The Digital Movie Collector

  Impressive Box Office Spider-Man: No Way Home appears to be making more in its opening weekend than Venom: Let There Be Carnage did gross. I am not surprised based on all the rumors about who may appear and what will happen in the story. If you are looking for confirmation to any rumors, I am going to try not to give anything away. I will only say there are two post credit scenes that setup two different movies. So, stay all the way until the end of the credits. Review Oh I wish I did not promise not to give anything away. This movie is so full of surprises that you just have to watch it. I would recommend watching both Hawkeye and What If...? on Disney+. I could recommend other things to watch but that would give too much away. I keep wanting to say more but will just leave it at that. The movie is almost two and a half hours long. I doubt they could have shortened the movie without loosing a lot. The movie was nearly a constant non-stop pace. I will say almost the entire theate...

  Another Remake I will start with a little spoiler. Dune 2021 is Part 1 with Part 2 expected in 2023. That being said this remake took at least 37 years to happen. With the special effects now able to match the scope of this movie, we are no longer subjugated to a majority of the movie being made on dark stages where you cannot appreciate the scope of the story. Granted the new is full of CGI but it makes the movie seem more grand than the original. 1984 vs 2021 Review The 1984 movie has a run time of 137 minutes. The 2021 movie has a run time of 155 minutes and is only part 1. For starters, the 1984 version has a lot of monologue at the beginning and throughout the movie because the effects and budget were not able to meet the vision of the movie. There is a little monologuing in the 2021 version but it has full action scenes as a backdrop to this monologuing. Both 1984 and 2021 feature a stellar cast of actors and actresses for their time. One thing to note about the new movie i...

  In Theater Movies We are starting to see a tread of going back to the movies. Marvel (Disney and Sony) are currently taking three of the five top USA grossing films in 2021. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings followed by Black Widow are the top two. Black Widow might have been first if not for the Disney+ premier access release the same time as theaters. Venom is currently in fifth place but it has not even been out a full two weeks yet. I suspect it will easily move from this position before it leaves theaters. This is only the third movie I have seen in theaters post COVID. Cruella and Black Widow were the other two. If you do go to the theater, be sure to follow guidelines of the theater, locality, and state to be safe. Review Tom Hardy is definitely the best Eddie Brock/Venom actor we have had. For a bit of trivia, Tom also does the voice of Venom without sound edits. Woody Harrelson is an excellent Cletus Kasady/Carnage. But Andy Serkis does the voice for Carnage. Man...

The Resolution Questions I had questions from my one reader about the following "How worried about UHD should a person be in general? Or is 8k so close it will get skipped? Thoughts?" I will answer each question one at time as best I can.  UHD? Obviously, the higher the resolution you can get for the same price is always better. There are a few movies that go on sale for $5 in UHD which is always the best value for you money. Even if you do not have a 4K or 8K TV, the streaming services will show you the best resolution your device and your internet connection will allow. So when you buy UHD, you also own the HD and SD version of the movie. Some people don't realize that. Another thing to point out is that there are a large number of movies that are not in 4K/UHD yet. Indiana Jones was just released in 4K in 2021 is an example of this. A majority of my collection has been built up through Disc to Digital conversion. In this instance, the process will only do SD or HD. UHD...

  End of the World Why are we so fascinated with movies that depict the end of the world? Perhaps we know we keep messing up this planet and would like a fresh start on another. One has to wonder if our race did manage to find a habitable planet that we could travel to, would we end up messing it up too? Probably.  Review The movie moves at a good pace. A majority of the cast are younger actors and actresses. Tye Sheridan has done a few movies lately including Ready Player One. I did not realize Johnny Depp had a daughter old enough to act. I actually didn't know he had a daughter at all. Lily-Rose Depp does a great job in this movie. In fact, many of the cast are very good. Colin Farrell plays a great mentor in this movie. While not an original story, I refer to the 1988 movie Earth Star Voyager. You can watch this old movie here on YouTube. I am surprised Disney is not suing Lionsgate for this movie. Since the movie is not on Disney+, I am guessing it is not one Disney wants...

  DC Meets Marvel Director What happens when you put a great cast with a proven directory like James Gunn? Not the movie I was saw. The cast was great. I didn't even realize Sylvester Stallone and Nathan Fillion were in the movie. Add to the known cast of Idris Elba, Margot Robbie, and John Cena among other and this should have been a great movie. I think my daughter summed it up the best as a horrible movie that was so bad, you had to watch it. My impression is that you took the group movie like Guardians of the Galaxy and threw in Deadpool dialog. It did not work in my opinion. Review The cast were great. You really felt for their characters. The story had a lot of promise. Cinematography was very good. Dialog destroyed this movie. Not all of it was bad but it felt like the dialog dropped the f-bomb every fourth or fifth word. R rating had nothing to do with fighting. Joker got away with their R rating and it was an okay movie. Birds of Prey had an R rating and was about as good ...

 Slacking In Reviews So I have been a little behind on movie reviews. Guess that means double feature review time. To make it interesting, I picked two fairly new releases to two popular streaming platforms. This review will be a little different than normal as I try to determine which original movie is worth the streaming fee. I will also give some spoilers away for each movie so you are warned now.  Both these movies have star actors as the leads with Liam Neeson and Laurence Fishburne in Ice Road from Netflix and Chris Pratt and J. K. Simmons in The Tomorrow War on Amazon. Netflix streaming service is $18 per month for just streaming. Amazon Prime is $13 per month or $119 per year which includes free shipping. Amazon clearly has the price win here. I am surprised they don't use their shipping services to sell movie merchandise for their original movies. I would like a small commission if they do for giving them the idea not that they read my blog. lol Ice Road - Review Who ...

  Previously If my missed my post about Fandango acquiring Vudu, you can read it here . While there may have been some cause for concern, it was not the first time that Vudu has been sold. This was the first time that buyer already had their own streaming site. So the question remained, would they maintain both sites. The final answer is: This make sense as FandangoNow appears to be more limited with its digital collection when compared to Vudu. They are going to keep the one with the larger collection. Perks When Walmart owned Vudu, they allowed you to use Walmart gift card to make purchases. During the negotiations, this feature was lost. Recently, Fandango has brought back gift cards for Vudu that now includes FandangoNow gift cards. Walmart gift cards are still not accepted but at least we can now use FandangoNow gift cards. Looking for the best deals, I currently use Bing Rebates to get a percentage back from Sam's Club. I can purchase a digital FandangoNow gift card from Sam...

  Marvel Female Lead I want to set the record straight. While Black Widow is the most anticipated Marvel movie with a female lead and Captain Marvel was the first MCU female lead movie, the internet is wrong. The first Marvel female lead superhero movie was the 2005 Electra movie with Jennifer Garner. A full 14 years prior to Captain Marvel. If we want to go even further, Supergirl in 1984 was probably the first female lead superhero movie of all time. Makes you wonder why they created a Wonder Woman 1984 movie. Granted neither of these movies are considered blockbuster movies but they do exist. Despite what some think, I thought Electra was a good movie. Review I had my reservations for the movie during the first 10 minutes. Probably due to my expectations being pretty high. Once the movie got moving, it did not disappoint with the story. I found it refreshing to actually just enjoy the movie without fully knowing where the story was going. The cast was great and gave great p...

 Protecting Your Collection In this time of cyber crime, you want to protect your investment of digital movies. I will be focusing this page on the primary retailers that connect with Movies Anywhere. At the time of this post, I am only aware of Google and iTunes are the only two retailers that offer secondary authentication. Technically, Amazon offers a secondary authentication with the use of a pin for digital purchases. I highly recommend you use these security feature provided by Amazon, Google, and iTunes. This provides great protection for your collection and any saved credit card information that you have with the retailer. I would not advise keeping your credit card information with a online retailer but I understand it's convenience. With that said, I will point out that users have the ability to removed their credit card information from Amazon, FandangoNow, Google, iTunes (provided you are not using Family Sharing), and Microsoft. This is convenient when one of the retai...

  Backstories Part of me loves the backstories that Disney has done for their villains to make them more sympathetic. Maleficent has two movies already. Cruella was a logical choice to do a backstory on. We get to meet Cruella, Jasper, Horace, and Anita before 101 Dalmatians. This movie does humanize Cruella to a point and provides some insight to why she is the way she is. Review I will say the casting for these four character is very well done. I especially like Jasper and Horace casting. Not sure many noticed these were characters from 101 Dalmatians. I felt the movie was slow for lack of a better word in the first few minutes but once it got up to speed, you were along for the ride until the end. There were many parts where this helped to explain characters in the original 101 Dalmatians movie. There were some inclusion characters but it was done very well in my opinion. I would not be surprised if we see a Cruella sequel coming out in the next few years. Rating I would give th...

  Mind Games As I sat down to write this review, I started to reflect on the characters go through so many mind games in this movie. If you look at the movie this way, it is pretty messed up movie. I realize the book must have been better as they never made a sequel. With all of this, I still found the movie very good. You have an amazing cast with Hrrison Ford, Asa Butterfield, Haiulee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, and Moises Arias to name just a few. Review Since I have not read the book series, I cannot comment on how close to the story the movie was. I can say that the movie did have a ending that could have had a sequel but did not require one. This is refreshing as many movies based on book series tend to not complete the story satisfactorily before the movie franchise is abandoned (see Chronicles of Narnia). The cast was very good. You were given enough character development to care for them. Visual effects were well done. I enjoyed watching this rec...

  Disney+ Not sure who (if anyone) pays for Disney+ then shells out another $30 for premier access to a movie that is showing in theaters especially when it will be free just a few short months later. For that matter, not sure why Disney believes these movies are worth $30 for rental or $30 when they are released for purchase at other retailers. Don't get me wrong, Raya is way better than the trailer lets on especially in these times. I am just saying that if I am paying $30 for a movie, it better include 4K Blue-Ray, regular Blue-Ray, DVD, and 4K digital copy on the same day it is release in theaters. Even then, I would really need to know it was a good movie prior to purchasing. Fortunately, the wait is over and Raya is now on Disney+ for free. A try before buying movie on my list. While it is so much better than I had every thought, it is still $20 for digital 4K copy now. Amazing how the price drops from $30 to $20 the minute the movie is free for Disney+ subscribers. While I a...

  Peter Dinklage I enjoy most everything Peter has been in. He seems to play an out of the box character most times. His portrayal of Phil Betterman is no exception. His character is very entertaining not that the other characters are not. You will have to watch to see how his character pokes fun at today's man. Review I realize it took 7 years for a sequel. Not sure it was worth the wait. We are treated to history on Guy's past that seems irrelevant until later in the movie. The movie has a good story that is different compared to the first movie. At the heart of the story is family and the changes they go through. While this is a good movie, it feels like it is missing a little of the magic from the first movie. I wish I could put my finger on it to give a better reasoning. The movie is relatively self contained where you do not need to watch the first film to understand where you are at. The movie has a conclusion that does not indicate a sequel but I am sure if the movie ma...

 Box Office Results When I heard the new number one movie at the theaters had grossed only $8.3 million, I thought it would be interesting to do a review on how the pandemic has effected movie profits and add my thoughts about what the future may hold.  Based on IMDB and BoxOfficeMojo results, Godzilla vs. Kong would normally be a movie that would bring in the movie goers. In six weeks, it has manages to gross $93 million domestically from a budget of around $155-$200 million. It's total gross is $472 million. To put this in perspective using BoxOfficeMojo domestic yearly box office based on top grossing films, 2009 through 2019 had movies that grossed over $10 billion. The last time a number one movie of the year made less than $500 million was in 1977 with the original Star Wars movie. From 1982 through 2020, the number one movie of the year has made over $2 billion. Streaming Services Disney+ was the first to release a new movie exclusively on their streaming platform. I do...

  Remake or Reimaging? It has been over 20 years since Mortal Kombat was in theaters. 10 years ago there was Mortal Kombat: Legacy. Now we have the rate R version of Mortal Kombat that is more faithful to the violence of the video game. I am fortunate to have Mortal Kombat: Legacy 1 & 2 on disc. Vudu only offers the first season as they call it. The original two movies from the 90s are still enjoyable but they lack the backstory from Legacy and the 2021 movie. I was disappointed in the 90s sequel movie Annihilation not because of the effects or story but because so many of the main characters had new actors. I feel this detracted from the movie and definitely hurt the original franchise. I feel like the 2021 movie took many parts from Legacy for the story. It looks like you can watch the combined Legacy seasons as one movie on YouTube here . 2021 movie has obviously better special effects and a little better story than Legacy but I will let the readers be the judge of that. It ...

 What Is? With the digital revolution, digital media has been sweeping the world. My memory of digital media was back with iTunes in 2001. There you could download music with a touch of a button from an actual retailer vs illegally with the bonus of malware to your computer. I actually had digital music from iTunes before I had a iPod or iPhone to play it on. In 2005, Apple released their video iPod and started to "sell" digital TV and movies. I am not saying Apple was the foundation for the digital revolution but it was my first positive experience with digital media. My first digital video purchase was the unaired Aquaman TV pilot as it was the only place to get it. What does purchasing something digitally really mean though? Apple and Amazon are coming under class-action lawsuits for their digital ownership definition of "buy" an item. The lawsuit stems from the fine print where retailers cannot guarantee you own the product but merely have unlimited streaming. T...

  Blast From My Past When I was growing up, I would get up early for Saturday morning cartoons. In the afternoon, there would occasionally be old monster movies like Godzilla where movies made overseas were dubbed with English. I was too young to care about this and just enjoyed the action they provided. About now you may be asking yourself, what does this have to do with The Iron Mask? After almost two minutes of what companies supported the making of this movie, I realized this was not an American made movie. While Jackie Chan and Arnold Schwarzeneggar both speak English, I doubt that many other cast members speak English. Bit of trivia for you. Both Jackie an Arnold started movies in America not knowing English. It was early in their careers that that learned to speak English. I think this makes it special that they collaborated on this particular movie with a cast that does not speak English. Don't get me wrong, this movie is in English but like the old Godzilla movies, you wil...

  On Time Shipping? I typically start off a blog with some bit of information about the movie but in this case, I decided to be one of those "people" that post their issues on the internet. Mine comes with visual aids. I recently borrowed my brother's copy and watched Mortal Engines to see if the movie was worth $4 that Best Buy was selling the Blue-ray with Digital Copy. It was better than I expected so I ordered it and The Iron Mask since both were on sale and I had a $15 rewards that paid for everything but tax. The movies shipped separately with Mortal Engines expected to arrive on April 14 and The Iron Mask expected April 21. Imagine my surprise when The Iron Mask arrived on April 15 and Mortal Engines did not (see below), I got a email saying Mortal Engines was delayed from April 14 to April 15. On April 15, I created an account on UPS so that I could email UPS to see if my package was lost since there had been no activity for two days. I was first annoyed that UPS ...

  What If? This is definitely a horror movie that was produced by James Gunn. This is no Guardians of the Galaxy movie. This is fully a rip off of Superman with a twist. This completely justifies Lex Luthor's opinion of Superman.  Now that I have randomly voiced my thoughts, I was a little interested in this movie. With Sony rewards, I was really limited on my free movie choices. Brightburn in 4K was one of my options. 4K for free with a movie that looked interesting seemed like a no brainer. Granted it, I waited a while to watch this movie. I severely underestimated how much of a horror movie this was going to be. Might have been more fun watching this with a date. Then again, it freaked me out too. I won't tell you if it had a good or bad ending because that would spoil the surprise. I will say that if Kal-El came to earth with this mindset, Lex would be a hero. Review While it draws from the Superman story, it is definitely not that story. If you don't know the story of ...

  Thought I Reviewed This I recently watch this again. Thought I had reviewed it but could not find it in the blog. Fun to review it now since I have listened to the sequel Ready Player Two. Even though the movie did not follow the book completely, the movie does end with the possibility to make the sequel a reality. Actually, I recommend you read or listen to Ready Player Two to see if you noticed how the movie could follow the sequel storyline. Review The changes made in the movie from the book were appropriate in my opinion. If the movie followed the book exactly, it would have been three hours long. By changing some of the story, it made it a lighter movie with things young and old could associate with.  Spoilers, one change that was made was replacing Ultraman with the Iron Giant. This makes sense as Ultraman was more 1960s and not 1980s. In the book, a main character is killed but not so in the movie. These made the movie almost its own story as there were additional cha...

  59 Years Later In case you missed the original 1962 first round, YouTube has King Kong vs Godzilla  free to watch.  If you brave the theaters or have HBOMax, Godzilla vs Kong has arrived. This is a time where the original was made so long ago that I am okay with a remake. I also liked that the remake was not a direct retelling of the original movie but an mostly new story. It also helps that the special effect are way better now than they were back then. Review The story gives both of these titans something that makes you want to root for them. There were more than one round of fighting so don't loose hope if your favorite titan does not win every round. A small spoiler that I think you will see coming is that Godzilla and Kong are not the only titans to show up to the match. Unlike the original movie, this story focuses more on the titans than the human. Don't get me wrong, there is a human side to this that helps you care for these titans. In the end, I feel the story...

  Different For those who are married, never complain about your in-laws again. Don't believe me then watch this movie. The movie is a combination of Knives Out and possibly The Shining. I initially was thinking Murder on the Orient Express instead of The Shining but I changed my mind while writing this review. I will say one thing for this movie is that it is unique in its story. It kept me guessing until the end on what would happen. Review My son had put this movie in the Vudu Wishlist. I had remembered watching the trailer before and did find the story different which probably drew me towards getting it. It helped that I had Best Buy gift card and the movie with digital was on sale for $9. Taking a chance, I bought the Blu-ray combo pack. With nothing better to do on a dreary weather day, I decided to watch it. The movie starts out at a good pace and does not stop until the end. You can't help but root for a couple of characters in the movie.  The movie leaves you at the e...

 History I have enjoyed movies since I was a kid. Movies take you to times and places you could only dream about. Since it is a passive experience, everyone who watches are treated to the same events. Watching a movie can be initially share by yourself or with a group. The great part is you will find many more who have enjoyed a movie that allow you to bond over hours, days, weeks, months, or even years later. Dating myself again, I watched the original Star Wars (A New Hope as it called now) in a theater with my brothers and sister. I can discuss that with others who have just watched it for the first time either by DVD or streaming. Granted, these individuals are subjected to the misconception that Greedo shot first which he did not but the main story is still the same to be discussed. If you are fortunate to have a copy of the limited edition DVD that included the 1977 Theatrical Version, I highly recommend watching it. Cost Many like to go on a vacation to "get away". Thi...

  HBOMax I have to mention HBOMax if I am to properly review Justice League: The Snyder Cut as this is the only place you will be able to watch the movie. I am hoping it will be released digitally sometime in the future. So HBOMax is streaming new movies the same time as they are released in theaters. Wonder Woman 1984 was released in December. Justice League: The Snyder Cut and Godzilla vs Kong release this month. April we will see a new Mortal Kombat. The Suicie Squad will reelase in August. Dune will come out in October. Finally, the currently untitled Matrix movies will come out in December. At $15 per month where you can cancel anytime, HBOMax is like the price of a peak time movie ticket at a good theater. Granted you can go to the theater during matinees times for cheaper tickets but you are still limited to when you watch and no ability to pause. Since Justice League: The Snyder Cut was released, HBOMax has removed their free trial offer on their website. I h...

  Something for Free The Illusionist came out the same year as The Prestige. I naturally thought that a movie directed by Christopher Nolan starring Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine, Piper Perabo, and Scarlett Johansson would be the better of these two movies about magic. To my surprise, Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, and Jessica Biel have a much better story to work off of. However, you cannot buy The Illusionist digitally except on iTunes and YouTube if you like. However, I did not choose to purchase it on either platform. The reason being you can watch the movie for free on several platforms. I recently became aware of this while working on the review. At the time, I found it on IMDB free with ads. Since I had not tried watching anything on this service, I felt it would be a nice change of pace. I was pleasantly surprised by the service. While writing this review, I find the movie is also offered free on Vudu, Amazon, and YouTube. Who says you cannot get something for ...

  Classic Movie Series I found myself recently watching the Jaws series again. While Jaws and Jaws 2 could have their own reviews, the other movies were not as fortunate. Rather than depriving you of my thoughts, I decided to bundle the movie reviews together. Funny fact that I remember from my youth was that my parents got a waterbed shortly after Jaws came out. I poked fun at them about a shark coming out of their bed. I think Wes Craven heard me and used it for his series of movies. Just kidding, I am sure he didn't hear me. Jaws I would say the first was the best by far. The movie did a great job of keeping suspense. This worked out for the making of the film as it kept costs low by not showing too much of the main character until the end. Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss have great chemistry during their "fishing charter". This movie launch three more films. I give this a HD rating. This is a classic that should be in everyone's collection for unde...

  Incomplete Series? Originally intended to be a four part series, Divergent only made it to three movies. With the lack of profit from the third movie, the fourth movie budget was dialed back so it could be made as a TV movie. Some of the main cast were not going to do a TV movie which eliminated any thoughts of "completing" the series. I personally think the third movie was acceptable as the ending of the series especially since I recently found out how far the third movie ignored the source material. This ignoring the source material probably led to the series demise. For those who just watched the movie, I thought it was okay. Review Rather than review each movie individually, I thought I would combine my review into one as all of the movies had the same good and bad qualities. Shailene Woodley is a good actress but an action star she is not. Part of this could be due to her being fresh off her TV series "The Secret Life of the American Teenager". I regret watch...

  Good Combination This movie looks to be inspired by Enemy of the State and Taken movies. Both of which are good movie in my opinion. The blend is well done in my opinion. The movie is original in how it combines the plots of the other movies into a fast past tale with a lot of action. Review Aaron Eckhart does a great job of being an action star in this movie. The movie is definitely action packed. One of the better qualities of the movie is the mystery behind everything. There is just enough character development to get you invested but there could have been a little more as some things were eluded to but not fully flushed out. At 105 minutes, some additional story could have been added to clear up some questions raised about a few of the characters. Overall, the movies is good and worth watching. Rating I would give this a HD rating. I recommend adding this movie to any action collection for under $5. I picked up my copy from Vudu when it was on sale for $4.

Name Change UltraCloudHD has been my go to place for new movies. I would typically wait to see if Family Video would have the digital copies for $8 when they were released. Now that Family Video has closed their stores, I either need to wait for the movies to go on sale or find the new releases on UltraCloudHD. The company recently moved to a new website and changed their name to Digital Movies Now ( https://www.digital-movies-now.com/ ). They have a whole page explaining the change for the new site and all of the new site's improvements. The one improvement I noticed is that the listings only show available items. This was a big inconvenience for the old site when browsing the titles was that the old site could have half or more of the page showing unavailable or sold out. Recommend? I have not ordered from the new site yet. I have ordered several titles from the old UltraCloudHD site. I only had one order that I had issues with. I had purchased a few movies that were sold as ...