4k movies reviews
“Black” was before: the reign of Mary the Bloody, an alliance with violent, manic-religious Spain, the Inquisition and a country in terror. “White” was after: the golden age of Elizabeth, the patronage of piracy, Francis Drake and the defeat of the Invincible Armada. And in between was the “gray”, troubled times, the beginning of the reign of the Virgin Queen, a time of ruthless power struggles, conspiracies, intrigue and betrayals.

The young “heretic queen”, who miraculously inherited the throne, inherited a country weak, deprived of a navy and an army, torn by internal strife, religious feuds and vulnerable to external enemies. Deprived of friends and support, forced to toss between the patronage of Spain and France, rejected by Rome, Elizabeth plunges into politics, makes mistakes, achieves her first successes, and eventually becomes the queen that history remembers her as.

The movie is wonderful. I remember rooting for it back in the olden days when it was battling “Shakespeare in Love” at the Oscars. “Shakespeare” won, but I never changed my opinion: “Elizabeth” should have been the best movie of the year because the story is told in a cool way.

In historical films, there is often a tilt towards romance, a love-story set against the backdrop of a historical era, while very few films tell a story about history itself. “Elizabeth” is just one of the latter. Romantic line there is engaged in a negligibly small piece of the total pie, the emphasis is on the reign of the queen, her attempts to find a way out of the critical situation in which the country arrived, the formation of personality, the rebirth of an inexperienced girl in the iron lady.

Some people will find it unattractive: the film lacks the glitz and gloss of adventure pictures, there are no gorgeous battle scenes, most of the episodes are dialog, and there are no particularly bright moments. Unless you’re a history buff and you’re fascinated by the events and personalities of those years: Norfolk, Walsingham, Maria de Guise, the Church’s passing of the law of one faith, the Avignon-like Captivity of the Popes under Philip IV of France, etc.

The movie is certainly artistic, and at the same time the concentration of facts and details makes it more of a documentary than most Hollywood blockbusters, where historical accuracy is treated more than negligently. And that’s why “Elizabeth” does not shine like a seven-carat diamond, but unobtrusively, even dimly shines against the background of “Gladiator”, “Braveheart” and so on.

The movie is less spectacular, but no less valuable. Based not on the effect, i.e. special effects, but on the painstaking recreation of the era, showing the complex relationships between all participants in the drama, and, at the same time, not boring, tense.

A very intelligent, not superficial movie with wonderful actors. Cate Blanchett is a fine actress who has insultingly few good pictures behind her. She is an actress, not a diva taking the baton from Meryl Streep and a stranger to purely commercial projects.

Geoffrey Rush, still serious, not off the rails of “Shine”, and not plunged into the foolishness of “Pirates” and “Pera Marquis de Sade”. In “Elizabeth” he plays, great play, and not shouting and sinning poser. His Walsingham – one of the central figures of the picture, a kind of “gray cardinal”, a secret, unexpected weapon in the hands of Elizabeth.

Unexpectedly, the picture revealed a new Bond Daniel Craig in the face of a secret envoy from Rome. Prosaic, burdock appearance, potato nose and stupid haircut. Once you see him, you’ll never remember him, and then you won’t recognize him, except now that he’s Bond. The same goes for Miranda Otto, who didn’t know her Star Trek yet.

Bottom line: I love historical movies. More specifically, good historical movies that are moderately entertaining, watchable, and not stupid. I love Geoffrey Rush. I didn’t find the movie heavy-handed, but I suspect many people will because of the features mentioned above. But, nevertheless, I recommend it.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (48.0 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 2.0

Subtitles
English SDH, Chinese (Cantonese), Mandarin (Traditional), Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish.

Сообщение Elizabeth 4K 1998 появились сначала на 4К-MOVIES.BIZ.

Zaitsev is a legend and an icon for the defenders of Stalingrad. Every day he passes a death sentence on dozens of invaders caught in the crosshairs of his sight. Between two unique snipers mortal fight begins, the winner of which will be destined to go only one …

4k movies reviews
Among the positive things about the movie is the acting. Ed Harris is wonderful, Rachel Wise is charming. All in all, each one does a pretty good job of portraying the character. Not without bravado, of course.

The movie is also not bad with the sets, the practical special effects. There are a lot of them in the movie. The green screens are minimal. The image of the ruins of the city is conveyed quite well, as over the years of the battle it was essentially left as ruins.

Unfortunately, that’s where the pluses end. Instead of a story about the gravity of war, the gravity of military life in Stalingrad, the viewer is given a Hollywood story of an epic confrontation between two snipers. The film is full of political bravado, ode to the Party and to Stalin. The love line looks absolutely comic – a love triangle in the middle of the ruins of the ‘capital of war’… I am afraid that everyone who fought in the war had no time for love triangles as depicted.

It would seem that the emphasis could have been put on the heroism of the defenders, on the sacrifices, on the difficulties of a soldier’s way of life, when there are Germans in front of you, and foreign troops on your back. You could have gone the way of ‘Private Ryan’ and given the characters a field for development, so that it would have been harder to part with them.

However, in the end it came out a one-off picture. Curious, no more.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (54.0 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)

Subtitles
English SDH, Japanese.

Сообщение Enemy at the Gates 4K 2001 появились сначала на 4К-MOVIES.BIZ.

After crushing a Zealot revolt led by Barabbas, Clavius, a Roman Tribune, is appointed by Pontius Pilate to investigate the rumors of a risen Jewish Messiah. Pilate orders him to locate the missing body of Yeshua. In doing so, Pilate seeks to quell an imminent uprising in Jerusalem during the first 40 days following Christ’s crucifixion.[4] Failing to secure Yeshua’s body, Clavius attempts to locate his disciples for clues to his disappearance.

During a raid through a Jewish enclave, Clavius unexpectedly discovers a seemingly resurrected Yeshua with his apostles in a solitary abode. Clavius calls off the search; he disperses his troops without revealing to them his personal encounter with the risen Yeshua. Having abandoned Roman polytheism and the god Mars, Clavius later joins Yeshua and his followers on a journey to determine the validity of his mortal rejuvenation.

Pilate deduces that Clavius has apparently betrayed him, and dispatches a contingent of Roman troops to pursue him and Yeshua. Clavius assists the disciples in evading the Roman search party; he consequently witnesses the healing of a leper, and then the ascension of Yeshua into Heaven. Later, communicating his travels to a stranger in a remote dwelling, Clavius acknowledges the vivifying wisdom which he observed through Yeshua, feeling he will never be the same. Download movie in 4k ULTRA HD

Info Blu-ray

Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (57.5 Mb/s)
Resolution: Upscaled 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Audio
English: Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
French: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles
English, English SDH, French, Polish, Spanish.

Сообщение Risen 2016 2160p 4K UltraHD BluRay HEVC 10bit DTS-HD 5.1 появились сначала на 4К-MOVIES.BIZ.