Film 

Showgirls was directed by Basic Instinct’s Paul Verhoeven, a man who is no stranger to creating controversial films.  As I mentioned before, the film stars former teen actress Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle MacLachlan and Gina Gershon.  Significant controversy sprang up before the film’s theatrical release over the amount of sex and nudity within the feature.  In the United States, the movie got slapped with an NC-17 rating and interestingly enough, it became the first NC-17 rated film to be given a wide release in mainstream theaters.  How’s that for a breakout role for Elizabeth Berkley?  If nothing else, then at least she will always be part of that record.  As you can expect, the film wasn’t met with that much success theatrically, but later on it took on a life of its own as it dominated the home video rental market and quickly became one of MGM’s top 20 all-time bestsellers.  There have been a few different cuts of the film including a 128-minute Rated-R cut and a VH1 safe for television rendition that’s nothing short of ridiculous, but today we are going to talk about the good old 131-minute NC-17 theatrical cut making its Blu-ray debut on June 15^th.

When the Blu-ray press release from MGM came across my desk months ago I could not be more excited to learn about Showgirl’s imminent High-Definition debut.  It was dubbed the 15^th Anniversary Sinsational Edition.  My God, has it been 15 years already?  Its amazing how fast time flies.  Anyway, so I immediately requested a Blu-ray review copy and began checking off the days on my calendar.  To say I wasn’t interested in revisiting this cult gem on Blu-ray would be like saying there’s no problem down in the Gulf of Mexico right now (my heart goes out to those poor animals covered in oil… find out how you can help by clicking here).

For those of you who do not know the premise of the movie it’s quite simple really.  Showgirls tells the story of a drifter (Berkley) who ventures into Sin City (Vegas) and goes from rags (stripper) to riches (showgirl).  Anyone who thinks their name belongs in bright lights and desperately seeks fame any chance they get ought to give this film a watch first.  As Peter Parker always alluded to in the Spider-Man films, “with great power comes great responsibilities.”  Some people are not cut out for life in the spot light and for some, the lucky few, they recognize the corruption and get out before the big lights and produces take their soul and everything else they believe in.  This is the story of Showgirls with a little bit of sex and gratuitous nudity thrown in, but I never heard any guy complain about that.

Before I move and talk about the Blu-ray disc’s vitals and whatnots I wanted to take a quick moment and talk about my trip down memory lane here.  There were two things that jumped out at me while watching Showgirls on Blu-ray this weekend.  But before I go there, this just jumped in my cranium now, could you imagine a 3-D release of Showgirls done right?  Wow!  That would be pure bliss.  Okay, well anyway, like I was saying.  I chuckled hard when I saw a Magnavox recordable cassette tape.  I remember those fondly.  They fueled my weekly mix tape soundtracks back in the 90’s before recordable CD’s came along.  And second, I forgot how big the original cell phones were.  I remember my Audiovox set back in the late 90’s, but wow were they ever big in the mid 90’s.  It looked like they were calling in for military support when they whipped one out on the movie set.  Okay, I’m done.  That’s enough humor for one day.

Video 

Much to my surprise, the video presentation here is spectacular and every bit as bright and eccentric as the movie itself is.  The 1080p AVC MPEG-4 video encode is presented in a 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio.  The first thing that jumped out to me were the colors.  They were so vibrant that they effectively captured the heart, soul and bright lights of Las Vegas.  I felt like I was really there.  It was simply remarkable.  Even the brown eye/green eye oddity of Elizabeth Berkley was dominantly displayed throughout.  Every single sensual moment of the film was breathtakingly captured on this Blu-ray release.  The print was clean and free of debris.  The only thing hampering this 15-year old feature was the constant presence of cinematical grain, but it never once distracted me from my viewing pleasure.  It was simply enough grain that prevented a few scenes here and there from jumping out at you in the Blu-ray sharpness that we are all used to from most modern day releases.  But for a 15-year old film, this looked impeccable and gorgeous.  I couldn’t be happier.  This one is going in a sealed vault within my Blu-ray collection.

Audio 

The audio was another department on this Blu-ray disc that simply caught me off guard.  I was expecting a soundtrack more on par with the Basic Instinct soft drama-like track that we got a few years back on Blu-ray.  Never did I expect to hear something this good.  The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track delivers here with a rocking experience.  Dialog is never low or inaudible.  It’s not the greatest of dialog tracks of all-time, but it’s definitely doable.  What rocks here is the film’s incredible soundtrack.  The musical song and dance numbers are both impressive and strong.  They immerse you in the 5.1 surround environment.  I was ecstatic to hear my rear speakers nearly jumping off their respective stands.  Also, want to talk about some thunderous bass moments?  Well look no further than here.  Showgirls has that going for it too!

Special Features 

And here’s yet another surprise on this MGM Blu-ray release… the Special Features.  For a 15-year old film you would expect all the disc’s Special Features to be presented in Standard Definition, right?  Well not Showgirls!  The bulk of the material I’m showcasing below graces your screen in beautiful HD resolution.  You can’t ask for anything more, can you?

Here’s why I love the Playstation 3 as a Blu-ray player… I just get a kick out of seeing if the movie studio took the time to create a quick title art piece that’s viewable when the Blu-ray disc is inserted into your player and rest assured, MGM did here (see below).

On the disc’s main menu (see below), if you let it play twice all the way through, then you get a very quick changing Easter Egg video sequence.  This changes every time too.

Pole Dancing: Finding Your Inner Stripper (11:54 AVC HD) Teacher of S Factor talks about how she got involved in the sensual art of stripping, her students and displays basic dance and pole moves.  I never knew this one move was called the Firefly.  You’re interested huh?  Oh yeah, and there’s also the Swing Walk, the Climb, the Corkscrew, the Snake, the Pole Cat, the Helicopter and the Descending Angel.  I learned a lot today!

Lap Dance Tutorial Featuring the World-Famous Girls of Scores (4:56 MPEG-2 HD) Here’s another interesting special feature.  This Blu-ray is great, isn’t it?  The girls of Score teach women how to give a man a lap dance.  Just follow their simple 10-step process I documented for you all below.

• Step 1.  Warm up and stretch yourself
• Step 2.  Wear something that feels sexy
• Step 3.  Create a relaxing atmosphere
• Step 4.  Get aural with sexy music
• Step 5.  Tempt his other senses
• Step 6.  Tease, Pose and Spank
• Step 7.  You can touch
• Step 8.  Move in and show off
• Step 9.  Find and remember his zones
• Step 10. Leave him wanting more

The Greatest Movie Ever Made: Audio Commentary by David Schmader

Showgirls Fact-Up Trivia

A Showgirls Diary (MPEG-2 HD)

Theatrical Trailer (AVC HD) How’s this for a 15-year old film?  The film’s theatrical trailer is presented in glorious HD here!  Wow!  I’m in love with this MGM catalog release.

Disc 2 – DVD

The NC-17 presentation of Showgirls is also presented in Standard Definition on a second included DVD disc or a drink coaster to some.  There’s also a special behind-the-scenes featurette here, but I never visited it.  This is a Blu-ray review after all, is it not?

Final Thoughts 

Well there you have it folks.  I really can’t say enough good things about this MGM catalog Blu-ray release.  For a cult-favorite of mine and many others, it was a breath of fresh air to see that MGM delivered a Blu-ray release that we all can be proud of with exceptionally vivid video, a bombastic audio track and a special features package fans of the film and many men around the world can enjoy.  Fans of the film, don’t hesitate here at all.  Pull the trigger and pre-order Showgirls today!  All others, you owe it to yourself to at least partake in a rental of this historic movie many critics refer to as a must-see guilty pleasure of theirs.  I’m not sure if it will stay on my Top 10 list throughout the remainder of the calendar year, but for right now, this catalog release has earned a coveted spot in my ‘Top 10 Blu-ray Releases of 2010’ list.  And that says a lot!

Pre-order Showgirls on Blu-ray today!

Film 

When I think of the film Cocoon, many different words come to mind: Witty, touching, original, poignant, sweet, beautiful and moving, just to name a few. I loved this film in the theater way back when in 1985 and subsequently in its other incarnations on home video, Blu-ray being just the latest. The film features a great cast of older actors who all turn in excellent performances.

The film centers upon three men at a retirement home in St. Peterburg, Florida, Ben, Arthur and Joe, played by Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley and Hume Cronyn,who find a new lease on life after they begin to swim in a pool located next to their retirement home filled with strange rocks. The rocks are placed there by four odd people who rent a boat and travel out to the ocean off the coast and dive down to the bottom to retrieve the rocks.

One night, while they are out on the boat retrieving more of the cocoons, the owner of the boat, played by Steve Guttenberg, discovers that the four individuals he is renting to boat to are actually aliens from the planet Antarea who have come to retrieve friends they were forced to abandon when their outpost on Earth, Atlantis, was destroyed 10,000 years ago. They are hear to retrieve them and they place them in the pool to re-energize their life force for the trip home.

The aliens eventually discover that the three men were swimming in their pool and allow them to do so, so long as they do not touch the cocoons. However, the rest of the retirement community begins to notice how spry the three and their wives have become and they find out their secret from Bernie (Jack Gilford) who spills the beans, which results in a tragedy for the aliens, forcing them to cut off their mission and return to Antarea, with an unexpected set of crew members.

Don Ameche won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Ben and it was richly deserved. However, the rest of the cast turned in excellent performances as well, including Maureen Stapelton, Jessica Tandy and Brian Dennehy, in addition to the aforementioned Wilford Brimley and Hume Cronyn. If you have not seen this film or like me, have not seen it in ages, by all means do yourself a favor and check it out on Blu-ray. You will be glad you did.

Video 

Cocoon was made in the mid 1980′s and looks it as it has the look of many of the films of that time period. In other words, it is soft, very soft. The film also has a very muted color palette. If you are looking for a film with bright, bold and richly saturated colors and a razor sharp image, you will be totally disappointed with the video presentation of this release. The softness does not appear to be the result of any digital noise reduction, although I did detect the application of some edge enhancement which I surmise, was applied to sharpen up the picture a bit.

In addition to muted colors, black levels are mediocre as well, resulting in an image that can best be described as murky and soft. However, as best I can recall, this is how the film looked in the theater. While I am sure that the film could benefit from a restoration, I am quite sure that it would still look soft and muted as that is how the film was shot. It would appear that the film looks just as it should on this Blu-ray release sand is a victim of the film-making style of the period. Nevertheless, the video presentation here is still much better looking than any of its prior video releases.

Audio 

I was not expecting a bombastic and immersive sound experience with this release and was not disappointed. There is really nothing wrong with the overall sound, which has very good fidelity. In particular, the music, especially the big band music featured in the film, sounds fantastic, with a smooth and open sound with nice bass and dynamics that is easy on the ears. The dialogue track is well recorded and well placed in the mix. It is the mix itself which is the issue in that it is very front heavy.

For most of the film, the surround speakers are just an afterthought, coming to life very infrequently. When they do come to life, as they do at the end of the film, they are employed very well. Given the age of the film, I expected just as much. However, given the increased fidelity that lossless audio affords us on Blu-ray, the audio here is still a significant upgrade over the audio available on any of the other prior home video releases of the film.

Special Features  

As best I can tell, the extras appear to be ported over from the prior DVD release of the film and are of very poor video quality as they were shot on standard def video and are noisy and blurry. Just what you would expect from poor quality SD video from the mid 1980′s. The extras include an audio commentary from director Ron Howard as well as several trailers and TV spots for the film, including a very brief teaser trailer for the sequel, Cocoon: The Return.

The extras also include 5 featurettes dealing with various aspects of the film, including a behind the scenes look at the making of the film, the cast, filming the underwater sequences an the creation of the aliens. I would not call any of the extras must see and frankly, parts of the featurettes are duplicates, as several of the interview segments are repeated in several of the featurettes. Frankly, if you just watch the making of featurette, which is the longest of the 5, you will have seen all you need to see. The release is not BD-Live enabled and does not include a digital copy.

Final Thoughts 

While Cocoon does not exactly feature reference audio or video presentations, it does hold up beautifully as a film and is well worth a visit or re-visit on Blu-ray and is recommended.

However, 1985′s European Vacation was such a huge disappointment that I never bothered watching Christmas Vacation when it showed up four years later.  Although the official wife of this reviewer loves the movie, I had never really had any incentive to watch the movie until I was asked to review it.

Oddly enough, watching this movie reminded me of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.  If you’re old enough, do you remember that looooong four years between Star Wars and its sequel?  Remember how that wait was rewarded with a great movie that exceeded anything you could expect.

Well, Christmas Vacation was like that, except completely the opposite.  It took the producers four years to come up with a completely abysmal sequel, one that you wish you could erase from your brain immediately after watching.  Unfunny, puerile, boring, clichéd, and pathetic are the words that pop into mind after suffering through this.

Film  

Think of the worst episode of Saturday Night Live you’ve ever seen.  Remember how there were three funny jokes mixed into 90 minutes of bad physical humor, flat punch lines, bad acting, and boring drudgery?  Yep, that’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation!

So our hapless hero Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) mistakenly decides that he should have both his and his wife’s parents stay over for Christmas.  Although Ellen (the ever-lovely Beverly D’Angelo) warns him about what will happen, and how he’s setting himself up for disappointment, he insists.  Let the hijinks begin.

Wow, Clark fell off the roof hooking up thousands of lights.  Never saw that coming.  Wow, Clark went into the attic and was locked in.  Never saw that coming either.  Turkey overcooked?  Big dog knocks down all the dishes and a sideboard?  Crazy Aunt shows up?  Tree catches fire? Yup, yup, yup, and yup.

As a movie-goer, when I see a comedy, I’d like to laugh, be entertained, and occasionally be surprised by little twists and turns the screenwriter and director put in.  In Christmas Vacation, there is none of this – it is so formulatic, I can picture the screenwriter using a book like “Screenwriting for Dummies” when making the script.  Although the cast is talented (including a young Juliette Lewis), the material is badder than bad.  Even the “happy ending” is so over the top and forced that it feels artificial.

Truly, the blame for this movie lies at the feet of John Hughes.  A talented and humorous writer who effectively tapped into the bitter irony that life sometimes is (The Breakfast Club, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, Pretty in Pink), his writing skills began deteriorating in 1987.  This is evident when one looks at the list of forgettably bad commercial comedies he wrote from 1988 on (including Christmas Vacation).

The only thing that keeps this movie from getting a 0 is Randy Quaid, who reprises his role as Cousin Eddie.  Until he appears in his ramshackle motor home, the movie is completely lifeless.  Only he adds the necessary humor and unpredictability the movie so desperately needs.  Even though his character is a complete caricature, he is the only person that can elicit any sort of reaction from the viewer.

Video 

Do you own this on DVD?  If so, don’t bother with the Blu-ray.

The film is clearly period correct, and has an appropriate amount of grain and texture for a 1989 movie.  However, some older movies are cleaned up and sharpened in a way that the viewer can enjoy enhanced definition without destroying the character of the film (like The Princess Bride).

In the case of Christmas Vacation, it appears to have been straight transferred to Blu-ray without any post-production clean up.  Net result, you end up with a movie that has no discernible improvement over an upscaled DVD.  I could almost imagine the upscaled DVD looks even better as it would be less likely to over highlight the grain of the original film stock like the Blu-ray does.

Audio 

The movie is in period-correct Dolby Digital 2.0, and is reasonably well-mixed; as the film is so dialog-heavy, 2-channel is not a distraction.

Not unexpectedly, there is some harshness to the DD dialog, as well as an expected lack of dynamics on explosions, crashes, and exploding cats.

Generally, the sound is adequate, though nothing special for a movie of its age.  To me, it felt like Warner Brothers just mailed this one in, especially when we compare it to the greatly enhanced 5.1 HD audio mixes we’ve seen on movies from the same period.

Special Features

Although one expects a smaller special feature set in a 20 year-old movie, this Blu-ray’s features are poorer than poor.

It comes with a commentary (which is more humorous than the movie itself, mainly due to Randy Quaid), and the original theatrical trailer in 480p.  That’s it.

Being a “20^th Anniversary Edition”, you’d think there’d be some behind the scenes footage, or even a “looking back” interview with the cast and crew.  Even a reunion would have been nice (even just Chevy and Beverly!).  However, we get……a trailer.  Boooo.

Not only is this (by far) the worst set of special features I’ve seen on a Blu-ray, this wouldn’t even be adequate for a DVD.

Final Thoughts 

When I make the time investment in watching a movie, I do not have a lot of expectations.  However, there are two “golden rules” no movie should not violate: don’t bore me, and don’t insult me.  National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation managed to do both.

The worst part is that even for fans of the movie (my official wife is one of them), there is little to give them incentive to track down this movie on Blu-ray.  The print is not cleaned up for hi-def, the sound is not enhanced, and the special features are non-existent.  Overall, I believe this is the worst offering I have yet to see from Warner Brothers on Blu-ray.

Rent or buy at your own risk.

Film 

Alfred Hitchcock gets a lot of credit for this film, which is well deserved for the great direction, however the unsung hero is the screenwriter, Ernest Lehman. Everything from the overall plot to the dialogue are well crafted. The fact that such a great script was helmed by a talented and influential director is what really makes the film astonishing, for a script is only as good as how it’s directed.

Before the movie starts were treated with some really amazing and artfully done opening credits, this is obviously way before visual graphics and thus making it even more impressive.We’re then thrown into a classic “you’ve got the wrong guy” caper, which combines a great performance by Cary Grant and some of the best chases from the 50′s.

The film weds elements of humour and suspense so well, there are few gags in the film (such as the taxi cab stealing in front of the hotel) that almost feel like we’re watching a slapstick comedy, but they’re quickly followed up with these great scenes of subtle thrills that really keep you at the edge of your seat in a way that only Hitchcock could do.

A great side-not e about the film is that Hitchcock had to use some modern guerrilla filmmaking approaches to get a shot of the U.N. building, which was off-limits to filmmakers at the time. Hitchcock had to hide a camera in a taxi cab in order to get the shots, which really goes to show the tenacity and will of one of Hollywood’s greatest directors.

It’s hard to review a Hitchcock film and it’s almost better to see them for yourself with no preconceived notions towards what you think they’ll be like. Hitchcock’s films are from another galaxy when compared to movies made today, his psychological approach to the medium is one of the factors that sets him apart from the directors today; whether it’s his surreal cinematography to the connotative meaning behind his shots (train entering the tunnel comes to mind), he’s a rare breed of director that really knows how to make a well-rounded film and North by Northwest is a prime example of such.

Video 

North by Northwest is brought to us in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and uses the 1080p/VC-1 codec. The quality within this new restoration is nothing short of amazing. When dealing with 50 year old film you wouldn’t expect such a vibrant and clear picture.

It’s definitely a great to see a classic film get the restorative treatment it deserves and everything from the contrast to the colour are treated perfectly. The colours throughout are vivid and should be for it has been said they took a black & white master over the colour master due to fading and recoloured the film using filters; painstaking and expensive… but overall worth every penny for this is one is a great transfer!

Audio 

The audio is definitely a come-down from the great quality of the video. Coming at us in TrueHD 5.1 in English and unfortunately only MONO for French, Spanish, German, Italian & Portuguese. There are subtitles for all the languages above as well as Danish, Swedish, Finnish, & Norwegian. Make note of that due to the low decibel mix of the film, might make a lot of us reach for the subtitles function to actually make out what everyone is saying.

The score and foley comes through louder than everything else, which is bitter sweet . The sound is very clear but when compared to the quiet dialogue there’s a lot of those surprise noise jumps in overall level.

The film is definitely not meant to push the limits of our sound systems so I forgive the mixing issues, however for the diehard fans there is a significant difference between the video quality and audio quality.

Special Features  

Ranging from a great commentary track to a series of documentaries and featurettes that covers both the making of the film and another which covers Hitchcock and his directing style; the collection of special features is definitely expansive for a film that wasn’t a part of a time where behind-the-scenes was remotely as important as it is nowadays in the consumer purchase. However that being said, the special features are all presented in SD .

The commentary track with Ernest Lehman stands out as my favourite, but there are some great informative documentaries that really were insightful and gave me some backstory about a film that, although it’s classic status, I didn’t know much about.

If you’re not picky about the fact there are no HD extras, then this is probably the definitive North by Northwest collection.

Final Thoughts 

The film is a classic and it’s definitely one of those essentials that should be in a film buff’s collection. There are many other great Hitchcock films that may be a higher priority, but for the quality transfer and the great wealth of special features, it’s definitely worth a rental for an evening of cinematic history and a display of Hollywood at it’s best.

Film 

I remember living in an apartment 10+ years ago and I had a roommate that was always a little more on the alternative side of life than myself.  He came home one evening and emphatically professed about this film he had just seen in the theater with his girlfriend.  That film was none other than Fight Club.  Previously, I had seen the teaser trailer for the film and I thought how stupid, a movie about an organized underground boxing club.  I could not have been more wrong in my thinking, but more about that in a bit.  Months go by and upon the DVD release of the film I get a phone call from my buddy Erin.  She asks me if I ever checked the film out.  I promptly said no and I think my exact words were something like “no, that looks dumb” or “no, it looks like a complete waste of time.”  I don’t know.  I can’t remember my exact words, but I think you get the point.  I was morally opposed to watching it for some strange reason.  The weird thing about it was that I really knew nothing about it either.

After many unsuccessful meager attempts by Erin, hoping that I would change my mind and view the movie she had been watching at this point some 7 times a day, I finally could not tolerate the solicitations anymore, and therefore I conceded to a viewing.  So one fine day, Erin showed up at my apartment door with a DVD of Fight Club and I had nowhere to run.  I was forced to watch it.  It was not the worst thing I ever watched, but it certainly was not the greatest either.  I remember looking at my watch quite frequently thinking to myself “when is this slow moving drab ever going to be over?”  Erin and I differ in many respects, but she was bewildered when the film credits rolled and I proclaimed that I did not care much for what I had just watched.  After all, I could not let on to the fact that I liked something after I have been declaring it as nonsensical for so long.  Could I?  Call me stupid, call me naïve, but I was just so bummed when I found out the real identity of Tyler Durden.  I was just so engrossed in the movie that I guess I did not even see it coming.  Shows you how smart I am, eh?  But anyway, as I mentioned prior, up until this point I had been wearing my blinders for the duration of my life thus far and something this groundbreaking and revolutionary was not going to easily conquer me without a struggle/battle. 

The battle within ensued for the next several weeks as I found myself unable to focus on the tasks at hand and always thinking about the film.  I wondered if I went back and revisited the movie would a particular scene now make sense and what about the other ones.  I remembered the catch phrases as I caught myself actually using some of them in real life.  Whenever I would speak one I would instantly feel an overwhelming sense of denial come over me as I could not believe I was letting this movie get to me so much.  I mean after all, it’s just a movie.  Right?  It absurdly got to the point where Fight Club was all that was on my mind and I knew a repeat viewing at this point would be compulsory.  Throwing caution to the wind I went up to Circuit City and immediately purchased the 2-disc DVD set of Fight Club and the next chapter of my life began.  Self-awareness of one’s flaws is a powerful weapon when harnessed right.   

If you have never seen the film Fight Club, then please don’t be naïve and cast judgments, like I once did, and read too much into the movie’s title.  Sure there are some fight scenes contained within, but the movie is so much more than that.  The film is one of the most intellectual pieces of visual and spoken art that I have ever had the opportunity to witness.  When I previously mentioned it as being a cultural phenomenon, of the past decade, I tell you know aspersions.  The film taped my eyes wide-opened to a broad spectrum of society issues, that I either neglected at first or took for granted.  Issues such as materialism and the way people struggle just to fit in and connect with other people, hit home for me.  Although I do not always practice what I preach, at least I know where my weaknesses lie.  Again, self-awareness to an underlying problem in one’s life is also the key to opening the gates to the road to recovery, should they choose that route. 

With famous quotes like the ones I am about to share with you below it is hard to understand how someone could watch Fight Club and not go away a changed person in some respect.  I hope after reading just a few of the below quotes, and believe me the movie is full of cerebral language, that you quickly begin to realize the massive cultural battles that Fight Club chooses to take on and the practical real world applications the movie’s symbolism can serve as.  This movie has to be a favorite of professional mental health specialists.  Here are just a few examples of my favorite quotes from the film to whet your appetite.

“F#$% off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns, I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let… lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.”

“First you have to give up, first you have to *know*… not fear… *know*… that someday you’re gonna die.”

“Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who’ve ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God da#$ it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy sh#$ we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off. “

“It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.”

“You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your f#$%ing khakis. You’re the all-singing, all-dancing cr#$ of the world.”

“When people think you’re dying, they really, really listen to you, instead of just…instead of just waiting for their turn to speak?”

“A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don’t do one.”

“Do you know what a duvet is?  It’s a comforter…It’s a blanket. Just a blanket. Now why do guys like you and me know what a duvet is? Is this essential to our survival, in the hunter-gatherer sense of the word? No. What are we then? …Consumers? Right. We are consumers. We’re the bi-products of a lifestyle obsession.”

“Everywhere I travel, tiny life. Single-serving sugar, single-serving cream, single pat of butter. The microwave Cordon Bleu hobby kit. Shampoo-conditioner combos, sample-packaged mouthwash, tiny bars of soap. The people I meet on each flight? They’re single-serving friends.”

“We’re consumers. We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don’t concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy’s name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra.”

“Hitting bottom isn’t a weekend retreat. It’s not a godd#$% seminar. Stop trying to control everything and just let go! LET GO!”

Fight Club is adapted from the 1996 novel, of the same name, by Chuck Palahniuk.  It is rumored that the story was inspired and written over seven years worth of conversations taking place with fellow bar patrons.  Acclaimed filmmaker David Fincher who is also famous for Seven and most recently, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, directed the film.  The movie stars Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and despite what anyone else may say the beautiful Helena Bonham Carter.  Despite its strong eccentric cult following of today, the film only made modest earnings at the box office.  That’s their loss.  Fight Club is right where it belongs now.  It’s readily available, for all to see, in its finest presentation ever on the Blu-ray home entertainment optical format. 

For anyone who has been living a sheltered life and has not seen the film I would like to provide a very quick synopsis of a 14,000 feet view of what Fight Club is all about.  You can’t really go into much detail without giving significant plot spoiling details away so here goes nothing.  In 200 words or less Fight Club is about a thirty-something year old young professional who suffers from insomnia while proverbially and mentally lost in an unidentified way of life, thinking and failed coping mechanisms.  He has an utter disgust for corporate hypocrisy and finds release in a shocking, especially for him, new form of therapy, which ultimately helps him deal with everyday life.  He ultimately devises a way in which men can be what the world denies them.  This provides him and his followers an escape from the stresses and monotony of everyday life.  Doesn’t that sound like something we all need every once in awhile when the going gets tough and it unfortunately stays tough?  As we all know, a solution, such as the one I just described above, usually sounds too good to be true and most often than not usually comes with ill wanted side effects.  Such is the mounting pressure that our young professional will have to overcome to find out just who he really is and what’s most important out of life.  Wow!  That makes me want to watch it again right now!

If you want proof that Fight Club is nothing short than a cultural phenomenon, then look no further to here and check out the exclusive parties thrown in both New York City and Los Angeles, this past Tuesday night, celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the film’s theatrical release.  They don’t do that for all movies you know.  Fight Club: 10^th Anniversary Edition arrived on the Blu-ray format on November 17^th packed full of punches with all-new bonus materials, interactive experiences and best of all the best sound and picture.  Fight Club has never looked and sounded this good.  If you are not too exhausted by my college thesis above, then let’s take a closer look at all the Blu-ray has to offer and most importantly, its vitals.

Video   

Fight Club’s 1080P AVC MPEG-4 video encode is a remarkable upgrade over its DVD counterpart.  The film is gorgeously framed and presented in its original 2.40:1 aspect ratio.  Unlike the DVD releases, the black levels are perfectly solid with very minimal use of grain.  There are no visible signs of dirt and scratches.  I only saw a few white specks here or there, but nothing I would ever ding the score for.  What stands out the most to me, compared to the DVD I wore out watching multiple times before, is the incredible level of detail in every shot, whether it is the side of the Paper Street house or the acne scars in Brad Pitt’s thirty-something young face.  Every drop of blood, minuscule bead of sweat and out of place strand of hair is accounted for here.  The only reason the video transfer does not get a perfect score of five is simply because of its age.  The dark and rugged look of Fight Club will never look as good as the big screen hits of today, but that’s not the intention here anyway.  There are a few soft focused shots here and there, but this transfer is still darn near perfect in capturing the essence and mood that is undeniably Fight Club.  I fell in love with the film all over again on the Blu-ray format.  This Blu-ray will be getting a lot of spins.  I can’t wait to show Erin the vivid, fine and incredibly textured detail oriented images the Blu-ray disc has to offer.  She will definitely be going out to buy a Blu-ray player this Black Friday.  Make no mistakes here ladies and gentlemen; you can’t achieve this quality on the DVD format.

Audio   

If the video is nearly flawless, then the Blu-ray’s DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio surround audio track is simply a ravishing work of art.  You could hear a needle drop in the audio track if Mr. David Fincher wanted you to.  You will be completely surrounded and entrenched in the middle of Fight Club‘s unidentifiable world as everything is thrown at you from all audible angles including the masterful techno soundtrack of The Dust Brothers, the ambiguous deliverance of the famous one-liners, the brutal bone breaking punches, the slightest nuisances of whispers and sound effects and more.  Did you notice I did not even mention the thunderous bass yet?  All I have to say, I can express in a three-letter text message shorthand phrase…OMG!  Do you remember the one scene where Edward Norton is in the airplane and the plane crashes?  Even if you remember exactly where that scene is put your seatbelt on anyway.  The thunderous explosion from that effect will knock you out of your co-pilot seat and into the general boarding area if you are not careful with the level of your audio system’s master volume control.  Be warned!  This Blu-ray surround track is definitely demo reference quality and deserves nothing less than a perfect score of 5.  Enjoy this one!

Special Features 

The Fight Club: 10^th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray includes two all-new Blu-ray exclusive interactive featurettes and a behind-the-scenes look at Spike TV’s 2009 Guy Choice Awards and much more.  Of course, the extensive package of supplemental materials, from the former Standard DVD release, can also be found housed within the BD-50 layer disc.  Now that’s packing a punch!  There’s nothing like taking advantage of Blu-ray’s extensive storage capabilities.  You are going to get your money’s worth here.  The only downfall, as can be expected, is that all the DVD ports are in Standard Definition only.  Hey, you can’t always have cake and ice cream too.  Plus there’s also my ongoing beef with those ridiculous catalog Blu-ray eco cases, but don’t get me started on that.  But hey folks…seriously…there’s a long list of special features to cover so let’s get going.

• * NEW * A Hit In The Ear: Ren Klyce and the Sound Design of Fight Club (HD) – This featurette allows users to remix four key scenes themselves with the help of Oscar-nominated sound designer Ren Klyce.
• * NEW * Insomniac Mode: I Am Jack’s Search Index – The other interactive featurette here gives viewers the ability to access any part of the Blu-ray disc’s extensive bonus material via interactive search tools.
• * NEW * Flogging Fight Club (HD) – This 10-minute featurette is a combination of excerpts and behind-the scenes footage taken from Spike TV’s 2009 Guy’s Choice Awards show.

The following special features are ported over from the previous DVD releases.  They are all in Standard Definition with the exception of the audio commentary tracks. 

• Behind the Scenes Vignettes: Production, Visual Effects, On Location
• Edward Norton Interview
• Commentary by David Fincher
• Commentary by David Fincher, Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter
• Commentary by Chuck Palahniuk and Jim Uhls
• Commentary by Alex McDowell, Jeff Cronenweth, Michael Kaplan and Kevin Haug
• Seven Deleted Scenes and Alternate Scenes
• Trailer Farm – Theatrical Teaser, Theatrical Trailer and The Eight Rules of Fight Club
• 12 TV Spots
• Public Service Announcements
• Music Video – This one has always been a favorite of mine over the years.
• Five Internet Spots
• Promotional Gallery
• Art Gallery

Final Thoughts   

I don’t need to shoot a monkey into space to make anyone realize why this is the definitive edition of Fight Club.  Audio/Video purists of the world unite and look no further than Fight Club: 10^th Anniversary Edition on Blu-ray disc.  This is an exemplary paragon of what catalog titles should look like on the Blu-ray format.  The Blu-ray package from Fox features one of film’s most intellectual stories ever told, a video encode you can count the nose hairs in, a thunderous bass drum kicking your lazy arse out of the seat and a special features package that will keep you busy for hours on end.  There’s no denying that this is why God created Blu-ray.  And best of all, its not just any ordinary Blu-ray, its Fight Club on Blu-ray!  “If you don’t claim your humanity you will become a statistic.  You have been warned.”  – Tyler Durden

I hope you enjoyed my review of Fox’s Fight Club: 10th Anniversary Edition 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. 

Fight Club: 10th Anniversary Edition was released on Blu-ray November 17, 2009.  If you like what you read in the review above, then please show your support for our site by clicking the cover art above to order and save with Amazon’s Everyday Lowest Prices.  Thanks!

Film

25 years ago Stephen King was the go to author for material to adapt to the screen. His books and short stories spawned dozens of classic horror films (The Shinning, Carrie, etc) however Cujo was not one of them.

Following a family that’s on the brink of falling apart, their paths are intersected with that of a mechanic and his dog, Cujo. Cujo has been recently infected with rabies (bats… they’re always causing problems) and without warning becomes a ravenous killing machine.

The film tries to recreate the psychological thrills and chills that the novel was famous for, but fails to do so relying mainly on cheap scares and gore. The film’s third act finds a mother and her son trapped in their car as Cujo circles and awaits…

The film hasn’t stood the test of time, the bloody trail that the dog leaves in its path is nothing when compared to amounts of gore the horror audience has been exposed to today, with film’s like Saw and other torture porn out there, our tolerance of blood is rising rapidly.

Beside the movie’s inability to do its job as a horror flick, the cinematography is just annoying and gratuitous. Shots dragged on, the running time had me staring at the clock and the overall dry tone of the film left me bored. This movie might’ve been scary 25 years ago and I’m sure it incited unnecessary fear towards St. Bernard’s, but today the only thing I fear when seeing a St. Bernard is whether or not it will try and waste 95 minutes of my life away.

Video

Watching a movie that is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 1080p is definitely interesting… The film stock the filmmakers used definitely had a noticeable grain to it that is hard to hide when the image is crisp. Overall the video isn’t bad. It’s definitely not showroom quality, but during daylight shots the crisp less-grainy shots do stand out. Cujo makes the best out of the AVC MPEG-4 codec and being framed in its original 1.85:1, fans of the classic horror film will be able to enjoy the film as it was meant to be seen (and heard, see audio)

The colour is a bit washed out throughout the movie, which isn’t surprising due to some of the limitations of film stock at the time. Overall, the video quality doesn’t stand out over the DVD release of the film, I felt like I wouldn’t have missed much watching an up-converted DVD.

Audio

Presented in English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio as well as the original English monaural mix (which is an interesting feature for older flicks, back in the day when 5.1 and 7.1 weren’t as common, we get a glimpse of how Cujo was meant to be heard. Also for those who are hard of hearing or those who were sick of trying to hear the dialogue through this terrible mix, Cujo comes with English & Spanish subtitles.

I’m sometimes shocked when I hear a movie that seemed to be mixed by cavemen (apologies to any cavemen). It’s fine when you’re listening to dialogue and a quick loud sound is heard to scare the audience, but when you’re trying to hear two people talking over ridiculously over-cranked sound effects (not even explosions, but rather foley of day-to-day sounds in the kitchen… like a chair moving)… than something is seriously wrong.

Special Features

The special features included are:

• Audio commentary with Director Lewis Teague
• Three-part documentary: “Dog Days: The Making of Cujo”

As far as special features go, having a commentary and a featurette about the making of the film as your only features, is rather insignificant considering the disc proclaims 25th anniversary edition on the cover. Even in terms of DVD’s amount of features, this is a pretty pathetic amount.

The behind-the-scenes doc wasn’t very exciting; it consisted of a small back-story of the novel and moved on to finding the cast and the right dog… groundbreaking. Some of the interviews with cast and crew were better than others, but overall the doc didn’t do much except fill up some room on the Blu ray.

The commentary with Lewis Teague was probably the best thing on the Blu-ray, I found that in the documentary itself Teague’s interviews were the best, so it was nice to get some back-story on his process while filming this movie over some of the other people involved in the interview who were less charismatic.

Final Thoughts

To the horror fans who liked Cujo, this release is targeted for you. However with a very scarce amount of special features, very poor audio and video quality even the fans will be disappointed. As for those who may be interested in giving Cujo a chance, it’s best to rent it for the replayability is non-existent.

Film

Quite frankly, the original incarnation of Miracle on 34th Street is a wonderful film. The film has been remade several times, for both TV, the theater and even a broadway musical. However, none have had the impact of the original released in 1947 which remains a timeless Christmas classic to this day. While the film is set during the Christmas season, it was originally released to theaters in June 1947. Despite being released during the summer, the film was an instant success at the box office. It is easy to see why.

The film tells the tale of an older gentleman (Edmund Gwenn) living in a home for the aged who believes himself to by Santa Claus. He has all the markings of Santa, with a white beard and a kind and engaging, even jolly, disposition and the perfect name to boot, Kris Kringle. He comes into Manhattan on Thanksgiving for the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade and discovers that the man hired to be Santa in the parade is drunk. He brings that to the attention of one of the parade’s coordinators, Doris Walker (Maureen O’Hara), a single mother who is an executive at Macy’s and who hires Kris to replace him in the parade as well as in the store.

He quickly becomes a hit with the crowd as well as the shoppers at Macy’s and quickly comes to the attention of Mr. Macy himself for his innovative idea of referring shoppers to Macy’s competitors such as Gimbel’s for items that Macy’s did not carry. Mr. Macy saw this as a great way to promote Macy’s during the holiday season. Kris becomes friendly with Doris’ young daughter Susan played by a very young Natalie Wood, who like her mother, is very grounded and who doesn’t believe in fairy tales or Santa Claus. However, not everyone loves Santa and Kris is provoked by the store’s psychiatrist and taps him on the forehead in anger which the psychiatrist reports to the authorities. Kris deliberately fails a competency test and faces an involuntary commitment proceeding where his friend, lawyer and boyfriend of Doris Walker Fred Gailey (John Payne) has to prove Kris actually is Santa Claus to preserve his freedom and in doing so, teaches Doris and her daughter the true meaning of Christmas.

The film is perfectly cast with Edmund Gwenn a real delight as Kris Kringle, a performance which earned him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. It is interesting how the film frowns on the commercialization of Christmas 62 years ago, something that has only gotten worse all these years later. This is a wonderful film that is still a joy to watch, even after repeat viewings. It is witty, funny and poignant and as relevant today as it was to theater goers 62 years ago and will likely remain so for decades to come. Highly recommended.

Video

Despite the color photos on the box and the description of the back that indicates that this release contains the colorized version of the film, it does not. The film presented here is in black and white, which is how it should be IMHO. The print used for this transfer appears to be in very good shape as I really didn’t notice dirt, speckles or scratches marring the image. The film is presented in its original 4×3 aspect ratio with blacks bars on the side. The video quality is just average and not quite up to the standard set by another black and white film of similar vintage released on Blu-ray, Casablanca. This transfer of Miracle on 34th Street lacks the deep black, fine detail and clarity that made the transfer of Casablanca so special, looking a bit softer in comparison. However, I can state that the film has never looked better on any prior home video release than it does here on Blu-ray.

Audio

There is not really a lot that one can do with a mono film audio track of this vintage so I was not expecting much in the audio department and as such, was not surprised by the audio on this release. While remixed to 5.1 from mono and featuring DTS HD Master Audio, they really shouldn’t have bothered. The original mono mix is included as an option. so that you can compare the two. The real issue I had with the sound is the overall fidelity rather than the mix. The sound is thin and bright with no dynamics and precious little bass. The dialogue track is clear and easy to follow which, given the age of the film, is really about all we could have expected.

Special Features

There are several extras included with this release, none of which are in HD. An audio commentary with Maureen O’Hara is included as well as an AMC Backstory feature on the film which details the history of the film and includes interviews with some surviving cast members and/or members of their families. Also included is an old Fox Movietonenews feature on the film as well as a featurette on the history of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as well as the original theatrical trailer for the film and a photo gallery. The most interesting thing that I learned from the extras concerns the trailer which was very original in that it told audiences nothing about the actual film. The trailer mentions nothing about it even being a Christmas film. Given that the film was set to open in the summer, I can see why the studio took this approach. Other than this little tidbit, the extras here are rather pedestrian.

Final Thoughts

Miracle on 34th Street is a charming and entertaining film that retains its relevance and charm 62 years after its release. Highly recommended for a holiday viewing.

The film is a satirical look at the threat of and folly all out nuclear war and the concept of nuclear deterrence that was the backbone of the the foreign policies of the US and USSR from the 1950′s through the fall of the USSR which formally ended as a country in 1991. The film has undergone a total restoration for its debut on Blu-ray as well as a new 5.1 lossless audio mix. I was quite anxious to revisit the film on Blu-ray as it had been quite awhile since I last had a chance to view the entire film. Was it worth the wait?

Film

As I noted above, Dr. Strangelove is my all time favorite Kubrick film. I am old enough to have lived through the “hottest” period of the Cold War with the USSR during the late 1950′s through the mid 1960′s, resulting from the Communist revolution in Cuba and the resulting Cuban Missile crisis and the building of the Berlin Wall and resulting airlift. I can still recall the periodic drills we had at school to prepare for a Soviet attack, huddling under our desks with our hands over our heads, as if that would have offered us any protection during a nuclear attack. It was against this background that Stanley Kubrick created Dr. Stangelove.

Originally conceived a serious film examining the threat of nuclear war, Stanley Kubrick eventually decided that the best way to present the subject matter was as a dark comedy, using satire, to point out the folly of the entire concept of mutual assured destruction The film stars Peter Sellers who plays three separate roles in the film. British Captain Mandrake Lionel Mandrake, U.S. President Muffley and presidential adviser and former Nazi nuclear physicist Dr. Strangelove.

The film also stars George C. Scott as Joint Chief General Buck Turgidson and Sterling Hayden as General Jack D. Ripper (is that a great name or what?) It is General Ripper, suffering from deep psychosis due to feelings of sexual inadequacy, launches an unauthorized nuclear attack on the USSR. He sends orders to aircraft carrying nuclear weapons to attack the USSR and resets the abort code so that it will be nearly impossible for anyone else to recall the planes.

When his actions come to the attention of the Joint Chiefs, an emergency meeting is held with the President at the Pentagon War Room where the President summons the Soviet Ambassador so that they can call a drunken Soviet Premier to warn him of the impending attack and ask his help in shooting down the planes if they can’t be recalled. It is during this meeting where the Soviets advise the President of their development of a Doomsday weapon which will cover the world with radiation that will wipe out all human and animal life on the planet, in the event of a nuclear attack on Soviet soil.

The Doomsday Weapon is on automatic pilot and will detonate automatically if the attack occurs or if an attempt is even made to deactivate it. The satire and sexual innuendo here is so thick that you can cut it with a knife, from the ramblings of General Hayden and his preoccupation with “bodily fluids” and his ability to deny women his “essence”, President Muffley (get it?) pleading with the drunken Soviet Premiere to deactivate the Doomsday Weapon and that they didn’t mean to attack to General Turgidson (again, isn’t the name obvious?) and his anti Soviet ramblings and his arguments that if we are going to attack, we might as well go all out. and Dr. Strangelove reverting to his Nazi predispositions, calling the President Mein Furhrer and fighting back raising his right arm in salute.

While released in 1964, Dr. Strangelove remains just as relevant today as it did then, given the continued existence of nuclear weapons and the continuing desire of other countries as well as terror groups to obtain them. It is interesting to pick out characteristics in the film’s main characters that continue to be identifiable in more modern day political leaders. Dr. Strangelove is a great film. If you are unfamiliar with the film, check out the 45th Anniversary addition of the film, you will be glad you did. It is a must have for any film collection. Highly recommended.

Video

It is clear from my viewing of the film that the folks at Sony did a fine restoration of the film. I have never seen it look better. Unlike other major restorations which seemed to have employed digital noise reduction to remove film grain and smooth over the image, making it look more digital, I could not detect any use of digital noise reduction on this release. Film grain is evident throughout and fairly heavy at times. Other than occasional scratches and tears in the stock footage used as backdrops for the exterior of the B-52 bomber featured in the film, the restoration is free from any dirt, scratches or defects of any kind. The film is presented in glorious black and white with excellent levels of contrast, detail and shadow detail.

The black and white presentation of the film is flawless and presented with a very nice sense of image depth and three dimensionality. Detail while being very good is not quite up to the level of the best black and white film I have seen on Blu-ray, namely Casablanca, but darn close. While I am sure that there are some of you who will be put off by a black and white film, don’t count me among you. This is an excellent restoration of a classic and important film and is one that should thrill fans of the film and cinema in general.

Audio

The audio on this release is presented in the original mono as well as a new 5.1 lossless mix. I did all of my listening using the 5.1 lossless mix. Considering the age of the film and the original mono mix, the 5.1 track sounds about a good as one could have possibly expected. It is up to the quality of a more modern film? No but is more than satisfactory. What really surprised me the most about the audio mix is the over dynamics which was quite good. Bass response is fairly deep and tight with no bloating at all.

The surround speakers were used very well to create a nice sense of ambiance and immersion in the scenes inside the bomber as well as the War Room, above and beyond what I would have expected for a film of this vintage. Clearly, a lot of thought and care went in creating the new sound mix from the original sound elements. However, I do have some issues with the overall sound of the film. The sound itself is a bit on the thin side, lacking the smoothness and openness of a more modern film. This is especially true of the dialogue track which has a bit of hollowness that you just don’t see in newer films.

The sound also lacks much in the way of transparency and imaging, lacking the front to back and side to side depth of newer films, sounding flat in comparison. However, given the age of the film and the original mono mix, I can’t imaging the film sounding any better than it does on this release.

Special Features

As one would expect for an anniversary edition for such an important film, there are several interesting extras included here. While the release is BD-Live enabled, there is no digital copy included. The extras include The Cold War: Picture-in-Picture and Pop-Up Trivia Track, which explores the military and political world as it existed when the film was made.

Included are interviews with several well known experts including Thomas Schelling who wrote the book “Red Alert” which prompted Kubrick’s interest in making the film, Richard A. Clarke, the counterterrorism expert in the administrations of both President Bush as well as President Clinton, George Ellsberg, a former employee of the think tank RAND Corporation as well as the Department of Defense during the Kennedy Administration, George Quester, a professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland and an expert on nuclear proliferation and David Alan Rosenberg, a professor at Temple University and historian on nuclear strategy.

Also included is the featurette No Fighting in the War Room Or: Dr. Strangelove and the Nuclear Threat which feature interviews with Roger Ebert, Bob Woodward, Spike Lee, James Earl Jones and Robert McNamara about the film and the times in which is was made. Also included is the featurette Inside: Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, which details the genesis of the film as well as Stanley Kubrick’s career. The featurette Best Sellers Or: Peter Sellers and Dr. Strangelove Remembered features interviews with Michael Palin and Sir David Frost and details Peter Sellers’ career.

We also get a full interview with Former Secretary of defense Robert McNamara during the Kennedy administration as well as side by side interviews with Peter Sellers and George C. Scott on the set of the picture. I was intrigued by the side by side interviews as they were scripted with a black screen on one side of the frame where TV personalities could be added asking the questions which the scripted answers were written for, making it seem that the TV personalities were actually conducting telephone interviews with each. There is a lot to take in here and they are all well worth your time.

In addition to the extras, I would like to also comment on the disc’s packaging. The disc does not come with the typical blue plastic box but comes with packaging more like a hard cover book. It includes 32 pages including an essay, Strangelove’s Durability: In Kubrick’s Words by Richard Tanne as well as biographies of Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden and Stanley Kubrick as well as an essay by Travis Baker entitled Pie In the Sky Or: How the Lunacy You Saw Wasn’t All the Lunacy There Was. This is some of the best packaging I have even seen with a Blu-ray release and thought is warranted a special mention. Well done Sony!

Final Thoughts

Dr. Strangelove is a classic film that has undergone a first class restoration for its release on Blu-ray. It is must have for the collection of any serious film fan. Highly recommended.

The film is set to the backdrop (not surprisingly) of the South Pacific during World War II, where Lt. Joseph Cable (John Kerr) arrives on a US occupied island. Cable is assigned to run a reconnaissance mission on the Japanese but begins to fall under the islands exotic trance and soon becomes fixated with Liat (France Nuyen). The two begin to blossom a romance whilst dealing with Cable’s impeding racism. In the films other storyline Nellie Forbush (Mitzi Brazzi) a Navy nurse, falls in love with a much older French plantation owner (Rossano Brazzi). The two see each other as a chance at true happiness that is until Nellie’s bigotry breaks things off.  Cutting edge for its time I’m sure, in regards to its dealing with social issues, but nonetheless predictable.

It seems as of late I have been real indecisive with gauging musicals. I can identify with how people regard it as a classic, but have a hard time relating to it. In this day and age the songs just aren’t as catchy, or flattering. So while I can say that I understand that South Pacific can relate to certain demographics, I can’t in good conscience recommend this disc to anyone other than people who already hold it near and dear.

Having laid that out there, I will note that some of the things I liked about the film were the beautiful locations, a refreshing mixture of comedy into the film (large in part thanks to Ray Walston), and an overall decent integration of plot advancement built into the musical numbers. But quickly erasing the positives are several things that left an unsavoury taste in my mouth.  First and foremost is the fact that most of the singing is dubbed which is a big deal to me for reasons I won’t get into right now. But regardless, having known this beforehand I could notice it at certain parts but only because I was watching for it intently. I’m sure to most people that won’t matter anyways, so why else would I recommend not checking it out? Well quite honestly, the story. I hardly doubt it was original back then, and it certainly isn’t now. Sure it’s cute and flattering at times, but I’ve seen it all before and usually with catchier numbers. But get real, how much times can we watch a love story about (or similar variations of) a small town girl falling in love with a mature foreigner in impossible circumstances. If that’s not enough reason for you to avoid checking out South Pacific; how about the fact that it’s over 2 ½ hours long? Not in a Braveheart way either, it tends to drag on, and the songs start to feel repetitive.

I say all that without trying to sound completely negative in my opinion of the movie, because I didn’t hate it. Like I said before, I can see the appeal in it; it’s just not for me. So if you want or trust my opinion, I wouldn’t bother checking out South Pacific.

Video

Presented in 1080p 2.20:1 aspect ratio and encoded in Mpeg-4 South Pacific hits Blu-ray with some stunning results.  Having seen Dr.No and The Robe‘s stunning Blu-ray transfers I was hopefully South Pacific would see similar results, luckily it did.  The color palette was definitely the first thing that popped off the screen and grabbed my attention; I was stunned of how crisp and clear each color looked.  The colors of South Pacific were nice and vibrant but more importantly they maintain a realistic look.

Equally as impressive was the extreme detail seen within each shot.  From clearly visible clothing wrinkles to the liver spots seen on the older officer’s hands, South Pacific displays a tremendous amount of detail.  The transfer itself is free of any artifacting but more impressive there are no dirt specs seen throughout playback.  Considering its age and what was achieved here I say South Pacific is worth purchasing on Video merit alone.

Audio

Fox has included a magnificent DTS-HD track with the release of South Pacific.  From pretty much beginning to end this music uses all channels, creating a truly impressive atmosphere.  Dialogue from the actors when they are not singing is also impressive; coming off with rather deep and not tinny.

As I mentioned earlier I was not a fan of music, but there is no denying that the quality of the track is top notch.  For fans who were not convinced by the perfect video presentation, the superb audio track should push you over.

Special Features

Fox really went all out on this release.  Not only are the video and audio transfers are near perfect, this two disc set is packed with special features.

• Audio Commentary – Commentary with Ted Chapin and Gereard Alessandrini.  The 2^nd disc also features a commentary with Richard Barrios.
• Sing Alone – A karaoke option with subtitles appearing on screen when a song is played.
• Songs Only Option – An option that plays only the songs.
• Extended Road Show Version of the Film (SD) – This is a 15 minute extended cut of the film.  Unfortunately viewers who prefer this version will not be treated to the high def splendour of the theatrical version received.
• The Making of South Pacific (HD) – At 14 minutes this black and white making features focuses on the films pre production, including set design and casting.
• Interview with James Michener (SD) – A 22 minute interview by Diana Sawyer with author James Michener.
• Stage Excerpts (SD) – As titled we are given a few scenes from the stage production of South Pacific. It was neat to see how the scenes from the movie were played out on stage.
• Fox Movietonews (SD)- A two piece features which covers the films New York and Belgium premiere.
• Mitizi Gaynor Screen Test (HD)
• Still Photos

Final Thoughts

For fans of South Pacific this is a no brainer, go out and pick up a copy on Blu-ray. The video transfer is flawless, bringing vibrant colors and beautiful backdrops to life. To compliment this superior 50 year old transfer is an audio track that nearly parallels the video. To top it all off is quite frankly one of the better set of features I’ve seen in recent releases. In all honesty, South Pacific is a must have for Fans. Now on the other hand, if you haven’t seen the film I’m going to have to recommend that you keep it that way. It just isn’t entertaining or entrancing enough to suggest anyone sit down and watch it.

Young or old, and anywhere in-between Sleeping Beauty is commonly regarded as a childhood classic, a comfort film if you will. Like many other Disney films we remember the vintage animation, the songs, and the often compelling storylines. When Disney announced it would begin releasing its vaulted classics on Blu-ray fans met the news with an outmost enthusiasm and anticipation. For the first time ever classic films including Sleeping Beauty would be available in hi definition, with high expectations of crisp animation and solidified audio Disney had better dress to impress. So how does the Sleeping Beauty clean up after nearly fifty years of entertaining several generations of Disney fans?

Sleeping Beauty is the sixteenth animated film by Walt Disney, released for the first time in 1959, and when adjusted for inflation is one of the top grossing movies of all time. Like so many other Disney classics, Sleeping Beauty is based upon a fairy tale by Charles Perrault written some 400 years ago. Such a timeless story heard by generations of young ears, what better way for Disney to start its Blu-ray collection. While Sleeping Beauty is based upon the 1697 Perrault classic, it does have some feet of its own, and draws more similarities in distinction to the 1890 Tchaikovsky ballet. With epic scores performed by the Berlin Symphony Orchestra the stage is set for a grand love saga. But enough with the historic pre amble, let’s get into the good stuff.

Sleeping Beauty tells the story of Princess Aurora and the curse besotted upon her. Promised to Prince Phillip at a young age, the backbone to the story is set early. At her christening Aurora is blessed with the gifts of beauty and song by two of three good fairies. Set the stage for Maleficent, a truly evil villainess, overwrought and filled with hate for not being invited to the christening. She curses the princess to die upon touching a spinning wheel’s spindle. The third fairy alters the curse so that she will not die but instead be put into an eternal slumber until awoken by true loves kiss. To avoid the curse, Aurora and the fairies flee to the woods, where she grows into a beautiful young woman. Maleficent tirelessly looks for Aurora who now goes by the name Briar Rose, and as a last ditch effort sends her raven Diablo to track her down. Needless to say eventually Aurora falls victim to the curse and Prince Phillip must overcome much obstacles and tests of faith to find and kiss his true love.

The story is a classic, and it plays out fantastically in hi definition. The dialogue is plain spoken and sincere, the animation is time honored, and the characters, especially Maleficent, are deep and absorbing. Aurora is the text book definition of a stereotypical princess, the basis of many clichés, enchanting and alluring she brings a lot of color to this film that can be rather dark at times. That is what I find most appealing about these classic fairytales, although extremely dark in nature they manage to come off as uplifting and adventurous.

A lot of you won’t enjoy the singing, and that does narrow the target audience, but if you look past it the story is really quite captivating. For those of you who love the classic Disney song and dance, Sleeping Beauty will not fail to impress. The score is magnificent and fetching only accentuating the already powerful and elevated story.

Video

Presented in 2.55:1 1080p aspect Sleeping Beauty looks phenomenal on Blu-ray.  Colors look new and vibrant with some shots looking three dimensional.   There is a shot earlier in the film that shows the three good fairies discussing Aurora’s fate while standing beside a jewelled goblet.  The goblet itself looked extremely three dimensional and vibrant.

The print itself is in perfect condition with no visible artifacting or color banding throughout the entire film. What Disney has managed to do with Sleeping Beauty simply amazes me.  I may have been sceptical when this was first announced but now I can’t wait for Pinocchio next March.

Audio

Sleeping Beauty is equipped with a 7.1 DTS HD track that sounds great especially when considering its age. The track is front heavy at times but quickly comes to life when frequent sound effects come through the rear channels.   Of course the track truly shines when the memorable music and lyrics are played.  Both rear and supports are extremely rich and deep.

Although not as impressive as the improved picture, the audio track still offers and noticeable upgrade over prior releases of the film.

Special Features

The two disc set is jam packed with great features all of which are worth checking out.

• Audio Commentary – A PIP commentary with Leonard Maltin, Andreas Deja and John Lasseter.  I would definitely recommend a viewing as it provides a nice look at Blu-rays 1.1 Profile.

• Short Film – The 30 minutes short of Grand Canyon.  I nice little short film worth checking out for fans of Disney; best yet its presented in high definition.

• Song Selection – A quick chapter selection that takes you straight to the different songs played throughout the movie.

• Trivia Track – A beautiful looking and informative information track that pops up through the movies entirety.

• Photo Album – Beautiful stills from the movie

• Documentary – A 45 minute documentary that is a much watch for anyone that owns the disc.  The Doc is presented in beautiful HD and covers every considerable aspect of the films creation.

• Featurettes – The featurettes are broken up into sets each bringing its own valued information to the mix.  The best has be the one which focuses on the restoration process for the film.  I have gained a new found respect for these people who continue to bring these classics back with amazing picture.

• Interactive Games – Three games that provide good fun for the children.

• Deleted Scenes – We are basically given four deleted musical numbers.  I must say that these four numbers d seem to lack when compared to the ones left in the film.

• TV Episode – An episode of the short lived Disneyland series which gives a look behind the scenes of Disney.  Definitely worth checking out if you are

• Trailer

Final Thoughts

Simplistically put this disc is a must own for fans of the film, and Walt Disney collectors alike. In accord to their past practice, Disney will vault this disc after a limited time so I suggest you pick it up while you can. The video is extremely well cleaned up, the audio although not tested extravagantly gets the job done, and the features are almost never ending. In the end I was extremely pleased with the packaging of this disc, and must give kudos to Disney, here’s to hoping their future releases will be handled with such class.