Blu-ray Review: Kingsman: The Secret Service

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Like John Wick, Kingsman pushes the envelope with its stylized violence, mixing hand-to-hand combat with a generous helping of “gun fu.” The fight scenes are balls-out insane in the best possible way, highlighted by the absurdity that is the church massacre, which contains a nearly endless stream of countermoves and slick kills that leaves dozens of bodies in its wake. It’s played to such a ridiculous degree, however, that is never feels disturbing.

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Blu-ray Review: Focus

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As mentioned, Smith has always played the effortlessly cool character with ease, and even at 46 has no trouble projecting the steadying presence of someone that was brought up in the con game. He and Robbie have good chemistry and play off of each other well, which is important given they’re not only the central dynamic but also that the film is selling their relationship as a stumbling block for Smith, who typically has all the angles covered.

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Blu-ray Review: Jupiter Ascending

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It’s hard not to marvel at some of the film’s special effects. Part of it is the shear spectacle — the vibrant colours, the intricate designs, the visualization of what the universe’s super rich would look like — but the film also still manages to ground much of it in some semblance of reality. Those aren’t CGI versions of Kunis and Tatum fleeing across Chicago on a pair of rocket skates, those are the actors (or in some cases their stunt doubles) getting pulled on cables and then having CGI added. It really makes a difference.

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Blu-ray Review: Interstellar

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We’re big fans of plausible fiction, and the way Interstellar’s future is presented is a good example of that. Rather than some mysterious plague or Third World War that has turned the world into a post-apocalyptic cliché, it’s just normal people doing what they need to do to survive while trying to maintain a sense of normalcy. Plus, as noted, the story does a nice job of balancing some weighty science fiction by keeping concepts like love and family front and centre throughout.

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Blu-ray Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

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While the broad strokes of the turtles’ origin have been retained — a leaked mutagen covers the four turtles, who are then raised and trained in the sewers by their rat father/sensei Splinter — many of the details are different. This includes the introduction of a new villain, Eric Sacks (played by William Fichtner), who bioengineered the mutagen along with the deceased father of news reporter April O’Neil (Megan Fox), as well as the omission of Hamato Yoshi, the rival of Oroku Saki (AKA Shredder) and master of Splinter.

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Blu-ray Review: Transformers: Age of Extinction

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Shaking up the cast was a smart move. Wahlberg is much more likable than the manic LaBeouf, and both Grammer and Stanley Tucci play their roles well. The comic relief isn’t as prevalent, either, especially once comedian T.J. Miller is out of the picture. It allows for the darker tone that they try to create with Optimus Prime to work, with Prime even reneging on his vow not to harm humans. Prime has been betrayed, and it makes sense for him to no longer blindly defend humanity.

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Blu-ray Review: Need For Speed

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If the above synopsis of the plot doesn’t sound absurd, trust us when we tell you that in action the story arc is pretty ridiculous. You can spot every single twist and turn well in advance, and herefore the “emotional” rallying cry for the last 90-plus minutes falls flat — so much so that when watching a later scene we actually paused the film and asked, “Who’s Pete?” Granted, we remembered shortly thereafter, but it says something that the event didn’t stay with us.

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