Reign of Fire (2002)

Matthew McConaughey and Christian Bale battle terrifying beasts -- and each other -- in Reign of Fire on Blu-ray Disc. Packed with action, this thrilling adventure is hotter than ever in this explosive new format! All hell breaks loose when an unearthly creature is awakened after centuries of slumber. Twenty years later, "fire chief" Quinn (Bale) tries to keep a group of refugees alive with ferocious dragons dominating the air and burning the land. But tempers also flare when Quinn clashes with a hotshot American militia leader (McConaughey). Gasp at the bone-charring special effects in spectacular 1080p and cower as fire-breathing dragons roar in thunderous 5.1 48 kHz, 16-bit uncompressed audio. Feel the heat with Blu-ray High Definition!

The Road Warrior meets Dragonslayer in the briskly entertaining post-apocalyptic action thriller Reign of Fire. Reign of Fire exists primarily to give us a bigger and better dragon than the Vermithrax Pejorative of 1981's classic Dragonslayer, and in that regard, the special effects are mightily impressive; the reptilian fire-breathers are stupendously convincing. While the earlier film offers a richer, more whimsical medieval adventure, Reign of Fire is a fast-moving tale of man versus dragon that takes place in the charred England of 2020, after Earth has been scorched by rapidly multiplying dragons and the aftermath of a futile nuclear counterstrike.

Mixing high-tech gadgetry with primitive survivalism, X-Files alumnus Rob Bowman makes the most of his midlevel budget, establishing a lavish castle base for the rugged, adversarial teaming of Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey as dragonslayers on the brink of extinction. With a steady supply of crowd-pleasing highlights, Reign of Fire is a pyrotechnical treat.

--Jeff Shannon

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