“21”
Blu-ray and enhanced widescreen, 2008, PG-13 for some violence and sexual content including partial nudity
Best extra: A Blu-ray exclusive virtual Blackjack game will help you hone your skills.
BASED ON THE best-selling, non-fiction book “Bringing Down the House,” “21” tells the story of a team of MIT math whizzes who counted cards and took Vegas casinos for millions. Kevin Spacey, Jim Sturgess and Kate Bosworth star.
“21” was shot in HD instead of film with the same cameras used for “Superman Returns,” which makes Blu-ray the perfect way to experience it. The disc is vivid with detail and color and the only limitation (fast motion tends to look a little strange) is a result of the cameras themselves. The Dolby TrueHD track is flawless, showcasing the rocking soundtrack and sound design.
Extras (all in hi-def) include three featurettes about how the book came about, how Spacey got involved and bought the rights and how the film was finally made. A dry commentary is included with director Robert Leketic and a couple producers who fail to engage listeners (Throwing in the real MIT students who appear in the featurettes might have livened things up).
— Josh Boone
“THE MUMMY: DELUXE EDITION”
Blu-ray widescreen, 1999, PG-13 for pervasive adventure violence and some partial nudity
Best extra: A solid picture-in-picture track, available for the PlayStation 3 and players with Profile 1.1 access, allows viewers to peruse the disc’s meaty extras and get the best overview of the production, while watching the movie.
STEPHEN SOMMERS’ horror/adventure franchise, “The Mummy,” finally comes to Blu-ray and includes a free ticket for the latest installment, “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” which premieres at the multiplex next week. The disc itself is the definitive version, outperforming three previous DVDs by a mile. The Blu-ray transfer boasts fantastic colors and detail and reference quality DTS-HD Lossless soundtrack, matching the original master recordings, making it one of the finest tracks ever produced for your home theater.
Extras (standard-def and ported over from the DVDs) include three audio commentaries (the one to hear being Sommers’ enthusiastic track), an hour-long making of doc (featured prominently in the picture-in-picture video track) and a handful of shorter featurettes including one focusing on the “Legacy of the Mummy.” Here the director recalls watching 1932’s “The Mummy” at 8 years old and being scared to death of Boris Karloff. The rest of the extras are focused on the film’s impressive special effects.
“The Mummy Returns” which reunited the original cast and crew and “The Scorpion King” with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and new director Chuck Russell are also available on Blu-ray. Both include the picture-in-picture feature which includes behind-the-scenes footage and interviews, commentaries, multi-featurettes and storyboard to film comparison. Both are superior in video and audio to the original DVDs and the HD DVD discs, Universal had released before the hi-def format went down the tubes.
If you’re a fan of “The Mummy” series, there is no better way to experience it than on Blu-ray.
— Josh Boone
“VAMPYR”
Full-screen, 1932, unrated
Best extra: A visual essay about Carl Theodor Dreyer’s influences
CARL THEODOR DREYER was once asked about his intention in making “Vampyr.” He didn’t have one, he replied. He only wanted to make a film that was different. “I wanted, if you will, to break new ground for cinema.”
Dreyer had broken grou nd before. While “Vampyr” was his first “genre” film, it defies formula. Unconventional in tone and structure, it defined its own rules in the same way Dreyer did in 1928 with “The Passion of Joan of Arc.”
It’s about a young man who arrives at a secluded inn and, “preoccupied with the supersitions of centuries past,” the supertitles read, “becomes a dreamer for whom the line between reality and the supernatural becomes blurred.” Audiences in 1932 no doubt questioned what was real. Viewers in 2008 will, too.
The extras put together by Criterion go a long way toward clearing things up. Chief among them is a visual essay by Danish scholar Caper Tybjerg that outlines Dreyer’s influences. Also included is a professorial commentary by British scholar Tony Rayns, a 1966 profile of Dreyer by documentarian Jorgen Roos and copies of Dreyer’s screenplay and “Carmilla,” the classic novella by Sheridan le Fanu that was a primary influence.
Up for a challenge?
— Craig Shapiro
“THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE”
Blu-ray widescreen, 2005, unrated with thematic material, including intense/frightening sequences and disturbing images
Best extra: A 20-minute documentary “Genesis of the Story.”
THE STORY OF Emily Rose is really the exorcism of Anneliese Michel, a German student, who died during the 1970s. Director/writer Scott Derrickson and co-writer Paul Harris Boardman stumbled onto the supernatural account while interviewing a New York City detective who specialized in Satanism and demonic possession, while researching an unrelated project for producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
Told through flashbacks from an engrossing courtroom drama, Derrickson presents a gloomy palette of color, that doesn’t translate that well on the Blu-ray disc. Overall it looks dark, but with plenty of hi-def detail. Excellent performances from Tom Wilkinson playing Father Moore, who’s on trial for the death of Emily Rose and Laura Linney, as the defense attorney make this horror flick worth adding to your Blu-ray library.
The disc includes three documentaries from the original DVD release, presented in standard-def, with interviews from Derrickson, Boardman, Linney, Wilkinson and Jennifer Carpenter, who gives a strenuous performance as Emily Rose. The director details how he and Boardman immersed themselves in the study of exorcisms, reading nearly two dozen books and watching video footage of actually possessions. And during the commentary, Derrickson considered Linney a gift to the project, who was always giving advice. “She’s a filmmaking partner.” He also described the movie's driving force – which was to provoke questions about good and evil, demons and belief in God.
— Bill Kelley III
“HIGH AND LOW”
Enhanced wide-screen, 1963, unrated
Best extra: An encyclopedic commentary with author, Virginia Tech film studies professor and Criterion regular Stephen Prince
AKIRA KUROSAWA WAS no stranger to the classics. His distinguished career includes adaptations of Shakespeare ("Throne of Blood," "Ran"), Dostoyevsky ("The Idiot") and Maxim Gorky ("The Lower Depths").
"High and Low," however, was different. His source was a contemporary American thriller, "King's Ransom," a novel in Ed McBain's "87th Precinct" series of big-city police stories -- but as Stephen Prince points out in his engaging commentary, it had one thing in common with other Kurosawa adaptations: It provided the framework for him to elaborate on larger issues.
In this case, Prince says, he used the kidnapping of a businessman's young son to speak to the widening gap between rich and poor in Japan and a rash of post-war kidnappings that plagued the nation. That doesn't mean it isn't a tense, top-notch thriller.
Criterion released a single-disc version of "High and Low" years ago, but make room on the shelf for this two-disc set. The film has been remastered in high definition, giving the black-and-white cinematography a clarity that is crisp and true. The sound is clear and nicely balanced -- dialogue and city sounds do not compete.
And if the extras are what we've come to expect when Criterion puts out a Kurosawa title, that's not a knock. They include an excerpt from the Toho series "Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create" and an archival interview with towering star Toshiro Mifune. In a new interview, Tsutomu Yamazaki, who played the kidnapper, recalls how intimidated he felt on the set. He was calmed by the warmth and kindness in Kurosawa's eyes and some advice from the great director:
"One step at a time, focus on the task at hand, and before you know it you have finished a whole film."
An accompanying booklet is highlighted by the on-set recollections of Donald Richie, a frequent contributor to Kurosawa titles.
— Craig Shapiro