Maxim’s Movie Reviews and Opinions Blog

This week is big on releases of various TV series on DVD. But the highlight of the week is…

Transformers – Two Disc Special Edition
(2007) PG-13
Based on the popular toys that transform from machines into giant robots, this live-action movie from Pearl Harbor director [...]

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The partnership that Netflix and LG announced around New Year had resulted in a long-awaited product, just in time for back-to-school and Thanksgiving holiday. LG’s next Blu-Ray disk player BD300 will also be able to stream Netflix to TV-sets.

Users will be able to [...]

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Sony discovered pretty quickly that the original 60GB PlayStation 3 [read Maxim's Review] may have been too expensive for some people, so they came up with cheaper 40GB PlayStation 3. This new model had no backwards compatibility with PlayStation 2, but was cheaper, [...]

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After a devastating and embarrasing loss to Sony in the high definition video disk war, Toshiba ended production of its HD-DVD players, but they still found a use for their powerful upscaler. Previously, Toshiba’s HD-DVD players were capable of up-converting regular DVDs to [...]

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Movies
The Bank Job
(2008) R
Based on a true 1971 event, this thriller tells the story of Terry (Jason Statham), a car dealer who becomes involved in a London bank heist only to find that the contents of the bank vault will draw him deeply [...]

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Batman Begins
(2005) PG-13
After training with a ninja (Ken Watanabe) in Asia following his parents’ brutal murder, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) returns to Gotham City and finds it overrun with crime and corruption. Discovering a cave under Wayne Manor, Bruce assumes a new identity [...]

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The Closer – The Complete 3rd Season
(2007) NR
Underneath her Southern belle exterior, Deputy Police Chief Brenda Johnson (Golden Globe winner Kyra Sedgwick) is one of the LAPD’s best weapons, able to wring the truth from even the toughest suspect. She may step on [...]

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Fool’s Gold
(2008) PG-13
Charming but luckless treasure hunter Ben Finnegan (Matthew McConaughey) has sacrificed his relationship with wife Tess (Kate Hudson) in search of the Queen’s Dowry, a legendary treasure lost at sea. When he discovers a fresh clue, hope for riches - and his [...]

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Amazon.com is advertising “Buy 2 Get 1 Free” deal on their Blu-Ray disk inventory. Some of the titles you can grab there are

Independence Day
Predator
I, Robot
Ice Age
Terminator
Fantastic 4
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Sunshine
Wall Street
The Usual Suspects
The Adventures of Indiana Jones (The Complete Movie Collection)
Transformers
Gladiator
more…

They also advertise [...]

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Lady in the Water (2006)

M. Knight Shyamalan, the creator of “The Sixth Sense”, wrote, directed and starred in this fantasy movie based on the book he wrote for his own daughter.
The plot: an apartment building superintendent Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) rescues a woman [...]

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It has become known on Saturday that Toshiba will abandon its HD-DVD format, resulting in the complete victory for Blu-Ray by companies like Sony, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, Hitachi and Sharp. The format war has been going on since 2003. HD-DVD format has many advantages over Blu-Ray, [...]

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It’s interesting that Steven Spielberg was the executive producer of this movie. I didn’t read the book, but I interviewed some people who did and they said that the movie is mostly faithful to the 1997 best-selling novel, with just a few scenes [...]

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Toshiba slashed prices to its HD-DVD players again this week. Now the entry-level Toshiba HD A3 player has suggested retail price of just $150 – very close to what regular DVD players sell for, while medium and top players, HD A30 and HD [...]

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After Warner Bros. decided to commit to Blu-Ray and stop releasing their movies on HD-DVD in May 2008, the HD-DVD camp has been reduced to just Universal Studio and Paramount as far as Hollywood studios go. The latter has an “escape” clause in [...]

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In the middle of holiday season, electronics seem to be one of the gifts of choice. HD TVs are almost half cheaper then a year before. Cable and Satellite compete for HD content viewers. Rental companies offer movies in high definition. When DVD became [...]

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Pixar animated feature is coming out on Blu-Ray disk on November 6 – same date that Disney also chose to release Ratatouille on.

Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is a hot-shot popular race car with a lot of trophies behind his belt and huge sponsorhip [...]

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The Pixar animated feature comes out on DVD and Blu-Ray Disk on November 6.

Read the film review and stand by for DVD release review.

Cool Blu-Ray features include 1080p High Definition 5.1 surround sound with English, French and Spanish dubbing and subtitles, Gusteau’s Gourmet Game, [...]

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