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- Review count127
- Helpfulness votes25
- First reviewJune 27, 2014
- Last reviewJuly 11, 2018
- Featured reviews0
- Average rating3.9
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![Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - SteelBook [Digital Copy] [3D] [Blu-ray/DVD] [Only @ Best Buy] [Blu-ray/Blu-ray 3D/DVD] [2016]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/5734/5734302_sa.jpg)
Customer Rating
4
Makes the Most Out of its Universe
on April 17, 2017
Posted by: VandyPrice
from Arkansas
Verified Purchase:Yes
"It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet." It is with these words that the original Star Wars introduced fans to a galaxy far, far away nearly forty years ago; despite the nearly four decades between then and now though, those words couldn't be more relevant today. It is in these two short, but descriptive sentences that one can understand the basis of where Rogue One comes from and its relevance in setting up the dots that will be connected throughout the original trilogy of films. For a Star Wars fan, this is nothing if not incredible-that the smallest of details from within the universe can be fleshed out so as to expand upon the rich layers of the world George Lucas created all those years ago seemingly opens up endless possibilities. For writers Chris Weitz (About a Boy, Cinderella) and Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton) though, one could see how this might be more than a little intimidating to take on. As one might be inclined to do in such a situation Weitz and Gilroy have more or less crafted an old school genre film out of a franchise brand that has more or less become a genre of its own. And so, Rogue One is a genre film executed in a film universe that has defined the science fiction blockbuster genre since its inception forty years ago. That may sound inherently disparaging, but it really isn't. Rather, adjusting the Star Wars universe to fit that of a "(wo)man on a mission" template is rather inspiring and director Gareth Edwards (Monsters. Godzilla) has skillfully adapted the rich and textured aesthetic of 1970's sci-fi to this story that takes place just before Princess Leia sent her trusty droids to seek out an old Jedi friend. Though Rogue One may not ultimately break any new barriers and will undoubtedly serve more as the rule than the exception when it comes to this new breed of Star Wars stories we'll be receiving consistently for as far as Disney's bank accounts can go (hint: they go really far) it is still a more than competent action/adventure story that introduces a few new memorable characters, worlds of which we've never seen before, and a narrative that despite every single person in the audience knowing where it's headed still manages to keep us on the edge of our seats.
My Best Buy number: 2220462910
My Best Buy number: 2220462910
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![The Fisher King [Blu-ray] [1991]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/5725/5725000_sa.jpg)
Customer Rating
4
Underrated Robin Performance
on March 30, 2017
Posted by: VandyPrice
from Arkansas
Verified Purchase:Yes
This disc is worth picking up for the underrated Robin Williams performance alone, but the blu-ray transfer isn't bad either and one can't beat the price. More than worth the money and time investment the film requires.
My Best Buy number: 2220462910
My Best Buy number: 2220462910
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![White Men Can't Jump [Blu-ray] [1992]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/3006/3006029_sa.jpg)
Posted by: VandyPrice
from Arkansas
Verified Purchase:Yes
One of my dads all-time favorite movies. Looks great on blu-ray even if the special features have yet to be updated. A fine buy for the price and a classic Harrelson performance worth noting in his varied filmography.
My Best Buy number: 2220462910
My Best Buy number: 2220462910
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![Money Monster [Includes Digital Copy] [Blu-ray] [2016]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/5570/5570400_sa.jpg)
Posted by: VandyPrice
from Arkansas
Verified Purchase:Yes
We may all be created equal, but we are certainly not all born into the same circumstances. In order for our system to work the way it is designed to things must remain this way. People must continue to fail or slip through the cracks of said system so that we not only have opportunities for exceptionally driven individuals to thrive, but also for those who are unable to make it past being the breakfast manager at McDonald's. We are all created equal, but it's what we do with that equality and the opportunity this state of mind affords us no matter how many advantages or disadvantages we 're born into. It is in this idea of equality that Jodie Foster seems to find an in to this story cobbled together by three screenwriters that seemingly wants to be about something, but in the end is more a slight encapsulation of the time we're living in than a piece of art that reflects or examines the time that has spawned it. Money Monster is Foster's fourth directorial feature and undoubtedly her biggest film to date, but it is this bigger feel, this corporate mandated aesthetic and approach that hinders more than helps in whatever Foster's actual objective might be. And so, it begins by Foster and her team of screenwriters (including Jamie Linden, Alan DiFiore, and Jim Kouf) looking at how the little man might take on the privileged and exploring equality from that perspective, but as we come to learn more details about the situation and the plot becomes more clear in that it is going to blame the downfall that was the catalyst for the outrageous (but not unbelievable) actions of one of our main characters on a single bad guy who did a single bad thing instead of making this an amalgamation of bad choices and ethically wrong dealings there is a hint that it might become more about equality in the sense of taking responsibility for ourselves and our actions whatever they may be no matter where we fall in society's class system. Had Money Monster delved more into an idea Dominic West's character spouts near the end of the film and come to something of a less pleasant conclusion, but a more realistic one I imagine the film might have struck more of a nerve, but as it is and as it goes Money Monster is simply a neat little thriller that is consistently entertaining.
My Best Buy number: 2220462910
My Best Buy number: 2220462910
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![The Accountant [Blu-ray] [2016]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/5710/5710424_sa.jpg)
Customer Rating
3
A Mixed Bag of Ultimately Fun Genre Elements
on March 30, 2017
Posted by: VandyPrice
from Arkansas
Verified Purchase:Yes
In director Gavin O'Connor's (Warrior) latest film, The Accountant, the films titular character and our protagonist is one that operates on the high end of the autism spectrum. The character is a math savant who has utilized his high-functioning skills to cook the books for several high-profile criminal clients that would seemingly stack the character's pockets, but may also serve as a threat to Christian Wolff and his legitimate, small-town CPA office. It's a heck of a way to set-up intrigue around a character while simultaneously bringing attention to those who function a little different from what society considers to be the norm especially when the film makes such a character as much a superhero as they do here. As Wolff, Ben Affleck is not only a genius when it comes to numbers though, but he's been nurtured into something of a killing machine by his militaristic father (Robert C. Treveiler). The film then combines these elements of Wolff's personality while mixing in a U.S. Treasury investigation led by the soon to retire Ray King (J.K. Simmons) and his forced apprentice of sorts in Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) that leads Wolff to take on something of a legitimate client in a major robotics company run by John Lithgow. This plotline also introduces us to the obligatory love interest in Anna Kendrick's Dana, but mostly The Accountant is about Affleck kicking butt and counting numbers with the amount of plot Bill Dubuque's (The Judge) screenplay attempts to pile on only serving to take away from the more interesting character study that's trying to peek out from behind all the storylines. And while the film does indeed suffer from something of an identity crisis while at the same time playing into the fact it knows fully what it is by embracing the inherent goofiness of an assassin accountant it never stops being entertaining. Even as the plot jumps from Wolff's main mission to that of the Treasury investigation, and onto the third party tracker embodied by the always charismatic Jon Bernthal and back to Wolff there is always something to keep us invested even if what is doing so feels scattershot. This would typically be a detriment to a film given it signals a lack of trust in the lead characters ability to sustain audience engagement, but under O'Connor's steady hand The Accountant makes one feel just satisfied enough by the time they're done consuming it without actually offering anything of nutritional value.
My Best Buy number: 2220462910
My Best Buy number: 2220462910
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![Moonlight [Blu-ray] [2016]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/5721/5721936_sa.jpg)
Customer Rating
5
A Triptych Take on Masculinity
on March 15, 2017
Posted by: VandyPrice
from Arkansas
Verified Purchase:Yes
Moonlight is one of those films that anytime your mind tends to float back to it inevitable feelings of great sympathy and understanding come with it. It is a film that both simply and oh so complexly transcends all barriers of politics and beliefs and presents a bare bones human story that just so happens to deal with being black and being gay. It's always been clear, especially from the outside looking in, that the culture that forms young black men is one of the most high-pressure environments for one to be tough, hard, or essentially show little to no feeling at all. "Toxic masculinity" as it has been labeled in recent writings. There has long existed the stigma that to be hard or worthy of being a man one must be largely indifferent to those things that naturally give us weaknesses in the world. By tackling this idea and how it affects the growth and development of one underprivileged youth is at one time to present exactly what it promises while at another-painting a much broader picture of this toxicity that has been constructed by society for which many young men are led to believe there are certain actions that have to be taken or certain attitudes that must be adopted in order to make them worthy of being a man. This doesn't have to necessarily deal with being gay or straight, but more this condition is about those stereotypes of men-emotionless, dominant, violent-that society has relayed to determine certain levels of masculinity. That Moonlight addresses such expectations and the baggage and torture such expectations can carry when not met in the judgmental environments of the projects or of high school or even of one's mother who knows the essence of her son, but isn't strong enough herself to stand up to such stigma's thus leaving that child for the wolves of the world is powerful enough. That Moonlight is able to explore these largely ignored aspects of manhood in such poetic and provocative ways as through the lens of a young man growing up black, poor, and gay only makes these points that much more enlightening and subsequently-that much more powerful. Moonlight is a film that, anytime you think about, are reminded of, or even consider the ground it covers and the essence of what it embodies not only in its ideas and themes, but in its nearly flawless execution inevitable feelings of great sympathy and understanding come flooding back as well. More than anything, writer/director Barry Jenkins understands the human element at the core of these issues and by parlaying as much through the single perspective of Chiron at three different stages of his life we are delivered a fleshed out portrait of the true internal tendencies versus the ideals we're taught we should become.
My Best Buy number: 2220462910
My Best Buy number: 2220462910
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![Loving [Includes Digital Copy] [Blu-ray/DVD] [2 Discs] [2016]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/5711/5711329_sa.jpg)
Customer Rating
4
Restrained Yet Effective
on March 15, 2017
Posted by: VandyPrice
from Arkansas
Verified Purchase:Yes
Much goes unspoken in Loving, but that shouldn't be a surprise given it comes from director Jeff Nichols who has given us such restrained and meditative pieces as Take Shelter and Mud, not to mention his slight venture into genre territory earlier this year with Midnight Special. Still, Loving is something of a different beast. As with most of Nichols films the multi-hyphenate again deals in its main male character working through a particularly life-altering time in his life. Whether it be a man working through understanding an illness, heartbreak, or a parents love for their child Nichols is clearly attracted to these leading male characters that carry burdens of one type or another-none of which can actually be drawn as distinctly as I've just done. In Loving, this Nichols quality is born in the form of Richard Loving as played by Joel Edgerton who is a simple man who loves a woman just as simply, but is told he can't due to the race laws that plagued the time in which he was born. What separates Loving from Nichols filmography thus far is the fact Nichols has yet to adapt a true story or any other source material for that matter for one of his films. They have all been original concepts and ideas that have allowed the writer/director his own ways/styles of telling his own stories, but with Loving he has crafted a film very much in the vein of his previous works while still seemingly allowing the genuine spirit of those who actually lived this story to come through. Nichols accomplishes this by not making up much of his own dialogue for the real-life people to say. Rather, Nichols allows much of what needs to be said to be said through the performances of Edgerton and his co-lead Ruth Negga as Mildred Loving. In doing so, Loving ends up not as an overly schmaltzy or sentimental love story or even a melodramatic courtroom drama, but instead a subtle study of how simple true love can be despite how complicated our world can make it.
My Best Buy number: 2220462910
My Best Buy number: 2220462910
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![Marvel's Doctor Strange [SteelBook] [Blu-ray/DVD] [Only @ Best Buy] [2016]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/5712/5712176_sa.jpg)
Customer Rating
3
Marvel, Re-Configured
on March 15, 2017
Posted by: VandyPrice
from Arkansas
Verified Purchase:Yes
From the outset where Marvel Studios shows off its brand new logo that features clips of its heroes in action from previous films rather than clips of art from their older comic books it is clear just how much of a brand this studio and their particular type of super hero films have become. What is more telling though, is just how aware Marvel is of this fact and how boldly they state their accomplishments in this re-branding of their title card. This slight boasting by the company sets up good and bad expectations for the film that proceeds it as Doctor Strange very much operates within the familiar world Marvel has built while at the same time reminding us of just how high Marvel can fly leaving this rule of a movie to be something of a letdown. Of course, that is the one glaring barrier all Marvel movies now have to overcome in how do they not just play as large scale TV episodes, but more singular stories that feel worthy of the big screen treatment. It's not necessarily that Dr. Stephen Strange isn't worthy of such treatment, but more in the pantheon of all Marvel has done before and all it plans to do in the future this initial outing with the soon-to-be Sorcerer Supreme feels as brisk and as superfluous to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as The Incredible Hulk now ranks. Not that Doctor Strange doesn't introduce a whole new dimension of possibilities to the MCU, but were this film to not work out the way Marvel expects it to for some reason they could essentially ignore its existence and move on with the physical dangers the film tells us The Avengers protect our world from. That won't happen, of course, but that's the type of indifferent feeling director Scott Derrickson's (The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sinister) take on a Marvel property unfortunately conjures up. Making this worse is the fact that Doctor Strange features some of the more daring and downright trippy visuals that have been seen in a Marvel movie as well as some of the weirder sequences in the studios filmography that, while visually enchanting, make it even more apparent just how standard the narrative is. Why Marvel and Kevin Feige were willing to go out on something of a risky limb with their visuals as well as just how far Strange can push his powers, but not with the story that brings the titular Doctor into the world of magic and mysticism is a little perplexing, but at the end of the day it's clear this is a board room picture designed to change up Marvel's winning formula just enough so as to appear to be something new and different, but what in reality will rely on the same tricks that have guaranteed consistent hints for eight years now.
My Best Buy number: 2220462910
My Best Buy number: 2220462910
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![Ouija: Origin of Evil [Includes Digital Copy] [Blu-ray/DVD] [2 Discs] [2016]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/5708/5708078_sa.jpg)
Posted by: VandyPrice
from Arkansas
Verified Purchase:Yes
Having not seen the original Ouija I was slightly apprehensive to dive into the better reviewed sequel, but no knowledge of the predecessor was necessary and if you're a fan of horror, you can certainly find much to enjoy in this well-crafted ghost story.
My Best Buy number: 2220462910
My Best Buy number: 2220462910
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![Good Will Hunting [15th Anniversary Edition] [Blu-ray] [1997]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/6386/6386831_sa.jpg)
Customer Rating
5
Own it For that Single Scene
on February 7, 2017
Posted by: VandyPrice
from Arkansas
Verified Purchase:Yes
What more is there to say when it comes to Good Will Hunting? If you are a fan, and in light of the passing of Robin Williams, this is almost a required film to own. If not for Williams scene-stealing performance, but to see the origin stories of both Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
My Best Buy number: 2220462910
My Best Buy number: 2220462910
I would recommend this to a friend!
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