Push your home theater to infinity and beyond with these out-of-this-world sci-fi flicks on Blu-ray

In the annals of motion picture history, perhaps no genre has stoked the imagination and stimulated the senses quite so well as science fiction. There's something about gleaming metal entities and blinding bursts of projectile plasma that gets the juices flowing—and sets subwoofers in motion—in a way that mere earthly action never will.

If you’re shopping for a new display, don’t leave home without these indispensable Blu-ray discs. 

Over the past six years worth of “Show-Offs” columns, I’ve devoted who knows how many thousands of words to one singular goal: giving you the tools you need to blow your hair back, tickle your retinas, and prove to your guests that you have the best home theater on the block.

That assumes, of course, that you actually do have the best home theater on the block.

Avoid the crowds and get your money’s worth with these spectacular concerts on Blu-ray.  

I’ve just about done with concerts.Not that I don’t love live music—nothing compares to being in the same room with talented musicians doing their thing—but it's just not worth the hassle anymore.

Where is the joy in paying $250 for a nosebleed seat, only to have to strain to hear the music over all of the Chatty Cathys, while some old drunk dude in a two-sizes-too-small Motorhead T-shirt spills Bud in your lap? With the advent of Blu-ray, I honestly cannot find a reasonable answer to that question.

Although it’s difficult to argue with Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman’s contention that war is hell, a quartet of recent Fox Blu-ray releases prove that war can be heaven for fans of such films. Fox’s fab four BD war films include a couple of iconic epics, The Longest Day and Patton, along with A Bridge Too Far and Battle of Britain.

Make your system sing with these great musical movie moments.

I’ve covered my fair share of music and movies here in Show-Offs over the years. Interestingly enough, as I look back over previous columns, I notice a distinctly never-the-twain-shall-meet approach to the cinematic and lyrical media.

Anyone who says time travel is impossible obviously isn't a magazine collector. I recently thumbed through the premiere issue of Home Entertainment (from way back in the winter of 2002), and scattered throughout its pages I found quite a few surprises: bulky floorstanding rear-projection TVs, massive three-gun CRT projectors all over the place, and—what's this?—a Show-Offs column with nary a theme in sight.