Film 

When I saw the trailer for Cop Out in the theater, I thought the film looked like one to avoid completely. It looked like a terrible film with an insipid plot with mail it in performances by the cast, especially Bruce Willis. Well, having now seen the entire film, my impressions from the trailer were spot on. This is one stupid film with a lame plot and an awful performance by Bruce Willis, who looks like he is sleepwalking during the entire film. Tracey Morgan gives his usual annoying performance as does the most annoying actor in Hollywood, Seann William Scott. I guess you can say that I am not a fan.

You can essentially describe Cop Out as a buddy cop film with Bruce Willis and Tracey Morgan playing twp Brooklyn cops. After an investigation into a drug buy goes bad and the informant is killed, Bruce Willis’ character is suspended for a month. It is terrible timing as his daughter is about to get married. His character wants to pay for the wedding, in part because his ex-wife’s new husband wants to pay for it. Without receiving any pay, Bruce decides to sell a rare and very valuable baseball card which will more than pay for the wedding. However, the card is taken from him during a robbery and the robber in turn turns over the card to the leader of the drug ring that was the subject of the investigation that lead to the suspension. It turns out that the drug kingpin happens to be an avid collector of sports memorabilia. Needless to say, the pair moves to retrieve the card from the drug kingpin and in the process, bring down the drug operation.

Given that the film was directed by Kevin Smith, one would normally have expected a better film. However, you can’t turn lead into gold and the script here is nothing but a hunk of lead. If you are a masochist, give the film a look. The rest of you should just skip this film entirely.

Video 

At first glance, Cop Out boasts a what appears to be a fine looking transfer. However, initial appearances can be deceiving. What first leaps out at you is the level of detail which is extraordinary. From facial details such as skin pores and blemishes to clothing fabric and background details, I can’t imagine wanting more detail in a picture. The color palette is quite natural, showing the gritty look of Brooklyn with excellent skin tone rendition. While I was impressed with the level of detail of this encode, the encode was plagued by excessive noise in some scenes as well as some motion artifacts which becomes distracting on larger screens. Since I didn’t see the film in the theater, I can’t say whether the noise was in the original. However, the rest of the issues I saw appear to be related to the encoding process. Had this been a great film, I would have been a lot more disappointed with the overall video quality of the release. Given it is such a bad film, I will have no problem getting over my disappointment.

Audio 

Even worse that the video presentation is the audio which is lackluster at is best. In short, the film’s audio is very flat, lacking any degree of depth. Transparency and imaging, for want of a better word, suck. This is probably one of the worst sounding lossless encodes I have heard in terms of transparency and imaging. I also found the bass to be too punchy, especially the music score, which features bloated and flabby bass. On the plus side, at least the numerous gun shots have plenty of heft. However, that is about the only positive note I can sound in regards to the audio presentation on this release. it is almost as bad as the film itself.

Special Features 

The best part of this release are the extras which is faint praise indeed. Cop Out With Your Glock Out Edition is a two disc combo pack, including a DVD copy as well as a digital copy of the film on a separate disc. The main extra is Warner’s Maximum Movie Mode which is renamed Maximum Comedy Mode on this release. The Maximum Comedy Mode features over 40 minutes of extended scenes and outtakes, picture in picture commentary featuring Kevin Smith and Seann William Scott. The best parts of the Maximum Comedy Mode are the walk-ons by Kevin Smith. The rest, you can have.

Final Thoughts 

If you are a masochist, give Cop Out a look. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and skip this one in its entirety.

Film 

Watching this film, I kept asking myself why would an actor like Liam Neeson want to get involved in this project. It must have been quite a payday. The plot of Clash of the Titans is about as thin as it gets and is just an excuse for some battle sequences and some pretty nifty CGI.

The film’s premise is that Zues and the rest of the Greek gods, are upset that their people are no longer worshiping them and are in fact, in open rebellion against them. This infuriates Zues who created man for the sole purpose of worshiping him and the rest of the gods, thereby somehow increasing their power. In comes Zues’ brother Hades, who is naturally quite upset over Zues’ relegation of him to the underworld.

Playing on Zues’ sensitivity and anger, Hades concocts a plan to force man into dropping their rebellion and return to their worship of the gods. Unbeknownst to Zues, Hades was really using this opportunity to strike back at his brother and wrest control of Olympus from him. Into this family squabble comes Perseus, who is part god and part man, being the son of Zues after he essentially raped the wife of the king of the rebels. Perseus, discovering his true identity, wants no part of divine nature and wants to live his life as a man and wants to strike back at Hades for Hades’ killing of his foster family. Before Hades can complete his plan to crush man, Perseus joins a ban of warriors who journey into forbidden worlds, including the underworld itself, looking for the key to foil Hade’s plot.

While the plot sounds like a good idea, this film spends far too long on battle sequences and fails to delve into the feelings and true nature of both Perseus and the gods themselves. I would have liked to see more of a focus of the gods and their true role of Greek mythology in shaping Greek society and less on CGI. In short, a more thoughtful film. Far too often, CGI is used just for its own sake and as a substitute for a plot. Such is the case in this film. Is Clash of the Titans a terrible film? No, but is one that you will only want to see once and certainly not a film you would want to add to your collection. Therefore, if you must see this film, I would recommend that you do so on the basis of a rental only.

Video 

With the exception of a handful of dimly lit interior shots, the video quality on this release is excellent. The film has a nice natural looking color palettte with excellent skin tone rendition. The film’s locales vary from lush green locations to brown and tan deserts, and volcanic landscapes and are rendered beautifully here. Blacks are deep and stable and together with the high level of detail, produce an image of very nice depth. While this release is not 3D, it is clear where the hokey 3D effects were placed throughout the film and it is also clear why the theatrical 3D release was so poorly received.

While there is a bit of DNR and Edge enhancement visible in the image, they are minimal and not really noticeable on a screen size under 60 inches. Even with the application of some DNR, overall detail is excellent, including facial detail and skin texture, backgrounds, clothing and the like. The only real issue I had with the release were a few interior shots which looked very soft and a bit washed out and flat and having a very processed look. With these minor exceptions, I found this to be a very pleasing transfer. I wish the same could be said for the film.

Audio 

If you are looking for a film with a bombastic soundtrack, Clash of the Titans is the film for you. it will certainly give your subwoofer a workout. The film features excellent overall fidelity and dynamics. The fight sequences with the giant scorpions are true reference material for bass junkies. Not only will your entire room shake, but you may also shake the rest of the house and may have you scrambling for the remote if it feels like your house is about to crash on top of you.

The dialogue track is also well recorded and well placed in the mix, never getting drowned out or obscured by the cacophony of the battle sequences. The only real issue I had with the audio was the sound design itself which I would have preferred to be a little more immersive throughout the film and a little more refined. Don’t get me wrong, the film’s action sequences are certainly very immersive. It is just that I would have preferred the quieter interior sequences to have that same immersive feeling as well. This is a rather small complaint and one which did not impact my viewing experience to any significant degree.

Special Features 

The Blu-ray edition of Clash of the Titans is certainly packed with many extras. The release is a combo pack so it includes a second disc containing a DVD copy of the film as well as a digital copy.

The extras contained on the Blu-ray disc feature deleted scenes and an alternate ending of the film. Also included is a featurette on Sam Worthington entitled “Sam Worthington: An Action Hero for the Ages”.

The best and longest of the extras is what Warners calls maximum Movie Mode which runs concurrent;y with the film where Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and director Louis Leterrier discuss various aspects of the making of the film. As it runs concurrently with the film, you really should watch the film first and then rewatch the film with the Maximum Movie Mode enabled. The only downside to this approach is that it will result in you having to watch the film twice.

The Maximum Movie Mode focuses on a number of areas including Sam Worthington is Perseus, Harnessing the Gods, Zeus: Father of Gods and Men, Enter the World of Hades, Calibos: Te Man Behind the Monster, Tenerife: A Continent on an island, Scorpioch, Actors and their Stunts, Wales: A Beautiful Scarred Landscape, Bringing Medusa to Life and Prepare for Kraken. All in all, the Maximum Movie Mode features more than 40 minutes of PIP commentary.

Final Thoughts 

If you like mindless action adventure film, Clash of the Titans just may be the film for you. For the rest of you, if you must, I would check out Clash of the Titans on the basis of a rental only. All I know is that once was more than enough for me.

Films

Doctor Giggles is a slasher flick following one of the more ridiculous and over-the-top killers in the nineties’ repertoire of psychos and other freaks. The story tries to follow two separate paths; the killer’s origin and nature, as well as the life of his newest mark, a girl with a heart defect.

The film seems to be trying to set itself up as the beginning of a possible franchise, because they try and spend so much time setting things up that by the end of the film nothing is really accomplished. We waste so much time on trivial things such as the Doctor killing random teens in a house with various medical equipment, for the sake of allowing the writers to throw out a plethora of doctor puns and jokes that we barely get to know the main victims on the film… thus we don’t really care if they live or die.

The dark humour that surrounds Doctor Giggles is supposed to come off as eerie, we’re supposed to see this killer a pure demented terror… but rather I sat there thinking about how sad it is to see Larry Drake in this light. The actor who plays the doctor will always be the very over-the-top (in a good way this time) villain in Darkman to me, however this film simply looked like a cash grab for him.

On a different note, Otis is a film about a middle-aged serial abductor who kidnaps girls to try and live out his fantasy of taking a cheerleader to the prom; he’s apparently gone through many girls already as he tries and finds the perfect one to play along in his sick game.

The film then takes a pretty big left turn in the third act, which I won’t give away, but it definitely made the film which was starting to get dry and boring a burst of life. The film overall is a bit forced and the only decent performances are from Otis and Riley the daughter, but I was starting to get fairly annoyed by Illeana Douglas’s performance which felt incredibly stiff at the same time as it felt like she was over reaching.

Neither film is worthwhile watch if you’re not into random horror films and I’m still confused as to why these films were paired together. It would’ve made more sense, in my mind, to pair Otis with Sublime, a film also directed by Tony Krantz and written by Erik Jendresen. As an interesting tidbit, Otis has a cameo (actually simply one shot) by Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs in it representing his role from Sublime where he played a satanic orderly… There was a hospital scene where the camera pans down a hallway and we see a man in a very peculiar outfit and red bowtie… My brother, the movie buff, was able to point out this reference, which makes me believe he may be the exact person these kind of double features are aimed for.

Video

Dr. Giggle’s video is displayed in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 using the VC-1 codec and isn’t a bad transfer, the print used is pretty clean however the overall image is pretty soft, which covers up any noticeable grain and potential noise, but lacks sharpness and definition. The colours are fairly washed out at times and in darker lit scenes there’s a lack of contrast which causes some unappealing red skin tones as well as black levels to be grayer than anything else, but as the film goes on it’s revealed that there’s some inconsistencies in the tone and when it’s less appealing, the blacks are quite crushed… It’s definately a messy video presentation.

Otis on the other hand looks a lot better, its colours are cleaner and overall clearer, but it incorporates a harsh colour palette with an amber cast over everything which makes the film look grungy but not necessarily bad. However in the lower lighted scenes there’s a lot of noise and during these scenes that are quite noticeable, especially on larger screens.

Audio

Both films’ audio comes at us using the DTS-HD Master 5.1 Surround codec and both seem to encapsulate the mixes decently, however true to its times Dr. Giggles being a lower budget horror film from the early nineties has a mix that is pretty underwhelming. Otis on the other hand is a relatively newer film, but once again… nothing special.

Dr. Giggles score seems to be the main focus of the mix, it over powers most of the other audio, but dialogue is still fairly clear regardless. The dialogue is clean and noise-free throughout, but some of the sound effects have that “canned” sound to them. The mix lacks surround presence but we do get some sound bleeding from the front of the mix which helps a bit.

Otis’s sound is more dynamic, but again lacks surround presence, the score bleeds over as well, which may be one of the reasons these two films were paired together… poor technical quality is the only thing these flicks have in common.

Special Features

There are no special features.

Final Thoughts

Neither film is really a stand out in the horror genre, from an over-the-top tongue-in-cheek Dr. Giggles to the “is this supposed to be funny or scary” Otis. We’re given two very mediocre flicks and with a below average audio/video presentation. I’d only feel comfortable recommending this as a rental to horror junkies, but due to the randomness in pairing these two very different films together, I would think that even they would be disappointed.

Films

Sudden Impact & The Enforcer are two very different films, everything from their visual style to their stories’ content differ. Sudden Impact is a very dark and gritty crime story with a seedy and mature story, whereas The Enforcer follows a more average crime storyline.

Sudden Impact centers around a revenge tale of a woman who was tricked into a situation where she ends up getting gang raped, where although she survives she vows to exact revenge against all those involves. The film carries on with Harry Callahan following the murders and piecing together her story. Harry then has to decide if her actions are just. One downfall to Sudden Impact is Sondra Locke’s performance, which isn’t terrible, but it doesn’t surprise me that after her divorce with Clint Eastwood she wasn’t able to find much work.

The Enforcer follows Harry as he tries to foil a terrorist group while showing his new female partner the dangers of police work. Where Sudden Impact told a dark tale, The Enforcer is a bit easier on the audience and actually provides a politically correct tale which shows women in an equal light. In comparison to the other sequels such as Dead Pool, these films stand out as the lesser of the four sequels. Just remember however that in Dead Pool we’ve got to deal with a high speed chase with a remote control car (I think there was a reason it was the last film). So even though The Enforcer & Sudden Impact aren’t the best installments to the series they do cover some interesting subject matter.

To newcomer Eastwood fans, see the original Dirty Harry first and make the informed decision of whether or not you want to see the continuation of Harry Callahan’s story, but make sure you realize none of the sequels really live up to the original, however if you do get around to watching Sudden Impact, you get to witness the delivery of the famous line”Go ahead make my day”.

Video

Both films’ video is displayed using the VC-1 codec at 1080p in their original aspect ratios of 2.40:1. Both films are free of artefacts and above-average amounts of grain. The Enforcer has a slightly softer image and comes off brighter than Sudden Impacts’s contrasted lighting scheme.

Both films’ have some extended night sequences, which really showcase the limitations of the film stocks of the time. That isn’t much of an issue, considering basically every film around the time had the same issues, but Sudden Impact’s noir style cinematography is a bit hard to follow.

The motion within the video is pretty smooth and skin tones are natural, however the colours are slightly muted. Considering the age. of the material, the films look pretty good!

Audio

Both film’s audio comes at us using the DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio, with a Dolby TrueHD lossless encoding as a secondary option. Both options for our listening pleasure are pretty much on even keel, if you’re an audiophile then it’s pretty much a standard to just stick with DTS-HD, however I noticed that the track had a different balance when listening to the TrueHD version.

Most notably the main difference with the TrueHD vs the DTS-HD track is the surround presence as well as the score. The DTS-HD version has been remixed to have some sound come from behind, wheras the TrueHD relies on surround bleeding for most of it’s  rear presense.   The score on the TrueHD version however pops a bit more, which may not be great for Sudden Impact due to the very dated style of score.

Special Features

Although a lot of these double feature value packs are sometimes quickly put together with little care put into the special features section. Both films have audio commentaries, The Enforcer‘s commentary is by the film’s director whereas Sudden Impact’s commentary is done by a historian/eastwood biographer.

There’s also a handful of featurettes including a career retrospective on Eastwood, which seems to be the big thing now with the Eastwood filmography catalogue getting rereleased to celebrate his body of work, however the featurette is only about twenty minutes and doesn’t cover any fresh ground.

Final Thoughts

Both films, although dated are great examples of the classic era of the action genre, if you’re a fan of the dirty harry films then these affordable double feature collections might be a good way to get your favorite films from the series. If you’re a newcomer who’s interested in seeing a couple fun action flicks from the past, then this film will make a good rental. With decent audio/video presentation and a good amount of special features makes this a worthwhile rental.

Film 

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

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

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

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

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

Video 

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

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

Audio 

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

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

Special Features 

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

Final Thoughts 

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

Film 

The best way to describe The Warlords would be to imagine a cross between a marital arts film and The Longest Day or the opening 18 minutes or so of Saving Private Ryan.

The film is set in China during the 1860′s and stars Jet Li as General Pang whose troops were victims of a massacre during the Taiping Rebellion. General Pang escaped death during the massacre by playing dead under the bodies of some of his less than fortunate troops. He pulls himself out from under his dead soldiers after the battle and comes upon a group of passing bandits lead by Er Hu (Andy Lau) and Wu Yang (Takeshi Kaneshiro).

After Pang helps Er Hu and Wu Yang defend a helpless village that is under attack from the forces of General Ho, the three take an oath as blood brothers, pledging loyalty to each other until the death. At Pang’s urging, Er Hu and Wu Yang as well as other members of the group join the army to lead what Pang describes as a more honorable life. The three lead an army during the rebellion that has remarkable success.

The film is filled with some rather gruesome and realistic battle sequences featuring plenty of blood, gore, decapitations and some marital arts. At the end, the three blood brothers are done in by some intrigue involving political ambitions on the part of Pang as well as Pang and Er Hu’s desires for a beautiful woman. Despite the unnecessary gore, I found The Warlords to be an interesting film, providing a glimpse into Chinese history that I knew little about.

While I enjoyed the film, I found its pacing to be a bit slower that I desired. I also can’t imagine sitting down and watching this film more than once. Accordingly, while I enjoyed the film and feel that it is definitely worth a look, I would suggest that you do so on the basis of a rental only.

Video 

After having watched a bit of this film on HD Net, I can say that the Blu-ray release offers a significant upgrade over the TV experience as the Blu-ray does not possess the MPEG-2 motion artifacts that were visible on the cable version I saw. The film is not exactly a bright and colorful film. Most of the color palette of the film consists of varying shades of brown, black and gray. The film itself is very gritty looking with occasional pops of color, especially bright red blood which is seen far too often for my tastes.

I found detail, especially facial detail and clothing textures to be quite impressive with excellent blacks. Overall clarity is very good as well as is shadow detail. I was not able to detect any evidence of the application of significant levels of digital noise reduction or edge enhancement as the film clearly retains the gritty look and feel of the film I saw originally on HD Net. All in all, the Blu-ray release of The Warlords represents a significant upgrade over the prior cable release of the film and is one that should please fans of the film.

Audio 

The release of The Warlords on Blu-ray includes two lossless tracks, Mandarin and English. While the dialogue track on the English version sounded better, I preferred watching the film in the original Mandarin with English subtitles. There is just something about dubbed films I just don’t like. Maybe its the dialogue that continues once the lips stop moving that freaks me out. It is great that this release gives you the choice of two lossless tracks so you can decide which one best appeals to you.

If there is one thing I can state without hesitation, is that this film has some of the deepest bass I have yet to experience at home. Normally I would take the position that too much bass is just about right. However, in the case of this film, I found the bass to be a tad excessive and at times, unrelenting. From thundering horses to massive cannon blasts which just about knocked pictures off the walls in my room, this film is a bass junkies’ dream. Unfortunately, all this bass comes at the cost of nearly overwhelming the rest of the sound mix and at times does.

As for the rest of the sound, I found it to be a bit on the thin side, lacking a bit too unnatural, lacking the smoothness and depth of the better sounding tracks I heard. I wouldn’t describe the sound as harsh as it isn’t. It just lacks the fullness of the better sounding tracks, especially the dialogue and musical score which I would describe as sounding a tad shallow. The dubbed English dialogue sounds much better than the original Mandarin. The surrounds, as one would expect from an action film, are quite active throughout most of the film, creating a nice immersive sound field, especially during the battle sequences. If you are fan of unrelenting bass this release may just be for you. Just make sure that you take the pictures off the wall in your room before you screen the film.

Special Features 

The Blu-ray release of The Warlords contains many extras, most of which are in Mandarin with English subtitles. As such, it can get a bit tedious going through them all, especially all the brief featurettes detailing many aspects of the making of the film.

The extras include the usual deleted scenes as well as a Making of Featurette where numerous aspects of the making of the film are detailed, from the use of horses to battle sequences. It appears that no aspect of the making of the film is too small to be included in the featurette. Also included is a the featurette “The Warlords 117 Days: A Production Journal which I found to be very tough to follow as well as a Behind the Scenes special and HDNet: A Look at The Warlords featurette. Also included is the international trailer for the film.

If I had to choose, I would suggest that you check out the Behinds the Scenes Special as well as the HDNet special if you felt compelled to delve into the extras included with this release as I found them to be the most accessible.

Final Thoughts 

The Warlords is without a doubt a gritty and at times gruesome look at the subject of war. While the premise and execution of the film is interesting, I can’t say it is the type of film that I would want to watch more than once. While it surely deserves a look, I would suggest that you check it out on the basis of a rental only.

One challenge I anticipated with High Anxiety is that certain subjects like murder and suspense do not work well in comedy (like in Have you Heard About the Morgans).  Truly, the only way to make a thriller work with humour is to go way, way, way over the top, much like in the Police Squad series of movies.

However, my pleasant surprise at the quality of To Be Or Not To Be left me with some anticipation that this movie may also surprise me with its wit and charm.

Film

To catch the Hitchcock references, I watched the film with the trivia track on.  And early in the move, it is stated that Mr. Brooks wanted this movie to appeal to all viewers, not just those who were fans of Mr. Hitchcock.  Although this is a noble sentiment, I found the material to be quite uneven; hilarious at times, boring at times, and likely way more interesting if you are a Hitchcock-phile.

The premise of the movie is that Nobel-prize winning psychiatrist Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke (played by Mel Brooks) has been recruited to run the “The Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous” in Los Angeles.  As we discover early in the film, the previous head psychiatrist passed away under very suspicious cicumstances, apparently related to “big changes” he wanted to make. 

Upon arrival at the Institute, we meet Dr. Montague (played extremely well by Harvey Korman), and the intimidating Nurse Diesel (played well by Cloris Leachman), with both appearing to be up to no good.  Dr. Thorndyke and Dr. Wentworth (Dick Van Patten) represent a threat to what they are doing at the hospital, leading us into the main action of the movie. 

Other characters who appear are Victoria Brisbane (Madeline Kahn) who feels her father is being held against his will at the institute, and Professor Lilloman, a past teacher of Dr. Thorndyke’s.  Ron Carey does a turn as Brophy. Dr. Thorndyke’s chauffer, sidekick, and comedy relief.

As mentioned above, the humor in this film was quite uneven.  Some scenes, like one in the limousine when Dr. Thorndyke arrives is hilarious.  I also laughed so hard my stomach hurt when Drs. Montague and Thorndyke were visiting with a patient that appeared to have been cured of his neck pains and dreams of werewolves. 

However, much of Mel Brooks’ own material fell flat, and I found his line reading to be almost mechanical; this is his worst performance I have seen as an actor.  And although Nurse Diesel was to be played as comic relief, Ms. Leachman does too good a job with her weirdness, making her less funny and more creepy than a comedy would support.  In the featurette included on the Blu-ray, Rudy DeLuca (co-writer and the killer “Braces” in the film) states that Mel’s Sinatra-esque performance of “High Anxiety” was the high point of the movie for many.  For me, this was a low-point, and served as a good divider between the funny set-ups in the first half of the film, and the less funny suspense-tinged latter half of the film.

Harvey Korman’s performance as Dr. Montague deserves plaudits.  In many scenes, he provides the comic relief for the film, and his chemistry with Cloris Leachman is phenomenal.  Korman’s gift for physical comedy makes some average scenes much funnier than they deserved to be.

As a spoof on Hitchcock, the movie was good, with attention to detail in framing shots, shoot locations, and background music.  Unfortunately, to simply spoof others is no way to make a quality movie (see any of the [insert genre here] Movie series), and I believe this adds to the somewhat disjointed feel of the film.  That the suspense did not feel real, and the movie was conflicted between being a comedy and a thriller in its latter half made this movie less entertaining than it could have been.

Video

There has been a real appeal to the visuals in this box set of movies, and High Anxiety meets this high standard.  Appropriately grainy, with a true 70’s look and feel, this movie was watchable, pleasing, and authentic.

Although the picture could be a little soft at times, it was still an excellent presentation, and much better than one normally sees in a 33 year-old movie.  Again, the wizards at Fox have done an excellent job cleaning up a print while retaining its authenticity. 

Audio

In these older films, we expect a lack of dynamic range, a strong front-loading, little LFE information, and muffled dialog.  No surprise, this description fits High Anxiety perfectly.

Surprisingly so, this move seemed even poorer than other movies from this box set.  I cannot recall hearing any use of the surround channels, nor do I remember any rumbles from the LFE channel.  Worst of all, even the score suffers in this presentation, with a shrillness and forwardness in the high midrange that made it very unpleasant.  Generally a poor presentation, and worse that of the similar era Silent Movie.

Special Features

Unlike Silent Movie and To Be or Not to Be, High Anxiety did receive a solo Blu-ray release.  Surprisingly, we find a small feature set on this disc, similar to those released as collection-only releases.  Included are a trivia pop-up track (good for highlighting the Hitchcock parallels), an isolated score track, a medium-length HD featurette on Brooks and Hitchcock, an interactive “anxiety test” to do while the movie is playing, plus trailers for this film and other Mel Brooks films.

Although the main HD featurette is entertaining, I found Mr. Brooks to be less charming in this one than in those included on other discs.  However, it does contain some great shots from classic Hitchcock movies, as well as good anecdotes for a number of actors regarding the production.  The rest is fairly pedestrian fare.

Final Thoughts

I cannot describe myself as a Hitchcock fan; although I enjoyed his movies, they are not something I go out of my way to watch.  This shouldn’t have been an issue for this film, as Mr. Brooks wanted High Anxiety to be enjoyed by non-Hitchcock fans as well.

Unfortunately, despite a very nice video presentation, High Anxiety was simply not consistently funny enough.  Combined with substandard audio and a small batch of special features, this movie deserves only a rent, as the funny scenes (which are really good) will likely not stand up under repeated watchings.  I imagine that a student of Hitchcock would enjoy this film much, much more than the layperson.

Film  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Video  

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

Audio  

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

Special Features  

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

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

Final Thoughts  

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

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

Mr. Brooks has never struck me as a subtle humorist, and I had some worry that a comedy-musical-drama about World War II and Nazism could be taken from funny to farcical under his guidance.  Perplexingly, I also had high expectations at the same time – with such rich subject matter, and a stellar cast, this movie had the potential to be really good.  And in short, this movie was really good, the type of comedy I grew up on, and the type that seems to have fallen out of favor with the viewing public.

Film

Set on the eve of World War II, Mel Brooks plays Frederick Bronski, an apparently “famous” Polish actor who takes pride in his portrayal of Hamlet in his Excerpts from Hamlet.  In art imitating life, his wife Anna Bronski is played by Mr. Brooks’ very talented wife, the late Anne Bancroft.  As owners and lead actors in a Polish theatre company, not all is rosy between the couple, as Mrs. Bronski is feeling her importance to their success is being minimized.  This is illustrated early in the film with one of the best visual jokes I’ve ever seen (when Frederick is shown a poster for their upcoming performance of The Merry Widower).  Mrs. Bronski has her own issues, including her encouragement of advances being made to her by a dashing Polish airman, Lt. Sobinski (played by Tim Matheson).

As we historically know, the Germans invaded Poland, leading Lt. Sobinski to find himself flying for the free Polish forces in England.  There, he and his comerades give names of friends and family who are in the Polish Resistance to Professor Siletski (played well by Jose Ferrer), a traitorous agent who secretly wishes to give the information to the Nazis.

Although Lt. Sobinski gives a cryptic message of love to be taken to Anna, he later deduces Professor Siletski’s plan, and is asked by officials to go to Poland to keep Dr. Siletski from delivering this list of names to the Gestapo.  However, since Anna’s name appears on the list of people to send messages to, the Bronskis are drawn into this drama, as is their entire theatre company.

The decision to have Alan Johnson direct the film may have been the most important decision Mr. Brooks made for the quality of this film.  Mel Brooks-directed films share a certain manic “over-the-topness” that would have been inappropriate for To Be or Not to Be.  This is a story that makes fun of Nazi Germany and the self-aggrandizement of actors, yet still has serious overtones such as the Gestapo, the invasion of Poland, and the Holocaust.  Although humorous, the material requires a sensitivity and finesse to make it funny, while never losing sight of what Nazism actually meant.

Despite its grim subject matter, this is easily one of the funniest and wittiest movies I’ve seen in a very long time.  The chemistry between the actors is palpable, and their interaction is superb.  Classic comedic timing is apparent on every joke, and laughs are for the viewer to figure out – they are not handed to the audience with auditory clues or over the top visuals (a la American Pie).  The surrounding cast are as superb as they get, with standout performances from George Gaynes, Charles Durning, and James Haake.  However, special mention goes to Anne Bancroft for playing Anna in a wry and comedic way, to Mel Brooks for toning down his schtick when the script calls for it, and to Christopher Lloyd, who steals every scene he is in as a hapless SS man.

In the end, this is a very funny movie that demonstrates how good comedy can be, especially when understated humor meets over-the-top humor.  It also makes great use of classical elements of comedy, including visual jokes, running gags, caricature, and classic timing to make the audience laugh.  I cannot recollect the last time I had seen a film where I have laughed out loud this much, many times at my surprise in finding a joke that wasn’t all that obvious.  Smart, funny, and a bit melancholy, this is what a comedy should be.

Video

Again, the producers of this box set have done an excellent job with the video restoration of this film.  Although the grain we would expect for an early 80’s movie is there, enough is cleaned up so that it doesn’t become distracting in 1080p.

However, there were some issues with the presentation, most notably the soft focus that seemed to be used on Anne Bancroft from the midpoint of the film-on.  These scenes simply have a quality not congruent with the rest of the exceptional visuals in this film.  There are also scenes where there are color bleed issues, such as when Frederik returns from his meeting with the Gestapo then finds Lt. Sobinski in his bed – his shirt looks like a light bulb in the dark room.

Set design must have been done well, as they all look great and pop with color (especially the luxuriously appointed theatre interior).  Costumes were also equally well done, and the fabrics and detail truly shine in HD.  Originally a choreographer, the exactness in Director Johnson’s eye plays out well through this film, creating a great visual landscape that translated very well to Blu-ray. 

Audio

As an early 80’s film, I expected the audio presentation to be a bit of a mixed bag.  And true to form for movies of this era, it was.

Firstly, the score by John Morris is superb, and itself contains very wry and ironic themes while accompanying the movie.  It is not often one hears “Deutschland Uber Alles” incorporated slightly off kilter into a soundtrack.  Through the DTS-HD MA presentation, this score shines.

Dialog is also very clear through the centre channel, though it seems to be a bit mixed-down or muffled.  Although volume levels are good, a certain crispness or sibilance was missing.  We do suffer from the early 80’s issue of lack of dynamic range and spatializing, with the LFE channel being sadly underused, much like the surrounds.

All-in-all, an average audio presentation for a film of this era – nothing great, but better than serviceable.

Special Features

Much like Silent Movie, To Be or Not to Be did not receive a solo Blu-ray release, and we therefore find a skinnier feature set on this disc.  Included are a trivia pop-up track (a good one by the way), an isolated score track, a short HD featurette on Bancroft and Brooks working together, a short vintage promo piece (in SD), three short interviews (also in SD), plus trailers for this film and other Mel Brooks films.

Generally, not an overly impressive special feature set, with the main HD featurette being charming yet below the standard of the one that accompanied Silent Movie.

Final Thoughts

Although the “extras” of this film were minimal and the audio presentation was pedestrian, the video presentation was quite good, with the film itself being wonderful.  Well-acted, possessing a sensitivity to the subject matter, and delivering comedy in an intelligent and witty way, this is a movie I know I will watch again.

Although not a “traditional” Mel Brooks movie, I have not seen a film that better highlights his ability as an actor.  Nor have I seen a film in recent memory show how closely related comedy and tragedy are.

And unfortunately, I am again giving a “Buy It” recommendation for a film that is only available as a part of this collection.

Film 

A Single Man is based on a book of the same name by Christopher Isherwood. The film is centered around the day in the life of George Falconer, a 52 year old gay man who has decided to end his life after the death of his partner of 16 years, Jim.

The film follows George through what he intends to be his last his day, from getting dressed in the morning, teaching his English Literature class at a small college in the Los Angeles area to him taking the necessary steps to put his life in order before he takes his own life. However, it is during the course of the day when George meets new people during chance encounters and old friends that he decides that maybe life in worth living after all. Central in this discovery is probably his oldest friend Charley (Julianne Moore) who wishes they could have had a more intimate and deeper relationship and a potential new lover, his student Kenny, who discovers his plan and acts to prevent his suicide

This is a deep and at time moving film that features an excellent performance by Colin Firth as George. However, I frankly found it to be a bit ponderous and overbearing, especially in regards to some rather gratuitous gay imagery which I am sure will turn off some viewers. These misgivings notwithstanding, A Single Man is a rather interesting film overall and one that I am glad to have experienced on Blu-ray. A Single Man is definitely worth a look, but on the basis of a rental only.

Video 

To say that A Single Man is a stylized film would be an understatement. Most of the film has a very undersaturated color palette with an emphasis on the color brown. In fact, large sections of the film look almost in sepia tones with a splash of color superimposed over the brown. The color has been drained out of the image in keeping with the subject matter on screen. George is depressed over the death of his longtime lover Jim and the director Tom Ford uses the color scheme to reflect George’s state of mind. However, when George is engaged during the course of the day with subtle glances, a young girls’ smile, his interaction with Charley and the young student Kenny, who shows an interest in him, the color palette changes dramatically, becoming a bit oversaturated and skewed to the color red. It is during the moments when George decides that life may be worth living that the image on screen comes alive in tune with his state of mind.

Detail is solid throughout although far from spectacular. The same can be said for the overall clarity of the image. This is a highly stylized film with good detail, clarity and blacks but ultimately lacking the level of detail and clarity of the very best looking films on Blu-ray. Solid if unspectacular is the best way to describe the video quality of this release which will no doubt please fans of the film.

Audio 

All things considered, A Single Man packs a fine sounding lossless audio track. This is not the most sophisticated audio design. The surrounds are used only sparingly as this is a rather front heavy mix. However, the fidelity of the audio that is presented in of top notch quality. The dialogue track in particular sounds fantastic, with the subtly and intonation of each actor’s voice captured beautifully. The overall sound is smooth and open with excellent imaging and transparency. As expected for such a film, I wouldn’t exactly call the audio here dynamic but when the bass kicks in, mostly during the score, the bass is deep and tight and of excellent overall fidelity. I am sure that, as long as you weren’t expecting an action film audio design, you will be more than pleased with the audio on A Single Man, as it conveys the dialogue which moves the film forward beautifully.

Special Features 

The only extras presented on this release consist of an audio commentary with director Tom Ford and a making of featurette featuring interviews with Tom Ford, Colin Firth, Julianne Moore and Nicholas Hoult where they discuss the premise of the film. The making of featurette is presented in HD framed at 2:35:1 and looks quite good. The release is also BD-Live enabled and features Movie IQ+Sync which enables the viewer to access tidbits about the film and the actors during the film. That’s it folks.

Final Thoughts 

A Single Man is an interesting film that is more than deserving of a wider audience. I can recommend that you give the film a look, but on the basis of a rental only.