Independence Day: Resurgence 3D Blu-ray Review

• Disc Format: AC-3, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen, 3D
• Language: English (DTS 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed: French, Spanish
• Region: Region A/1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated:
  PG-13
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• Release Date: October 18, 2016
• Run Time: 120 minutes

        I didn’t have many expectations for Independence Day: Resurgence, and I think that greatly improved my ability to enjoy the pure spectacle of the film. My opinion of the franchise had already been diminished after re-watching the original film, which does not hold up nearly as well as I had imagined it might. So, by direct comparison, there were not very large shoes to fill in the creation of a new film. It also helped that I had heard endless criticism of the film, from fans and critics alike, lowering my expectations to the point that disappointment was unlikely.

Into the Forest Blu-ray Review

• Actors: Ellen Page, Evan Rachel Wood, Max Minghella, Callum Keith Rennie
• Director: Patricia Rozema
• Format: NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Region: Region A/1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated:
  R
• Studio: Lionsgate
• Release Date: October 4, 2016
• Run Time: 104 minutes

        Apocalyptic visions of the future have become a common occurrence in film, so much that I imagine audiences are becoming desensitized to the material. It is the main source of inspiration for nearly every superhero film and has dominated the horror genre since shortly after 9/11, but it is the realism of Into the Forest which is most refreshingly original. Although I spent much of the first half of the film’s running time feeling as though zombies would be a welcome relief from the subdued realism of this approach, Into the Forest ultimately provides the perfect background for a character driven narrative.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 4K Review

• Actors: Zhang Ziyi, Michelle Yeoh, Pei-pei Cheng, Chow Yun Fat, Chang Chen
• Director: Ang Lee
• Producers: Ang Lee, Bill Kong, Hsu Li Kong
• Format: AC-3, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen, 4K
• Language: Mandarin Chinese
• Subtitles: French, Portuguese, Czech, Slovak, Russian, Polish, Croatian, Korean, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Hebrew, Slovene, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Romanian, Thai, English, Spanish, Greek, Turkish, Japanese
• Dubbed: French, Portuguese, Czech, Hungarian, Thai, English, Spanish, Japanese
• Region: Region A/1
• Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated:
  PG-13
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• Release Date: October 18, 2016
• Digital Copy Expiration Date: December 31, 2019

        Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was a defining film in the United States, further establishing Ang Lee’s status in Hollywood while simultaneously proving that American audiences could be coerced into reading subtitles for the right film. The surprise popularity of Lee’s film would inspire a whole new market of poetic and remarkably beautiful action films. These martial arts films are not defined by the number of explosions or decapitations, but actually make the characters as significant as the action they engage in. This was the defining film which introduced Hollywood to the medium, actually seeming slow in comparison to the many have become since. It isn’t a perfect film, with many characters and sub-plots that drift in and out of the story, but there is little of the film which is not engaging and satisfying even as it requires extra work from the audience.