Then there are film such as the Lord of the Rings Trilogy with extended editions that go on and on with seemingly endless battle sequences which were too long as it was in the theatrical cut and obnoxiously too long in the extended cut. Sitting there, I have to guess that they figured that since we went to the lengths to create this footage in the first place, we might as well let the world see it. Again that college essay mind set at work. You know, since I had to learn this stuff for the exam, I will at least show you that I did. I wish I could guess at what they were thinking when they put the extended cut of Hall Pass together, but I don’t think that anyone can figure that out, not even the filmmakers themselves. Not even the college essay theory can explain this mess.

Film  

Hall Pass, whether the theatrical cut or the Enlarged Edition (I can hear Bevis and Butthead laughing now in the background at that one) is an awful film. Hall Pass is a stupid and crass film, with the enlarged edition even more so.

The film stars Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis as two 30ish husbands who can seem to get sex off their minds. Their lovely wives who frankly deserve better ( played by Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate) decide to give their husbands hall passes. The halls pass is a week off from their marriage, where they can seek out sex with other women to get it out of their systems so they can return and focus their attentions on their wives. The wives leave for Cape Cod for a week of relaxation while their men go crazy. However, while on Cape Cod, the wives turn out to have better luck than the husbands in the extra curricular department.

The film is like a bad Saturday Night Live sketch extended from 5 minutes to two hours. It is devoid of anything really funny and instead is a crass and crude as you can get. Hall Pass is a bad film, embarrassingly bad, and one that you are better off skipping in its entirety.

Video  

The best thing that I can say about the video presentation here is that it is better than the film. It is a solid is unspectacular looking film with a nice natural looking color palette with nice levels of detail and decent blacks. Film grain is heavy however so if you don’t like film grain and prefer you films as clean as computer animation, Hall Pass will not be your cup of tea and really shouldn’t be anyway, grain or no grain. The film has good depth and clarity but far from reference quality. The film itself is in pristine quality and I was not able to detect any obvious errors with the encoding of the film.

Audio  

I was not expecting a reference audio presentation when I sat down to watch the film. However, even so, I was disappointed with the audio here. The film is a bit front heavy as one would expect with a comedy. While the surrounds do kick on occasion, most of the action remains centered in the front of the room. The real issues I had with the audio here is with the overall fidelity. I found the sound to be too thin and bright for my tastes, a bit on the shrill side, more like bad lossy audio rather that a DTS HD Master Audio track. The audio is just another reason to pass on this release.

Special Features  

There are two extras included with this release, consisting of an “outrageously funny” additional scene as well as a “hilarious” gag reel. I found neither to be either outrageously funny or hilarious. When you have to say you are outrageously funny or hilarious, this is usually a sure sign that you aren’t. Hall Pass is a combo pack release which contains a DVD copy of the film along with a digital copy, so you can take this mess of a film with you.

Final Thoughts  

Simply put, Hall Pass is a terrible film, one that I found to be crude and crass and at times relentlessly so. The audio is weak and the video just good with meager extras to boot. In short, there is really nothing here to recommend about this release. I suggest that you skip this one entirely.

Film

Born into poverty, Chaplin took to the stage almost as soon as he could speak. Tirelessly he tried to advance his career, first by acting on stage and screen, then to directing, composing, and ultimately becoming a Hollywood mogul and co-founder of United Artists.

Chaplin’s life was so immense that it is hard to imagine encapsulating it in a single film. Not just because of his talents as a performer, but his personal life was ceaselessly jaded by family woes, relationship and political controversies, which included his expulsion from the United States. Attenborough made a noble effort to face this challenge, and presents a decent, albeit fast-paced, biography. Some parts of his life might seem clipped but any hasty storytelling can be forgiven because of the spectacular cast presenting it.

Not enough can be said about Robert Downey Jr’s performance. Downey manages to convey Chaplin’s demons with utter dignity, all the while never losing the ability to mimic Chaplin’s clowning to a tee. It has been said that Attenborough felt confident enough in said performance that he could splice in actual Chaplin footage, and he was right to do so. When Downey is playing Chaplin, while performing in a film within the film, I completely forget that it is not the genuine article, be it in black and white or colour.

I could list the merits of the entire supporting cast, but to save time I shall briefly make mention of my two favourites. First is Kevin Kline who simply oozed charm while portraying Douglas Fairbanks, and my second pick would have to be Geraldine Chaplin who portrayed her own grandmother so lovingly and yet as so disturbingly broken.

In no way should this be a completely satisfactory profile of Chaplin, it should be a launching point. If one, for some reason, needs something more modern to present Chaplin, this film does a very good job at introducing the man and his work. From here, his films should be mandatory viewing (many of them should be no matter what in my humble opinion).

Video

Widescreen 1.78:1. The blacks are very crisp in this, which is essential when you consider how prevalent black is in Chaplin’s work as well as on his Tramp costume. There are some darker scenes where a slight fuzziness appears on the picture, but never enough to be truly disrupting nor disappointing from the 1080p delivery.

Audio

English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio. The sentimental sounding score is rather lushed but could have used a nice Surround sound treatment to be fully appreciated and complete the immersion experience. All things considered, this is a well mixed soundtrack. The dialogue and music are able to play off of each other without disturbance.

Special Features

The first three features all stem from the same set of interviews with the filmmakers and interested critics.

Strolling into the Sunset: Reflections on the creation of the film. In this featurette, Attenborough admits to the challenges of the film’s vision, and that it was lighter that it was not as thorough as he had hoped.

Chaplin the Hero: This is concentrated praise for Chaplin’s brilliance by the interviewees.

The Most Famous Man in the World: Profiling Chaplin’s significance during his heyday. Of the three segments, this last one offers the most unique material.

“All at Sea”: This is a real treat, an actual home movie shot and edited by Chaplin. The family goof around and even do some visual impressions of 1930s celebrities and politicians. An amusing short.

Bookmarks: This is an option to place markers onto parts of the film. This is a godsend to any teacher wishing to present this in a classroom.

Trailers: Self-explanatory.

Final Thoughts

In many ways, this film is just as much a love letter to the earliest years of film as it is tribute to an individual who would become the most famous person on Earth for a time. As romanticized as it is, this film’s charms are undeniable.

Film

The Jackass boys are back and I had a chance to see this film with some friends in theatres in 3D. To prevent burying the lead, if you’re interested in purchasing this film… do it now, the film was converted to 3D after the fact and it simply didn’t need to be… The only thing that popped out was the staged gimmicky opening scene that consists of a series of airbags and confetti going off, but to really justify paying a premium price for a 3D Blu-ray we deserve a bit more.

As for the film itself, it’s hard to critique. It’s essentially a series of clips that either consist of practical jokes, hidden camera style pranks, and footage of self-mutilation. It’s definitely catering to a specific market and it’s definitely not a film that’s fun for the whole family.

The funniest moments for me were the uses of super slow-mo camera as they pulled pranks on people by throwing water in their faces. Honestly though this sort of thing can be seen for free by watching Time Warp on the Discovery Channel. However the film quickly begins to go too far with a barrage of disgusting gag reflex testing stunts that I can’t mention here. Honestly you know if you’re going to like this film, just don’t expect the same quality compared to the first two films. Things feel a bit stale and “bottom of the barrel” and even with a few funny parts, I really just found myself checking my watch for most of it.

Video

Jackass 3’s video is displayed using the mpeg-4 AVC codec. The vide o quality is hit and miss due to the fact that we’re seeing the events from a bunch of cameras of varying qualities. The main cameras used are really high quality high definition cameras that do a great job providing sharp and clean footage.

The colors are bright and skin tones come through nicely, however there is some blown out highlights once in a while which aren’t rare for footage that comes from a video source. The nice thing about the video cams used is the fact that they produce details very nicely and the details are sharp, most notably skin texture.

Audio

Jackass 3’s audio comes at using the DTS-HD Master 5.1 audio. The score and foley is pumped up to help make up for the lack of true surround sound and although we’re given some nice centered dialogue there’s some surprisingly pieces that have been mixed to make use of all of your speakers. However these scenes are few and far between and are most noticeable in the opening and closing credit scenes which are usually the most elaborate.

For most of the film we’re given a clean and front heavy mix but it’s spiced with some nice uses of LFE and surrounds that help out the fairly plain mix.

Special Features

Jackass 3 has a small amount of extras, but they’re honestly the best possible extras for the subject matter. Deleted scenes and outtakes are pretty much just more of the movie to watch, so that’s always good. There’s also an “MTV: Making of” featurette which is as in depth as I would ever be interested in the film. Although it is only 3 extras, would you really want a commentary track?

Final Thoughts

Albeit the film doesn’t really stand out as a Blu-ray essential, the film does provide some decent content when good quality high definition cameras are used. However with hit and mix audio and video presentation, the film isn’t anything special but if you’re a fan then it may be worthwhile to await the inevitable 3D release of the film if that is something you’re into.

Film  

De-Lovely tells the story of the adult life of the greatest composer of popular song in American history, Cole Porter. It does so in a very creative manner using the songs themselves to tell the story as Cole is shown his life by the Archangel Gabriel a moment before his death, Broadway show style in a small theater.

Gabriel, played beautifully by Jonathan Pryce, arrives at Cole Porter’s apartment near the moment of his death. He then takes him to the small theater in Indiana where Cole started his career and shows him his life, warts and all. Cole Porter is played beautifully by Kevin Kline, who is quite a showman himself and who sings and plays the piano himself quite well during the entire film.

It picks up his life in Paris as a young man. Cole Porter was already quite well off as a young man due to the wealth of his family and quite a playboy and party animal in addition to being a little known amateur songwriter outside his social circle in Paris. He also had his own little secret not known outside his small circle of friends, namely that he was gay. It was in Paris that he met the only real love of his life, Linda Thomas, who is portrayed in quite a moving performance by Ashley Judd. She knew Cole was Gay but loved him nonetheless as he was able to complete her.

In a way, she completed him as well, as it was she who guided his career, introducing him to her friend, Irving Berlin who recommended him to write and stage his first Broadway play. While he always didn’t realize it at the time until her death, Cole truly loved Linda. He turned bitter after her death and never wrote much after her death. For a man who wrote such beautiful songs about love, Cole Porter was never truly able to understand the concept until he lost the one thing that he truly did love.

As good as the acting and storytelling is here, the real star of the film is the music. Over 30 Cole Porter songs are presented here, from Let’s Misbehave, to Be A Clown, to Night and Day to Every Time WE Say Goodbye to Love for Sale. The arrangements of the tunes is varied from more traditional arrangements to some very original and modern ones.

The film features several a musical performances, from the likes of Elvis Costello, Diana Krall, Robbie Williams, Natalie Cole, Sheryl Crow and Alanis Morissette. The choices for the artiest to perform these songs is quite interesting. While DIana Krall wold be a no brainer for this type of music, the use of Alanis Morissette was and out of the box and very effective choice and she nails Let’s Do It.

The film even features John Barrowman aka Captain Jack Harkness from Torchwood singing Night and Day in a duet with Kevin Kline. For me, the highlights of the film musically are Sheryl Crow’s stark and sultry performance of Begin the Beguine as well as a jazzy and bluesy and quite naughty rendition Love for Sale depicting Cole Porter’s exploits in a gay club in Los Angeles, as Cole Porter risks the exposure of his lifestyle at the height of his career.

Cole Porter was a brilliant songwriter and a very complicated man who lead a very complicated life. The use of his own songs to tell his story, warts and all, is simply sensational. I know there will be some that will be put off by some of the subject matter in the film, but it is a brilliantly conceived and executed film nonetheless, presented with some of the finest popular music ever written, if not the finest. If you haven’t seen the film or are unfamiliar with the music of Cole Porter, by all means see this film. De-Lovely is highly recommended.

Video  

As enthusiastic as I am about the film, I cant say that I was all that pleased with the video. With certain exceptions that were few and far between, I found the film to be rather soft, flat and lacking in detail. Black levels as well were inconsistent. In particular, I found facial details to be lacking, as though the detail was scrubbed away. While I wouldn’t say that the actors had a clayfaced appearance, it would not surprise me to learn that digital noise reduction was applied to this encode.

While the film features a very natural looking color palette, the overall picture can best be described as soft, flat and fuzzy, lacking the clarity, depth and detail that we have come to expect with Blu-ray releases. While not quite of DVD quality, the video on this release has more of that DVD look that I had expected and is far from reference material. IN fact, it would not surprise me to learn that the video here was taken from the transfer made for the prior DVD release of the film. It would have been nice, although probably too expensive for this type of film, to go back and do a new transfer for a Blu-ray release.

Audio  

While I was disappointed with the video presentation here, the audio presentation is a good bit better, although still not as good as I had expected. The dialogue track is well recorded and well placed in the mix. The film is rather front heavy with the surrounds used quite effectively, to create room ambiance. While room ambiance is present throughout, I would not exactly call this an immersive sound mix. The real focus here is the music, which has very nice bass, transparency and imaging. If I would have one complaint with the music, it would be that it can at times sound a bit bright, especially in comparison with the rest of the audio.

Special Features  

The extras here are all ported over from the prior DVD release of the film. The extras include:

• Two audio commentaries, one with Director Irwin Winkler and Kevin Kline and a second with Irwin Winkler and screenwriter Jay Cocks.
• Featurettes about the making of the film. The longest is the behind the scenes “Making of De-Lovely” featuring interviews with Irwin Winkler, Jay Cocks, Kevin Kline, Ashley Judd, Jonathan Price, Elvis Costello, Diana Krall, Alanis Morisette and Sheryl Crow among a quite a few others.
• A look at the musical performances in the film entitled “The Music of De-Lovely” which features some of the same interviews featured in the making of featurette.
• Two making of featurettes showing how the Love For Sale and Be A Clown scenes were constructed and filmed.
• Deleted scenes
• Trailers

All in all, the extras included here are rather standard fair and include nothing that was not already included on the prior DVD release of the film. All are presented in standard definition.

Final Thoughts 

De-Lovely is a very original and compelling look into the complicated life of America’s greatest tunesmith, Cole Porter, and some truly wonderful music. While I was disappointed with the video presentation included here, I can still highly recommend this film. Check it out, I am sure you will be glad you did.

Film  

I am sure that all of you know just a tad about this film even if you have never seen it or have even heard about it. We all know the opening lines of ‘if I were a rich man, da da deed dum, da da dee da daddle dum….” and have all heard the song “Sunrise Sunset” one place or the other. However, Fiddler On The Roof is so much more and is a very deep and moving film.

The film is set in the Ukraine in Zarist Russia in 1905. The film takes place in the small jewish village of Anatevka and follows Tevye, his wife Golde and their 5 daughters. Tevya is played by Topol (nominated for best Actor for his work in the film) who was in the same role in the play as it played in London, with Zero Mostel in that role in New York. Teyva is the central character in the play. He is a milkman in this very small and very poor village who is looking to marry off his oldest daughter to the rich and much older butcher in town. However, something intervenes in this plan, namely the 20th Century and the concept on romantic love.

It seems that Tevya’s oldest daughter wants to marry for love and does not want to accept the prior tradition of arranged marriages. In fact, the tensions between the old traditions and new ways of the 20th Century are what is at the heart of the film, from romantic love to the use of modern machinery to interfaith marriages, it is all covered here, all set against the backdrop of a small traditional and orthodox Jewish village. It is not just Tevya and his family that are caught up in the turmoil of change but the entire town too as the film is also set against the background of the Russian revolution. The end of traditions indeed.

What makes this film so special for me is that they were able to take the play off stage, keep most of the dialogue intact and place you in the town with the family, to give you a glimpse of what it must have been to live in the town at that time. The acting and writing is superb as are the songs and orchestrations by John Williams. The acting, direction, sets and music here are all top notch and well worth a look. if you haven’t seen this film, do yourself and favor and do so.

If you have already seen the film, see it again. A bit of warning, it is a long film and is broken into two acts. You may want to break up your viewing of the film into two nights. Check it out, you will be glad you did. This film is very highly recommended.

Video  

I was more than happy with the look of the film. The film has a very natural looking color palette. Where it falls a bit short, is in the level of detail and blacks levels. The film, like too many films of its vintage (in this case 1971) is a bit soft. As a result, fine facial detail and background details are lacking in all but the extreme closeups. Black levels are also a bit inconsistent and never deep and inky. At best, they are a dark gray. As a result, the image lacks a bit of depth. However, the film otherwise looks quite nice and pleasing to the eye. The print looks to be in excellent shape as well and has undergone an very nice restoration for this 40th Anniversary release of the film. The look of the film on Blu-ray should more than please fans of the film.

Audio  

The audio here is presented in a 7.1 DTS HD Master Audio mix. Given the age of the film and the overall original sound design of the film, I found this to be rather surprising. The film is very front heavy with sparse use of the surrounds. Given this fact, a 5.1 mix would have been more than adequate and a 7.1 mix, simply overkill, adding little to the overall audio presentation of the material.

The overall fidelity of the recorded sound is quite good, sounding full, rich and warm. Dynamics are good but no where near reference. The dialogue track is well recorded and placed in the mix although it did appear to me that there were small sync issues with the recording of the songs which did not always match up properly with the picture. This was rare and very very minor but noticeable enough for me to check my system to make sure it was functioning properly. In case you are wondering, it was. The orchestrations here by John Williams sound great with a wonderful warm and rich sound that I found to be very pleasing. If you are looking for a totally immersive sound experience with room rattling dynamics, Fiddler On The Roof is not the film for you. However, given the age of the film and its original sound design, I found the audio here to be more than presentable.

Special Features  

The extras here are fairly extensive, although it appears to me that most were ported over from the prior DVD release of the film.

• Audio commentaries by director Norman Jewison and Topol as well as a look at Norman Jewison as a film maker.
• Retrospective interview with Norman Jewison about the film entitled Norman Jewison Looks back which I might add I found rather informative.
• Interview with John Williams about the musical score entitled “John Williams: Creating a Musical Tradition” which I also found to be interesting. There is a look at the songs featured in the film entitled quite appropriately “Songs of Fiddler On The Roof”.
• One deleted song from the film “Any Day Now” which features the actual recording of the song with pictures of the actors singing given that the filmed sequence has been lost.
• A look at the three actresses who played Tevye’s three oldest daughters in the film including interviews with each.
• Set designs and locales for the film as well as a story board to film comparison.
• Teyve’s dream sequence with a comparison between the live color footage that was compared directly side by side on screen to the desaturated almost black and white footage that was actually included in the film.
• The remaining extras consist of trailers and TV sports for the film.

Fiddler On The Roof is a two disc combo pack and also contains a DVD copy of the film as well. If you are a fan of the film, there is quite a bit to go through here with most of it being quite interesting and informative and well worth your time.

Final Thoughts  

Fiddler On The Roof is a great film that has more than withstood the test of time. The film has never looked or sounded better in the home than it does on this release and is a worthy addition to the collection of any serious film fan and is very highly recommended.

At first glance Paranormal Activity 2 seems like an interesting blu-ray to review… I always tend to try and invest in titles that will flex the muscles of my home theatre and when we’re dealing with a film that is supposed to look like it was shot with a handheld camcorder it may seem like it’s a sure bet this will be getting a skip on the technical aspects, but if a film is valuable enough and caters to the right market it just might surprise us. Lets see how it does.

Film

The first Paranormal Activity was a surprising effective creepshow made on a shoe-string budget in the director’s own home that became a phenomenon after playing to sold-out midnight screenings in college towns throughout the country. The film expanded its theatre count nationwide and eventually went on to make over $100 million at the domestic box office, quadruple the gross of Saw V, released that same year. It was literally The Blair Witch Project all over again. Obviously, a sequel was immediately given the green light.

Unlike the Blair Witch sequel, the makers of the Paranormal Activity sequel wisely decided to keep it simple. The set-up up is very much the same, only now we are watching the events that precede the original movie involving the sister of one of the original movie’s main characters. The pace is deliberately slow at first, allowing to build atmosphere and the movie really keeps you at the edge of your seat. In fact, you may want to be careful not to fall off, since the film has probably one of the best jump scares that I have ever seen. Period.

If you loved the first movie, you’ll enjoy this one. It’s equally as effective and takes the story in an interesting direction. It’s hard to tell where they’ll go from here, but with another sequel in the works, this appears to be the beginning on a new franchise for horror fans, just in time to replace the Halloween holiday favorite that was the Saw series for the last six years.

Video

Paranormal Activity 2’s video is displayed using the AVC MPEG-4 codec. The video is a bit hard to judge on this film. The film is heavily reliant on its perspective on the content. Camcorder P.O.V. is nothing new in the realm of horror, with such films as “Cloverfield”, “Diary of the Dead”, “REC”, and the two Dowdle brother films “Quarantine” and the yet to be released “The Poughkeepsie Tapes”. However this film differs by using multiple stationary cameras such as a nanny cam or security camera along with the camcorder P.O.V. that we’re familiar with when the main characters walk around with said cam.

The problem with using this style of shooting is the quality is hindered by recreating crappy camera distortion. The film has all the expected effects from noisy images to macroblocking and banding. I believe that the negative aspects of the video quality are a part of the simulated experience.

The main camera that gets taken with the characters is the best quality, but it’s obvious that it was shot on a prosumer camera and unfortunately lands in some of the pitfalls that are associated with consumer cameras such as saturation issues and crushed blacks. However the budget for Paranormal Activity 2 was much higher than the first film so the only reason these cameras were used was a creative decision so even though this film isn’t meant to showcase HDTVs the film looks exactly how it’s supposed to.

Audio

Paranormal Activity 2’s audio comes at us using the DTS-HD Master audio in 5.1. The film is front heavy and recreates the experience of only recording audio through the on-camera microphone from each point of view camera. So dialogue and foley all come straight forward from the center speaker. However some of the audio bleeds into the surrounds at times to try and take advantage of the codec but overall things tend to stay in the front.

The low frequencies comes it at times when some artificial rumble is added to sweeten sound effects and sound design, but overall the sound is pretty limited which once again is another example of trying to simulate the experience of watching actual cameras… It works well but it sacrifices the quality that has come to be expected from Blu-rays.

Special Features

Unfortunately there are only two extras on the Blu-ray, “Found Footage” which is basically deleted scenes and a teaser trailer. The lack of anything substantial cuts the overall rating down for the horror community is one of the bigger audiences that still buys movies and care about special features… Think of how many times we’ve seen Evil Dead get rereleased, the only difference is a few extra. Perhaps this is the plan to release an almost barebones version of Paranormal Activity 2 and then in a couple years release a super edition. However that still doesn’t make the lack of extras here any easier to swallow.

Final Thoughts

The fact that Paranormal Activity 2 does a good job recreating the style of camcorder P.O.V. may make it seem like a poor choice when deciding between the DVD and Blu-ray for this film but the lack of special features really drags this film down. Fans deserve to be protected against the double dip that is so notorious in the horror genre however with this near barebones release it’s a fair bet we’ll be seeing some special editions down the road. Hold out or rent it.

Film

The Color Purple covers the life of Celie, a young black girl growing up in the early 1900’s. From when we first meet her as an abused daughter who has already bared two of her own father’s children and dumped into the lap of a man who is just as abusive played by Danny Glover we see just how graphic this story is going to be. It follows her throughout the years and her journey through trials and tribulations that somehow manages to foster her will power.

Whoopi Goldberg who plays Celie later in life does a great job performing with few lines, with every timid eccentricity and nervous tick that is made you see just how real Celie becomes through Whoopi’s performance. The acting throughout is great in this film with powerhouse performances by Danny Glover and Oprah.

The film was Spielberg’s first foray into the realm of drama and it was successful, being hailed by critics as a great achievement. The film proved that Spielberg’s innovative style and his ingenuity traverses genre and that even though he’s known more so for his adventure stories, the man is a genius. A lot has to do with the fact that The Color Purple’s source material was a good place to start, but needless to say when the film comes together it’s well worth it.

Video

The Color Purple’s video is displayed using the AVC MPEG-4 in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The video quality is great; when the film first started I was bit worried by the distracting grain levels but within minutes the film began to display just how well it looks.

The transfer is free of artefacting or any other examples of image degradation. The black levels are deep and the contrast manages to stay consistent throughout the film. The color palette of the film stays true to the original presentation and the grade balances its neutral tone with a bit of pop that really emphasizes the high def transfer.

Audio

The Color Purple’s audio comes at using DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 codec, which has been remixed from the original stereo master. Although the film was originally based on a stereo mix we’re given a good example of a stereo to 5.1 upconvert that does a good job taking full advantage of the surrounds, with some subtle hints of atmosphere that help immerse us into the film, as well as some subtle LFE accents on the score and some louder sound effects.

Special Features

Unfortunately the extras are simply hauled over from the last DVD release of the film, it would’ve been nice to see a few extras or perhaps some high definition bonuses but alas. A missed opportunity definitely comes to mind with the absence of the Oprah show’s special with the cast reunion that took place during the final season of Oprah’s long lived talk show.

We’re given a few featurettes that focus on the original novel and its release, a look at the cast and their performances and finally a “making of” that goes behind-the-scenes and looks at some of the different aspects of filmmaking like costuming,  art design and cinematography.

Some of the smaller extras include a video on the music of the film which is a brief overview with Quincy Jones, a stills gallery with photos of the cast and production shots and to round it out there are some trailers as well.

Final Thoughts

The film is a definitely a classic and is filled with powerful performances and an important message. With strong technical aspects to back it the film is a worthwhile purchase, unfortunately the lack of special features is bit of a bummer but the fact we’re given a great film that is presented properly is well worth it.

Disney restorations of their classic film have generally drawn their share of praise as they really do look and sound terrific. However, as with anything, they also have their share of detractors. The issues those detractors have is with the removal of all grain from the images and the use of more vibrant colors than the detractors claim were present in the originals. How they know that is not quite clear as there is no way anyone can really recall what a film looked like in the theater 2 years ago let alone 60 year ago.

Making comparisons between the Blu-ray and prior DVD or even laserdisc and VHS copies of the films doesn’t strike me as all that useful either as that would assume that the masters those editions were made from were true to the original. All we can really do is judge the look and sound of the film as encoded on each individual release, and not make judgments based on our possibly flawed memories of days gone by.

Film 

Bambi was originally released to theaters back in 1942. The film took approximately 5 years to make and due to budget issues at Disney during the war, was scaled back in terms of the original anticipated length and clocks in at around 70 minutes. Over the years, despite its place in the pantheon of animated films, Bambi has taken quite a hit from parental groups due to its subject matter, which some feel is a bit too much for the age of child the film is aimed at. The death of Bambi’s mother is felt to be a little too harsh for young children to consider. Single parenthood is an issue that is at the center of many of Disney’s films and frankly, as a parent, I think some of these groups are taking things a bit to far in their criticism of the film. I would have no hesitation in showing Bambi to a child of almost any age.

Bambi is a sweet and charming film about the beauty of nature and the animals of the forest. It centers on Bambi, a young deer and his friends the rabbit Thumper and the skunk Flower, as they grow up in the forest and learn about life and love and the dangers and tragedies we all encounter during our lives. At it core, the film is pro nature but there are those over the years who feel that is anti hunter, as it is hunters who take the life of Bambi’s mother and whose carelessness burns down the beautiful forest near the end of the film.

While the film can be viewed as having a political message, I chose to look at the film for what is really is, a sweet film about some lovable creatures in a beautiful setting, celebrating life and finding one’s first true love. While a bit dated by today’s standards, Bambi nonetheless is a classic film and one that belongs in the collection of any fan of animated films and is very highly recommended.

Video 

While I am getting older (it sure beats the alternative), I am no where near old enough to have seen Bambi when it was originally released in theaters in 1942 or during its more successful re-release in 1947. Heck, I wasn’t even a gleam in my father’s eye back then. Needless to say, I have no recollection of what the film originally looked like and will not judge this release by that standard. I will say without hesitation that Bambi on Blu-ray looks better that I have ever seen it at home, and by a wife margin. In a move that will no doubt frustrate some film purists, all of the film grain has been removed from the image. The resulting image is there very clear, so clear that one can more fully appreciate the impressionist paintings that form the backgrounds of the animation.

Unlike some of the other classic Disney films, the images here do not leap off the screen, due in part because of the color palette used as well as the impressionist backgrounds. The color palette consists mostly of various shades of brown, tan and gray, with some green, blues, oranges and reds thrown in. While the various characters are beautifully animated, they lack the fine subtle details of some of the other Disney films. The backgrounds in particular lack much in the way of detail and on purpose. Only a hint of a tree or shrub is drawn rather than an accurate representation of one. As a result, the overall image is bit on the soft side. Again this is deliberate, much like a classic Monet painting. Bambi is a highly stylized and truly beautiful piece of animation, with out without the film grain and was a joy to behold on Blu-ray.

Audio 

Given the age of the film, I was not expecting a great sound mix. However, I was more than pleased with the new 7.1 DTS HD Master Audio included with this release. The sound design provides a more than adequate sense of immersion, with quite effective use of the sounds. It is amazing that they were able to squeeze such an effective sound mix out of what I presume were at best two channel masters. Bass response is good as well with the classical music score and sound effects sounding particularly impressive, again given the age of the film and the state of the recording technology of the day.

The only real issue I have with the audio here is the overall fidelity. This is not the fault of the encoding process but the original sound elements, which have the thinness that one normally associates with the sound of the time period the film was made in, lacking the lushness of a newer recording. The technology just does not exist yet to transform those old sound elements into a more modern and more lush sounding aural experience. Given the age of the film, the audio presentation here is excellent and should really impress fans of the film.

Special Features 

Bambi is presented as a combo pack, containing both a Blu-ray and DVD copy of the film. The main extra included here is the Inside Walt’s Story Meetings-Enhanced Edition, which is an interactive feature which runs alongside the running of the film, with voice re-enactments of the actual transcribed production meetings between Walt Disney and his staff, where they discussed how to put this film together. During this feature, the actual film runs on screen in a small box. I found one aspect of this presentation to be quite interesting, namely the use of real animals for the basis of the film’s character animation. Walt Disney did not want the animals to look as cartoonish as they did in Snow White for example so he brought in real deer, rabbits and the like for the animators to study and form the basis of their animations. As a result, although clearly stylized for the purpose of adding personalities, the animal characters look much more life like than they ever appeared in prior Disney animations.

Also included are:

• Two never before seen deleted scenes, pieced together from the original storyboards for the film found in the Disney archives.
• Two Disney short cartoons “The Old Mill” and “Ice” featuring Pluto, which were used as templates for scenes in the film, such as Bambi walking over ice for the first time.
• A deleted song “Twitterpated” which is a term used in the film to describe how one feels at the onset of love.
• A Disney Big Book of Knowledge Game which uses the film as a learning tool and classic DVD features such as “The Making of Bambi: A Prince is Born” which takes a look at how the film was made, touching on such topics as the animation process, the use of child actors and the like.
• A “Tricks of the Trade” excerpt from a 1957 Disneyland TV show discussing the multiplane camera used in the production of Bambi. “Inside the Disney Archives” does just that, with Disney Supervising Animator Andreas Deja.
• Disney Second Screen which requires the use of a laptop or iPad which enables you to stream content about the film from the web as you watch the film. Isn’t just watching the film enough anymore?

Final Thoughts 

Bambi is yet another of the “Big 5″ Disney animated features that has finally made its way to Blu-ray. It features a total restoration of the video elements and a new 7.1 audio mix. This release is not to be missed and is very highly recommended.

I hadn’t seen this film since its initial theatrical release 20 year ago. I was very impressed by the film back then and can recall thinking “Wow!” as I left the theater. Would the film be as impressive as I remembered it to be with 20 years worth of perspective or would it be like the Good Old Days often are, not as good as we recall? Thankfully in this case, even given the expanded length of the film, it is every bit as good as I recall it being.

Film 

I loved this film when I saw it the first time and found it to be just as pleasing on Blu-ray. The film included here is the extended cut and clocks in at nearly 4 hours and is almost an hour longer than the film I saw at the theater. A four hour running time is probably too long a time to sit in a theater to watch a film, so the ability to pause it and come back to finish it later one of the real benefits of home theater. For those of you who saw Avatar, you know the basic plot for Dances With Wolves.

Set in 1863, Dances With Wolves stars Kevin Costner as Lt. John J. Dunbar of the Union Army who, after an act of tremendous bravery (or an attempt at suicide depending on your point of view), is granted a transfer from the front lines to the frontier of the great plains. When asked at his new post why he would want a transfer to the no man’s land of the western frontier, he said so that he can see it before it is gone.

By the times he arrives at the small fort where he was stationed with a load of provisions, it had been deserted due to lack of support. All by himself, he repaired the fort and began to man it himself, hoping to get a look at buffalo and the great rolling plains. After awhile, a lone wolf comes near the fort for food and John Dunbar begins to feed it. It is after observations of him with the wolf that the local Sioux tribe gives him the name, Dances With Wolves.

A lone Sioux, eventually comes upon the fort and encounters Lt. Dunbar. He convinces the tribe to send others to feel Lt. Dunbar out, to see if he is a threat. After a slow start, the tribe welcomes him as one of their own and Lt. Dunbar weds Stands With A Fist (Mary McDonnell), a white woman who the tribe adopted after the rest of her family was killed by a more violent local tribe. Unlike some of the other tribes in the frontier, The Sioux tribe is very peaceful, living in harmony with the land, wandering the plains looking for food and water and the buffalo, who are very important to their survival. They kill only as many buffalo as they need to feed their tribe. Lt. Dunbar is captivated by how they live in harmony with nature and wants to live with them.

After he weds, he returns to the fort which to his surprise, has now been fully staffed by soldiers who do not share his love for the Sioux. They view him in his indian garb as a traitor and place him in jail. When he refuses to turn on the tribe, he is beaten. When Danes With Wolves does not return, the tribe is concerned and sets out to rescue him to reunite him with the tribe and his new wife. In doing so, Danes With Wolves is forced to make a choice between his past or his new family in a fight for his own survival.

In addition to the lead role, Kevin Costner also directed the film which is based on a book of the same name by Michael Blake. The film won 7 Academy Awards including Best Cinematography, film editing, original score, directing and Best Picture. All of the awards were well deserved. Dances With Wolves is a captivating film and a true classic. It was a treat to experience the film in HD for the first time with an all new hi def transfer and a new 7. 1 audio track. Dances With Wolves is every bit as good as I recalled it to be and is very highly recommended.

Video 

Dances With Wolves is filled with some great cinematography and looks superb on Blu-ray. Clearly, given the length of the film, great care went into the encode for this release and I could not detect much in the way of significant artifacts that would in any way spoil one’s enjoyment of the film. The early part of the film involving the Civil War battles looks quite good with bright and vivid greens and the bright red of blood the dominant colors in the color palette. When the film moves out west, those colors are replaced by the beautiful blue sky and the browns of the South Dakota landscape where the film was shot. The rolling hills of the plains look great and the film gives one a great look at how the landscape of the frontier may have looked in the mid 19th Century.

While the film does not have the inkiest of blacks, the blacks are more than acceptable and are consistent throughout the film. Some of the darker interior scenes do have a bit of black crush but are not really all that objectionable. As far as I know, that is just how the film was supposed to look. Details are quite good during close-ups but loss a bit on more distant shots which are a tad on the soft side. Film grain is apparent and it does not look like much in the way of digital noise reduction was applied to “clean” up the look of the film, which still has that film like look about it. All things considered, this is a fine encode of a fine looking film and is one that should more than please fans of the film. Well done Fox.

Audio 

The same care that went into the encoding of the video for this release was also used for the audio which has been remixed into a 7.1 sound design. The overall fidelity of the audio is excellent, which can be described as smooth, full and rich although lacking the degree of transparency as the very best sounding films. The musical score sounds sensational. The dialogue track is always clear and front and center in the sound mix. I found large sections of the film to be a bit front heavy with the surrounds used for low ambient effects. However, when they are used more aggressively, they are used very well, for example the sounds of the wind whipping through the plains, the thundering buffalo herd and the various battle sequences.

Bass response is very good with gun shots having a believable sense of weight. The same can be said of the thundering buffalo herd which rumbles quite convincingly through your room although without the sheer room rattling bass of the very best sound mixes. The film is 20 year old after all. All in all, this is a fine audio encode and one that will also thrill fans of the film.

Special Features 

Dances With Wolves is presented as a 2 disc set. The film is so long that the only extras on the first disc consist of audio commentaries featuring Kevin Costner and producer Jim Williams and a second featuring Director of Photography Dean Semler and Film Editor Neil Travis. The extras on the first film also contain two in movie experiences MIlitary Rank and Social Heirarchy Guide and Real History or Movie Make Believe?, both of which are entirely forgettable in this writer’s opinion.

The second disc contains the rest of the making of featurettes with only one in high definition and that is “A Day in the Life on the Western Frontier” which provides an historical look at what life was really like on the frontier. This one is certainly worth a look.

The rest appear to have been ported over from the prior DVD release. The other featurettes are the “Original Making With Wolves” and “The Creation of an Epic: A Perspective Documentary”, the latter of which is quite long and detailed, detailing every aspect of the making of the film and its reception by the film going public. Also included is a Dances Photo Montage with an introduction by photographer Phil Glass as well as the original trailer for the film. For a film this significant, I was expecting a bit more and some newer featurettes on the making of the film.

Final Thoughts 

Dances With Wolves is another film which has stood the test of time. It features fine audio and video encodes that should more than please fans of the film. Do yourself a favor, if you have seen Avatar, check out Dances With Wolves and see just how much better this type of material can be handled. Very highly recommended.

Film 

There is little question that Thelma & Louise is a classic. There were certainly no films like it before and I can’t really think of one since its release. In this regard, it pretty much stands as unique in the history of cinema. Sure there were plenty of road movies before and since and plenty of Buddy films. However, this is the only “Buddy” or “Road” film that I can recall where the two leads were women and not men. The movie world was male dominated 20 years ago and still is. When Thelma & Louise was released, it caused quite a stir in the media, including a cover piece in Time.

How you viewed the film often times depended on your gender, with women loving it, viewing it as a film about the empowerment of women and men hating it anti male given the way Thelma & Louise treated most men in the film. I guess men were not used to seeing men shot and humiliated in films by women. Looking back on it with 20 years’ perspective, all the bluster about the film seems to be just that, bluster. It is simply a great film about two interesting and complex women and one that I am grateful to see make its debut on Blu-ray.

I am sure that most of you already know the plot line of the film. Thelma & Louise are played brilliantly by Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon. Thelma is a housewife trapped in a loveless marriage to a real boob and leading a life totally devoid of even a hint of excitement or passion. Louise is a long time friend who works as a waitress in a diner who has some hidden demons that manifest themselves early enough in the film.

They decide to have a little fun and meet to go fishing in the mountains. Along the way they stop at a truck stop for some drinks where Thelma is hit on by Harlan Puckett (Timothy Carhart), a married man who is well known at the restaurant/bar as a pick-up artist. Thelma has too much to drink and feels sick while dancing. She goes outside for some fresh air where Harlan tries to rape her after she rejects his affections. Louise comes upon the scene while trying to locate Thelma as Harlan is just starting ito manhandle Thelma over the hood of a car and breaks it up with a gun from Thelma’s handbag to the back of Harlan’s head.

While leaving, Harlan says something derogatory to Louise who turns around and shoots and kills him. Rather than call the police, the two flee the scene. When the murder is discovered, the police, led by Detective Hal Slocumb (Harvey Keitel) quickly zero in on Thelma & Louise as suspects and begin to pursue them as they attempt to escape to Mexico. As they cross several states as part of their escape, they engage in criminal activity to finance their efforts to avoid capture at the hands of just about every law enforcement agency in the Southwest United States.

*Spoiler Alert*

Along the way, they truly discover themselves and even enrich their friendships, to the point that they commit suicide together rather than get caught, as they drive their car over the edge of the Grand Canyon as the film ends with that unforgettable sight of their car suspended in the air over the canyon before they can begin the plunge to their deaths.

Despite the subject matter, the film is filled with humor and is a very entertaining 129 minutes. Thelma & Louise is an unforgettable film that is as good today as when it was released way back in 1991 and is highly recommended.

Video 

I have no recollection as to how this film looked in the theaters 20 years ago. I am not sure that anyone would have having only seen the film once 20 years before. That said, this is a fine looking encode. The film has a pleasing looking color palette which is a bit skewed to the color cyan, with colors having a light blue tinge to them. Black levels are good and stable and consistent throughout the film but far from reference. Color saturation, detail, shadow detail and clarity are all good, although the overall look of the film is a tad on the soft side.

I found film grain to be well preserved with the overall video presentation maintaining that film like appearance. Other than during the opening sequence of the film where slight banding was present, I noticed no significant encoding issues. The print used for the release looked clean and in excellent shape. Fans of the film should be more than pleased with the look of the film on its initial Blu-ray release.

Audio 

All in all I was quite pleased with the audio here. While the sound design is a bit front heavy, the overall fidelity of the recorded sound was excellent, sounding smooth, rich and open with not even the hint of hardness evident. Bass response was particularly strong and most noticeable during the film score and sound effects. The dialogue track was well recorded and always intelligible. All in all, the sound reproduction here is of top notch quality.

Special Features 

I found the extras presented here to be rather mundane. The extras include an audio commentary with director Ridley Scott as well as one featuring Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis and screenwriter Callie Khouri. We also get a featurette on the making of the film and the reaction to it entitled “Thelma & Louise: The Last Journey” which is presented in standard definition and appears to have been ported over from the prior DVD release of the film.

Also included is an extended ending to the film with commentary by Ridley Scott, where he explains why the extended ending was deleted from the film. The extras also include several extended and deleted screens, a mutli-angles storyboard of the final chase scene as well as the original trailer for the film and a “Part of You, Part of Me” music video by Glenn Frey.

Final Thoughts 

It was great to see Thelma & Louise again after 20 years. its initial release on Blu-ray looks and sounds about as good as this film can and should please the many fans of this film and is highly recommended.