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A Most Wanted Man

  • Title: A Most Wanted Man
  • IMDb: link

A Most Wanted ManNotable for being the final non-Hunger Games role of Philip Seymour Hoffman, A Most Wanted Man is a slow-burning espionage thriller involving a secret German anti-terrorism unit tracking a potential suspect (Grigoriy Dobrygin). Although it’s based on the work of the same author, sadly, it’s not Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (which surprisingly moves at a far better pace than A Wanted Man).

The main takeaway from the film is how little actually happens in surveillance and much of what we do see (including a flailing romantic subplot) isn’t always that interesting. The cast is well chosen, and Hoffman leads a group of talented actors (Robin Wright, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe) each providing strong performances, but the movie lacks the will or motivation to put them to better use than we see here. It’s certainly not a bad film by any means, and is certainly worth viewing for the performances alone, but the end result is less than the sum of its parts.

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How to Train Your Dragon 2

  • Title: How to Train Your Dragon 2
  • IMDb: link

How to Train Your Dragon 2Set a few years after the events of the first film, How to Train Your Dragon 2 continues the hero’s journey of Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and Toothless and the rest of the dragon riders of Birk as Hiccup finds his long-lost mother Valka (Cate Blanchett) and squares off against a dragon army led by the villainous Drago Bludvist (Djimon Hounsou).

How to Train Your Dragon 2 works as well for me on Blu-ray as it did in theaters (and some of the emotional beats even work better a second time). Given the quality of the first two films, I hope we see this series continue for a long time. For more on the movie, check out my original review.

The Blu-ray includes DVD and UV digital copies of the film along with a half-hour short explaining the creation of Birk’s dragon races, deleted scenes, trailers, and short featurettes on Hiccup’s inventions, Drago’s weapons, the various dragons in the film, and Birk.

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Begin Again

  • Title: Begin Again
  • IMDb: link

Begin Again

Released this week on Blu-ray and DVD, writer/director John Carney‘s tale of the unexpected friendship between a down-on-his luck record label exec (Mark Ruffalo) and a heartbroken singer-songwriter (Keira Knightley) ranked at the top of my favorite films from the first-half of 2014. My opinion hasn’t changed.

With a pair of terrific leads and a talented support cast that includes Hailee Steinfeld, Catherine Keener, Adam Levine, Mos Def, and James Corden, the movie works as well on home video as it did in theaters as the mismatched pair of attempt to record an album on the fly around New York City in an enterprise that is at least as much about getting over life’s recent hurdles as the finished project. For more, read my original review.

The Blu-ray includes music videos for the movie’s big numbers and a single behind-the-scenes featurette on the making of the film.

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Arrow – The Complete Second Season

  • Title: Arrow – Season Two
  • wiki: link

Arrow - The Complete Second SeasonPast mistakes loom large in Season Two of Arrow as old friends and enemies make their way to Starling City and Oliver Queen‘s (Stephen Amell) journey from killer to vigilante to hero continues. Split between flashbacks from the island and his time in Starling City following the Undertaking, the show’s Second Season forces the Queen family to deal with ghosts from their past and the arrival of another madman who has plans to burn the city to the ground.

Much of the season revolves around Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett) and Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) who returns home, much like Oliver, changed by her experiences following the shipwreck. Flashbacks deal with Slade’s exposure to the super-serum that makes him a mentally-unstable but nearly unbeatable warrior and the end of his friendship with Oliver. Slade’s arrival in Starling is slow to unfold, choosing to work through subordinates such as Brother Blood (Kevin Alejandro) to build an army of warriors and destroy the city Oliver swore to protect.

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Less Than Heavenly

  • Title: Kingdom of Heaven
  • IMDb: link

Kingdom of HeavenOrlando Bloom as a blacksmith turned soldier defending a stone fortress against a vast army, or a man who falls in love with a married queen from across the ocean? Liam Neeson as a dying knight with an apprentice? Haven’t I already seen this before?

Kingdom of Heaven features a fine cast and some good visuals, but I think you will find, as I did, that much of the story is a little too familiar, much too preachy, and more than a little dumb.

Okay, so Godfrey (Neeson) is a crusader except he’s about as pleasant and courteous one as you could ever expect to find.  He doesn’t rape and pillage but just kills people to keep the peace. On a short vacation he takes a horse ride up from Jerusalem to France to find his son (the result of the raping a pillaging he did before he grew one with the Force, um, I mean matured) who is the blacksmith from Pirates of the Caribbean (Bloom) whose name is now Balian.

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