Film

Time shifts back and forth as the story of a filmmaker who has been struck blind during a car accident is told on both sides of said accident. As well, there is focus on another story, that of a young woman who must act outside of her character in order to advance herself in life, help her ailing father, as well as literally perform as a film actress who is the object of effective for both a film producer and the director (who happens to be the man who is eventually struck blind).

Along with being a sexually charged thriller, this film is also a love note to film noirs of yesteryear plus some touches of Hitchcock (and any debatable connections therein). The tension is boosted by very loud strings in the score and the melodrama is running on all cylinders.

What I found to be the most intriguing element of this film, as well as the most unnerving, was its use of the “Male Gaze.” Laura Mulvey’s essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” writes extensively on the Male Gaze, and the many forms it can take within cinema. A great amount of this can be applied to Broken Embraces, and I will touch on some of that now. This film opens with a blind man seducing a young woman who volunteered to help him read the newspaper. The audience is meant to adopt a male gaze in this instant, and yet it is that of a man who literally cannot see. Perhaps we are meant to fill in for his lack of vision as he acts out a male fantasy, and the audience receives no real context until after the fact. Nevertheless, the film’s narrative continues to lionize this older man, and in fact, both of the older male, main characters (the producer and director of the film within the film), by placing stunning women into their beds and eliminating all young male competition by making them all either homosexuals by confession or by implied, suggestive actions (groping each other in maybe/maybe not playful manners). As Mulvey says in her essay “The determining gaze projects its fantasy on to the female figure which is stylized accordingly.” More often then not, Penelope Cruz, who plays the hopefully main actress, is the subject of these fantasies. A telltale scene would be when the director plcaes a cavalcade wigs onto Cruz’s head while he takes pictures of her reflections. His “Stylizing” of this fantasy is manifested in his altering her looks to suit his visual desires. She is not even allowed to look at him directly in this case, only through the reflection of her mirror can she see who is watching her.

During the entire film, all eyes, and lenses, are on Cruz. Lenses indeed, as the male gaze of the older men (the filmmakers) is further reinforced by the fact that both spend every possible moment either watching Cruz or filming her (I remind you of the just mentioned picture taking/wig scene). The film within the film is a major part of this, but more pertinent is the fact that Cruz is being spied on by her lover’s son, who films her every move for the sake of his father. The son’s gaze is non-sexual as he is a homosexual with no predatory attractions to Cruz’s character, but his lens becomes the gaze of his father who does indeed lust after Cruz, and wished to control her life as well. All of the lenses in the film are part of a Male Gaze, thus the lenses filming Broken Embraces become likewise. Blindess, as a theme, only becomes another of the constant reminders in this film that we are seeing everything through the eyes of an older male fantasy.

The car accident is revealed at the end of the second act, and the act that remains is a series of secrets being exposed at a somewhat uninterested pace. By then, we are invested in these characters, but most all the true action halts as there is no more situational tension, just conversations.

Some relationships die, others grow closer. The film within the film is a bomb but is being mended for a re-release as a cathartic act by the director. There is a very definite arc the story takes for the blind filmmaker where a tragic amount of loss is rectified with a sizable amount of personal gain. With the aforementioned failure to maintain interest in the third act, it is only this arc that we have to cling to by the end, and just barely at that.

Video

Widescreen 2.35:1. The picture quality has its greatest clarity during the closeups. A slight haze finds its way into some of the wider shots, but nothing that was all too distracting.
The bright colours of the film within the film are esspecially vibrant, nearly enough to burn forever in your retinas.

Audio

Spanish 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and French 5.1 Dolby Surround are the two tracks available. I had mentioned the strings being very prominent in the score, and the soundtrack does a very fine job of making their presense more than felt…almost rattling. You will feel the music in your core and the dialogue sounds very fresh. A nice job.

Subtitles available in English and French.

Special Features

The Cannibalistic Councilor: A short film made from the film within the feature film (make sense?). This is a monologue about promiscuity and indulgence that is of a completely silly and upbeat tone, filled with vibrant colours and plenty of cocaine. A totally contrast to the feature film. Carmen Machi does do a great job with her frantic, comic delivery.

Deleted Scenes: Three scenes that are plenty interesting for those that have just finished watching the film, particularly the emotions within the blind restaurant scene, but most likely cut for time purposes, what with Broken Embraces already clocking in at over two hours long.

Trailers: For this and other films by the same company.

Pedro Directs Penelope: An interesting split-screen view of Pedro Almodovar barking the subtext at Penelope Cruz while she is shooting reaction shots to another actresses’ speech. Funny at points but odd to watch for any person who believes that an actor should be trusted with their own research of the subtext and might be turned off by Perdo’s puppeteering.

Variety Q&A with Penelope Cruz: A set of standard issue questions lobbed at Cruz, and she answers them very politely.

On the Red Carpet: The New York Film Festival Closing Night: A couple clips of red carpet interviews (read: fluffy, easy to answer questions).

Final Thoughts

This melodrama was well-executed enough by the actors. Pedro Almodovar, as both writer and director, could have used a little more discipline and perhaps placed a bit too much of his personality into this piece to make it easier to trim it down all stages of production.

Film 

Broken Embraces is one of those films that takes awhile to pull you in but once it does, you are in for good. The film is in Spanish with English subtitles which may put off some viewers. Please don’t let that fact dissuade you from experiencing this film. The opening is a bit disjointed as it is another film that contains a series of flashbacks to built the plot line.

The film is essentially two love stories both centering around Magdelena or Lena in yet another riveting and sensual performance by Penelope Cruz. The film opens in the present and focus on a former director who continues to make a living writing screenplays. He is blind as a result of some sort of accident that is not disclosed until later in the film.

After losing his sight, the director, refused to be acknowledged by his given name, Mateo Blanco, instead choosing to be known as Harry Caine. Once you are introduced to Harry, the film flashes back to introduce you to Lena and her older lover Ernesto, a high powered and wealthy power broker, who after a series of prior marriages, develops a fixation with Lena.

The relationship between Ernesto and Lena is clearly one of convenience, at least for Lena, who is using Ernesto for his wealth having come from very modest means, which Ernesto is happy to share in exchange for Lena’s physical attributes. However, over time, Lena begins to become dissatisfied with Ernesto and her life with him and seeks out to carve out a career as a film actress, a career which she had given up on in the past. She auditions for a role in Mateo’s latest film and he, quite naturally becomes quite smitten with her, a fact which does come to the attention of Ernesto, who will take any step necessary not to lose his beloved Lena.

I am hesitant to give up much more of the plot so as to not spoil the film for those of you who may want to see it. Suffice it to say that this is a beautifully written and directed film and features fine performances by the entire cast and is highly recommended.

Video  

The video on this release is visually appealing in more ways than one. Penelope Cruz looks sensational here as does the cinematography. The film features a natural color palette with bright and bold primary colors and deep blacks. Detail and background details are excellent as well, with the fine facial details in the actors’ faces, and in Ms. Cruz’ case, her physique, beautifully rendered. Clarity and depth of image are top notch as well. I was not able to detect any obvious evidence of the application of edge enhancement or digital noise reduction. In short, this is a great looking film that has been faithfully encoded to the Blu-ray format and looks exactly as it was meant to be by the director, which is how it should be.

Audio 

The quality of the audio reproduction on this release is very impressive as well. While the film is rather front heavy with only occasional use of the surrounds, the overall fidelity of the sound more than makes up for the shortcomings of the sound design in terms of immersion. The film features a rich and smooth sound with excellent transparency and imaging. While I wouldn’t call the sound design bombastic by any means, there are a few instances with rich, tight and dynamic bass. Just take a listen to the music track being played by the character Diego, at a local club where he is the DJ. The bass is deep and tight without even a hint of bloat.

Overall, the two brief scenes in the club offer the best sound in the film, with the most aggressive use of the surrounds to create a nice immersive sound experience. While I don’t speak much Spanish, the dialogue track features excellent fidelity as well and would be easy to follow were you fluent in Spanish. The overall musical score is also presented with excellent fidelity, with a smooth and natural sound with excellent transparency and depth. Other than the lack of an aggressive use of the surrounds, the audio on this release is top notch and very pleasing to the ears.

Special Features 

I can;t say that I was impressed with the extras included with this release. Unlike most releases, there is no making of featurette included. Also missing is the usual director’s commentary. The extras include some deleted scenes as well as a featurette “Pedro Directs Penelope” which consists of a split screen with the director coaching Penelope during one of the scenes of the film, in Spanish of course. Not exactly entertaining.

Also included is a brief featurette “On the Red Carpet: The New York Film Festival Closing Night” featuring interviews with Penelope Cruz and director Pedro Almodovar. Also included is a Variety Q & A with Penelope Cruz as well as an original film by Pedro Almodovar entitled “The Cannibalistic Councillor” which is an extended sequence of a scene that is featured in Broken Embraces.

None of the extras are presented in true HD. While some of the graphics are in HD, the actual video footage is widescreen standard definition. The release is BD-Live enabled but does not include a digital copy.

Final Thoughts 

Broken Embraces is a wonderful film that features a fine performance by Penelope Cruz and fine audio and video presentations. The film is well worth a look and is highly recommended.

Film

I’ve enjoyed some of Roland Emmerich’s movies before; he helmed the Jean Claude Van Damme/ Dolph Lundgren classic Universal Soldier as well as the equally enjoyable Stargate. After the success of Independence Day, Emmerich choose to follow up his biggest hit with an update to Gojira, the classic TOHO monster movie that spawned a billion sequels. I was quite excited for this movie initially, having been a huge fan of Godzilla my entire life, and so I`m sad to inform you that this movie is a tremendously disappointing. This is just not Godzilla.

While Godzilla fans may not enjoy this film, how does it hold up viewed as just another “monster” movie? Honestly, not much better? So nuclear tests in France have resulted in the creation of a giant mutated lizard that decides to swim to Manhattan Island and wreck some havoc. Matthew Broderick headlines the cast as one of the scientists thrown together in an effort to try and stop this monster. It’s the type of role Jeff Goldblum could have played in his sleep and even James Spader did better in Stargate. Broderick on the other hand, struggles. It’s not entirely his fault though, that’s the problem with this movie. The screenplay is filled with annoying and unfunny character. The situations and dialogue are unrealistic. As a giant reptile is pulling apart the city that never sleeps, Broderick still manages to hook up with his ex-girlfriend and patch things up. Hooray!

There are a few action scenes that work in this movie, but it’s nothing you haven’t seen before. This movie rips off everything from Jurassic Park to Star Wars. I did enjoy the film’s climax when Broderick, with the help of the French secret service (don’t ask), led by the usually reliable Jena Reno looking very bored here, find Godzilla’s nest in Madison Square Garden. Unfortunately, it’s hard to get there. At 139 minutes, this movie is just too damn long. There are a lot better movies of this type out there and even on a rainy afternoon when this might have worked as an afternoon time waster, this movies “epic” length may force you to split your viewings over multiple days.

Video

Godzillas’s 1080p MPEG-4 AVC transfer, in its original 2.40:1 aspect ratio, looks very sharp. However when 80% of the film takes place in a dark & rainy setting, having a great transfer doesn’t necessarily make makes the bad lighting and film grain look good.

Another problem with getting a clear image of something bad is the CGI. A blocky pixel formed Godzilla actually looks better on DVD because the image doesn’t allow you to fully see how lacking CGI was back then.

However besides the lame effects and the poor choice of atmosphere, the video quality is well preserved.

Audio

Godzilla’s DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track almost makes up for the fact that this movie is so long… Low frequencies comes out as deep rumbles that fill the room, surround mixing adds depth in all the right places and the dialogue (while it’s poorly written and terribly delivered) comes out nice and clear in the center.

For those interested, there is also a Spanish and French mix in 5.1 DTS-HD MA and English, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.

Special Features

From the original release in glorious standard definition… ugh

• Commentary by Visual Effects Supervisor Volker Engel and Associate Visual Effects Supervisor Karen Goulekas A lot of silence, lame jokes, not very insightful… Seems directed towards those interested in visual effects and doesn’t even really go into the production process.
• Behind the Scenes with Charles Caiman The only feature on the disc worthy of being considered an actual legitimate feature (the commentary was very lame), takes us from the set to Tokyo discussing the actors and their character as well as going into depth on the American version of Godzilla, and is one of the more fun watches.
• All Time Best of Godzilla Fight Scenes For ten minutes you can subject yourself to risking an epileptic seizure with a poorly edited highlight reel of all of Godzilla’s fights with other monsters. For Godzilla fans, this may be cool, however it’s basically like a trailer for all the movies.
• The Wallflowers, “Heroes” Music Video A music video for a cover of one of David Bowie’s hits. It’s fairly unrelated to the film, making it one of the better special features on the disc.

New blu-ray exclusive features:

• ’2012′ Preview This disc is full of filler and this feature is just that. Watch a few minutes of another hollow special effects extravaganza… No thanks.
• The Ultimate ‘Godzilla’ Trivia Game It’s hard to call this a game… It’s a Q&A based activity where you try and answer questions related to the film. I’m almost positive a game requires some elements of entertainment or fun.
• Movie IQ The infamous Movie IQ returns to another Blu-ray as filler. With tangent information popping up throughout the movie is rarely insightful and just distracting. Avoid it.

Final Thoughts

Godzilla isn’t a well made movie, with stale acting and worse writing, anyone looking for a film worth watching should look elsewhere. The special features are simply filler with only a few actually about the movie itself and most are still in Standard Definition. The video might be clear, but due to the poor cinematography choices and the terrible CGI, you almost wish you couldn’t see it as clearly… The only saving grace is the audio mix, which doesn’t make this worth even a rental.

Film

The plot of the Taking of Pelham 123 is rather straight forward. The film is set pretty much in real time with the plot unfolding in front of you. You witness Ryder (Travolta) enter the New York City subway with his accomplices will ill intent on their minds. They quickly begin to put their plan in place to highjack the train.

Enter Walter Garber (Washington) a subway dispatcher who notices the train stopped on the tracks unexpectedly. He tries to raise the operator via phone without success. However, the reason for the stoppage quickly manifests itself with Ryder making his ransom demands of $10 million in $100 bills in one hour. He threatens to kill a hostage for each minute the money is overdue. As they talk on the phone, Ryder begins to take a liking to Garber and quickly learns that Garber is suspected of taking a bribe involving the purchase by the New York City subway of new subway cars and uses this information against the both Garber and the New York City government, He demands that the mayor (James Gandolfini) get involved and to speak with him, for the sole purpose of humiliating him in public. When the ransom money arrives, Ryder demands that it be delivered by Garber alone and from that point on, the film reaches its inevitable conclusion.

While I did enjoy the film a bit, I was expecting a more emotionally involving and riveting film. For an action packed thriller, I found the picture to be a bit too predictable. It is essentially a remake of the prior film with much coercer language and a few stunts thrown in, driven almost entirely by the dialogue between Garber and Ryder. Tony Scott and his crew did do a remarkable job of capturing the look, feel and sound of the New York City subway, actually filming the movie there rather than on a sound stage, which I am sure made for many a logistical nightmare. While I can’t recommend this film for a purchase, it is definitely worth a look. Rated as a rental only.

Video

All and all, this is s fine transfer. The film features a well saturated color palette which is skewed to the color brown. Skin tones and the overall look of the film appears rather brown, done in no doubt to reproduce the gritty and grimy look of the subway system. Blacks are deep and stable. Film grain is well preserved and I couldn’t detect any significant application of digital noise reduction or edge enhancement. Detail, clarity, sharpness and shadow detail are all very good. My only quibble is the overall level of detail and clarity which falls just a bit short of the very best looking films I have seen on Blu-ray. I have no doubt however that fans of the film will be more than pleased with the quality of the video on this Blu-ray release.

Audio

This is a very impressive audio presentation. Overall fidelity is very good with a smooth and open sound with very good transparency and imaging. The depth of the recorded sound is very good both in terms of front to back and side to side depth. The dialogue track is well recorded as well and well placed in the mix. Given that this is still a dialogue driven film, this is very important. The surround speakers are used rather aggressively to create a very immersive sound field, realistically capturing the sound of the subway with cars racing to either side of you. Where I felt that the sound fell a tad short of the best sounding Blu-ray discs is in the level of dynamics and bass response, which were both a bit more subdued than I would have liked and would have pulled you a bit more into the action that you are. Other than this rather minor caveat, this is an excellent sounding audio track.

Special Features

I frankly was expecting a bit more from the extras included with this release. all of which are included in HD. Included is a commentary by director Tony Scott as well as a commentary by screenwriter Brian Helgeland and producer Todd Black. Also included are the usual making of featurette “No Time to Lose: The Making of Pelham 123″ as well as a look into the New York subway system entitled “The Third Rail’ The NYC Subway System, which I found the most interesting of all the extras. The final two featurettes are entitled Marketing Pelham and From the Top Down: Stylizing the Character both of which deal with the making of the film and the stylistic choices of the director. The release is BD-Live enabled and includes a digital copy compatible with PCs, PSP, Macs or iPods.

Final Thoughts

While I was a bit disappointed with this film, it is definitely worth a look, but on the basis of a rental only.

“Things never happen the same way twice.”

C.S. Lewis created an incredibly imaginative world when he wrote his Chronicles Of Narnia. The stories were an escape, of sorts, from a war torn Europe. They integrated elements of Christianity in an effort to provide a semblance of hope in the form of a children’s fairy tale. And like all such tales, the world of Narnia was first and foremost a place of magic and bewilderment. It was a place where fantastic creatures of both good and evil thrived, living out epic lives of adventure. It was also a world where only children could enter. The stories became hugely popular, first in England, and eventually around the globe. Since that time we live in a different planet than the one Lewis was attempting to offer a respite from. Still, the images and ideals are remarkably relevant today. With such sweeping grand adventures and marvelous creatures, it’s no surprise that the franchise has found its way into films. The only real mystery is why it took so long. Perhaps it was necessary for the technology to finally catch up, providing a far more realistic and captivating experience. Some credit must also go to the enormous success of the Harry Potter and even the Lord Of The Rings films. With the investment of time and money required to bring such a world into existence on celluloid, there must be some reasonable assurance that, if done correctly, there was a large enough profit to be found. These earlier, and continuing, franchises have overwhelmingly proven that point. It was only a matter of time before the studio that practically invented movie magic would find such a place as Narnia and claim it for their own. When you combine these extraordinary histories together, can there be any question as to the results?

The first film in the series was everything fans of the books hoped it would be. Groundbreaking f/x and clever scripting culled the best moments from the material and wove them into a delicately balanced tapestry. The f/x brought these creatures to life, but not merely in a photorealistic way that talented animators are now capable of. Disney was able to breathe more than life into the likes of these creatures. In Aslan the lion, in particular, there is a spirit; a soul, if you will. With that film Narnia was a warm place amid the blustery snows of a severe Winter. We found sweet and lovable talking animals and harsh evil creatures led by a witch of unimaginable powers. By the time we left, Disney had done its job well, and we were eager to return, and return we did.

It’s been a year for the Pevensie children since their rousing adventure in Narnia. They are having a difficult time adjusting to the mundane world they live in now. As they relive their experiences in a subway station they are suddenly recalled to Narnia. Here they find the season a warmer one, but Narnia appears to be nothing but ruin. While for them it has only been a year, it’s been thousands in Narnia.They find that Narnia was overrun and now the remaining citizens live in exile. Prince Caspian has vowed to return Narnia to the Narnians and reign as a peaceful monarch. His uncle, King Miraz, has other plans. He intends his own son shall inherit the throne. That means Caspian must die. As he flees, Caspian is brought together with the Pevensie children who have been summoned by his horn. While Peter and Caspian have rather different ideas of how to win the fight ahead, they do manage to unite the hidden forces of Narnia. Once again the children are called upon to lead a fight to save Narnia.

First and foremost, it’s important to remark here that Prince Caspian is not merely a retread of the first film. This film is much darker, and Narnia is a far different place. Unfortunately, the film did not do as well as the first, which has already caused budget cuts for the third film and an uncertain future for the fourth. I applaud the bravery, however, of allowing this film to follow its own tone. If you enter this film expecting more of the same, you will be somewhat disappointed. Aslan plays an extremely limited role in this film. The badgers that provided the comic relief to the first film are gone. They have been replaced with two characters that offer the same comic relief and warmth. Reepicheep is a swashbuckling mouse with an inferiority complex about being a mouse, although he’s an expert with his blade. Trufflehunter is a wise old badger who carries the legend of the children and mentors the young Prince Caspian. The children are older, and particularly the Lucy character is no longer the sweet oblivious innocent she was in the first film. The character has matured, somewhat awkwardly, as has the actress herself. I found myself far less sympathetic to her this time around. Georgie Henley was a wide-eyed child actress amazed as much in real life by the first time experience of making this huge film as Lucy was with Narnia. Now both are jaded, and it’s a rather unfortunate aspect of reality intruding upon fantasy. William Moseley more than makes up for her shortcomings with a far more determined and confident Peter. It’s equally unfortunate that this is the last we will see of Moseley or Peter in the land of Narnia. I found myself more compelled by his story than that of the titular Prince Caspian himself, played quite nicely by Ben Barnes. The character grows and changes throughout the film, something Barnes did a very sweet job of portraying. Also playing out her last moments in Narnia is actress Anna Popplewell. Her character, Susan, has also outgrown Narnia and will no longer return. Her maturity was an asset to the film as much as Henley’s was a liability. She’s a much stronger character here, helped with a much nicer performance. Finally we have Skandar Keynes as Edmund, unarguably the weakest link in both films. It’s a shame. but neither the actor nor the character impresses. He appears in the background even when he’s called upon to take the lead. He could vanish from the film altogether without being missed. I can’t say if it’s just a bad character, poorly conceived and written, or just a bad actor. The truth is likely a little of each. The standout performance here is Peter Dinklage who plays the dwarf Trumpkin. Even with a face full of prosthics and yak hair, he manages to emote in a performance that reminds me a lot of Roddy McDowall’s ability to make his ape’s makeup come alive. He was perfectly cast in the role and steals every scene he’s in, so much so that I very quickly began to see this as his story rather than that of the children. Finally, another good performance is delivered by Sergio Castellitto as King Miraz. The king is the bad guy in the film, but he’s played with so much depth that we never really see him as just the villain here. His motives are often understandable, if abhorrent. That’s the way bad guys should be played. A bad guy should never believe he’s a bad guy. That’s what made characters like Vito Corleone and Vic Mackey so compelling to watch.

Video

Prince Caspian is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.40:1. It’s important that a transfer capture as much depth and detail as possible in order for us to buy into such a fantastic story. I’m happy to report that it’s all good. This is a sweet 1080p image provided through an AVC/MPEG4 codec. Colors are as brilliant as you remember from the first film. In fact, without all of that white snow and ice you get a far more stimulating palette here. Contrast and sharpness are near perfect. Flesh tones are particularly spot on here. The look of the ocean in the early scenes of Narnia is simply breathtaking. The image captures such subtle color shading and brilliance that you just want to jump right in and explore the reefs. That was likely one of my favorite images in Blu-ray thus far. Black levels are strong, although most of this film takes place in the light. The integration of digital f/x and live photography is flawless even at this high of definition. Aslan, what little we see of him, is more realistic than ever. The movement of hair is astonishing, to say the least. You won’t find any artifact or compression worries, and the print is a pristine one. Nothing at all to bicker about here.

Audio

The film appears capable of lossless 7.1 sound. I regret to inform that while my amp is capable of that format, I have not yet added the 2 speakers to complete that configuration. Still, from a DTS –HD 5.1 stand point, the film delivers everything. It’s presented at an uncompressed 1.5 mbps. Sub response is wonderful, giving your room that nice shake when necessary. The score is a great one, and it has some very fine moments in this presentation. You can’t help but get swept away with it all. All the while dialog comes through exactly as it should. Ambient sounds are used to good advantage. From subtle creaking to full on battle cries, you get an immersive experience throughout the film.

There is an engaging Audio Commentary with Andrew Adamson who has returned from the first film to continue our Narnia journey. He talks about how he originally intended not to follow up the film, not really liking working with children all that much. To his surprise he found himself bonding to the kids, particularly the youngest, Henley. He’s joined here by many of the actors, and it’s easy to see why he decided to come back. They obviously have bonded here.

Special Features

This is a 3-disc set. The third disc is a digital copy of the film for your portable devices. The first disc contains the film something called Circle-Vision Interactive. It’s really an overcomplicated way to access several short clips about the making of the film.

On Disc Two you’ll find the following extras, all in HD. I also rather enjoyed the menu system here. As you click on each feature you get a brief description and the feature’s running time. Disney deserves a slap on the back for that courtesy.

Everything also falls under the heading of Behind The Magic. It’s an unnecessary step as it is the only heading and everything here falls under it.

Inside Narnia – The Adventure Returns: This half hour feature deals mostly with the logistics of putting together the film. There is a ton of candid moments with the cast and crew. Weather, early mornings, and biting ticks are just some of the obstacles explored here. The final 10 minutes deals with the children both as actors and characters.

Sets Of Narnia – A Classic Comes To Life: This 23 minute feature compares and contrasts the source material with what into making the film. The son of C.S. Lewis reads passages that offer descriptions of places in the original story. We are then brought on the set and shown how that place or event was created on film.

Big Movie Comes To A Small Town: The Slovenian town of Bovec hosts the cast and crew of the film. This feature explores how the town and film crew interacted. You see what impact they had on each other. Many locals offer up descriptions of their home. Much of the piece focuses on the building of a bridge to cross the environmentally sensitive Soca River.

Pre-Visualizing Narnia: This 10 minute piece looks at the pre-vis process. It’s an animated evolution of the storyboards.

Talking Animals And Walking Trees: Cast and crew spend about 5 minutes talking about the various non-human aspects of Narnia.

Deleted Scenes: There are 10 in all, and you can view them individually or with the handy play all option. You can also access an audio intro to each by Andrew Adamson. Most are rather short and add little to what’s already there. Some have f/x sequences that are unfinished, which indicates many of these bits were deleted early in the process.

The Bloopers Of Narnia: 3 minutes of fun and flubs.

Secrets Of The Duel: Every aspect of the film’s duel.

Becoming Trumpkin: A fitting profile of Peter Dinklage. It’s somewhat of a love fest for the 5 minute run time.

Warwick Davis – The Man Behind Nikabrik: This is a video diary that takes us through a day on the set of Narnia with Davis. Obviously a lot of time is spent in makeup. It’s 11 minutes long.

Final Thoughts

Call it Lord Of The Rings lite. Fantastic enough, but less filling. For some reason this film reminded me more of that trilogy than the first Narnia film. The creatures appeared the kinds of denizens of Middle Earth, with the exception of the talking animals. Unfortunately Adamson brings his Shrek roots to this film more than the first. The mouse is so obviously Puss in Boots from Shrek, but still a good character. Unfortunately for all concerned, it was a pretty big disappointment at the box office. There is already talk of slashing the Dawn Treader budget and cutting out future films altogether. This is not as good a film as the first, but it’s certainly not a disappointment. There are even ways in which it is as good as or better than the first. I think most people were looking for just a copy of what came before. I know I would have liked to have seen more of Aslan. The film does stand on its own, and perhaps DVD and Blu-ray sales will return some confidence to Disney in the franchise. Unfortunately you won’t be able to leave the next one with that same feelings you left the first two films. You know the one where “you always knew you were coming back, didn’t you?”

The Mummy franchise spins off into what is clearly meant to be the first of another franchise, with The Rock as an Ancient Egypt version of Conan. Many a bloody swath is cut in this action fest. If you thought The Mummy and The Mummy Returns were cheesy… wait until you see this masterpiece.The action is over-the-top and the acting is weak – sounds like two key elements to any modern day action films.  While some might like this film from an entertainment value point of view (especially if you are a fan of The Rock), it did not live up to the original Mummy films that preceded it.

The basic plot of the film goes a little something like this – Mathayus (The Rock) is hired by a band of evil thugs to kill Memnon’s sorcerer Cassandra (Kelly Hu). What Mathayus doesn’t realize is that there is always more underneath the sand than on the surface as he soon learns that these men have more sinister plans.

A rather strong point of the film is the wide array of supporting actors. We have Michael Clarke Duncan as Balthazar who at first seems like he might be a foe for Mathayus, Kelly Hu as the aforementioned sorcerer Cassandra (who is rather attractive), The always great Bernard Hill as Philos and Steven Brand as the evil Memnon. Each actor adds a bit of credibility to the film. Surely the studio was banking on The Rock carrying the picture, but I’m positive in saying that the film would have failed without these supporting actors. As strong as The Rock is in his first starring role, he does show that this is indeed his first starring role (he has since come a long way, particular in his last film Gridiron Gang).

Video

As one of Universal’s first wave of releases on Blu-ray, the video quality on The Scorpion King has similar results as can be seen on their previous HD DVD release – presented in a 1080p, 2:35:1 widescreen transfer. The colors really pop off the screen – especially when the background is dull and the reds, greens and blues appear very vibrant in the forefront. The transfer is really clean, with only a small amount of film grain noticeable, adding a natural look to the film. Both the 3D imagery and facial detail come across nicely, but neither of them are showstoppers when compared to other BD releases on the market. widescreen aspect ratio, this disc looks good, but not great.

Audio

Stepping it up a notch from their previous HD DVD release which featured a standard Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio track, Universal has included an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio track on this Blu-ray Disc. I felt the audio track was a little overpowering at times. Although the dialog was crisp as well placed, I found a few sequences to have too much going on to enjoy it fully. The bass had great extension, pounding with the effects and score. The best part of this audio track was the sound movement. Whether it was flying swords, knives or even bodies, the soundstage – from front/back and back/front – was really engaging. I appreciate a less is more approach at times, but overall, this track does bring with it an action packed experience.

Special Features

Universal’s HD DVD release of The Scorpion King was packed full of extras. For this Blu-ray release, they have decided to cut the extras down to two:

• Feature Commentary with Director Chuck Russell – Director Chuck Russell sits down and offers us his insight on the film including production notes, casting and scenery. The biggest letdown here is that the track is full of a lot of nothing because Russell often speaks and then has nothing to say for some time.

• U-Control – With Universal’s first wave of Blu-ray releases, they have included their former HD DVD feature U-Control. “This uniquely-immersive, in-movie experience from Universal allows you to customize your own high-definition experience with spectacular interactive features – all without stopping the movie.” This feature has pic-in-pic featurettes and information appearing in the bottom corner of the screen as the film is playing.

Final Thoughts

While this is my least favorite of the Mummy series of films, it still does have its moments. The Scorpion King, one of Universal’s first wave of Blu-ray releases, fairs quite well in terms of disc quality. The audio and video are a touch above average, and while the extras are thin, this disc is still a welcome addition to the Blu-ray family.

Note: The film synopsis portion of this review is from Brendan Surpless’ HD DVD review via UpcomingDiscs.com

It seems every time you look for a new movie in the theaters, one of them is a remake from a TV show. Just recently, we had the release of Get Smart. We have also had The Brady Bunch, Mission Impossible and numerous others. Some of them worked, while others just fell flat. One of the latest Blu-ray imports I watched just so happened to be a TV show previously, and that being Starsky and Hutch. This, thankfully, worked out very well and is an entertaining watch.

Ben Stiller (Starsky) and Owen Wilson (Hutch) are two undercover cops who are reluctantly partnered together. They are on the hunt for the person, or persons who killed a man they found in the bay. Helping them in their investigation, they acquire the assistance of Huggy Bear (Snoop Dogg), a local snitch who receives kickbacks from the police.

The bad guy they are after is Reese Feldman (Vince Vaughn.) Feldman is a big time drug dealer looking to supply Bay City with a new and inventive type of cocaine. However, Feldman is a respected man among the community and the police captain refuses to believe anything Starsky and Hutch have to say in regards to Feldman’s dealings.

This leaves Starsky and Hutch to take matters into their own hands to bring down this drug dealing murderer and the men who are going to distribute the cocaine throughout Bay City.

The cast of Starky & Hutch, from Ben Stiller to Will Ferrell is a group that has worked together many times in many different variations before and each time it seems to just work out great. From Zoolander to Anchorman to Wedding Crashers and so on, all of these guys just seem to know each other so well and they bring out the best in each other.

Video

The 2.40:1 high definition, 1080P transfer, is quite a joy to view. I never noticed any edge enhancement or softness to the picture. I will say at times the picture does appear a little bit too bright. Not bright to the point of blooming, but just like a little too much light was used.

Very briefly during the beginning moments of the film, there is some shimmering. Again, I felt this had to do with the lighting as it was just way too bright.

Grain is not an issue here at all which is nice to see. Sometimes in a lot of movies you’ll see some grain in the sky or during some dark scenes, but this disc is really, really clean. Not dirt or film specs to me noticed at all.

The 70s fashion and décor really comes across nicely here.

Colors are also nice and vibrant, skin tones look very natural and not glossy in any way.

Audio

This Blu-ray disc offers you three choices for audio. You have the option of choosing English PCM 5.1, English, French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 French and Spanish.

The audio is actually very good. Surrounds come into play pretty often with the 70s soundtrack as well as plenty of gunfire and action scenes. The bass does kick in at times as well. However, it isn’t really all that powerful. Overall, a nice sounding track.

To start the disc, you have the choice between English, Dansk, Nederlanders, Suomi, French, Islenska, Norsk, Spanish and Svenska languages. That is a lot of subtitle languages to choose from.

Special Features

All of the special features are in standard definition. These are the same extras from the DVD which were ported over for this Blu-ray release.

Commentary with Director Todd Phillips

Fashion Fa Shizzle with Huggy Bear

• Is this a short featurette with Snoop Dogg where he discusses the clothes he had to wear for the film. This is easily a skipable extra.

Last Look Special

• This is a funny take on the making of the film from the actors, directors and producers. Basically, this shows how no one got along and how they were just in for the payday, except for the director who thinks everything went great. Good stuff.

Gag Reel

• Of course, this is the typical gag reel of bloopers and mistakes. It is actually one of the better gag reels I watched. This is actually funny, except for the Chris Penn stuff.

Deleted Scenes

• Again, pretty typical of a Blu Ray release to include the deleted scenes. You can view six scenes that were not shown in the movie.

Vince’s Bit for The Kids

• A really short extra with Vince Vaughn and a security guard.

Final Thoughts

As a kid, I did not watch Starsky & Hutch. Of course, I was aware as to who they were and whatnot but it wasn’t my type of show at my young age when it was on TV. That being said, having never seen one episode of Starsky & Hutch, the movie is just flat out funny. It has a great mix of action and comedy that it all fits nicely. For me, this is by far the best of the TV shows made into a movie. Of course that says a lot compared to the films that were once TV shows.

That being said, this is an import Blu Ray that is obviously much more expensive than the US Blu-ray discs. However, check out Amazon UK and you may be able to pick this up, as it is a Region All disc, in a sale there with other discs to make it worthwhile.