Blu Ray Players Blog

IMAX: Wild Ocean [Blu-ray]

Wild Ocean is an uplifting cinematic experience capturing one of natures greatest migration spectacles through the magic of IMAX. Plunge into an underwater feeding frenzy amidst the dolphins, sharks, whales, gannets, seals and billions of fish. Filmed off the Wild Coast of South Africa, Wild Ocean is a timely documentary that celebrates the animals that now depend on us to survive and the efforts by local people to protect this invaluable ecological resource. Hope is alive on the Wild Coast where Africa meets the sea.

Stills from Wild Ocean (Click for larger image)

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Good photography - Terrible Narration
I usually give all my IMAX movies 5 stars because they are so awesome in every aspect, video and audio. The only reason why I didn’t give this video 5 stars is because of the terrible narration - it’s hard to understand and even hear, for that matter! I also feel that the environmental message that this movie was created for should have been stressed more prominently to convey it’s message.

5 Stars Great film, great score, great message
I saw the movie Wild Ocean 3D at the Imax theater in the Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., over Christmas Break. It is an amazing experience. It was of course in 3D.

The filmmakers take you to one of the few remaining stretches of wild coastline, the KwaZulu-Natal Wild Coast in South Africa, where you observe the migration of millions of fish and the various biosystems that these fish support - sharks, dolphins, whales, gannets, people. It is Africa by the sea, and it is stunning.

I especially loved the musical score. Composed by Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas, the people who created STOMP Live, it is a pulsing, engaging, and outsize score for an outsize film about an outsize landscape. I loved it!

The underlying message is, of course, the disappearance of wild ecosystems and what must be done to prevent more loss. Great movie, great message.

5 Stars Outstanding
This Wild Ocean 3D bluray movie is absolutely superb and stunning!!! I am so glad I purchased it. I watched it twice at an IMAX theatre and now I have already watched it twice on my computer-and I just received it yesterday!! The music conveys a feeling of teamwork-individual efforts toward a common greater good. I also want to buy the Soundtrack for it. This movie scores a 15 on a chart of 10!!! Again, absolutely superb and stunning!!!!!!!!! One of the best purchases I ever made!!!!!

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Fast & Furious (2-Disc Special Edition) [Blu-ray]

Vin Diesel and Paul Walker reteam with Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster for the ultimate chapter of the franchise built on speed! From big rig heists to precision tunnel crawls, Fast & Furious takes you back into the high-octane world to race through crowded city streets and across international lines!Fast & Furious is high octane torque-er porn that puts the franchise back on course after drifting in Tokyo. With the original cast once again in the driver’s seat, we are good to go with a this-time-it’s-personal plot and spectacular race and chase set-pieces that exceed the promise of the stripped-down title, beginning with an awesome highway hijacking of an oil truck led by former street racer Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel, at his glowering and gravel-voiced best). Dom is a fugitive in the Dominican Republic, but after a devastating personal loss, he is driven by revenge to return to Los Angeles to bring down an elusive drug smuggler. He is reunited with Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker), the undercover FBI agent who let him go eight years earlier. Brian, also on the case, must come to terms with Dom and make amends with Dom’s sister (Jordana Brewster), whom he betrayed in his original pursuit of Dom. Fast & Furious is just the ticket for putting your mind on cruise control. From a see-what-you’ve-got racing challenge through the streets of L.A. to the illicit kicks of the street-racing subculture (this is extreme PG-13), there is nothing cheap about these thrills. A record-shattering opening weekend at the box office could mean faster and more furious action to come, but if this is the franchise’s last time around the block, it goes out a winner. –Donald Liebenson
Stills from Fast & Furious (Click for larger image)

Click to learn more about the BD-Live Experience

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Blu-Ray Review
This is a good Blu-Ray movie. Also, the ending of this movie leaves the door open for a 5th in the series. Special features are good too.

5 Stars Fast and Furious before tokyo drift

I have to say this is a must see movie. i have seen all movies and own all on dvd (die hard fandf fan). The day i went to watch this when it first came out we literally checked my blood pressure and it was high thats how intense i though this movie was. I thought there for a second that everything was gonna be over between paul and vin but no. Still at each others side even after everything that went down. I am hoping they come out with another so if you dont have this one go see it right now.

5 Stars Fast and Furious (2009)
Best of all the Fast & Furious movies, and way better than the third, this one goes back to the original story in a well-written, well-acted way. actionpacked way. It has all the originals in it, and is the best directed movie I’ve ever seen. I gave it five stars because it’s badass, and I’m gonna watch it over and over again until my retinas explode.

Five Stars

Awesome Movie

3 Stars I love cars
If you love cars and car movies, you’ll love this movie. Do not watch this movie for plot or the great acting, it is not a classic but for pure entertainment, lot’s of action, and great fast cars: then you found the right movie.

This is the second best movie in the Fast & Furious series with the first one being the best of the series.

5 Stars fast & furious
my daughter loves this movie. she got it for Christmas and watches it all the time. she’s a teenager.

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Atonement [Blu-ray]

From the award-winning director of Pride & Prejudice comes a stunning, critically acclaimed epic story of love. When a young girl catches her sister in a passionate embrace with a childhood friend, her jealousy drives her to tell a lie that will change the course of all their lives forever. Academy Award® nominee Keira Knightley and James McAvoy lead an all-star cast in the film critics are calling “the year’s best picture” (Thelma Adams, US Weekly).

User Ratings and Reviews

1 Stars One of the Worst Movies I Have Ever Seen!!
I saw this movie the year it won the Oscar and I was bored beyond belief. The movie goes from child erotic/peeping-tom/I am gonna watch my sister get boinked/OMG! This movie has a great cast but the story is so chaotically told and disjointed you lose focus and interest almost from the get-go.

5 Stars A very special film
I agree with Jean, and will certainly be buying this on Blu-ray when it comes out. The movie was original, surprising (both in its plot and its unusual structure) and moving. It’s worth seeing it just for the 5 1/2 minute steadicam shot halfway through the movie on the beach at Dunkirk. I just learned from an interview with the screenwriter that it was shot that way for budgetary reasons, but it’s a superb example of a happy “accident” becoming cinematic art. Performances and technical credits are all top notch. See it!

1 Stars Ridiculous coincidences
This movie has so many ridiculous coincidences going on (imagine everytime you do something in private, someone is peeping in on you), it’s impossible to take it seriously for one minute. A horrible adaptation of an overated book.

5 Stars Masterpiece
Atonement is one of the most engaging and perfect films i have ever seen. I saw this film when it was released in the cinemas and i loved it. I bought the DVD version and I loved it on that also. I will definitely buy Atonement on Blu-Ray even if it doesn’t have any new special features. This film, if I my say, should of won Best Picture at the Oscars and not No Country For Old Men, also Atonement, Micheal Clayton, and There Will Be Blood were masterpieces in themselves.

5 Stars An Apt Masterpiece on a Beautiful Blu-ray
Having been released previously on DVD and the failed HD-DVD format back in 2008, this re-release of the film, now on the Blu-ray format, is a welcomed addition to any Blu-ray HiDef library. A powerful film, Atonement is a complicated and fruitful adaption of Ian McEwan’s novel of the same name that Director Joe Wright carried out masterfully. The story focuses on numerous themes (that I will not spoil for anyone who has yet to see this gem) that anyone can relate to, and it serves as a reminder of what power not only the spoken word can have on a person’s life, but also the written word as well, as recorded by recent headlines. It offers breathtaking cinematography that could only be improved by the HD transfer of the film and brilliant performances by an incredible cast that no one should miss. Actors Kiera Knightley, James McAvoy, Saoirse Ronan, and Romola Garai ignite the screen with the emotional depth and characterizations that each bring to their portrayals, with a powerful close of the film with the astonishing and always captivating performance of Vanessa Redgrave. Universal has performed incredible work in the past with their Blu-ray transfers of films like Hellboy 2, Wanted, and the Bourne trilogy, and with a resume like that, we can confidently acknowledge that this film’s presentation on Blu-ray will be top notch. Don’t miss out on purchasing this product!

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Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds: Live at Radio City Music Hall [Blu-ray]

In April 2007, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds embarked on a 3-city theatre tour, culminating with a performance in the intimate confines of Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Due to the smaller sized venues and extremely limited number of dates, tickets were practically impossible to get, making this new 2 disc Blu-ray set all the more desirable to the huge Dave Matthews Band fanbase. LIVE AT RADIO CITY marks the first time in almost ten years that Dave and Tim have released an album. Their last album was the wildly successful, multi-platinum LIVE AT LUTHER COLLEGE. This is the first-ever Blu-ray Disc released by the duo. LIVE AT RADIO CITY features over 2 1/2 hours of music, capturing all 26 songs of Dave and Tim’s performance. The performance includes numerous songs that have never been recorded by the two, including Crush, Grace Is Gone, Don t Drink The Water, Gravedigger and many more.

Video/Audio
9-camera, HiDef shoot
Full 1080P24 HD resolution
16:9 Wide screen format
PCM Stereo Sound (48kHz/24bit)
Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround Sound (96kHz/24bit)
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound (640 kbps)Socialites in the Hamptons paid up to $15,000 for the privilege of seeing this duo in action just a few weeks before the release of Live at Radio City Music Hall. Not that it was any easier to get tickets to the April 22, 2007, concert in New York that produced this recording, available on CD or DVD with high-definition 5.1 surround sound and an additional 46-minute film of backstage footage. The acoustic set features the veteran musicians performing for nearly two-and-a-half hours–and you get the feeling they could have easily kept going. Reynolds gets his solo turn on “Betrayal” and “You Are My Sanity,” but it’s a chatty Matthews who seems to be relishing the occasion more, stripping down some of his band’s most popular songs (”Lie in Our Graves,” “Two Step”) while giving the fans a sneak peek at a couple of its new ones (”Eh Hee,” “Cornbread”). The guy’s even thrown in a few covers for kicks, including Neil Young’s “Down by the River” and Daniel Lanois’ “The Maker.” In terms of audio quality and packaging, it marks a vast improvement over the pair’s first release, 1999’s Live at Luther College. And the best part is that it doesn’t cost more than a yacht. –Aidin Vaziri

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Wonderful!
This is a review for the blu-ray edition.

I’ve never been a big Dave Matthews fan and I’ve only heard [of] Tim Reynolds a few times. Watching this concert made me really appreciate the amount of talent and passion for music they both have.

Audio quality is superb. The concert comes with 3 sound options: TrueHD 5.1, Dolby 5.1, and PCM stereo. I’m partial to stereo tracks, and therefore the PCM 2.0 on this disc, but the TrueHD track was also very impressive. You may as well not even bother with the Dolby 5.1 track. Video quality is also very good, but I wouldn’t have cared either way - they nailed the audio on this disc and, to me, that’s what’s important for a concert.

5 Stars One of the best recorded BD… i wonder how it will be with the complete band…
Concert itself: 5 stars

Video quality: 5 stars

Audio quality: 5 stars

Extras: 3 stars

Others: The audio is simply perfect… but doesnt have low frecuencies for obvious reasons…

5 Stars Absolutely stunning
This concert is just magical, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds are perfection together. I’ve seen many musicians play the acoustic guitar but Tim Reynolds is a master! What he can do with a guitar is magical. You will not be disappointed purchasing this concert dvd, trust me.

5 Stars Dave and Tim do it again!
I’ve thought for some years that Dave and Tim make a great musical duo. This DVD is simply fantastic. No big band, sax, keys, drums yadda yadda just straight up good guitar and vocals. Blu ray makes it all that much better.

5 Stars Classic and Pure
Well i own this on DVD not blu-ray but the sound and the atmosphere of Radio City is just beautiful. Tim is amazing as he makes it seem, if you close your eyes, that there are more than just 2 people playing. Dave is brilliant as always. His voice brings chills on most tracks such as “So Damn Lucky” and “Crush”.

You will not be disappointed with this purchase.

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Field of Dreams [Blu-ray]

“If you build it, he will come.” With these words, Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) is inspired by a voice he can’t ignore to pursue a dream he can hardly believe. Also starring Ray Liotta, James Earl Jones and Amy Madigan, Field of Dreams is an extraordinary and unforgettable experience that has moved critics and audiences like no other film of its generation. Field of Dreams is a glowing tribute to all who dare to dream.A phenomenal hit when it was released in 1989, Field of Dreams has become a modern classic and a uniquely American slice of cinema. It functions effectively as a moving drama about the power of dreams, a fantasy ode to our national pastime, and a brilliant adaptation of W.P. Kinsella’s exquisite baseball novel Shoeless Joe. Kinsella himself found the film a delightful surprise, differing greatly from his novel but benefiting from its own creative variations. It is the film that cemented Kevin Costner’s status as an all-American screen star, but the story resonates far beyond Costner’s handsome appeal. As just about everyone knows by now, Costner stars as Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella, who hears the mysterious words “If you build it, he will come,” and is compelled to build a baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield. His wife (Amy Madigan) supports the wild idea, but a reclusive novelist (modeled after J.D. Salinger and played by James Earl Jones) is not so easily persuaded. The idealistic farmer is either a visionary or a deluded fool, but his persistence is rewarded when spirits from baseball’s past begin appearing on the ball field. Past and present intermingle in the person of “Moonlight Graham” (superbly played by Burt Lancaster), an unknown player who sacrificed his dreams of baseball glory for a dignified life as a small-town physician … but what all of this means is unclear until the film’s memorably heartfelt conclusion. A meditation on family, memory, and faith, the film balances humor and magic to strike just the right chord of thoughtful emotion, affecting audiences so deeply that the baseball field created for the production has now become a mecca of sorts for dreamers around the world. –Jeff ShannonA phenomenal hit when it was released in 1989, Field of Dreams has become a modern classic and a uniquely American slice of cinema. It functions effectively as a moving drama about the power of dreams, a fantasy ode to our national pastime, and a brilliant adaptation of W.P. Kinsella’s exquisite baseball novel Shoeless Joe. Kinsella himself found the film a delightful surprise, differing greatly from his novel but benefiting from its own creative variations. It is the film that cemented Kevin Costner’s status as an all-American screen star, but the story resonates far beyond Costner’s handsome appeal. As just about everyone knows by now, Costner stars as Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella, who hears the mysterious words “If you build it, he will come,” and is compelled to build a baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield. His wife (Amy Madigan) supports the wild idea, but a reclusive novelist (modeled after J.D. Salinger and played by James Earl Jones) is not so easily persuaded. The idealistic farmer is either a visionary or a deluded fool, but his persistence is rewarded when spirits from baseball’s past begin appearing on the ball field. Past and present intermingle in the person of “Moonlight Graham” (superbly played by Burt Lancaster), an unknown player who sacrificed his dreams of baseball glory for a dignified life as a small-town physician … but what all of this means is unclear until the film’s memorably heartfelt conclusion. A meditation on family, memory, and faith, the film balances humor and magic to strike just the right chord of thoughtful emotion, affecting audiences so deeply that the baseball field created for the production has now become a mecca of sorts for dreamers around the world. –Jeff Shannon

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars The original Fantasy Baseball
How many men get to pursue their dreams? “Field of Dreams” is one man’s quest to realize his one big moment. However, unlike most sports movies, the main character (Kevin Costner) isn’t a star athlete, but rather a farmer who puts his faith in a mysterious voice from above. He goes around the country trying to figure out the connection between baseball and life - until he realizes it was all within himself. For sheer originality and creativity, the film is an easy 5-stars. The movie keeps you guessing and never fails to surprise. You certainly don’t have to be a baseball fan to enjoy it - but you do have to accept that there are a bunch of baseball ghosts wandering around Iowa! Probably the best sports movie I’ve ever seen.

1 Stars Only plays on HD player, nothing else.
Should warn consumers that product will only play on HD player..nothing else, not DVD player or blu-ray player. Renders product virtually worthless.

4 Stars Great Movie, less than special blue ray video
This is my all time favorite movie so I thought I would get a blue ray version. Blue ray version is nothing special when compared to any up-convert DVD version of the same movie. Blue ray did not have any wow factor when I compare it to other blue ray movies I have watched, like the recently released Star Trek movie which did produce that wow factor.

5 Stars Awesome Movie!
This is a movie that you could watch over and over again. I love the plot behind it, and the kids even enjoy watching it. Baseball has always been a favorite with my son, ever since he was 2 (he’s now 10). I would recommend this movie to friends and family.

5 Stars Fabulous Blu ray !
Anyone expecting perfection from a film this old is nuts !! The blu ray is mostly excellent on my set(sony XBR). Classic, classic movie

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