Film

The finale to this trilogy does not add many new elements. Rather, this is a thorough wrap-up of all the character threads and plot lines previously laid out in the series. The story telling style comes full circle as Blomkvist returns to being the central hero he was in the first film, with Salander mostly forced to the peripheries of the main adventure, thanks to her hospitalization then incarceration during the majority of the film, but retains plenty of opportunities for action in due time.

This flipping of central roles in the action means also means a return to the slower pace of the first film. Of course, this film is not devoid of chases or action, it simply means it is more methodical in the handling of its characters. This film is for those who are invested in these rich characters and our interests lie in what happens to them, not in the intense moments they can offer.

Also like the first film is heavier significance is placed on the press, more specifically on Blomkvist’s “Millennium” magazine which published the articles that gained himself the legal trouble that brought Salander into his world. Blomkvist wishes to tell the truth about Salander, but this time it is not legal issues he might face as a consequence, but his life and the lives of his magazine coworkers could be at stake. The burden of the truth might mean sacrifices would have to be made for the greater good…for evil to be truly punished in the end. Blomkvist does not wish others to be harmed so like a true hero, places himself on the front lines to receive the brunt of the retaliations.

The performances by the actors have been solid throughout the series but once again, Noomi Rapace steals every scene she is in with her riveting embodiment of Salander. There are touches of Linda Hamilton’s incarceration scenes in Terminator 2, mixed into her persona, along with her deceptively fragile looking mien that hides a very intense person who is willing to push herself well beyond her limits to survive.

Video

Widescreen 1.78:1. Like the Girl who Played with Fire, the picture is not as crisp as one might hope for in a Blu Ray. The shades look decent enough, and there is an orange hue that masks many flaws during brighter exterior scenes, but there are still many moments where a haze is visible.

Audio

5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio is in English along with two 5.1 Dolby Digital tracks (one English the other Swedish). All of the tracks have a great delivery in all speakers. The English dubbing is not distracting while the original Swedish dialogue is perfectly mixed with the score and sound f/x.

Special Features

Trailer: Self-explanatory.

Interview with Actress Noomi Rapace: A twenty minute interview on the set while Rapace gets prepared in makeup. It is a long interview but not laborious if one wishes to delve a little bit deeper into Rapace’s method for training and preparing to perform as Salander. Very nice for fans.

Interview with Michael Nyqvist: The man who played Blomkvist touches on how he beat out several other leading men for this role. Not quite as interesting or humble as Rapace’s interview, but at least it is not some fluffy red carpet assembly of sound bites.

DVD copy of the Film

Final Thoughts

With this third film you see the trilogy as one whole. There are journeys within each film but the most important pieces are the character’s arcs that stretch the length of all three films. They seamlessly fit together and make for a thrilling adventure through each hour that passes. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is a fine film on its own, but more importantly this has been a wonderful series for fans of mysteries and thrillers.

Film

In my previous review I had alluded to how Lisbeth’s portions of the stories ran at a more exciting pace and were able to grip my interest more tightly than the rest. To all those that felt the same way, this sequel puts the focus squarely on Lisbeth, and only benefits from this. In fact, I could see subscribing to the rumblings out there that this is a rare case of a sequel surpassing it’s predecessor in quality. This sequel runs at a much tighten pace than “Dragon Tattoo” and the story feeds well off of its already richly developed lead characters, as well as adding a few interesting new ones.

Not to say that the film simply follows Lisbeth exclusively. Reporter Mikael Blomkvist, the protagonist of the original film, returns to investigate a sex trafficking operation before being roped into Lisbeth’s life again. Blomkvist and Lisbeth do not get partnered up again, so there journeys are told in parallel scenes.

Just as there was in the previous film, there are many intense sexual encounters. Sex continues to link many of the characters together, be that in a positive manner or a strongly negative one. There are also moments of physical violence that the camera does not shy away from. Moments of sex and violence are peppered tactfully throughout the film so that they do not seem exploitive, but rather necessary to the story. They are crucial to the intensity of the film and do a wonderful job of adding interest to what is already a very engrossing and detailing storyline.

Video

Widescreen 1.78:1. The picture is not very sharp at all. There is a certain fuzziness apparent in close ups that is normally reserved for a lackluster DVD transfer. A disappointing treatment, but not all too surprising considering how much concern went into every other aspect of this film.

Audio

The lone track is 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio in Swedish. The sound is quite lush in all speakers. Fire is a very prominent theme in this film, and scenes of infernos make for the finest examples of the sound quality. When the film is inside a burning building, it looks and sounds like one, totally immersing you into the moment. The dialogue and score are also very clean, but the flames are what make this soundtrack truly special and are well worth experiencing in surround.

Subtitles in English.

Special Features

Cast & Crew Interviews: Shot from the interviewers point of view via a handy-cam. Random people involved with the film are approached and questioned while working. It makes for a decently wide variety of tidbits and viewpoints since we get interviews with everyone from people on screen to assistants handling props. As well, it is easier to digest than the standard fluff interviews with stars we usually get from major releases.

Nidermann vs Roberto: Behind the Fight Scene: A candid look at the assembly of the biggest fight scene in the film. This is slow and plodding, just like a true film set. Dozens of crew members mill around behind the camera and the action, there are frequent stops and a lot of takes. For those that think filmmaking is a glamourous occupation, learn well from watching this. “Hurry up and wait” is an old phrase people in the industry like to use, and you get a slight taste of it here.

Sneak peak at The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest: A sample scene from the next film that reveals Blomkvist’s motives for the next plot.

Final Thoughts

This series deserves its acclaim. Two films into it and it has shown nothing but a gaining momentum while being perpetually gripping and intriguing. Lisbeth has become a truly iconic character and Noomi Rapace has done an amazing job bringing her to the screen. Fans and newcomcers will not be dissapointed at all with this sequel, and all should be excited for the final installment.

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Film

Mikael Blomkvist is facing jail time for slander and manages to be hired for one last job. With the aid of a terribly troubled computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander, Blomkvist attempts to solve the disappearance of a woman from over decades before. While investigating, Salander’s troubles with her current legal guardian escalate to very dangerous levels along with the dangers of discovering a serial killer secret linked to the cold case they are working.

This film is a rare case where a film adaptation lives up to much of the hype surrounding the immensely successful and popular series of books by the late Stieg Larsson. As a stand-alone film, this is a powerful story. As an adaptation, it has taken cherished characters (especially that of Salander) and given them another life in this new medium while sacrificing little in the transfer.

Running at over 2 and a half hours long, one could certainly argue that almost too many efforts where made to be faithful to the source material, in that there are too many details wedged in that may add some context to the character’s motivations, it does not make for a thrilling pace. Considering this along with the capabilities of our two lead actors, there is a very clear tipping of the scale in favour of Noomi Rapace as Salander for both her performance and her character’s story is all the more engrossing, making Blomkvist’s subplots and/or contributions to the main plot feel like they are bogging down the film’s pace.

If the long length does not turn people away, perhaps the horrific brutality within Salander’s story will. I am not criticizing its inclusion, for I admire how it did not shy away from the most crucial points in her character’s arc, but simply warning those that may not wish to subject themselves that has a stronger impact than anything presented by the Gore-porn genre such as Hostel and its ilk, yet has nowhere the same degree of visual explicitness.

Video

Widescreen 2.35:1. The black shades in this film are perfectly crisp, which is often essential for the mien, costuming and settings of this film. As a contrast, exterior shots in nature are vibrantly bright and beautiful. Though things run more frequently on the dark side, there is a wide breadth of fine visual examples in this film. A great job has been done by the production team and those making the blu-ray and DVD.

Audio

5.1 Dolby Digital and 2.0 Stereo are available in both English and Swedish. Not surprising, the Swedish track is mixed very well, and ranks as superior to the English dubbing. Honestly though, the English track is not as distracting as I thought it might be. The performances are good and they did not slouch in the mixing. The sound effects are quite immersible both tracks when they need to be and all in all great care went into balancing score, effects and dialogue.

Subtitles available in English

Special Features

(on Blu Ray only)

Interview with actress Noomi Rapace: This is a very fine interview. Rapace explains her joy of the books pre-auditioning, her challenges portraying such a well known character as well as the traumatizing events she faces.

Interview with Producer Soren Staermose: This interview mostly focuses on Staermose’s obligation to honour the books while searching out all of, what he felt were, the appropriate pieces needed to assemble this film.

UK Theatrical Trailer

Sneak Peak of The Girl Who Played with Fire: Self-explanatory.

The Girl Who Played with Fire trailer

Photo Gallery: Presented as a slide show with music.

The Vanger Family Tree: Literally, a still picture of their family tree. A visual testament to how intricate and detailed Larsson’s mystery plot was. It is like catching a glimpse at a key element Blomvist and Salander needed to solve in order to learn the truth behind he disappearance.

Did you know? A series of written out facts surrounding the composition and success of Larsson’s books, all posthumously.

DVD copy of the film. Presented in 5.1 Dolby Digital English and Swedish.

Final Thoughts

Both the filmmakers and those created this Blu Ray/DVD combo packaged were dedicated. There is ample service to the fans here, that will be equally enjoyed by those getting their first impressions by this film. A story that is not for the faint of heart, but rewarding for those aching for a solid thriller.

Film  

For the most part, I enjoyed Unknown, at least up until the end, where the film really revealed itself for what it was, the film Total Recall, set in Berlin rather than on Mars, with Liam Neeson in the lead role rather than the former Governor of California.

Liam Neeson is Dr. Martin Harris, who travels to Berlin for a conference with his wife (January Jones). When checking into the hotel, Dr. Harris realizes that he left his briefcase at the airport and he hails a cab to take him back to the airport. On the way back, his cab is involved in an accident and flies off a bridge into the river. He is knocked unconscious in the accident and is rescued from drowning by the cab driver, played by Diane Kruger.

Dr. Harris awakens in the hospital a few days later and realizes his is missing the conference. Against the advice of his doctor, he returns to the hotel only to discover that his wife does not recognize him and that there is another man in the role of Dr. Martin Harris. He spends the rest of the film trying to prove that he is who he claims to be during which there are several attempts on his life. In the later part of the film, his true identity is revealed to him and the real purpose for his visit to Berlin.

If you haven’t already seen Total Recall, you will no doubt really enjoy this film as it does really draw you in and has some real suspense. If you have already seen Total Recall, you will really be disturbed by the last section of the film when you realize just what a remake of Total Recall Unknown really is. Are there no really new original ideas left in Hollywood? Rated as a rental only.

Video  

All in all, this is a fine encode . The film features a rather cool blueish appearance which is becoming all too common in films these days and is a trend that I can really do without. Most of the film takes place either at night or in dimly lit interiors. Nevertheless, the film maintains a excellent level of clarity, detail and depth throughout the film. Black are deep and inky with excellent shadow detail. The film features well saturated colors and is free of digital noise that can plaque dark looking films. While I could do without the overly stylized color scheme, the encode boasts excellent levels of detail and clarity and is free any obvious technical errors, including digital noise reduction or edge enhancement.

Audio  

I found the DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 audio track to be every bit as good as the video presentation. The film features active and at times very aggressive use of the surround speakers to create a nice immersive sound field during the entire film. The dialogue track is well recorded and well placed in the sound mix. Overall fidelity is quite good as is the placement of the various sound effects within the sound field. Bass is deep and tight and dynamics are excellent as well. In short, this is a fine sounding film, whose sound design is every bit as good as the visuals, perhaps even a tad better.

Special Features  

The extras are about as sparse as they come and consist of two brief featurettes, both of which are presented in HD. The first is Liam Neeson: Known Action Hero and the second Unknown: What is Known? The first is rather self-explanatory and takes a look at Liam Neeson’s role in the film. The latter is a brief behind the scenes look at the laming of the film and both feature interviews with the cast and crew. Most of the material in both featurettes is rather duplicative, which much of the latter appearing in the former. The release also includes a second disc containing a DVD and digital copies of the film.

Final Thoughts  

While there is a lot to like about Unknown, the problem is that the film is essentially a remake of Total Recall with the same basic plot line in a very different setting. I guess there is little new original material left to make out there in Hollywood or so it would seem by the releases in the past few years. It seems that most of the new faire consist of nothing more than remakes, sequels and more comic book super heroes. Rated as a rental only.

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  

The Tourist is a rather pedestrian film with a rather familiar story line. Maybe you have heard it before. An apparently innocent man is mistaken for someone else. This mistake puts his life in great danger and attempts are made on his life. He meets a beautiful and seductive woman on a train and falls in love with her and at the end of the film, risks his life to save hers. If that sounds familiar, it should, as it is the basic plot for Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, North By Northwest. To be sure, The Tourist is a lift of the complete story, more of North By Northwest with a twist which I will not elaborate on so as to spoil the end of the film.

Johnny Depp is Frank, an American math teacher from Wisconsin (Image that!) who boards a train from Paris to Venice and who is picked out of the crowd by Elise, the stunningly beautiful (in this picture at least) Angelina Jolie on the instructions of her boyfriend who is on the lam from the authorities in the UK after stealing billions from a gangster. Elise is under 24 hour surveillance at the behest of the Metropolitan Police in London, who hope she will lead him to her boyfriend and the cash.

It is Elise’ job to convince the authorities that Frank is their man so that her boyfriend can escape, so she hooks up with Frank at a posh Venice Hotel. However, much to her surprise and those of the authorities, the gangster and his thugs who are Russian (who could guess!) gets wind of the fact that Elise and her boyfriend are in Venice, and arrives there with his thugs to kill her, capture him and grab the cash. Will the authorities get to him first or the gangster and his thugs? Will he escape with the cash? You will have to see the film to find out.

Is The Tourist a bad film? No, really more disappointing than anything. Angelina Jolie is simply stunning through the entire film, as is Venice. I have been fortunate enough to have been to Venice and the film captures the beauty and uniqueness of the city beautifully and makes me want to return as soon as possible. I just wish I could. if you decide to go after seeing the film, don’t go in July and August as while the city is still beautiful, the canal water stinks to high heaven. The real issue I had with the film is that it has no real identity and no real suspense.

Parts of the film play like a comedy, others like an action suspense film. The real problem is the comedic parts aren’t all that funny and the action sequences lack the tension of a great action film. You can’t can’t be everything to everyone. Alfred Hitchcock can pull it off as he did in North By Northwest, which managed to be very funny and very suspenseful at the same time. It is clear to me anyway that North By Northwest was the template for The Tourist. Unfortunately, Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck is no Alfred Hitchcock, at least not yet. While the film does have its moments, I can rate it no better than a rental.

Video  

While I had issues with the film, I have no issues at all with the encode and the cinematography. The film and Venice in particular, looks superb. The film has a very pleasing color palette, most of which is a bit skewed to cyan. Elegant and glamorous come to mind in describing the look as well as the tone of the film. The interior darker shots do have a bit of a warmer golden glow, especially skin tones. Blacks are deep and inky. Fine details such as facial details and fabrics is excellent. The same can be said for the overall clarity and sharpness of the image. Shadow detail is excellent as well, with not even the hint of black crush. The only fault that I can find with the look of the film is some general softness in certain scenes, especially those during nighttime interior shots. Overall, this is a great looking film and an excellent encode. Venice has never looked better on film. Can’t wait to get there again. For now, The Tourist will have to do!

Audio  

I was just as impressed with the audio here as I was with the video. The terms silky smooth and refined come to mind in thinking about how to describe the sound. James Newton Howard’s score sounds superb, with silky smooth and lush strings and rock solid bass. The overall fidelity of the sound is top notch, sounding smooth, rich, full and open with excellent transparency and imaging. Panning effects and the other sound effects are superb with excellent detail. Just listen to the fine subtle detail of the jagged knife as it is pulled across Angelina Jolie’s lips near the end of the film. Even during the more active sections of the film, fine details and subtle sounds are never lost in the mix.

The surrounds, when engaged, sound superb, adding just the right mix of ambiance and action into the sound field. The surrounds are not employed as actively and aggressively as I would otherwise have preferred but when employed are employed beautifully. If I would have one quibble with the sound, it would be the deployment of the surrounds as I prefer a totally immersive sound filed during what is really at its core, an action suspense film. Other than that, the audio on The Tourist is excellent and a match to the stunning visuals.

Special Features  

The extras are rather mundane with the exception that they show you even more of Venice than the film. All of the extras are presented in high definition. They include a directors commentary, a very brief and strange outtake reel and an alternate animated title sequence for the film which is totally forgettable.

The main extras are the four making of featurettes entitled “A Gala Affair”, “Bringing Back Glamour” , “Action Venice” and “Canal Chats”. “A Gala Affair” details the filming and design of the gala ball sequence near the end of the film, highlighting the construction and design of the set on location in Venice. “Bringing Back Glamour” describes just that, how the director uses glamour as a backdrop for the story, from choosing to film in Venice, the style of the clothing and the use of the hotels. “Action Venice” takes you behind the scenes for the action shots filmed at night on the canals of Venice, showing how and why they were shot the way the were. I must say that I was not surprised that the actors who had to jump into the canals on those shots had to take antibiotics for a month prior to the shooting, given the filthy state of the water in the canals. The last of the featurettes is “Canal Chats” where the director, cast and crew discuss filming the movie in Venice. All in all, all four of the featuretes are rather brief and worth your time, if even for a more extensive look at Venice.

Final Thoughts  

While The Tourist features a great cast, Venice as a backdrop and fine visual and audio presentations, the film was still a disappointment. However, all is not lost as there is enough here to give the film a recommendation, but as a rental only.

Film

It can’t be easy setting an entire movie in one location in real time… adding in the fact that this location is six feet under front and is a coffin simply adds to the complexity of things. Ryan Reynolds plays a trucker who has been kidnap by a terrorist group that ambushed his route and is being held for ransom. His captors bury him deep in the ground with only a zippo lighter, a cell phone and couple things in his pocket.

The film is directed by Rodrigo Cortés  his very unique visual style doesn’t have much room to really flex but when it gets a chance you really get a taste at how innovative Cortés is when you get a long dolly shot… underground… There are some nice shots in this movie to say the least and it is well framed, giving the viewer a good sense of claustrophobia.  I was watching this film with a friend who decided right away this flick wasn’t his cup of tea, upon a conversation it turns out that the reason he didn’t like it was because he was uncomfortable. The film is able illicit fear and discomfort within its audience based on the opening shot alone… That’s well done in my book.

Ryan Reynolds does a great job carrying the film and manages to relieve situations with a bit of humor and at the same time can pull on the heart strings when a pivotal and emotional scene plays out. Often Reynolds plays cocky wise-cracking characters, none more annoying than the villain Deadpool in the worst super-hero movie of all time, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but here he gives a more mature and realistic character that suits him fine. This is one of his best performances and proves that he has range.

Buried is a very exciting, edge of your seat kind of thriller and should entertain or perhaps deter the casual viewers. If you want to try something new and experience a story told in a very unique way then this film is for you.

Video

Buried’s video is displayed using the AVC MPEG-4 in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The film obviously has is going to deal with having an image that is very low lit, but it really makes the most of the fact that is lit with a cellphone backlight and a zippo lighter.

The colors of the film are very saturated due to the dark contrasted image, we’re given a mix of amber yellow when the Paul is using his zippo to light the coffin and a teal blue cast when the cellphone is in use. The palette of the film is obviously based off of those light sources so trying to get an authentic skin tone or grade to the film is moot.

The black levels are crushed so we lose a lot of the detail within the shadows however the benefit is the texture and detail in the highlights are apparent and detailed. The film is free of any dirt or scratches and the grain manages to stay at a pleasant level without being distracting.

Audio

Buried’s audio comes at us using DTS-HD Master audio in 7.1 which is awesome in creating a truly claustrophobic and atmospheric mix that surrounds and immerses us within the film. I would’ve loved to see a 9.1 mix for this film just to see how they could’ve included the height speakers, but I’m just happy to see another 7.1 mix.

The dialogue is front and centered while all the creaks of the box surrounds us and the surrounding environment really sneaks in and gives you the general feeling of being encased in the box with Ryan Reynolds.

The low frequency range of the mix really gets its love within the score when it hits the peaks, but also during some sound effects that occur throughout the film… without giving anything away the subtle use of LFE is contrasted by a few booms.

Special Features

The only real extra is “Unearthing Buried” which is a behind-the-scenes featurette, which is unfortunately in SD. However the extra covers some of the interesting filming techniques used to tackle filming in one of the tightest sets you’re bound to find in a movie. Peppered with a few EPK style interviews with Ryan Reynolds and Rodrigo Cortés this featurette does its job and manages to be pretty insightful. There’s also a HD trailer of the film but that really doesn’t count.

Final Thoughts

I’m going to say that the overall theme with this Blu-ray is the amount of hurdles it goes over, with a film that deals with an unnerving premise and is approached with a visceral disregard to the audience’s comfort; it’s safe to say that the movie manages to pull through with its unique way of getting the story across. Even on a technical level, with a movie that’s lit with a cellphone and sounds that are muffled through dirt and sand, we’re still given a great presentation to enjoy this film… Or better yet, to be trapped by this film. Give it a spin!

Film 

I had not seen The Town at the local Cineplex but I heard some very good things about it from friends. I was therefore looking forward to getting a look at the film when it was released on Blu-ray. While my friends and I often have different tastes in films, they were spot on with thier opinion of The Town, which I enjoyed immensely.

The film takes place in Charlestown, a lower middle class section of Boston. While only a one square mile section of town, it has produced more bank robberies and armored car heists than anywhere else in the US. Part of the reason for such a large number of robberies in that section of the city, is the fact that the robberies often go unsolved as the community is very tight lipped so that those who know the idenities of the bandits refuse to talk or “squeal” to the authorities, whether for fear of retribution or otherwise. Even one one of the robbers is caught, they would rather go to prison than “rat” on their cohorts. It is this community and this mindset that The Town explores.

In addition to directing and starring in the film, Ben Affleck is a co-writer of the screenplay along with Peter Craig and Aaron Stockard. The screenplay is based on the book “Prince of Thieves” by Chuck Hogan.

Affleck stars as Doug MacRay a resident of Charlestown and bank robber. Doug is a bit different than his cohorts, in that he has a conscience and a heart. He is tired of the life of crime and wants to get out and leave Charlestown. He wants to escape the lifestyle rather than end up like his father, old and rotting in prison. The decision is tough on Doug as his only real family members are his fellow thieves.

While not blood relatives, they are the closest thing that he has to a family, as his mother died when he was young and with his father in jail. While he wants to get out, his family won’t let him, and he agrees to one last heist of proceeds from the Cathedral of Boston, namely Fenway Park. Doug and his families’ activities are complicated by the fact that they are being pursued by the FBI in the form of Agent Fawley (Jon Hamm) and his task force who are hot on their tails, trying to build an airtight a case against the family.

The film also has a subplot involving Doug and Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall), who Jem (Jeremy Renner) took hostage during the robbery that opens the film. Jem took Claire’s driver’s license and finds that she resides in Charlestown. Jem thinks it best that she be eliminated to tie up all loose ends. However, Doug eschews violence and tells Jem that he will follow Claire and make sure that she is not cooperating with the FBI. In doing so, he falls in love with Claire and tries to build a relationship with her and in the process, hiding his criminal past from her. However, when her life is put onto danger when Doug tries to bail on his “family”, Claire finds out and wants nothing further to do with him, spoiling his dreams of a life outside Charlestown with her. In order to save Claire’s life, Doug agrees to one last job which is one that will put his life in jeopardy.

The Town is a fast paced film which really pulls you into the narrative. It features some tense action and a final gun battle that really rocks. Both the theatrical and extended versions of the film are included here. If you haven’t seen The Town, by all means do so. You will be glad you did. The Town is Highly recommended.

Video 

The video on both versions of the film presented here for the most part look great. Both the theatrical and extended cuts of the film have excellent levels of detail and a richly saturated color palette. The overall color scheme of the film is skewed a bit to cyan, with everything having a bit of a blue tinge and a resulting cool image. It is subtle but noticeable and is clearly the intent of the cinematographer and director and results in a very appealing image. Clarity and detail are top notch with facial detail and fine textures well preserved.

Blacks are deep and inky and at times, perhaps too much so as blacks can be a bit crushed at times. It is hard to say that this is the result of the encode or not. If I had to guess, I would bet that it is the way Ben Affleck intended the film to look and hence, I can’t really drop the score as a result of it. If I could find a fault with the encode, it would be the presence of some very mild and I mean mild artifacting which occurs very infrequently, along with some minor video noise visible in night time shots. Again, this is minimal as well. Given that there are two separate full versions of the film encoded on the Blu-ray disc, this is overall a great looking encode and a fine looking film.

Audio 

I can recall when Warner Brothers was ripped for not providing lossless encoded on their Blu-ray releases. Speed Racer comes to mind, which while having a great video presentation, was marred by a totally lackluster plain jane Dolby digital 5.1 soundtrack. Thankfully, since the release of Speed Racer, Warner Brothers has seen the light and has been including lossless tracks on all of its new Blu-ray releases, with some of them being quite stellar. Such is the case with the DTS HD Master Audio track included on The Town.

Simply put, this audio here is superb, with tremendous dynamics and deep bass to satisfy any bass junkie. Explosions, car crashes and gun shots all have the heft and weight to grab your attention. The surrounds are uses aggressively, to provide a total sense of immersion throughout the film and heightening the sense of suspense. The dialogue track is also well recorded and beautifully presented in the sound mix. Even during the most action intensive sequences in the film, those Boston accents and hard R’s are clear and easy to follow. never getting lost in the mix. This is one fine audio presentation and is one that should please fans of the film.

Special Features 

The Town is presented as a combo pack and, in addition to the Blu-ray copy of the film, includes a second disc that contains a DVD copy of the film along with a digital copy. The extras are a series of short featurettes detailing the making of the film.

• “Pulling off The Perfect Heist” discusses the filming of the bank robbery sequences.
• “The Town” discusses the Charlestown section of Boston where the film is located and its history of criminal activity.
• “The Real People of The Town” reveals that a number of the actors featured in The Town were amateurs essentially taken off the streets of Boston and used in the film.
• “Nuns With Guns: Filming in the North End” details just what you would think it does, namely the filming of the armored car heist sequence featured in the film in the North End section of Boston.
• “The Cathedral of Boston” discuses all that went into the filming of the climactic heist and gun battle scene in Fenway Park.
• “Ben Affleck: Director & Actor” takes a look at Ben Affleck’s dual role as both the lead actor in the film as well as the director.

All of the extras are presented in high definition and feature interviews with the cast and crew. The extras also include a separate director’s commentary for both the theatrical and extended editions of the film. The featurettes are all rather short and worth a look.

Final Thoughts 

The Town is not your typical heist film. It features a fine script, excellent performances and plenty of suspense, action and character development. The fact that is features a fine video and top tier audio presentation is a bonus. This release is highly recommended.

Film 

OK, I will say it. Christopher Nolan is a great filmmaker or at least the most innovative filmmaker in the business today. That fact should have been made obvious to all with his resurrection of the moribund Batman franchise. He took a franchise that appeared to be dead, dealt its final blow by Joel Schumaker in the simply dreadful on so many level Batman and Robin, and breathed new life into it with Batman Begins and the even better sequel The Dark Knight, the two most original comic book adaptations ever made. He clearly knows something about character development, action and layers of detail that most filmmakers have either forgotten or never took the time to learn about.

In this way, he is a bit like the old masters, such as Alfred Hitchcock, who knew how to pace a film and let it unfold at its own pace, dropping subtle clues here and there, pulling the audience in, making you think along wit the film, wondering what was going to happen next. Too many films seem to be afraid of proper pacing, assuming that modern audiences lack the brain power or patience to follow a slower paced film. In this regard, despite its totally original premise, Inception is something of a throwback and I mean that in the most complementary was possible.

Inception, in addition to being an original film, is also a great one. I have to be careful in how I describe the plot so I will be as general as I can be in describing the plot so as to not given anything away. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Cobb, who is the world’s foremost authority on something known as extraction, the ability to enter someone’s mind and steal a person’s secrets, for purely pecuniary gain. As a result of his activities and experimentation in to the world of dreaming and the subconscious, he has become an international fugitive, never able to return to the United States without certain arrest. When a job goes bad in Japan, he is offered a chance at total redemption by completeing one job by the man he was not able to defeat.

The job, thought to be impossible, involves planting a thought in the mind of the successor to an international energy conglomerate, to break up the business to enable Cobb’s subject and now benfactor, to compete more evenly with the business. In exchange, this man will ensure that Cobb’s record will be wiped clean, enabling him to travel the world freely and even return to the United Stares to return to his two most prized possessions, his children.

Leonardo DiCaprio turnss in another in what has become quite a string of stellar performances as Cobb. The film also features Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon’Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ciliian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Dileep Rao and Michael Caine. Quite a cast indeed. This is a great film and is one that deserves your attention and is very highly recommended.

Video 

As was the case with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, Inception is a great looking film and features stunning cinematography. The film features a very natural and beautiful color palette with spot on skin tones and deep and inky blacks. Depth and detail and spectacular as is shadow detail. Subtle skin textures and blemishes are clearly visible as are clothing fabrics and fine background details such as walls and floors, rugs, trees, snow and the like.

The image boasts excellent level of clarity and detail which, along with the stunningly natural looking images, is a total feast for the eyes. Is the film perfect? No as some of the dimly lit interior scenes especially at the beginning of the film are just a hair and I mean a hair soft but certainly not to the degree to knock down the score to a 4.5. I found no evidence of digital noise reduction or edge enhancement, just a richly detailed and natural looking picture which is a perfect match for the quality of the plot and storytelling.

Audio  

As hard as it may be to believe, I found the audio here to be even more impressive as the video. Simply put, the fidelity of the recorded sound is beyond reproach, sounding as smooth, open and transparent as one could ever hope for, thrilling in fact. The overall sound design is stellar as well. The surrounds are used aggressively throughout the film to totally immerse you in the sound field. As one would expect from an action thriller, dynamics are off the charts with deep and solid bass and sweet and open highs. Take notice of the various gun shots and explosions which have nearly perfect weight and heft and which sound astonishingly real.

The dialogue track as well features excellent fidelity and pin point placement of the dialogue within the sound field. The dialogue never gets lost in the sound field no matter what the level of action in the scene of the subtlety of the spoken word. The is a reference audio presentation in all respects and as far as this reviewer is concerned, perfect.

Special Features 

Inception is available as a combo pack and includes a DVD copy of the film as well as a digital copy compatible with Macs and PCs. For the most part, the extras are presented on a separate third disc with the exception of the in movie experience “Extraction Mode”, which enables viewers to infiltrate the dreamscape of the film to learn how the film was made.

The extras include a series of features under the grouping “Dreams: Cinema Of The Subconscious” which takes a rather scholarly look into the science of dreams and dreaming, exploring whether dreams are an altered state of consciousness or a fully functional parallel reality. For me, this is the most while of all the extras and te one not to miss.

Also included is the featurette “Incpetion: The Cobol Job” which in full animation prologue to the film explaining how Cobb and his crew were enlisted to perform the extraction that is featured at the beginning of the film. “5.1 Inception Soundtrack” features composer Hans Zimmer and his work in creating the film’s soundtrack.

Lastly, we get a conceptual art gaallery, promotional art archive, film trailers, TV sports and via BD-Live, Project Somnacin: Confidential Files, allowing you to gain access to highly secure files that reveal the inception of the dream-share technology.

Final Thoughts 

Great original, mesmerizing and compelling films don’t come around all that frequently. Inception is just one of those films. Buy it and watch it. You may have to watch it a couple of times to get it all but by all means do. You will be glad you did. Very highly recommended.

Film 

Unthinkable does raise the difficult question of what lengths one will go to to prevent the detonation of a nuclear bomb in a major US city. The film stars the amazing Michael Sheen as Steven Arthur Younger, a former nuclear arms specialist for the US military who converts to Islam and steals enough nuclear fuel to fabricate three nuclear bombs which he has hidden in three US cities. He films a video with his threatens to detonate the bombs in the event that certain unknown demands are met. Younger then allows himself to be captured in a Phoenix mall and is immediately transfered to a secret location (a school somewhere in Los Angeles) where he is the subject of torture conducted by a mysterious man called H (Samuel Jackson).

The FBI is brought in the try to help locate the bomb and agent Helen Brody (Carrie-Anne Moss) is asked to assist H in his interrogation of Mr. Younger. She is distressed with the terror tactics and tries to stop them arguing that they are not only illegal but ineffective. While others in the room may share the same view as Agent Brody initially, they soon begin to go along with the torture either actively or by failing to intervene as the deadline for the detonation of the bombs approaches.

As H escalates the torture techniques to break Younger, the question is asked to what lengths will even the most moral amongst us go when pushed to the limit. The film certainly has a political point of view and we are whacked with it repeatedly. How you will react to that will certainly depend on your point of view.

While the film does have a provocative point to make, I was disappointed with the execution of the narrative. Too much time was spent on the torture activities and not enough time spent on the motivations of the main characters. I would liked to have learned more about H and his history. We certainly learn a bit about his wife but nothing about him. The same goes for Younger. We never really learn the motivations for his actions other than his conversion to Islam. We know next to nothing about agent Brody.

There is a kernel of a good film here and with a more fleshed out script, especially character development, we really may have had something here. Given the shortcomings of the film, the only recommendation I can give is that of a rental.

Video 

Not surprisingly, given the subject matter of the film, this is not exactly a bright and colorful film. The film has a rather muted color palette with an emphasis on blacks, grays and browns. The skin tones are all on the brown side. On the plus side, blacks are deep and fairly stable. I also found detail, such as facial detail, fabric textures and backgrounds such as walls and floors to be excellent.

Overall clarity as well as shadow detail is very good as well. I was not able to detect any significant use of digital noise reduction and the print is in excellent shape. If you are looking for a bright and colorful film, Unthinkable is not the film for you. However, given the nature of the subject matter, I found the color choices to be appropriate and the encoding used the master the film for this release quite good.

Audio 

I was a bit surprised to find the film’s sound design to be so front heavy. While the surrounds are used occasionally to provide a sense of room ambiance, I wished that they would have been used more often to create a sense that you were in the room with the actors. Most of the film takes place in the school’s gym which one would think would have quite a reverberant acoustic but that rarely came through during the film. A better use of the surrounds would also have heightened the sense of suspense. When the surrounds did kick in, they were used effectively with some solid bass effects, as evidenced during the film’s score (which sounds quite nice) as well as a scene with a helicopter near the end of the film.

The overall fidelity of the sound was very good hence the 4 star score. I just wish that better use was made of the surrounds to create a more immersive sound and a sense of suspense that was sorely lacking in the film’s sound design.

Special Features 

The score for the extras is so low as there really aren’t any other than an audio commentary with director Gregor Jordan. While the commentary has its moments, one would expect some additional extras for a Blu-ray release. The release contains two versions of the film, the original cut as well as an extended cut with some additional footage and an alternate ending. I guess you could consider the extended cut of the film an extra. I don’t. The release does include movieIQ+sync where facts and trivia can be accessed during the running of the film. Why you would want to is beyond me.

Final Thoughts 

While Unthinkable has an interesting premise, the film’s script lacks the character development necessary to pull you into the narrative. With a bit of character development, we could have had a really fine film here given the cast. As it is, we are left with a moderately interesting film which is worth at best a recommendation as a rental.