information printed on the outside of the box has lied to me. It states the movie is presented in a widescreen format, however the truth of that is that it is in widescreen, but formatted for a 1.33 aspect television.

On my widescreen television this means that I now have a black strip on all four sides of the actual image, and the picture is a small image actually filling only about half of my overall screen.

The actual picture quality is nice although slightly grainy, perhaps do to the time and media it was originally captured on. However, it doesn't take away from the enjoyment of the movie in the least.

The disc contains captions and presents them below the picture in the black bar. This is nice in the sense that it doesn't obstruct any portion of the movie.

I normally run my sound system at a volume level of 1, for this movie I had to increase the volume to 2 to get the desired level. The bass level is also slightly low for my taste.

After the years of watching Hugh Laurie play the part of Doctor House, it was refreshing to see him play the role of a somewhat dimwitted henchman.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the show, the character Cruella DeVil desires to obtain Dalmatian puppies to make a long coat and hat from them. A slew of animals aid the parents of the puppies in saving them from would be certain death.

I found the movie to still be entertaining after all these years. I believe the last time I saw the show was about 13 years ago, hopefully it won't be so long before I revisit this movie.

I will not be looking to upgrade to a newer format for this movie, the DVD format with its faults is still adequate.

Welcome

I've decided to do an ongoing review of my movie collection. Informing you the reader of not only how I currently feel about the movie I'm watching, but about the packaging, technical aspects of the media, and whatever else I can think of at the time of viewing.

I'm hoping in years to come it will be fun to see how my opinion has changed.

My goal is to start watching my movies in my collection starting with numbers then moving on through the rest in alphabetical order. I will be skipping over any television series that I own. I'm thinking of creating separate blogs for each of these.

Thanks for reading this, and I hope you'll have fun reading my future reviews.