Film 

As already noted, The Thomas Crown Affair starring Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo, is a remake of a 1968 film of the same name starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway (who makes several appearances in this film as well as Mr. Crown’s psychologist). The film is directed by John McTiernen who is probably better known for a few of his other action films such as Die Hard, Predator, The Hunt for Red October and Die Hard With A Vengeance.

Pierce Brosnan stars as Thomas Crown, a thrill seeking New York billionaire who has quite a love for art as well as adventure. He concocts a rather intricate plan to steal a major work of art from the Metropolitan Museum in New York. After the heist, in addition to the NYPD, the crime is also investigated by the stunning Catherine Banning (Rene Russo), an insurance investigator based in London, whose sole goal, at least at the outset, is to recover the painting. She immediately pegs Crown for the heist and begins her investigation.

Crown is fascinated by her and they begin a cat and mouse battle to see if she can outwit him and catch him with the goods. One problem arises for her though, namely the fact that she falls in love with Mr. Crown. Will she betray her new found lover and crack the case, or join him? You will have to see the film to find out.

The story is well written and paced and keeps your attention throughout, with all the twists and turns in the plot, a few of which are unexpected and others quite predictable. All in all, I have always found it to be an interesting film and am very happy to see that it has finally made its way to Blu-ray. Recommended.

Video 

I was more than pleased with the video quality of this release which appears to these eyes at least, to be completely true to the look of the film as it appeared in theaters back in 1999. The film features a nice natural looking color palette which is a bit subdued at times and at times very colorful. Blacks are deep and solid throughout. I was not able to detect any video noise in the many darkened interior shots that make up quite a bit of the film. I was also not able to discern any appreciable use of digital noise reduction.

Film grain is present throughout the film. The level of facial detail and background detail is very good as is the overall sense of three dimensionality and clarity. Background details throughout the film, from the texture of walls, to the texture of clothing to the brush strokes on various pieces of art are all well delineated. In short, this is a fine looking encode that should please fans of the film. It appears to be a faithful and accurate reproduction of the film as it appeared in theaters, which is really all that we can expect.

Audio 

I was just as impressed with the audio on this release as I was with the video. The audio features excellent fidelity, with a smooth and open sound with excellent transparency and imaging. The sound track for the film sounds beautiful, especially Stings rendition of Windmills of Your Mind that accompanies the closing credits. I also enjoyed the big bang tinged music featured at one of the galas early in the film which sounded smooth and dynamic. Excellent stuff. I found dynamics to be excellent throughout the entire film with deep and rich bass where appropriate.

If I had one quibble, and it is a very minor one, it is with the use of the surrounds, which were not as active as I would have liked. While the surrounds are active throughout the entire film, I would have preferred to see them used just a tad more aggressively, to create the sense of total immersion that I find most appealing. The dialogue track is also well recorded and well placed in the mix and always clear and intelligible which is critical, given how important the dialogue is to following and anticipating the various twist and turns in the plot. Other than the one quibble with the prominence of the surrounds in the sound design, this is a wonderful sounding film and is one that will surely please fans of the film.

Special features 

I must say that I was quite surprised by the lack of extras included with the film. There are none at all included on the Blu-ray disc. edition of the film. The release is also a combo pack and includes a DVD copy of the film. However, the only extra included on the DVD copy of the film is an audio commentary by director John McTiernan. That’s it folks. I can’t say that I recall whether the old DVD release of the film had any extras on it, other than the director’s commentary. If there were, they have not been included here. It is rather rare in my experience for a release to be so devoid of extras as is the case here.

Final Thoughts 

If you missed The Thomas Crown Affair during it original theatrical run in 1999 or its prior DVD release, do yourself a favor and check it out on this Blu-ray release. I am confident that you will be glad you did.

Did it live up to the hype?

Film 

Once upon a time in Nazi occupied France.

The film opens with something that is peculiar in a World War II film, an extensive conversation that takes up the first chapter of the film. What some may find unusual in a war film is actually far from being anything but amazing. The dialogue is realistic, emotional and best of all delivered well (thanks especially to Christoph Waltz), it sets the movie off on a foot that you don’t expect. The film may have been described as a spaghetti western, but the dialogue alone proves this will be anything but a mindless action film.

As the movie progresses we begin to see parallel storylines emerge and begin to take shape. We meet the Basterds and their lieutenant, Aldo Rain (Brad Pitt), which proves that even though the beginning of the film may have been dialogue-driven, we begin to see this is much more than just that.

The film weds two different approaches to storytelling within its five chapters; at times the pacing is quick and heart pounding, for example the finale within the final chapter gets your adrenaline flowing, and on the other hand there are scenes like the opening conversation between Hans Landa and farmer Perrier LaPadite or the scene in the bar with Bridget Von Hammersmark where the scene has a slower pace, but is no less heart pounding, however the bar scene in particular lasts upwards of thirty minutes… So you can see the comparison pacing within the movie, sometimes thirty minutes of film can take us through four years of timeline, or thirty minutes can get us through half a conversation. It definitely proves Tarantino is a great director, where he can switch up the pacing so drastically in the movie and have you on the edge of your seat regardless.

I found that even after multiple viewings, I was still as appreciative of the movie, even with its long running time I never grew tired of seeing a scene stretch on… in fact I was at times wishing I could see more cleverly crafted dialogue between the characters that I found interesting (especially Christoph Waltz’s character, Landa).

The movie is definitely currently ranked as my favourite Tarantino film and, in my opinion; I do believe he created his masterpiece.

Video 

Inglourious Basterds is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.40:1 and uses the 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 codec. The film looks great, from the details being clear to the colors being vibrant. I was impressed when things like wood grain and blades of grass were so crisp when watching the opening and as the movie went on the film just kept looking better. Everything was sharp and beautiful, even on my projector, and the camera movements weren’t nauseating and artefact filled, they were smooth and graceful as well. Even the colors of the film, albeit neutral, really looked great especially when contrasted against the fire at the end of the film that brightens up the palette a bit.

The cinematography adds to the look of the film and from those great master shots, at the farm house, from chapter one to the ending shots in the theatre, the camerawork is so well done. There’s some slow tracking shots that simply don’t end (the establishing shot in the theatre comes to mind) and there’s those great quick shots throughout (such as the back-story on nitrate film) that really make the film fun to watch.

Audio 

The audio is just as good as the video quality in my mind, I don’t feel comfortable giving the film a “perfect” rating all around, but even when I decided to be pickier to try and see if the film could stand up, it ended up doing so. Inglourious Basterds’ audio comes at us in the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround codec in English, French and Spanish with subtitles in each.

The film has great dynamic range in the audio, there’s loud booming lows when the explosions and gunshots rip through the scene and there’s those perfect whisper quiet deliveries of dialogue that come through very clearly.

The surround overall is well mixed and the dialogue is perfect and natural. Which, considering the amount of it, is very important.

The music chosen for the film, obviously by Quentin, fit perfectly and comes at us with just as much tenacity as the dialogue. The foley is perfect and the sound effects are accurate and true.

It definitely went is one of those movies you watch with the volume cranked up. At times I turned up the volume and got used to the dialogue scenes, but when I heard an explosion or gunshot, I just imagined frames being blasted off the walls in my other rooms.

Special Features 

Inglourious Basterds has a great collection of special features, all of which are unique and uncommon. I’ll list and describe them in order to give a clear picture of how a great list of features should look.

• Extended and Alternate Scenes – There are three extended scenes to watch, including the scene where Zoller and Shosanna meet Goebbels to discuss the new location for the premiere of Nation’s Pride, it’s mostly same, except for a bit extra about film critics and Goebbels position on them. Then there’s an extended intro to the card game with Bridget Von Hammsermark at the bar… which is literally exactly the same except for a couple minutes taken from the beginning. Lastly is the opening to Nation’s Pride, which is the movie starting in the theatre…Which is literally the theatre lights dimming and the curtain raising, you can see why it was cut. However even though there isn’t much difference from the theatrical cuts of most of the scenes, seeing more of this great film is never bad.

• Nation’s Pride – Full Feature and The Making of ‘Nation’s Pride’ – Before I watched these special features, I wasn’t aware that Eli Roth actually directed “Nation’s Pride” (the film within a film starring Frederik Zoller). I found the full movie itself to be incredibly hilarious for two reasons, the cameo by Bo Svenson and the long shot of Zoller’s expression as he listens to the explosions and ponders.

• The Roundtable Discussion with Brad Pitt & Quentin Tarantino – This was one of my favourite special features. That had Pitt and Tarantino going over aspects of the film such as how language was a huge factor in the second world war, the German’s reaction to the film and how important casting is to a script and that even when a character is great on the page, it takes the perfect actor to come in and recreate it just as well.

• Conversation with Rod Taylor – To those who aren’t aware of who Rod Taylor is then you may not appreciate this as much. If you have seen the original ‘The Time Machine’ or Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ then you’ll like this. It’s basically Taylor discussing Tarantino’s directing style and how he asked Taylor to be in the film and Taylor’s reaction.

• Rod Taylor on Victoria Bitter – More from Rod Taylor about Tarantino and beer… Great mix.

• Poster Gallery Tour – This is another one of my favourite features, that goes through the posters within the movie such as for Nation’s Pride and others that were seen within the movie theatre at the end of the film. It’s interesting to see both real posters that were used and also ones created for the film.

• Poster Gallery – A gallery of posters of Inglourious Basterds, not to be confused with posters within the movie from the previous feature.

• The Original ‘Inglorious Bastards’ – I originally thought this was actually the movie itself, but it is a quick featurette about Bo Svenson’s cameo in Nation’s Pride and then some sort of homage to the original movie which mostly consists of random clips that mainly just made me want to watch the original movie.

• Quentin Tarantino’s Camera Angel – this one focuses on the slate operator at the beginning of each shot and her angelic qualities… watch it to find out what I mean.

• Hi Sallys – This feature focuses on the editor Sally Menke and everyone saying “hi” to her, that’s about it. Not a necessary extra, but still funny to get a glimpse of the tone on a Tarantino set.

• Trailers – All of the trailers from Inglourious Basterds including the Aldo Raine speech teaser trailer, which is my personal favourite.

• Killin’ Nazi Trivia Challenge – To challenge all of your killin’ Nazi ways…

The only thing keeping the special features from getting a perfect score is the lack of a commentary track, I’ve enjoyed Tarantino’s commentary before (notably the ‘From Dusk till Dawn’ commentary with Robert Rodriguez) and I feel this would’ve made this disc perfect, however it could’ve been much worse.

Final Thoughts 

To say the least, this film is definitely a must own for those looking for a great film, also considering how long it takes for worthwhile special editions to come out for one of Tarantino’s films (10 years for Reservoir Dogs, the 10th anniversary edition was the re-release with worthwhile features added) this is a must for Tarantino fans. It really does live up to the hype!

Film

While Bruno certainly has a couple of funny moments, it has far too few of them to be a worthwhile film. While there is no denying that Sacha Baron Cohen can really become the characters in his film to the point that he is not recognizable to those he attempts to mock, Bruno has absolutely nothing going for it other than sheer outrageousness.

In Bruno, Sasha Baron Cohen takes on the role of Bruno, a gay Austrian man that immigrates to Los Angeles seeking fame and fortune after he loses his job as a TV fashionista in Austria after he goes crazy disrupting fashion runway shows in Milan. When he arrives in Los Angeles, he is able to obtain a pilot with CBS where he interviews celebrities like Paula Abdul, while they sit on Mexican laborers acting as chairs, and even as a serving table when a naked man is wheeled out covered with finger food that is Paula’ s cue to bolt and run away as fast as she can. He ends his show with him swinging his (?) genitals to and fro which unquestionably shocks the test audience for the pilot.

Bruno keeps on going, trying to seduce former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul during an interview in a hotel suite, to seeking to assistance of a preacher to turn straight as well as a group of swingers to so he can learn how to have sex with a woman. The problem with the film is that there is nothing here other than shock value, with outrageous sex acts by the boat load.

While I would guess that Mr. Cohen is attempting to ridicule homophobia in the film, it just seems to me that he is doing just the opposite in ridiculing the gay community with non stop examples of the most outrageous people and practices he can find or imagine. Rather than being funny and thought provoking, Bruno is just crude and thoughtless and really not worth your time. I would recommend that you skip this one entirety. Hopefully, Mr. Cohen’s next film will be a lot better than Bruno or he may not get many more chances as Bruno is that bad.

Video

I was just about as disappointed in the video quality of this release as I was with the film. The image quality varies throughout the film. The color palette is natural if a bit subdued and undersaturated. Black levels are very mediocre as well. Detail and overall clarity are well below what I have come to expect from Blu-ray titles in general and Universal titles in particular. I addition, the low light scenes are plagued with video noise which is clearly visible from normal viewing distances. There is really little that I liked about the look of this film, which is just as disappointing as the subject matter of the film.

Audio

Surprisingly, the audio quality on Bruno is much better than the video quality and is another fine example of the quality which I have come to expect from DTS HD Master Audio encodes. The quality here is not the sound design per se as it is a rather front heavy mix. What really surprised me about the audio presentation was the overall fidelity which is simply outstanding, with a smooth, open and detailed sound with excellent transparency and imaging and knock your socks off bass response and dynamics which are especially noticeable during the musical tracks in the film. Don’t go expecting an immersive feel and aggressive use of the surrounds as you will be disappointed. However, if you are like me and appreciate excellent overall audio fidelity in our films, I have no doubt that you will be quite pleased with the audio on Bruno.

Special Features

The extras included with the Blu-ray release consist of an hour of alternative, deleted and extended scenes not shown in theaters which are of the same dubious quality as the rest of the film. All are presented in HD however. Also included is an enhanced video commentary with Sacha Baron Cohen and director Larry Charles on select scenes in the film. Also included is an interview with Larry Robinson, the Hollywood agent hired to represent Bruno in the film. The release is BD-Live enabled and copies with a digital copy compatible with Macs and PCs.

Final Thoughts

On the heels of Borat, I was really expecting a lot more from this film. However, all that the film delivers is mindless and senseless rudeness and crudeness that is neither funny nor interesting. Check this film out if you are into crude and base humor.  If you aren’t, like me, you should skip this release entirety.

Film

In my review of State of Play, I noted that I had the chance to view some shall I say lackluster films on a recent international plane flight. One of those films was Wolverine. I was hoping that I would enjoy the film more on Blu-ray, chalking up my impressions on the plane to the fatigue and an overall bad mood brought on by being stuck on a plane for over 8 hours. However, after viewing the film again, this time with a clear head and in the comfort of my own home, I can state that my initial negative impressions of the film were correct.

Wolverine details the origins of, you guessed it, Wolverine, probably the most mysterious of the X-Men characters, at least in the first three films. Some of the material in this film is hinted out in the other films, with Wolverine having flashbacks to a prior life that he can no longer recall. This film fills in the rest of the back story, detailing his life as a child, his relationship with his half brother Victor Creed a/k/a Sabretooth and their lives together, leading up to the point in time that his memory is erased.

The film stars Hugh Jackman as James Logan/Wolverine and co-stars Liev Schrieber as Victor Creed. It turns out that both are recruited into a secret unit in the US Army that works outside normal military channels and is involved in a secret plot involving mutants, working to create a super weapon for use by the military. Wolverine gets tired of the fighting and violence and wants something of a normal life, fighting against the animal instincts within him. However, the Army has other ideas, which forms the basis for the story arc in the last half of the film.

While I had no issue at all with the performances of the two leads or the rest of the cast for that matter, I found the film to be a disjointed mess, lacking much in the way of pace or an involving plot line. Frankly, I fell asleep on the plane watching the film and almost dozed off at home again. There was really little joining on in the film to keep my interest as my mind kept wandering off to other things. While there are some nice action scenes and explosions and fight scenes that help keep you interested to some degree, the rest of the film just left me cold.

The film seemed very formulaic and by the book and is basically an attempt to keep the X-Men film franchise moving forward. Given the box office gross of this film, I am sure that there will be others. However, they will have to be much better than this to get me even mildly interested. Unless you are a real fan, you may want to skip this one entirely or check it out on the basis of a rental only.

Video

While I didn’t care for the film, the video quality is another issue altogether. This is a very fine looking transfer and will really please fans of the film. The film features a bright and bold color palette with richly saturated colors. However, I found the skin tones to be a bit too brown, although this is certainly not the fault of the encode. Detail was excellent as well throughout most of the film, faltering only in some of the more dimly lit scenes in the film. Other than the opening few sequences in the film, black levels are deep and solid resulting in an image of excellent depth and three dimensionality.

Clarity and overall sharpness are excellent as well, with the exception of a couple of the more dimly lit scenes which were just a tad softer and less detailed than the remainder of the film. I was not able to detect any evidence of noise reduction or edge enhancement from normal viewing distances on my 60 inch screen. The only other quibble I had is a small amount of video noise in the darker areas in one scene of the film which was certainly not visible from more normal viewing distance. While X-Men Origins: Wolverine is certainly not the best looking film I have experienced on Blu-ray, it is a very fine looking film and is one that will no doubt please fans of the film.

Audio

While I had a couple of very minor quibbles with the video on this release, I had no issues whatsoever with the audio. A few of the words that come to mind when I think about the audio presentation on this release are lush, smooth, dynamic, detailed, aggressive and engaging. The overall sound is very smooth and lush, without even the hint of hardness or shrillness. The overall fidelity is just about as good as it gets. Dynamics are off the charts with deep and tight bass that really rock the room.

The surrounds are actively engaged through the entire film and are used very aggressively, creating a very immersive sound field. The dialogue track is also beautifully recorded and is well placed in the mix. No matter how loud the rest of the sound elements may be in a given scene, the dialogue is always clear and up front, never getting buried in the rest of the mix. Simply put, this is a great sounding film and a fine example of the type of incredible audio experience the lossless audio codecs can now bring into the home environment.

Special Features

As one would expect, this release is chock full of many extras. Unfortunately, as far as I am concerned, most just aren’t that interesting and are rather routine. This is a two disc set, with the second disc consisting of a digital copy of the film compatible with Macs and PCs.

The extras are included on disc one with the rest of the film and consist of audio commentaries with director Gavin Hood as ell as one with producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter.

Also included is a featurette The Roots of Wolverine: A Conversation with Stan Lee and Len Wein of Marvel comics where they discuss the Wolverine character. Another featurette is a standard making-of piece entitled Wolverine Unleashed: The Complete Origins, where the cast and crew discuss the making of the film. We also get another shorter featurette entitled, The Thrill of the Chase: The Helicopter Sequence which details how the scene where Wolverine battles an army helicopter was filmed. The last featurette included is entitled Weapon X Mutant Files, where the various characters introduce their characters and where each character is discussed in great depth, including Wolverine, Sabretooth, William Stryker, John Wraith, Kayla Silverfox, Fred Dukes (The Blob), Bradley Bolt, Remy LeBeau (Gambit), Agent Zero, Wade Wilson and Emma.

Also included are deleted and alternate scenes with commentary by director Gavin Hood. All of these extras are presented in high definition. Also included is what is described as Ultimate X-Mode Bonusview where you can select one of four different options (X Connect, The Director’s Chair, Pre-Visualizing Wolverine and X-Facts trivia track), where a PIP will pop up on screen during the film providing access to content tied to that given scene. The release is also BD-Live enabled and is entitled Live Lookup, which allows the viewer to access up-to-date actor, filmographies and information related to the film via IMDb, the internet movie database.

Final Thoughts

While X-Men Origins: Wolverine contains excellent audio and video presentations, I didn’t find the film to warrant a buy recommendation for other than the most die hard X-Men devotees. The best I can do is give the film a rental recommendation. The rest of you may want to skip it entirely.

Film

Hot Fuzz is an over the top and at times absolutely hilarious homage to the buddy cop film film genre such as Bad Boys and Point Break, both of which are featured in the film. It is brought to you by the same duo that brought us the spectacularly funny send off on the zombie movie genre, Shawn of the Dead.

Hot Fuzz stars Simon Pegg (the co-screen writer along with director Edgar Wright) as Nicholas Angel, an aggressive Metropolitan police officer in London who is transferred to Sandford, a small apparently bucolic town south of London which has repeatedly won a prestigious town of the year award. Nicholas was promoted to Sergeant and transferred to Sandford as he was making his fellow officers and superiors on the force look bad due to his outstanding performance in comparison to theirs and it was thought that they could make all their lives easier by simply promoting him and transferring Nicholas out of town. To say that Sergeant Angel is meticulous in his attention to detail would be an understatement.

While not yet on his first day on duty in Sandford, he is already filling up the jail with juvenile delinquents, drunk drivers as well as clearing out the local pub of underaged drinkers. He soon befriends his partner, Danny Butterman (Nick Frost who also starred in Shawn of the Dead with Simon Pegg), who happens to be the son of the police commissioner in Sandford. However, a series of rather gruesome deaths occur shortly after Sergeant Angel’s arrival in town that Nicholas suspects were not accidental deaths but homicides, perpetrated by some of the most respected residents of the town.

If you are not familiar with the film, I really don’t want to spoil the film for you by giving away more of the plot. I will say however, that the action sequence that takes up the last 15 minutes of the film is one of the funniest scenes I have ever seen in an action film and even after repeated screenings of the film, still has me howling out loud. In addition to Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the film also stars Timothy Daulton and Jim Broadbent. The film also contains two uncredited cameos by Peter Jackson and Kate Blanchet. See if you can spot them!. Hot Fuzz is a fantastically funny film and as far as I am concerned, is a must own for any film fan. Very highly recommended.

Video

The HD DVD release of Hot Fuzz had incredible picture quality. After comparing the Blu-ray and HD DVD, I can state that both appeared equal to me in terms of video performance. The picture quality on this Blu-ray release is simply outstanding. The film features a very bright and detailed image with deep and rich blacks and incredible levels of detail and clarity. I don’t think I have seen a film on either Blu-ray or HD DVD that exceeds the level of clarity on this release. The film delivers a truly three dimensional looking image with great depth. Color reproduction is outstanding, with bright and bold primary colors, spot on fleshtones and in particular, beautifully rendered shades of green. I also really loved the way the cinematographer captured sunlight in this film. Simply outstanding. I am sure that there may be a spot here and there that I could quibble with about this encode, but those quibbles would be truly minor and result in nothing but excessive nitpicking on my part as the image rendered on this release is truly outstanding and fully worthy of a full 5 star rating.

Audio

While the HD DVD release of the film featured an excellent audio track, it did feature a lossy Dolby Digital Plus track and not a lossless track such as Dolby True HD or DTS HD Master Audio. I was always interested to see whether the inclusion of a lossless encode would further improve upon the already outstanding lossy track featured on the HD DVD. I can definitively state that the DTS HD Master Audio track included with the Blu-ray release does indeed improve on the outstanding lossy encode and takes the audio presentation to another level. If you liked the audio on the HD DVD release, you will LOVE the lossless encode included with the Blu-ray. The DTS HD Master Audio encode features over the top dynamics, with rich, full and powerful bass that really grabs your attention. The battle sequence at the end of the film is really an off the charts aural bombardment of sound.

The surrounds are used very aggressively and create a totally immersive and captivating sound field that is really a thrill to experience in the home. The dialogue track is also beautifully recorded and well placed in the mix, never getting drowned in the mix, no matter how loud the action in the film may get. The overall fidelity of the film’s audio track is outstanding as well with excellent transparency and imaging to boot and a great sense of depth both from side to side and front to back in your room. The placement of the sound effects within the sound field is perfect as well. In fact, the word that comes to mind first in describing the audio on this release is perfect. It is that good! This is one film that must be experience at reference audio levels.

Special Features

Hot Fuzz on Blu-ray is packed with many extras, many of which were included on the HD DVD release. The extras include many short deleted scenes with optional director’s commentary as well as several outtakes. Also included is a featurette The Fuzzball Rally: Uncut, which follows Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and writer and director Edgar Wright on their US press tour for the film.

Also included is a short featurette The Man Who Would Be Fuzz featuring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost performing their lines as Sean Connery and Michael Caine.

We also get a feature set entitled The Evidence Room featuring Conclusive: We Made Hot Fuzz, Speculative: Video Blogs taking you behind the scenes during the making of the film, Forensic: detailing the special effects used in the film and Hearsay with plot holes and comparisons to other films.

Also featured are five featured audio commentaries with various members of the cast and crew in various combination’s and Hot Funk, featuring a montage of clips using the “clean” dialogue from the TV and airline version of the film as well as Danny’s Notebook: The Other Side, trailers for the film, an easter egg video clip and additional video blogs consisting of iTunes podcasts and VW Blogs.

The release is BD-Live enabled and also features Universal’ U-Control where you can access the storyboard for the film while the film is playing as well as the Fuzz-O-Meter which enables you to access a special trivia track for a running recount of little known facts about the film and the cast. There is a ton of stuff included here to keep fans of the film occupied for a couple of hours at least.

Final Thoughts

Hot Fuzz is one great and enjoyable film and features reference level audio and video presentations. It would be a bit of an understatement to say that I highly recommend this release.

Film

To say that I enjoyed this film would be an understatement. State of Play is based on a successful BBC series of the same name that has been adapted extensively for the theater and an American audience. The film stars Russell Crowe as Cal McCaffrey, a reporter with the Washington Globe who is investigating two shootings, one of which resulted in a murder. He also happens to be the college roommate of Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) a young and up and coming Congressmen from the 7th Congressional District in Pennsylvania, whose lead staff investigator apparently committed suicide at a DC Metro station the morning after the night of the two shootings.

At the time, Congressman Collin’s committee was investigating the activities of Pointcorp, a private military firm that was providing soldiers for the US government in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere at immense cost to the taxpayers and resulting in substantial profits for Pointcorp. While McCaffrey is investing the double homicide, one of the paper’s bloggers, Della Frye (Rachel McAdams), has posted a story that Congressman Collins had been having an affair with his now deceased staffer, Sonia. McCafferty soon discovers that there was a link between the two shootings he was investigating and the alleged suicide of Congressman Collin’s staffer, when he discovers her cell phone number on the cell phone of one of the shooting victims. From there, he and Della, work together to piece together the linkage among the two shooting victims, the deceased staffer, Congressman Collins and Pointcorp.

I found the film to be very well written and directed. There are obvious parallels between the characters in the film and events in today’s news, with Pointcorp looking suspiciously like another private military contractor that has played a prominent role in the news headlines of the day, namely Blackwater. I would rather not give too much more of the plot to this film away so as to not spoil the film for you. Let’s just say that the film is filled with numerous twists and turns as McCaffrey and Della attempt to track down the real story behind the events they are covering. Unlike too many thrillers, the plot twists here are not contrived and are very well thought out to keep our attention. This is a fine film that really deserves a wide audience on Blu-ray. Highly recommended.

Video

I must say that I really loved the video quality on this release and is another in a string of solid encodes from Universal. The film features a wonderfully natural color palette with deep and rich blacks and excellent rendition of skin tones. For the most part, clarity and detail is excellent resulting in an image of great depth and three dimensionality, which really helps to pull you into the film. Shadow detail is excellent as well with not even a hint of digital noise in the darker scenes in the film. The image quality of most of this film is fully worthy of a 5 star rating. However, I felt it necessary to knock the overall rating down just a peg due to some softness to the image in some of the dimmer lit scenes, which lacked the sharpness, detail and depth of the rest of the film. Overall, this is an excellent encode and is one that will no doubt please fans of the film.

Audio

While I enjoyed the lossless audio track on this release, it was not quite up to the level of quality attained by the video presentation. On the plus side, the dialogue track was well recorded and well placed in the mix. Each and every syllable of dialogue is clear and easy to follow which is important in a film such as this. Overall, I also found the imaging and transparency to be very good as well. With an excellent sense of depth in the room both front to back and side to side.

Where I felt that the encode came up a tad short involved the overall sense of dynamics which fell a bit flat as well as the use of the surrounds. While the surrounds were active throughout the film, I felt that they could have been used more aggressively to create an even more immersive sound field, which would have added to the tension of the narrative on screen a little more. The sound mix certainly did have its moments, such as a shooting early on in the film that nearly jolted me off my seat. It is just that I would have preferred a more immersive sound mix that that provided here. Finally, I also found that the overall fidelity of the sound to be just a tad on the bright side, but far from harsh and not really fatiguing even at reference levels.

Special Features

There are really few extras included with this release which I found to be quite surprising. There are two deleted scenes included in standard definition as well as a Making of featurette that is presented in high definition. Universal has also included the U Control feature here which you can activate while watching the film. Should you chose to do so, a small box pops up on screen which shows you an ariel view of the section of Washington DC where that scene in the film takes place, sort of like Google Earth. I can’t really say that I found the implementation of the U Control feature on this release all that interesting. Perhaps you will feel otherwise.

Final Thoughts

If you are looking for a tight and taut thriller that is intelligently written and well acted and that features excellent video, State of Play just might be the film for you and is highly recommended.

Film

The film Seabiscuit is based on the book Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand and tells the story of a diminutive race horse that captured the imagination of the American population during the The Great Depression. It would be misleading to describe the film as being about a race horse as it is really about four central characters who were involved in making Seabiscuit the great horse that he was. The four, in addition to he horse himself are Charles S. Howard ( Jeff Bridges), the businessman who purchased the horse, Red Pollard (Tobey McGuire), the jockey who rode him and Tom Smith (Chris Cooper), the trainer who trained him.

Tom Smith recites a line in the film about Seabiscuit to the effect that you don’t throw away a life just because it is broken up a bit. This line really describes each of the four main characters in the film, which includes Seabiscuit himself, as each have issues and troubles to overcome, both physical and mental, and do so in their drive to make Seabiscuit a great race horse.

While Seabiscuit was related to the great Man of War, he labored in obscurity due to his diminutive size, as no one thought he had the makings of a great horse given his size. However, Tom Smith saw something in Seabiscuit and convinced Charles Howard to purchase him for $8,000.00. He also found the perfect jockey for him in Red Pollard, who was abandoned by his parents at a race track when he was 15 and who lost the sight in one eye while fighting money. Red Pollard was a bit tall for a jockey and basically had to continually starve himself to meet the 115 lb weight limit imposed on jockeys. However, all three of them worked, prodded and cajoled Seabiscuit into becoming a dominate horse that captured the attention of the American public that was hungry for a feel good story during The Great Depression.

In Seabiscuit, the American public saw themselves, an underdog, trying to overcome long odds, not always of their own making, to make something of themselves during very tough and tragic economic times. Eventually Seabiscuit is entered into a match race against the greatest race horse of the day, War Admiral, which was broadcast over the radio to an audience of over 40 million people.

Seabiscuit is more than a story about a horse, it is an uplifting story about hard work, about second and even third chances, about striving to overcome obstacles, of persevering in the face of long odds and of taking chances and believing in oneself, all in the pursuit of a dream. Seabiscuit is an uplifting and moving film that I enjoyed as much today as if did back in the theater in 2003. It is a wonderful film that the whole family can enjoy and is highly recommended.

Video

Seabiscuit is a great looking film. It features bright and bold perfectly saturated colors that are a feast for the eyes. The color palette is quite natural looking and features lush greens, deep and rich browns and reds and deep, stable and inky blacks. Clarity and detail is excellent as well and in conjunction with the deep blacks, creates an image of excellent depth and three dimensionality. The shots in the old west at the beginning of the film look spectacular as do the shots of the hills around Santa Anita race track.

Film grain also appears to be well preserved and I didn’t detect the application of any digital noise reduction or the dreaded edge enhancement for that matter. Shadow detail is excellent as well although the overall level of detail is not quite up to the level of the very best looking films. While the faces of the actors as well as backgrounds and clothing are well detailed, the detail present falls a bit short of the best 5 stars rated encodes. Nevertheless, this is still a great looking film and as far as I can tell, a flawless encode, looking every bit as good as the film looked in the theater. If you are a fan of the film, you will be thrilled with the video presentation of this Blu-ray release.

Audio

I will state out the outset that I was very impressed overall by the audio reproduction and sound design on Seabiscuit. As I have come to expect from DTS HD Master Audio encodes, the fidelity of the audio is excellent, being characterized by a smooth, open and full sound with top notch transparency and openness. The sensation of depth both front to back and side to side across the room is very impressive. Dynamics are excellent as well and the film boasts deep, full and tight bass. Given that the film is primarily dialogue driven, it is important that the dialogue track be well recorded and well placed in the mix. I can report that is is on both counts.

The surrounds were also employed a bit more aggressively than I had anticipated giving the film a more immersive feel than I had thought it would, especially the racing sequences which are the the aural highlights of the film. The bass response during the racing tracks is most impressive, as you can literally feel the thundering of the horses in your room, sounding as thought you are standing by the rail as the horses thunder by, bathing you entirely in a sea of sound. Feel free to listen to this film at reference levels without the fear of even a hint of listener fatigue. The audio presentation here is every bit as good as the video and really adds to ones enjoyment of the film and was a joy to experience at home.

Special Features

As was the case with Children of Men, Seabiscuit does not come equipped with any high def extras. The extras do include a feature commentary by director Gary Ross and filmmaker Steven Soderbergh as well as what amounts to an extended commercial from Buick which I guess is rather interesting given the current situation over at GM.

The extras include the featurette Bringing the Legend to Life: The Making of Seabiscuit, which chronicles (what else?) the making of the film, featuring interviews with the cast and crew. For this writer, the most interesting extra is the featurette is Seabiscuit: Racing Through History which features author Laura Hillenbrand, who discusses, along with others, the history of Seabiscuit as well as horse racing in the early 20th century as well as The Great Depression, noting that horse racing had been outlawed but was brought back by the States with betting for the purpose of raising revenue during the Depression.

Also included are the featurettes Anatomy of Movie Moment, Winners’ Circle: The Heroes Behind the Legend, The True Story of Seabiscuit and HBO’s First Look. The extras also include the newsreel footage of the actual match race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral as well as Photo Finish, a set of on set photographs taken by Jeff Bridges during the making of the film.

Final Thoughts

Seabiscuit is an uplifting and moving film that the entire family can enjoy. The fact that it features excellent audio and video reproduction is an added bonus. Highly recommended.

Film

I really enjoy dark, original and thought provoking films that work on many different levels and Children of Men is certainly one of those types of films.

The film is set in England in the year 2027. Large sections of the UK have become armed camps as the government has clamped down on civil liberties. Quite frankly. the UK and the rest of the world has gone to hell in and basket after the entire human race became infertile 18 years prior. At that point, the human race became doomed as the entire world would eventually simply die off in the span of the lifetimes of the youngest people. As a result, social structures began to break down.

Buildings were no longer maintained and became dilapadated. Pollution no longer became a concern as it no longer made a difference if the whole human race would be gone in but one lifetime. Immigration is the real issue that the government wants to battle as they want to keep everyone out of the UK and place those who are there into armed camps.

A group called the Fishes has arisen who the government considers to be terrorists who are involved in moving immigrants about the country. It is here that we find the hero of the story, Theo (Clive Owen), a bureaucrat and a bit of a drunk, who leads a totally nondescript life, just getting by, and upon whom greatness is thrust. He is contacted by the terror group who he discovers is lead by his ex-wife, Julian (Julianne Moore), who seeks his help in getting transit papers so she can get an immigrant woman, who is the first women in the world to become pregnant in 18 years, passage to the coast where she can be picked up by a hospital ship run by a group called the Human Project, which may or may not even exist. Rather than just obtaining transit papers, Theo becomes involved in the group which is double crossed by an insider and has to arise above himself to lead the pregnant woman and her baby to safety, at the risk of his own life.

What I really enjoyed the most about this film is the way it was filmed, with very long takes. It is though you are actually there during the story, following along with the cast. This narrative technique really pulls you into the story, at least it did for me. The more action oriented scenes look as though they were filmed with a hand held camera and have this herky jerky feel to them as though an actual camera crew is making the film in an actual war zone. You get to take in the whole scene as there are no quick edits or alternate angles. You follow the entire scene from one perspective. It is almost like being there. Children of Men is a well written and acted film that really pulls you into the story and is one that is well worth a look. Recommended.

Video

There is quite a bit to like about the look of Children of Men on Blu-ray. However, if you are looking for a bright and colorful film, Children of Men is not the film for you. While colors look quite natural, Children of Men is a dark and dull looking film, with an emphasis on various shades or gray, greens, blue and browns with a hint of yellow thrown in every now and then. The drab look of the film is intentional, as it fits the mood of the time and the increasingly disintegrating condition of both society as well as societies’ building and infrastructure infrastructure. On the whole, I was impressed with the overall black level reproduction which was deep and stable.

I also thought that film grain was well preserved and didn’t really discern the application of any significant digital noise reduction. I also thought that shadow detail was well preserved as well, which was especially preserved during the interior shots in the uprising battle sequence near the end of the film. Where I found the look of the film to be a bit disappointing concerned the level of overall detail and clarity, which I found to fall a good bit short of the best looking Blu-ray releases. Close-ups on the whole looked quite nice but as the camera pulled further back from the action, the images began to lose detail and clarity and became a tad on the soft side. While I would have preferred an image with more detail and clarity but I am sure that the look for the film is very representative with how the film looked in the theater.

Audio

For an action film, and Children of Men is an action film, I would have preferred a more immersive and involving sound design than what is present here. Overall, the fidelity of the sound is quite good, with a smooth and open sound with good transparency and imaging. The dialogue track is also well recorded and well placed in the mix.

Somewhat surprising, the film’s sound design is quite front heavy with long sections of the film containing rather sparse use of the surrounds and lacking little in the way of an immersive feel. However, there are certain exceptions where the surrounds are used aggressively to create very an immersive feel. The most effective use of the surrounds is during the uprising sequence at the end of the film where the government’s military forces invade immigrant camp and begin to kill the inhabitants. There, the surrounds are used very aggressively, placing you right in the middle of the action with Theo, as bullets ricochet and whiz by constantly in addition to explosions which take out large sections of the buildings where the people and militants are hiding. Here, the gun and tank shots and explosions are quite realistic sounding and have the appropriate weight and heft that one would expect. These sections of the film are fully deserving of at least a 4.5 star rating. However, there are simply not enough of them to pull the overall score up above a 4.

Special Features

Surprisingly, Children of Men does not come equipped with any high def extras or a digital copy of the film. The extras include deleted scenes as well as a featurette detailing how CGI was used to create the birthing scene and the actual baby near the end of the film. Also included is a featurette entitled Futuristic Design which details how the sets and locations for the film were selected.

The featurette Theo & Julian details the relationship between these two central characters and features interviews with Clive Owen and Julianne Moore discussing their takes on their respective characters. The featurette Under Attack shows how the battle sequence at the end of the film was staged and shot.

Also included is the featurette The Possibility of Hope which is Alphonso Cuaron’s documentary on how the themes in the film relate to today’s society. The final extra is a filmed commentary on the film by the Marxist sociologist, philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Zizek.

Final Thoughts

Children of Men is a thought provoking film that features solid but unspectacular audio and video presentations that is well worth a look.

Film

Inside Man is directed by Spike Lee and written by new comer to the big screen, Russell Gewirtz. And what a first time screenplay it is from Mr. Gewirtz! This is not your typical Spike Lee film which is probably why it is my favorite of his films. The film has quite a cast starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster and Christopher Plummer in an intriguing film about a bank robbery that is more than just a robbery and one that spirals into a possible game of cat and mouse between a criminal mastermind and a determined police detective and a power broker with a hidden agenda.

The film starts out with what appears to be a simple bank robbery that turns in to a hostage standoff. However, as the film moves forward, you discover a real sense of unease on the part of the bank president who is hiding a secret that he is afraid will somehow be exposed by the heist. He enlists the aide of a power broker or fixer if you will, who tries to pull all the necessary strings with the Mayor of New York and the police department, to gain access to the decision making process around the hostage negotiations in order to protect her client’s interests. As quickly as the robbery and hostage situation began, it ends, with the authorities left wondering who and what were involved and more importantly, why. Inside Man is a beautifully written, directed and acted film that is a real treat. I continue to enjoy this film even after repeated viewings, which is the sign of a well written and put together film. Highly recommended.

Video

This is another excellent transfer by Universal. The print looks pristine without evidence of dirt or other imperfections which is to be expected given the film’s vintage. The film has a very natural color palette with excellent blacks and shadow detail. The shadow detail is important as large segments of the film take place in a bank where most of the lights are turned off. I had no difficulty making out details and action taking place in the shadows.

Skin tones are very natural looking as well with the only exception being the subsequent interview sequences with the individual hostages sprinkled throughout the film. These segments have a very stylized, overblown and hot look, which was intentional on the part of the director to differentiate these sequences, in terms of time, from the rest of the film. In addition to the black level, I also thought that the overall clarity of the image here was excellent, but just a shade below the top looking films on Blu-ray, with the image lacking that n’th degree of detail and sharpness that are the hallmarks of the very best looking films on Blu-ray.

Despite that one very minor quibble, this is a great looking film and is one that should thrill fans of the film. I know it sure did for me. I found the overall picture quality on the Blu-ray release of Inside Man to even surpass the level on the prior HD DVD release which was no slouch in its own right.

Audio

I have no reservations at all about the audio encode on this disc. It is excellent in all respects. The Dolby True HD that was present on the HD DVD release is replaced here by a new DTS HD Master Audio track that I found to be an improvement over the excellent previous True HD encode. You know that you are going to be in for a treat with the opening music which has deep, solid and pulsating bass and excellent overall fidelity.

The dialogue track is beautifully recorded as well and helps capture the varying acoustical spaces presented in the film. You have a real sense of real voices in real space, capturing the varying acoustical cues from scene to scene beautifully. This is important as this is a dialogue driven film. All of the little audible details in each scene were clearly able to be heard, things such as footsteps, the sound of barrier tape being deployed, rustling of papers, even the sound of a person biting into a slice of pizza were clearly audible.

I also enjoyed the way the surround speakers were employed to create an excellent sense of ambiance and immersion. These are all the hallmarks of an excellent recording and top notch sound design IMHO and are present here in spades. As hinted at previously, the musical score is presented with excellent fidelity, characterized by a smooth and open sound with excellent transparency and imaging and deep bass. The limited gun fighting scenes sounded totally involving and really grabbed your attention especially in juxtaposition with the rest of the film. Whether low sounding dialogue or explosions and gun shots, this track handles them all with great fidelity and aplomb. This is an excellent audio presentation of this film and was a thrill to experience on this lossless audio track.

Special Features

While I loved the film, the extras are a bit sparse. The extras include the obligatory director’s commentary with Spike Lee and over 20 minutes of deleted scenes. Also included is a making of featurette that is presented in HD where the cast, crew, director and the producer, Brian Glazer, discuss the making of the film. Also in HD is a featurette entitled 4 which features Spike Lee and Denzel Washington discussing the four films they have made together, hence the designation 4, up to and including Inside Man. By far, 4 is the most interesting of the extras. The release is BD-Live enabled which will allow you to download exclusive material from the web. The release does not include a digital copy of the film however.

Final Thoughts

Inside Man is a wonderful film that is both and underrated and overlooked. It features excellent picture and audio quality and is a worthy addition to the collection of any film fan. If you haven’t seen the film yet, check it out on Blu-ray. Highly recommended.

Film

Frost/Nixon was nominated for Best Picture in this year’s Academy Awards and was well deserving of that honor as it was truly one of 2008′s best films. In fact, the film garnered five Academy Award nominations, including Best Director (Ron Howard), Best Actor (Frank Langella), Best Adapted Screenplay (Peter Morgan) and Best Film editing in addition to the aforementioned Best Picture nomination. All were well deserved.

The film is based on the London play that also starred Michael Sheen as David Frost and Frank Langella as Richard Nixon. Three years after resigning the presidency in 1974, Richard Nixon and his advisers were eager to begin to try to rebuild his public image and shape the historical record. While there were news organizations looking to interview Mr. Nixon, the Nixon camp selected David Frost as he was the highest bidder and was thought of as being a rather soft and shallow interviewer.

David Frost was better known for his daytime gigs as a talk show host in the U.K., Australia and the U.S. David Frost risked his financial future in bidding such a high price for the interviews. He had a difficult time raising private capital to finance the interview as none of the major US television networks were willing to pay to show the interviews on the basis that they did not pay for interviews. This left Mr. Frost scrambling to find television outlets for the series of interviews in the US.

Clearly, Mr. Frost had to deliver a compelling series of interviews to secure US television distribution rights that would not only cover his fixed costs, but make him some money as well. He had to in effect, make history during these interviews or face financial ruin and the end of his career. Frost/Nixon tells the story of the preparation that both sides underwent for the interviews, the uncertainty in the Frost camp as to whether their boss had the right stuff to conduct a probing and serious interview of Mr. Nixon and the Nixon camp’s feeling that they had a softy on the other side who they could push around and manhandle.

The film is briskly paced and tension filled and features tremendous performances, not only by Frank Langella as Richard Nixon but Michael Sheen as well who almost becomes David Frost, following up on his thrilling performance as Tony Blair in The Queen. This is an excellent film and one that is well worth seeing and another in a series of compelling product from Ron Howard (The DaVinci Code notwithstanding). Highly recommended.

Video

The video presentation on Frost/Nixon is a bit of a mixed bag. The film features historical video which, as one would expect, looks washed out and noisy. The film, in addition to the actual narrative, also features flash forwards with the various participants in the whole process. Both have very different looks. The picture quality of the actual narrative look quite good, although lacking the clarity and detail of the best looking Blu-ray releases. These sequences, which make up the bulk of the film, have a well saturated and natural looking color palette with excellent skin tones. Black level is deep and solid as well. However, these same sections of the film are a bit on the soft side, lacking the level of detail and clarity of the best looking films on Blu-ray. While close-ups look good even they lack the level of facial, clothing and background detail that we have come to expect with new films such as this on Blu-ray.

I have noticed this on other Ron Howard films so I doubt it is the fault of the encode and is just how the film was shot. However, the rest of the film, consisting of what I have described as flash forwards, where the participants discuss their recollections and observations years later of the whole endeavor, look washed out and grainy with noticeably inferior black levels. I am not sure why the decision was made to make the “newer” in term of time sequences look older and worse than the older footage, but that is what we have here. However, these sequences don’t take up enough time to warrant dropping the overall grade for the picture quality under a 4. Good but not great is the phrase that comes to mid to describe the look of this film.

Audio

The audio presentation here is about what I expected before I viewed the film. Given that Frost/Nixon is a dialogue driven film, it is a very front heavy mix, with sparse use of the surrounds. The overall sound quality is quite good and the dialogue track well recorded, with each word of dialogue clearly presented and easy to hear. The overall sound is rather smooth and full but lacks the sense of transparency and imaging that characterize the best sounding audio mixes. Don’t expect much in the way of an immersive feel here or a bombastic sound design on this release as it just isn’t there. While a bombastic sound design would not be warranted with this type of film, I l would have preferred more use of the surrounds to provide a more immersive sound experience than is provided here.

Special Features

Frost/Nixon comes equipped with several extras in high def. Included are deleted scenes as well as the featurette “The Making of Frost/Nixon”, which takes an in depth look at all the aspects of the film’s production including interviews with Ron Howard and members of the cast.

The most interesting extra by far is “The Real Interview” footage of the actual Frost and Nixon interviews as they appeared on TV in the 1977. It is interesting to see how the sequences that appeared in the film, while identical in terms of the actual dialogue, were presented by Mr. Langella in the film with a degree of suspense and forcefulness that was lacking in the actual real life interviews. I wish that more of the actual interviews were included on this release.

Also included is a feature on the Nixon Library, showing materials that are preserved for public viewing at the library, ranging from the Nixon tapes to Nixon’s visit to China. Also included is a director”s commentary. Exclusive to this Blu-ray release and accessible by Universal’s U-Control is The Nixon Chronicles, which presents the actual original interviews noted above along side the shot by shot recreations of those scenes in the film. Again, of all the extras, I found these to be the most interesting as noted before.

Another interesting featurette is “Discovering Secrets: The People and Places Behind the Story” where director Ron Howard, producer Brian Glazer and the entire production team discuss the many secrets of the Nixon era that they discovered during the research conducted for this project. The disc is also BD-Live enabled which allows you to share movie clips and download more bonus content via the web, provided that you have a profile 2.0 Blu-ray player.

Final Thoughts

Frost/Nixon is a well written, directed and acted film that is well worth a look. If you are a political junkie like me, I have no doubt that you will enjoy this film. Even if you aren’t, I have no doubt that you will enjoy this film as much as the rest of us, as you do not need to have much in the way of knowledge concerning this era of our history to appreciate and enjoy all this film has to offer. Highly recommended.