The Craft Blu-ray delivers great video and audio in this fan-pleasing Blu-ray release
For Sarah, moving to Los Angeles is just another chance to be an outsider. She is all alone
among the tightly-knit student body of St. Benedict's Academy... until she meets three young
women who also have found themselves banished to the outermost reaches of high school's
inevitable pecking order. Nancy, Bonnie and Rochelle will never fit in with the "in" crowd. They
barely fit in with each other. But together with Sarah, their outer and inner lives are about to
change in ways they never suspected. They are about to learn that being an outsider has its
own kind of power. They are about to learn "The Craft."
Billed, apparently, as "Carrie meets
Clueless," The Craft is really something different. It's related to those films in
only
that it features teenage girls with a bit of angst and attitude, but The Craft's characters
aren't deeply emotionally scarred with overbearing mothers and a knack for setting the gym on
fire
(Carrie) or ditzy fashionistas with brains running on empty (Clueless). The
Craft is something else, a story that examines the perils and pitfalls of witchcraft on a
superficial
level, but on a deeper plane, the film looks at what the world might be if everyone had the power
to
shape it in their favor. The Craft isn't great at what it does, nor is it particularly
memorable, but it's not a
terrible movie, either. A fun ride with a few halfway surprising twists and turns but ultimately a
somewhat stale picture that manages to squander a bit of its potential to take a more serious
look at the issues it raises, The Craft makes
for
one of those movies that's easy to watch and not too hard to forget.
Teenagers find a new way of getting high in 'The Craft.'
Sarah (Robin Tunney) moves with her family from San Francisco to Los Angeles. She enrolls in
St. Benedict's Academy where she soon catches the attention of Bonnie (Neve Campbell) when
displaying a subtle but powerful sense of magic by making her pencil stand atop her desk by its
tip. Bonnie informs her two closest friends and fellow witches -- Nancy (Fairuza Balk) and
Rochelle (Rachel True) -- that Sarah just might be the fourth member they've been looking for.
After a shaky first meeting, Sarah falls in with the group and soon learns to embrace her natural
power as a witch, powers that seem to exceed those of the other girls. With their collective
ability heightened thanks to Sarah's presence, they begin calling upon their powers to have fun
with a few harmless spells, solve problems, and humiliate those that have humiliated them. With
the
exponential increase in power, however, comes a schism that threatens to tear the group apart
forever.
The Craft seems to accomplish most everything it sets out to do; clearly this wasn't
meant to be an Oscar contender, but as a mostly fun and generally entertaining picture that
requires little thought and only an open mind into the world of make-believe, Director Andrew
Fleming's (Nancy Drew) film is a moderate success. It delivers as-promised, complete
with some nifty special effects, a handful of spells that are a mixture of the outrageous and the
deadly serious, and the obligatory witch-on-witch finale that represents the film's take on the
classic good versus evil (or, in this case, earth vs. fire) motif. The script, like the spells, is equal
parts playful and potent. The
picture's first half takes a lighter tone; though it delves into deep and dark subject matters,
The Craft puts on a show that sees the girls engaging in seemingly harmless
supernatural activities: levitating one of their own, changing hair and eye color on a whim, or
making a boy fall in love with one of them. From these generally light motifs comes The
Craft's main conflict, a look at the pitfalls of unchallenged power and the effect of a perceived
supremacy on the weaker-minded. Of course, the film doesn't delve into such deeper themes
past a terribly superficial level, but that's all right; The Craft is what it is, an easy, fun,
and
generally mindless picture that's sufficiently different from most other movies out there and a
welcome break from the excess of repetitive rubbish that finds its way onto the big and small
screens on a regular basis.
Though its story is somewhat cut-and-dry, the film's high school setting and quartet of lead
characters injects
a good bit of life into what is something of an old-style tale. A nice reprieve from the usual sorts
of witches portrayed in film (think The Wizard of Oz or
Sleeping Beauty),
The Craft instead portrays its witches as beautiful teenage girls who struggle through the
minefield that is life as a high school student: rejection, hurtful teasing, and the stigma of
physical imperfections. These issues not only make them more real, but somewhat
sympathetic, even despite the fact that they dabble in and eventually take too far the powers of
witchcraft, exact revenge on their fellow students, and promote general fear and chaos into the
lives of those that challenge their newfound supremacy. Each girl -- Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk,
Neve Campbell, and Rachel True -- delivers a fine performance; though there's nothing about
their efforts that make theirs
memorable characters, they inject charm and a fair amount of emotion into the proceedings
which adds a heightened spirit, sense of purpose, and realism to the film.
The Craft conjures up a wonderful 1080p, 1.85:1-framed transfer for its Blu-ray debut.
Colors are natural and nicely rendered; Nancy's black leather jacket, the bright red lockers that line
the hallways of St. Benedict's Academy, and green foliage in an outdoor scene in chapter six all
contribute to the transfer's stable and solid color palette that adds a nice level of vibrancy to the
image. Colors are still perhaps just the slightest but muted in some scenes, but look wonderful
nevertheless. Fine detail is above-average but not exemplary; viewers will see freckles on Sarah's
face, textures on tree trunks, and fine lines in clothing. The image retains a layer of grain that
lends to it a fine film-like appearance and allows it to retain more detail, texture, and depth. Flesh
tones are spot-on, and black levels are good. Some interior scenes look a bit hazy, and several
backgrounds aren't quite as sharp as others, but such are minor complaints in what is otherwise yet
another visually pleasing and natural catalogue release from Sony.
The Craft casts a spell over its listeners with a quality DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack.
The brief witchcraft scene prior to the opening title sequence delivers a nice sense of atmosphere as
wind blows, thunder claps, and girls chant; it's followed by a steady and strong presentation of a
rock song that delivers a satisfying, room-filling listen. These scenes set the tone for the remainder
of the film where the surround speakers are nicely engaged throughout. Student chatter as heard
during Sarah's initial arrival on campus fills the soundstage nicely and does a good job of placing the
listeners in the midst of the hallowed halls. A thunderstorm in chapter five delivers a full experience
that takes advantage of the entire soundstage, placing booms of thunder and steady rain all around
the listening area. The track also features a wonderful collection of more subtle ambient effects,
particularly during several outdoor scenes that are almost good enough to fool the listener into
feeling a part of the environment. An explosion -- of sorts -- rocks the listening area in chapter 13
with a prodigious wave of bass; while the low end isn't a consistent companion throughout the film,
it's used to good effect when called upon. Also delivering problem-free dialogue reproduction,
The Craft's lossless soundtrack is every bit the match for the high quality video
presentation.
The Craft digs into the cauldron for several bonus features. First is a feature-length
commentary track with Co-Writer/Director Andrew Fleming. He discusses the establishment of
the
film's tone, shooting locations, how the wardrobe and set design help establish themes, the
creation
of the special effects within the film's limited budget, the performances, and more. Though it's
something of a reserved track that lacks energy, Fleming delivers a good track that's worth a
listen. Conjuring 'The Craft' (480p, 24:35) looks at the implementation of witchcraft
into the film, how each girl represents one of the four elements (earth, fire, air, and water),
casting the roles and the strength each actress brought to the picture, the film's look, creating
the
special effects, and more. As usual, the piece features plenty of cast and crew interview clips and
behind-the-scenes images. The Original Behind the Scenes of 'The Craft' (480p, 5:59) is
a more generic, less-focused piece that plays as little more than an extended advertisement for
the film. Also included is a collection of three deleted scenes (480p, 6:37) with optional Director
commentary, BD-Live functionality, and
1080p trailers for Close Encounters of the Third
Kind, The Da Vinci Code,
Ghostbusters, and
Men in Black.
Altogether, The Craft is nothing special, but it's far from a bad movie. Fun, energetic,
somewhat different, and only moderately predictable, The Craft does more right than
wrong, and its greatest assets -- the cast, the breezy yet not altogether meaningless script, decent
special effects, and good pacing -- make the movie a worthwhile watch. Sony's Blu-ray release of
The Craft is another superb outing from the studio that's solidifying itself as the best in the
business when it
comes to quality Blu-ray catalogue releases. Featuring both video and audio presentations that
score as
well above-average and a fair collection of extras, The Craft earns a recommendation.
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