When it comes to crime drama series, you just immediately think about Law & Order. This show started it all. It was the biggest of all of them too running 20 seasons long over more than a decade. I mean don’t pick up this complete series unless you have A LOT of time on your hands. This DVD set includes over 345 hours of content, delivered with an Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track. If you are a fan of this show it is a must have for sure.

The Emmy® Award-winning series Law & Order is one of the longest-running crime series of all time. Law & Order: The Complete Original Series captures every powerful episode from the first 20 seasons.   Dick Wolf ‘s primetime series covered the dedicated New York City police who investigated crimes and the district attorneys who prosecuted the offenders. Known for its hard-hitting, ripped-from-the-headlines style, the series showcased the talents of numerous illustrious stars from stage, film, and television.   Rediscover Law & Order’s intelligent writing and the riveting acting that inspired a brand of successful dramas that continues to captivate audiences around the globe.

This DVD set doesn’t stop at just 20 seasons of television, it also includes a ton a special features including deleted and extended scenes, cast profiles, a set tour, crossover episodes and more. There are profiles on Jerry Orbach, Jesse L. Martin and Fred Dalton Thompson. There is an interview with Park Dietz. The crossover episodes are from Homicide: Life on the Street and lastly there are two featurettes including “The Creation of Law & Order” and “Law & Order: The First Three Years”. Great extras for a great release. Highly recommended!

Let’s start this off with, I am not a fan of Jason Sudeikis at all. I think he is incredibly overrated and that this show is nothing special at all. I know people love it and say its so great but I never caught on. This 4K release isn’t anything special either, in fact it is kind of disappointing. Besides Warner Bros.’ 2160p/HDR10/Dolby Vision transfer, which is clean and doesn’t give any issues. It is a good upgrade from the previous Blu-ray release.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is honestly disappointing since Warner Bros. didn’t give us the same Dolby Atmos audio like it was presented on Apple TV+. This eight disc set is differently packed than the Blu-ray. Season 2 is spread over three discs rather than two. Sadly, though, there are no bonus features  included again here and there is no poster either from the earlier set. This is really a let down due to the price and topped with the lazy 5.1 audio, this release doesn’t score a goal.

Season One – Discs 1-2
“Pilot”, “Biscuits”, “Trent Crimm: The Independent”, “For the Children”, “Tan Lines”, “Two Aces”, “Make Rebecca Great Again”, “The Diamond Dogs”, “All Apologies”, ” The Hope That Kills You”

Season Two – Discs 3-5
“Goodbye Earl”, “Lavender”, “Do the Right-est Thing”, “Carol of the Bells”, “Rainbow”, “The Signal”, “Headspace”, “Man City”, “Beard After Hours”, “No Weddings and a Funeral”, “Midnight Train to Royston”, “Inverting the Pyramid of Success”

Season Three – Discs 6-8
“Smells Like Mean Spirit”, “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea”, “4-5-1”, “Big Week”, “Signs”, “Sunflowers”, “The Strings That Bind Us”, “We’ll Never Have Paris”, “La Locker Room Aux Folles”, “International Break”, “Mom City”, “So Long, Farewell”

Starring: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis
Directed by: Yorgos Lanthimos
Rated: R
Running Time: 118 minutes
Focus Features

Film Score: 4 out of 5 Stars
4K Score: 1.5 out of 5 Stars

What used to be fringe is now mainstream. Conspiracy theories permeate American life, fueled by a mix of civic ignorance and algorithms designed to feed us junk science, paranoia, and rage. That’s why a film like “Bugonia” doesn’t just feel timely, but it feels uncomfortably real, like a mirror being held up to society while society refuses to look.

Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone) is the CEO of a pharmaceutical conglomerate and a rising star in the business world. That’s why it’s shocking, to her and to us, when she’s kidnapped by Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis). In the basement of Teddy’s mother’s house, Michelle is tied to a chair and has her head shaved. Teddy calmly explains that they know she’s an alien. Not just any alien, but one of the higher-ups tasked with keeping humanity subservient while destroying small communities and the planet itself; specifically, honeybees. Michelle, and the audience, can only look on in disbelief.

But this is a Yorgos Lanthimos film, and a remake of a South Korean original, so the central question isn’t just whether Michelle is an alien. That’s the film’s primary mystery. The secondary, and arguably more unsettling one, is Teddy’s conspiratorial mind. Is he delusional? Is he right? Or is he projecting his very real frustrations with a broken system onto a sci-fi fantasy that gives his suffering meaning? We’re also left wondering how fully Don understands or believes in a plan that grows increasingly violent and dangerous.

“Bugonia” is structured around these uncertainties, offering brief flashes of bleak humor while peeling back Teddy’s mental state and asking whether humanity really needs extraterrestrial villains to explain its own failures. At its core, this is a story about a terrified human watching his world collapse. Teddy’s mother is in a coma. His home is literally rotting. He’s unemployed, isolated, and convinced that nature itself is screaming in pain. The question isn’t just whether aliens are to blame, but it’s whether we’re too narcissistic as a species to accept that we’re sometimes, if not most of the time, the villains of our own story.

Plemons and Stone are exceptional, particularly in scenes where they engage in psychological sparring. Stone plays Michelle with just enough ambiguity to keep us guessing whether she’s a helpless victim, a ruthless capitalist, or an intergalactic executioner ready to end the human experiment. Plemons, meanwhile, brings surprising nuance to Teddy. He’s not framed as a traditional villain, but as a deeply pathetic figure. He’s incapable of reckoning with the world around him and desperate for a narrative that explains his powerlessness.

There’s no shortage of themes in “Bugonia”: environmental collapse, nihilism, conspiracy thinking, capitalism, and humanity’s place in the universe. I found myself viewing the film as a crossroads between our ancient need to believe we matter and the scientific reality that we’re specks of dust in an indifferent cosmos. If you lean into that interpretation, the film may feel bleaker and more sobering than entertaining, but at times that seems intentional.

You could read “Bugonia” as smiling through the apocalypse. I see it more as an invitation to embrace absurdity while staring straight at the fact sheet detailing our future. Either way, it’s a darkly funny, unsettling reminder that the scariest monsters aren’t aliens, they’re the stories we tell ourselves to avoid responsibility.

4K Review

THE BIRTH OF THE BEES: THE MAKING OF BUGONIA: Interviews with the cast and crew.

Trailers

Two and a Half Men is a show that I used to watch religiously. Each week, I would tune into the crazy antics of Charlie and Alan Harper and Alan’s son Jake. I watched very few sitcom shows, other than The Big Bang Theory but this show had an amazing run. From 2003 to 2015. It ran 12 seasons for 262 episodes. Honestly, the first eight seasons is where it’s at. After Sheen left the show should have hung up its towel. But it did push on for four more seasons with Ashton Kutcher taking over for Sheen.

Official Premise: Get set for an extended visit to Malibu’s most happening beach house with The Complete Series of one of the longest running live-action sitcoms in TV history, Two and a Half Men. Join brothers Charlie and Alan Harper; their estranged (and strange) kids, Jenny and Jake; gazillionaire Walden Schmidt; and housekeeper Berta for 12 years of hilarious high jinks with bad boys, funny men, gorgeous girls, celebrity neighbors, sexy stalkers, eccentric parents and more.

The set features full 1080p high definition presentations of every single episodes, which look great and are each paired with lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0 (for seasons 1-6) and DTS-HD MA 5.1 (for seasons 7-12). The 5.1 tracks obviously have a bit more depth than the earlier season’s 2.0 tracks.

There is a ton of great special features included even though there is only two commentary tracks included on “Tucked, Taped And Gorgeous” by Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn and on “Mr. McGlue’s Feedbag” by Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones. My favorite is the gag reels included on seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, and 12. There is a bonus episode – the “CSI” episode “Two And A Half Deaths.” Lastly there are fifteen featurettes included ranging from a behind-the-scenes look at production, interviews with Lee Aronsohn and Chuck Lorre and a featurette focusing on the 100th episode.

“House on Haunted Hill” is one of the best films to come out of the 50’s starring Vincent Price, Carolyn Craid and Richard Long and directed by schlock master William Castle. This shocker of the century was a smash hit upon its 1959 release and has been haunting fans for nearly 70 years. For architecture buffs, the home used for the exteriors of the haunted house was actually designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1924. In it’s original release the theaters used to have a wire and a ghost came down and made everybody jump out of their seats. This film still delivers the goods despite being a little schlocky.

Official Premise: Eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren and his 4th wife, Annabelle, have invited 5 people to the house on Haunted Hill for a “haunted House” party. Whoever will stay in the house for one night will earn ten thousand dollars each. As the night progresses, all the guests are trapped inside the house with ghosts, murderers, and other terrors.

The newly restored 1959 B&W (only) feature runs 75 minutes and is displayed in 1.85:1 aspect ratio with a DTS-HD Audio track. In previous releases of this film. The picture quality always received mixed reviews, with customers reporting poor quality. Film Masters didn’t hold out with delivering the goods here. The film looks great in Widescreen. In terms of special features though we just have a full-length commentary track by Heath Holland, who hosts of the popular podcast “Cereal at Midnight: Pop Culture in Analog”. and liner notes by professor and film scholar Jason A. Ney.

Alfred Hitchcock is and always will be the legendary Master of Suspense. In “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” the series ran for 263 episodes from 1955-1962. The most famous director in the world hosted, produced and occasionally directed the iconic anthology series that, in the words of Hitchcock himself, brought murder back into the home – where it belongs. It featured some of the most recognizable actors in Hollywood history including Robert Redford, Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, Joan Fontaine, Claude Rains, Walter Matthau, Thelma Ritter, Joseph Cotton, Peter Falk, Teresa Wright, Leslie Nielsen and Alfred Hitchcock’s daughter Patricia, along with so many more.

For fans of this series, this new Legacy Collection comes finally to DVD. Firstly, it is sadly that these episodes weren’t updated for a Blu-ray release. But at least they are getting released to begin with. If you have been collecting seasons 1-5 over the years, you can rest assure that you don’t need to buy this release since season 6 & 7 also just dropped solo allowing fans that have been collecting to complete their set. And this Legacy Collection is for fans who waited for the complete set.

“Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Legacy Collection” complete is a 34 DVD set. There are 6847 minutes of content on these episodes, presented in aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. There are a few features included as well: Alfred Hitchcock Presents: A Look Back and Fasten Your Seatbelt: The Thrilling Art of Alfred Hitchcock. “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” was and still is a groundbreaking series whose impact continues to resonate today. The fact that this show even received a Complete Series DVD release shows just that. Even though its not a Blu-ray release, this release still delivers the legacy collection in a big way.

After Seinfeld, we all wondered what Larry David would do next. The show was always one of the world’s favorites. Curb Your Enthusiasm is a rare show that outlives it’s prior installment. The show last for twelve seasons and has a total of 120 episodes, including one special. The series aired from 2000 to 2024. So it definitely had quite the run. The later seasons were just as good as the start of the series. This new Blu-ray of the Complete Series comes with two oversized keepcases, one for seasons 1 through 6 and one for seasons 7 through 12, for a total of 12 discs per keepcase, 24 discs total. The show is a gem but sadly this release is not the ultimate complete collection.

This iconic Emmy®-and Golden Globe®-winning comedy stars Larry David as an exaggerated version of himself – blunt, unfiltered and endlessly capable of turning life’s simplest moments into social catastrophes. Semi-improvised and razor-sharp, Curb Your Enthusiasm offers a tongue-in-cheek look at Larry’s fictional world, where every encounter spirals into comically awkward mayhem. Joining Larry are regulars Jeff Garlin, Cheryl Hines, Susie Essman, JB Smoove, Richard Lewis, Bob Einstein, Shelley Berman, Ted Danson and Vince Vaughn, as well as a vast array of guest stars.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Series is presented with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.78:1. And if you are a hardcore fan, you would know that this constant aspect ratio will drive you up the wall, since the first six seasons were originally broadcast in 1.33:1. The reframings leaves you missing part of the screen including tops of heads, I don’t know why they didn’t pay attention to the aspect ratio. The first six seasons open with DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks and then moves on to at least slightly better DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks for seasons seven through twelve.

Special features are not much better. Season 1 includes an interview with Bob Costas and an HBO Special. Nothing for Season 2. Season 3 has a chat with the cast. Season 4 is skipped. Season 5 has two featurettes. Season 6 has a gag reel and two featurettes. Season 7 has a Seinfeld Reunion and another Seinfeld related featurette. Season 8 includes a conversation with Brian Williams interviewing Larry David and another featurette. Season 9 includes three very short “Memorable Moments”. Season 10 has a gag reel. Season 11 is skipped and Season 12 includes eight very short featurettes. IT should be known that none of the previously released commentary tracks are included. Also of the supplements on the first seven seasons look like they’re in the wrong aspect ratio. So this is a major letdown for sure.

Starring: Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers and Julia Fox
Directed by: Justin Tipping
Rated: R
Running Time: 96 minutes
Universal Pictures

Our Score: 3.5 out of 5 Stars
4K Score: 4 out of 5 Stars

Before walking into “HIM,” I had a simple question: has there ever been a football horror film? I couldn’t find one. Even the broader category of “sports horror” is practically empty. So right out of the gate, “HIM” earns points for originality.

Football, as the film’s opening reminds us, is already horrifying. The violence, the obsession, the broken bodies; it’s all there. The movie starts with a gruesome on-field injury, echoing Joe Theismann’s infamous leg break. The victim? Football legend Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), who somehow recovers to lead the San Antonio Saviors to eight championships. Witnessing that trauma is a young Cam Cade (Tyriq Withers), who goes on to become a rising star and, eventually, White’s successor. But first Cam has to prove his worth as he’s invited to train at White’s mysterious desert compound. That’s when the real nightmare begins.

“HIM” takes big swings at the intersection of religion, fame, and athleticism. Sometimes the metaphors overlap. Sometimes you wonder if the movie is talking about sports, God, trauma, or all of the above. The confusion is intentional. Football’s fanatical culture and Sunday rituals mirror organized religion. When Cam arrives at White’s compound, he finds unhinged White fans tailgating outside the gates. They also don’t appear to ever leave, as if these paint covered loons are living in a kind of sports-themed purgatory.

The film chooses absurdism over realism, and that choice mostly works. The criticism isn’t directed squarely at football. European soccer fans can be just as rabid. The criticism seems to be more directed at our broader cultural obsession with sports and spectacle. And visually, “HIM” gets a lot right: the soundtrack hits, the aesthetics pop, and the editing leans into the madness. It sometimes leans heavy into the style over substance, much like “American Horror Story” has.

At the heart of it all is Cam, caught between the powers of the football machine and the pleas of his family to simply be careful. Withers is a decent lead, but Wayans is absolutely electric as Isaiah White, delivering unhinged lines with just enough restraint to make you lean in. There’s a mania behind his eyes that sells the idea of a man completely consumed by sports, by fans, by power.

“HIM” doesn’t always know how to weave its themes cleanly, but it’s still a hell of a ride. It’s smart, surreal, and timely. With football season in full swing and America’s appetite for violence still unshaken, this is a horror story tailor-made for our times. It could’ve dug deeper, sure. But what’s here is bold and unforgettable. It’s a first-of-its-kind football hellscape that makes the gridiron seem toothless.

4K Features

Audio Commentary with Director/Co-Writer Justin Tippping: The solo commentary allows for Tipping to really fill each scene with factoids about the shoot.

Alternate Ending: Without giving any spoilers, this ending may have been just as nutty.

Deleted End Credits Scene: Again, without spoiling, this is something that certainly would have added a more mysterious flavor to an already mysterious ending.

Deleted Scenes: There are only five deleted scenes here and like most deleted scenes, it’s easy to see why they’ve been removed.

Becoming Them: Withers and Wayans talk about how they prepared for their athletic roles, which wasa more than just training and building muscle.

The Sport of Filmmaking: It’s interesting to see how the look of the film came together.

Anatomy of a Scene: This feature breaks down two interesting scenes, although not the scenes you’d think.

Hymns of a G.O.A.T.: A behind-the-scenes feature dealing with the film’s soundtrack.

Starring: Judy Greer, Pete Holmes and Molly Belle Wright
Directed by: Dallas Jenkins
Rated: PG
Running Time: 99 minutes
Lionsgate

Film Score: 3 out of 5 Stars
Blu-Ray Score: 4 out of 5 Stars

Surface level. Cheesy. Goofy. Just a few things I’ve said about bad films in the past. But during Christmas, it’s different. Christmas is the time of year when people willingly watch movies that would be unwatchable any other time of year. You don’t bust out the hot cocoa on a muggy July day. You do it when it’s cold. You do it when there’s snow in the forecast. You do it when your home has the twinkle of holiday lights. Enter “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.”

Based on a book I never read or had read to me, the film follows Beth Bradley (Molly Belle Wright as the young version, Lauren Graham as the older narrator) as she reflects on a chaotic Christmas in the 1970s. Her mother Grace (Judy Greer) gets roped into directing the town’s 75th Christmas pageant for the first time ever. Also, for the first time ever,  the Herdmans get in the Christmas spirit. 

The Herdmans are a ragtag group of six siblings with a runaway dad, an absent mom, and reputations as the town’s most feared juvenile delinquents. They bully, steal, punch people in the face, and force their way into the pageant. Residents are getting ready to clutch their pearls, but the Herdmans may not be giving them a lump of coal. If you’ve ever seen a Christmas movie, you know exactly where this is headed.

I watched this in October while my wife was already decking the halls and wrapping presents. So, sure, maybe I was adjacent to the Christmas spirit. Maybe that’s why I didn’t outright reject the movie, even as it made me roll my eyes. I may have even wanted cocoa while watching.

There’s charm here. Greer is always great, and the child actors fully embrace their roles as miniature chaos agents on a redemption arc. That arc, along with the film’s overt Christian themes, walks a fine line between sweet and Sunday school sermon. At times, it feels like you’re being bludgeoned by a moral lesson about how the Bible fixes everything, but at least it’s core message is a decent one: the idea of welcoming outsiders, no matter how rough around the edges, because that’s what Christ would’ve done.

“The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” is fine if you grew up with the book or want a little more Jesus in your Christmas lineup. If not, there’s probably more comfort (and less preachiness) in your average Hallmark rom-com. The movie has its heart in the right place, but it just doesn’t quite know what to say without mixing in a sermon.

Blu-Ray Features

Audio Commentary with Director Dallas Jenkins and Producer Kevin Downes

Herding the Kids: This feature shows what it’s like to try and wrangle multiple children on set.

Director’s Diary: This is a good complimentary feature to the commentary.

All About the Pageantry: Creating the Look: A mild look at creating the film’s background and set.

Legacy of the Christmas Pageant: Cast and crew talk about their own Christmas pageants.

The Least of These: Another complimentary director feature in which Jenkins talks about how he learned about the story.

Bloopers

Deleted Scenes

Theatrical Trailer

Starring: Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, John Ortiz
Directed by: Timo Tjahjanto
Rated: R
Running Time: 89 minutes
Universal Pictures

Movie Score: 3.5 out of 5 Stars
4K Score: 2 out of 5 Stars

Where was there to go after 2021’s “Nobody,” the suburban-dad-as-assassin sleeper hit? You’d expect Derek Kolstad, the creator of “John Wick,” to expand the world of Hutch (Bob Odenkirk). You’d expect him to introduce new allies, explore past enemies, and deepen the mythology of Hutch. Instead, “Nobody 2” takes a hard roundhouse kick left: it’s time for Hutch to take the family on a nostalgic summer road trip.

This time around, Hutch (Bob Odenkirk) is struggling to keep up. He’s rarely home, bouncing between violent freelance gigs to pay off the debt he racked up in the first film. His wife drinks alone at the dinner table and his kids barely see him outside of breakfast small talk. We even get the sense that divorce and alienation is around the corner. To save his marriage and reconnect with his family, Hutch piles everyone into a van and heads to Plummerville, a water park he visited as a kid. Trouble, of course, is waiting for him.

The chaos includes a corrupt amusement park owner (a grounded John Ortiz), a small-town sheriff oozing smug entitlement (Colin Hanks, doing what he does best in a jerk role), and a Russian gang leader played by Sharon Stone, who tears through scenes like a villainous vulture gnawing on a carcass. The plot may be thin, but the characters liven it up. Once again, Odenkirk grounds the mayhem with his unique blend of exasperated dad and quietly lethal badass.

The film’s biggest asset is its tight 89-minute runtime, about 20 minutes leaner than most action flicks. Whether by necessity or design, it understands that time is precious and that a quick jolt of adrenaline can be just as satisfying as a full-course meal. That said, there are still a few slow spots, and even Odenkirk’s charisma can’t mask every lull. “Nobody 2” may not be as fresh or impactful as the first, but it offers a tiki drink of an experience. It’s light, fast, and playfully violent. It’s a late-summer treat, perfect for when you need one last splash of cinematic fun before the season ends.

4K Review

Deleted Scenes: There are 8 deleted/extended scenes on this feature. As I say most times, you can see why these were left on the cutting room floor.

Nobody 2: The Fight Continues: This feature talks with the cast and crew about what they were looking to add and bring back for this sequel.

Nobody Does Stunts Like Us: This feature, which I wish was longer, talks with Odenkirk and the stunt team about designing the film’s fight sequences.

Starring: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw and Ivanna Sakhno
Directed by: Gerard Johnstone
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 120 minutes
Universal Pictures

Film Score: 2 out of 5 Stars
4K Score: 3 out of 5 Stars

In a year packed with excellent horror, it’s easy to forget about “M3GAN 2.0.” That’s partly because it had some stiff competition like “Weapons” and “Sinners,” and partly because the sequel abandons horror almost entirely, trading killer doll vibes for… a techno-spy thriller? It feels like the goal was to do what “Terminator 2” did, which was to evolve the threat into something more complex and maybe even heroic. But instead of building on what made 2022’s “M3GAN” effective, this follow-up takes a wild genre swerve and lands in messy, half-baked territory.

Two years after the events of the first film, Gemma (Allison Williams) has become an advocate for responsible AI. That’s not what everyone wants to hear though. Gemma’s immense tech background brings her face-to-face with military officials on the hunt for AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno), a rogue AI android who’s gone off the leash. Enter M3GAN, who turns out she’s not quite dead and has an offer: Give her a body, and she’ll help take down AMELIA.

That pitch could’ve worked. But watching the original just days before seeing “M3GAN 2.0” really highlighted the disconnect. We go from a cold-blooded AI willing to kill anyone to protect a child (Cady, played again by Violet McGraw), to a convoluted international plot involving assassinations, G20 meetings, and a shadowy tech macguffin. The tonal whiplash is real. Going from slasherbot to spy queen isn’t so subtle.

M3GAN’s transition from horror icon to a feminist James Bond happens so fast you either buy in completely or check out. I found myself somewhere in the middle. M3GAN still has the sarcastic one-liners and chaotic energy, but now she’s positioned as a full-on hero. The morally gray, unpredictable edge that made her interesting is stripped away. What’s left feels like what Disney might do if it bought the IP and wanted to sell plush dolls at Target.

It’s not that the ideas behind “M3GAN 2.0” are bad. They’re actually kind of fun. But the execution doesn’t match the ambition. At two hours, the silliness wears thin. Once the novelty of watching M3GAN quip and kill again wears off, you’re left with a plot that feels like it was written in committee the night before shooting started. That said, the unrated version offers a bit more of what some fans like me wanted: blood, mayhem, and sharper edges. “M3GAN 2.0” is best enjoyed with very little brain computing power, but once you start turning the gears of thought, you’re going to be disappointed. 

4K Review

Total Upgrade: Making M3GAN 2.0: Get a behind the scenes look from the cast and crew about the sequel.

Droid DNA: Having attended a panel at SDCC this past year about the costumes in “M3GAN 2.0,” I’m slightly surprised that it isn’t included with this look at the film’s droids.

The Art of Slaying: A look at how the special effects team brought the film’s action sequences to bloody life.

Scene Breakdown: Embrace AI Convention: This feature goes over the film’s best sequence, a dance battle that turns into…well…a regular battle.

With live-action remakes of classic animated films all the rage, it shouldn’t be surprising that other studios would follow the House of Mouse (Disney) for some of that familiar IP exploitation box office gold. What is surprising is that a live-action remake could not only be good, but actually be almost as good as the original without hardly changing a thing. Original animated film co-director Dean DeBlois returns to the mythical land of Berk for a retelling of How to Train Your Dragon with real sets, real locations, a live human cast, and photorealistic CGI dragons (because, sadly, dragons aren’t real).

Did you see 2010’s How to Train Your Dragon? Then, in an interesting way, you’ve already seen this 2025 update. One of the key complaints about a number of the live-action remakes of animated classics that have come down the blockbuster pipeline has been the ill-advised changes. Whether completely changing a character or adding nonsensical plot beats, additional stupid songs to sell a new soundtrack, or just plain being flat, boring and uninspired. These films may have made huge bucks at the box office, but they just don’t hold a candle to their original animated counterparts.

Along comes 2025’s How to Train Your Dragon, which, weirdly enough, works because very little was changed. So little was changed that the film often comes across as a shot-for-shot remake of the 2010 film in a different medium.

Some of the casting obviously changed; our hero Hiccup is now played very well by Mason Thames, and Nico Parker steps in for Astrid, with Nick Frost turning in a funny run as Gobber. Gerard Butler gets another shot as the grizzled Stoick. Toothless is still CGI, but now comes in the photorealistic variety. There’s a little shakeup with the societal makings of Berk and its clan of warriors, but that’s it. Everything plays out almost exactly the same. So why does this work so well?

I honestly think it’s precisely because they didn’t make radical changes to the story, characters, or the plot beats that this live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon worked so well. The original film already hit so many wonderful emotional highs; the only thing they had to do was let a real live cast sell that experience. And it worked beautifully. There was something grand about a live Gerard Butler saying similar (if not exactly the same) lines as his animated counterpart. Hiccup’s first big flight with Toothless is just as arresting in live-action as it was animated. The big finale dragon battle is just as exhilarating and dramatic. The changes made are so slim that they don’t become irritating or distracting. I feel that so many of the issues with Disney’s changes for their live-action editions stem from those changes and updates that distract more than pull you into the story.

VIDEO

In 2160p Dolby Vision, How to Train Your Dragon makes a big splash with an often striking 2.39:1/1.90:1 shifting aspect ratio transfer. I got to see this in 4K on an OLED monitor and it was a true splendor when the world of Berk opened up for those big action sequences and glory shots in 1.90:1. Every intricate detail in the numerous beards, the armored fur-adorned costumes of the villagers, the homes, boats, and dragons is crystal clear. Even Toothless moves away from being the glossy dragon in the animated features with full details in the scales and lighting variations in textures, while still looking like a big black cat with leathery wings. Colors are generally vibrant, primaries see plenty of attention, but it’s the green rolling hills of Berk and the assorted appearances of the dragons that get the most color pop. Skin tones are natural and human. Black levels are deep and inky with excellent shadow separation, giving those bigger moments a true sense of depth and dimension. I still hope to see a 3D Blu-ray of this someday, but until then, this 4K Dolby Vision experience is excellent.

SOUND 

Matching the video point for point is the Dolby Atmos track. From swooping fire-breathing dragons to Toothless’ screech to the screams of the men and women of Berk. Similar to the 2010 original, it opens up to all the chaos of living on an island that is routinely ravaged by dragons, treating us to everything that’s to come. The Powell score is just as rich as ever, even though it’s a slight reorchestration of his original motifs. The distribution of the village offers strong, heavy impact on the LFE rumble. The dragons flying overhead and the fireballs raining down deliver a fully active height channel experience. Dialog via Hiccup’s narration and the ensuing chaos is clear without issue. Side, surround, and rear channels remain fully active for the big events. And the rest of the film carries on like that. Even in the quieter moments, the film finds smart uses to keep the various channels working for a fully immersive soundscape.

EXTRAS 

Completing the home video package is a rather healthy assortment of interesting bonus features. Director Dean DeBlois provides a terrific audio commentary, diving deep into how they brought the animated feature to life, casting, location scouting, building the real-life sets, and offering tidbits about how they adapted the story all over again. After that, the next meaty bit is a 45-minute making-of that is a nicely dedicated look at the making of the film. Following that are some nicely focused featurettes looking at the set design, costumes, and the making of a few key sequences. All around, a great set of extras we don’t often see for modern releases.

LASTLY 

In 2010, we were gifted with a rip-roaring dragon-riding adventure that spawned two sequels and TV series spin-offs. In 2025, we’re again gifted a rip-roaring dragon-riding adventure – and we’ve yet to see if there will be any sequels or TV series spin-offs. Granted, the world probably didn’t need a near shot-for-shot live-action take on How to Train Your Dragon, but we got one, and it’s, amazingly enough, actually good! It’s a sign that a good story told well can transcend medium. Animated or Live-Action, the story of a boy and his dragon hits those emotional notes. I may still prefer the 2010 original over this one, but unlike other recent remakes from a rival studio, I can actually see myself pulling this 2025 remake of How to Train Your Dragon off the shelf many more times. It’s well made and great fun! With an excellent A/V presentation and some genuinely interesting, well-produced extra features. Highly Recommended!

Starring: Leslie Bibb, Carrie Coon and Walton Goggins
Rated: TV-MA
Running Time: 514 minutes
HBO

TV Show Score: 3 out of 5 Stars
DVD Score: 4 out of 5 Stars

If you haven’t heard of “The White Lotus,” you might be missing out on HBO’s most bizarre, sexually charged, and darkly comical series. Each season drops us into the lives of the wildly privileged—wannabe elites, crumbling rich families, emotionally wrecked resort staff, and characters drowning in their own flaws and contradictions.
Season 3 trades Sicily for Thailand and introduces a trio of longtime girlfriends: one more successful than the rest, one trying to balance motherhood, and one a high-powered attorney who’s quietly falling apart. Along for the ride is a mysterious older man and his too-young trophy girlfriend, whose presence unspools much of this season’s mystery. Then there’s the Ratliff family, each member on a personal quest that has nothing to do with togetherness and everything to do with selfishness.

As someone who lives in the lower-to-average-middle-class tax bracket, part of “The White Lotus’” charm is watching these rich folks stew in their own dysfunction. It’s almost cathartic. You root for the underpaid hotel workers. You laugh at the cluelessness of the elite. And you brace for the inevitable disaster.

Season 3 spices things up by introducing Eastern religion and cultural taboos, especially in how Western characters bump up against a society with very different ideas about sex, spirituality, and self-control. It’s a bold thematic shift, and for the most part, it works.

What doesn’t work as well is the landing. While prior seasons stuck the finale, this one stumbles. Thematically, it’s all there—class struggle, spiritual unraveling, absurdist satire—but the final note just doesn’t ring as loudly or as cleverly. And that’s a shame, because the setup is stellar.

Still, there’s plenty to enjoy: the sharp performances (Parker Posey, Walton Goggins, Sam Rockwell, and Natasha Rothwell all shine), the biting dialogue, and Mike White’s knack for satire. But White may want to rethink how he closes out Season 4 because Season 3 fizzles more than it should.

DVD Features

Unpacking the Episodes

Invitation to Set: Welcome to Thailand

Get to Know

Thai Tea

Closet Tour

Starring: Scarlett Johannson, Mahersha Ali and Jonathan Bailey
Directed by: Gareth Edwards
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 133 minutes
Universal Pictures

Film Score: 1 out of 5 Stars
4K Score: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

We had a 14-year break between “Jurassic Park III” and “Jurassic World.” Time away from the constantly calamitous dinosaur park made us appreciate it again when the doors swung back open. I’m not saying we need another 14-year dry spell, but after watching “Jurassic World: Rebirth,” I’m beginning to think the creative team and writers need one. 

17 years after a candy bar wrapper (not making this up) left a trail of devastation and chaos at a secret island lab, Earth’s environment is now too hostile for most of the dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures once resurrected. In a hail mary pharma-fueled effort to save humanity, a shady biotech firm assembles a ragtag crew to return to the long-abandoned, off-limits island of Ile Saint-Hubert. Led by Scarlett Johannson (don’t remember the names, or else you’ll get attached when they become dino snacks) and extract genetic material from the world’s last prehistoric specimens.

I’m not saying the premise is dumb. It’s a dinosaur movie. The narrative and ideas it posits gets in the way of perfectly fine escapism. The opening sequence makes sure to hammer in two asinine facts: No one cares dinosaurs are escaping zoos and dying in downtown Manhattan and dinosaurs aren’t cool anymore. As someone who has worked in news, if any animal escapes from the zoo, even a capybara, it makes national news. And what the hell do you mean dinosaurs aren’t cool? They hammer the latter point more by recruiting a paleontologist, played by Jonathan Bailey, from a natural history museum that’s shuttering. He bemoans several times about how no one cares to see dinosaurs anymore. Have any of these writers visited a zoo lately?

The obnoxiousness doesn’t end there as characters spit out dialogue that sounds like it was written by ChatGPT after a few drinks. “A car bomb killed my dad. It came out of nowhere.” Car bombs don’t come out of nowhere. They’re planted. Also, for a film about dinosaurs wreaking havoc, we expect some fantastic kills, but they’re so quick and off-screen that they make death boring. Not even the T-Rex gets a kill. So, maybe give the people what they want next time, if you catch my drift.

Worst of all, it’s boring. The action sequences are flat and lifeless. Once it’s clear who lives (almost everyone) and who dies (mostly nobodies), the chase scenes lose all tension. At the very least, you gotta kill one secondary character that’s had more than two lines of dialogue. Then, there’s too much downtime with characters you’d rather see eaten, and even the callbacks to prior films feel forced and hollow. There’s no awe, no wonder, no…anything. Just another joyless cash grab from a franchise that forgot why people showed up in the first place.

I didn’t walk in expecting to hate it. Quite the opposite. The trailer gave me hope that it might tap into that silly joy of watching dumb humans try to outwit dumber, bigger, toothier animals. I was wrong. The audience at my screening seemed to enjoy it, but it was the end of June with nothing going. Also, maybe I’m just bitter. But if you’re picking “Jurassic World: Rebirth” over fireworks this weekend, prepare to be disappointed.

4K Features

Alternate Opening: Interesting to see the slight difference from the theatrical.

Deleted Scenes: Only a handful of deleted scenes, which I’m kind of surprised they removed because it does add a bit of tension and action to a movie that could have used a lot more.

Jurassic World Rebirth: Hatching a New Era: This is a multi-part behind-the-scenes feature that looks at the case and crew, the special effects, a few of the action sequences, and some more peeks behind the proverbial curtain. It’s actually a pretty decent behind-the-scenes feature that dives deep into the film.

Gag Reel: Self-explanatory.

Meet Dolores: I personally didn’t find this feature interesting, mainly because I find the addition of a “cute” tiny dinosaur for clear merchandising reasons wasn’t cute.

Munched: Becoming Dino Food: It takes a look at what it’s like to be eaten by a dinosaur. The title of the feature is probably more interesting than the feature itself.

A Day at Skywalker Sound: A moderately interesting feature about the sound in the film.

Hunting for Easter Eggs: This feature attempts to encourage multiple rewatches to look for little winks and nods to the franchise. No thanks.

Feature Commentary with Director Gareth Edwards, Production Designer James Clyne and First Assistant Director Jack Ravenscroft

Feature Commentary with Director Gareth Edwards, Editor Jabez Olssen and Visual Effects Supervisor David Vickery