Ca$h (2010)

Movie: 2.5/5
Video: 4/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 1/5
Overall: 3/5

"This is Thor, Before Thor?"

I will say this, Chris Hemsworth has came a long way from his earlier films in comparison to how great his role is as Thor. I managed to get this Blu-ray off of Grooves Inc for $10 and boy was I in for a surprise. Sean Bean plays Kubic, a man who has traveled from England to Chicago to see his imprisoned brother (also Sean Bean). His brother informed him that he threw his heist money out the window while being chased by the police.

The suitcase full of money lands on Sam's (Hemsworth) car. Sam, in anger, throws the suitcase to reveal money sticking out of it. He takes it home to his wife and they believe it to a blessing from God, until Kubic comes knocking at their door. The couple blew through $75,000 out of the $625,000. While visiting his brother in prison, Kubic is told to ignore it and the money they spent is fine. Kubic ignores his brother's plea and wants all of the money back. Kubic then puts the couple into a journey of hell trying to get the cash back.

For 110 minutes, I felt that the film dragged on and on at times. If twenty minutes would have been cut, I might have enjoyed it more. Obviously, with how it ends, sets it up for a sequel that we will never get. I've seen better performances from Sean Bean and Chris Hemsworth doesn't remotely look like how he does in Thor in this movie. He's all babyface and no muscle. I give Ca$h 2.5/5.

Video: 4/5

This looks like it was shot with a basic 1080p camera judging from how looks in movement. A lot of early HD shot films have this speed problem where it moves a bit faster than it should. The video looks a bit soft at times, but, it is pretty detailed. It's not perfect, but, I can award it 4/5 for the video.

Audio: 5/5

Ascot Elite gives us two audio tracks on the disc, English and German DTS-HD MA 5.1 tracks. The English audio fares better than the video presentation. Hearing the guns lock whenever Kubic puts the clip into the gun sounds nice and crystal clear. Hearing the sound of a plane landing as Kubic comes to Chicago in the opening sounds nice and loud. I have no complaints regarding the audio tracks. 5/5.

Extras: 1/5

Not much in terms of extras. We have an English and German trailer for Cash. Then we have German dubbed trailers for What Doesn't Kill You aka Boston Streets; Cargo; and Nothing But the Truth. And English language trailers with German subtitles for a British film called the Firm and a movie starring Melissa George called Triangle. Quality on all these trailers all look like poorly ripped Youtube videos. It reminds of all the trailers on the Blu-ray for Evil Angel. I give the bonus 1/5.

Overall: 3/5

I went into Cash with high hopes. I was somewhat let down. I don't think it was that bad, nor that great. It all felt that Sean Bean dialed it in and Chris Hemsworth was a new and upcoming actor who hadn't yet landed the role as the God of Thunder. Even Bean's performance in the remake of the Hitcher was better; even in Silent Hill: Revelation 3D where he kept flipping back and forth from his English accent to his American accent. Maybe if you're looking to see it, I can recommend it for the $10 if you can play Region B discs. Will it get a replay in my book? Down the road, one day. 3/5.

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)

Movie: 5/5
Video: 4.5/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 4.5/5
Overall: 5/5

"Germany's First Godzilla Blu-ray!"

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster was a turning point for the Godzilla series. This is where Godzilla changes from being the destroyer that he is to Earth's savior. After a meteorite crashes to Earth, a group of scientists go to investigate. At the same time, a princess is heading to Japan when her plane explodes during it's flight. Believing that the princess is dead, a mysterious prophet claiming to be from Venus looks exactly like the dead princess. The prophet claims that the monsters are going to be awoken and it all begins to hit the fan.

The meteorite turns out to be King Ghidorah and soon he begins laying waste to Japan. Rodan, Mothra (in larva form), and Godzilla gather. Mothra tries to stop Godzilla and Rodan from killing each other and begs them to stop and to save the world from the wrath of King Ghidorah. After the monsters ignore her pleas, Mothra goes to fight King Ghidorah by herself. Godzilla and Rodan sees Mothra's sacrifice to save the planet and soon the three unlikely monsters begin the battle for the Earth and duke it out against King Ghidorah.

I remember being six years old when I first saw this film, in 1996. I had recorded it off of the Disney channel along with Son of Godzilla. Yes, Disney channel back in the day would actually play Godzilla films. Would you see something like that now a days? No. You would get the crap you see on there today.

What I love about this film is how hysterical it gets when the monsters fight and the sarcasm that they have. You can tell that Rodan is laughing at Godzilla when Mothra is spraying him down and then Rodan shuts up as soon as he gets sprayed himself. This is a film where the suits look amazing and well done. I can't recommend this film enough, 5/5.

Video: 4.5/5

Ascot Elite presents the film in 1080p and uses the Toho remaster from 2008. How does the film fare in comparison to Destroy All Monsters and Godzilla Vs Biollante? It's spectacular. It blows the HD remaster away for Destroy All Monsters. However, there's some scratches on the lens which they couldn't remove. The picture is pretty flawless for an almost fifty year old film. I give the visual presentation 4.5/5.

Audio: 5/5

We have two audio presentations of Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster; Japanese and German DTS-HD MA 5.1. Both tracks sound glorious. Hearing Godzilla's roar and the other monsters roaring and fighting all sounds amazing. Both audio tracks sound great. All around 5/5.

Extras: 4.5/5

We have some great extras, however, most of them are PAL encoded which means it won't work in your Region 1 players unless your player is compatible. We have a 40 minute score version which is in HD. And we have a German commentary track; I have some issues with it. They claimed that Shusuke Kaneko liked Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster so much that he remade it as GMK. Unless I translated it wrong, I honestly don't believe that is correct. I know that Kaneko loved this film and made Shiro Sano and Chiharu Niiyama watch the film. Also, they claimed that the American title for the film was the literal Japanese translation for the film; Giant Monsters Decisive Battle.

We have an interview with Shusuke Kaneko, which is fine and good fun, but; we have scrolling German subtitles from the right side to the left side of the screen. It honestly hurt my eyes trying to read it as moved way too fast. And these subtitles are burned into the video itself. And finally, we have the trailer in Japanese and German. Basically, it's just German audio over the Japanese trailer. I do like the bonus material; however since it's all in German, it won't help all of you. 4.5/5.

Overall: 5/5

This Blu-ray is region free and is a cheaper alternative to the Japanese Blu-ray which costs about $80. I managed to get the German Blu-ray for $17 off of Grooves Inc. Like the Japanese Blu-ray, this German Blu-ray is not English friendly. However, if you've watched this film as many times as I have, you get used to watching the film despite the fact there's no English subtitles. Much like how i can watch the German Blu-ray Casshern and don't really need subtitles whenever it's playing in Japanese or German. This is classic Godzilla, remastered, and very stunning for an almost fifty year old film. I give this Blu-ray 5/5.

Meet Bill (2007)

Movie: 3.5/5
Video: 3.5/5
Audio: 3.5/5
Extras: 3.5/5
Overall: 3.5/5

Made Me Want to Eat Candy Bars.

I decided to import this title since I saw it was under $9 and it's got Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Alba. Aaron Eckhart certainly plays a different type of role in this film. This performance isn't like "The Dark Knight" or "Battle: LA". In this film he's a fat, depressed, married man whose wife cheats on him with a local news reporter. Through the disastrous situation, he is stuck with a kid through a work program who tries to help him see the bigger picture. The film is all right, certainly not the greatest movie I have seen, but I think it has potential for a re-watch here and there. Movie scores a 3.5/5.

The video presentation is 1080/50i, despite being region all, means that it will not work unless your TV or player/PS3 can handle 50hrz. It has the 25fps speed up which more or less effects the audio, which will be addressed in a bit. Considering that the movie takes up about 15GB of space on the disc, it looks great, however it does not look perfect. There's specs on the film that pop up here and there and there seems to be compression problems which don't look that bad unless you have your eyes glued to the screen. Video gets a 3.5/5.

With our audio, we have a bit of a problem. Due to the 25 frame speed up, the voices sound a little high. Given that this is the first time that I have seen the film, it didn't really bother me as much. In the opening, when Aaron Eckhart speaks, it did bother me because it was high pitch. Other than that, both English and German DTS-HD MA 5.1 sound good. 3.5/5.

We have quite a few extras presented on the disc, however, not really that great. We have deleted scenes that are about 15 minutes in length, obviously in PAL and 4:3 which gives up a window boxing with black bars on all sides. Then we have a photo gallery. A German language filmography for Aaron Eckhart, Elizabeth Banks, Timothy Olyphant, and Jessica Alba. Then finally we have three trailers on the disc presented in both English and German; "Meet Bill", "I Could Never Be Your Woman", and "Miss Potter". Extras get a 3.5/5.

And with every rating getting a 3.5/5, means that are overall score is 3.5/5. If you have the capabilities of handling 50hrz 1080i in the US, then I can recommend this release. It's one of the cheapest Blu-rays off of Grooves Inc right now, coming in at under $9.