Monthly Archives: June 2013

The Right Stuff

The Right Stuff iTunes HD Review

Ed Harris sees flakes of ice lit up by the Sun.

Ed Harris sees flakes of ice lit up by the Sun.

The Right Stuff is an epic drama covering the early years of the U.S. space program through to the Mercury program. Adapted from a book by Tom Wolfe, the film won four Oscars and stars Dennis Quaid, Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Babara Hershey and Sam Shepard. Though the film was a commercial failure, grossing only 21 million dollars on a budget of 27, it is on many top ten lists for 1983.

The film is due for Blu-ray release later this year – I thought’d I’d have give the iTunes HD download a quick review to see if it might be a better choice.

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The Black Hole

The Black Hole iTunes HD Review

The Black Hole is a gothic science-fiction film made by Disney and released in 1979. Arguably a creative triumph for all involved. The film was a mixed-success commercially, grossing 35 million dollars on a budget of 26, in a post Star Wars world (260 million dollar gross on a budget of 11) that didn’t look like much of a success.

I’ll take a look at the Black Hole on iTunes HD, since it isn’t available on Blu-ray yet.

The Cygnus lit up.

The Cygnus lit up, as the Palomino comes in to land.

The film tells a ‘Heart of Darkness’ story. Staring into the abyss of a Blackhole from the comfort of the huge cathedral like USS Cygnus, has driven Dr. Hans Reinhardt (Maximilian Schell) quite, quite mad. Into his private kingdom, wander the crew of the USS Palomino. Reinhardt sees a chance to gain recognition of his genius, but the crew quickly stumble upon the dark secret at the heart of the Cygnus, and begin a life or death struggle to escape before the black hole swallows them all.

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The Mysterious Case of Se7en

Se7en is a dark crime-horror fantasy, written by Andrew Kevin Walker, directed by David Fincher with cinematography by Darius Khondji. The film was a success both commercially and critically. However due to the complexity of the photographic process, it is difficult to be certain that any of the home-video releases reflect the image seen in first run showings. This article will examine the various video releases of Se7en, and explain the process by which they came about, and attempt to pick the best amongst them.

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