Film

A Scooby-Doo prequel seemed like a simple concept… Take the characters kids love and go back to when they were closer in age to the actual core audience and have them go on a fun adventure. However when you have a lackluster attempt with a lame script, then it’s a little less simple.

The film takes us to when the gang is just finishing high school and is going to spend the summer at a lake house party, however upon arrival there are some spookier guests who want to crash the party. The film builds most of its premise on relationships between Fred and Daphne as well as Shaggy and Velma only to completely scrap the idea at the end as if the entire film wasn’t about these two couples… It felt really forced and just completely disenfranchises the whole movie.

The other thorn in my side was the lack of Scooby-Doo in the film. There seemed to be extended scenes that simply excluded Scooby with the only reason that I could think of was that it would cost less to not have to pay animators to keep having Scooby pop up, which leads to the next thorn in my side… Why does Scooby’s 3d model look like a creepy skeleton? It felt very low budget however when you look at the quality of the monsters there’s a definite difference.

Overall the film just lacks any entertaining moments… it’s predictable on the level that even kids are going to think it’s one dimensional. In comparison to the older live action Scooby-Doo movies this film comes off as a cheap cash-in attempt that fails on many levels. Skip it.

Video

Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster’s video quality is definitely clean and sharp. There’s little to no noticeable noise or grain and details are nice and sharp. Unfortunately the crisp image only makes the horrendous CGI Scooby-Doo stick out even more. It’s actually odd that the Scooby model sucks so much considering the Lake Monster has a decent texture and shading pass… I’m assuming they either ran out of money or wanted to recreate the cartoony Scooby by creating a creepy skeletal rendition without eyelids…

The colors of the film are pretty natural if not a bit flat, with pale skin tones and unimpressive black levels, the general palette of the film leaves much to be desired. The footage also manages to stay very sharp and shows off with skin textures and fine hairs, which also wreaks havoc on the Scooby-Doo model due to the fact that the 3d model has a very smooth surface texture where there should be detailed fur… No matter how you slice it, the video looks good and that makes the 3D elements look shoddy.

Audio

Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster’s audio is on the same level of the video. Albeit there’s nothing wrong with the quality, there just isn’t anything special. I would hope for a bit of a lively mix that really enthralls and pumps up the audience would be great for the silly and over-the-top subject matter but instead we’re given a pretty by-the-numbers mix.

The dialogue is clean and centered and most of the mix is played through the front. Some of the sounds of the lake and woods come through the surrounds but overall the front speakers get most of the work. As far as the foley goes, we’re given some blended sound effects that don’t stick out.

The low frequencies fall a bit flat as well, with only a few moments to shine, the sound design doesn’t really play up the bassy notes in the score or thuds of the monsters thrashing around. It brings the motif of “good not great” full circle.

Special Features

Besides some trailers there are three actual extras. Two behind-the-scenes featurettes which look at the musical sequences from the movies as well as the gags from the film, both are filled with EPK style interviews with some glimpses of behind-the-scenes footage. Also there is a gag reel to round out the trio, but even with all of this there’s nothing that really caters to the target audience of this release… Are kids really going to want to watch some interviews about how the filming went?

Final Thoughts

Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster’s is a lame story backed up with average video and audio specs as well as a lack of kid friendly bonus features. There just isn’t a good enough reason to ever put this Blu-ray back into your player after the first go around so if you’re interested than a rental is all I can suggest, but I’d say stick to the original live action films and leave this one on the store shelf.

Film

Jimmy Fallon took a break from smirking his way through SNL sketches to play an overeager cop who has zero skills behind the wheel of a car. Several expensive props destroyed later, he literally runs into a cab operated by an aspiring Nascar racer, played by a nauseatingly sassy Queen Latifah. The two become hap-hazard partners in a scheme to stop a band of (sigh) Brazilian models who have decided to rob banks.

The films kicks off with an immediate overdose of trying-to-be-cool scenarios, such as Queen Latifah performing completely improbable stunts on a messenger bike through the streets of New York. This is followed by her car transforming like the Gadget Mobile so she can place lives in danger on the road and shatter any and all traffic safety laws, all for the sake of lookin’ cool. Throughout the film, this “cool” attitude remains and makes for a complete disconnection with not only the audience, but with the city of New York. This film acts like it has an intimate understanding and love of NYC but does nothing to serve that feeling by having caricature heroes chasing cartoonishly absurd villains.

Yes, Gisele and the other models as the bank robbers, how could I get through this review without addressing their talents? Gisele’s acting skills are confined to her making the odd kissy face. Beyond that, she has to rip off her clothes and/or molest another woman in order to grab your attention and remind you that she is more than just a gun-toting mannequin in this film.

Taxi is simply a gigantic waste of stunt people and a sizable budget. All the gags fall flat (I mean, they even rip off a laughing gas gag from Lethal Weapon 4…the fourth Lethal Weapon sequel for crying out loud! And even then LW4 stole it from several others, up to and including the Simpsons), and the cast is devoid of charm.

Video

Widescreen 2.35:1. There are a lot of cars in this film, and they all looked freshly washed under the HD treatment. As good as the HD is for this release, it causes some problems as some dated CG and green screen graphics become more apparent when placed amongst ultra-clean footage of real people and places. A hazard of clarity.

AVC runs at an acceptable 22 MBPS.

Audio

This disc is absolutely loaded with audio options. Dolby Digital 5.1 in English, French (both Quebec and Parisian), Spanish (Stereo only, Castellano is 5.1)), German, Italian, Czech and Turkish. Subtitles are also offered for the same languages just mentioned, plus additional texts for Korea, Netherlands and possibly others, I was losing track of them all after a while. Also included are dubbed director commentary tracks in Spanish, French and German. Never mind the huge budget depressing me, now I’m imaging how many countries are being distributed this schlock.

My subjective criticisms of the film’s quality aside, this is a well treated soundtrack. The music is booming when it wants to be obvious and the dialogue is clear enough so that not a single failed joke is missed (sorry, obviously I cannot just let it go).

Special Features

Director Commentary: Tim Story uses the word “fun” to describe his reasoning (or his excuse) for everything, be it the irrational stunts, the casting of models whose acting talents resemble Oak, the overblown set pieces and all the other junk that he tries to justify. On top of this, he his bland speaking voice has no presence. I cannot fathom him having any sort of authority on a major movie set. I am baffled.

The Meter’s Runnin’ Making Of Featurette: This mostly consists of Jimmy Fallon mugging for the camera. Another waste of time.

Lights, Camera, Blue Screen: A remedial explanation of how Blue Screen effects work that would be better left as a feature on a Star Wars DVD, or at least hosted by someone with more than one facial expression.

Tour Guide: Jimmy Fallon: Fallon’s mugging of the camera obviously worked as he leads a boring tour through the studio set. If you watch it in fast forward, it hurts less.

Comedy Central’s Reel Comedy: Taxi: Two of the stars of Reno 911 do a profile/sketch about the film in what is the ONLY funny thing on this disc. These two know how to improvise and manage to spark a little something from Latifah too. But even this gets old fast when you realize what film they are talking about.

Beautiful Criminals: A musical montage compiling nothing but footage of the models. As boring as it is, it could easily replace the film in my books…and I don’t mean that in a misogynist, hound dog sort of way…I just think it has a better plot.

Deleted Scenes: I could not sit through this even though it lasts less than 5 minutes (I think). Each is worse than anything left in the film…and that is a VERY harsh insult.

Final Thoughts

There must be some sort of irony in how the main character is trying so desperately to win back his credibility on the police force while Jimmy Fallon explodes any remaining credibility he had while portraying him. Bleh. Steer clear of this one (see that embarassing pun I just made? THAT was wittering than anything this film provided).

Film  

De-Lovely tells the story of the adult life of the greatest composer of popular song in American history, Cole Porter. It does so in a very creative manner using the songs themselves to tell the story as Cole is shown his life by the Archangel Gabriel a moment before his death, Broadway show style in a small theater.

Gabriel, played beautifully by Jonathan Pryce, arrives at Cole Porter’s apartment near the moment of his death. He then takes him to the small theater in Indiana where Cole started his career and shows him his life, warts and all. Cole Porter is played beautifully by Kevin Kline, who is quite a showman himself and who sings and plays the piano himself quite well during the entire film.

It picks up his life in Paris as a young man. Cole Porter was already quite well off as a young man due to the wealth of his family and quite a playboy and party animal in addition to being a little known amateur songwriter outside his social circle in Paris. He also had his own little secret not known outside his small circle of friends, namely that he was gay. It was in Paris that he met the only real love of his life, Linda Thomas, who is portrayed in quite a moving performance by Ashley Judd. She knew Cole was Gay but loved him nonetheless as he was able to complete her.

In a way, she completed him as well, as it was she who guided his career, introducing him to her friend, Irving Berlin who recommended him to write and stage his first Broadway play. While he always didn’t realize it at the time until her death, Cole truly loved Linda. He turned bitter after her death and never wrote much after her death. For a man who wrote such beautiful songs about love, Cole Porter was never truly able to understand the concept until he lost the one thing that he truly did love.

As good as the acting and storytelling is here, the real star of the film is the music. Over 30 Cole Porter songs are presented here, from Let’s Misbehave, to Be A Clown, to Night and Day to Every Time WE Say Goodbye to Love for Sale. The arrangements of the tunes is varied from more traditional arrangements to some very original and modern ones.

The film features several a musical performances, from the likes of Elvis Costello, Diana Krall, Robbie Williams, Natalie Cole, Sheryl Crow and Alanis Morissette. The choices for the artiest to perform these songs is quite interesting. While DIana Krall wold be a no brainer for this type of music, the use of Alanis Morissette was and out of the box and very effective choice and she nails Let’s Do It.

The film even features John Barrowman aka Captain Jack Harkness from Torchwood singing Night and Day in a duet with Kevin Kline. For me, the highlights of the film musically are Sheryl Crow’s stark and sultry performance of Begin the Beguine as well as a jazzy and bluesy and quite naughty rendition Love for Sale depicting Cole Porter’s exploits in a gay club in Los Angeles, as Cole Porter risks the exposure of his lifestyle at the height of his career.

Cole Porter was a brilliant songwriter and a very complicated man who lead a very complicated life. The use of his own songs to tell his story, warts and all, is simply sensational. I know there will be some that will be put off by some of the subject matter in the film, but it is a brilliantly conceived and executed film nonetheless, presented with some of the finest popular music ever written, if not the finest. If you haven’t seen the film or are unfamiliar with the music of Cole Porter, by all means see this film. De-Lovely is highly recommended.

Video  

As enthusiastic as I am about the film, I cant say that I was all that pleased with the video. With certain exceptions that were few and far between, I found the film to be rather soft, flat and lacking in detail. Black levels as well were inconsistent. In particular, I found facial details to be lacking, as though the detail was scrubbed away. While I wouldn’t say that the actors had a clayfaced appearance, it would not surprise me to learn that digital noise reduction was applied to this encode.

While the film features a very natural looking color palette, the overall picture can best be described as soft, flat and fuzzy, lacking the clarity, depth and detail that we have come to expect with Blu-ray releases. While not quite of DVD quality, the video on this release has more of that DVD look that I had expected and is far from reference material. IN fact, it would not surprise me to learn that the video here was taken from the transfer made for the prior DVD release of the film. It would have been nice, although probably too expensive for this type of film, to go back and do a new transfer for a Blu-ray release.

Audio  

While I was disappointed with the video presentation here, the audio presentation is a good bit better, although still not as good as I had expected. The dialogue track is well recorded and well placed in the mix. The film is rather front heavy with the surrounds used quite effectively, to create room ambiance. While room ambiance is present throughout, I would not exactly call this an immersive sound mix. The real focus here is the music, which has very nice bass, transparency and imaging. If I would have one complaint with the music, it would be that it can at times sound a bit bright, especially in comparison with the rest of the audio.

Special Features  

The extras here are all ported over from the prior DVD release of the film. The extras include:

• Two audio commentaries, one with Director Irwin Winkler and Kevin Kline and a second with Irwin Winkler and screenwriter Jay Cocks.
• Featurettes about the making of the film. The longest is the behind the scenes “Making of De-Lovely” featuring interviews with Irwin Winkler, Jay Cocks, Kevin Kline, Ashley Judd, Jonathan Price, Elvis Costello, Diana Krall, Alanis Morisette and Sheryl Crow among a quite a few others.
• A look at the musical performances in the film entitled “The Music of De-Lovely” which features some of the same interviews featured in the making of featurette.
• Two making of featurettes showing how the Love For Sale and Be A Clown scenes were constructed and filmed.
• Deleted scenes
• Trailers

All in all, the extras included here are rather standard fair and include nothing that was not already included on the prior DVD release of the film. All are presented in standard definition.

Final Thoughts 

De-Lovely is a very original and compelling look into the complicated life of America’s greatest tunesmith, Cole Porter, and some truly wonderful music. While I was disappointed with the video presentation included here, I can still highly recommend this film. Check it out, I am sure you will be glad you did.

Film  

Moonstruck is just as wonderful a film as I recalled it to be. Warm, charming, engaging and very, very funny. The film features Cher is her Oscar winning role as Loretta, a 38 year old widow from Little Italy in New York City, who does not believe in love or good luck. She agrees to marry Johnny (Danny Aiello), a man she does not love, a fact that meets the approval of her mother, played by Olympia Dukakis. The marriage proposal is rather rushed with a temporary engagement ring that is Johnny’s pinky ring as Johnny is on his way back to Sicily to be at the bed of his dying mother. He will not formally marry Loretta until his mother dies. Johnny asks that Loretta call his brother Ronnie (Nicholas Cage) with whom he is estranged. When she does so, Ronnie hangs up on her and Loretta goes over to his bakery where they fall madly in love, or is it lust?

Loretta thinks she must break Johnny’s heart by disclosing that she is in love with his estranged brother. Along the way we are offered a look at Little Italy, the Metropolitan Opera and are introduced to the rest of Loretta’s extended family, including her father, Cosmo (Vincent Gardenia), a plumber who knows his way around a woman’s plumbing if you get my drift and who is having a clandestine affair himself. Moonstruck is a charming film that is wonderfully written and directed and features some fine performances and an Oscar winning one for Cher, who looks marvelous before all that plastic surgery and botox (what was she thinking?). Moonstruck is very highly recommended for film fans of all ages and nationalities.

Video  

The video quality here is really a hit or miss affair. There are some really great looking scenes with well saturated and natural looking colors, excellent levels of fine detail and nice blacks. There are other sequences, often times right after a very good looking scene, that have slightly de-saturated colors and are very soft, almost murky looking with mediocre blacks. It doesn’t seem to matter whether it is a night time or daytime scene, interior or exterior shots, the quality is all over the place.

The only things uniform across the entire film is the presence of fine film grain and black crush, both of which are rather prevalent. The most obvious example of crushed blacks involves the scene at the opera where you are unable to delineated Cher’s deep black hair from the shadows in their booth. The same can be said for Nicholas Cage’s black suit.. Moonstruck is also not exactly a bright and bold looking film and looks more like an old photograph from the old country. As best I can recall, that is how the film looked in the theater and not the result of a poor encode or deteriorating film stock. Perhaps Moonstruck is in need of a complete restoration. I just wished that it looked better and more consistent.

Audio  

While I was far from impressed with the video presentation of Moonstrick on Blu-ray, the audio was a real surprise and a good bit better than I had anticipated. The real star for me here is the music which sounds sensational. The music has a light and airy feel with an excellent sense of depth. The instruments sound as though they are hanging in the air in front of you, with excellent transparency and imaging. Bass is deep and solid.

The sound effects sound great as well and actively engaged the surrounds where appropriate, such as the scene where Johnny’s jet returns from Italy and flies right over your head. For the most part, other than the music and the sound effects, the surrounds are used subtly for room and street ambiance. The dialogue track is fairly well recorded and just a tiny bit on the thin side. It is well placed in the mix and always intelligible. All in all, Moonstruck features a very solid audio presentation.

Special Features  

The extras all in all are rather standard fair, but are presented in HD. The extras include an audio commentary by Cher, diretor Norman Jewison and screenplay author John Patrick Shaney. Also included are three featurettes, a behind the scenes look at the making of the film, an interview with Dick Hyman who discusses the film’s score and a look at the fine Italian food available in Little Italy in New York City and Mulberry Street in particular, from a restaurant, food store, pasty shop, pasta store and a gelato stand. Also included is the theatrical trailer for the film. All of the featurettes are of an appropriate length and worth a look.

Final Thoughts  

Moonstruck is a wonderful charming film that is highly recommended, despite its less than stellar video presentation. if you are unfamiliar with the film, give it a look, you will be glad you did.

Film 

There is little question that Thelma & Louise is a classic. There were certainly no films like it before and I can’t really think of one since its release. In this regard, it pretty much stands as unique in the history of cinema. Sure there were plenty of road movies before and since and plenty of Buddy films. However, this is the only “Buddy” or “Road” film that I can recall where the two leads were women and not men. The movie world was male dominated 20 years ago and still is. When Thelma & Louise was released, it caused quite a stir in the media, including a cover piece in Time.

How you viewed the film often times depended on your gender, with women loving it, viewing it as a film about the empowerment of women and men hating it anti male given the way Thelma & Louise treated most men in the film. I guess men were not used to seeing men shot and humiliated in films by women. Looking back on it with 20 years’ perspective, all the bluster about the film seems to be just that, bluster. It is simply a great film about two interesting and complex women and one that I am grateful to see make its debut on Blu-ray.

I am sure that most of you already know the plot line of the film. Thelma & Louise are played brilliantly by Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon. Thelma is a housewife trapped in a loveless marriage to a real boob and leading a life totally devoid of even a hint of excitement or passion. Louise is a long time friend who works as a waitress in a diner who has some hidden demons that manifest themselves early enough in the film.

They decide to have a little fun and meet to go fishing in the mountains. Along the way they stop at a truck stop for some drinks where Thelma is hit on by Harlan Puckett (Timothy Carhart), a married man who is well known at the restaurant/bar as a pick-up artist. Thelma has too much to drink and feels sick while dancing. She goes outside for some fresh air where Harlan tries to rape her after she rejects his affections. Louise comes upon the scene while trying to locate Thelma as Harlan is just starting ito manhandle Thelma over the hood of a car and breaks it up with a gun from Thelma’s handbag to the back of Harlan’s head.

While leaving, Harlan says something derogatory to Louise who turns around and shoots and kills him. Rather than call the police, the two flee the scene. When the murder is discovered, the police, led by Detective Hal Slocumb (Harvey Keitel) quickly zero in on Thelma & Louise as suspects and begin to pursue them as they attempt to escape to Mexico. As they cross several states as part of their escape, they engage in criminal activity to finance their efforts to avoid capture at the hands of just about every law enforcement agency in the Southwest United States.

*Spoiler Alert*

Along the way, they truly discover themselves and even enrich their friendships, to the point that they commit suicide together rather than get caught, as they drive their car over the edge of the Grand Canyon as the film ends with that unforgettable sight of their car suspended in the air over the canyon before they can begin the plunge to their deaths.

Despite the subject matter, the film is filled with humor and is a very entertaining 129 minutes. Thelma & Louise is an unforgettable film that is as good today as when it was released way back in 1991 and is highly recommended.

Video 

I have no recollection as to how this film looked in the theaters 20 years ago. I am not sure that anyone would have having only seen the film once 20 years before. That said, this is a fine looking encode. The film has a pleasing looking color palette which is a bit skewed to the color cyan, with colors having a light blue tinge to them. Black levels are good and stable and consistent throughout the film but far from reference. Color saturation, detail, shadow detail and clarity are all good, although the overall look of the film is a tad on the soft side.

I found film grain to be well preserved with the overall video presentation maintaining that film like appearance. Other than during the opening sequence of the film where slight banding was present, I noticed no significant encoding issues. The print used for the release looked clean and in excellent shape. Fans of the film should be more than pleased with the look of the film on its initial Blu-ray release.

Audio 

All in all I was quite pleased with the audio here. While the sound design is a bit front heavy, the overall fidelity of the recorded sound was excellent, sounding smooth, rich and open with not even the hint of hardness evident. Bass response was particularly strong and most noticeable during the film score and sound effects. The dialogue track was well recorded and always intelligible. All in all, the sound reproduction here is of top notch quality.

Special Features 

I found the extras presented here to be rather mundane. The extras include an audio commentary with director Ridley Scott as well as one featuring Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis and screenwriter Callie Khouri. We also get a featurette on the making of the film and the reaction to it entitled “Thelma & Louise: The Last Journey” which is presented in standard definition and appears to have been ported over from the prior DVD release of the film.

Also included is an extended ending to the film with commentary by Ridley Scott, where he explains why the extended ending was deleted from the film. The extras also include several extended and deleted screens, a mutli-angles storyboard of the final chase scene as well as the original trailer for the film and a “Part of You, Part of Me” music video by Glenn Frey.

Final Thoughts 

It was great to see Thelma & Louise again after 20 years. its initial release on Blu-ray looks and sounds about as good as this film can and should please the many fans of this film and is highly recommended.

Film

When audiences walk into an M. Night Shyamalan movie, they have come to expect certain things… Usually a suspense filled twisted story that ends with a final reveal that flips your perception of the movie on its head, but with The Last Airbender, we are seeing a different kind of Shyamalan. This one is clearly for the kids.

I’ve never watched the television show before, so I have no idea how it compares to it. Whether it stays true to the original story or not is a mystery to me and I’m sorry to say that it will probably stay that way.  As I mention above, this movie was made for kids and to be more specific, ten year old boys. Unfortunately, that’s the only audience that will be impressed with this movie.  It’s not bad, it just has nothing to offer anyone else, and so it’s hard for me to recommend this one unless you’re a die-hard fan of the show and a completionist.

The basic plot revolves around two children named Katara and Sokka, who find a boy named Aang trapped in an ice sphere and free him. It turns out Aang is an Avatar and has the power to hold the world in balance. Unfortunately, since he’s been missing for 100 years, The Fire Nation has declared war on the other three nations, (Air, Water, Earth), and obviously see Aang’s return as a threat.

The main problem is the acting. Almost every performance feels like exactly that.  The main character is a 12 year old boy named Aang, played by Noah Ringer, although athletic enough to pull off the many martial art style moves he performs throughout the movie, when it comes time to carrying on a conversation it becomes painfully obvious that acting is not his forte. I found this particularly confusing since the movie is an M. Night Shyamalan film and he did direct one of the best child performances, in my opinion obviously, in The Sixth Sense with Haley Joel Osment. I don’t want to single Ringer out exclusively though. The rest of the cast is pretty bad too, with the one notable exception being Shaun Toub as a Fire Nation elder who follows around a fallen prince named Zuko, whose character is supposed to play a major part in the proposed sequel that is apparently in development. Anyway, Toub actually gives a damn good performance and is one of the few small pleasure s I took from the film.

Don’t expect the usual M. Night here, this is just lame movie adaption of a popular kid’s show that is no longer on the air anymore.  I’ve enjoy every movie he’s made up to this one, which is clearly not aimed at me so I’m not surprised… However it feels like when M. Night doesn’t write the script, he’s not as connected and I never felt that all-encompassing experience with The Last Airbender opposed to his original ideas.

Video

The Last Airbender’s video is displayed in its original aspect ratio of 2.40:1 using the AVC MPEG-4 codec. The film looks great and the transfer is pristine with absolutely no scratches, dust or artefacting in any way. The print is very clean and noise free, even in the night shots the film doesn’t suffer from overbearing graininess. I’m not sure if the Director of Photography was on his A-Game or if the footage had been polished in post (considering the film was converted to 3D, they could’ve done a very thorough refining job).

The images are very crisp and sharp and on the other end of the spectrum the bokeh is very soft any beautiful when depth of field is in effect. The close-ups that showcase skin texture and hair detail are the moments that should be put on loop for showcase purposes.

My only complaint is the contrast of the film was a bit inconsistent, the black levels are true for most of the film but there were a few scenes where I felt the image was a bit too gray and at other times during wide shots at night, the scenes were a little too dark. It’s not much of a complaint and when stacked up against how good this Blu-ray looks, it pales in comparison.  

Audio

The Last Airbender’s audio comes at us using the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio codec and has 5.1 mixing in French, Spanish and Portuguese as well. The film’s mix is very impressive and I would say it’s one of the few Blu-rays I’ve seen recently that is showroom quality, I did notice at some times the mix felt a bit inconsistent, where some sound effects weren’t as balanced as others but that’s being really nitpicky.

The audio offers great dynamic range and the low frequency really roar and rumble to all of our heart’s content. The dialogue is clear and centered with no noise issues as well. The surrounds are used really well to create a very enthralling atmosphere and some interesting use of panning really sells a lot of the actions scenes.

One of the best things I found in the film was the score. James Newton Howard, who has scored every movie M. Night has done and also recently did a remarkable job on The Dark Knight with Hans Zimmer, pulls out all the stops. The music in this movie was, simply put, great. During the climax it actually stirred me out of my boredom and forced me to take notice. It was powerful stuff and sounded great!

Special Features

The Last Airbender has a great selection of extras and thankfully in HD, which is a relief for I was getting tired of having the headache of watching SD footage on a projector.  The extras include four behind-the-scenes featurettes where the film’s production is examined as well as some light coverage on the original show, however I felt these were a bit lacking in the TV show department. I realize this isn’t the television show, but I would’ve liked to see the pilot episode or something along those lines to add some filler. Although these do cover the origins of the characters with the co-creators of the show and go over concept art, I couldn’t really see a child’s attention being captured for more than 10 minutes.

There are deleted scenes and outtakes as well as select scene commentary via picture-in-picture. All of which are pretty straightforward, the lack of a feature length commentary felt weird, but I guess when your movie aimed towards younger audiences, those kind of extras aren’t as important. All in all I would’ve liked to have seen more kid oriented special features but the HD extras and Picture-in-Picture commentary are really great.

Final Thoughts

The Last Airbender was hit with some unfair criticisms in my opinion, but even so it’s a very target audience oriented film that really doesn’t play to a wide audience. M. Night does a fine job directing the film but the script and acting is lacking. Even though the Blu-ray looks and sounds great; unless you are buying it for your kid, leave this Blu-ray on the shelf, check out the CD aisle and pick up the soundtrack instead.

Film 

The Freeling family lives a quiet suburban life in California; that is until the five year old Carol Anne begins communicating with another world through the static on their television. Bizarre events begin happening to the entire family like furniture being re arranged, an earthquake that only the Freelings feel, and announcements by Carol Anne that spirits are among them. Diane (Carol Anne’s mom) is fascinated by the presence of the spirits as she feels there is no immediate harm by it, but her husband Steve is threatened and concerned. Then one night a tree comes to life as a discretionary measure to divert attention away from Carol Anne who is taken in through a portal in her closet. Now the only way to communicate with her is through the static in the television as the Freeling’s scramble to find a way to battle the spirits and return their daughter to our world.

While this film isn’t what many neo horror lovers are accustom too Poltergeist managed to create a distinct style of its own which relied heavily on skillful acting and direction. The thrills in this film remain mostly psychological. There are no scary demons, no spinning heads, or bloody limbs; Poltergeist instead relies on conversation and supernatural occurrences to drive itself. I must say, after all these years Poltergeist still manages to be amongst the best horror films ever made. Well the thrills aren’t a mile a minute; they are in fact more believable because of their subtle and sometimes plausible nature. If after all these years you have yet to see Poltergeist I strongly suggest you do as it ranks amongst the top in the horror genre.

Video 

Presented in 1080p 2.35:1 aspect ratio and encoded in VC-1 Poltergeist comes to Blu-ray with a much upgraded video presentation. The first thing I noticed when I popped the disc in was the impressive use of colors.   Every color is accurately displayed while displaying impressive vibrancy.

Besides from a few scenes that looked soft and overly grainy, Poltergeist is also one sharp looking movie. There is no doubt that this video presentation is vastly superior to any DVD release.  It is a no brainer that fans should pick this one up on the video transfer alone.

Audio 

Warner has thankfully included a 5.1 TrueHD, one the definitely increases the effect of the material.  Poltergeist relies on more of an eeriness and psychological factor to pull the viewer in, rather than just jumps scares.  This is where the quality of the TrueHD track really comes into play.  Rear channels remain constantly active, creating a rich and believable viewing experience.  By providing a rich deep bass at the correct time in movie, sub support is very active and effective.

Like the video presentation, the audio definitely does a great job of enhancing the movie.

Special Features 

• Documentary – The one feature we get with this package doesn’t even give us an inside look at the movie.  Instead we are given a real life look at hauntings and ghosts.  Although the feature is interesting, I would have rather have had a behind the scenes feature.

Final Thoughts 

Poltergeist isn’t the most suspenseful horror film out there, it isn’t the bloodiest, and it certainly isn’t the scariest. It almost sounds like the makings of a flop, but somehow this film driven by solid acting, and great storytelling actually does manage to keep you glued to the television. It does just enough in every department that matters to a horror film, and it hardly over emphasizes its strengths. All in all I would recommend checking this film out, simply because it is a classic. The audio and video are the discs high point and really should be seen and heard. The special features are disappointing but are in fact interesting and a good watch for those of you who are intrigued to learn more about the spiritual world so prevalent in this film.

http://moviemarbles.com/blurays.php?brid=131

Film

The first matrix film was a game changer when it came out and when it was announced that not only one but two back-to-back sequels were going to be released, fans couldn’t hold in their excitement. When the movies received mixed reviews and didn’t live up to hype the films paled in comparison.

I always thought the hate that the Matrix sequels received was unfair; we all expected the Wachowskis to catch lightning in a bottle again. The Matrix Reloaded in particular has some great moments like the highway scene which is on a scale unlike we’d ever seen before. The expansive mythology built within the Matrix universe is something that simply isn’t common in Hollywood and the techniques that the Wachowskis use in presenting the films are so unique and original. Although the film doesn’t have the benefit of not having expectations it still kept pushing the bar.

Matrix Reloaded is action-packed but never feels mindless, the fight choreography is impressive and the special effects enhance every aspect of the shootouts. However, when it feels like the film is so high octane that it borders on gratuitous we’re given these beautifully crafted scenes such as the Architect scene where humanity is thrown under a microscope and it taps into the intellectual side of the audience.

Best of all with many back-to-back movies such as Kill Bill, the first movie that comes out has the opportunity to have an ending that leaves the audience painfully begging for more and the suspenseful ending of Matrix Reloaded definitely hits its mark… Unfortunately the next Matrix still hasn’t been released individually.

Video

Matrix Reloaded’s video is displayed using VC-1 codec in its original aspect ratio 2.40:1. The Blu-ray looks excellent, it’s crisp and sharp with a ton of detail and every texture comes through even when watching on a 100” projector screen.

The colours albeit colour graded to a greenish tint come off nicely and the contrast is at a nice level where we don’t lose details and we get deep black levels. The film has a bit of graininess at times but it’s nothing unusual or distracting.

The film is also free of any artefacting or noise; it’s a very clean print and is one of the best Blu-rays you can watch. It helps that the imagery in front of you has the scope of the Wachoiwski’s who are so talented that even the simplest shots have this edge to it, but nevertheless this is a good looking disc.

Audio

Matrix Reloaded’s audio comes at us using Dolby TrueHD 5.1 codec and sounds just as good as it looks. The mix is well balanced and takes advantage of the surrounds and even when complex scenes like shootouts on a highway are blowing out minds, the mix keeps up and makes sure everything comes through clearly. The sound effects have all the punch to really boost all of the unreal visuals that happen before our eyes and from the high ends to the low frequency roars, there’s little to complain about the sound. You can hear the complexity of the sound effects from the little sweeteners added to give the mix depth to the hollow atmospheric use of reverb.

The dialogue is clean and centered and there’s no noise or distortion in any of the tracks. The score comes through nicely as well and Don Davis really has a unique style with this score, blending organic and mechanic sounds seamlessly to create a surreal sound.

If you’ve been looking for a Blu-ray to flex your speaker’s muscle then add this one.

Special Features

There are quite a few special features on this Blu-ray, bringing over every feature from the Ultimate Matrix Collection such as 2 commentaries, over 20 behind-the-scenes featurette and some other bits on the Matrix game. The main feature that is cool is the in-movie experience that allows you to access some videos and extra goodies throughout the film that is really insightful to the filmmaking process. Unfortunately I wish there were most bonus features that focused on the Wachowskis.

Final Thoughts

If you bought the first Matrix separately and you’re contemplating whether you should continue with the trilogy, you can feel safe buying The Matrix Reloaded. The individual release has all the special features from the Ultimate boxset and the audio and video quality are showroom quality. If you weren’t a fan of  the sequels and haven’t seen them for a while, give them another chance after some time has past, Reloaded is a film that has aged well.

Film 

Bull Durham is without question one of the finest sports themed films ever made and certainly the best involving baseball. It has appeared on nearly every critical list in the sports films category, more often than not, at the top. There is a simple reason for that. It is a great film. The film is excellent at offering a glimpse into the life of a baseball player in the low minor leagues as well as the women who follow them and attempt to latch onto a little bit of greatness while they can.

The film centers around three main characters, a young pitcher with major league potential, Nuke LaLoosh (Tim Robbins), a career minor league catcher, Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) brought in the groom Nuke for a quick path to the Major Leagues or The Show as it is known among the players and the 30 something Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon) who treats baseball as a religion and decides to bed one new player a year on the local team, the Durham Bulls.

The film accurately depicts life in the low minors and the toll that life in the minors can take on the players. It also accurately depicts how women throw themselves at at the new players on the team hoping to hitch a ride on a star to a path of wealth and fame. You can go to the opening game in most small minor league towns in A or AA ball and see this playing out in front of your own eyes. I know I have. While Annie latches onto to Nuke, she soon learns that there is more to Crash than meets the eye and that her life, chasing after younger men, may not be how she ultimately wants to live the rest of her life. While Bull Durham is a comedy, it is chock full of some very poignant and introspective moments.

If you have not seen Bull Durham, do yourself a favor and give this film a look. You will be glad you did. Even with the video shortcomings as described below, Bull Durham is a film that belongs in the collection of all film fans. Recommended.

Video 

To say that I was disappointed in the video quality of this release would be an understatement, which, with a few exceptions, is barely above DVD quality. The film has a rather warm color palette with slightly de-saturated colors and mediocre blacks. The film was originally released to theaters in 1988 and has the look of many films in the 1980′s, namely overly soft with a rather murky and hazy looking image. Film grain is rather heavy here and well preserved.

I have an old DVD copy of the film and it looks as though the Blu-ray was mastered from the same print used for the older DVD and looks very similar in terms of color and overall image quality, with the Blu-ray showing better detail and overall clarity, but not by as much as one would have expected or hoped for. Given the softness and lack of deep blacks, the image here is flat and very two dimensional, lacking anything in the way of real depth. It has been way too long for me to recall how this film looked in the theaters but given the look of films in that era, the Blu-ray may just be a faithful depiction of the actual filmed image. Otherwise, Bull Durham is a film that could really benefit from a major restoration effort.

Audio 

The best aspect of the sound on this release is the accompanying music track which sounds wonderful and pulls the overall score up from a 3.5 to a 4 star rating. The music here sounds great with excellent imaging and transparency and rock solid bass. The opening vocal sequence sounds amazing.The rest of the film is deserving or no more than a 3.5 star rating, sounding a bit thin and flat. While the surrounds do spring to life occasionally, usually during the live action baseball sequences, the mix itself is rather front heavy. On the plus side, the dialogue track is well recorded and is always front and center in the mix.

Special Features 

Bull Durham is presented in a 2 disc combo pack with disc one the Blu-ray version of the film and disc two, a DVD edition. Other than the original trailer for the film, the Blu-ray disc contains no extras at all. All of the extras are located on the DVD edition which, with two exceptions, were ported over from the prior DVD release of the film. The extras ported over from the prior DVD release include an audio commentary from director Ron Shelton, an audio commentary with Kevin Costner and Tim Robbins, the featurette, “Between the Lines: The Making of Bull Durham”, a Kevin Costner Profile and a Sports Wrap. Two new featuretes are included on this release, a 20 year look back at the film featuring the cast and crew entitled “The Greatest Show on Dirt” and “Diamonds in the Rough” which takes a look at minor league baseball. of all the extras, the two newest and the ones most worth your time.

Final Thoughts 

While I was disappointed with the overall video and audio presentations on this release, Bull Durham is such a great film, even 22 years after its initial release, that it belongs in the collection of ay film buff. If you haven’t already, by all means add Bull Durham to your film library.

Film

Steven Seagal plays John Hatcher, a DEA officer who after accidentally gunning down the naked prostitute that killed his partner (seriously…), realizes he has become what he most despised. He retires from the force and decides to go back home and live with his sister. Obviously, trouble has a way of finding its way back into Hatcher’s life when he gets mixed up in a drug war between the mafia and a Jamaican gang run by a mysterious, possibly magical villain named Screwface (again seriously… I can’t make this up).

Screwface is played deliciously over-the-top by actor Basil Wallace. He’s one of those slightly insane bad guys that even gives his own men the creeps. Although, who could blame them. There is a scene in the movie where Screwface is in the middle of a game of dominos when he receives some upsetting news. He freaks out, flips the table over, rips off one of the table’s legs and proceeds to beat one of his men almost to death with it. And of course, he is believed to have magical powers or something. Who knows? Still, he’s one of the more entertaining bad guys to ever chew scenery around a Steven Seagal movie. I imagine Tommy Lee Jones (Under Siege) and Michael Caine (On Deadly Ground) somewhere giving Wallace a pat on the back. “You’re in the cool club now boy!” one of them would say. I know Marked for Death came out before those other movies, but I can dream it can’t I?

The movie is competently directed by Dwight H. Little, the man behind the camera on movies like Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home. The guy seems to be able to handle any genre with ease and this movie has a real strong pace. The action scenes are very well choreographed, with Steven Seagal using his aikido techniques to take on as many as six guys at once almost effortlessly. There is a particularly good scene that takes place in a Tiffany’s and involves Hatcher throwing people through numerous glass display cases. As well, the final battle between Hatcher and Screwface literally has to be seen to be believed. (Spoiler Alert!) All I’m going to say is that if you have already turned someone into a blind paraplegic, you don’t also have to throw him down an elevator shaft. (Spoilers end)

Excellent fights scenes, mixed with an interesting Voodoo element and you got yourself Marked for Death, a classic ‘movie for guys who like movies’ complete with a funky reggae soundtrack. Steven Seagal fans already know this movie as one of the better early ones and they won’t be disappointed. It still holds up after all of these years. Although, the problem with bad stunt doubles lately in his movies, now clearly seems to have always been a problem.

As a P.S., it’s funny seeing actor Danny Trejo as a goon Steven Seagal casually beats up and throws into the trunk of his car in an early scene in this movie. Although they would also star in the direct to DVD action flick Urban Justice together, ironically enough, this fall, twenty years after the release of this movie, Steven Seagal would star in his first theatrical release in nine years as a villain in Machete, opposite Danny Trejo as the lead. Hopefully, the magic will strike twice.

Video

Marked for Death’s video is displayed in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 using the AVC MPEG 4 codec. The film is one of those catalogue titles that doesn’t get much care or restoration, but at least the negative is a pretty clean one.

Colours are a bit plain and skin tones are reddish at times. The palette is pretty neutral, which is a staple of early 90’s flicks as well as the indoor scenes have that awesome foggy looked created by actually using a fog machine to fill the set with a hazy smoke to soften the image.

Besides having some dated attributes the film’s video quality isn’t too bad, scenes that are shot in daylight look really great with little to no visible grain and even some of the lower lit indoor scenes are pretty clean. However when we move to the late night scenes, especially during the Jamaican assault the grain is noticeable.

The image is pretty sharp and some scenes really display some great detail, such as the pores and texture of an actor’s face in a close up, but a lot of early 90’s did their best to soften the image, such as the fogging technique. There’s definitely not an issue with an overly soft image, but it would’ve been nice to have a slightly crisper display.

Audio

Marked for Death’s audio comes at us using the DTS-HD Master audio 5.1 mix, but as we’ve learned many times before; having one of the best audio codecs doesn’t mean we’re getting some of the best audio and this film is no exception.

We’re given a pretty straight forward mix with little to no “outside-of-the-box” play. A lot of the sound effects come through the main speaker and the low end frequencies don’t come out that much. A lot of the explosions and crashes that occur barely register, but regardless we get a very clear mix nonetheless.

The dialogue is clean, while staying in the center. The score, which just screams early 90’s action flick, stays in its place and doesn’t overshadow the sound effects. The sound effects themselves are somewhat flat, but do have some pop considering the film is 20 years old. A bit of irony in the mix is that the Jamaican assault near the end of the film uses mostly silenced weapons, so it was interesting to try and critique the sound effects when there were none.

Special Features

Although this is the 20^th anniversary of Marked for Death, we don’t get a single special feature.

Final Thoughts

If you’re into classic mindless action, then look no further than Steven Seagall. The audio and video presentation on this disc makes my old VHS copy look like it had taken a karate chop from Seagall himself; it’s a great presentation for a catalogue release and although it doesn’t stand out as showcase worthy it could’ve been a lot worse.