Blu-ray.com - Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Things to Come (Blu-ray Review)

Sun, 19 May 2013 15:55:44 -0400

William Cameron Menzies' "Things to Come" (1936) arrive on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the release include a brand new audio commentary with film historian and writer David Kalat; new video interview with writer and cultural historian Christopher Fraying; new visual essay by film historian Bruce Eder; unused footage with special effects by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy; experimental work by artist Jan Tichy; and audio recording taken from a single-sided 78 r.p.m. gramopho...

Video
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, William Cameron Menzies' Things to Come arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

Though the framing is identical, the high-definition transfer used for this release is not identical to the one Network used for their Blu-ray release of Things to Come in the United Kingdom. Brightnes

Audio
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray disc: English LPCM 1.0. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.

There are some sporadic clarity fluctuations, but they also appear on the Network release. Depth and crispness are not seriously compromised. Overall dynamic movement, however, is quite limited. The dialog is easy to follow. Also, there is no problematic background hiss.

Supplements
Commentary - David Kalat discusses the production history of Things to Come, H.G. Wells' novel as well as his political orientation (there is plenty of very interesting information about the writer's meeting with the Soviet authorities and the socio-political climate in Europe at the time when the film was made), the structure of the film and its prophetic messages, etc. The audio commentary was recorded exclusively for Criterion in 2013.

Final Words
I think that fans of William Cameron Menzies' Things to Come will have to consider getting the Network Blu-ray release of the film in addition to Criterion's upcoming release. The new audio commentary by David Kalat makes this release an essential one to own, but on the Network release there is also a terrific commentary by Nick Cooper. I feel that with the two releases one could have a very impressive Ultimate Edition of this spectacular classic film. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. ...

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Ultimate Gangsters Collection: Classics (Blu-ray Review)

Sun, 19 May 2013 13:35:50 -0400
Stick 'Em Up!

Simultaneously with their individual release on Blu-ray, Warner Home Video is issuing a box set of four black-and-white films from the Thirties and Forties, each of them a bona fide classic from the era when the studio was the undisputed king of crime pictures. With the exception of Little Caesar, which suffers from some source damage, the audio and video presentations are top notch, and the box set has the advantage of a fifth disc (unfortunately a DVD) with a terrific documentary ...

Video
Little Caesar 3.5/5

The major issues with Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray of Little Caesar are inseparable from the source material, which, despite efforts at clean-up, still suffers from obvious damage. A significant number of vertical scratches last anywhere from a few seconds to half a minute. None of them renders any of the image unwatchable, but they are quite noticeable. Frames are missing in several spots, causing obvious jumps. Fortunately, none of t

Audio
Little Caesar 4.0/5

The film's mono soundtrack is encoded as lossless DTS-HD MA 1.0, and it's a pleasure to hear Robinson's distinctive speech patterns as Rico at such high fidelity. The clarity doesn't do all that much of the rest of the dialogue a favor, though, because many of the remaining performances are quite weak. However, Thomas E. Jackson's turn as the sarcastic Lt. Flahertythe second best performance in the filmcomes through better than I've ever heard it b

Supplements
Extras for each film are discussed separately under the film's individual review. The box set contains a separate DVD with additional extras and a printed hardcover insert similar in design to the Warner digibooks.

Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 1:45:43): Written and directed by Constantine Nasr, this 2008 documentary was made for Turner Classic Movies and has been included with several previou

Final Words
One can only hope that the Ultimate Gangsters Collection: Classics will turn out to be Volume 1, with many more volumes to follow, because these four films only scratch the surface of Warner's prodigious output in the crime and gangster genre during the era before television and antitrust litigation ended the old studio system. In the meantime, this box set is an excellent value, especially with its fifth disc of extras. Highly recommended.

...

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White Heat (Blu-ray Review)

Sun, 19 May 2013 00:49:32 -0400
Mother's Little Helper

Note: "White Heat" is available either separately or as part of the Warner Ultimate Gangsters Collection: Classics.

After James Cagney's contract with Warner Bros. expired in the early Forties, he formed his own production company and swore he'd never make another gangster film. "Movies should be entertaining, not blood baths," the actor famously grumbled. "I'm sick of ...

Video
White Heat was shot by director Walsh's frequent collaborator Sidney Hickox, a highly regarded Warner cinematographer, who also shot To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep for Howard Hawks. Hickox's gritty, realistic style is beautifully represented on Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded picture, for which the source mater

Audio
The film's original mono soundtrack is presented as lossless DTS-HD MA 1.0, and it's impressive. White Heat may only have one channel of sound, but the mix is elaborate, whether it's the noises of the train intermingling with the intrusion of Cody's gang in the opening sequence, or the stew of sound effects in the prison cafeteria scene, or the cacophony during the attempted payroll heist at the end of the film. Listen closely, and there are plenty of individual noises to pick out.

Supplements
The extras have been ported over from Warner's 2005 DVD.

Commentary with Dr. Drew Casper: A professor at the University of Southern California and author of Postwar Hollywood: 1946-1962, Casper is an enthusiastic commentator and a devoted fan of White Heat. In addition to background on Cagney's and Walsh's career and the making of the film, he points out many aspects of the film's construction and Walsh's directorial technique.
Final Words
Most people know Cody Jarrett's famous last line"Made it, Ma! Top of the world!"but they've never sat and watched White Heat from start to finish. That's unfortunate. No screen actor has ever surpassed James Cagney's ability to combine menace with irresistible charm, or to convey danger with a simple glance that's impossible to resist. Stanley Kubrick once asked Steven Spielberg to name his top five favorite actors of all time, then gave the younger director a gentle ribbing when...

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The Town That Dreaded Sundown (Blu-ray Review)

Sat, 18 May 2013 20:21:12 -0400
Where were you when the lights went out?

What is it about a villain who wraps his head in a sack that is so instantly frightening and iconic? Films have been awash with this image for years. Some of the sacked bad guys have appropriately been scarecrows, as in the two similarly titles films Night of the Scarecrow and Dark Night of the Scarecrow, ...

Video
The Town That Dreaded Sundown is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. This film basically disappeared for years, and the good news is that the elements utilized for this transfer are in mostly excellent shape, with only occasional white specks and a few flecks of dirt cropping up from time to time. The basic image is decently sharp, though viewers will need to understand the low budget filming conditions coming into this e

Audio
The Town That Dreaded Sundown features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix delivered via a 2.0 mix. Fidelity is quite good, though the track is obviously narrow and shallow sounding. Dialogue is always easy to hear and both environmental sound effects and the rather good (and at times twangy) score also are also rendered faithfully.

Supplements
Blu-Ray Supplements:

Small Town Lawman: An Interview with Actor Andrew Prine (1080p; 9:41) finds Prine talking about his love for the "circus" of filmmaking. He offers an honest assessment of the film and gives some background on the filming.

Survivor Stories: An Interview with Actress Dawn Wells (1080p; 5:17). Wells, who still looks fantastic, has a rather bemused take on her involvement with the film. She relays a funny/sca

Final Words
Shout! Factory continues to mine some great little "lost" classics for its Scream Factory imprint, and this package is among the best the label has yet released. The Town That Dreaded Sundown takes its quasi-documentary ambience seriously (at least if one forgets the regrettable comedy bits Pierce gives to himself as Sparkplug), and the story is riveting. If occasionally things are unintentionally funny (I for one will never look at a slide trombone quite the same way), there are ...

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Stand Up Guys (Blu-ray Review)

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:57:06 -0400
You'd stand up, too, if you had taken that much Viagra.

One of the oddest sights on view during the press junket surround Stand Up Guys theatrical release was the guest appearance of Christopher Walken on The Daily Show, where the veteran actor confessed to being chatty with co-stars Al Pacino and Alan Arkin while they killed time in between takes. Chatty? Christopher Walken? It was enough to send host Jon Stewart into gales of falsetto laughter. If only some of that same sensibility had crept into the final film. ...

Video
Stand Up Guys is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Fine object detail is often at astounding levelsfor better or worse, considering the creased faces on displaydue to director Fisher Stevens and Director of Photography Michael Gradys (Wonderland) penchant for close-ups throughout the film. Every crag and chin hair is easily noticeable on b

Audio
Stand Up Guyss lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 has some surprising oomph courtesy of both the ubiquitous source cues (Stevens fills the film with old soul tunes) as well as some of the set pieces including the boisterous car chase. Surround activity is fairly consistent, though it really only becomes totally noticeable in the aforementioned instances. Otherwise, dialogue is anchored front and center, with only occasional foley effects dotting the surrounds. Fidelity is exce

Supplements

Director Commentary. Stevens is incredibly articulate and does a good job describing what he wanted to achieve with this film. The question remains as to whether he actually realized that vision.

The Lowdown on Making Stand Up Guys (1080p; 11:54) starts with various participants defining what a stand up guy is, and then features more interviews with the principal cast and crew, as well as behind the scenes footage.

Final Words
Stand Up Guys starts out promisingly enough, and had it hewed more closely to what it seems to be about in those opening momentsa character study of two aging criminalsthe film could have been much more enjoyable, even if it never quite made it to blockbuster status. But once that Farrelly sensibility creeps in (not that theres anything wrong with that sensibility per seits just that it doesnt fit in this film), things careen more and more off the rails ...

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All Ladies Do It (Blu-ray Review)

Sat, 18 May 2013 05:38:46 -0400

Tinto Brass' "Cosi fan tutte" a.k.a "All Ladies Do It" (1992) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Arrow Video. The supplemental features on this release include an original trailer for the film; reversible sleeve featuring original and newly illustrated artwork by The Red Dress; and collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic David Flint, illustrated with rare production stills. In English or Italian, with optional English and English SDH subtitles for the ...

Video
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Tinto Brass' All Ladies Do It arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Arrow Video.

The high-definition transfer appears to have been struck from a dated master with a number of serious issues. The most problematic aspect of the presentation is the fact that the entire film is framed incorrectly. It appears that the image has been zoomed in and then recut. As a result, it i

Audio
There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 2.0 and Italian LPCM 2.0. For the record, Arrow Video have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the English version of the film and optional English subtitles for the Italian version of the film.

The English track serves the film rather well. Even during the outdoor party sequence from the second half dynamic movement is fairly modest, but there is pleasing depth. The dialog is clean and easy to follow,

Supplements
Trailer - original trailer for All Ladies Do It. In English, not subtitled. (4 min).

Cover art - reversible sleeve featuring original and newly illustrated artwork by The Red Dress.

Booklet - collector's booklet featuring new writing on All Ladies Do It by critic David Flint, illustrated with rare production stills.

Final Words
There isn't a lot of respect for the work of Italian director Tinto Brass on this side of the Atlantic, but I think that he sees and films women a lot like the great Federico Fellini did. His films are treated and labeled differently because they show more of what Fellini only suggested. All Ladies Do It, one of Brass' better films, is now available on Blu-ray, but the presentation is far from impressive. This is very unfortunate because if there is a label that can treat Brass and his wo...

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Tarzan (Blu-ray Review)

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:23:26 -0400
The original swinger.

When it comes to film (and television) adaptations of his work, Edgar Rice Burroughs has had a pretty hard time of it overall when you pause to really think about it. Even putting aside the supposedly disastrous John Carter (a misfire, to be sure, but not the out and out horror some people claimed), Burroughs most iconic character, Tarzan, has often received short shrift on both the large and small screens...

Video
Tarzan is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Disney / Buena Vista with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Disney received a technical achievement special Oscar for the new technology they introduced for rendering backgrounds in this film, and it was a well deserved accolade. The vaunted Disney multi-plane technique is taken to a whole new level in this film, aided by some extremely well done CGI which itself adds an air of dimensionality throughout the film. This high defin

Audio
Unfortunately Disney made the odd decision to release Tarzan with only Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes in a variety of languages. This may be the main reason American consumers, who could otherwise enjoy this region free disc, may want to hold off until the expected Diamond Edition of the film is released stateside, a release that will almost undoubtedly feature lossless audio. Its an especial shame since the sound design of Tarzan is evocative, including excellent use of the su

Supplements

Deleted Scene: Alternate Opening (480i; 2:13)

"You'll Be in My Heart" Music Video Performed by Phil Collins (480i; 4:17)

Disneypedia: Living in the Jungle (480i; 5:54) combines animation with live footage (probably from those old Disney True Life Adventures to impart a few facts.

Final Words
Has it really been fourteen years since Tarzan was released? My eldest son, who leaves next year for his college life, was a toddler when this film came out, and my wife reminded me that when we took him to see Tarzan in the theaters, he brought along his Tarzan action figure and held it up to the screen every time Tarzan appeared. The magic and connection my then young son experienced is still very much in evidence in this film, one that was widely lauded upon its releas...

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OMD Live: Architecture & Morality & More (Blu-ray Review)

Fri, 17 May 2013 19:34:32 -0400

Despite its seminal position in the British New Wave movement and its popularity in its native England and throughout Europe, Orchestral Manuvres in the Dark had a rather surprising lack of huge chart success in the United States. According to the almost always reliable Joel Whitburn Billboard statistics, the group only charted six albums between 1982 and 1988, with none of them getting above position 38 and in fact only one of them, in the dark/the best of OMD, being cer...

Video
OMD Live: Architecture & Morality & More is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. Considering the ubiquitous lighting scheme on display throughout this concert, some may wonder if theyre actually watching Blue Man Group. The nonstop bluish hue that permeates much of this concert robs even close-ups of appreciable fine detail. More problematic are the nonstop projections in back of the band, many of which devolv

Audio
OMD Live: Architecture & Morality & More features two boisterous audio options, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix and an LPCM 2.0 stereo fold down. Both of these tracks offer really aggressive low end, something that makes the percussion and drumming especially vibrant. The surround mix offers clear prioritization, though it also offers a bit too much screaming audience adulation for my personal taste. Fidelity is excellent throughout both of these tracks.

Supplements

Alternate Edits include:

Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans) (480i; 3:50)

The New Stone Age (480i; 3:50)

Interviews include:

The Band (1080i; 19:21)

Hari Haralambous (1080i; 5:21)

Final Words
OMD Live: Architecture & Morality & More is a great compilation of one of the bands biggest legacy albums as well as a nice assortment of other songs, including several which charted in the United States. The band sounds as polished and inviting as ever. This Blu-ray has some video issues that may bother some viewers, but the audio is superb....

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Nightfall (Blu-ray Review)

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:44:50 -0400
Forget it, Jake, it's Hong Kong.

Nightfall is a film that starts out with a viscerally intense sequence that would seem to set the stage for a high octane action thriller, but which instead is a weirdly anachronistic prelude for what turns out to be a kind of (ironic) Hong Kong reimagining of certain aspects from Roman Polanskis Chinatown. For those of you who love the Polanski film and have never been able to quite erase Faye Dunaways...

Video
Nightfall is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This Red shot feature offers crisp and appealing fine object detail, though as is so often the case with contemporary films, Nightfall has been really aggressively color graded virtually nonstop through its running time, with some decisions that at least slightly deprive the image of that fine detail. The opening sequence is a case in point, with a deliberately yellow s

Audio
Unlike the Hong Kong release of Nightfall on Blu-ray which included a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track, Well Go USAs release features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (as well as a standard Dolby Digital 2.0 option). The 5.1 mix is extremely aggressive and often incredibly lush in its surround activity. The opening sequence for example is rife with fantastic foley effects swirling through the side and rear channel

Supplements

Making Of (480i; 47:42) is a fairly in depth look at the film, with several interview with the principal cast and crew, as well as behind the scenes footage and snippets from the completed film.

Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 00:56)

Final Words
Nightfall is never dull despite its overly predictable plot, but its too full of coincidences and logical gaps for its own good. Had the film been a bit more artfully structured it might have had a more visceral impact, one meeting the expectations set by the blistering opening scene. As it stands, Nightfall remains a passably entertaining quasi- mystery that is probably most alluring for its rather unique visual sensibility. This Blu-ray offers excellent video and audio, ...

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The Public Enemy (Blu-ray Review)

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:29:14 -0400
"Oh, Tommy, I Could Love You to Death!"

Note: "The Public Enemy" is available either separately or as part of the Warner Ultimate Gangsters Collection: Classics.

The year after Edward G. Robinson became a star in Little Caesar, another Warner Bros. contract player named James Cagney exploded onto movie screens as bootleg...

Video
Although The Public Enemy is only one year older than Little Caesar, its source material is in considerably better shape, with only an occasional vertical scratch betraying the age of the element and no missing frames or jumps. Once again, Warner has provided a nicely film-like transfer on this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray. The image features natural-looking grain, deep blacks, well-balanced con

Audio
The film's mono soundtrack is encoded as lossless DTS-HD MA 1.0, and it's a fine track. Cagney's distinctive rhythms and intonations are reproduced with all the clarity of the original Vitaphone recording, and they're all the more vivid for the contrast with the various tones and accents from the remaining cast, whether it's Robert O'Connor's Irish lilt as Paddy Ryan or Jean Harlow's undisguised Bronx intonation. Most of the violence occurs off-screen, but the gunshots are numerous and have

Supplements
The extras have been ported over from Warner's 2005 DVD.

Commentary with Robert Sklar: Sklar, who passed away in 2011, was a historian specializing in cinema and author of the book City Boys: Cagney, Bogart, Garfield, among others. His commentary is conversational and informative, though with an increasing number of pauses near the end. Sklar provides a wealth of detail on Cagney's background and the logistics of producing The Public E

Final Words
After the success of The Public Enemy, Cagney struggled for the rest of his career against typecasting, interspersing gangster roles with comedies and musicals wherever possible, including his Oscar-winning turn as song-and-dance man George M. Cohan in 1942's Yankee Doodle Dandy. But popular culture chooses its own icons, and just as Clint Eastwood (who has cited Cagney as a major influence) wi...

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Black Sabbath (Blu-ray Review)

Thu, 16 May 2013 23:58:00 -0400

Mario Bava's "I tre volti della paura" a.k.a "Black Sabbath" (1963) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Arrow Video. The supplemental features on the release include the re-edited and re-dubbed version AIP version with Les Baxter's score; audio commentary with Mario Bava expert Tim Lucas; new featurette highlighting the difference between the two version of the film; short video introduction by journalist and Italian horror expert Alan Jones; video interview with actor Mark Da...

Video
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.84:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfers, Mario Bava's Black Sunday and I tre volti della paura arrive on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Arrow Video.

Please note that the screencaptures included with our review appear in the following order:

1. Screencaptures #1-19 are from Black Sabbath.
2. Screencaptures #21-30 are from I tre volti della paura.

As it is the case with

Audio
There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: Italian LPCM 2.0 and English LPCM 2.0. For the record, Arrow Video have provided optional optional English subtitles for I tre volti della paura and optional English SDH subtitles for Black Sabbath.

The two versions of the film have very different music scores. I prefer Roberto Nicolosi's score for I tre volti della paura because the solid brass section infuses the film with a certain Gothic/jazzy flavor t

Supplements
Blu-ray

Twice the Fear - a very informative featurette highlighting the differences between Black Sabbath and I tre volti della paura. Extracts from the two films are simultaneously compared with text explanations. With imposed English subtitles where necessary. (33 min).

Commentary - Mario Bava expert Tim Lucas offers an outstanding analysis of the two versions of the film and addresses some of the

Final Words
This is yet another impressive release of a classic Mario Bava film from the folks at Arrow Video. I would like to recommend Black Sabbath not only to fans of European horror, but also to those who enjoy stylish giallo and psychedelic films. I guarantee you won't be disappointed. On a slightly different note, seeing how beautiful the young Michele Mercier looks in high-definition, I really hope that someone will bring to Blu-ray Bernard Borderie's Angélique films. Buy with confide...

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Viva Zapata! (Blu-ray Review)

Thu, 16 May 2013 23:01:54 -0400
Brando as the Reluctant Revolutionary

Stop me if you've heard this onetwo former communists and a white Method actor in brown-face make a movie...

Okay, so there's no punchline to that would-be joke, but the film in question, of course, is 1952's Viva Zapata!, written by John Steinbeck, directed by Elia Kazanthe two one-time communistsand starring a hispani-fied Marlon Brando, whose career was in quick ascendance after his powerful turn in Kazan's previous effort, the Tennessee Williams adaptation A Stree...

Video
I always look forward to 20th Century Fox's remasters of Elia Kazan films, not only because the films themselves are so good, but because Fox does such a damn good job presenting them in high definition for the first time. Viva Zapata arrives on Blu-ray with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that has obviously been given a careful frame-by-frame restoration. You might spot a few fleeting white specks and a few instances of light brightness fluctuations across the duration of the movie, b

Audio
Rather than try to rework the original single-channel audio into a 5.1 mix, 20th Century Fox has given us a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio mono track that's true to source. Like the transfer, there are no significant age-related damage issues here. Crackles, hisses, and pops have been largely attenuated, and though the sound has a somewhat thin dynamic rangelike most films from the 1950sclarity is strong, and the mix can stand being turned up rather loud. Most importantly, dialogue is alwa

Supplements
The only extras on the disc, unfortunately, are the film's Theatrical Trailer (HD, 3:18) and Spanish Trailer (HD, 2:48).

Final Words
Viva Zapata isn't nearly as well-known or well-regarded as Kazan and Brando's other famous collaborationsA Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfrontbut if it's not an important film, it is a curious and entertaining one, part romanticized biography, part corruption-of-power fable, and part white-washed political history. For as wrong as it seems now, Brando in brown-face is legitimately excellent as the titular revolutionary, simmering in the conflic...

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WWE WrestleMania XXIX (Blu-ray Review)

Thu, 16 May 2013 21:58:41 -0400
Simply the best.

New York tough to Jersey strong.

WrestleMania is the one event every year -- not just in the WWE but in the broader world of sports and sports entertainment -- that seems to regularly outdo itself, if not always in substance certainly in style and pomp and circumstance, all dripping with a sense of history and electricity that's matched only by the best of the sports world. Yet even the Super Bowl, the World Series, or any of the A-list annual sporting events suffer throug...

Video
WrestleMania XXIX's high definition transfer might be the best released by the WWE yet. It reveals a nice little uptick in stability and detail over previous releases, which helps to showcase the finest little details seen in some of the many up-close-and-personal shots that put the home audience almost right in the middle of the action. Clarity is excellent and the sharpness and resolution allow for even distant elements -- notably fans and the signs they hoist -- to appear with a

Audio
WrestleMania XXIX features a good, though certainly not spectacular, Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. This is basically the average WWE new release event style soundtrack. It delivers ringside commentary with largely faultless clarity and center-front placement. The track offers a good general surround element throughout, though the back channels never do get the same kind of love as do the fronts; the main three dominate the proceedings and there's a lack of real-sounding envelopme

Supplements
WrestleMania XXIX contains supplements across both discs.

Disc One:

Intercontinental Championship Match (HD, 8:15): Wade Barret vs. The Miz. WrestleMania XXIX -- April 7, 2013.

WrestleMania XXIX Post-Show from MetLife Stadium (HD, 22:50): Scott Stanford, Jim Ross, Kofi Kingston, and Dusty Rhodes break down the night that was. Wrestler interviews

Final Words
It's WrestleMania. It's Cena vs. Rock. It's Triple H vs. Lesnar. It's Undertaker vs. Punk. Add in a few more superstars and several additional quality matches and the table is set for the best WrestleMania of them all. Is it? It's close, that's for sure. A few of the matches fall a little flat, but the trifecta main event squeezes out every last drop of adrenaline and then digs deeper to find just a little bit more. Now the question is who will challenge Cena, who will take on the ...

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Scalene (Blu-ray Review)

Thu, 16 May 2013 21:58:12 -0400
Rashomemento.

Scalene takes a dash of Akira Kurosawas legendary Rashômon and mixes it into some of the structural complexity of Christopher Nolans modern masterpiece Memento, but instead of a heady soufflé the results here are curiously flat and more than a bit unseemly. Margo Martindale (...

Video
Scalene is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Breaking Glass Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.33:1. This digitally shot feature looks rather good in high definition, with accurate looking color, generally consistent contrast and excellent fine object detail, especially in the films many extreme close ups. This was obviously done on a very small budget, and some of the natural lighting schemes dont offer sufficient shadow detail.

Audio
Scalene only has two lossy audio options, Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0. These suffice well enough, for the most part, delivering dialogue and score (which, like the film itself, owes a tip of the hat to Vertigo) with good if unremarkable fidelity. The film has a surprising amount of dynamic range.

Supplements

Perceiving Reality: The Making of Scalene (480i; 3:29:33). Can you say "overkill"?

Featurette From Dances With Films (World Premiere/Q&A/Awards Ceremony) (1080p; 15:18)

Photo Gallery (1080p; 1:20)

Teaser Trailer (720p; 1:08)

Theatrical Trailer (720p; 1:52)

Final Words
Scalene is an interesting effort, but its conceit is ill founded and doesn't serve the film in any discernable way, at least with regard to the backwards time flow of Janice's story. The performances are the best thing here, but as a film, Scalene, like its referent triangle, is uneven....

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Tiger & Bunny: Set 2 (Blu-ray Review)

Thu, 16 May 2013 21:37:54 -0400
We'll return to our sponsors after this brief word from our show.

Have you ever wondered why for example a star of a television sitcom sips a Pepsi and not a Coke or why for example Tom Hanks has a Wilson ball and not a Voit or some other brand in Cast Away? Its the fine art of what is called product placement, and it is a multimillion (maybe even multibillion) dollar a year effort in the entertainment industry. It's not by mere chance that a film features a Chevy or ...

Video
My comments about Tiger & Bunny: Set 1 hold largely true for this second set. Tiger & Bunny is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Viz Media and Warner Home Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is an extremely engaging series from a purely visual angle, one which combines some nice looking CGI with more traditional elements. The bulk of the series features extremely sharp li

Audio
There's really no appreciable difference between the audio mixes of the two Tiger & Bunny Blu-ray sets, so my comments on the first volume are equally a propos here. Tiger & Bunny features lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mixes in both the original Japanese as well as an English dub. This is a series that really could have benefited from an immersive surround mix, and my hunch is a lot of audiophiles are going to be at least minimally disappointed that there

Supplements

Masakazu Katsura Illustration Gallery (1080p)

Tamura & Katsura Exclusive Interview (1080p; 13:44) features the producer and original character designer of the series talking about their inspirations for the series and its production. In Japanese with English subtitles.

Production Art (1080p)

Japanese Trailers (1080p; 3:57)

Clean Opening (1080p; 1:30)

Clea

Final Words
The pure visual allure of Tiger & Bunny kept me interested enough in this series that I was pretty easily able to overlook some of its less appealing elements. The basic premise is undeniably derivative, as outlined in the review of the first volume of episodes, but perhaps more problematic in this second set is the kind of lackluster group of opening episodes we get before the endgame arc starts being introduced around episode 19. Things improve pretty markedly at that point, a...

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Side Effects (Blu-ray Review)

Thu, 16 May 2013 03:34:46 -0400
Not a bitter pill to swallow... at first.

Every review of Side Effects should begin with the words: "Stop! Do not read this review!" So, with that in mind, stop! Do not read this review! Unfortunately, even that simple disclaimer gives far too much away, as it hints at the twists and turns director Steven Soderbergh's theatrical trailers so elegantly and successfully kept hidden. In fact, to watch the trailers is to watch an entirely different movie; a topical drama that shines a harsh light on the ills of the pharmaceutical indu...

Video
Cold cast with stale yellows, sickly greens, humorless blues and sterilized whites, Side Effects and its faithful, film-like 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer present the already minimalistic image at its most distinctly Soderberghian, with the director/cinematographer's telltale style dominating every frame. Colors are accurate and effective, as is contrast, and black levels are deep and foreboding. Fleshtones are reasonably well-saturated too (pale or jaundiced as they occasionally appear), an

Audio
Universal's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is a noteworthy representation of the film's restrained but convincing sound design, from the noise of a bustling hospital to the quiet expanse of Jonathan's apartment, the alienating acoustics of a sparsely populated courtroom, and the nervous energy hanging in the air at a mental institution. Dialogue is clean, clear and intelligible, despite being beholden to any given interior or exterior environment's natural acoustic properties, and voices

Supplements

Behind the Scenes (HD, 3 minutes): An amusing but hollow spoof that offers zero insight into the film.

Ablixa Website Experience (HD): View Ablixa's mock website, view an ad for the drug, and complete a questionnaire with Jude Law's character in this brief interactive experience.

Ablixa Commerical (HD, 1 minute): The websit

Final Words
I suspect Side Effects will continue to grow on me (as it already did my second time through), although I doubt I'll ever stop wondering what sort of thriller it might have been had Soderbergh stuck with the more relevant Big Pharmaceutical, corporate-culture commentary that dominates his first act. Its performances are outstanding, its script sharply penned, its direction confident and its story absorbing. Soderbergh isn't the 21st century's answer to Hitchcock, but, here, he at least sh...

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The Petrified Forest (Blu-ray Review)

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:09 -0400
An Icon Is Born

Note: "The Petrified Forest" is available either separately or as part of the Warner Ultimate Gangsters Collection: Classics.

The Petrified Forest isn't exactly a gangster movie, but it became famous for one gangster character, Duke Mantee, who was played by a then-unknown actor named Humphrey Bogartan unusual name that Warner Brothers tried to get Bogie to cha...

Video
The Petrified Forest was shot by Sol Polito, one of the studio's top cinematographers during the Thirties and Forties and a key architect of the Warner visual style in that period. The source material for this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray has been wonderfully preserved (or restored) with minimal visible damage and none of the major scratches or frame jumps that are visible on Little Caesar. Shar

Audio
The film's original mono track is included in lossless DTS-HD MA 1.0, and it sounds just fine, with a nice balance of clear vocals, desert winds, radio bulletins and the sounds of a working diner. There's an appropriately moody score by Warner in-house composer Bernhard Kaun (uncredited), but by far the greatest challenge for the film's audio track is reproducing Leslie Howard's nimble vocal performance. He delivers a lot of dialogue, often very fast, with all the practiced ease of an exper

Supplements

Commentary with Eric Lax: Lax is a film scholar and a biographer of Bogart, who also appears in the "Menace in the Desert" featurette described below. He talks continuously, although it is obvious that he is reading from prepared notes. His commentary is dense with historical information about each of the major, and some of the minor, cast in The Petrified Forest, as well as the history of its production and related subjects.

Final Words
It can be a disorienting experience for viewers who know Bogart primarily as Rick in Casablanca, Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon or Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep to experience his performance as Duke Mantee. Mantee has none of the rogue's charm ...

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Le cerveau (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 15 May 2013 20:17:16 -0400

Gérard Oury's "Le cerveau" a.k.a "The Brain" (1969) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French label Gaumont. The supplemental features on the release include an original trailer for the film; exclusive new documentary produced by Pierre-Henri Gibert; exclusive new video interview with writer Philippe Durant; documentary film produced by Philippe Durant; and more. In French, with optional English and French SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free....

Video
Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.34:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Gérard Oury's The Brain arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French label Gaumont.

As it is the case with all films that enter Gaumont's Classiques Collection, the transfer for The Brain has been sourced from a brand new master. Generally speaking, the film does look quite impressive. Close-ups frequently convey very good depth (see screencapture #4), while larger panoramic shots also

Audio
There is only one audio track on this Blu-ray disc: French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. For the record, Gaumont have provided optional English and French SDH subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The lossless track opens up the film very well during the shootouts and the chase sequences. Indeed, overall dynamic intensity is good, but you should not expect the lossless track to test the muscles of your audio system. The dialog is stable, well

Supplements
Blu-ray

Bande-annonce - original trailer for The Brain. In French, not subtitled. (4 min, 1080p).

Gerard Oury: La politesse du rire - in this new featurette, writer and director Danièle Thompson (Avenue Montaigne), film critic Philippe Durant, actor Christopher Thompson (La buche), writer Bernard Stora (L'effrontée) and

Final Words
Gérard Oury's The Brain is a light and very entertaining comedy from the '60s that is perfect to see late at night. The film is already available on Blu-ray in North America, courtesy of Olive Films, but this English-friendly French release comes with plenty of very informative supplemental features. I think that it is the all-around better release. RECOMMENDED. ...

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Philadelphia (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:50:24 -0400
You call this brotherly love?

My eldest sister was a public health official at the dawn of the AIDS era and one of her job duties was to provide AIDS awareness and education to the residents of several rural communities in Eastern Oregon. Its perhaps hard to imagine such a thing now, but people were seriously concerned about things like AIDS being transmitted through the air or casual touches, and in hardscrabble farming communities like the ones my sister was working in there was a none too subtle whiff of homopho...

Video
Philadelphia is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Twilight Time with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. A lot of this film takes place in dark interior spaces, and this high definition presentation can only do so much with elements that dont intrinsically offer much shadow detail to begin with. Similarly, much of the film is bathed in brown tones, which means there arent a lot of bright primary colors which allow the transfer to really pop in a traditional wow manner. Wi

Audio
Philadelphias lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 springs mostly to life in its two beautiful bookending songs as well as in some of the busy Philadelphia cityscape sequences. Otherwise, dialogue tends to be anchored in the front channels, though occasionally there are some smart uses of the surrounds to indicate Becketts declining health (and perhaps mental) state, including neatly muffled noises that surround him in the trials climactic moment. Fidelity is very good, but dynamic

Supplements

Deleted Scenes (480p; 11:18)

Courthouse Protest Footage and Interviews (480i; 4:26)

Making of Philadelphia (480i; 5:59) is a vintage featurette that has some interesting behind the scenes footage.

Original Theatrical Trailer (480p; 3:03)

Isolated Score Track is presented via DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. As good as Howard Shore's score is, this track unfortunately does not

Final Words
Philadelphia may strike some as overly mawkish and simple minded, but one has to place the film in its proper historical context to really appreciate what a valiant effort it was. While some aspects of the film have not aged particularly well, the two lead performances still have awesome power and visceral intensity. The supporting cast is also wonderful, even if Robards is forced to chew the scenery with abandon (at least hes balanced by a touchingly understated turn by Joanne...

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Tenchi Muyo (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:09:00 -0400
Would you believe Kenshi Muyo?

You might want to call it Bewitched Syndrome, namely the sudden change of a major character in a long running series with absolutely no explanation given to the audience, which is left to simply accept this "new world order". Bewitched had its share of these changes, most notably Dick Sargent replacing Dick York as Samantha Stephens husband in the final three years of the long running series, though a number of other supporting characters had seen two (or more) actors p...

Video
Tenchi Muyo!: War on Geminar is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Though this bears the typical FUNimation imprimatur of being an HD native source, I personally have to wonder if perhaps this is another case of a pre-upconverted source being labeled as HD simply because it was provided to FUNimation in that format. While theres nothing horrible here in terms of outright stair stepping or similar SD give awa

Audio
Tenchi Muyo!: War on Geminar features Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mixes in English and Japanese. The mixes here are quite similar, though the English dub sounds at least relatively more aggressively mixed, especially during the noisy mecha sequences. There's good surround activity in most episodes, though those with a heavier action element tend to fare best in this regard. Dialogue and the nice score are very cleanly presented and are well prioritized. Fidelity is excellent and

Supplements

Episode 1 Commentary. At last! FUNimation may have finally gotten the memo that even ardent fans grow tired of the jokey, party ambience commentaries that seem to be this label's stock in trade. Perhaps due to Tenchi Muyo!: War on Geminar's longer episode length, this commentary features a whole host of different interview subjects who have been edited fairly seamlessly together to finally provide some salient information on what goes into preparing a new

Final Words
I have a fairly soft spot in my heart for the original Tenchi Muyo! and that probably means Ive given more slack to this newest outing than I might have otherwise. Similarly, my hunch is those who have the same fondness for Tenchi will find enough in Kenshis story to warrant checking out this series, despite its flaws, while those who havent yet been initiated to the wild and wooly Tenchi universe will probably find this outing one big yawn. Even longtime Tenchi fans will hav...

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A Common Man (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 15 May 2013 12:37:36 -0400
Mishandled audio further pulls down an already struggling release.

I'm not Superman. Invisible Man, more like.

Director Chandran Rutnam's A Common Man is a remake of the highly rated and critically acclaimed 2008 Bollywood Thriller A Wednesday. Unfortunately, Rutnam's film doesn't warrant the same level of praise. His well-intentioned film is one that probably doesn't need to exist considering the close proximity of the original version. This is a stale, la...

Video
A Common Man features a snazzy, sharp, and highly enjoyable high definition transfer. Anchor Bay's 1.78:1 image appears razor sharp in nearly every scene and reveals pinpoint details and picture-perfect clarity in nearly every shot. It's very bright -- brilliant, at times -- and showcases HD video eye candy throughout. Details are spectacular. Of course, clothing and facial textures are top-notch, but the many distance and overhead city shots reveal an amazing level of accuracy,

Audio
For the most part, A Common Man's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack excels, except in one key area. Before the deal breaking negative, the positives: from the open, listeners will enjoy a rather robust room-filling sound signature. Balanced bass, smooth surround details, crisp notes, and welcoming ambient support give shape to a fine general presentation. Rumbling trains, passing traffic, revving motorcycle motors, the din of a police station, and all sorts of sound effects cr

Supplements
Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of A Common Man is featureless.

Final Words
Chances are A Common Man will at the very least spark an interest in tracking down a copy of A Wednesday. The Ben Kingsley remake is, sadly, not up to the challenge of delivering meaningful, hard-hitting drama, instead settling for a fairly lazy, slow structure that's all downhill after a rather strong open. The picture does little right -- even Kingsley's performance feels a little flat beyond the first act -- and only hints at the material's potential rather than capita...

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Ghostbusters (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 15 May 2013 12:08:12 -0400
A stepping stone to a new era of movie watching at home.

Why worry? Each of us is wearing an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his back.

Released both at the peak of the last great age of Comedy and featuring three of the funniest of all the funny men in the business, 1984's Ghostbusters delivers a deliciously over-the-top and completely inane movie experience that remains one of the greats of the genre. Molding the laughs in the context of a special effects-laden supernatural extravaganza, Ghostbusters earns ...

Video
Sony's commitment to releasing the finest Blu-ray products is evident with every spin of a Sony-branded disc. The consistency of product -- from the latest blockbusters to the most cherished classic titles from years gone by -- is arguably tops in the entire industry, and why shouldn't it be; Sony was a lead Blu-ray design and advocacy outfit, its PlayStation 3 console offered disc playback and instant wide format adoption, and the first wave of titles released back in 2006 bore the Son

Audio
Sony's "Mastered in 4K" Blu-ray release of Ghostbusters features what appears to be the same Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack found not he previous release. Though not particularly engaging in every scene, this one holds up rather nicely and the lossless soundtrack, while not a revelation, does bring out some subtleties that seemed lost in the shuffle of previous home video releases. Both the music and sound effects enjoy a nice boost here, some of the film's softer musi

Supplements
Sony's 4K Blu-ray release of Ghostbusters contains no supplements.

Final Words
Smartly written and perfectly played, Ghostbusters remains a seminal work in the Comedy genre. Intertwining deadly-serious overtones with lighthearted fun, the film manages to take absurd material and craft it into an exciting and side-splitting Paranormal Comedy featuring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Rick Moranis at the very top of their games. Also enjoying fine performances from Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts, and William Atherton, Ghostbust...

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Beautiful Creatures (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:55:35 -0400
"Bless your heart, sugar. You must have been first in your litter!"

So begins -- and hopefully soon ends -- the post-Twilight age; an era sure to be defined by shameless pilfering, intense déjà vu, desperate market searches and hurried box office seizures, as studios and once-respectable filmmakers willingly sell their souls to score the next, big teen-driven supernatural mega-franchise. There's an Edward and Jacob-sized hole in adolescent cinema's still-racing heart, dear readers, and whoever manages to fill that hole will inherit a disturbingly literal ...

Video
Beautiful Creatures staggers between its dark, moon-cast nights and hot, twice-baked days with an unexpectedly inconsistent 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation. As far as technical issues go, there aren't many. A bit of banding here, some unwieldy grain there; a spot of ringing, a pinch of over-saturated and three cups of crush. The real distractions -- jarring, intermittent softness, murky nighttime scenes and a sometimes significant, often negligible loss of shadow detail -- are most l

Audio
Beautiful Creatures' DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track doesn't have enough opportunities to conjure any real magic, but its strong, assertive support of the film lends power and presence where they might otherwise be none. LFE output is firm and unyielding, licking its lips when casters go into battle and grabbing hold of the chaos that ensues when all hell breaks loose. The rear speakers follow suit, even though they're far more engaging when spells are being cast than when Ethan an

Supplements

Behind the Scenes (HD, 24 minutes): In an unfortunate trend that's sure to be replicated again and again, Warner has promoted its "Focus Point" featurettes to full-fledged extras, complete with separate menu entries and individual listings on the back cover. The six featurettes available aren't any longer than usual, though, and don't delve any deeper. They merely provide the appearance of a value-packed supplemental package, when in fact

Final Words
Beautiful Creatures pines for Twilight glory but comes up short, delivering a deformed clone with more superpowers but less heart or appeal. And considering the Twilight series had its own share of debilitating issues, Creatures is something of a mess, over-sold, overacted and overwhelmingly dull. Warner's Blu-ray release is a bit more satisfying, but it struggles with consistency with a decent but problematic video presentation, a solid DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surrou...

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Safe Haven (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 15 May 2013 02:20:24 -0400
The title is an anagram of "Fans Heave." If you're a Nicholas Sparks fan, you just might.

Safe Haven might've been a decent little romantic thriller for the chick-flick set. Might've being the operative word in that sentence. The film is the eight big screen adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks noveland the second helmed by Chocolat director Lasse Hellström, after Dear Johnand all the hallmarks are here: the lovey-dovey scene in the pouring rain, the weepy handwritten letters, the tragic cancer death, the date at the beach, all accompanied by the franti...

Video
Let's give Safe Haven thisit's quite handsome on Blu-ray, with a 1080p/AVC-encoded presentation that's sharp and wonderfully colorful. Shot digitally with Arri Alexa HD cameras, the material has a filmic look that's low on source noiseeven in darker scenesand completely free of compression issues like banding, macroblocking, or harsh artifacts. (No artificial-looking post-production blunders like edge enhancement or extreme color boosting either.) The image is simply pleasing fro

Audio
The film's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is satisfying too, if understandably low-impact considering this is a romance with only light thriller elements. Dialogue is central to the mixit's always clear and understandableand the soundfield is filled out with lots of appreciable ambience in the rear channels, from gull sounds and ocean breezes to pounding rain, blasts of thunder, and arcing Fourth of July fireworks. For this kind of film, the sound design is quite good, a

Supplements
Deleted and Extended Scenes (HD, 5:19): Five previously cut or truncated scenes.

Alternate Ending (HD, 3:37): Ugh. Just as bad as the original. No drastic changes here, just some minor added shots and rearranged editing.

Igniting the Romance in Safe Haven (HD, 9:15): A short making-of piece featuring interviews with director Lasse Hellström, author Nicholas Sparks, and the key actors, focusing mostly on the performances and the arcs

Final Words
Safe Haven could've been one of the better Nicholas Sparks adaptations; it has romance, cute leads, some oh-no-what's-gonna-happen-next thrills, and a gorgeous North Carolina setting. Unfortunately, it also has an unintentionally comic bad guy and a twist ending that'll make you want to punch a wall. Fans of the author's other work might still find that their entertainment needs are met here, but Safe Haven won't win the writer any new followers, especially among those who re...

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Leave Her to Heaven (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 15 May 2013 01:09:37 -0400
. . .or hell as the case may be.

If Douglas Sirk and Alfred Hitchock had ever deigned to collaborate, the result might have been something very like Leave Her to Heaven, a sumptuous 1945 Fox film that was one of the studios major success stories during that legendary decade. Part psychological thriller and part roiling melodrama, Leave Her to Heaven was based on a huge bestseller that may have seemed a bit unusual to have become such a sensation in the halcyon days of a post- World War II America. Lea...

Video
Leave Her to Heaven is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Twilight Time with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. As has become legend in film preservation circles, the geniuses at Fox literally discarded all of their original Technicolor elements in the 1970s and so a glut of Fox classics that were originally released in Technicolor now exist courtesy of safety dupes. The difference is easily noticeable as even a cursory examination of the screenshots accompanying this review

Audio
Leave Her to Heaven features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track that reveals some low level distortion in the lower midrange which is instantly noticeable in Alfred Newman's first cue (simply toggling to the isolated score track, which does not have this distortion, will reveal the easily audible difference). There's nothing too distracting about this anomaly, and it tends to diminish over the course of the film, but those with finely attuned listening ears will no do

Supplements

Audio Commentary with Richard Schickel and Darryl Hickman. These two were obviously recorded separately and then edited together. Schickel tends to concentrate on actor biographies and the production of the film while Hickman gives a more personal reminiscence of what being on set was like. He is not kind to Gene Tierney, lets just leave it at that.

Isolated Score is presented via a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track, and while it has the typ

Final Words
Analysts and critics have been arguing over just which genre Leave Her to Heaven should be pigeonholed into. Is it a bizarre brighly colored noir? Is it a doomed romance? Is it a turgid melodrama? Well, yes, yes and yes. That's one (or perhaps three) of the reasons the film still is so fascinating to watch. It will strike some as too slow, with a too hyperbolic third act (especially once Vincent Price's crusading attorney springs into dunderheaded action), but th...

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The Unbelievable Truth (Blu-ray Review)

Tue, 14 May 2013 22:04:42 -0400
An improbable comedy.

One of the most intriguing aspects of being a parent is seeing what kind of romantic entanglements your children experience. When I was in my twenties, I had a rather exotic girlfriend who was several years my senior and who just so happened to be a French Moroccan woman who made her living as a belly dancer. When I took this woman to meet my parents at a family reunion and she came in her belly dancing attire and performed for my assorted relatives, I had never seen such a combination...

Video
The Unbelievable Truth is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This early Hartley effort wasnt just shot on a shoestring budget, it was shot on a veritable aglet budget, and so the surprising thing is how polished so much of the film looks, especially in this solid high definition presentation. Colors are somewhat muted but generally accurate looking and fine detail is quite admirable throughout the film. Ther

Audio
The Unbelievable Truth features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track that serves the films pretty small scale sonic ambitions perfectly well. The bulk of this film consists of dialogue scenes, either monologues or between two people, without even a glut of ambient environmental effects to provide much depth. There are some nice effects, however, notably in the nice opening sequence where the wind is whipping through some foliage, or some of the seaside scenes later in the

Supplements

The Unbelievable Truth and its Consequences (480p; 17:35) is a nice little retrospective with the principal cast and Hartley looking back on the production.

Opera No. 1 (480i; 8:20) is a fun musical short by Hartley with a young Parker Posey.

Final Words
The Unbelievable Truth finds its filmmaker and cast doing rather remarkable work considering this was such an early effort for so many of them. The film doesnt quite gel, and is a bit too pretentious for its own good, but theres a lot of nicely down low key humor here that will appeal to most Hartley fans. This Blu-ray offers very good video and audio and it comes with a couple of appealing supplements. Recommended....

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Parked (Blu-ray Review)

Tue, 14 May 2013 14:51:31 -0400

The disastrous world economy of the past several years has left a high number of once relatively prosperous victims in its wake. Many of you probably personally knowor at least have heard ofpeople who have lost their jobs, their homes, and virtually everything that once helped define who they thought they were (for a decidedly unusual take on this basic premise, I refer you to the recently released Upstream Color...

Video
Parked is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This is a largely flawless high definition presentation which offers superior fine object detail, especially in the films many close-ups. Parked is yet another film that has been pretty aggressively color graded, with about equal amounts of ice cold blue and a warmer amber color. The yellow sequences look rather nice and relatively sharp, though the effulgent saffron hue

Audio
Parkeds lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix is surprisingly active given the small scale of much of this film. The seaside sequences have a lot of nicely done ambient environmental effects. Dialogue is very cleanly presented (though the Irish accents can be a bit thick for American listeners), and the films charming (if occasionally annoying) score also sounds nicely clear and well defined. Fidelity is excellent, though theres little to no dynamic range in this track.

Supplements
No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

Final Words
Parked is ultimately fairly predictable fare, but with a beautifully understated by Colm Meaney and some equally effective work by flashier co-star Colin Morgan, it becomes a bit easier to forgive the films resolutely rote processional toward salvation. The film has a sort of dour undercurrent running through it, which may turn off some prospective viewers, but considering the plight of the homeless around the world, Fred and Cathal dont have it as bad as many, and at least the...

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Little Caesar (Blu-ray Review)

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:50:13 -0400
It Wasn't the End of Rico

Note: "Little Caesar" is available either separately or as part of the Warner Ultimate Gangsters Collection: Classics.

Edward G. Robinson had a long and fruitful acting career, creating an array of indelible portraits that included the insurance investigator Barton Keys in Double Indemnity<...

Video
The major issues with Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray of Little Caesar are inseparable from the source material, which, despite efforts at clean-up, still suffers from obvious damage. A significant number of vertical scratches last anywhere from a few seconds to half a minute. None of them renders any of the image unwatchable, but they are quite noticeable. Frames are missing in several spots, causing obvious jumps. Fortunately, none of these breaks occur at key moments in the

Audio
The film's mono soundtrack is encoded as lossless DTS-HD MA 1.0, and it's a pleasure to hear Robinson's distinctive speech patterns as Rico at such high fidelity. The clarity doesn't do all that much of the rest of the dialogue a favor, though, because many of the remaining performances are quite weak. However, Thomas E. Jackson's turn as the sarcastic Lt. Flahertythe second best performance in the filmcomes through better than I've ever heard it before. The various pistols and machine gu

Supplements
The extras have been ported over from Warner's 2004 DVD.

Commentary with Richard B. Jewell: A film historian at the University of Southern California, Jewell narrates, explicates and provides historical context as the film unspools on the screen. It's an OK commentary, but there's nothing here that can't easily be learned elsewhere.

Warner Night at the Movies 1930

Introducti

Final Words
Like Scarface, the novel of Little Caesar by W.R. Burnett was inspired by Al Capone's rapid ascent to the pinnacle of Chicago's criminal empire. Capone's ruthlessness, his penchant for flaunting his activities and his status as a semi-celebrity sparked the imagination of more than a few writers, actors and directors. But even if Capone was ultimately undone by his refusal to keep a low profile, he had a certain native shrewdness that one never sees in Robinson's Rico. Rico...

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Hoodlum Empire (Blu-ray Review)

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:34:37 -0400
Hearings impaired.

The general consensus might be that so-called reality television is a relatively recent phenomenon (leaving aside for a moment just how real some of these shows actually are), but the earliest days of television were rife with all sorts of reality programming, efforts that were often easier to produce and much less costly to broadcast than actual scripted fare. At around the same time that audiences were just beginning to tune in in droves to the likes of Uncle Miltie and ...

Video
Hoodlum Empire is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. This is yet another generally very solid high definition presentation from Olive, with good contrast and pleasing detail. The elements have their requisite minor age related wear and tear, but the biggest drawback to this particular release is some stock footage that is noticeably more washed out and ragged than the bulk of the film. Otherwise, though, this effort is ano

Audio
Hoodlum Empires lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track has some minimal distortion, especially in the early going, but settles down to provide a surprisingly full bodied audio presentation, one which delivers the dialogue cleanly and clearly as well as offering quite a bit more dynamic range than might be expected, courtesy of the flashbacks to World War II. Fidelity is very good throughout this track, without even much hiss to hamper the high end.

Supplements
No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

Final Words
This is yet another really odd choice for Olive to bring to Blu-ray. I have to hand it to this little label that could (and often does), for theres no other distributor that I can think of that so regularly offers such a variety of lesser known films on high definition. But Hoodlum Empire unfortunately doesnt have a lot to recommend it other than a very colorful supporting cast. Few contemporary audience members are going to know enough about, let alone care abo...

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Medium Cool (Blu-ray Review)

Tue, 14 May 2013 04:21:05 -0400

Haskell Wexler's "Medium Cool" (1969) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; exclusive new video interview with director Haskell Wexler; extended excerpts from Paul Cronin's documentary "Look Out Haskell, It's Real!"; new featurette with director Haskell Wexler; excerpts from Paul Cronin's documentary "Sooner or Later"; audio commentary with director Haskell Wexler, editorial consultant Paul Golding, and actres...

Video
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

Recently restored in 4K, with the digital restoration approved by director Haskell Wexler, Medium Cool looks stunning on Blu-ray. From start to finish detail is indeed outstanding, while clarity is consistently very pleasing. Despite the shaky camera movement, contrast levels are also remain stable

Audio
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray disc: English LPCM 1.0. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.

It is clear to me that various stabilizations have been performed as balance (between dialog and music) and clarity are indeed very good. Despite the fact that the film was shot in a very specific manner (classic cinema verite style), dynamic movement is also very good. The dialog is always very crisp, clean, and e

Supplements
Trailer - original trailer for Medium Cool. In English, not subtitled. (4 min, 1080i).

Haskell Wexler - in this exclusive new video interview, director and cinematographer Haskell Wexler explains how Medium Cool came to exist and its unique message. Mr. Wexler also talks about the socio-political climate in America at the time when the film was completed. The interview was conducted by Criterion in 2013. In English, not subti

Final Words
This is American Cinema at its very best - powerful, thought-provoking, incredibly original. While revisiting the film, now beautifully restored in 4K, I kept thinking about many of Jean-Luc Godard's most radical films. As impressive as many of them are, I dare say not a single one of them matches the brilliance of Medium Cool. Structurally, it is a flawless film. And regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with its message, it is an indisputable fact that it is very much relevant t...

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WWE: The Best of In Your House (Blu-ray Review)

Mon, 13 May 2013 23:01:52 -0400
Take it in.

I feel like I'm in a time warp.

Big hair; loud clothes; electric pinks, lime greens, teals, and magentas; standard definition; and professional wrestling, all coming directly IN YOUR HOUSE, like, literally, Hakushi, Razor Ramon, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Ken Shamrock are going to wrestle IN YOUR HOUSE! Or not. OK, so the name really wasn't spectacular -- it's not like all of the other Pay-Per-View events weren't broadcast "in your house" too -- but whatever. Back...

Video
The Best of In Your House features pretty much the same sort of transfer fans have seen in previous standard definition-sourced Blu-ray releases from WWE. The HD Todd Pettengill segments look like pretty much any other; he appears in a dark-walled but well-lit room. The shadowy backgrounds can look a bit blocky, and light aliasing is seen at times, but generally the HD video source appears crisp and del defined, revealing the cardboard textures of the cutouts and the clothing and

Audio
The Best of In Your House features the WWE-standard Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, and there's really not much at all to it. The Pettengill clips offer straightforward dialogue that comes through cleanly and accurately from the center. The audio accompanying the standard definition video doesn't offer much room for detailed exploration. It's also very much focused up the middle with terribly limited range but adequate clarity. There's certainly a light muddiness to even the rings

Supplements
The Best of In Your House contains several additional matches and moments.

Disc One Blu-ray Exclusives:

Todd Pettengill Outtakes (HD, 2:39): Some fun moments with the host.

In Your House Sweepstakes Winner (HD, 1:22): A young boy receives a tour of his new home.

Disc Two Blu-ray

Final Words
The Best of In Your House will delight wrestling fans who pine for the good old days of loud clothes, big hair, exaggerated colors, and some of the finest wrestling the world has ever seen. The short-lived In Your House Pay-Per-View will be remembered for the legacy built by the passage of some of the finest performers of all time through its lifespan. Though it's gone the way of the cassette tape, the LaserDisc, and the "WWF" monicker, In Your House holds up as an...

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Tomorrow You're Gone (Blu-ray Review)

Mon, 13 May 2013 22:15:26 -0400
Was He Ever Here?

Tomorrow You're Gone (hereafter "TYG") is a classic example of a film that tries to sustain itself on atmosphere alone and fails miserably. Because director David Jacobson and screenwriter Matthew F. Jones are primarily interested in a dank sense of grim foreboding, they never bother to tell any kind of story, even a fractured and crazy one, as David Lynch might do. They just keep piling one vague hint on top of another, and early on you suspect (rightly so) that most o...

Video
Whatever the shortcomings of Tomorrow You're Gone as a film, the image on Image Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray provides little to find fault with. Photographed digitally with the Arri Alexa by Michael Fimognari (Beautiful Boy ), the image is clean, detailed and sharp but with the film-like texture for which the Alexa is justly renowned. Blacks are deep and solid, which is critical, because

Audio
The dynamic range and bass extension in the Blu-ray's lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 track become evident early on when Charlie first approaches Moe's Bar and Grille where the Buddha's name will get him a room. The distant throbbing from the bar's pounding sound system will put your system's subwoofer to work. The best surround showcases, however, are the subjective moments that reflect Charlie's state of mind, when present events merge with memories in an aural cocktail that swirls around Charlie,

Supplements
Other than introductory trailers (in 1080p) for The Numbers Station and Day of the Falcon, the disc contains no extras. These trailers play at startup and can be skipped with the chapter forward button, but cannot be played once the disc loads.

Final Words
I was a fan of Down in the Valley, but I can't recommend Jacobson's long-delayed follow-up, despite the Blu-ray's technical superiority. The story is too unfocused, the performances too detached, and the whole effort provides too little reward for the investment of your time in watching. Not recommended.

...

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Lifeforce (Blu-ray Review)

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:51:47 -0400
She wants to suck yourwell, does it really matter?

At least the astronauts in Alien werent aware they were bringing anything, let alone something nasty, back with them after setting out on their interstellar explorations. No such slack can be given to the spacemen in another screenplay co-written by Aliens Dan OBannon, the troubled 1985 Tobe Hooper film Lifeforce. On paper Lifeforce seemed to have just about everything going for it a mid-ei...

Video
Lifeforce is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factorys imprint Scream Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. According to the commentary by Hooper included on this Blu-ray, Hooper himself oversaw this restoration and high definition transfer, personally color timing the film to get it to his original vision. The results are laudatory, especially for anyone who has seen previous home video incarnations of the film. While some of the changes are rather subt

Audio
Lifeforce features lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 tracks, which one assumes are meant to mimic the original six track 70mm presentation and two track 35mm presentation respectively. The 5.1 track offers some excellent surround activity in the films special effects sequences, especially when the lifeforce is being sucked out any given victim, at which point there are great panning whooshing foley effects. Dialogue is cleanly presented and Henry Mancinis rather un-Ma

Supplements

Lifeforce Theatrical Release (1080p; 1:41:17). This is the truncated version that was released in the United States. Most of the missing footage is up front in the establishing moments. There are also some slight differences in the music. Despite being encoded via MPEG-2, this presentation looks almost as good as the extended cut. Unfortunately the soundtrack is delivered via Dolby Digital 5.1, but otherwise this is a fantastic bonus to be included on this

Final Words
Its probably best to think of Lifeforce as a vampire movie with some space elements thrown in, rather than an outer space special effects extravaganza that has vampires in it. That in fact was most likely one of the reasons the film failed to really resonate with audiences years ago, since the marketing of the film made it seem like a sci-fi spectacular. There are some undeniably silly aspects to the film (watching Railsback and Stewart almost lock lips may bring a giggle to th...

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Aladdin (Blu-ray Review)

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:26:11 -0400
When you wish upon a lamp. . .

Disneys own corporate magic lamp had grown a bit tarnished over the years. The vaunted Mouse House helped to invent the long form animated film and then created one undisputed masterpiece after another, films so legendary they still resonate down the halls of film history: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, ...

Video
Aladdin is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Disney / Buena Vista with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This is a fantastic looking high definition presentation that offers beautifully saturated colors and nicely crisp line detail. The image is almost inerrantly sharp and crystal clear, though there are just a couple of moments of unexpected (relative) softness that creep in from time to time (look at the screenshot of the Genies head erupting from Aladdins body for a goo

Audio
Aladdin features a great sounding lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that offers some wonderfully immersive moments right from the get go. One of the nicest things about this surround track is the unusually widely splayed musical elements (listen to how the finger cymbals reverbate through the side and rear channels in the opening number for a great example). The crowded marketplace scenes as well as some of the action sequences also provide ample opportunity for nice sounding

Supplements

Filmmakers' Audio Commentary features co-writers, producers and directors John Musker and Ron Clements along with co-producer Amy Pell. Though this was recorded some ten years after the film's original release, the three still have strong and vivid memories of the rather convoluted pre-production phase, not to mention casting, recording and animating. This is enjoyable, highly interesting fare, often relatively technical without being hard to follow.

<

Final Words
Aladdins U.S. Diamond Edition is rumored to be in the works but has not yet officially been announced, so for those who cant wait for this release on Blu-ray, this region free disc without any problematic PAL 1080/50i content is a fantastic opportunity. The Blu-ray offers spectacular video and audio and comes replete with some great supplementary material (albeit in standard definition). Highly recommended....

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The Verdict (Blu-ray Review)

Mon, 13 May 2013 12:31:25 -0400
One of the best courtroom dramas? Guilty.

Calling a courtroom drama The Verdict is akin to titling a sports movie The Big Gameit doesn't really say anythingbut don't let that put you off director Sidney Lumet's 1982 malpractice thriller, which was nominated for five Academy Awards and plays host to one of star Paul Newman's most memorable performances. Lumet, of course, made his debut in 1957 with 12 Angry Menwidely considered the second best movie in its sub-genre after To Kill a Mockingbirdand his...

Video
The Verdict is handed down on Blu-ray with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that looks like it was possibly sourced from an old master, but still makes an appreciable upgrade from standard definition. 20th Century Fox hasn't given the film the frame-by-frame restorative treatment it's given other classics recently; the image is often marked with black and white specks that come and gothough never distractingly, or in large numbersand the grain structure perhaps seems a bit too

Audio
The disc includes two English audio optionsthe default 5.1 mix and a mono track, both in the lossless DTS-HD Master Audio codecbut they're practically indistinguishable. The film's audio was originally mono, and the extended multi-channel mix here really only adds some quiet bleeding room for the few rare scenes where Lumet decides to use music. Most of the time, the rear speakers are completely silent. (As they should be, movie audio purists would argue.) This is an almost entirely dial

Supplements
Commentary by Sidney Lumet and Paul Newman: Do you want to listen to a commentary by Sidney Lumet? Of course you want to listen to a commentary by Sidney Lumet. I don't mention Newman, because this is one those patchwork tracks where the comments from the two were recorded separately, and Newman only shows up once for a few brief words, but this is a must-listen nonetheless, with Lumet pointing out many of the tricks of his trade.

The Making of The V

Final Words
A twisting account of one broken man versus the massive legal machine, The Verdict is a brilliant courtroom drama and character study from director Sidney Lumet and writer David Mamet, both doing what they do best. This is a solid film on all sidesthe plotting, the ensemble cast, the dreary atmosphereand it holds up well to repeat viewings. 20th Century Fox's Blu-ray release is a straight port of the DVDcomplete with a decent-if- outdated-looking transferbut if you don't yet own ...

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Great Expectations (Blu-ray Review)

Sun, 12 May 2013 17:13:01 -0400

Mike Newell's "Great Expectations" (2012) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films-UK. The supplemental features on the disc include an introduction to the film by cast and crew members; video interviews with cast and crew members; deleted and extended scenes; and a gallery of stills from the film. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked". ...

Video
Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Mike Newell's Great Expectations arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films-UK.

The high-definition transfer is quite beautiful. Shot on Kodak Vision2 and Vision3, the film boasts a wide range of warm and very natural colors that are beautifully reproduced on the Blu-ray. What impresses the most, however, is the outstanding image depth where light is restricted. The footage with Mi

Audio
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray disc: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Also included is a Descriptive Audio LPCM 2.0 track. For the record, Lionsgate Films-UK have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

Richard Hartley's music score definitely benefits from the lossless treatment. The overall dynamic intensity is also very good, which is something that might surprise some viewers because

Supplements
Introducing Great Expectations - in this short video piece, director Mike Newell, screenwriter David Nicholls and cast members discuss Great Expectations and the different conflicts in the film. In English, not subtitled. (6 min).

The Characters of Great Expectations - Director Mike Newell, producers Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen, screenwriter David Nicholls, and actors Jeremy Irvine, Helena Bonham Carter, Holliday Grainge

Final Words
I thoroughly enjoyed Mike Newell's Great Expectations. Publicity for it has been limited, possibly because the film arrived too soon after the recent BBC TV series, and this is indeed quite unfortunate because it is a wonderful adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel. The cast is spectacular and the production values very solid. If you have been avoiding the film because of mixed reviews, my advice to you is to completely ignore them and see it. I guarantee you will enjoy it. HIGHLY...

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The Burning (Blu-ray Review)

Sat, 11 May 2013 17:56:21 -0400
Fire bad.

The internet is a remarkable device that has provided unparalleled connectivity. Case in point: I received copies of some original charts by the late easy listening maestro Percy Faith a few months ago (Faith's arrangements are one of my unashamed not so guilty pleasures), including a fantastic quasi-Baroque jazz-rock number of his called We Were Havin Some Fun at the Conservatory, When. . .. I was interested to see a ...

Video
Note: It's site policy not to post overly graphic or gruesome screenshots, but I knew some would want at least one screenshot of Cropsy. I've placed a softer looking shot of him after the shot of the main menu for those who want to look.

The Burning is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factorys imprint Scream Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The elements here are in very good shape, with only a couple of very minor blemishes and a

Audio
The Burning features a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track delivered via DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Things sound really good here, albeit obviously very narrow. Dialogue (and screams) are presented with authority, and Wakemans synth laden score comes through loud and clear. The film has fairly wide dynamic range which the DTS-HD Master Audio offering is able to support easily. Fidelity is excellent and there are no damage issues to report.

Supplements

Blood n Fire Memories: A Detailed Look at the Creation of the Films Make-Up Effects with Special Effects Artist Tom Savini. Savini urges viewers not to watch this short before seeing the film, and he's right, for he gives away the goods on several key special effects. Interestingly, Savini himself played Cropsy's legs in the opening scene where Cropsy might be thinking, a la Frankenstein's monster, "fire bad". (1080p; 18:01)

Slash & Cut: An Inte

Final Words
The Burning is a surprisingly effective little chiller that still delivers some fantastic scares over thirty years (wow!) after its release. Director Tony Maylam himself mentions in his commentary that hes kind of nervous about home video releases of films like this since theyre of such a certain time and sensibility, and how sometimes its better to just let them go. But revisiting The Burning now shows a rather well made little film that does what its supposed to do:...

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The Bletchley Circle (Blu-ray Review)

Sat, 11 May 2013 10:44:54 -0400
They eat Da Vinci for breakfast.

The Bletchley Circle has an irresistible hook for crime-solving entertainment, following the actions of four brilliant codebreakers from WWII as they reteam to track down a serial killer in their hometown nearly a decade later. Im surprised this isnt a Hollywood blockbuster, as the premise is ripe for maximum genre exposure. Instead of overblown theatrics, we have this humble ITV production thats made its way to America via PBS in an effort to show the audience theres a little more bite to...

Video
The AVC encoded image (1.78:1 aspect ratio) presentation for Bletchley Circle reveals a slight muddiness to the viewing experience that brings down the natural vibrancy of the cinematography. Blacks are generally solidified, failing to provide depth and character, pulling texture out of set design and locations. Soft lightning suffocates colors, diluting hues during indoor encounters, while skintones push too unnaturally at times. The image strengthens considerably when the action moves to ext

Audio
The 2.0 PCM track generally does an adequate job with the primary audio goals of the series, providing a suspenseful balance of mystery and tense code-breaking, featuring a supportive score with crisp dramatic intention. Theres also a pleasing heaviness to the mix that brings out moments of suspense. Dialogue exchanges are generally cared for, with decent separation between characters, and the group dynamic is successfully arranged. A few moments sound slightly muffled, though this appears to b

Supplements
Interviews (28:10, HD) offers a sit-down with key creative personnel and the cast to explore just how The Bletchley Circle came to be. Instead of a mindless discussion of motivation and series highlights, the conversation goes surprisingly in-depth, touching on most production departments and creative achievements, discussing particulars of costuming, locations, direction, and performance. The interviewees are articulate and come prepared to share their experiences with t

Final Words
The Bletchley Circle is saddled with an awful title, yet the show remains enthralling throughout all three episodes, inspecting brilliant women carry out a dangerous game theyre unprepared to finish. Perhaps weve seen this type of programming before, but theres a heaviness of heart and depiction of intellect thats gripping, while giving four gifted actresses an opportunity to carry a mini-series with layered, confident performances, helping to create a suspenseful, sharp effort. ...

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Three Faces West (Blu-ray Review)

Sat, 11 May 2013 10:16:12 -0400
John Wayne vs. The Dust Bowl, with the Nazi Menace thrown in for no extra charge.

One of the side benefits of the glut of John Wayne movies Olive Films has been releasing on Blu-ray over the past many months is the chance to see some of Waynes lesser remembered vehicles, including a lot of his early Three Mesquiteers shorts. At least a couple of these outings like Lady for a Night and A Man Betrayed s...

Video
Three Faces West is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. Aside from some fairly ragged looking stock footage (most utilized to show the disastrous effects of the draught in the Dust Bowl), this is another really solid looking effort from Olive that boasts good contrast, deep blacks and nicely varied gray scale. Fine detail is very good if not overwhelming and the image is suitably sharp given the age of the elements. Theres

Audio
Three Faces West features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track that sounds really nice considering its age. Especially full bodied is Victor Youngs nicely vigorous score, one that traffics in gorgeous string work for the romantic aspects but which features a lot of energetic brass motifs for some of the more heroic sequences. Dialogue is cleanly and clearly presented and theres not even much ostensible hiss to be heard here, perhaps because its masked by the ubiquitous s

Supplements
No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

Final Words
Three Faces West is among the most wildly improbable of any of the contemporary Wayne outings from this era, but unlike some of his other modern day enterprises, this one is so odd that any shortcomings are subsumed by the overall weirdness of the story, making this a perhaps unexpectedly involving and enjoyable film. Coburn definitely needed a dialect coach, but Gurie, whose Hollywood career was distressingly short lived, is lovely (and spunky) and Wayne is resolute and...

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Southern Comfort (Blu-ray Review)

Fri, 10 May 2013 23:35:14 -0400

Walter Hill's "Southern Comfort" (1981) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Second Sight Films. The only supplemental feature on the disc is the exclusive new documentary "Who Will Live, Who Will Die". In English and small portions of French, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked". ...

Video
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Walter Hill's Southern Comfort arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Second Sight.

The high-definition transfer appears to have been struck from a dated source, and more often than not it clearly shows. While some close-ups with plenty of natural light look decent (see screencapture #12), the darker footage tends to look quite rough (see screencapture #4). Occa

Audio
There is only one standard audio track on this Btu-ray disc: English LPCM 2.0 (with small portions of French). For the record, Second Sight have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.

Dynamic movement is quite limited. Even the shootouts do not impress with any sizable intensity. The music score by the legendary Ry Cooder (Paris, Texas) sounds marginally fuller and better ro

Supplements
Who Will Live, Who Will Die - in this outstanding new video interview, director Walter Hill discusses the production history of Southern Comfort, his relationship with the cast during the shooting of the film, its key themes and whether it should be viewed as an allegory, etc. In English, not subtitled. (45 min).

Final Words
I have to speculate that at some point Walter Hill's Southern Comfort will appear on Blu-ray in North America. However, until such a release materializes, this Region-B "locked" release should be treated as the film's best presentation on the home video market. It is not as pleasing as Second Sight's presentation of David Cronenberg's Scanners -- there is plenty of room for sizable improvements -- but it rep...

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Flirt (Blu-ray Review)

Fri, 10 May 2013 20:12:55 -0400
The three faces of Hal.

Hal Hartley is a bit of an imp at times, and one has to wonder if perhaps he watched Akira Kurosawas iconic Rashômon and decided to put his own decidedly unique spin on the idea of the film, if not its story. The Kurosawa masterpiece of course is about an event told from a number of different perspectives, with the viewer left to wonder which (if any) of them is the truth. In Flirt, Hartley revi...

Video
Flirt is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This 1995 vintage film looks very good in high definition, though some may wish that colors were a bit more robustly saturated. The entire film is kind of pale looking, not necessarily due to inconsistent contrast, but seeming to be just a bit on the washed out side. Otherwise, though, things are sharp and well detailed here. Hartley tends to favor midrange shots throughout a lo

Audio
Flirt features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix, but to my ears this is simply a mono mix pumping out over two channels, a conclusion confirmed (if not absolutely given the inaccuracy of much information on the internet) by the IMDb, which lists the films original soundtrack as mono. All of this said, fidelity is just fine for a piece which is made up almost entirely of dialogue between two characters at a time. Occasional depth is achieved in some of the cityscapes feature

Supplements

NYC 3/94 (480i; 10:02) is a rather odd little short by Hartley which looks like it was done on videotape.

Flirt Trailer (1080p; 1:43)

Final Words
Hal Hartley remains an acquired taste and those who tend to love his work will no doubt adore Flirt, while those who find Hartley too self-conscious and precious will probably have a similar reaction to this piece. Even diehard fans may wonder if theres much there there aside from the admittedly fun gimmick of seeing the same story play out three times in slightly different ways with different characters. Flirt does show one thing that Hartley tends to do very well, name...

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Dexter: The Seventh Season (Blu-ray Review)

Fri, 10 May 2013 14:30:16 -0400
A welcome return to form...

When last we left darkly dreaming Showtime fan-favorite Dexter, the meticulously clever serial series was badly, perhaps even fatally wounded. Desperate and often predictable, it spent eleven increasingly painful sixth season episodes hobbling, then limping, then crawling towards a hastily manufactured endgame. I worried it would bleed out before reaching the finale. At one point, I feared dear Dexter dead. But then, against all odds, it pulled itself off the floor -- beaten, batt...

Video
Dexter: The Seventh Season features a crisp, source-accurate 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation that, for the most part, is comparable to previous series releases. The image is occasionally a bit softer, with less vibrant contrast and more problematic nighttime and low-lit scenes, but it strikes me as a product of small differences in the show's photography, not necessarily an encoding issue. I did notice a slight -- slight -- increase in banding, noise and crush, but none of it

Audio
Likewise, The Seventh Season's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround track is a lot like its predecessors: polished, proficient and primed for Dexter's next kill. Dialogue is clear and intelligible, prioritization carefully balances Hall's narration with the rest of the soundscape, and shots, slashes, hacks and stabs are as pulpy and gristly as ever. LFE support isn't overly aggressive but shepherds anything that comes its way with a firm hand. Rear speaker activity, though restrained, is quite envel

Supplements
The only extra (of sorts) included with Dexter: The Seventh Season is an UltraViolet Copy of the pilot episode of Showtime's new upcoming drama, Ray Donovan. Nothing more, nothing less. The DVD version of The Seventh Season, on the other hand, includes the Ray Donovan pilot, the first two episodes of The Borgias: Season Two, the first two episodes of House of Lies: Season One, and cast/character biographies. Granted, there still isn't an actual Dexter

Final Words
The end is near, with Dexter poised to go out on a high note. Live or die, imprisoned or free, Season Seven sets the stage for Dexter Morgan's final days, and does so with such a keen awareness of what the story needs and where it needs to go that the series can only benefit from its contributions. It isn't the best season the show has given fans (most agree on that honor going to Season Four), but it leaves Season Six in a crumpled heap on the floor. Hopefully, Dexter's eighth and...

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The Miracle of the Bells (Blu-ray Review)

Fri, 10 May 2013 14:24:20 -0400
A Star is Dead.

Alida Valli was supposed to be the next Ingrid Bergman, an exotic but accessible foreigner who wasnt just another pretty face but who could actually act. David O. Selznick had helped to create Bergmans American film career by bringing her to Hollywood to recreate her role in an American version of what had been one her biggest Swedish successes, Intermezzo. But the David O. Selznick of the late thirties was not the David O. Selznick of the late forties, and the change...

Video
The Miracle of the Bells is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.38:1. This is another generally very solid high definition presentation from Olive, one that only has a few minor blemishes to report in terms of its elements, as well as some momentary print through and flicker thats most noticeable in what would have been the first reel. Otherwise, though, this transfer offers excellent contrast and a generally very pleasing image.

Audio
The Miracle of the Bells lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track unfortunately features some pervasive distortion, especially in the all important midrange, something thats instantly noticeable in the theme music playing during the credits sequence but which continues unabated in one degree or another for much of the rest of the film. The good news is that most if not all of the dialogue isnt overly affected by this anomaly (though occasional lines, like the stage managers shou

Supplements
No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

Final Words
The legendary Ben Hecht co-adapted the bestselling novel by Russell Janney which provided the source material for The Miracle of the Bells, and while there are glimmers of Hechts wit and poetry in the dialogue, the film itself is probably too unfocused to ever totally connect with the audience. That said, its still a wonderful opportunity to see the lovely Valli at the height of her rather short lived Hollywood career. This Blu-ray features generally excellent video though the a...

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An Officer and a Gentleman (Blu-ray Review)

Fri, 10 May 2013 01:19:45 -0400
On Blu-ray Where It Belongs

Because of its romantic subplot and famous ending, An Officer and a Gentleman is often regarded as a classic helping of Hollywood corn, but in fact Hollywood didn't want to make the film. The script by Douglas Day Stewart, who was himself a former Naval officer and a veteran of the training procedures detailed in the film, had been kicking around the studios for eight years before it was handed to director Taylor Hackford. The president of Paramount, Michael Eisner (later an infamo...

Video
An Officer and a Gentleman was shot by DP Donald E. Thorin, whose intriguing Eighties resumé also includes director Hackford's Against All Odds and Michael Mann's Thief. Thorin made the most of the production value supplied by the locations in the town of Port Washington, and his work is crisply and clearly represented

Audio
Paramount's 2000 DVD offered the film's original mono soundtrack in Dolby Digital. The studio's "special collector's edition" DVD in 2007 offered a choice between 5.1 and mono tracks, both in DD. This Blu-ray from Warner offers a single 5.1 option in English, which has been encoded as lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1.

The omission of the film's original mix is unfortunate, but at least the 5.1 remix has been handled conservatively. The sound remains in front, with the soundstage expand

Supplements
The extras have been ported over from Paramount's 2007 "special collector's edition" DVD, although the director's commentary and trailer first appeared on the 2000 DVD. The only item missing is the photo gallery.

Commentary with Director Taylor Hackford: Recorded in London in 1999, Hackford's lively commentary is full of interesting details about the making of the film. Some of the content is repeated in the various documentaries, but much is uniqu

Final Words
Warfare, technology and the military have all changed in the last thirty years. I doubt, for example, that many current DIs are still using Sgt. Foley's "steers and queers" line. But An Officer and a Gentleman has held up well, because the drama at its core is as relevant now as it was then. People still try to better themselves, and many of them discover that the real challenges always lie within. If they're lucky, the right mentor appears at the right moment, though not always in...

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K-11 (Blu-ray Review)

Thu, 09 May 2013 22:30:10 -0400
Dropping the soap is the least of your problems.

K-11 marks the directorial debut for longtime script supervisor Jules Stewart, though shes probably best known as the mother of Twilight superstar and famed stammer queen Kristin Stewart. Only able to talk her kid into a voice cameo for her first helming gig, Stewart is left without star power and a decent budget to bring her prison epic to life, with only a few tricks, some unusual sexual tension, and an overabundance of quirk and chaos to help sell her vision to the audience. K-11 is an...

Video
The AVC encoded image (2.40:1 aspect ratio) presentation for K-11 does feature particularly strong fine detail, with facial details a standout, capturing a realistic sense of skin, with make-up particulars on Mousey remain especially vivid. Prison textures are also open for inspection, lending a cold, concrete starkness to the image, showing equal presence with fabrics. Colors are generous, making the most out of deep reds for bloodshed and tattoo ink, while various shades of blue are preserve

Audio
The 5.1 DTS-HD MA sound mix only really expands beyond the front stage for faint incidents involving distance and for echoing prison announcements, rarely engaging the surrounds for any meaningful reason. Dialogue exchanges are locked tightly, sustaining subtle changes in vocal inflection and accent work, while degrees of concern and panic register crisply. The group dynamic is also welcoming and properly arranged. Scoring is largely forgettable, though it never intrudes on the performances. Low

Supplements
Commentary with co-writer/director Jules Stewart and producer Tom Wright, Jr. is a dry affair that struggles to drum up much excitement for the picture. The participants stick closely to technical tidbits, emphasizing the authenticity of the prison setting and the inmate dynamic, also pointing out individual crew efforts, including scoring and sound design. Stewart is in control of the informational flow, and while she delivers a great deal of BTS footage, her energy is lac

Final Words
K-11 is habitually ugly, as Stewart often mistakes extended scenes of suffering and rape for tension, and the revenge-fueled climax resembles sitcom shenanigans, with resolutions coming too easy for the characters. While its an undeniably original look at the prison genre, K-11 is far too messy and unfocused, growing more unbearable and baffling with every directorial and editorial mistake Stewart makes. ...

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The Enforcer (Blu-ray Review)

Thu, 09 May 2013 18:57:15 -0400
Humphrey Bogart, Inc.

Humphrey Bogart was at the end of his long and incredibly fruitful career at Warner Brothers when The Enforcer was released in 1951. Though Bogart had actually been a Fox contract player in the early to mid 1930s, it was his Broadway success in Robert E. Sherwoods The Petrified Forest which brought him to the attention of Warner Brothersthough not necessarily in a good way. When Warner optioned the film rights to the play, they had absolutely no interest in casting Boga...

Video
The Enforcer is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. This is one of the nicer looking catalog releases weve seen lately from Olive, with excellent contrast and an overall nicely detailed image. Robert Burks shadow drenched cinematography is well rendered here, with appealingly dark blacks and well modulated gray scale. Close-ups reveal very good fine object detail. As is typical with these older releases that have not und

Audio
The Enforcers lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track suffices quite well for what is in essence a dialogue driven feature. When the film does have some amped up sonic effects, including things like Ricos perilous fall to his death or, later, a shootout, the track performs reasonably well given appropriate expectations. Things still have a slightly boxy sound, but the midrange is surprisingly full. Theres no real damage to report here. Fidelity is very good, though dynamic

Supplements
No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

Final Words
Humphrey Bogarts swan song with Warner Brothers is a really interesting film. If Martin Rackins screenplay is a little too convoluted for its own good, its fascinating to see a procedural like this one, especially since it so clearly presages current day efforts like Dick Wolfs Law and Order franchise (and how many Law and Order episodes can you count where the cops are trying to keep a nervous witness safe and then have to deal with unexpected consequences?). ...

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Texas Chainsaw 3D (Blu-ray Review)

Thu, 09 May 2013 15:20:55 -0400
That Leatherfacewhat a cutup.

Any horror film aficionado knows its next to impossible to keep a nefarious villain down. Even when it appears the bad guy has expired, its a standard horror trope to have him (or occasionally her) spring suddenly back to life for one last shock before the final credits roll. But a number of horror franchises have taken almost ludicrous steps at times to keep their chief baddie coming back to wreak more havoc, a trend that might even be traced back to one of the most iconic horror fi...

Video
Texas Chainsaw 3D is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with both MVC (3D) and AVC (2D) encoded 1080p transfers in 2.40:1. This is a rather impressive looking high definition presentation, despite lots of tinkering in post that variously color grades several sequences or intentionally distresses others to give them an old appearance. Colors are generally very robust, especially the lurid reds that populate the many chainsaw and mallet sequences. Fine object deta

Audio
Texas Chainsaw 3Ds lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix is expectedly hyperbolic but is no less enjoyable for that fact. The track is of course full to the brim with fantastic panning buzzing effects as Leatherface wields his chainsaw to and fro, and there are the requisite LFE effects meant to provoke startle responses (which they inevitably do). The best sequences in terms of surround activity are two of the chase segments, one where two people are trapped in a barn while Lea

Supplements

Audio Commentaries. Probably the single biggest selling point of this release, at least for Texas Chainsaw completists, will be the various commentaries featured on this disc. All of these have their positive elements, even if occasionally material is repeated among them. Theres a lot of background on the Texas Chainsaw franchise imparted, as well as what was aimed for in this reboot. My own personal favorite was the Tobe Hooper commentary, but al

Final Words
Texas Chainsaw 3D is undeniably laughable some of the time, but it also has some very effective sequences. My hunch is franchise aficionados are going to be split down the middle (hmmm. . .how appropriate) on this release, with some liking (or at least tolerating) this reboot and others hating it down to its bloody guts. Whatever your personal reaction, you may well want to check out this Blu-ray for the really stellar assemblage of supplementary material, including three very i...

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One Hour Photo (Blu-ray Review)

Thu, 09 May 2013 14:25:41 -0400
A picture worth at least 1,000 words.

Think hardwhen was the last time you dropped off a roll of 35mm film at a photo lab for processing and prints? It's probably been close to a decade, as digital cameras first outsold film models around 2003. For a lot of people, even the idea of getting prints made from digital files off of a memory card seems quaint, especially now that smartphones take and export photos directly to those twin repositories of social oversharing, Facebook and Instagram. Our present concept of "privacy"and...

Video
One Hour Photo's 1080p/AVC-encoded Blu-ray debut is somewhat disappointing from a visual standpoint, as it looks so obviously sourced from an old transfer/master. Black and white specks occasionally dot the printthere's been no significant digital cleanup hereand worse, many scenes suffer from what looks like telecine jitter, with the image shaking slightly but very noticeably inside the frame. This isn't camera shake; it's actually most visible during static, locked-down shots th

Audio
On the other hand, the film's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is free of any age or source-related issues and sounds excellent, with great fullness and clarity. Considering the minimal level of out-and-out action in the film, the sound design isn't incredibly intricate or immersive, but the mix nails the basics. Dialogue, most importantly, is always clear and easy to understandno muffling, pops, or peakingand although the track is very front-heavy, effects-wise, there is

Supplements
The film's Blu-ray debut contains all the material from the prior DVD release, along with several new extras curated by Mark Romanek himself. In the extras menu, the supplements are broken down by pre-production, production, and post-production:

Commentary by Mark Romanek and Robin Williams: The director and his starwho's in a more thoughtful and reserved mood here than usualshare a highly informative conversation about the making of the film and the story's underlying

Final Words
A lot has changed about personal photography since One Hour Photo debuted in 2002. We're less private with our photos, for one, and with the advent of Instagram, Sy's assertion that most people don't take snapshots of the little things"the used Band-Aid, the guy at the gas station, the wasp on the Jell-O"rings false, disproved by thousands upon thousands of photos of latte foam and half-eaten sandwiches and other mildly interesting bits of daily minutiae. Still, the film is maybe ...

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Amateur (Blu-ray Review)

Thu, 09 May 2013 04:31:24 -0400

Hal Hartley's "Amateur" (1994) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Artificial Eye. The supplemental features on the disc include cast and crew interviews as well as a standard featurette with additional comments from director Hal Hartley and cast members. In English, without optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked". ...

Video
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Hal Hartley's Amateur arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Artificial Eye.

The Blu-ray release represents a major upgrade in quality over the R1 DVD release of Amateur which Sony Pictures released back in 2003. Excluding some extremely light compression artifacts that occasionally sneak in but never become distracting, the high-definition transfer excels in ever

Audio
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray disc: English LPCM 2.0. For the record, Artificial Eye have not provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.

Amateur is primarily a dialog driven feature. Naturally, dynamic movement in quite limited. The music score by Jeffrey Taylor and Hal Hartley occasionally makes itself felt - mostly during sequences where the gentle piano themes are heard - but it never dramatically alters the film's atmosphere. The

Supplements
Interviews with Cast - Director Hal Hartley, actors Martin Donovan, Damain Young, Isabelle Huppert, Elina Lowensohn, and producer Ted Hope discuss Amateur, its production history and unique characters. In English, not subtitled. (15 min).

Professional Amateurs - The Making of Hal Hartley's "Amateur" - standard featurette with raw footage from the shooting of Amateur. Also included are comments from director Hal Hartley, Mart

Final Words
This is shaping up to be a very special year for fans of director Hal Hartley and his work. In the United Kingdom, Artificial Eye are bringing to Blu-ray Amateur, Simple Men, and The Unbelievable Truth, while in North America Olive Films have upgraded Trus...

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Solti Centenary Concert (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 08 May 2013 20:26:35 -0400

Sir Georg Soltis immortal recording of Der Ring des Nibelungen topped my list of classical Blu-rays last year, even though it was only an audio Blu-ray. Soltis contributions to 20th century classical music are legendary, and with the centenary of Soltis birth last year, fans were treated to two more celebrations. ...

Video
Solti Centenary Concert is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Unitel Classica and ArtHaus Musik with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. While theres nothing horribly wrong with this high definition presentation, it never really pops as strongly as many other contemporary classical Blu-ray releases. The image is sometimes a bit on the soft side and colors tend to be muted.

Audio
Solti Centenary Concert features two excellent sounding audio options, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix and an LPCM 2.0 stereo mix. Both feature excellent fidelity which capably supports both the varied music as well as the spoken interludes. Hall ambience is very nicely rendered in the surround mix.

Supplements

Solti's Vision (1080i; 20:47) profiles Solti's World Orchestra for Peace on the occasion of its fifteenth anniversary.

Final Words
This is a wonderful compendium of pieces which Solti himself considered to be unusually important in his musical history and development. Aided by a stellar cast of guest stars and the fantastic World Orchestra for Peace, and with the really wonderful commentary by Lady Valerie Solti, Solti Centenary Concert is a suitably celebratory outing that helps all classical music lovers to remember just what an iconic figure Solti was. Recommended....

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Mahler: Symphony No. 4 (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 08 May 2013 19:18:19 -0400

Mahler fans have had a field day over the past couple of years with a number of stellar and relatively high profile releases. Topping these has no doubt been the Mahler: Symphonies 1-7 conducted by Claudio Abbado and featuring his hand picked Lucerne Festival Orchestra. Weve also had a more complete cycle of sorts, ...

Video
Mahler Symphony No. 4 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Accentus Music with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. Leipzigs Gewandhaus looks very nice in this high definition presentation, as do the players, many of whom are featured in extreme close-ups that boast very admirable fine detail. Colors are nicely saturated and accurate looking and contrast is strong.

Audio
Mahler Symphony No. 4 features both a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix as well as an uncompressed LPCM 2.0 stereo fold down. Both of these tracks sound excellent, though personally I found the 5.1 mix a little too full of hall ambience at times, especially in the vocal final movement, where Landshamer tends to sound just a little diffused, at least when compared to the more focused 2.0 mix. Otherwise, though, both tracks offer sterling fidelity and good dynamic rang

Supplements

Welte-Mignon includes:

The Welte-Mignon Piano Player Device (1080i; 3:49)

Mahler Plays Mahler, Symphony No. 4, 4th Movement (1080i; 7:38)

Riccardo Chailly on Mahler 4 (1080i; 15:18)

Final Words
There are a lot of Mahler choices out there in the Blu-ray world, but some of the highest profile releases have several pieces, which for Mahler neophytes, may be too much of a good thing. For those wanting to bite off a smaller chunk of Mahlers often gargantuan opuses, this version of the Fourth is appealing and features a really fascinating supplement. Recommended....

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Escape (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 08 May 2013 14:48:13 -0400
Great or merely passable?

Zooming up into the Top 5 of my personal list of favorite filmmaker names, I present: Roar Uthaug. Uthaug became something of an overnight sensation in 2006 when his horror film Cold Prey became a huge success in his native Norway and then went on to enjoy considerable worldwide acclaim (note that the Blu-ray link includes a sequel that Uthaug did not direct). Uthaug was already on the radar of...

Video
Escape is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Entertainment One with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.38:1. Though technical data on this film is a bit hard to come by, my hunch is this was digitally shot, for the film has the smooth ambience of this format as well as the above average fine object detail that usually graces HD native presentations. Quite a bit of color grading has been done to the film, leaving various segments bathed in either blue or amber. The film very artfu

Audio
Escape features Norwegian language tracks in both lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 as well as a pretty abysmal English dub in Dolby Digital 2.0. My advice is to stay far, far away from the English dub, as there appears to have been little to no effort to match dialogue to lip movements. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is quite effective, especially since the film doesnt rely solely on dialogue and has a lot of ambient environmental effects dotting the su

Supplements

Trailer (1080p; 3:01)

The Visual Effects (720p; 2:40). I was quite surprised to see that at least some of this film was green screened (actually blue screened, but who's counting?), as the effects are quite seamless and look completely natural.

Deleted Scenes (1080p; 5:41). Personally I think Uthaug made a mistake by excising some of the early scenes with Signe's family, as that helps to establish some sort of em

Final Words
Escape actually caught me at least a little by surprise. I went into the film expecting little to recommend it, but I found myself unexpectedly caught up in the chase scenario as well as the gorgeous Norwegian countryside that is so remarkably on display throughout the film. This could have been a total knockout had a little more time and care been taken in developing the back stories of the characters, but whats here is often exciting, aided by good direction and some excellen...

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Superman: Unbound (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 08 May 2013 13:29:51 -0400
Entertaining but inconsistent. It's at least a dramatic step up from 'Brainiac Attacks'...

It isn't often that adults get a chance to pull off a real, genuine do-over. We spend our childhoods declaring them, quickly erasing mistakes (often to our friends' helpless frustration) and taking a second, third or sixteenth swing, until we get the results we were hoping for. Later in life, there's failure, failure and still more failure. Screaming "do-over!" in the middle of a business meeting or performance review only elicits strange looks and unscheduled trips to human resources. And...

Video
Superman: Unbound's 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation has its share of issues, and all of them are the usual Warner Bros. Animation suspects. Aliasing pops up throughout. Lines pixelate and the image softens ever so slightly whenever the virtual camera pushes in or pulls out from a hand-drawn element. Mild to moderate macroblocking and banding haunt the backgrounds and, sometimes, the animated characters in the foreground. And the razor-thin line art -- a departure from the thi

Audio
Punch for punch, pound for pound, Superman: Unbound's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is more impressive. While its sound design is limited and a touch two-dimensional -- even for a DCU animated original movie -- I'm not sure its crisp, clear voices, hearty explosions and exciting soundscape could sound much better. The LFE channel is given ample opportunity to show off, with crunching robot heads, erupting flames, alien invasions, sacked cities and more superpowered throw-

Supplements

Audio Commentary: With director/producer James Tucker, screenwriter Bob Goodman and comic industry writer Mike Carlin discuss the film, its production and the original Geoff Johns comic, "Superman: Brainiac," upon which the animated movie was based. No sign of Johns, though, and he's precisely what would make this commentary more interesting.

Brainiac: Technology and Terror (HD,

Final Words
Dynamic animation and terrific voicework can't save Superman: Unbound from its lagging story and somewhat anticlimactic third act. It does make for an entertaining, action-packed 75-minutes, though, so Superman fans will enjoy its punchy popcorn-n-comicbooks sensibilities. Warner's Blu-ray release is hit or miss too, with a problematic video presentation, a commendable DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, and a solid selection of special features. All told, and at such a reason...

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National Parks Exploration Series - Voyageurs National Park - Spirit of the Boundary Waters (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 08 May 2013 12:43:13 -0400
Voyage to Voyageurs.

Allowed to be free.

Mill Creek has done it again with the mouthful-of-a-title National Parks Exploration Series: Voyageurs National Park - Spirit of the Boundary Waters, a simple but well put-together Documentary that highlights one of the United States' most beautiful stretches of land, this one hailing from the northernmost stretches of the nation across the border with Canada, nestled high up on the Minnesota map. For fans familiar with the broad spectrum of ...

Video
National Parks Exploration Series: Voyageurs National Park - Spirit of the Boundary Waters doesn't offer viewers the prettiest high definition experience, but Mill Creek's 1.78:1-framed presentation isn't all bad. It reveals some fantastic details in close-up shots, particularly of the Bog plants and cat tails. Close-ups for various rangers and other interviewees reveal adequate clarity of texturing on faces and clothes. Clumps of trees can look a bit smeary and undefined at medi

Audio
National Parks Exploration Series: Voyageurs National Park - Spirit of the Boundary Waters features a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack that gets the job done, but nothing more. Mill Creek's sound presentation is all about the basics, not clarity or realism. Narration comes through best, with a naturally deep and even and commanding presence. Interviewee dialogue is a little more iffy, largely because of the uncontrolled nature of the sound recording process. Gusty winds and ambient e

Supplements
Mill Creek's Blu-ray release of National Parks Exploration Series: Voyageurs National Park - Spirit of the Boundary Waters contains no supplemental content.

Final Words
Those who have been collecting the National Parks releases -- whether for private consumption, classroom duty, or whatever the case may be -- will definitely want to pick up National Parks Exploration Series: Voyageurs National Park - Spirit of the Boundary Waters. It's not a special release, but it's consistent, in-line with the other Documentaries in the series. And that's a wonderful thing. It doesn't enjoy the best production values, but it's an honest, well-narrated...

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2013 Rose Bowl Presented by Vizio (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 08 May 2013 12:37:37 -0400
The Roses are wilted on Blu-ray.

Everyone loves a good playoff game...except for the BCS, apparently. Every year the debate rages over the validity of the current college football postseason system and the fairly wide demand for an overhauled playoff seeding system. Sure, playing in the Rose Bowl is cool, but having the chance to hoist that National Championship trophy would be even sweeter, even if it meant going through several teams rather than one. But playoffs or no, the grandeur of these top-rated bowl games is ...

Video
Those who watched the game on television will be pleased (or probably saddened, really) to know that this release almost perfectly replicates a watchable but imperfect broadcast source. 2013 Rose Bowl Presented by Vizio rushes onto Blu-ray with a meager MPEG-2 encoded, 1.78:1 high definition transfer that looks like it was pulled off the living room DVR. Unlike the usually excellent WWE releases that often improve, a b

Audio
2013 Rose Bowl Presented by Vizio features a completely uninspired Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. Again, it's simply no better than the broadcast sound. Ambient crowd noise is cramped up the middle and wholly unrealistic, featuring no range and only the most basic clarity. The same may be said of the band music: low-end clarity, no range, no sense of immersion. The good news is that the play-by-play is never forced to compete with the rest of the track, never lost in the shuffle

Supplements
2013 Rose Bowl contains only the post-game trophy presentation ceremony (HD, 10:26). Unlike the National Championship game disc, it's only available through the main menu and is not tacked onto the end of the game. A DVD copy is also included.

Final Words
2013 Rose Bowl Presented by Vizio is a disappointing barebones college football home video presentation, but fans of the Stanford Cardinal will probably want to own it, anyway, but only if the game doesn't still reside on the living room DVR. For those who still have it, it's the same thing, minus commercials and with a basic quarter-by-quarter chapter select. Whether that's worth the cost of the disc is up to each viewer, especially considering the lackluster picture and sound ...

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The Details (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 08 May 2013 10:53:19 -0400
The devil is in these "Details," and he's having a whale of a time with all this mischief.

Life just...went on.

The Details can be as charming as it can be repulsive, as humorous as it can be dark, as likable as it can be despicable. It's a classic "everything spirals out of control" film, a story in which so may little things -- the title "details" -- come together in peculiar ways, and always playing to some emotion tied to the adjectives listed above. That doesn't make it an uneven picture. On the contrary, it knows exactly what it's doing with ever...

Video
The Details features a largely beautiful high definition transfer. Anchor Bay's film-sourced transfer does show one instance of rather noticeable banding across a bright sky and a few soft shots along the way, but otherwise there's zero room for complaint. Details are usually nothing less than striking; there's a variety of shots to open the film -- a platter full of cheese, worm-ridden sod, and so on -- that reveal practically lifelike textures and attention to detail that could

Audio
The Details delivers a balanced, enjoyable, and sometimes immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. There's the expectedly fine music clarity, playing smoothly and evenly across the front with light surround support. Minor ambient effects are also clearly delivered. Chirping birds and other small but mood-critical exterior atmospherics are nicely integrated into the track. More robust interior elements, such as the din of a church service or the reverberations insid

Supplements
The Details contains only an "Alternate Beginning" (SD, 2:06) and an "Alternate Ending" (SD, 4:51).

Final Words
The Details isn't a perfect movie, but it's a solid entry with its value coming in how absurdly it all comes together. The movie blends surprises and predicability nicely, and it's fascinating to watch how all of the varied pieces come together and fall apart. It's a morally empty movie -- even the good deeds often turn out poorly, though characters do often show some doubt and disappointment in themselves and in one another -- but a unique experience that should satisfy more open...

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Stitches (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 08 May 2013 01:41:17 -0400
The last clown you want at your birthday party.

If Stephen King's It gives you nightmares, if the thought of accidentally wandering into a Juggalo convention makes you nauseated, if the image of John Wayne Gacy painted up as Pogo at a birthday party sends shudders down your spineI'd advise you to stay far, far away from Stitches, a deranged Irish horror comedy that invokes the evil clown archetype to full effect. Granted, more people probably say they suffer from coulrophobiathe fear of clownsthan those who legit...

Video
Stitches is a low-budget indie horror movieand looks it, with often flat lighting and low-budget indie horror movie cinematographybut I have no complaints about the film's Blu-ray release, which features a 1080p/AVC presentation that's consistently sharp and free from distractions. Shot digitally, the image does have some inherent source noisemost noticeable in darker scenesbut I didn't spot any major compression artifacts or encode glitches, nor DNR or harsh edge enhancement. T

Audio
Stitches clowns onto Blu-ray with a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track that's rarely noteworthy but doesn't make any obvious aural mistakes either. The sound design is pretty typical for this kind of indie horror movie. Dialogue sits at the forefrontit's always clean and easy to understand, despite the occasionally heavy Irish accentsand the perimeter of the mix is used for ambience and occasional cross-channel movements. Party chatter. Wind and rain and rumbling thun

Supplements
Commentary with Actor Ross Noble and Writer/Director Conor McMahon: The film's director and star have a laugh-filled conversation about the making of the movie; definitely worthwhile for Noble's often hilarious observations about his first feature film appearance.

Making Of (HD, 20:03): A fun, well-paced production documentary with the usual assortment of interviews and behind-the-scenes footage.

Bloopers (HD, 4:13): Your usual assortment

Final Words
I wasn't expecting much from Stitchesthe Blu-ray cover art and general premise don't exactly inspire viewer confidencebut the film is a bloody/funny riff on 1980s-style horror, with over-the-top kills, ridiculous sight gags, and a surplus of black humor from comedian Ross Noble in his first feature film role. I can see the movie amassing a cult audience of low-budget slasher fans, who will appreciate writer/director Conor McMahon's dedication to the genre's best attributes. Curiou...

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The Last Stand (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 08 May 2013 01:07:40 -0400
Stand and deliver.

Whats a former Governator to do when his political career has come to a screeching halt and his former illustrious film career is a mere shadow of its formerly extremely beefy self, both due to the inexorable effects of aging as well as to well publicized personal foibles? Arnold Schwarzenegger has had some major image rehabilitation to undertake after the disastrous announcement of his affair with a longtime housekeeper which had resulted in an illegitimate child, and perhaps wisely A...

Video
The Last Stand is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. This digitally shot feature often looks spectacular on Blu-ray, with appealingly robust colors (which can admittedly verge into lurid territory when some of the blood and guts elements start to be displayed). Fine object detail is excellent and this high definition presentation also boasts superior contrast which helps some of the nighttime sequences to really bristle w

Audio
Zowie. That may not be a technical term, but it may well be the best way to describe The Last Stands incredibly forceful lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, certainly one of the most immersive surround tracks Ive heard so far this year. From the first moments, when the whip pan sound of the Corvette zooming down an abandoned highway zings through the side channels, its clear this film is going to be one heck of a sonic ride. Over and over again well crafted foley effect

Supplements

Not In My Town: Making The Last Stand (1080p; 28:11) is a fairly interesting EPK-fest with interviews and behind the scenes footage. Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura offers several interesting observations.

Cornfield Chaos: Scene Breakdown (1080p; 11:21) takes a look at the great climactic car chase between the two Chevrolets that caps the film.

The Dinkum Firearm & Historic Weaponry Museum Tour (1080p; 11:21) t

Final Words
Theres absolutely nothing new under the blazing Arizona sun in The Last Stand, but I was actually a little shocked at how breezily entertaining this film is. Its often quite gruesomely violent, but it has the requisite Schwarzenegger-esque sense of humor (replete with lame one liners) and the action is impeccably well staged. Youll see virtually every plot point coming from a mile (or more) off, but chances are you wont really care all that much because theres enough mayhem t...

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Wuthering Heights (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 08 May 2013 00:20:25 -0400
Brontë Laid Bare

A swoon-worthy story of mis-fated love on the foggy Yorkshire moors, Emile Brontë's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights was practically written cinema-ready, primed for big screen frock drama adaptation with all the bells and whistlesthe sweeping romance, the lavish costumes, the manners and manors and libido-surging sexual repression. It most memorably got this treatment with director William Wyler's 1937 film, starring Laurence Olivier as the byronic hero Heathcliff and Merle Oberon as ...

Video
The first thing you'll probably notice about Wuthering Heights is the decisionsomewhat unusual nowadaysto frame the picture in the old Academy ratio of 1.33:1, which results in black bars on the sides of a widescreen 16:9 television. (Unlike the U.K. Blu-ray release, Oscilloscopes version is also slightly windowboxed, with black bars on the top and bottom as well, perhaps to prevent overscan issues.) In an interview with indiewire.com, Arnold says she prefers this ratio "because

Audio
The other thing that separates Wuthering Heights from the usual frock drama aesthetic is that there's no score here to help us understand how to feel about any given scene. Instead, Arnold relies strictly on the natural sounds of her characters' environment. Thankfully, the sound design encoded in a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround trackis excellent from start to finish, with immersive ambience filling in the sometimes long gaps between moments of conversation. Rain pours

Supplements
Video Essay with Film Critic David Fear (HD, 19:37): Time Out New York critic David Fear discusses the history of the novel and its previous cinematic adaptations, eventually focusing on Arnold's film, its themes, and its "you-are-there verite style." Essentially, an essay set to stills and footage from the film. Well worth watching.

Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2:05)

Oscilloscope Releases: Trailers for The Law, Four Lovers

Final Words
Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights is not your normal Victorian Women's Lit 101 adaptationall superfluous period piece frippery has been burned away, leaving a scorched earth of raw emotion and ugly social realities. It's not what you might call easy viewing, but it's alive and real in a way that view films of this genre are, all while staying true to the themes and conflicts of Emily Brontë's novel. This is one of 2011's best filmsfrom the ragged performances to the spartan script...

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Back to 1942 (Blu-ray Review)

Tue, 07 May 2013 20:42:03 -0400
The war on hunger.

My wifes parents come out to Oregon every year to spend a few months with us (well, mostly with her, but I digress). This year they ended up staying at a high end retirement community that had separate apartments which were rentable for people just like my in-laws who were coming in for a few weeks and who didnt want a long term commitment. A nice side benefit to this arrangement is that as residents, my in-laws were able to take advantage of all the activities this place af...

Video
Back to 1942 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. This is a curiously bland looking high definition presentation, one that offers very good fine object detail but which has been desaturated to a point where it almost seems like its a colorized black and white film. The CGI here is kind of middling as well, looking pretty soft and offering unconvincing animation at times, especially when it comes to things like flames. Th

Audio
Back to 1942 features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix in the original Mandarin. (I should point out that I am going by what Well Go USA has listed on the Blu-ray and this label has made errors before in misidentifying Cantonese as Mandarin. As I am not a native Chinese speaker, I must defer to this information until or unless a native Chinese speaker can tell me otherwise.) Fidelity is excellent throughout this track and surround activity is also quite consistent. The fil

Supplements

Trailer (1080p; 1:37)

Final Words
Back to 1942 has many compelling elements, especially for those who are interested in the history of World War II and/or China, but it really fails to connect on a fundamental heart level, at least until the closing moments. There are some huge set pieces here which will probably satisfy epic lovers (despite some less than fantastic CGI elements), and the basic story is certainly worthy of attention, but theres a strange distance to this film that keeps many of the characters at a...

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Upstream Color (Blu-ray Review)

Tue, 07 May 2013 19:18:23 -0400
The grub of life.

Have you ever had a dream where you keep dreaming that youve woken up, only to realize youre still dreaming, only now youre dreaming youre awake? This Chinese nesting box of consciousness may be about the only way to adequately impart the hallucinogenic and disorienting qualities of writer-director Shane Carruths impressive yet unfathomable Upstream Color. Carruth seems well positioned to be another Terrence Malick, at least in terms of constructing labyrinthine and often i...

Video
Upstream Color is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of New Video Group with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.34:1. This digitally shot feature has been intentionally bled of color for much of its exterior footage, while shots of whats going on inside the bodies are often vivid and brightly hued. Fine detail is exceptional, though Carruth tends to favor shallow focus, which means that sometimes things go slightly soft and fuzzy at times due to what appears to focus being

Audio
Upstream Color features lossless DTS-HD Master Audio mixes in both 5.1 and 2.0. I highly recommend listening to the 5.1 mix if your home theater setup allows for it, as this film has a really subtle and evocative mix. This is not in your face (and/or ears) mix, but it features some fascinating foley effects that often segue into each other. A perfect example is when Jeff is pulling the paper sleeves off the straws and the crinkling sound of the papers being fold

Supplements
No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

Final Words
Im tempted to say Carruths ultimate point in Upstream Color is to show us that were stronger together than separately, no matter how alien we may feel or whatever wounds were trying to heal. That may be way too reductive for a film this intentionally provocative, but it probably suffices as well as any other generic answer to the all important question What does this movie mean? Disengage your rational mind when you watch Upstream Color and simply le...

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Barrymore (Blu-ray Review)

Tue, 07 May 2013 12:10:36 -0400
Oh What a Noble Mind Is Here O'erthrown!

John Barrymore was a handsome rogue, an impossible scoundrel, a habitual drunkard and one of the greatest actors that America ever produced. Equally at home on stage or screen, Barrymore was born into a famous theatrical family and, after dabbling in painting, continued what he called "the family business" as an actor. So did his brother Lionel (best known today as Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life) and...

Video
Shot on hi-def video by cinematographer Bernard Couture, a frequent collaborator of director Erik Canuel, Barrymore arrives in a first-class 1080p, AVC-encoded presentation from Image Entertainment that captures the tiniest flicker of star Christopher Plummer's precisely calibrated performance. The blacks in this image are deep and solid, and the shadow detail is precisely delineated so that Canuel's and Couture's artful use of shadows in the wingswhich is crucial to the expanded

Audio
Barrymore's original 5.1 soundtrack is provided as lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1, and it's a far more active affair than one might expect from such a dialogue-driven film. Because Frank's lines are delivered from the wings, good stereo separation is essential. Depending on the perspective of the moment, his voice issues from either the left or the right, while Barrymore remains in the middle. In one memorable sequence, Barrymore insists that Frank switch to the other side, and we hear him

Supplements

Backstage with Barrymore (1080p; 1.78:1; 58:53): This substantial and detailed documentary covers two subjects. The first is the history of the play and film Barrymore, from its initial Broadway production through its Toronto revival and filming. Included are extensive interviews with the entire creative team, including Plummer, Canuel, stage director Gene Saks and playwright William Luce. The second subject is an artistic biography of Plummer

Final Words
Rarely has a singular theatrical performance been translated to the screen and preserved with such care as in Barrymore. The usual method of setting up multiple cameras to record a live performance is better than nothing, but seldom does one experience such care in redesigning the makeup, sets, costumes and even the performances for the camera so that the drama can unfold cinematically with an effect that approximates its live impact. In this instance, such a record is especially c...

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Fringe: The Complete Fifth Season (Blu-ray Review)

Tue, 07 May 2013 10:46:36 -0400
All good things must come to an end...

I think it's time we, the insatiable, network-bashing citizens of geekdom, start asking ourselves a few tough questions, even though it calls for a bit of devil's advocating and a willingness to risk being branded a heretic in the Fringe forum thread. So brace yourselves accordingly, dear readers. In a survival-of-the-fittest television ecosystem, is mid-series cancellation always the worst fate that can befall a struggling show? How often does the final season of a beloved classic ...

Video
Much like its predecessors, Fringe: The Complete Fifth and Final Season arrives on Blu-ray with a strong but less-than- ideal video presentation with a few notable flaws. Crush is rampant, delineation is quite uncompromising and noise spikes somewhat erratically on occasion. None of it amounts to a significant distraction -- especially since the series' hyper-exposed palette and stark contrast leveling is the chief culprit in each instance -- but clarity still takes a hit as darkness

Audio
Warner's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is easily the series' best audio mix to date; fierce and aggressive when called upon, attentive and diligent at all times, and delicate whenever subtlety and a gentle touch is required. Dialogue is clean, clear and intelligible at all times, regardless of how intense or violent our heroes' predicament becomes, and effects are presented with style. Wet, fleshy gore increases the ick factor of key scenes dramatically, rippling implosions

Supplements

Audio Commentary: Executive producer J.H. Wyman and editor Jon Dudkowski deliver a serviceable overview of "Black Blotter" and the series' run, touching on bits and pieces of the rest of the season as well. Unfortunately, The Complete Fifth and Final Season is somewhere in the neighborhood of twelve commentaries too short. It would have been far more exciting to have at least one commentary per episode and to hear from more of the c

Final Words
Fringe's fifth and final season left me a bit too cold, and Olivia, Peter, Walter and Astrid were my only solace. The story was too one-dimensional for the series, the setups too repetitive, the payoffs too predictable and the mysteries too contrived. Even so, the character beats stand as some of the show's finest, and I shed a tear or two by series end. On the whole, Wyman and company brought things to a decent close. Just not a great one. Warner's Blu-ray release is much better, s...

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Pierre Etaix (Blu-ray Review)

Tue, 07 May 2013 04:08:54 -0400

The films of Pierre Etaix arrive on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The two-disc set includes "Rupture" (1961), "Happy Anniversary" (1962), "The Suitor" (1962), "Yoyo" (1965), "As Long As You've Got Your Health" (1966), "Feeling Good" (1966), "Le Grand Amour" (1969), and "Land of Milk and Honey" (1971). The supplemental features on this release include video introductions to the films by Pierre Etaix, as well as Odile Etaix's documentary film "Pierre Etaix, Un destine anime" (2011). The releas...

Video
Encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted 1080p transfers, the Pierre Etaix films arrive on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. (Each film, including the shorts, has a progressive transfer).

The screencaptures used with this review appear in the following order:

1. Screencaptures #1-4 are from Rupture
2. Screencaptures #5-9 are from Happy Anniversary
3. Screencaptures #10-19 are from The Suitor
4. Screencaptures #19-23 are from Yoyo
5.

Audio
There are seven standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release. (See listings below). For each film, Criterion have included optional English subtitles. (The intertitles on Yoyo are also subtitled).

1. Rupture: French Dolby Digital 1.0.
2. Happy Anniversary: French Dolby Digital 1.0.
3. The Suitor: French LPCM 1.0.
4. Yoyo: French LPCM 1.0
5. As Long As You've Got Your Health: French LPCM 1.0.
6. Feeling Good:

Supplements
Pierre Etaix, Un destine anime - a documentary film focusing on Pierre Etaix's career and acting technique. Completed by the legendary actor's wife, Odile Etaix, in 2011, the documentary features interviews with his son Marc Etaix, screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Blu-ray.com

The Men (Blu-ray Review)

Mon, 06 May 2013 20:18:45 -0400
Wounded Warrior Project, circa 1950.

The airwaves are currently full of some heart wrenching commercials for the Wounded Warrior Project, a laudable outfit that helps to provide rehabilitation and support services to our many returning veterans who have suffered unimaginable injuries, as well as to their families which must attempt to pick up the shattered pieces of their loved ones' lives. Wounded Warrior was formed in 2002, which begs the question as to how we as a nation cared for servicemen and women injured in confl...

Video
The Men is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. The elements used for this transfer are in generally very good condition, though theres a bit of print through thats especially obvious in the early going. There are the expected number of small blemishes and scratches that show up from time to time, but otherwise this high definition presentation features really solid contrast and a decently sharp and well defined image. No

Audio
The Men features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track that ably supports this quiet, dialogue driven film. Theres a rather atypical score by Dimitri Tiomkin (Tiomkin of course would join Kramer, Zinnemann and Foreman on High Noon in a couple of years) which features an unusual opening theme consisting completely of paradiddles on the snare drum and other percussive effects. Tiomkins score sounds just a tad brittle once it segues into more traditional orchestral m

Supplements
No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

Final Words
The Men was quite a bit ahead of its time and in its own way presages much later films like the Jon Voigt Jane Fonda outing Coming Home. The film manages some fairly weighty subjects with appropriate depth and seriousness, but its also surprisingly spry and uplifting quite a bit of the time. Anyone who can make it through the final moments with Brando and Wright without a lump in their throat is a better man (or woman) than I. This Blu-ray features very good video and...

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A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan IIl (Blu-ray Review)

Mon, 06 May 2013 18:55:53 -0400
Sunset Kingdom.

Theres been a long running custom in American sitcoms that when a supposedly major star deigns to matriculate to the small screen, quite often the character he or she is playing is given the same first name as the performer. This goes back to the halcyon days of such fare as I Love Lucy, but it has continued unabated through the intervening decades. Its as if show creators are hedging their bets that audiences wont cotton to an actor in a format like this playing a role w...

Video
A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. As Roman Coppola makes clear in his commentary on this Blu-ray, this film was digitally shot on a fairly meager budget, and it appears that several scenes were done utilizing natural light. With that in mind, some of the dank interiors of Charlies home look a little underwhelming, without sufficient contrast or shadow detail. Otherwise

Audio
A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III features a nicely done lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that really springs to life in the films fantasy sequences, whether those be the song and dance segments or some of the more outlandish imaginary moments, as when Charlie and Kirby face a gaggle of scantily clad Native American women. Surround activity is fairly consistent in these sequences. Dialogue is clean and always prioritized front and center, and the wonderful song

Supplements

A Glimpse Behind the Glimpse: Making the Mind of Charles Swan III (1080p; 24:54) is a surprisingly interesting piece that has some good interviews with Coppola and how some of the graphic art of the seventies inspired the film.

A Glimpse Into the Mind of Charles White III (1080p; 12:10) is another interesting piece on one of the real life graphic artists whose work inspired Coppola.

Commentary with Writer/Director Roman Cop

Final Words
Maybe my expectation bar was simply set awfully low to begin with, but I found a lot of A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III really rather enjoyable. Is it self indulgent? Undoubtedly. Is it too precious for its own good? Absolutely. Has Charlie Sheen completely worn out whatever limited welcome was left to him? No comment. But Coppola is a filmmaker still finding his way, and a certain amount of slack should be granted him while he develops hi...

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The Hoax (Blu-ray Review)

Mon, 06 May 2013 14:38:08 -0400
The Madoff of Biography

Richard Gere may be best known for playing heroes and romantic leads, but his best performances have been as rogues and villains. The corrupt cop in Internal Affairs, the ethically challenged lawyers in Chicago and Primal Fear and his breakthrough appearan...

Video
Shot by British DP Oliver Stapleton (The Guilt Trip) and finished on a digital intermediate, The Hoax is presented in a 1080p, AVC-encoded presentation that is one of Echo Bridge's better efforts. Presumably sourced from digital files, the master reveals a substantial amount of natural grain and fine detail in such demanding scenes as the masked ball where Irving receives the bad news about his nove

Audio
The film's original soundtrack is presented as lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1. The Hoax is a dialogue-driven film, but the dialogue reflects some interesting editing choices that become more pronounced as the film progresses and Clifford Irving's mental state deteriorates under the growing stress. Voices are sometimes in his imagination and sometimes real, and the sound editing plays tricks on the ear so that you don't always know which is which. Individual sound effects such as the pop o

Supplements
Echo Bridge has included some, but not all, of the features that accompanied The Hoax on Miramax's 2007 DVD. Omitted is a second commentary with producers Leslie Holleran and Joshua D. Maurer, and a featurette entitled "Mike Wallace 'Reflections on a Con'".

Commentary with Director Lasse Hallström and Screenwriter William Wheeler: Hallström and Wheeler chat amiably, alternating between comments on specific scenes and more general exchanges

Final Words
Compared to the era depicted in The Hoax, our current age of instant digital communication has made people both more skeptical and more credulousmore credulous, because the vaguest rumor or least reliable scrap of information can be instantly Googled, re-Tweeted and consumed worldwide within a matter of hours before anyone has had time to vet it; and more skeptical, because so many reports of that nature have turned out to be incomplete, misleading, outdated or just plain false. A...

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The Assassin's Blade (Blu-ray Review)

Sun, 05 May 2013 21:29:27 -0400
Romeo and Mulan-iet.

The Assassins Blade is evidently based on an ancient Chinese folktale known as The Butterfly Lovers (the original Westernized title of the film itself), but anyone with even a passing familiarity with either Romeo and Juliet or Disneys Mulan will certainly recognize a number of elements that are shared between these disparate offerings. While the original legend of The Butterfly Lo...

Video
The Assassins Blade is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Having never seen this film in its theatrical exhibition, I cant really comment with any precision as to whether this Blu-ray recreates its cinematic appearance, but I can say there are some kind of strange anomalies going on here. While its obvious the film has been very aggressively color graded at the DI stage, often to the ever popular blue side of

Audio
The Assassins Blades lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix in the original Cantonese has bursts of fantastic surround activity but then tends to retreat (or advance as the case may be) to the front channels for most of the dialogue sequences. Since this isnt a no holds barred wuxia-fest, those who want their soundtracks filled with nonstop immersion and LFE are most likely going to be at least minimally disappointed with the rather restrained affair on tap here, but fideli

Supplements

Trailer (480i; 1:07)

Final Words
The Assassins Blade would have done better to have focused either on the love story or the martial arts angle rather than trying this ill fitting hodgepodge of ideas. The stars are charismatic, but the comedy isnt very funny, the action is too sporadic, and the love story never exciting enough to warrant much interest. The film is often quite lovely to look at, but this is a folktale that perhaps suffers from having been lost in translation. Still, those who don't mind an uneas...

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In the Name of the Father (Blu-ray Review)

Sun, 05 May 2013 20:54:33 -0400
That was then, this is now.

It probably goes without saying that Daniel Day-Lewis is among the most esteemed actors of his generation, and some might argue that he is the most esteemed actor of his generation. Day-Lewis became the only performer to have won three Best Actor Academy Awards when he was feted this year for Lincoln (trivia buffs will know that Walter Brennan won three Best Supporting Actor Oscars and Katharine Hepb...

Video
In the Name of the Father is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Studios with a VC-1 encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Perhaps surprisingly given that this is a Universal catalog release, it has not been DNRd to death, and fine grain is still quite evident throughout this presentation. The biggest issue some may have with this transfer is what appears to be slight fading of the elements, something that often reduces flesh tones to pallid pinks. The image here is no

Audio
In the Name of the Father features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that tends to focus dialogue front and center but which offers some surprisingly immersive surround activity both courtesy of foley effects as well as the nice score (some songs were co-written by Bono). Theres some floorboard shaking LFE in two brief bursts early in the film, but otherwise dynamic range is fairly muted. The scenes in the prison have some really well rendered effects that ably recreate bo

Supplements
Unfortunately, there are no supplements on the disc. There isn't even a main menu; the film simply starts and then utilizing the Pop Up Menu offers a few options.

Final Words
Wow. As devastating as it is to relive the horrors the Conlons went through, what I personally couldnt help keep thinking about is our current state of affairs, as our own government wrestles with how to deal with terrorists, and the citizenry at large is involved in a fierce debate about how terrorists should be treated. Sadly, the more things change, the more they stay the same, perhaps all the more reason to revisit In the Name of the Father, which features one of Day-Lewis m...

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Bandolero! (Blu-ray Review)

Sun, 05 May 2013 17:31:44 -0400

Andrew V. McLaglen's "Bandolero!" (1968) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Swiss label Explosive Media. The supplemental features on the disc include original English and German trailers, standard making of featurette, and a gallery of stills from the film. In English, with optional German subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free. ...

Video
Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Andrew V. McLaglen's Bandolero! arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Swiss label Explosive Media.

This is the first release from Explosive Media to reach my desk and I must say that I am extremely impressed by the presentation (the packaging is just as impressive). The high-definition transfer is absolutely wonderful. Excluding a couple of tiny specs, it is about as good as it could have b

Audio
There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 2.0 and German LPCM 2.0. For the record, Explosive Media have provided optional German subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they split the image frame and the black bar below it.

The lossless English track opens up the film very well in all the right places. The shootouts are appropriately intense while the dialog is always well rounded and stable. Legendary composer Jerry Goldsmith's orchestral scor

Supplements
Note: All of the supplemental features are perfectly playable on North American Blu-ray machines, including the PS3.

Trailer - original English-language trailer for Bandolero!. In English, not subtitled. (3 min, 1080p).

Trailer - original German-language trailer for Bandolero!. In German, not subtitled. (3 min, 1080p).

Raquel! - Making of - in this featurette, George Kenn

Final Words
The beautiful Raquel Welch and the terrific panoramic footage are the two main reasons why one would want to see Andrew V. McLaglen's western Bandolero!. Considering the impressive cast, I think that it could have been a far better film, but I cannot say I was disappointed. In fact, Bandolero! is just about the perfect film to see on a lazy Sunday afternoon. On the other hand, the technical presentation is very impressive. This is the first release from Swiss label Explosive Media ...

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Cloud Atlas (Blu-ray Review)

Sat, 04 May 2013 23:59:53 -0400
"Our lives are not our own..."

Well you certainly can't fault filmmakers Tom Tykwer and Lana and Andy Wachowski for lack of ambition. Based on the supposedly unfilmable David Mitchell novel of the same name, in production for more than four years, and independently financed to the tune of $100 million, Cloud Atlas is a sprawling, initially impenetrable, five-century epic involving no less than six interconnected storylines, six distinct time periods, and more than sixty characters played by a dozen actors, some of whom...

Video
With nearly four hours of high definition content on a single disc, I was worried the film's video presentation might suffer, if only a bit. Thankfully, Warner's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer doesn't show signs of having made any significant concessions. Colors are warm and beautifully saturated, with exceedingly lifelike skintones, pleasing earthtones, genteel primaries and rich, inky blacks. Contrast is consistent and well balanced too, delineation is quite good (barring some minor crush), and de

Audio
Though subdued on the whole, Warner's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track delivers on its promises, capturing the subtlety of the film's quietest exchanges and the power of its most fearsome sequences. Cloud Atlas is, above all, an ensemble driven drama, and dialogue is prioritized accordingly, and perfectly at that. Voices and clear and intelligible, whispers aren't left by the wayside and frightened shouts pierce even the most chaotic post-apocalyptic soundscape. LFE output demonstra

Supplements
The Blu-ray edition of Cloud Atlas offers seven "Focus Point" featurettes (HD, 55 minutes), providing a decent but less-than-extensive overview of the film and production. There's quite a bit of repetition and overlap, sadly, but there's enough behind-the-scenes threads and tidbits to amount to a reasonably satisfying documentary. More forthcoming, fly-on-the-wall extras, a pair of cast and crew commentaries or a Maximum Movie Mode would have all been welcome and wonderful additions to th

Final Words
Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others, past and present.

Cloud Atlas is a must-see film, fatally flawed as it is. Love it or loathe it, it's an experience that demands exploration and discussion. It's also an experience that demands multiple viewings, and I'd suggest locking yourself into watching it at least two times, either before mistaking its ambition for brilliance or dismissing it outright. Fortunately, Warner's Blu-ray release makes...

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Starlet (Blu-ray Review)

Sat, 04 May 2013 23:56:04 -0400
Star '13.

Note: It's next to impossible to discuss Starlet without at least hinting at one major plot development which might be considered a spoiler. I've tried mightily not to divulge this plot point outright, but for those of you who are "good at guessing" and don't want the surprise spoiled, it's probably best to skip the main review (and even the supplements section) and simply focus on the technical aspects of the review.

Mariel Hemingway received an Academy Awa...

Video
Starlet is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Music Box Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. This digitally shot feature has been intentionally tweaked in post in rather interesting ways. Color has been drained to the point that fleshtones are typically almost white a lot of the time, but otherwise the film is bathed in a rather ironic golden hue for vast swaths of its running time, something considerably at odds with the lifestyles being portrayed. Fine object detai

Audio
Starlet has both lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master 2.0 audio options available. The 5.1 mix comes nicely alive in some of the group scenes, but also provides a nice sense of aural depth even in scenes like the one where Jane is in the kitchen discovering the money while Melissa and Mikey are in the background arguing. Theres quite a bit of source music cues utilized throughout the film, and those spill into the surrounds very effectively. An evening out clubbing

Supplements

Feature Audio Commentary includes co-writers Chris Bergoch and Sean Baker (who also directed and edited), along with Dree Hemingway, Stella Maeve, producer Blake Ashman-Kipervaser, cinematographer Radium Cheung. This was obviously a very personal experience for the cast and crew and that comes through quite clearly. This seems to have perhaps been recorded separately and then edited with Baker serving as moderator, but its woven together pretty seamlessly and works extre

Final Words
Starlet is a film that plays it close to the vest quite a bit of the time, so much so that you might think nothing much is happening until suddenly a shocking revelation about an hour into the film puts everything in a decidedly new light (this sequence is not for the puritans out there). But despite the shock value of that scene (whose use is at least questionable), the film is more about the touching relationship between Jane, a kind of lost soul, and Sadie, a woman with a...

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The Rabbi's Cat (Blu-ray Review)

Sat, 04 May 2013 23:15:51 -0400
Cat got your tongue?

Jews dont like dogs? Perish the thought! Now in full disclosure mode Im only half Jewish but I have never been without at least one dog for more than a few days for my entire life (and for most of my adult life Ive always had two), and my wife, who is completely Jewish, is exactly the same. Of course when the titular character of the charming French animated film The Rabbis Cat makes the point in some early narration that Jews dont like d...

Video
The Rabbis Cat is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of New Video Group with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. New Video has brought out some really unusual looking animated fare lately, including Tales of the Night, A Cat in Paris and the especially lovely Blu-ray.com

Best of the Best: Without Warning (Blu-ray Review)

Sat, 04 May 2013 14:12:15 -0400
Warning: it's actually a decent time killer.

Movies like Best of the Best: Without Warning rightly or wrongly fade into obscurity as quickly as they bleep onto and vanish off of the figurative radar screens of only the most dedicated cinephiles or those who just happened to be in the right video store rental section at the right time when the movie was released straight to home video back in the day when VHS tapes still lined the shelves and were still the top delivery device for the masses for watching a movie at home. Be...

Video
Best of the Best: Without Warning arrives on Blu-ray with an acceptable (for the cost) but underwhelming (in the grand scheme of things) high definition presentation. The image is largely clean, with little in the way of distracting dirt and scratches, but it's also very flat, quite bland, and only adequately detailed. There are some soft shots intermixed throughout, and a few look almost artificially zoomed in. Razor-sharpness? Forget it, but the uptick in resolution does at lea

Audio
Best of the Best: Without Warning features a bland, unimpressive DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack. From the start, it's clear that audio was a low priority with this release. There's very little in the way of realism or accuracy. While there's a decent general presence to the whirring helicopter from film's beginning, there's not much vigor to the effect and only modest spacing, no surprise given the two-channel constraints. Gunshots -- even shotgun blasts and magnum

Supplements
This Blu-ray release of Best of the Best: Without Warning contains no supplemental content.

Final Words
Best of the Best: Without Warning doesn't redefine the DTV Action flick -- if anything it reinforces many of the negatives surrounding such films by falling straight in line with every linear element and cliché available -- but it does deliver good, basic entertainment with several familiar faces popping up throughout. The film benefits largely from Phillip Rhee's knowledgeable, albeit very straightforward, direction and, more, his understanding of the sort of flow and structure a ...

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Parker (Blu-ray Review)

Sat, 04 May 2013 12:11:46 -0400
Follow your code and buy the Blu-ray.

We don't steal from people who can't afford it, and we don't hurt people that don't deserve it.

Sounds noble, right? Like in a Robin Hood-ish sort of way? Well, stealing is stealing, hurting is hurting, loss is loss, suffering is suffering, blood on the ground is blood on someone's hands, be the victim sinner or saint, wealthy snob or blue collar working stiff. Different moral strokes for different sorts of folks, but as Parker is about to discover, there's a whole lot of...

Video
Parker looks quite good on Blu-ray. The video source often passes for film quality, producing only the occasional hint of excess flatness and glossiness associated with some of the lower end digital productions. As with the best of the HD photography pictures, Parker's Blu-ray transfer reveals some amazing details and eye-popping colors. The opening fairgrounds is a playground for both. The clarity and definition around the frame -- whether close-up shots of fairgoers and

Audio
With Parker, Sony has delivered another wonderful lossless soundtrack. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 presentation delivers a wide, full sound, making natural use of every speaker in the configuration and oftentimes immersing the listening audience in the environments and mayhem of the film. In general, this is a fine, balanced track, one that's very smooth, very even, and enjoys a solid low end support to give definition and body to the other elements. The opening fairgrounds seque

Supplements
Parker contains a commentary track and a handful of featurettes.

Audio Commentary: Director Taylor Hackford begins by speaking on the written source material and his draw to the project. He goes on to discuss the script; casting; filming locations in both Ohio and, primarily, Louisiana; tricks of the trade; the score; and plenty more. Though he covers many basic ideas, Hackford colors in the details better than most commen

Final Words
Parker is a fairly straightforward Action flick that plays to Statham's strengths. It's gritty, bloody, and hits very hard. In that way, it's not all that different from his other films, but it does feel a little more streamlined, less cartoonish than some and a little more uncompromising than others. It's a solid, ultra-dependable Action flick that won't redefine the genre or go down as a classic, but it should withstand the test of time as a movie genre fans will look to in t...

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Baron Blood (Blu-ray Review)

Sat, 04 May 2013 05:52:41 -0400

Mario Bava's "Gli orrori del castello di Norimberga" a.k.a "Baron Blood" (1972) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Arrow Video. The release includes three versions of the film; original English and Italian trailers; video introduction by journalist and Italian horror expert Alan Jones; radio spots; video interview with Italian director uggero Deodato; production stills; and audio commentary with Mario Bava expert Tim Lucas. The release also arrives with a 22-page illustrated...

Video
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.74:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Mario Bava's Baron Blood arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Arrow Video.

Please note that the screencaptures included with our review appear in the following order:

1. Screencaptures #1-9 are from the longer Export Version.
2. Screencaptures #10-19 are from the shorter AIP Version.

The basics here are intact. Despite the fact that there is so

Audio
There are three audio tracks on this Blu-ray release. The Export Version and the AIP Version come with English LPCM 2.0 tracks, while the Italian-language version, Gli orrori del castello di Norimberga, comes with an Italian LPCM 2.0 track. The Export Version and the AIP Version also come with optional English SDH subtitles, while the Italian version comes with optional English subtitles.

The English LPCM 2.0 tracks are fairly similar. Overall dynamic intensity is limited, but

Supplements
AIP Version - the shorter AIP version of Baron Blood with an alternative score by Les Baxter. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles. (91 min, 1080p).

Gli orrori del castello di Norimberga - the Italian version of Baron Blood, with Italian opening and closing credits. In Italian, with optional English subtitles. (98 min, 1080p).

Introduction - a short introduction to Mario Bava's <

Final Words
It is easy to tell when a company cares. Like the Blu-ray release of Mario Bava's Black Sunday, this new release of the Italian director's Baron Blood is a labor of love. A simple look at the booklet that is included with it tells the whole story. I really cannot wait to see all the great releases Arrow Video have already announced, because there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that they will be specia...

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Cloak and Dagger (Blu-ray Review)

Fri, 03 May 2013 21:47:04 -0400
The spy who loved.

Years ago I was given a very rare kinescope of an old Studio One broadcast from 1958, and it came replete with its original commercials. The show was sponsored by Westinghouse and along with the demonstrations by Betty Furness of the latest in home appliances, there was one truly hilarious yet disturbing advertisement for nuclear power where a nattily dressed gentleman came out and while pointing to a certain item in his hand said, With just one shoebox of plutonium, ...

Video
Cloak and Dagger is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. There are significant improvements to virtually all areas of the image from the old DVD, most especially telecine wobble which has been virtually eliminated (my sense is some program was used that shifts the image frame by frame, as there is one really odd moment early in the film when the Nazi spies are rushing up a spiral staircase and it looks like the entire s

Audio
Cloak and Daggers lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track sounds surprisingly full for its age, especially with regard to Max Steiners rousing score, which runs rampant with blaring brass cues. Dialogue comes through very cleanly and the battle scenes have some nice boisterous sounding effects. Fidelity is very good and dynamic range is quite wide.

Supplements
No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

Final Words
Cloak and Dagger is a fascinating example of an artists intentions being thwarted by those with a different agenda (which might be something as simple as making money). Still, some of (soon to be blacklisted) Ring Lardner, Jr. and Albert Maltzs original formulation, along with Langs pacifist vision, manage to sneakif only barelyinto this finished product. If Cooper is a bit ill at ease, and the role itself is patently ridiculous, thats more than made up for by the lovely wor...

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Night of the Scarecrow (Blu-ray Review)

Fri, 03 May 2013 18:44:20 -0400
It's not nice to fool Mother Nature.

Thomas Tryon was an actor of some note in the fifties and sixties who is probably best remembered for his starring roles in The Cardinal and The Longest Day. Tryon really seemed to hit his stride, though, as an author, penning the huge 1971 bestseller The Other, which was turned into a haunting 1972 film by Robert Mulligan (a film that would lookcourtesy of its beautiful cinematography by Robert L. Surteesand soundcourtesy of its gorgeous Jerry Goldsmith scorefa...

Video
Night of the Scarecrow is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is a very nice looking high definition transfer that only has one or two very minor issues to report. The elements are in very good condition, as befits a work of relatively recent vintage (that is, compared to a lot of Olives older catalog releases), and colors are nicely robust and very accurate looking. The image is nicely detailed and some of the close-

Audio
Night of the Scarecrow features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix that offers some surprising spatial ambience despite its overall narrow confines. Right off the bat in the opening sequence theres unexpected depth to the sound of the crow cawing and the encroaching underscore. Dialogue is presented cleanly (though the Scarecrows guttural utterances can be a bit hard to make out at times). The John Williams-esque score also sounds fine. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic

Supplements

Audio Commentary. Dan Griffith of Ballyhoo Productions hosts director Jeff Burr in this enjoyable commentary. Burr is full of great anecdotes as well as technical information throughout the commentary.

Featurette (480i; 2:51) is a brief making of outing which includes a look at the makeup and special effects. This was obviously sourced from an old videotape master and has some tracking problems.

Gallery (1080p; 8:14)
Final Words
Night of the Scarecrow only has one or two really cheap scares. The rest are rather well crafted and the Scarecrow is a really spooky manifestation of long dormant evil. The film gets a little too hyperbolic for its own good in its final chase showdown sequence, but thats a small price to paid for so much (admittedly pretty gruesome) fun. This Blu-ray features great looking video and sounding audio, and unlike most Olive releases, this one actually has some suppl...

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Scanners (Blu-ray Review)

Thu, 02 May 2013 23:58:07 -0400

David Cronenberg's "Scanners" (1981) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Second Sight Films. The supplemental features on the disc include video interviews with actor Stephen Lack, cinematographer Mark Irwin, executive producer Pierre David, make up effects artist Stephan Dupuis, and actor Lawrence Dane. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked". ...

Video
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, David Cronenberg's Scanners arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Second Sight Films.

The high-definition transfer is virtually identical to the one Australian distributors Umbrella Entertainment used for their Blu-ray release of this cult film a few months ago, and this is good news. The on

Audio
There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 2.0 and English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.0. For the record, Second Sight Films have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.

This time around I viewed the film with the LPCM 2.0 track (the Australian release has only a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track) and must say that I like it better. The sound is better balanced. During select sequences the dialog is clearly more even. Overall clarity and dept

Supplements
My Art Keeps Me Sane - Interview with Star Stephen Lack - in this video interview, actor Stephen Lack (Cameron Vale) recalls his first encounter with director David Cronenberg and work with his on Scanners. The actor also discusses his interactions with special effects guru Dick Smith. In English, not subtitled. (24 min).

The Eye of Scanners - Interview with Cinematographer Mark Irwin - in this video interview, cinematographer Mark

Final Words
This is a very handsome release. Not only does the SteelBook look quite beautiful, but the technical presentation is also very pleasing. The only minor discrepancy I could spot between this release and the Australian release by Umbrella Entertainment is in the brightness levels, but the difference is indeed marginal at best. However, the two releases have very different supplemental features. Fans of Scanners
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Babe: Pig in the City (Blu-ray Review)

Thu, 02 May 2013 21:33:48 -0400
If he can make it there. . .

When Babe proved to be one of the biggest and most unexpected hits of 1995, the handwriting was probably already on the wall that a sequel would be inevitable. The little fable about a talking pig who thinks hes a sheepdog seemed to touch something rather universal in audiences worldwide, and the films beautifully rendered storybook setting and brilliant special effects work, which was certainly head and shoulders ...

Video
Babe: Pig in the City is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Studios with a VC-1 encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The somewhat dingy environment of the hotel means that at least some of Babe: Pig in the City doesnt quite pop with the vibrancy that was exhibited in the first release. There are, however, several standout sequences, including one where Mrs. Hoggett ventures out into a brightly lit crowd scene, as well as some of Babes shenanigans around th

Audio
Babe: Pig in the Citys lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is rather good, though subtle at times. The best moments in terms of surround activity are big set pieces like Mrs. Hoggetts foray into the city as well as a great sequence where Babe is being chased by two guard dogs. That sequence especially is rife with fantastic activity running rampant through the side channels as Babe attempts to escape the beasts and one of them drags an ever increasing aggregation of items be

Supplements
No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

Final Words
Babe: Pig in the City isnt as magical as the first Babe, but its a whale (or a pig) of a lot better than most sequels. The characters are fun and whimsical, the production design is fantastic, and though the story doesnt have the universal appeal of the first Babe, it still has many classic elements that distinguish the best fairy tales. This Blu-ray features good video and very good audio and even without the addition of any supplements, Babe: Pig in the ci...

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WWII From Space (Blu-ray Review)

Thu, 02 May 2013 21:27:54 -0400
From a distance. . .

You have to give History at least a little credit while at the same time understanding their predicament: there are only so many epochal events scattered throughout the annals of time, and after this long on the air, History has done about all of them. Twice. (And thats being charitable.) The cable channel has a tendency to visit and revisit its favorite subjects, whether that be the destruction of the Earth by marauding asteroids, a frequent focal point in ...

Video
WWII in Space is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films and The History Channel with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. While this special is presented in a progressive format (not always the case with History Blu- rays), which is a plus, theres a rather startling lack of other elements that may disappoint choosy videophiles. This is a strangely desaturated special, even in the contemporary interview segments, which rarely pop with robust color. These talking he

Audio
WWII From Space features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 which from a technical standpoint is probably the single most appealing thing about this release, even if it suffers from the fact that a lot of this special is either narrated or features talking heads, two elements which expectedly do not engage the surround channels. The surrounds do come into play when some of the battles are depicted, and these sequences offer good discrete channelization of foley effects. A

Supplements
The only so-called "supplements" here are trailers for other Lionsgate releases, which I never include as part of the official score for bonus material.

Final Words
This Readers Digest recounting of World War II may serve as a sort of video Cliffs Notes for those without the wherewithal to make it through longer, more in depth pieces, but that still doesnt account for the just downright (or should that be upright) silly decision to try to frame all of the material from high in the sky, a decision that seems even sillier when the special doesnt even attempt to stay up in the sky. Ive long taken History to task for its emphasi...

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The Guilt Trip (Blu-ray Review)

Thu, 02 May 2013 21:01:54 -0400
Don't feel guilty about adding this quality film to your Blu-ray collection.

This was the best week of my life.

Direct Anne Fletcher's (27 Dresses) The Guilt Trip is a movie that requires a little bit of patience and a sprinkling of faith to really appreciate. What begins as something of a drag of a movie with a terribly predictable plot arc morphs into a touching little character piece with, yes, that same terribly predicable plot arc but now one that's largely overshado...

Video
The Guilt Trip's 1080p transfer isn't the most stunning thing ever released to high definition, but Paramount's stable, enjoyable presentation gets the job done. There are some gorgeous roadway and city shots; overhead highway images or dense downtown locations both reveal fantastic textures, crisp lines, and precise details even at a distance. General facial and clothing details are fine, though not really as crisp as those seen in the best Blu-ray releases. There is a light

Audio
The Guilt Trip features the old "technically proficient but sonically dull" DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. No surprise, this is a dialogue-heavy film with little else to offer. Fortunately, the spoken word comes through as well as it can, playing with a natural, front-focused clarity. The track otherwise features some scattered ambient sound effects that help set the stage for various scenes and that enjoy natural, pinpoint positioning around the stage. Whether the

Supplements
The Guilt Trip contains a hodgepodge of short supplements.

Barbra & Seth (HD, 7:32): Cast and crew take a look at the chemistry between the stars and the acting chops of Rogen and Streisand. Some fun on-set moments are interspersed throughout.

Barbra's World (HD, 8:21): Cast and crew talk about what it's like to work with a legend while examining the specific quali

Final Words
The Guilt Trip is a pleasant surprise. It begins slowly but ends strongly, efficiently building up, breaking down, and again, but differently, building up its characters to a predictable but heartwarming and wholly satisfying resolution. The film works as well as it does because of the greatness of its leads; Rogen and Streisand are simply wonderful together. They understand the story, the characters, and one another so well that the relationship -- the entire dynamic, not just b...

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True Blood: The Complete Fifth Season (Blu-ray Review)

Thu, 02 May 2013 13:36:16 -0400
If no one takes out the trash, the garbage just keeps piling up...

Over the course of reviewing True Blood's four seasons, each one more disappointing than the last, I've been chanting, "enough with the humans, fairies and witches. Bring on the vamps! Give us the Authority!" Creator Alan Ball's bloody supernatural freak show has teased series junkies, casual fans and waning viewers alike with promises of the vampire High Council almost from the beginning, and Season Five finally, finally pulled back the curtain so we could all get a glimpse at wha...

Video
Like the series' previous Blu-ray releases, True Blood: The Complete Fifth Season boasts a fantastic 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation that, while not always HBO's prettiest belle at the ball, is true to its source and showrunners' intentions. So ignore the at-times ungainly grain. Ignore the unforgiving shadows and inherent crush and delineation issues. Ignore the faint anomalies that occasionally accompany the show's less-than-seamless visual effects. Fans won't find the imperfection

Audio
True Blood's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is, once again, the heart of the release. Dialogue is clean, intelligible and perfectly prioritized, regardless of the macabre madness the series' soundscape conjures up next. The LFE channel bears its teeth and bites time and time again, clamping down on anything and everything even remotely in need of additional weight, presence or heft. The rear speakers keep busy as well, expanding the show's soundfield, heightening the reality (or u

Supplements

Audio Commentaries: Five cast and crew audio commentaries are available: "We'll Meet Again" with actor Chris Bauer (Andy), writer Alexander Woo and director Romeo Tirone; "Somebody That I Used to Know" with actor/director Stephen Moyer (Bill) and writer Mark Hudis; "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" with director Dan Attias and actors Denis O'Hare (Russell) and Carrie Preston (Arlene); "Sunset" with co-executive producer/writer Angela Robinson

Final Words
True Blood is a series in desperate need of an intervention. New showrunners Mark Hudis and Brian Buckner have an opportunity this coming season to right what's been going wrong and to effectively re-energize what has become a flailing show. All they need to do is find a way to blend the competing horror, comedy and drama elements fans already love into a more seamless and rewarding overarching storyline. And clean up the mess Ball left them with Season Five. And figure out a way to make ...

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Bounty Hunters 2: Hardball (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 01 May 2013 21:39:42 -0400
Don't bother hunting this one down except at the rental store or on late night television.

Showtime.

Believe it or not, it's often more of a challenge to review movies like Bounty Hunters 2: Hardball than it is bigger budgeted and better constructed movies on one end of the spectrum and the bottom-barrel Asylum junk on the other. A movie like this is the perfect storm of blah, a movie that gives reviewers precious little with which to work. It's not very good, it's not egregiously bad, it just sort of is. The movie dives right into, and never m...

Video
Bounty Hunters 2: Hardball features a largely bland but generally stable high definition presentation. Details are adequate, helped more by the increase in resolution that Blu-ray provides than any real good qualities with the transfer. It appears a bit glossed over and pasty, "enhanced" by light edge halos and showing fairly crisp but not particularly film-like details. Facial textures are decent but take on a slightly smoothed appearance, ditto most every other element in the p

Audio
Bounty Hunters 2: Hardball offers a softball soundtrack. The included DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless presentation is dull for the most part, routine at its best and messy at its worst. There's an OK sense of space and acceptable clarity to the opening Spaghetti Western-styled music that opens the film, but it's largely downhill from there, not that the tumble is all that steep. Most sound effects, from the sound of walking on crunchy gravel or smashing glass at a robbery and al

Supplements
This Blu-ray release of Bounty Hunters 2: Hardball contains no supplemental content.

Final Words
It's all very much routine at its best and forgettable at its worst, and there's really not much space in between. Bounty Hunters 2: Hardball is a serviceable movie that's competent in its construction but hardly a movie that stands apart from the crowd. The action is bland and the characters almost equally so, even if there is a sliver of chemistry between the leads. It's a movie worth a watch if there's nothing other than infomercials on television. Echo Bridge's Blu-ray rel...

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The Great Escape (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 01 May 2013 16:15:06 -0400
The Grandeur of Defiance

Author's Note: The Video section of this review was updated and expanded on May 14, 2013, to incorporate numerous developments and discussions since the review was first published.

Among its many notable qualities, The Great Escape may be the greatest war film ever made without a single battle. The Bridge on the River Kwai can boast at least one major explosion, but <...

Video
Author's Note: This Video section was updated and expanded on May 14, 2013.

It's rare to revisit a review, but discussion of The Great Escape Blu-ray has been sufficiently lively and eventful that the original write-up already feels "dated" (although my video score remains unchanged).

Within hours after this review was posted, I was contacted by Torsten Kaiser, whose 2011 interview on this site

Audio
According to IMDb, The Great Escape was initially released to theaters in both mono and four-track stereo. Previous iterations on DVD have run the gamut. MGM's initial release in 1998 offered a stereo track in Dolby Digital. Its more elaborate "collector's edition" six years later offered a choice between 5.1 and mono tracks, also in Dolby Digital. The Blu-ray offers a single option in English of lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 (along with numerous tracks dubbed in other languages). The mi

Supplements
As is its custom, Fox (which handles the Blu-ray mastering for MGM) has failed to provide a main menu and programmed the disc with BD-Java without including the bookmark function, so that it is impossible to mark your place when you stop play. There is no excuse for Fox to continue implementing this user-unfriendly design, which it never uses on its own discs, but only on MGM's. As is my custom, I have downgraded the score for extras on any title featuring this poor arrangement.
Final Words
Given the video issues, prospective purchasers might be tempted to wait in the hope of a future restored edition. I think that would be a mistake. Nothing in MGM's recent history suggests that it is in any position to underwrite the cost of a restoration at the negative level, which would be a major expense. Barring such an overhaul, any subsequent edition would offer only marginal improvement over the current Blu-ray. Warts and all, this is about the best presentation we're likely to see o...

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History of The Eagles Parts 1 & 2 (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 01 May 2013 15:33:31 -0400

You cant keep a good band down. Even when youre a member of it. That might be the single most salient lesson imparted to both fans and casual viewers (and/or listeners) alike as they review the epochal journey The Eagles have taken over the past several decades. Like many superstar outfits, The Eagles took a while to get their groove on, but once they started topping the charts, they were the band, at least for a little while, until that same success started fraying ...

Video
The History of the Eagles is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in a variety of aspect ratios as befits the many source elements. The bulk of the documentary is in 1.78:1 and 1:33. The accompanying concert disc is 1080i in 1.33:1. (Screenshots 1-17 come from both parts of the documentary, while screenshots 18 and 19 come from the concert disc.) Given the hugely disparate amount of material this documentary incorporates, things look pretty good overall. Th

Audio
The History of the Eagles (as well as the concert disc) feature both a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track as well as an LPCM 2.0 track. While its obvious that some of this material had multitrack source stems to build a proper 5.1 mix out of, its just as obvious that some did not, and at least some of the repurposed material has a kind of oddly processed quasi-phasing sound that I personally found a little distracting. I opted for the 2.0 track for that reason, but others m

Supplements
There are no "official" supplements per se, though some might count the third Blu-ray which features the March 1977 concert at the Capital Centre as a bonus.

Final Words
You dont need to even be a particular fan of The Eagles to find much of this documentary fascinating, unless the vagaries of the music business dont interest you in the slightest. Theres quite a bit of incisive self-reflection here that helps to make the foibles of overnight sensations (which of course they werent) a bit more understandable. This is an impeccably structured piece that includes a lot of rare footage and crafts a careful and perhaps ever so slightly sanitized version...

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The Killer Elite (Blu-ray Review)

Wed, 01 May 2013 05:39:33 -0400

Director Sam Peckinpah's "The Killer Elite" (1975) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French label Wild Side Video. The supplemental features on the disc include a longer uncensored version of the film; original trailer; original TV spots; radio spots; gallery of original poster art and lobby cards from around the world; and a segment from Mike Siegel's superb documentary "Passion and Poetry: The Ballad of Sam Peckinpah". In English, with optional French subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "...

Video
Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Sam Peckinpah's The Killer Elite arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French label Wild Side Video.

Please note that two version of the film are included on this Blu-ray release:

1. Original Theatrical Version: approximately 116 minutes long.
2. Long Uncensored Version: approximately 124 minutes long.

Excluding some traces of light sharpening that are occasional

Audio
The Theatrical Version of The Killer Elite comes with English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 and French DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 tracks. The Uncensored Version comes only with an English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 track. Both versions have optional French subtitles. When turned on, the subtitles split the image frame and the black bar below it.

The sound is quite uneven at times but the various fluctuations are indeed inherited. The dialog is clearer and the dynamic movement better, but t

Supplements
Version Longue - the longer Uncensored Version of The Killer Elite can be accessed through the special features section of this Blu-ray disc. In English, with optional French subtitles. (124 min, 1080p).

Bande-annonce - original trailer for The Killer Elite. In English, with optional French subtitles. (3 min).

Passion & Poetry - Sam's Killer Elite - a segment from Mike Siegel's superb do

Final Words
The Killer Elite is not one of Sam Peckinpah's best films, but it is still quite entertaining. It attempts to impress in so many different ways that it becomes quite exotic, which is part of its charm. After years of having only a non-anamorphic DVD release of it, French label Wild Side Video's Blu-ray release is quite the revelation. It should make many fans of the American director and his work quite happy. RECOMMENDED. ...

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Broken City (Blu-ray Review)

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 22:58:45 -0400
Dysfunctional Noir

Midway through Broken City, one character incredulously remarks, "Private eyes still exist?" A holdout from the times before no-fault divorce lawswhen evidence of infidelity was demanded in courtthe gumshoe-for-hire profession does seem old-fashioned and mostly unnecessary now. You could describe Broken City the same way: old-fashioned and mostly unnecessary. Penned by first-time screenwriter Brian Tucker and directed solo by Allen Hughesone half of the Hughes Brothers, be...

Video
Broken City was shot digitally with Arri Alexa HD cameras, but you'd hardly know it; most of the movie has a gritty, textured, almost film-like quality that the Blu-ray's 1080p/AVC encode captures well. There are a few darker scenes where the source noise spikes maybe a bit too intensely taking on a more mottled look, with crushed shadows and decreased detailbut overall, the image has a satisfying aesthetic. Closeups reveal easily visible fine textures in the actors' faces and clot

Audio
20th Century Fox has given Broken City the now-standard DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless surround treatment, which is more than capable of handling the film's fairly low-impact sound design. There are a few action-heavy scenes that are more energetica car crash, a fight or two or threebut the track is usually reserved and dialogue-driven. Most of the audio emerges from the front channels, but the rear speakers are called into play when needed, rendering some accurate-sounding envi

Supplements
Deleted Scenes (HD, 8:35): Six deleted scenes, including an unremarkable alternate ending.

Putting It All Together (HD, 34:59): An extensive making-of documentary that covers everything from the scripta Hollywood "black-list" favorite long caught in development hellto the casting, cinematography, and directorial vision. There's a good mix of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with just about everyone involved.

Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2

Final Words
Between Drive and The Place Beyond the Pines and half a dozen indie others, neo-noir is definitely seeing a resurgence. Unfortunately, Broken City will probably be one of the least remembered of the recent bunch. It wants to be Chinatown but it's closer to The Two Jakes, if you follow medull, unoriginal, and less than the sum of its many cinematic influences. Mark Wahlberg's smooth tough-guy performance stands out, but only because the rest of the movie ...

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Small Apartments (Blu-ray Review)

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 20:57:31 -0400
Big ideas come from Small Apartments.

Pain. Love. Fear. Happiness. You choose to feel each of them, so choose to be happy.

If an Oscar were awarded every year for the most unique film, the most eccentric film, and the most unlikely-to-succeed-from-a-creative-perspective film, then Director Jonas Åkerlund's (Horsemen) Small Apartments would be a shoe-in for all three. If all the categories were rolled into one, the year's "strangest" film would also be Åkerlund's prize to lose. Small Apartm...

Video
Small Apartments arrives on Blu-ray with a very glossy and flat but otherwise spiffy and generally nicely detailed and brilliantly colored high definition transfer. The HD video source material rarely leaves any detail left obscured in any way, but it also shows an almost absurdly clean and shiny overlay with noise only creeping into the darkest corners. Details and stability are often quite striking. Facial lines, the wooden accents on the Alphorn, the odds and ends around the a

Audio
Small Apartments features a technically sound but largely nondescript DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The track is at its best when Franklin blows his Alphorn. The effect is nicely presented, with a positive, smooth low end throughout the film and particularly evident at the end when the effect explodes out of the speakers with a deep, rich, and infinitely satisfying feel. The smooth, heavy, steady pulse practically places the listener right there with him and the in

Supplements
Small Apartments contains a couple of supplements. (Note: This Blu-ray is reportedly several minutes shorter than its DVD counterpart; no DVD copy was immediately available to independently verify the information or assess which scene(s) have been removed.)

Small Apartments: Behind the Scenes (HD, 18:14): A basic but wide and somewhat thorough overview piece in which cast and crew talk up the story, the casting

Final Words
Small Apartments may appear overly crude, pointless, maybe experimental, and certainly just really, really weird from the outside looking in, but for as deliberately messy and outwardly inhospitable the film may be, it's actually really quite good and worth a look. It's one of the more unique pictures to come along in quite a while, and it's the juxtaposition of oddity that morphs into a calming goodness by the end that makes it a real treat. The cast is great, the characte...

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Crimewave (Blu-ray Review)

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 20:53:50 -0400
"Put on your silly hat and you'll do fine".

Fans of Sam Raimi were waiting with bated breath for the release of the new, improved Evil Dead reboot, wondering if one of Raimis signature pieces would be destroyed by inexperienced hands, this despite the fact that Raimi was one of the co-producers. Many if not most fans walked away from the remake heaving a huge sigh of relief, but for those who might want to take a look backward at a Raimi project that was wrested from his control and by many accounts suffered for ...

Video
Crimewave is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Considering the tumultuous history of this film, the elements here are in surprisingly good shape, with no damage of any major import to report. While colors seems to have faded a bit, for the most part the image boasts a reasonably saturated palette and above average fine object detail. There are some issues with contrast, which is variable at times and which leads to some

Audio
Crimewave features a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track pumped out over two channels. Fidelity is just fine if obviously constrained. Dialogue is cleanly presented, sound effects are quite boisterous and the score (which includes some musical numbers) sounds fine.

Supplements

Audio Commentary with Bruce Campbell. Campbell is joined by Michael Felsher, who produced the supplements for the Blu- ray. This is a must hear for anyone who loves Campbell, Raimi, The Coen Brothers or is still laboring under the delusion that show business is glamorous.

The Crimewave Meter with Bruce Campbell (1080p; 15:23) is a great sit down with Campbell, who gets into his history with Raimi and this features troubled production hi

Final Words
Raimi, Campbell and Coen Brothers fans are among the most ferocious in the film world, and this trifecta has always been an object of more than passing interest for many of them. If the anticipation is perhaps greater than the realization, there's still enough goofy humor here to at least warrant a viewing or two. What really makes this release indispensable is the involvement of Campbell in the commentary and an interview. Both of those elements are stuffed to the gills with hil...

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Runaway Bride (Blu-ray Review)

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:17:42 -0400
The One That Got Away

It took nine years after the success of Pretty Woman to reunite stars Julia Roberts and Richard Gere with each other and director Garry Marshall, but their reunion was inevitable. Pretty Woman made a star of Roberts, revived Gere's flagging career and gave Marshall his first blockbuster success as a feature director. They all owed each other another turn.

No one had managed to concoct a c...

Video
Runaway Bride was shot by New Zealand cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh (The Piano), for whom Marshall has nothing but praise in his commentary. Perhaps because he brought an outsider's eye to the task, Dryburgh eschewed the bright lighting more typically applied to American comedy, opting instead for a romantic sheen that softens even Ike's Manhattan scenes. The image on Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ra

Audio
The film's original 5.1 soundtrack is presented on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1, but it's a largely front-centered affair with the emphasis on dialogue and essential sound effects. Even the regular switches between the Maryland small-town environment and the bustle of the big city don't register sonically. Except when it comes to conversation and music, Marshall doesn't make expansive use of sound. Music supervisor Kathy Nelson has assembled a fine collection of songs contemporary and

Supplements
The Blu-ray jacket lists the music video for the Dixie Chicks' "Ready to Run", which was included on Paramount's two previous DVD releases of Runaway Bride in 2000 and 2007. However, the video is not included. The commentary appeared on both DVDs, and the trailer was added on the 2007 DVD.

Commentary with Director Garry Marshall: In the inimitable nasal tones of his native Bronx, apparently impervious to years of California living, Marshal

Final Words
Lest anyone be tempted to dismiss my criticisms of Runaway Bride as those of a cynical male viewer who doesn't "get" romantic comedy, I hasten to add that they were first suggested to me by another viewer, one whose devotion to the genre is second to none. A dedicated fan of Pretty Woman, she saw Runaway Bride when it first opened in theaters and watched the Blu-ray with me, vainly hoping it had improved with age. As the credits rolled, she proceeded to tell me ev...

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A Haunted House (Blu-ray Review)

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 02:15:03 -0400
"This $*%! Ain't Paranormal." You're right, front cover tagline. It's just $*%!

What's worse than a bad found-footage horror movie? A bad found-footage horror movie spoof. What could possibly be worse than that, you ask? A bad Wayans Brothers found-footage horror movie spoof. Still worse than that? A cinematic abomination like A Haunted House, which falls into all the previous categories and somehow tacks one more to the list: rock bottom disaster. Believe it or not, it wasn't so long ago that the name Wayans carried a fair bit of clout. But that was before Sh...

Video
If nothing else, A Haunted House takes its found-footage heritage seriously, falling in step with the grainy, at-times low-res shaky cam aesthetic of the Paranormal Activity movies. Universal's subsequent 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer is commendably true to its source, perilous and unsightly as it can be. Macroblocking, noise, aliasing, crush and ringing are often out in force, particularly when the lights go down and darkness presses in. Detail and delineation dip and dive acco

Audio
Without a doubt, the highlight of the disc is Universal's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, which clings to the film's found-footage sound design without sacrificing atmosphere or power. Dialogue, although often chained to whatever interior acoustics and handheld camera mics any given scene entails, is clear and intelligible, and the busier sequences' various ambient and directional effects fall in line with the deceptively orchestrated true-to-life nature of the soundfield. LFE output is

Supplements
A barely there wisp of a featurette -- "How to Survive a Paranormal Presence" (HD, 2 minutes) -- is the only extra the Blu-ray edition of A Haunted House has on tap.

Final Words
A Haunted House falls into "how did this even get made?" territory. It's yet another painful horror comedy from a Wayans that turned a substantial profit at the box office -- it cost three-million and cleared forty -- meaning A Haunted House 2 is most certainly inbound. God help us all. For the Wayans fans hiding among you, Universal's Blu-ray release will be a satisfying one thanks to its solid video presentation and strong DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. Of course, a two-...

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Richard III (Blu-ray Review)

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:57:48 -0400

Laurence Olivier's "Richard III" (1955) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include the film's original theatrical trailer; gallery of behind the scenes and production stills; restoration demonstration with an introduction by director Martin Scorsese; 1966 episode of the BBC series Great Acting; audio commentary with playwright and stage director Russell Lees and John Wilders, former governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company; and more. The release a...

Video
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.67:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Laurence Olivier's Richard III arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray release:

"When it premiered at London's Leicester Square Theatre in December 1955, Richard III ran 161 minutes. Subjected to cuts by both theatrical and television distributors, the film has been shown at various lengths ov

Audio
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.

It is incredibly easy to tell that various stabilization improvements have been performed. The audio is stable, crisp, and clean. There are no annoying distortions, pops, cracks, or audio dropouts. The overall range of dynamics is excellent, allowing William Walton's score to shine in all the right places.

Supplements
Trailer - original theatrical trailer for Richard III. In English, not subtitled. (4 min, 1080i).

TV Trailer - this rather long trailer for Richard III was produced by Laurence Olivier and includes on-set footage with the famous actor, producer Alexander Korda, and other members of the cast and crew. In English, not subtitled. (13 min, 1080i).

Production Gallery - a gallery of behind the

Final Words
I have to speculate yet again that had it not been for the invaluable efforts of director Martin Scorsese, this new restoration of Laurence Olivier's Richard III would not have existed. Or at least not at this time. Obviously, a lot of other people contributed to make it possible, but no other director has been as vocal about the restoration and preservation of classic films as Mr. Scorsese. I think it is fair to say that because of him a lot of important films have been saved. The new re...

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Funny Girl (Blu-ray Review)

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:11:43 -0400
There's nothing funny about this beautiful transfer.

The whole world will look at me and be stunned!

There are singers, there are movie stars, and then there are those rare entertainers who are not only both, but who excel at each craft. From Elvis to J-Lo, from Kris Kristofferson to Ice Cube, the silver screen and the top 40 both have certainly seen a fair share of crossover stars performing to various levels of success. There's arguably none better than Barbra Streisand, she of one of the most gifted singing voices of her...

Video
Funny Girl's 1080p transfer, lovingly restored from the original negative in 4K, dazzles on Blu-ray. The 2.35:1-framed print is meticulously clean, showing not a speckle, hair, or any sign of wear. Light grain beautifully floats over the image, giving it a desirable film-like texturing. It's ever-so-slightly soft on the whole, with a handful of shots looking a bit fuzzy, but the overall quality of the image is otherwise practically above reproach. Details are exquisite; the man

Audio
Funny Girl features a fundamentally sound DTS-HD Master Audio 5.0 lossless soundtrack. The absence of a dedicated LFE channel doesn't particularly harm the presentation. It's a naturally airy, light affair throughout, at its best during the introduction and intermission when musical dominance offers a big, smooth, room-filling sound that's heavily focused up front with the accompanying surround information largely lost in the shuffle but nevertheless crucial in creating a more ric

Supplements
Unfortunately, this debut Blu-ray release of Funny Girl contains only two brief vintage supplements.

Barbra in Movieland (SD, 10:09): A retro piece that looks at shooting one of the film's musical numbers at the abandoned Jersey Central Railroad Station and as experienced through the eyes of its caretaker, Charlie Peterson. With optional English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish subtitles.

Final Words
Funny Girl is a rock-solid Musical, perhaps not quite as dramatically deep as some others but certainly heartfelt in every way, fast-paced, boundlessly charming, brilliantly performed, and endlessly entrancing. The key cog is, of course, Streisand, who debuts on the big screen with a charisma, confidence, and understanding of the role that feels unparalleled in the medium. She's certainly helped along by her familiarity with the stage production, but she glows on the screen and ...

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Patlabor The Mobile Police Original OVA Series: Early Days (Blu-ray Review)

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 21:14:50 -0400
Don't judge a mecha by its metal.

Anime fans are among the most loyal and frankly rabid of any genre, and many developed their passion for foreign animated fare early in their lives, watching episodes of old series on television as they grew up. That fandom continues well into adulthood for many of these folks, with a resolute tendency not to remove the nostalgia draped rose colored glasses through which they see these animated vestiges of their fondest childhood memories. Whats strange about this phenomenon is how re...

Video
Patlabor The Mobile Police The Original OVA Series is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Maiden Japan with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.34:1. This is most definitely old school animation style, miles apart from Oshiis later Ghost in the Shell sleekness, so some may be surprised by the patently old fashioned look of this series, which in some ways at least is comparable to that of Dragon Ball Z. This has a very nicely filmic look that doesnt appear to have b

Audio
Patlabor The Mobile Police The Original OVA Series features lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mixes in both English and Japanese. As some anime fans are aware, there have been occasional audio dropouts on some Sentai distributed releases, but my cursory review of both tracks revealed no such issues (this screener arrived quite late and in order to get the review up in a timely manner, I toggled between the audio tracks and have thus not listened to both of them in their entirety,

Supplements
No supplements are included on this Blu-ray disc.

Final Words
Im sure theres at least a small contingent of fans who are eagerly awaiting the combined releases of the Patlabor franchise, and the good news is were off to a promising start. These OVAs get us acclimated quite quickly and well and also delve at least a little into some of the proto-philosophical elements for which Oshii would later become famous (and/or infamous). This Blu-ray sports very nice looking video and good sounding audio, and even without any supplements, this cha...

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Meanwhile (Blu-ray Review)

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:48:48 -0400
What are we waiting for?

Can you name a label that has championed such disparate would be auteurs as John H. Auer and Hal Hartley? Well, its Olive Films of course, the little label that could and in fact does, bringing out an often mind boggling array of product that few if any would have ever dreamed would see the high definition light of day. The past few months have seen several releases of Auer films, a frankly second string director whom few remember and even fewer would probably c...

Video
Meanwhile is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This film was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II, a perhaps unlikely looking choice that has in fact become more and more popular for both series television and feature films, but the high definition presentation is for the most part exceptionally sharp and well defined. Colors are very accurate looking (and thankfully Hartley didnt bother to color grade in post), and the vistas of

Audio
Meanwhile features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that isnt overly showy but which offers fairly consistent surround activity, courtesy of quite a bit of music as well as some of the vibrant sonic cityscape in Manhattan. The bulk of this film is really very small dialogue moments, almost always between only two characters, and so the 5.1 track really doesnt have a lot of opportunity to really exploit surround activity in any over the top way. Fidelity is excellent, thoug

Supplements

The Everday (1080p; 15:19) is basically a little EPK with interviews and scenes from the film.

Trailer (1080p; 3:17)

Final Words
Hal Hartleys films can be a little too precious for their own good, but Meanwhile manages to drift through its two day timeframe with a notable lack of cutesy archness. While Joseph remains something of a cipher despite the wealth of information Hartley provides about the character, he is a rather fascinating lead character and easily knits the disparate elements of the film together. Is there something profound hidden within Meanwhiles minutiae? That will be up to ind...

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Gamer 3D (Blu-ray Review)

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:58:30 -0400
"Game Over" indeed.

The worlds of film and videogames seem more inextricably linked than ever, what with cross platform releases that typically sees videogames based on films but which of course has included films based on videogames. Even auxiliary aspects like the technology used to either view films and/or play videogames has become homogenized, for at least some Blu-ray aficionados prefer Sonys PlayStation 3 (soon to be 4) as their all in one system to handle both types of entertainmen...

Video
Gamer 3D is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with both MVC (3D) and AVC (2D) encoded 1080p transfers in 1.73:1. Im a bit at a loss as to how to properly explain the odd 1.73:1 aspect ratio, not just because both transfers display in 1.78:1 (something that readily happens due to overscan) but also because the first Blu-ray release of Gamer featured a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. This may have somethin

Audio
Gamer 3Ds lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 is everything that the film itself isnt: involving, immersive, bombastic and totally satisfying. While a lot of this track is excessively busy, with whiz bang foley effects careening through the surrounds to really astounding levels at times, nothing ever sounds crowded and prioritization is very smartly handled. Perhaps surprisingly, some of the most effective surround activity comes in some of the more relatively quiet sequences, i

Supplements
THe first release of Gamer came jam packed with supplements, only one of which has been ported over to this release:

Inside the GameControlling Gamer (1080p; 1:19:41) is a good in-depth making of feature that has lots of interviews with the cast and crew, behind the scenes footage and snippets from the finished film.

Final Words
Gamer 3D is all style and no substance, and unfortunately that style is so discombobulating so much of the time that its frequently more annoying than anything. The film has the kernel of a good idea, albeit one thats been done to death already, but with nonstop quick cutting, ridiculous dialogue and absolutely no character development whatsoever, theres not a lot here other than sound and fury signifying nothing, or next to nothing. The post conversion 3D is okay, but certai...

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Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie (Blu-ray Review)

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:50:43 -0400
A drag of a reunion.

With marijuana laws overturned in Washington and Colorado, and nationwide legalization an imminent possibility, now would seem to be the perfect time for iconic tokers Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong to make a red-eyed comeback. After a string of successful low-budget stoner comediesUp in Smoke, Cheech & Chong's Next Movie, Nice Dreams, Thing Are Tough All Over, Still Smokin'the two acrimoniously parted ways in the mid-1980s, citing the usual creative diff...

Video
Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie lights up on Blu-ray with a 1080p/AVC-encoded presentation that's generally sharp and clean and free of distractions. The film's overly simple Flash animation style might be unimpressive when compared to Futurama or Archer, but there's little that's technically wrong with the picture. Some of the hard lines look a little jaggy up close, and you might spot some fleeting banding, but that's about itno blotchy compression issues, no

Audio
The simple animation style is paired with a straightforward lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. It sounds like most of the dialogue here is taken from the actual vintage comedy albumsthat is, it hasn't been significantly re-recordedso there are moments when the vocals are a bit muffled, harsh, or peaky. This is at its worst during the "Ralph & Herbie" segmentwhere Cheech and Chong play dogsbut it's never an outright distraction. It just sounds...older. Of course, so

Supplements
Audio Commentaries: The disc includes three commentary tracks. On the first, Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong reminisce about the good old days and talk about how this new project came together; the second features directors Brandon and Eric Chambers getting into the nitty-gritty details with producer Lou Adler; and the third is a more laid-back affair with Tommy Chong and his son, Paris.

4.20 Mode: If you're so inclined, you can activate "4.20" mode, which simp

Final Words
Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie is more of a rehash than a comeback, cartoonifying some of the duo's old comedy album bits and film sketches. As much as this would seemingly appeal to the intended stoner audience, the once-classic gags are alternately too flat and too crass when sketched out Ren & Stimpy-style. There are three audio commentaries here, which might sway some longtime fans to a purchase, but most would be better off revisiting the original material and awaiting ...

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Jesus Christ Superstar (Blu-ray Review)

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:07:11 -0400
The Rock Gospel According to Judas.

Observant Christian believers may not have exactly experienced The Second Coming in the early seventies and some were in fact downright outraged by what they perceived as unabashed sacrilege, but others experienced something of a minor miracle at least when not one but two modern musical pieces about Jesus became immensely popular, capturing the imaginations of the usually recalcitrant young and storming the pop charts. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rices rock opera Jesus Christ Supe...

Video
Jesus Christ Superstar is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Studios with an VC-1 encoded 1080p transfer in 2.36:1. Since this is a Universal catalog release, why dont we just cut to the chase and ask the question which will be on most fans minds: was excessive DNR applied? The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is no. The film retains a healthy amount of grain, especially noticeable in the wide vista shots where a lot of sky is present, as well as in the night

Audio
Jesus Christ Superstar features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 that more than adequately recreates the theatrical exhibitions four track stereo soundtrack. Voices are very well mixed if perhaps a bit too far forward at times and theres some wide stereo separation thats evident from the first moments of the Overture. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is fairly wide.

Supplements
The same supplemental features that were on previous home video releases have been ported over to this release:

Feature Commentary with Director Norman Jewison and Actor Ted Neeley is an enjoyable trip down memory lane. Neeley seems to recall each and every person in the cast and has several very sweet anecdotes he shares, while Jewison tends to focus on the technical aspects of the shoot, which included such unlikely elements as cleaning bird droppings out of a cave

Final Words
Jesus Christ Superstar doesnt really work as a film, but its still a fascinating relic of a time when suddenly Jesus was cool (as is stated in Rices libretto) to a new generation. The film looks more dated than ever now to modern (and cynical) eyes, but it is still graced by some amazing performances and of course features the iconic Lloyd Webber music. Rices provocative idea of seeing the Passion through Judas eyes may still strike some as heresy, but it makes for ri...

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Spies of Warsaw (Blu-ray Review)

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:52:55 -0400
A sluggish period misfire from the usually surefire BBC...

Flushed Away. Across the Universe. The Bank Job. The common denominator? English screenwriters Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement, whose experience penning animated comedies, Beatles-inspired musicals and period heist thrillers seem like strange prep work for their latest venture, a two-part BBC mini based on the historical fiction novel of the same name by espionage master Alan Furst. Spies of Warsaw is as serious as a stroke, without a sharp hook or a chewy gimmick to ...

Video
With a clean, altogether striking 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation, Spies of Warsaw earns its high definition stripes. Though cursed with the same bright, chilly digital sheen that accompanies most every BBC production or period miniseries, color and contrast are true to the series' source, with a pleasing, aged-newspaper palette, subdued primaries and smoky black levels, all of which complement Giedroyc and cinematographer Wojciech Szepel's intentions. Detail is excellent as usual, a

Audio
Spies of Warsaw features a decent DTS-HD Master Audio stereo mix that does a reasonably good job with what little it's handed. Dialogue is intelligible and well-prioritized, effects are fairly convincing and relatively weighty (given the lack of proper LFE support), and Rob Lane's score, however out of place, mingles with the soundscape effortlessly. The entire sonic experience is a bit hollow, though; almost tinny, to the point that entire scenes have an unnaturally flat, metallic qualit

Supplements
The only extra available is a making-of featurette, "David Tennant on Spies of Warsaw" (HD, 10 minutes), which begins at the genesis of the project and Tennant's interest in the material and briskly moves through the history behind the story, the characters, the actors and the authenticity of the production.

Final Words
Joyless and uneventful, the Spies of Warsaw miniseries is as dry and disappointing as espionage thrillers and WII period pieces come, backed by a faulty script, poor pacing, competing romantic and dramatic priorities, hit or miss performances, and some rather uninteresting work from a miscast, hyper-stoic David Tennant. The two-part drama has garnered a fair bit of praise, which warrants some consideration, but both audiences and critics are split right down the middle. BBC Home Entertain...

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