Film  

Like I said in the paragraph above, unlike the previous two sequels, this fourth film keeps the serious tone of the original one.  And interestingly enough, Rambo holds the record for the most kills out of the entire franchise with an astonishing 236.  Stallone has gone on record stating that the violence in the film is justified as to draw attention to what’s really happening in Burma.  I cannot disagree.  One viewing of this had me wanting to give up my freedom and take sides with the Karen rebels out there.  The way those innocent people are brutally slaughtered and mutilated is just sick.  It truly is hell on Earth there.  And this is where the movie completely tugged on my emotions and re-opened a lot of deep wounds.  I really wanted to make a difference in the world after watching this one.  And when you are left feeling like this after watching a movie, you know the director perfectly executed his job.  I give much respect and admiration to Sylvester Stallone for bringing about the awareness of this war torn region to moviegoers everywhere.  Now, if we can just all do something about it!  I can hear the film’s moving score in my head right now as I pen this review.  Brilliant!

Anyone already familiar with the 2008 film probably needs no refresher on the plot here.  It is what it is.  That is… Rambo returns to action, with the help of hired militia, to rescue U.S. missionaries who go missing from a village in Burma.  One of the missionaries in particular, Sarah Miller (Julie Benz), previously struck an emotional accord with John Rambo before leaving.  She made Rambo search his heart and he found out that he really does care about people and events going on around despite his previous beliefs and statements made.  John has put his war torn past aside for 20 years now only to find himself come full circle with who he really is… a killer… this time with a humanitarian interest.  Go Rambo!

The realism/believability part of the story comes into play where this time around, it’s not only Rambo making the difference, but it’s a cumulative team effort.  With the help of the hired militia (mercenaries) and Karen rebels, Rambo joins forces to temporarily overthrow the iron-fisted rule of the Tatmadaw led by Burmese military officer Major Pa Tee Tint.  At first I was kind of taken aback by Rambo not going all out on his own, but let’s face it, the dude is in his 60’s and he can use some help… finally!  Anyway, the mercenaries are hilarious and well developed in the screenplay.  They are a much-welcomed addition to the film and in hindsight; I would not want it done any other way.  It’s not like Rambo doesn’t save the day anyway in the end.  Right?

And as far as the action goes, well it doesn’t get any better than this folks.  Thanks to the brilliant score of Brian Taylor, the action is exemplified to the umpteenth degree.  I want to give kudos to Brian and Stallone for ingeniously arranging this.  From the heart pounding escape scene from the claymore to one of the most brutal Act III resolutions in modern film history, Rambo will not disappoint you in the action, brutality, believability and emotional categories.  You can take that to the bank and cash it.  Why did Stallone wait so long in life to develop this script and the Rocky one, I will never know?  But I do know this, both of those films are some of his best work, and despite the final like ending we have here in Rambo, I’m hoping for at least one more adventure.  Please Mr. Stallone.  Feed my hunger!

But I bet the real reason you are all here reading my review is because you want to know what differences you can expect from this 99-minute cut of the film compared to the original 91-minute one.  Right?  Well that’s easy, it’s 8 minutes of difference.  LOL.  No but seriously, I painstakingly put together this bullet point list below of all the MAJOR differences I found between the two.  I purposely left out some of the minor differences that I was just too lazy to write down.  Enjoy!

• The film is titled JOHN RAMBO, but nowhere on the box art or disc is this name associated.  Weird huh?
• There are a few more brutal real images at the beginning newsfeed.
• There’s more snake catching and more playing around with the snakes as Johnny bags them up.
• There’s more of Julie Benz bugging Rambo to take her group on a boat ride into Burma.  In fact, there’s a whole new scene of her begging him.  The law of 3!
• There’s a longer night scene in a village that’s being raided.
• They completely changed the “what is” speech on the boat that takes place in the rain between Julia’s character and Rambo.  John talks about politics and war and admits he wasted his life on war.  That’s a true statement I guess.
• There are longer conversations to be had between the missionaries and Rambo on the boat ride to Burma.
• There’s a slight change to the pirate shootout scene.
• There’s a longer goodbye scene between John and Sarah when drops them off in Burma.
• There are new flashback scenes when Rambo (I keep wanting to call him Rocky) is burning the pirate ship.
• The raid on the village where the missionaries are starts out quicker.  In my opinion, it feels too abrupt.
• There is a new scene where the missionaries are at the prison camp.  They talk about the treatment and torture of the prisoners.
• After the pastor told Rambo about the missing prisoners, the hammer scene is a bit different.  Instead of Rambo’s voiceover where he says, “war is in his blood and all…” you hear a voiceover from the pastor.  It kind of loses meaning now in my opinion.
• There are some slight variances in the rescue of the missionaries.  I did not mind this, as it is the thumping music that really fuels these scenes after all.
• After the rescue, Rambo now notices that Sarah hurt her foot.  He wraps it up for her.  What a nice guy.
• And last but not least, there is a longer goodbye scene between Rambo and Sarah at the conclusion of the brutal warfare resolution of Act III.

So there you have it.  Obviously, as I stated before, I did not list every little change above.  The above bullet points were the most notable changes I saw so I wanted to make sure they were captured on your computer screen for your reading pleasure.  All in all, if I had my way, I would prefer the theatrical presentation of the film any day.  I was excited to hear about this project when Cliff Stephenson announced it at Comic-Con two years ago (here), but ultimately I felt that these new and modified scenes did not lend themselves well to the flow and pacing of the story.  If I had not seen this, I would have lived life being completely satisfied with only my theatrical Blu-ray.  It’s still a must-see and probably a must-purchase for all the fans out there, but casual viewers may want to think twice about spending 99 minutes of their lives watching something they didn’t much care for in the first place.  However, the movie is still one of my favorite films from the new millennium so that’s the reason for the high score despite my sentiments toward the Extended Cut.  It would have been super if Lionsgate would have packaged this with a theatrical Blu-ray disc as well, but no such luck.  If you want to own the Extended Cut, then you are going to have to double dip.  Sadly, there’s no way around that!  But let’s move on and discuss the Blu-ray vitals of this new presentation, shall we?

Video  

The video presentation is where I always had problems with Rambo on Blu-ray.  I know a lot of critics will praise it, but to my eyes, it has always been a bag of mixed goods.  But enough of my jibber, let’s tackle the vitals first. Rambo: The Extended cut is presented in AVC MPEG-4 video with a 2.40:1 widescreen aspect ratio.  And now back to my jibber…LOL.  When the video is looking good it’s razor sharp and pristine, but when it’s looking drab it can be a little blurry and hazy at times.  The jungle truly comes to life in all its breathtaking glory on this disc, but the night scenes are riddled with distracting grain at times.  Thankfully, this is not always the case, but I do have to point out the fact that it’s there.  When the sun shines, so does this Blu-ray.  Every drop of sweat and blood is gorgeously captured on this razor sharp1080p transfer.  The thing that strikes me odd about this disc though is that sometimes the blacks are not deep enough like we have come to expect from recent Blu-ray transfers.  This of course is a very minimal complaint about an otherwise phenomenal film.  I cannot give the video a score of a 5, but I’m oh so close to a 4.5.  Take it for what it’s worth.

Audio  

If this disc has its bright spot, then it’s the bombastic 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio surround track.  It’s absolutely divine, but it’s not perfect.  Yep, you were probably waiting for me to be the narcissist and I didn’t disappoint.  There isn’t much that doesn’t get past me, but rest assured, my complaints here are very few and far between.  Like in the video, the jungle comes to life here.  In fact, I never heard a jungle sound so fantastic, not to mention the rainfall.  I’m general a tropical person by trait, but I hate being trapped inside by the rain.  However, let the rain fall down here!  In fact… all around me!  It is quite blissful hearing that rain pour from every which direction.  This surround track is simply killer.  But wait… it gets better!  There are loud explosions, bombastic bass and bullets zinging from every which direction.  And that score… I could go on forever about it, but I won’t.  It’s simply brilliant.  Dialog, for the most part, is spot on.  However, that is my one complaint.  One fear I have where scenes are added in to make an alternate cut of the film is how good are these extra scenes going to sound and look.  There were a few instances where the dialog level wasn’t up to snuff in the extra scenes.  I had a problem hearing one line of dialog in a particular scene.  Had it not been for this minimal distraction, this one would have easily scored a 5.

Special Features  

Are you ready for this?  There’s trailers and one production diary to be found here.  That’s the special features section ladies and gentleman.  Thanks for stopping by.  No seriously, there’s not even a digital copy included like there was for the former release of the theatrical presentation.  How sad.  Well to make up for the lack of special features to discuss here I figured I would throw in a screenshot of the disc’s menu below and an image of what the Blu-ray disc’s icon looks like when popped into my favorite Blu-ray player… the Playstation 3.  Enjoy!

• “Rambo: To Hell & Back” Director’s Production Diary - This one is 1 hour and 23 minutes long and is definitely worth your time checking out.  It’s kind of a like a day-by-day production diary of the movie shoot.  It’s interesting seeing Stallone behind the camera and scoping things out.  There’s much to be learned here.
• Trailers – The Expendables, Terminator 2: Skynet Edition, and a Lionsgate commercial featuring their catalog Blu-rays that contain peeps from the upcoming Expendables.

Final Thoughts  

This final score would have been a bit higher had it not been for the lack of special features here.  Thanks to the special features department, or lack thereof, I had to round up to a 4.  It’s quite simple folks.  Do I think this is worth double dipping on?  Absolutely… if you are a fan of the franchise.  But if you were just a casual fan, then I would say a rental would be fine for now or wait until Wal-Mart has it in its $5 bin one day.  I’m going to go ahead and recommend this one as a purchase here, but buyer beware… I’m being biased here.  This movie is a favorite of mine, and I will go down swinging in opposition to anyone who bashes this film.  It is motivating, heart wrenching, action packed and completely brutal in its realism as it depicts the longest running civil war in the world and the genocide of innocent people.  And oh yeah… it’s Rambo!  “Let the bodies hit the floor!”

Pre-order  Rambo: Extended Cut on Blu-ray today!

Film

After all these years the movie itself still packs a punch. The basic plot centers on a monster from South America that accidentally gets lost in some crates and ends up getting sent to the Chicago’s Natural History Museum. Consequently, people start going missing and only a researcher played by Penelope Ann Miller and a cop played by Tom Sizemore may know what is going on. Immediately, it is kind of weird watching a younger Tom Sizemore playing a very charismatic hero after seeing how far he has fallen in the world. He`s done a porn tape and now he`s a sweaty mess on Celebrity Rehab.  It really is kind of sad in retrospect.

Peter Hyams was lucky to get Stan Winston, the man behind Predator and The Terminator, to create the creature in this movie and the monster effects are pretty impressive. Stan Winston is at the top of his game and there is a great scene where the monster takes on a SWAT team in the museum lobby.  Many years later Peter Hyams would direct A Sound of Thunder, a sci-fi movie with another cool premise that almost didn`t make it to the big screen after the production company backing it when bankrupt during post-production.  The final product looked disappointing when the special effects were clearly done on the cheap and the film never recovers and neither has Hyams’ career.  It shows how vital the special effects in these types of movies are and so it`s important to give credit to Stan Winston`s efforts here.

Peter Hyams once said that he finds watching his own movies painful and that he`s never done anything yet that`s totally worked for him. I`m sure he still has favorites and I can guess at which movies he may not rank very high on his own list of his movies, but I would dare to say that this is probably close to being one of his best. He specializes for movies for guys that like movies and this is one cool monster movie and as Hyams would prove himself a few years later with A Sound of Thunder, those aren`t always that easy to make.

Video

The Relic’s video uses the AVC-encoded transfer to bring us a fairly grainy and overcast looking film. The colors are very desaturated, which seems to be due to a poor transfer rather than a stylistic color grade choice. The film has some noise and even a couple scratches on the print and due to the content of the film, 80% of the setting is either indoors or at night where the noise, grain and other defects are really distracting.

Overall it feels very foggy and hazy at times, which could’ve been fixed with a little contrast boost, but rather we’re given a very lackluster attempt of cashing in on catalog titles.

Audio

The Relic’s audio comes at us in DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround, which was very exciting as it is the first Blu-ray I have reviewed that is in full 7.1. I was pretty pumped and even took some time  rewinding and watching scenes that had layered sound mixing over and over as I walked around the room focusing on each speaker.

Although I have to say I’ve heard 5.1 mixes that have sounded better, I was surprised that this was a legitimate 7.1 mix that wasn’t exaggerated to the point where it was ridiculous. It was subtle and well done.

The bass thumps that come out during the heart racing monster scenes are very robust yet clear, the dialogue was crisp and even the atmospheric qualities to the mix such as surround usage within reverb worked well. It’s definitely good listen, which makes up for the lame video quality. I’m looking forward to more 7.1 mixes in the future and am now going to try and find some older flicks that use it.

Special Features

The Relic’s Blu-ray release is almost barebones with a commentary track and interview with director Peter Hyems. Similar ground is covered on both features and in no way does it add to the movie experience or give us interested insight into filmmaking. I’d say skip the features.

Final Thoughts 

A fun monster movie that still packs a punch, The Relic may be a good rental for the sound mix alone, if you don’t mind a lazy transfer then you might enjoy it. If you already have the DVD, I don’t recommend buying it though unless you’re a fan who’s replacing their VHS copy… like me.

Film 

Gamer is a science fiction thriller movie that was unleashed theatrically upon American audiences on September 4^th, 2009.   The film was written and directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor.  If their names sound familiar, then that’s because they should.  However, I will talk about them more very soon.  The movie is filled wth a surplus of actors whom I have grown to love over the past few years from other films.  Obviously the first one, the man who sold me on this film, needs no introduction.  If Xerxses and his army of thousands couldn’t take him out, then you did not think a little bad press against his film could hold him back, did you?  The man, Gerard Butler, kicks a$$ throughout the entire film and diehard junkies of non-stop action and crazy mayhem should not be walking away disappointed from this feature.  Other names of notoriety appearing in Gamer include such stars as Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes), John Leguizamo, Amber Valletta (Transporter 2, 2010′s The Spy Next Door), Michael C. Hall (Dexter), Kyra Sedgwick, Alison Lohman (Drag Me To Hell), Efren Ramirez (Crank) and Ludacris.

Who would have ever thought I would even be talking about other actors in the film besides Gerard, but I can’t help myself from singing the proverbial gospel of praise towards the supporting cast.  Now I know why my friend Sandy loves the show Dexter so much.  After watching Michael C. Hall’s performance within the film, I have become an instant fan of his television series without even having seen a single frame of the show.  Seriously, his acting is off-the-wall and simply brilliant.  I really thought I was going to have a stiff Blade-like villain on my hands here initially, but he only got better as the movie went along and by the end of the film I found myself nervously rooting equally for the villain character as well.  Wait until you see his song and dance routine towards the final showdown.  It’s not only hilarious, but one of my favorite film moments from what would have been a film I would have seen in the year 2009.  There’s also a little known actor named Milo, who shares a small amount of screen time with Gerard and Amber, but trust me, it’s a memorable one.  If I had to pick a least memorable performance from the film it would have to be that of Ludacris.  I’m just not a fan of him here.  Oh well, not everything can be perfect.

So remember I was talking about Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor before?  I have to admit how stupid I am.  I did not even look at the cast or credits before popping this Blu-ray in to watch.  Despite being a huge fan of the Crank films, I simply did not put two-and-two together until I watched the special features on the Blu-ray disc.  I was commenting with fellow reviewer Gregg Senko how familiar this film seemed compared to the Crank pictures and guess what…duh…Gamer is done by the same guys.  It shows you how much I was interested in seeing this film while it was out in the theaters.  I must have not given it more than five seconds of thought before, but that’s no longer the case now.  Much like my initial blind viewing of Crank so many years ago, I became an instant fan of Gamer.  And not only will you see the same crazy action sequences and eye-popping Blu-ray clarity that you are used to from the Crank films, but there are a lot of little nods and references to the film that can be found throughout with a watchful eye.  Just to help you out I will give you two quick ones.  Make sure to catch the Crank t-shirt and a quick two-second performance by a familiar face that can be found in a prolific booth within the dance club scene.

So what is Gamer all about anyway?  I must admit, when I first saw the trailer for this film I was instantly turned off.  I muttered to my wife “How stupid.  I’ll never waste my time and see this.”  Well I guess my love for Gerard grew over the past few months (after Law Abiding Citizen and The Ugly Truth) and when the Blu-ray press release for this film first stumbled upon my laptop screen some months ago, I found myself doing the unthinkable, requesting an opportunity to do an advance review of this exhilarating Blu-ray disc.  And when that fateful day came and the Blu-ray disc arrived in the mail, all the way up to the point when I first hit play from the disc’s main menu, I was dreading that I was about to be in for 95 minutes worth of pain.  Was I ever wrong!  Thank you Lionsgate!  I can almost guarantee with 100% certainty that you will not see or hear a single mention of this title at this year’s Oscars, but that’s no reason us Crank fans can’t have fun with this title.  There’s plenty of t&a  and non-stop zany action for us males and some very buffed and hard chiseled bodies for the female viewers.  I guess what I am trying to say is there’s something for everyone in Gamer.

So I was about to give a brief synopsis of the film and look what happened.  I got sidetracked.  I guess that’s not unusual for me.  Let’s try this again.  Gamer takes place in a not so distant alternate reality where death row inmates volunteer to be part of a Running Man-like contest where if they can survive 30 televised shows they are awarded their freedom.  Of course, most did not even survive to make it near ten until fan favorite Gerard Butler’s character arises out of obscurity and kicks some serious carnage while concurrently shattering all records.  But will he survive episode #30 and earn his freedom or is there more than meets the eye?  Of course, the latter is true.  If it weren’t, what fun would it be?  The man responsible for this whole video game prison reality show, Michael C. Hall’s character, has a little more up his sleeve than just providing some good old fun American fun.  He is looking to take over the world using his nano mind-controlling technology and one boy’s game character just happens to pose a threat to his plan.  It’s not the most realistic of all movies, nor is it one of the best from 2009, but nevertheless I had a rousing good time with this Blu-ray disc over the past 3 days of 4 + viewings.  Crank fans of the world should find this an adventurous ride with subtle hints of Running Man homage, Death Race carnage and plenty of Ultraviolet futuristic imagery.

Video 

Gamer arrives on Blu-ray with an eye-popping visceral 1080P AVC MPEG-4 encode and is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio.  You got to love when the picture fills the entire real estate of your HDTV screen.  Anyway, I found myself struggling with the scoring on this section.  It’s not that the video suffers in any way.  Heck, it was shot using 4K resolution cameras.  It’s just that if you are familiar with the Crank experience, then you will know what I mean here.  The video is inconsistent as it jumps back and forth between three different reality worlds and is stylized in an artistic fashion much like the wild imagery and landscapes of Crank.  You see, I keep referring to Crank right?  Good, you are paying attention.  If the visual cues and adrenaline-charged aggressive style of Crank were distracting to you, then I can’t see you being much happier here.  But, if you can get past all of that, then what we have here is one hell of a video presentation, not failure to communicate (sorry…I could not resist).

The 4K resolutions of the new groundbreaking cameras used here capture it all.  Every shard of exploding glass, nose hair out of place and bead of sweat is painstakingly captured and brought to life in your living room.  Who needs 3-D when your images are this clear?  Of course, as I mentioned above, we are constantly bouncing back and forth between three different reality worlds so the video is homogeneously mixed up amongst all three of them.  Whether it is the ultra bright PS3 Home-like virtual reality world or the dark, dismal and gritty world of prison warfare, you experience it all firsthand.  Depending on what world you are viewing at the particular moment throughout the feature, your eyeballs are being subjected to different styles and elements that play a crucial role in determining the presentation of the colors, clarity and varying levels of sharpness.  Skin tones always remain natural throughout and the black levels never gave me a reason to want to adjust my television’s contrast.  I would love to call this presentation perfect, but due to the extreme differences between the various worlds I think I will play it safe with a score of 4.5.

Audio 

The audio on the other hand is a completely different story.  This bombastic track needs no obligatory marks of criticism, but instead heavenly songs of devotion and praise.  It does not get much better than this folks.  For lack of a better word, sh!t is flying all around you throughout the feature film and I couldn’t be happier about it.  I can’t say enough good things about the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround mix used here.  It will peel the paint off the walls and the stain off the wood moldings as it wrecks your living room in chaos and destruction.  Bullets spray and zing past you in every which direction.  Despite the wild and zany action, the dialogue is never lost in the background or subjected to the proverbial back seat.  How does the expression go?  The audio is always “in your face!”  Gamer takes Hi-Def audio to the next level of perfection on the Blu-ray format.  I know the year is young, but this is simply the best example of Blu-ray audio I have heard all year long (those big 10 days thus far) and I think it will really take an impressive feat to topple this track in 2010; although I would love for someone to prove me wrong.  Without any hesitation, this one deserves a perfect 5-score. 

Special Features 

I feel I am being generous with my score here, but I must admit to being pleasantly surprised by the wealth of extras contained on this Blu-ray release.  It may look like nothing much on paper, but once you sit down to watch it all you quickly realize you are investing a full-day’s work at the office.  Although, when it comes to the fun I experienced with Gamer, how could I ever equate that to work?  Refreshingly, all the supplements found within are all presented in glorious 1080P!  That’s the way it should be on a Blu-ray release.  But when it comes to Lionsgate would you really expect anything less from them?  Quite simply, I found most of the extras I am going to talk about below fascinating from a filmmaking perspective, so without further ado, let’s dissect the special features package found on the Blu-ray release of Gamer.

Below are some pictures I took of the back cover art, the inside packaging of the 2-disc set (Digital Copy on the left and the Blu-ray disc on the right) and the paper insert with the Digital Copy activation code on the flip side (valid until January 19, 2011).  Click on the below images to enlarge for maximum viewing pleasure.

Below are some screenshots I took of the Blu-ray disc main menu selections. As pictured from left to right, I have included an image of the play movie screen, scene selection and special features.  Click on the below images to enlarge for maximum viewing pleasure.  

• Audio Commentary – The standard audio commentary track contains thoughts from writer/directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor and actors Amber Valletta, Alison Lohman and Terry Crews.  Alison comes in a bit late on this track as she relieves a fellow cast member during a bathroom break.  Overall, this was a very fun and informative commentary track.  I learned a lot about the movie’s budget and all the roadblocks they had to work with during the production of the film.  Also interesting to note was the fact that they originally wanted to do this film in 3-D, but the technology was not available yet.
• I-Con Mode – This is an interesting alternative look into the making of the film as we are given the Watchmen-style Picture-in-Picture track where Mark and Brian literally walk out of the movie and onto your television screen.  This P-I-P track lasts a bit longer than the feature film’s runtime so make sure to hit the bathroom before sitting down with this one. 
• Gamer Cheat Codes – This one is also time consuming as this time we are going through the film again with interactive specialized scene-specific audio and video commentary accessible via the viewpoints of numerous crew members.
• “Inside the Game: Controlling Gamer” – This “making of” documentary left the biggest impression on me out of all the extras.  When I hit ‘Play All’ on my remote, I thought I was in store for some quick 2 to 3 minute video clips of useless production footage, but never was I led to believe that I was about to be mind blown by a wealth of knowledge clocking in near 80 minutes in length.  Wow!  This extra alone made me respect the movie and all the grueling behind-the-scenes work that went into making it even more and probably was responsible for me bumping the overall film score up a half point. 
• “First Person Shooter: The Evolution of Red” – This was probably my second favorite featurette on the disc.  It’s a real gem that I felt like I stumbled upon by accident, but one that was meant to be.  I guess an explanation is needed for that cryptic sentence huh?  Well the long story short is that I stumbled upon these guys in this documentary last year at Comic-Con.  I even talked to them, not realizing who they were and what they did until now.  How stupid do you think I feel now?  To sum this featurette up in one sentence I would have to go on record that this is about the groundbreaking technology (the cameras) Mark and Brian worked with to create the immaculate 4K resolution of Gamer.  This one is probably best left for us technical junkies.
• Theatrical Trailer - I think this one is pretty self-explanatory.
• Unseen Trailer (The Doobie-ness Cut) - This Doobie White edited video gives the viewer a unique look at an alternate trailer for Gamer.
• Lionsgate Live - Experience all the magic of Lionsgate on your Profile 2.0 Blu-ray player.
• BD Touch - This is an iPhone/iPod Touch app (does anyone even have any of those?) where users can download and control certain film content.  I don’t have an iPhone/iPod Touch to try this out.  Any love for us Android users?
• Metamenu – You are able to control your Blu-ray player through the website www.my.metamenus.com.  I am not familiar with this one, so make sure to check it out!
• D-Box – If you are one of the few people on the planet who have a D-Box Motion Control System, then you are in luck!  Gamer has a D-Box feature to let you get more rumble for your buck.
• Digital Copy – The second disc in this Blu-ray release is a DVD that contains a Digital Copy that is compatible with both Apple iTunes and Windows Media Player.  Enjoy!

Final Thoughts 

Well there you have it folks.  I am sure by now you all understand that while this movie is far from ever being called perfect, the stellar Blu-ray package is near orgasmic in every which way.  I never thought I would be saying this while going into my first viewing, but I whole-heartedly recommend a purchase of this very fine Blu-ray release on January 19^th.  Heck, why wait?  Pre-order yours now!  And I will leave you with my final word of caution.  I know I sound like a broken record or a skipping CD, but I just can’t stress this last point enough.  If you are not a fan of the Crank films, then I strongly suggest you give this film a rental before a blind buy.  I just don’t see you liking it for all the 10,000 obvious reasons I listed in the above Blu-ray review.  You have been warned.  All others prepare your home theater living rooms for 95 onslaught minutes of blood, guts, carnage, explosions and resolution like you have never seen before.  It’s that good!

I hope you enjoyed my review of the Lionsgate’s Gamer Blu-ray release.  Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments below.  I look forward to receiving any and all feedback from my readers.

Gamer will be released on Blu-ray January 19^th, 2010.  If you like what you read in the review above, then please show your support for our site by clicking the shopping cart link above to pre-order and save with Amazon’s Pre-Order Price Guarantee.  Thanks! 

Film

When I think of the Vietnam war’s depiction in film, I usually go straight for Platoon or Apocalypse Now. Dark… Cold… Rainy… Comedies don’t really come to mind, however when I received a copy of Air America to review, my memory was jolted… How dare I forget a staple in the famous Vietnam War Comedy genre… especially a comedy with Mel Gibson from the nineties (not today’s serious director Mel, the good ol’ Mel).

The film follows a helicopter traffic control pilot (Downey Jr.) who gets fired after pulling a stunt while on the air. He is approached by the CIA to join Air America, a group of civilian pilots who fly supplies throughout Laos.

However, once arriving in Laos, he realizes that the civilian pilots turn out to be shady and over-the-top, one of which is Gene (Gibson), who during official flights takes it upon himself to deal in weapon trading. Throughout the movie you find out that Air America is less and less an innocent civilian run organization, but a CIA drug running syndicate. It’s hard to believe, but there are a few laughs in here… somewhere.

Despite mixed reviews at the time of release and its inevitable box office failure, Air America thought outside of the box. They took an interesting account from the Vietnam War (Robbin’s book), threw in an anti-war stance and portrayed the CIA as drug runners, yet still managed to get a few laughs.

However having Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr. together, might have helped the film a little, unfortunately for them… the movie is dry, especially in comparison to today’s popular comedic styling. I felt my second viewing after all these years was a bit of a sad one, I had romanticized this film since I first watched all those years ago.

Overall it’s nice to have a glimpse back at Mel Gibson’s comedic days as well as a flashback to Robert Downey Jr.’s filmography prior to his arrest and eventual rebirth as Iron Man.

Video

Starting off, I’ve always been weary of older films on Blu-ray. It’s become a bit of a prejudice, I’ve always been worried about film grain simply becoming clearer. However I forgot that even though film quality wasn’t as advanced as it is now, a lot of movies shot decades ago can really be enhanced by the Blu-ray digital transfer treatment. At 1080p and using the AVC MPEG-4 codec with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, I was floored by how good the quality was, it may not be showroom demo quality, but from what I was expecting, it was a treat to see a movie from my early years not only preserved, but rejuvenated.
The colors were a little washed and grain still was apparent in some of the lower lighted shots, but the image was clear and sharp. This wasn’t just a cut and paste cash grab, trying to get people to re-buy titles on blu-ray, and not putting care into it… The job was done well.

Audio

The audio in Air America wasn’t as refreshing as the video quality. The English audio track employed DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 Surround Sound however the mix of the tracks seemed a little off, especially in regards to dialogue. There is also a French 2.0 Dolby Digital Audio track and English and Spanish subtitles.

Overall the sound effects, foley and score sounded good, and besides a wonky dialogue track I would say that the audio portion of this disc wasn’t bad, but I expected a lot more for a Blu-ray release.

Special Features

As far special features go, Air America includes, what I refer to as, the basics. This includes at least one audio commentary, a couple behind the scenes featurettes and a theatrical trailer of the film. The featurettes felt a little drab, nowadays special features are a big part of what makes a DVD worthy to own, these featurettes didn’t do much for me. The ‘Return Flight” featurette felt like it was thrown together to bulk up the Blu-ray release, it doesn’t even have an interview with Robert Downey Jr. or Mel Gibson, but rather focuses on B-characters who don’t really have anything interesting to add.

The Audio commentary with John Eskrow isn’t much to talk about, I usually hold high hopes for commentaries. I expect to be entertained as well as learn a few behind the scenes tricks or tips that were used. A few commentaries that come to mind are Evil Dead II that had be laughing harder and louder than when I was watching the movie as well as Kevin Smith’s commentaries which had me in tears… NOTE: When you’re watching a movie and you’re so bored you start thinking about other, more entertaining movies, than something’s wrong. John Eskrow sounded like he hadn’t watched the movie in years and seemed to stumble from tangent to tangent as he ran out the clock… Don’t waste your time.

The features in detail are:

• Audio commentary with Writer/Co-Producer John Eskrow
• Featurette : “Flight Log”
• Featurette: “Pre-Flight: The Storyboards of Air America”
• Featurette: “Return Flight: Revisiting Air America”
• Theatrical Trailer

Final Thoughts

A mediocre movie from 90′s takes a stab at the blu-ray market, with a fairly decent digital transfer it stands a chance at pleasing those who were fans of this movie, however without a mind-blowing audio experience and with pretty plain special features I don’t think it’s worth the time. Air America doesn’t stand well in comparison to other Mel Gibson and RDJ movies from that period in time, thus I say rent it for a few laughs, but don’t expect a hidden gem if you’ve never seen it.

Film

As was the case with the first two films, Dawn of the Dinosaurs is a production of Blue Sky Studios and is distributed by the folks at 20th Century Fox. The film shared the same excellent computer animation as the first two films. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, reunites us with the main characters from the first two films, Manny the Mammoth (voiced by Ray Romano), Sid the Sloth (voiced by John Leguizamo) and Diego the saber tooth tiger (voiced by Dennis Leary).

At the outset of the film, Manny’s love interest, Ellie (voiced by Quenn Latifa) is pregnant with their baby and Manny is busy preparing a new play area for his child. Diego is unable to catch a gazelle (voiced by Bill Herder) and decides he needs to leave the herd to recoup his mojo as a tiger. Sid, on the other hand, falls through the ice into a cave and discovers three large eggs which he takes back to the herd. Much to his surprise, they hatch overnight into three small T-Rexs which begin to reck havoc with the rest of the herd.

Things go from bad to worse when their mother, a full grown and angry T-Rex arrives to find her babies and take them home. In the process, she grabs Sid and takes him with her as well. In order to save their friend Sid, Manny, Ellie, Diego and the two Opossums Crash and Eddie (voiced by Seann William Scott and Josh Beck), decide to enter the subterranean world of the dinosaurs to rescue Sid. It is in the land of the Dinosaurs that they meet a weasel named Buck (voiced by Simon Pegg), who is as crazy yet as brave as they come, who they enlist to help them navigate this strange new and dangerous world so they can find and rescue Sid.

The word that came immediately to mind as I thought about the film is pleasant. It is without a doubt a pleasant family film. The problem for me is that we have seen this all before in the first film and repeated again in the second. Although the film is set is a totally different environment, it still has the look and feel of the first two. The best new addition to the film is the swashbuckling and fearless Buck wonderfully voiced by Simon Pegg, who for me, simply ran away with the film.

The film also features the adventures of the saber tooth Squirrel, Scrat, who continues in his quest to capture the ever illusive acorn, finding a love interest in the process. I have no doubt that you will enjoy this film if you enjoyed the first two. It is just that I would have preferred a newer and fresher take on the characters and story line than that presented here. Recommended as a rental only.

Video

As is now expected with computer animated films on Blu-ray, this encode appears to be flawless as compared with the theatrical presentation. The film features a varied if a bit subdued color palette. The film is as clean as a whistle with no film grain of any kind and an incredible level of detail. If I have one quibble with the overall look of the film, it is the black level, which is not as deep and inky as a film such as Monsters vs. Aliens. As a result of the more subdued blacks, the film has less of a vibrancy and three dimensionality than a film such as Monsters which really leaps off the screen. However, that is really a purely aesthetic choice on the part of the filmmakers and is not the result of the encoding process.

This film looks just as it did in the theater and in fact, appears to be a perfect reproduction of the film. As such, even though I would have preferred deeper blacks and slightly more vibrant colors than those presented here, this is a perfect reproduction of the film for the home theater market and as such, is fully worthy of a five star rating.

Audio

The lossless audio track here sounds excellent with a smooth and open sound that sounds great even at reference volume levels. The audio track is totally devoid of any harshness or shrillness and is a joy to experience with the volume levels cracked way up. The dialogue track in particular is well recorded and well placed in the mix. For the most part, there is excellent use made of the surround speakers which are used a bit less aggressively in the beginning of the film than I would have liked but really kick into high gear as the film reaches its climax.

The only real fault I have with the sound is in the level of dynamics and bass response. The mix lacked the level of dynamics that one would associate with an action film. The lack of dynamics is notably experienced in the scenes with the T-Rex which frankly, did not rattle the room as much as I had hoped, even at high volume levels. The thundering steps of the T-Rex, were a bit less dramatic than I had expected, lacking that room rattling sound. Other than this caveat, this is a fine sounding film and will not doubt, please fans of the film.

Special Features

Ice Age: The Dawn of the Dinosaurs is chock full of extras. This is a three disc set and includes a DVD version of the film and a digital copy along with the Blu-ray edition of the film and as such, is a great film to take on the road with you to keep the kids occupied. The release is also BD-Live enabled.

The disc features a director’s commentary, an Ice Age Storybook Masker, a feaaturette Evolution Expedition which takes a look at the actual animals that form the basis of the film with bones and fossils at the La Brea Tarpits Museaum near Los Angeles as well as their modern cousins at the Santa Barbara zoo. Also included as a featurette Buck: From Easel to Weasel which traces the development of the character as well a featurette on the making of the film entitled Unearthing the Lost World.

The extras also include some unfinished deleted scenes and the Walk the Dinosaur music video as well as Fox Movie Channel featurettes Making a Scene for this as well as the Ice Age: The Meltdown film, as well as In Character shorts with John Leguizamo, Ray Romano and Queen Latiffa. Also included is the Scrat Pack, with shorts featuring Scrat as well as a look behind the making of the character and several Scrat featuettes.

For the most part, the extras are presented in HD with a few in widescreen standard definition and are well worth a look, with my two favorites being Evolution Expedition and From Easel to Weasel.

Final Thoughts

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is a pleasant film that the whole family can enjoy. Recommended as a rental only.

Film

To say that Snow White is a classic film is an understatement. In fact, it could be argued that it is one of the most significant films of all time given that it was the first feature animated film ever made and was ground braking in terms of its animation and musical score.

The film forms the foundation of the Disney empire, laying the ground work for all that came after it in terms of the Disney catalogue as well as the theme parks not to mention all of the rest of the animated films from all the studios that followed. It is even claimed that Warner Brothers didn’t give the final go ahead on the Wizard of Oz until the smashing success of Snow White. And a smashing success it was.

The film cost a whopping $1.5 million to make, which was a ton of money back in the 1930′s during the height of the Great Depression. It strained not only the legion of animations employed by Disney to make the film, but Disney’s finances as well. In fact, Disney could have lost it all had the film been the flop that the press pundits at the time had been anticipating. However, Disney’s gamble paid off immediately upon Snow White‘s premiere on December 21, 1937, which met with not only rave reviews but overwhelming commercial success by an adoring public who was craving for just this type of film and the message it communicated.

I can’t image that I need to go into much detail about the story itself, which is now well ingrained into the American collective conscious. Suffice it to say that despite the fact that the film is now over 70 years old, it is still as charming and moving as it ever was. This is a truly classic film if there ever was one and is a release that belongs in the library of every film fan. Very highly recommended.

Video

Quite frankly, the video quality on this release is spectacular. I can’t image it looking any better than it does here, at least given the limits of today’s technology. The restoration work here is every bit as impressive as that on Pinocchio, and really brings the film and characters to life, with details I had never seen before. The animation is not quite as refined as that in Pinocchio and as a result, the image looks just a tad softer than that in Pinocchio, hence the slighlty lower score. This is not the result of the transfer or any digital noise reduction or filtering that I could tell, but is just how the film looks.

While I have never seen the original cells that were used to make the film, this release looks to be completely faithful to the original, with excellent color rendition and excellent levels of detail. Colors are bright and bold and beautifully saturated with excellent black level. It is simply astonishing to me that a film of this age, with animation really at its infancy, looks this good. This is an incredible restoration job by Disney which should thrill all fans of the film. Well done.

Audio

Given the age of the film and the limitations inherent in the state of recorded sound in the 1930′s, I was not expecting to be bowled over by the audio on this release. However, considering the limitations of 1930 audio recording, the audio on this release is much better than one would have expected. Clearly great care went into re-mastering the original sound elements and creating a new 7.1 DTS HD Master Audio lossless soundtrack. For those purists out their, the original mono mix is included as well.

As one would expect, the audio here lacks much in the way of dynamics and depth. While a 7.1 mix is provided, most of the film is very front heavy with only sporadic use of the surrounds. As a result, there is little if any immersive feel here with most of the sound in the front of the room. However, when used, the surrounds are used effectively, to create a sense of drama. If you are expecting deep bass, this also is not the film for you. I wasn’t and hence was not disappointed. Otherwise, the overall fidelity of the sound was quite good breaking down a bit only at reference sound levels, where the sound became a bit lean and bright. The dialogue track is well presented however and all of the dialogue is clear and distinct and easy to follow. Given the age of the film, the 7.1 track included with this release sounds about is as good as one could possibly expect and possibly as good as it may ever sound.

Special Features

As one would expect for such a significant and historic film, this release is packed with extras. The release is a three disc set with one of the discs being a DVD copy of the film which is great as it enables you to take the film on the road and play in your car or laptop or a DVD player in your hotel. Frankly, given the minimal costs involved in the DVD replication process, all Blu-ray releases should include a DVD copy as well. Disney should be commended for including one here.

Disc two includes the feature plus some extras including a featurette in HD about the the newly discovered storyboards found in the Disney faults which hinted at a possible planned sequel to Snow White entitled Snow White Returns. Also included is a music video of Tiffany Thornton performing Some Day My Prince Will Come as well as a sneak peak of Disney’s forthcoming film, The Princess and the Frog as well as an audio commentary.

Disc three contains several extras under the banner Backstage Disney including a more detailed look at the possible planned sequel Snow White Returns, a look at Disney’s Hyperion Studios where the animation for Snow White took place before the studios were moved to Burbank California and the featurette “The One That Started it All”, which details the historic significance of the film both in the history of cinema as well as as the foundation of the Disney empire. The Hyperion Studios and The One that Started it All featurettes are highly recommended and are well worth a look.

The remainder of the extras are those included on the prior DVD release of the film, including Disney’s Wild Mine Ride, Heigh-Ho Karaoke Sing Along and the featurette Disney Through the Decades. The release is also BD-Live enabled allowing you to access What Do You See? to decipher the scrambled image, Mirror, Mirror On the Wall to see what princess you most are like and Jewell Jumble which allows you to test your matching skills.

Final Thoughts

Snow White represents another stunning restoration of a classic Disney classic and belongs in the library of any film fan. Very highly recommended.

It was great to see season one of the original TV series of Star Trek TOS as it is now known make its way to high definition first on HD DVD and then Blu-ray. The shows were re-mastered from the original 35 mm prints with new CGI added to replace the old grainy and by today’s standards, almost primitive looking effect that while great for 1960′s TV, look awful today. Thankfully, the new CGI sequences were done very tastefully and do not really call attention to themselves. With the Blu-ray release, you get the option of watching each episode with the old or the new effects. I prefer the new. I was really anxious to see if season two of the series, which contains a few of my very favorite episodes, would be the equal to the presentation of season one on Blu-ray. Thankfully, the answer is a resounding YES.

Series

I guess I am a bit biased, but I really can’t imagine giving the series anything but a 5 star rating. While some of the episodes are at times, a bit campy by today’s standards and even a bit sexist, many are just as thought provoking as they were when the originally ran, dealing with issues that were not normally dealt with on prime time TV at that time, including a racially diversified cast.

I am sure that you are all well versed in Star Trek, so it will not be necessary for me to go to great lengths to describe the series and the exploits of the three principal characters that are at the very foundation of the series, namely Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Dr. McCoy (a/k/a Bones played by the late DeForest Kelley). Season two of the series contains three of the all time classic episodes in the series, including my favorite of them all, Mirror Mirror, where Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy, Mr. Scott and Uhura are beamed up to the Enterprise in a parallel universe, where the crew of the Enterprise are cutthroat barbarians, who are promoted in rank through murder. The episode is probably most famous for the appearance of Mr. Spock with a beard in the parallel universe.

Other favorites from season two include The Doomsday Machine, I, Mudd, Amock Time and The Trouble with Tribbles. As far as this writer is concerned, season two of the three year season run of the show was the best of the three, with more consistently good episodes than the other two and with better writing overall. This is a great set and a must for any Star Trek fan.

Video

Don’t let the 4 star rating fool you. This is a great looking set, with picture quality that was simply unimaginable during the first run of the show and certainly, during the syndication period where poor and chopped up prints of the show were often used. The 4 star rating is comparison to more modern TV shows and films that have appeared on Blu-ray.

The picture quality is just not up to the overall quality of a more modern production. However, the folks at Paramount did an incredible job with the HD transfer of the shows and took great care in doing so. Each episode is presented in its original 4×3 aspect ratio with side black curtains. The show features bright and bold primary colors with deep blacks and excellent levels of detail. You can clearly see the texture of the fabrics of the uniforms, the cheap plastic sets and the makeup applied to the various actors, including Spock’s ears. The detail is so good that you can clearly make out the rubber scar on Zulu;s face in Mirror, Mirror, which looks like a rubber noodle hanging on to the side of his face and applied with a bit of rubber cement.

The only real negative that I could add concerns the consistency of the video from episode to episode. Some episodes look better than others, probably due to the condition of the original film negatives from which the new HD masters were made. Some episodes have better black levels than others and better skin tones. It is the accuracy of the skin tones where the real variation is. On the whole, detail and clarity is very good to excellent, resulting in an image with far better clarity, depth and three dimensionality than one would expect for a 1960′s era TV series. I doubt very much that we will ever see better looking versions of this series released any time in the foreseeable future. I would also like to add a little about the new and improved CGI. The Enterprise, planet renditions, space scenes and the like look many orders of magnitude better than they did in the old versions of the show.

While I tend to be a bit of a purist, I can’t really imagine wanting to watch the old episodes with the old special effects. However, for those of you out there who feel differently, you are given the choice to watch each episode fully re-mastered, without the new CGI. At least you are given the option here which was not the case on the HD DVD release. However, the new CGI was done very respectfully and in keeping with the look of the show. The look of the Enterprise is a clear example of what I mean, as it looks very much like the old Enterprise, lacking the detail and bells and whistles of the films and subsequent TV shows. It looks just like the old Enterprise with a few tweeks and much cleaner presentation. Give the new CGI a look. I am sure that even the purists will be pleased. I know I sure was.

Audio

All in all, the audio on this release is much better than you would have the right to expect given the original mono source elements. I am also sure that overall audio fidelity was not the utmost concern during the original production of the TV series. There are two audio options here, a lossless 7.1 DTS HD Master Audio track as well as the original mono track. For me, the 7.1 track is the clear winner. The best audio on this release is the rerecorded opening theme which sounds wonderful with the opening credits. Excellent overall fidelity and immersive sound. Some of the sound effects have been rerecorded as well, such as the firing of the photon torpedoes and phasers, which sound much more 21st Century. The rest of the sound is what it is, a little on the thin side without much in the way of dynamics or deep bass. The surrounds are used surprisingly well given the original mono design, with sound effects placed in the rears such as the swooshing Enterprise and room acoustics. I wouldn’t call the overall sound immersive in any way. However, considering the source, much more than respectable.

Special Features

As one would expect, this set is packed with many interesting extras, spread out over the 7 disc set. Disc one contains preview trailers, a Starfleet Access Episode and actor Billy Blackburn’s Treasure Chest featuring home movies taken by him during the filming of the series. Billy Blackburn was one of the actors who was often seen in various roles on the show but seldom heard, much like a human prop. It is amazing how many episodes he appeared in in one guise or the other, often one of the two men at the helm of the Enterprise. This extra is presented in HD and is part two, with part one appearing on the season one Blu-ray release.

The only extras on discs two and three are preview trailers which should just be skipped. Disc four is the disc that contains The Trouble With Tribbles episode and contains several extras tied to it. They include a episode from the cartoon TV series entitled More Tribbles, More Troubles, with audio commentary with director David Gerrold as well as the Deep Space Nine episode Trials and Tribble-ations where Captain Sisko and the crew of the Defiant travel back in time to visit the Enterprise and the space station during The Trouble With Tribbles episode while attempting to foil a plot to change the past.

Also included are two featurettes, Trials and Tribble-ations: Uniting Two Legends and Trials and Tribble-ations: An HIstoric Endeavor. For me, the extras tied to the Trouble with Tribbles episode are the best of the bunch and not to be missed. Disc 5 contains preview trailers as well as a featurette To Boldly Go… Season 2. In addition to the preview trailers, disc 5 contains the featurette Designing the Final Frontier. Disc 6 contains several extras entitled Star Treks’ favorite moments, Writer’s Notebook: D.C. Fontana, LIfe Beyond Trek: Leonard Nimoy, Kirk, Spock and Bones: Star Fleet’s Great Trio, Star Trek’s Divine Diva: Nichelle Nichols and Enhanced Visual Effects Credits.

The only extras included on the entire set that are in HD are the Billy Blackburn Treasure Chest and the episode of the Star Trek cartoon TV series entitled More Tribbles, More Troubles featured on disc 4. The set is also BD-Live enabled as well as Mobile Blu enabled, with Content to Go available exclusively via Mobile Blu, consisting of Writing Spock (on disc one), Creating Chekov (disc two), Listening to the Actors (disc three) and Spock’s Mother on disc five.

Final Thoughts

Star Trek: The Original Series Season 2, is a must have for any fan of the series or a fan of television history. The set features excellent video and more than respectable audio and looks much better than the series has ever looked and is a real winner on Blu-ray. Highly recommended.

The Film 

My history with the Crank franchise is really what brought me here, writing Blu-ray reviews for all the fans like myself, who want not only the best in audio and video demo material, but also candid reviews on the films themselves.  I never heard much about the film Crank until the buzz started circulating on various Hi-Def community forum boards.  If there ever was a movie to watch on the Blu-ray format for its video presentation, Crank was being billed as that film.  Upon reading all of these positive reviews I decided to give Crank a test drive as it arrived in the mail from Blockbuster. 

It was a cold and blistering winter day in 2007 when my wife and I sat down for an evening of mischief and mayhem as we were treated to an audio/visual experience, unlike none other, we were not prepared for.  It was sheer sensory overload.  The picture was so razor sharp, that for days, I had vivid daydreams of being able to count every bead of sweat and facial stubble on Jason Statham’s scowl.  I immediately looked at the time on the clock that night and began calling everywhere to see not only which stores were open, but also which place of retail had a copy of Crank on Blu-ray to purchase.  Price was not even a concern.  Blu-ray was still in its infancy and finding a title was often more difficult than you could imagine in the poor suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio.  I knew I found something special and I was not going to let anymore time stand between me and not owning Crank on Blu-ray.  Thankfully, Best Buy was there for me.   They answered my prayers as I slipped in the doors, five minutes before they closed, and found the sole copy of Crank sitting on the retail shelf.  Heck, not only did I pay full retail price, but I also bought it with a dinged up cover.  Everyone that knows me is probably gasping right now.

So the story goes on as one night I finally got the chance to put on the Crank Blu-ray disc for my eccentric friend Erin.  Erin not only loved a good over-the-top zany movie, but cherished them all too freakishly.  You see, when Erin finds a movie she loves, she will watch it over-and-over for days on end.  I remember hearing that she once watched Fight Club 12 times in a day.  That’s an accomplishment I know I can never achieve, no matter how much I adore that film.  Anyway, I put the Crank Blu-ray on for Erin and she instantly loved it.  If memory serves me correctly, she even asked to watch it again.  Like I often do to escape uncomfortable situations, I immediately changed the subject and asked her if she ever see any of the Bourne films, as the third movie was just about to hit the theatres.  Her answer to my question was ‘no.’  So I escaped having to watch Crank again and put on The Bourne Identity DVD.  Yes, you heard me right.  I did say DVD.  At this time, in early 2007, The Bourne Identity was only available on DVD and HD DVD.  After about a half hour into the film, Erin turned and said to me exactly what I had been thinking in my mind the past 30 minutes of viewing.  Erin asked if something was wrong with her eyes and why the picture was so blurry.  Well duh, we just got done watching one of the clearest presentations ever released on home video, the Crank Blu-ray disc and now we were watching an upconverted DVD.  We both agreed to turn the DVD off, and to this day, that was the last DVD movie I have ever watched on purpose.  Oh, how I miss those Star Wars films.  Ironically, weeks later, Erin told me of the vivid dreams she had of the beads of sweat and facial stubble on Jason Statham and how she felt like she could count them all individually.  Yep ladies and gentlemen, the visual presentation of the Crank Blu-ray release is that good.  Of course, it helps a little that the movie was shot entirely with Hi-Def video cameras too.

So when we last left Chev Chelios in Crank he was not doing so good after a nasty fall.  Crank 2 was not even a consideration back then.  It was Lionsgate who demanded another adventure from writers/directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor.  Resistant at first, they started to pen a draft for the second movie and as luck would turn out they fell in love with their own writings.  Hopelessly in love with their new script, Mark and Brian felt that they were the only ones who could conceivably direct this next adventure.  They were even surprised by the fact that the movie studio did not block them from producing or changing anything that was in their outlandish script.  This is the way all productions should be made; without any politics.  Take that for whatever it is worth Mr. Clive Davis.

Moving on to the story we find Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) waking up in Crank 2 High Voltage only to discover his indestructible heart has been surgically removed and replaced with a battery-operated one that requires frequent jolts of electricity in order to pump the blood, hence the name High Voltage.  After escaping his captors we find Chev on the run again, not missing a beat as he takes down everyone in his path while trying to find his real heart.  At the same time, much like the hilarious incidents in the first Crank film, Chev must find ways to keep his ticker ticking.  From taking on the Mexican gang boss El Huron (Clifton Collins Jr.) to the Chinese Triads, headed by 100 year-old Poon Dong (David Carradine), Chev finds miraculous ways to not only stay alive, but to triumph as he is assisted by familiar characters such as Doc Miles (Dwight Yoakam), Kaylo’s twin brother Venus (Efren Ramirez) and girlfriend Eve (Amy Smart).  Chev is determined to get his real heart back and will stop at nothing to wreak havoc and vengeance on whoever stole it.  This is the Chev Chelios we all know and love, from the first film, just amplified up a notch.  Expect nothing less than more over-the-top zany thrill-ride fun like you experienced in the first film.  This is a sequel truly deserving of its predecessor, unlike Halloween II.  I’m sorry.  I could not resist.  I am still a little sore from that one.

So let’s back on track with the Crank 2 High Voltage Blu-ray discussion.  I actually got to meet the Blu-ray author of this disc, Cliff Stephenson, back at Comic-Con this past July.  On record, he was discussing the various quantities and types of high-definition cameras that were used to film Crank 2, from everyday consumer models to experimental ones.  One thing I can attest to is that the Blu-ray disc top menu definitely lives up to and captures the adrenaline rush you feel while watching the film.  From the high-octane music to the picture-in-picture motion sequences, the disc’s top menu gets you pumped up before you even begin the main feature.  Kudos Cliff.  So without further ado, let’s jump into the technical specs. 

Video 

Crank 2 High Voltage explodes on the Blu-ray format with a dominant 1080P AVC MPEG-4 video encode and a 1.85:1 aspect ratio presentation. I really can’t say enough good things about the visual presentation here.  Sure other reviewers will complain about some minor edge enhancements, pixel blocks on paused frames and minor aliasing issues, but these are all inherent to the types of digital cameras being used.  The what you see is what you get analogy fits cozy here.  As I discussed prior, the film, which was shot on a very low budget, employed a fleet of hi-def digital cameras that ranged from entry consumer models to little more $3,000 dollar ones.  Despite the low budget allowance, the visual results are celestial.  The majority of the film is shot during harshest hours of sunlight allowing one to literally count every bead of sweat and cratered pore on an actor’s face.  Much like its predecessor, Crank 2 High Voltage is the reason I got into Blu-ray and HD in the first place.  You want demo-worthy material to show Walt down the street, then this is your ticket to ride here.  Dazzle everyone with the ability to count the number of birthmarks on Amy Smart’s body.  Dare them to tell you how much stubble is left on Jason Statham’s balding head.  Go above and beyond as you count the tattoo injection spots on the skin of The Ferret.  I think you get the picture, but just in case, let me summarize.  For the best in picture, you want Crank 2 High Voltage, a Blu-ray worthy of its 5-star video presentation.

Audio 

Moving on we find Crank 2 High Voltage‘s audio just as good, if not better than its visual presentation.  I’m not sure how that is possible since the video got a 5-star rating, but let’s just say if I was able to, I would award a 5.5 score here.  Lionsgate treats hardcore fans of the Blu-ray format to a thunderous, bombastic and an unequivocally vivacious 7.1 DTS HD Master Audio surround track.  The results are paramount.  You have never heard a soundtrack like this.  This is urban warfare at its best with full-on assault coming at you from every which way, the kind of surround sound you would have expected from Predator 2 in the jungle-like streets of Los Angeles.  There are bullets spraying every which way, the bass is kicking down the doors and the sound effects are filling every spacious gap engulfing you in the middle of it all.  There is no rest for the wicked here, as your rear channels will probably need to check into a Hampton Inn once you are done with this film.  Much like my calves from yesterday’s marathon running event, your rear speakers will need a much-deserved rest.  Couple that with a soundtrack from Faith No More’s Mike Patton and you got yourself one hell of an audio force to be reckoned with.  The dialogue is always delivered crisp and clear even throughout the most chaotic of scenes.  This one truly earns my 5-star sonic boom audio award.  Your move, Kiss.

Special Features 

Rounding out the Blu-ray release comes a supplemental package that is nothing to sneeze about.  Crank fans will rejoice in high-definition splendor at the wealth of bonus materials available here.  Just like the film’s video source, all the special features are brought to you in glorious HD.  You’d be hard pressed to find any faults here.  You will be glad to know that the electrifying Crank experience does not end with the feature film itself.  Read on and find out all about the combustible goodies that are just waiting to be switched on.

• Lionsgate Live – This feature, which requires a profile 2.0 Blu-ray player, resides right off the disc’s main top menu and is probably one of the coolest applications available from a movie studio on a Blu-ray disc.  It displays your geographical time, temperature and Internet links of interest to other Lionsgate news.  In addition to the gadgets I just mentioned, Lionsgate Live also gives you access to Twitter/Facebook, ringtones and wallpapers for your mobile devices, supposedly free of charge.
• Crank’d Out Commentary – This Bonus View Picture-in-Picture commentary comes in two flavors, High Voltage Mode or Traditional.  The only real caveat between the two is the difference in the window sizes of what you prefer seeing more of, the directors/writers Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, or the film itself.
• Audio Commentary with Writers/Directors Neveldine/Taylor – This is simply the commentary as audio only without the Picture-in-Picture mode.
• Making Crank 2 - This is a very engrossing and detail-rich look at the making of Crank 2.  It lasts a hefty 51 minutes.  The most entertaining part of the documentary is when they point out some of the screw-ups and how they cleaned them up in the polished product.
• Wrap Party Gag Reel - Unlike most gag reels, this 2-minute video reel is probably the most skippable of all the special features as it really does a bad job in delivering entertaining value to the viewer.
• Theatrical Trailers – The theatrical trailers contained here within include trailers for Crank 2 High Voltage, More Than A Game (the Lebron James movie), The Transporter 3, Crank, Punisher: War Zone and Rambo.
• MoLog - MoLog is a BD-Live application that allows users to insert and animate shapes, text, audio and other graphics right into the film.  Users are also able to post blogs about the film.
• Bookmarks & Blu-line Time Slider
• Digital Copy - A second DVD disc contains the standard definition digital copy of the film.

Final Thoughts 

Well, I don’t think I really need to say much more about what a “cranking” good time this Blu-ray release is.  With a dynamic audio track to die for, molecule splitting demo reference video and a supplemental package big enough to please any Crank/Jason Statham fan, I don’t think there is much to question here.  Do you?  The question should really be whether or not you are going to make this a priority to pick up this title on your Tuesday lunch break or are you going to let your fingers do the walking and pre-order this online right now.   Fans of the first film fear not, as Neveldine and Taylor deliver endless amounts of ammunition, mayhem and laughter in this action pack sequel, that is just as good, if not better, than its predecessor.  Those are big boots to fill.  Rumor has it that if a Crank 3 happens it will hit theaters 2011 in 3-D.  Until then, I have two of the very best demo reference titles that Blu-ray has to offer, Crank and Crank 2 High Voltage.  Rock on!

I hope you enjoyed my review of the Lionsgate’s Crank 2 High Voltage Blu-ray release.  Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments below.  I look forward to receiving any and all feedback from my readers.

Crank 2 High Voltage will be released on Blu-ray September 8, 2009.  If you like what you read in the review above, then please show your support for our site by clicking the shopping cart link above to pre-order and save with Amazon’s Everyday Lowest Price Guarantee.  Thanks!

Film

I am sure that most of you are aware of who Hannah Montana is. The series stars Miley Cyrus as Miley Stewart, a normal teenager by day, and Hannah Montana, an international teenage pop star by night. The series has been a staple of the Disney channel for several years and has been widely successful, resulting in several hit albums and concert tours, one of which has already been released on Blu-ray.

Miley Cyrus is the daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus who previously was best known for his one hit, Achy Breaky Heart, who also happens to play Miley’s father in the series and this film. Needless to say, Miley is now beginning to grow up and is starting to become a bit too old in the tooth for the series. Accordingly, she has begun to make a move out from under the Hannah Montana character to make music under her own name. In some respects, this film is part of her plan to go out on her own, a first and very large step in that direction.

In the film, Miley is becoming a bit too big for her britches and needs to be knocked down an peg. While she was born in Tennessee, living in California the past several years along with her musical stardom has caused her to lose a connection with her roots. Rather than allowing her to go to New York for an awards appearance, her father tricks her and takes her to Tennessee against her wishes for her grandmother’s birthday party hoping that Miley will rediscover her roots. Naturally, she becomes infatuated with a local teenage boy and gets caught up in saving the town from a real estate developer, as Hannah Montana. It is in her old home and with her family, that she reconnects with who she is and what she really wants out of life.

The film is filled with many of the same characters from the TV show with the addition of Vanessa Williams as her agent and manager. While I found the film to be way too predictable and hokey for me, I have no doubts that fans of the series will love the film, as it is simply an episode from the TV series brought to the big screen, with a bigger production budget and a much longer running time. I can without a doubt recommend this film to fans of the TV series only. The rest of you may want to give it a pass.

Video

There is quite a lot to like about this look of this film on Blu-ray. The film features a very natural color palette filled with bright, bold and well saturated colors. Skin tones are excellent as well. The film also features deep, rich and stable blacks. Where the film comes up a bit short for me is in the level of detail and clarity, which I found to be a bit below average. The film is just a lot softer than I expected it to be, with smoothed over facial and background details. Even with the deep blacks, the film simply lacked the depth of the best looking encodes, looking flat in comparison, lacking that three dimensionality that one finds in the better looking Blu-ray encodes. In light of the bright and bold colors and deep blacks, this film would have ben a candidate for a 4.5 or greater score had it had better overall detail and clarity. Unfortunately, it doesn’t and a 4 stars score will have to do.

Audio

While I was a bit disappointed in the video on this release, I was more than pleased with the audio quality. From the very beginning of the film, I was struck by the overall fidelity of the sound which was smooth, rich and full. The dialogue track in particular, has excellent fidelity. The same is true for the use of the surrounds, which is quite surprisingly aggressive throughout for a teen or pre-teen comedy, providing an excellent sense of immersion, particularly during the concert sequences. In addition to having excellent overall sonics, the dialogue track is also well placed in the sound mix. While transparency, imaging and dynamics are not quite as good as the best sounding films I have experienced, they are all quite good in their own right, resulting in a very nice overall aural experience.

Special Features

Overall, I think that fans of the film will be more than happy with the extras included with this release. The release contains two other discs in addition to the Blu-ray version of the film, including a copy of the film on DVD as well as a digital copy compatible with Macs and PCs.

The extras for the most part are standard fair, consisting of deleted scenes, 7 music videos, a gag reel and an audio commentary with director Peter Chelsom. There are two sets of extras included in HD. The first is a featurette “I Should Have Gone to Film School” starring Jason Earles (Who plays Miley’s Brother in the TV series and the film) who takes you behind the scenes during the making of the film, interviewing the cast and crew and showing how films are made.

The second and frankly the best set of extras are entitled as a group “Find Your Way Back Home” where Miley and her family take you on a tour of her hometown. Also included in HD is a feature on the Hoedown Throwdown dance featured in the film, with the film’s choreographer showing you how to do the dance step by step. I can’t say that it made me want to get up and boogie though. Perhaps you will feel differently.

Final Thoughts

Disney sure knows how to deliver when it comes to the fans of their product. Hannah Montana: The Movie is no exception as it will surely appeal to fans of the TV series. However, fans of the series tend to be pre-teens and young teenagers, and that is where the appeal ends for me. Recommended for fans only.

Film

I can confidently state that if you are a 14 year old girl, you will love this release. If you aren’t, you will likely be like me and wonder what all the fuss is about. The Jonas Brothers The 3D Live Experience is well produced, capturing the band live at Madison Square Garden in New York, with a full backup band, featuring a string ensemble, along with featured quests Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato.

The concert itself is well produced and presented before a full house of screaming adoring teenaged girls and features all their “hits”. The problem here is that this is totally lackluster and utterly forgettable pop music, which after awhile, simply runs together, like one long forgettable song. There are no catchy tunes here, just formulaic by the numbers pop music. I guess you can tell I am not a fan. Regardless, I can appreciate a quality presentation of lackluster music and the presentation here, for an arena pop show is quite good, with all the histrionics that one has come to expect with such a show. Fans will not be disappointed with this release. The rest of us, well that is another story entirely.

Video

Frankly, the video quality here is very good. It features a very natural color palette with spot on flesh tones. As one would expect, the film is filled with many bright and bold primary colors with deep, stable and inky blacks. Video noise, even during the darker sequences, is non-existent. Detail and clarity are excellent as well with the result being an image with excellent depth and three dimensionality. There is very little to quibble with about the video presentation here and it will no doubt thrill fans of the band.

As for the 3D version of the film, I was less than impressed. While the 3D effect does work in the sense that a 3D image is generated, it is generated with a cost, namely the complete lack of color fidelity. The release comes equipped with 4 sets of 3D glasses with red and blue lenses. When watching the film, the only colors you really see are red and blue. The beautifully natural color palette of the 2D version of the film is completely gone, as is much of the detail. In addition, the glasses are cardboard and flimsy and hard to wear and keep on your face, especially if you already wear glasses like me. If I were you, I would skip the 3D version entirely, as the 2D version provides a much more satisfying viewing experience.

Audio

The audio here is every bit as good as the video and captures the sound of a live arena show with excellent fidelity. The lossless mix has plenty of dynamics with deep and powerful bass and very good transparency and imaging. The surrounds are actively engaged throughout and really conveys the spaciousness of Madison Square Garden, placing you right smack dab in the arena during the show. In this respect, this is an excellent sound mix. The only real quibble I had with the sound here is with the presentation of the vocal track, which is buried in with the rest of the sound mix, being almost inaudible at times. Perhaps that isn’t a bad thing at all given the overall quality of the vocals here. Regardless, I would have expected the vocal track to have been more prominent in the mix and out further in front of the rest of the sound. Other than this one quibble, this is a fine sounding mix overall.

Special Features

This deluxe extended movie edition contains 3 discs.; The first disc is the Blu-ray edition of the film containing both the 2D and 3D versions of the film. The second is a DVD which contains an extended version of the film in 2D only plus the bonus features included on the Blu-ray disc. The third disc contains a digital copy of the film, compatible with Macs and PCs. The extras included with both the Blu-ray and DVD versions of the film consist of 2 bonus songs not included with the theatrical release of the film together with an Up Close and Personal featurette, providing a behind the scenes look at the lives of the Jonas Brothers on tour. Frankly, the extras here are rather threadbare but are provided in HD. Also included are sneak peaks at upcoming Disney Blu-ray releases including Snow White which looks wonderful in the trailer included here.

Final Thoughts

If you are a fan of The Jonas Brothers, you will no doubt love this release and will be more than happy with the video and audio reproductions included. However, unless you are a fan of the band, you may want to skip this release entirely, as there is not really a lot here to keep you interested musically.