Directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, written by the Coen brothers, and brought to life by Tom Hanks, Bridge of Spies was a wonderful film!



I think the preview sets the stage well enough to tell you what the film is about. Based on true events, Tom Hanks plays the unlikely hero James Donovan, who sets out to free two American prisoners for one convicted Russian spy. It's a tale of heroism and integrity, to me. This was very well done, indeed.

PQ was good and the sets were fantastic. I enjoy period dramas and this one takes place in a very dramatic setting and time. The color leaned on the cool side but everything else was just right. Plenty of contrast and detail. 4.5/5.

SQ was solid but again, this is not a demo film; it's a drama. The sound was immersive and dynamic when it was meant to be but stayed out of the way during the rest of the film. Dialogue was crystal clear. 4/5 simply because there was just not that much going on but well done nonetheless.

If it wasn't clear yet, I highly recommend this one! It was a great film based on true events and was an inspiring tale. Tom Hanks delivers his usual rock solid performance and is the foundation of the film. Combine that with expert writing, direction and production and you get a fine movie.

Cheers,

T Cobe

Rather slow day at work today, and this being new release Tue decided to check out the new 007 Spectre. It starts out in Mexico City with a Day of the Dead festival (the dead are alive). The bass in the opening scene was spectacular, and I thought to myself, this is going to be a thrill ride. The next scene was, you guessed it, a love making scene, but was cut short because 007 needed to kill someone. A demo quality helicopter scene followed which panned the sound from front to side to rear to side and back to front...long version of saying 360 degrees. From this point, I'll be honest with you, the film became to Talkie...way to much dialogue and not enough action. There was a fair car chase scene, but not as good as the car chase in Mission Impossible Rouge Nation. There were a couple of explosions that rocked my lazy boy, a fist fight, and a shootout. Normally 007 looks like he's drug out on crack, heroin, and vodka all at the same time...not this time, he actually looked pretty good. If you're looking for pretty girls in this one...forget it, there aren't any.

PQ was very good as was SQ...the opening scene was demo quality material. Center channel dialogue was actually very clear and sounded better than usual.
It's definitely worth your time as to watching this one, but some parts can drag on to where you find your mind wondering. Towards the end I was expecting alot more action, and when it didn't come, the end of the movie didn't come fast enough. At 141 minutes long it was somewhat of a challenge to sit through, but I survived and lived to tell about it. Would i recommend it...sure...it's just a little boring in places and doesn't quite have enough action to meet my needs.

Another slow day today so decided to take Bolt for another spin.

PLOT:
Bolt (voice of JOHN TRAVOLTA) might not be a big dog, but he has super-canine powers that he puts to good use in battling the scheming villain, Dr. Calico (voice of MALCOLM McDOWELL), who repeatedly tries to kidnap Bolt's human, Penny (voice of MILEY CYRUS). Little does Bolt know, however, that his identity and entire experiences are just part of a TV show carefully constructed to prevent him from seeing any of the behind-the-scenes dealings.
Accordingly, when network executive Mindy (voice of KARI WAHLGREN) orders that the show's consistently happy endings - that don't sit well with adult viewers - be changed, the Director (voice of JAMES LIPTON) ends one episode with Calico successfully nabbing Penny. Thinking that's real, Bolt escapes but ends up knocked unconscious in a box that's shipped from Hollywood to New York City.

There, Bolt sets out to find Penny, but can't understand why his usual powers have disappeared. Even so, and thinking she works for Calico, Bolt kidnaps streetwise alley cat Mittens (voice of SUSIE ESSMAN) and the two set off on a cross-country trek back towards Los Angeles. Along the way, they pick up Rhino (voice of MARK WALTON), an overzealous hamster and huge fan of Bolt's who eagerly offers his assistance. From that point on, they race back to Hollywood, unaware that Penny's Agent (voice of GREG GERMANN) has replaced the missing star with a lookalike dog.

I really enjoyed this movie. It's a demo quality disc with just enough action and story content to keep one interested. PQ and SQ (5.1 DTS-HD Master) are near Reference. If you guys haven't seen this, check it out , it's well worth your time...Highly recommended.

I really enjoyed Bolt too. I haven't seen it in a while but it is really a decent movie and you're right about the A/V being top notch.

Watched Spectre this weekend in between work and tinkering with the home theater. Anthem covered a lot of it already so I won't beat a dead horse. I only have a few things to add.

First thing first, no pretty women?! Really, Anthem? You must be a man of singular taste. I think Naomie Harris, Monica Bellucci, and Lea Seydoux are all beautiful women. You are a hard man to please.

The opening 10 minutes of this movie are fantastic. As Anthem has described, there is powerful bass and a really good use of surround sound with the helicopter fight scene. In fact, I think this part of the opening scene would be great to test the cohesiveness of a surround system. As soon as I get my next pair of Aon 3s, this will be the first scene I play. The score was also fantastic, in this scene and throughout the movie. My only quibble was with the dialogue. As with Skyfall, there are some tricky sequences in here for center channel reproduction of vocals. My SCXL and Anthem handled everything with flying colors, but I received gained the sound that my Integra used to struggle with. In all, I'd rate the SQ on this one a 4.5/5. This was pretty close to Mission Impossible Rogue Nation.

The picture was typical of the 007 reboots: reference quality. It was dynamic with great black levels and shadow detail. It was very clear with a lot of detail and no graininess. I'm not sure this would be my go to demo disk for a quick sample of PQ, for that I would probably fall back on something like Life of Pi, but the PQ on this one was extremely good. PQ was a 5/5 for me.

Like Anthem, I did find myself getting a bit bored from time to time. I'm not sure it was the pace of the film, which seemed right. Maybe it was the lack of character development for me. Christoph Waltz is a great actor but they never really defined his character very well. I'm not sure they stated why he wanted to make Bond's life so miserable. Simple childhood jealousy seems to fall a bit short. Javier Barden was definitely a better villain even though Waltz is a fine actor. Just a lack of depth in character development. The connection between Bond and Madeline seemed rushed as well. This was still a good film but definitely as good as each of the other three in the reboot. I'll be curious to see if Daniel Craig comes back. His original contract was for one more film, but he had a bit of a meltdown after filming this one. Hopefully he decides to do one more.

Cheers,

T Cobe

T Cobe :

Thanks for a great review. We pretty much agree on everything except the so called "Beauties of Spectre".

Monica Bellucci a beauty?...Nope!
Lea Seydoux a beauty? ...Nope!
Noamie Harris a beauty?...Nope!

My favorite Bond Girls:
Olga Kurylenko (Camille Montes) -- Quantum of Solace
Halle Berry (Jinx) -- Die Another Day