Even the most diehard Trekker felt that Roddenberry's universe had lost its mojo, so when J.J. Abrams was picked to reimagine the franchise, I was stoked. With a new young cast, which Tom Norton refers to as Star Trek 90210, he took Trek where no one had gone before—over $257 million at the box office. With a reported budget of $150 million, no corners were cut in the production—the script is a blast, the special effects are top-notch, and the soundtrack is loaded with demo material. As expected, the Blu-ray rocks, and here are three great scenes to show off your home theater.
Writer/producer/director James Cameron has quite a resume. After a couple of forgettable projects in the late 1970s and early '80s, the low-budget sci-fi thriller The Terminator was his first major breakthrough into mainstream cinema, after which he found moderate box-office success with Aliens and The Abyss. His first major blockbuster came in 1991 with Terminator 2: Judgment Day when it broke the $200 million box-office barrier.
With the aid of his trusted ally Dr. John Watson (Jude Law), Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) is unequaled in his pursuit of criminals. After a string of ritualistic murders, the pair arrives just in time to save the latest victim and uncover the killer: Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong). He is sentenced to death but warns Holmes that death has no power over him, and he will rise again. It turns out he wasn't lying.
Teenager Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) is living on his own when he is spotted on the street by the Tuohy family. Learning that the young man is one of her daughter's classmates, Leigh Ann (Sandra Bullock) invites him to stay at their home for the night. What starts out as a gesture of kindness turns into something more as Michael becomes part of the family despite the differences in their backgrounds.
Tiana (voiced by Anika Noni Rose) is a beautiful and driven young woman determined to open her own New Orleans restaurant, but her plans take a detour when Prince Naveen (Bruno Compos) struts into town and is turned into a frog by the evil Dr. Facilier (Keith David). A kiss from Tiana should restore him, but the plan backfires and turns her into a frog. The two must then travel into the bayou in search of a priestess who can hopefully remove the curse.
Roland Emmerich blew up the White House in Independence Day, stomped around New York City in Godzilla, and created a modern-day ice age in The Day After Tomorrow, so it's fitting he would co-write/direct an epic adventure about a global cataclysm. 2012 is essentially a planetary snuff film as the Earth is bombarded by a new type of solar radiation that cooks the planet's core—think of the Earth being stuffed into a microwave.
It's 1967, and poor Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) isn't having a good year. His wife is leaving him, his unemployed brother (Richard Kind) is sleeping on his couch, his kids are deviants, and he's being blackmailed by a student at the Midwestern university where he serves as a physics professor. Diving into his faith, Larry seeks the advice of three rabbis. But do they have the answers he seeks?
This is an entertaining portrait of the early life of Gabriel Bonheur Chanel (Audrey Tautou), an orphan who would build a fashion empire. Known to her friends as Coco, she emerges from an orphanage to a mundane job as a seamstress and eventually ends up as a concubine for an eccentric French aristocrat.
In the near future, humans live their lives through perfect robotic surrogates controlled from the safety of their homes, and murder becomes a thing of the past. But when the son of the surrogates' creator is killed, an FBI agent (Bruce Willis) must reenter the real world to unravel the mysterious death.
At the age of 50, after a decade's absence from the stage, Michael Jackson was in the process of crafting an entirely new concert experience. His only audience was a small group of technicians and dancers who watched him create a show that would have marked his return to the stage. Fortunately, Jackson had a team of videographers on hand recording the proceedings for his personal archive and as original film content for the show. Sadly, on June 25th—eight days before the first dress rehearsal—he passed away due to an overdose of Propofol administered by his physician.
The films of producer Tim Burton have a certain visual flair, and 9 is no exception. Co-produced with Timur Bekmambetov, it tells a tale of humanity's final days and how one dedicated scientist provides the spark of life to nine of his creations.
In the early 1980s, an alien spaceship hovers over the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, and shows no signs of life. After waiting six months for contact, the government decides to cut into the vessel to see what's inside, and it finds the alien crew starving and malnourished. The local authorities set up a refugee camp for the aliens, and over the span of nearly 30 years, their numbers grow to over 1.8 million. Now what?
Emboldened by the return of Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), the Death Eaters are wreaking havoc in both the muggle and wizard worlds, and Hogwart's is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) suspects that new dangers may lie within the castle, but Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching. He needs Harry to help him uncover a vital key to unlocking Voldemort's defenses—critical information known only to the school's former Professor of Potions, Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent). With that in mind, Dumbledore manipulates his old colleague into returning to his previous post with promises of more money, a bigger office…and the chance to teach the famous Harry Potter.
In the first year of the German occupation of France, Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent) witnesses the execution of her family at the hands of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema.
Early in the 21st Century, a military defense program called Skynet becomes self-aware. Viewing humanity as a threat to its existence, Skynet decides to strike first. The survivors of the nuclear fire call the event Judgment Day. They live only to face a new nightmare—the war against the machines.
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