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“THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED”
“SAVING GRACE: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON”
“MORNING LIFE: A TRUE-LIFE DOCUMENTARY”
Blu-ray widescreen and DVD widescreen, 2008, R for some disturbing images of atrocities, strong violence, brief nudity and a scene of graphic sexual content
Best extra: A compelling commentary from former Israel Defense Forces soldier Ari Folman, who also wrote, directed and produced the animated film.
NOMINATED FOR Best Foreign Language Film this year, Folman's animated autobiography is a devastating look at the 1982 invasion of Lebanon and his search for his own lost memories.
"Waltz" is given a tremendous presentation on Blu-ray with strong black levels and beautiful colors. The Hebrew audio track is equally immersive, with a terrific use of surrounds and some hard-hitting war scenes that utilize all seven channels.
The commentary delves into his decision to use animation and discusses the politics that led to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, still, long gaps of silence soon plague the track. Also included are two standard-def featurettes. The first is a Q&A with the director, who covers some of the same ground as the commentary; the second is a behind-scenes. Last but not least is "Building the Scenes – Animatics," which presents four scenes at earlier stages of development to show how the animation was brought to life.
"Waltz" is in Hebrew and is subtitled. Don't let this turn you off. This is one of the more unique and inventive films you're likely to come across.
— Josh Boone
Blu-ray widescreen and DVD widescreen, 2008, PG for fantasy adventure action, some scary moments and brief language
Best extra: "From Imagination to Page: How Writers Write," a conversation with "Inkheart" author Cornelia Funke
ALL THE JOYS and clarity of Blu-ray can be seen on "Inkheart," from the fierce, fiery eyes of the Shadow to the youthful, cherubic face of actress Eliza Hope Bennett (Meggie).
Hi-def never looked so good in this tale about Mo Folchart (Brendan Fraser), a man who can read into life people, places and things out of books, something his daughter, Meggie, finds out she can do as well.
Along with an equally vivid soundtrack, "Inkheart" and its fantasy land can make a person want to read Funke’s book. Unfortunately, there are few details in the bonus features about making this fantasy flick except for a look at how Funke gets inspiration for writing.
In another featurette, cast and crew take a line from Funke and build a story out of it, from beginning to the middle to the end. It’s quite clever, although the ending left a little to be desired.
Several deleted scenes and a reading from Bennett of a passage toward the end of the book round out the high-definition bonus features.
Like many of the popular movies out today based on books, "Inkheart" has sequels, so this won’t be your last chance to revel in Funke’s imagination.
— Toni Guagenti
Blu-ray widescreen and DVD widescreen, 2009, PG for some suggestive humor, brief mild language and action
Best extra: 27 "Pink Panther cartoons" on a separate DVD.
TO HAVE ORIGINAL "Pink Panther" cartoons on one DVD makes buying "The Pink Panther 2" Blu-ray worth it. Playing all the cartoons gives you nearly three hours of pink humor. And it brings back memories.
As for the movie on Blu-ray, the quality is decent enough for this day and age. Steve Martin reprises his role as bumbling Inspector Jacques Clouseau, who is put on a dream team to stop the notorious thief Tornado. This movie has a lot more physical comedy than the first, and delves more into Clouseau’s relationship with his secretary, Nicole (Emily Mortimer), and his partner Gendarme Gilbert (Jean Reno).
The high-def bonus features are simple, including a gag reel, a look at making a comedy versus a drama, and a short about assembling the cast.
A bonus game also is fun with trivia questions that, if answered correctly, allow a player to steal the pink panther diamond.
Top it all off with a digital copy of the movie, and your "Pink Panther" Blu-ray collection is complete.
— Toni Guagenti
Blu-ray widescreen and DVD widescreen, 2009, PG for some mild language and thematic elements
Best extra: Four behind-the-scenes featurettes, all short, explaining different movie aspects
IN A WORLD of movies filled with violence, sex and harsh language, "Confessions of a Shopaholic" offers a nice change of pace.
Isla Fisher, fresh and fun in hi-def, plays Becky Bloomwood, an aspiring fashion magazine writer who has a penchant for clothes, shoes and accessories. To make her dream come true, though, she takes a job at a money-management magazine, where her life belies her popular columns, the "Girl in the Green Scarf."
What ensues are lessons learned, true love (with hunk Hugh Dancy) and decent jokes, both oral and visual.
HD bonus features answer some of the movie questions, like how did all those mannequins come to life, but left more to be desired when it came to the dish on relationships, scenery and Fisher.
Other extras are standard: deleted scenes, bloopers, a digital copy and three music videos of songs featured in the movie.
Oh, and don’t forget – there’s a $10 fashion cash by mail to be had by logging into www.confessionsfashioncash.com and entering a code provided with each movie purchase.
— Toni Guagenti
Blu-ray full-screen and DVD full-screen, 1957, unrated
Best extra: "Bergman Island," a 90-minute documentary consisting of a series of revealing interviews with the legendary director, filmed four years before his death.
RAISED BY A STRICT Lutheran minister, Ingmar Bergman, an atheist, was one of cinema's great explorers of theological concerns. Bergman states that he "suffered from an insane fear of death," at the time that he made "The Seventh Seal." His masterpiece allowed him, as he wrote in his diaries, "To place my two opposing beliefs side by side, allowing each to state its case in its own way. In this matter, a virtual cease-fire could exist between my childhood piety and my newfound harsh rationalism."
Criterion has done an utterly fantastic job bringing the film to Blu-ray. While over 50 years old, the film looks stunning in hi-def, with beautiful film grain, incredible detail, contrast, and deep blacks. The uncompressed Swedish mono track is impeccable as well.
The Blu-ray and DVD features Peter Cowie's commentary originally recorded for Criterion's laser disc from the '80s. Cowie also provides a new video "Afterword," where he compares the importance of seeing "Seal" for the first time to knowing where you were when President Kennedy was killed. He marvels at how he didn't find out until years later, that 95 percent of the film was shot in a studio and only a handful of scenes were filmed on real locations.
Cowie is also on hand for "Bergman 101," a 30-minute piece walking viewers through the filmmaker's life and career. "101" includes film clips, photographs and lots of interesting details supplied by Cowie. Woody Allen, one of Bergman's most vocal supporters, in a brief 1998 piece for Turner Classic Movies, discusses his love for those films, citing "Seal" as his favorite and commenting that its existential themes will still be relevant a thousand years from now. Also included is an archival audio interview with Max von Sydow, the disillusioned knight who plays a game of chess with Death. Last, but not least, is a very short video introduction to the film by Bergman that was taped in 2003.
All of the extras are presented in HD. Also included is a 26-page booklet containing an essay by critic Gary Giddins.
"The Seventh Seal" is one of the most important films ever made. Criterion has given this masterpiece the finest presentation to date with a wealth of supplements to explore. This is easily one of the year's best releases and a must for any cinema lover's collection.
Criterion has also released "Bergman Island" separately on standard DVD.
— Josh Boone
Blu-ray widescreen, 2005, PG for some brief mild language
Best extra: An in-depth commentary with author/screenwriter Mark Frost, whose story follows the lives of two golfers and the iniquities of the class system during the early part of the 20th century.
LONG BEFORE SHIA LaBeouf became the hottest young property in Hollywood, he got his first lead role in Disney’s adaptation of Mark Frost’s novel of the greatest golf game ever played. LaBeouf, 18-years-old at the time, trained three-months to prefect his golf swing as Francis Ouimet, a working-class amateur who defeats British superstar Harry Vardon and captures the U.S. Open championship. Yes it’s another “Rocky” tale, but director Bill Paxton calls it, “the original underdog story of sports.”
Better known as an actor (“Apollo 13,” “Twister” and “Big Love”) Paxton is behind the camera for only the second time. During the standard-def documentary, he talks about his passion for the sport. He grew-up playing golf after his parents bought a house just off Ben Hogan’s home course in Fort Worth, Texas. He even caddied for the legend. From the beginning, Paxton wanted to make a movie to celebrate the game and the final results are a lot more than that. He uses the camera with visual class, providing an exquisite look on Blu-ray, with lush colors, deep contrast and every shot is in focus. He even uses the camera in ways never seen in a sports movie, as it follows the golf ball around the course.
The disc also features all of the carry-over extras from the DVD, including a 25-minute interview with Ouimet, filmed in 1963 at the Brookline Golf Club just outside of Boston, where the match took place. “I never felt I had a shot, to win,” says Ouimet, who also talks about his relationship with Eddie Lowery, the 10-year old who caddied for him during those few days in September of 1913.
So don’t miss your Blu-ray tee time – this one is a crowd pleaser.
— Bill Kelley III
Blu-ray widescreen and DVD widescreen, 2008-2009, Not Rated, contains action violence
Best feature: Series creator/writer/director Matt Nix talks about his creative process
THE BEST SERIES on TV are on cable right now and USA’s “Burn Notice,” now in its third season, tops the list. It’s a great mix of action, thrills, drama and comedy with a stellar cast. Just the kind of show that bears repeat viewing, right up there with Showtime’s “Dexter” and TNT’s new “Leverage.”
That means it is smart and treats its audience as if it has a brain capacity beyond tween-years.
Created by Matt Nix, the cast features Jeffrey Donovon as a former CIA operative Michael Westen, Gabrielle Anwar as the gun happy and explosive savvy “independent operator” Fiona, the one and only Bruce Campbell as retired SEAL con man and charmer Sam Axe, and Sharon Gless as Mom, a woman who chain smokes while doing Pilates.
It’s a happy, frisky mix as Westen tries to find out who burned him out of his job while helping unfortunates who happen to run afoul of equally nasty villains.
Oddly, the Blu-ray picture is not what you’d expect on this three-disc, 16-episode set. Scenes fluctuate in color intensity, grain, and sharpness. It all works, but you might save some bucks by sticking with the DVD package. We’ve got the same problem with the soundtrack. There are plenty of explosions and action sequences balanced with dry and witty dialogue. It all just comes across as – well, very TV.
Extras also include a couple of commentaries, a few deleted scenes and – at last! – a gag reel to actually laugh at.
So stick to standard-def here, just don’t miss this show!
— Mike Reynolds
“SAVING GRACE: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON”
DVD widescreen, 2009, doesn’t appear to be rated but contains mature themes
Best extra: Short featurette with the creator of “Saving Grace” and Holly Hunter
THE SECOND SEASON of TNT’s quasi-religious cop show follows Grace Hanadarko as she battles with her figurative demons and her actual angel. The hard-core sinner, played by Holly Hunter, is an Oklahoma City police detective who finds herself inexplicably linked to a death-row inmate, Leon Cooley, through an angel, Earl. As the season wears on, we see Leon’s execution date move closer and wonder whether this TV drama will deliver a happy ending.
The setting is unique for television, and makes good use of the Oklahoma City bombing. Grace’s sister was killed in the attack, and that specter rises from time to time. The complicated show also deals with a priest who raped Grace when she was a child and the death of her partner’s brother.
The set only includes two rather measly extras. The first on is a short, self-congratulatory interview, mostly interspersed with clips from the season, with Hunter and series creator Nancy Miller. The second is a set of red-carpet interviews from the second-season wrap party, hosted by the young actor who plays Clay, Grace’s nephew, on the show. Not much substance to either.
— Judy Le
Blu-ray widescreen and DVD widescreen, 1961, unrated
Best extra: Interview with film scholar Ginette Vincendeau.
CRITERION, WITH THIS two-disc, set, pays homage to what must be one of the most enigmatic films of the French New Wave. The plot, such as it is, revolves around a man and woman who meet at a party in a fabulous chateau – and whether or not they had met or had an affair there the year before. Directed by Alain Resnais and based on a script by the avant-garde writer Alain Robbe-Grillet, the film initially brought derisive laughs at the Venice Film Festival, but then went on to win its top prize.
Disc One is a restored high-def digital transfer of the 1961 black and white film and, even if you have no idea what’s going on, it looks gorgeous (we only received the DVD version). Disc Two contains many extras, including an audio interview with Resnais; a documentary on the making of the film; and the interview with Vincendeau. In it, she puts what she refers to as a “landmark film” into perspective, such as its emphasis on style over linear storytelling. She compares it to a cubist painting and believes it reflects a general “anxiety about the nuclear age.” Also included are two 1950s-era documentaries by Resnais: One, about the National Library of France and the other about a polystyrene factory, the narration for which is told in rhymes. A booklet, containing various essays, is another part of the set.
— Peggy Earle
DVD widescreen, 1981, unrated
Best extra: Recent interview of Andre Gregory by Noah Baumbach.
THIS DELIGHTFUL FILM directed by Louis Malle follows two old friends, a playwright (Wallace Shawn) and a theater director (Andre Gregory), who meet for dinner after not having seen each other for a long time. Their dinnertime conversation comprises the film and, as static and dull as that may sound, listening to these two eccentric characters talk about their experiences and philosophy is a joy.
The script was written by Shawn and Gregory and reflects some elements of their lives, but also plenty of fiction. Filmmaker Baumbach interviews both men separately and asks good questions about the inspiration for and making of the film. Gregory talks about how he and Shawn wrote the script, assuming nobody but friends or family would want to see it performed as a play. But when it was read by Malle, he was passionate to direct it as a film. Gregory claims it “was the most difficult thing” he’d ever done, especially trying to figure out how to act as his character, which he solved by creating “four different voices.” He defines the film as being “about two men who are both hiding; one behind silence, the other behind words.”
Also included is a charming feature, “My Dinner With Louis,” filmed in 1982, in which Shawn interviews Malle in Atlantic City to discuss his life and career. A booklet with the appearance of a coffee cup-stained script contains an essay by Amy Taubin and prefaces by Gregory and Shawn for the original screenplay.
— Peggy Earle
Blu-ray widescreen and DVD widescreen, 2008, PG
Best extra: “Stories from the Sea with Host Jason Earles” of “Hannah Montana” provides behind-scenes footage, interviews with executive producers Roy E. Disney and Leslie DeMeuse, cinematographer Josef Nalevansky, and the young sailing team.
LOVE SAILING? Then you’ll enjoy this documentary about the 2005 Transpac Yacht Race, where teams of international competitors sail from southern Los Angeles across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii.
This Disney documentary takes us through the selection and training of 11 novice seamen and lady, out of 538 applicants. It’s grueling and exciting work watching these young athletes evolve into a crew that takes the Morning Light to a world record win in less than seven days and 12 hours.
Video is used from a variety of sources, but the end result is a visual feast, particularly in Blu-ray. Colors range from the deep blue of sea and sky, to vivid sunsets, storms and, deep, nighttime blacks. Skin tones are generally great throughout and detail is sublime. You won’t miss the sense surround soundtrack; what’s there is clean, distinct and will keep you on the journey.
The 29-minute behind-scenes documentary is teamed with an fine 42-minute ESPN special, “Making the Cut,” that further explores how contestants made the cut.
Recommended the dreaming sailor and family.
— Mike Reynolds
Blu-ray widescreen and DVD widescreen, 2009, not rated
Best extra: None
NARRATOR GLEN CLOSE lays it out right away: We humans are the disruptors of planet Earth.
OK – so this is not the feel good documentary of the year. Still, it is one of the most spectacular in picture and sound, especially on Blu-ray.
Directed and co-written by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, the picture is absolutely breathtaking, from artists’ concepts of Earth’s origins to actual photography. When Close tells us that “Trees defy gravity,” reaching as they do in an eternal dance towards the sun, you can believe it. Balanced against an ethereal soundtrack composed by Armand Amar and reminiscent of Yo-Yo Ma and The Silk Road Ensemble, it’s easy to soar to those heights.
Yet since this is a warning about preserving the planet, that serenity gives way to marvels of destruction. Equally impressive – and scary against a rumbling, bass-heavy soundtrack.
Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” might have been the wake up call, but “Home” continues and illuminates the message.
Highly recommended.
— Mike Reynolds
Blu-ray widescreen, 1990, R for extreme violence, gore, drug use, nudity
Best extra: Commentary by director Stephen Hopkins
WHO’S GOING TO save us? Danny Glover, that’s who, in this sequel to “Predator” (1987) that takes the jungle hunting killer alien into the jungle of Los Angeles.
Now on Blu-ray, the picture is looking pretty good. Still, this was never an exercise in suspense or character, just a plain old shoot-em-up and hang-em-high, unlike the predecessor which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger.
We do, however, get to watch Glover and Gary Busey do a little mano-a-mano as they did in the original “Lethal Weapon” in pursuit of alien badness.
“Predator 2” is entertaining in the way of various action slashers. This is by no means the best looking Blu-ray on the market – or the worst. The DTS 5.1 HD Master Lossless Audio highlights effects and soundtracks; it generally buries dialogue.
Extras are carried over from earlier DVD presentations.
— Mike Reynolds
Blu-ray widescreen, 1993, R for violence, strong language, and a sex scene
Best extra: No extras.
A NEW SONY release hits Blu-ray and it's not "Lawrence of Arabia," "Bridge on the River Kwai," "On the Waterfront," or "Taxi Driver." Nope. It's one of the worst films of Bruce Willis' career, "Striking Distance," which is only slightly better than "Hudson Hawk" (one of the worst duds of the ‘90s).
Willis and Sarah Jessica Parker do their best to wade through a ridiculous and cliche riddled plot involving a disgraced cop's pursuit of a serial killer (whose identity is so obvious it’s painful). Willis plays his typical ‘90s persona: An alcoholic and foul-mouthed cop who's taken an easy gig patrolling Pittsburgh's rivers. The film's only saving grace is a single brilliantly choreographed car chase through Pittsburgh. There are also boat chases, gory deaths, shootouts galore and steamy sex. You literally get everything and the kitchen sink.
"Striking Distance" comes to Blu-ray with an incredibly soft transfer. It's not terrible by any means but is a far cry from a recommend. The uncompressed audio track is better with all the action scenes getting lots of surround work.
Sony has an incredible array of catalog titles to choose from for hi-def. Here's hoping they focus on something a little more respectable than "Striking Distance" next time.
— Josh Boone
Blu-ray widescreen, 1995, R for violence, language, and a scene of sexuality
Best extra: No extras.
BEFORE RUSSELL CROWE bowled over American audiences with his performance in "L.A. Confidential," he starred in "No Way Back," a convoluted straight-to-video crime film with some serious tonal problems pitting a desperate FBI agent trying to retrieve his kidnapped son from the mob against everyone from Yakuza to skinheads. Crow is backed up by a laughable supporting cast including "Supergirl's" Helen Slater and "Beverly Hills 90210's" Ian Ziering.
Why this is coming to Blu-ray is anyone's guess but it has an acceptable transfer showcasing film grain and no noticeable DNR and a so-so uncompressed audio track.
For better movies in Crowe's early career; check out "Romper Stomper" and "Proof."
— Josh Boone
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