Hot Blue Ray Movies Now!
Hot Blue Ray Movies Now!
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Here are the Blu-Ray movies that are most popular right now! Check them out.
Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis wrote the script, but Bill Murray gets all the best lines and moments in this 1984 comedy directed by Ivan Reitman (Meatballs). The three comics, plus Ernie Hudson, play the New York City-based team that provides supernatural pest control, and Sigourney Weaver is the love interest possessed by an ancient demon. Reitman and company are full of original ideas about hobgoblins–who knew they could “slime” people with green plasma goo?–but hovering above the plot is Murray’s patented ironic view of all the action. Still a lot of fun, and an obvious model for sci-fi comedies such as Men in Black. –Tom Keogh
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Devils ‘neath the sheets
A tongue in “sheet” film that carries to pretenses, many laughs and
high humor. As for it being racist, huh? Lots of flaws in thie movie but
being racist is not one of them. I never discredit someone’s honest reaction to a film, but c’mon! Disregard the racist monker and rent
the film. If you saw it in the theater, rent it again. Not as funny because you knew the jokes in advance. It’s silly. It’s fun. Paranormal
psychiology is to me voodoo science. And voodoo science is easy to
parody. They did. It worked.
4 Stars Great transfer, great extras… but….
I’ll buy this when they finally do the scene with the Cheeky Ghost. Otherwise, great movie on blu-ray.
3 Stars Dissappointing transfer
Many scenes in this Blu-ray do look nice, but too many have been horribly over-processed. A lot scenes have the contrast boosted so high that the highlights are completely blown-out, and the shadow detail is lost and replaced by insane levels of grain and darkness. Other scenes are blurry, soft, and overly grainy without any extra detail. For $15, it’s not bad, but it’s not as good as it could have been with less post-processing.
4 Stars Ghostbusters [Blu-ray] grainy but worth it !
This blu-ray version is what this process is all about(maintaining the film like quality of a film and at the same time enhancing certain qualities of the film) this blu-ray does this. I have, like everyone, a dvd version of the film(Bill Murray & Dan Aykroyd are at their best) I have a SONY 350 blu-ray player & a SONY 34″ HDTV. The standard dvd up-converted to 1080i or P, appears FLAT & SLIGHTLY BLURY with colors much the same. Their is however a lot LESS GRAIN,a look that some people prefer. The blu-ray version has A LOT MORE GRAIN, but the images are CRISP & CLEAR & many scenes sport a THREE DIMENSIONAL look and truly feel as if I’m watching a FILM as opposed to a FLAT PROCESSED LOOK. GHOSTBUSTERS is a 25 year old film with obvious PRINT DAMAGE (their is only so much they can do) some scenes are better than others but it has always been that way with every version.
Gran Torino (Amazon Digital Bundle + Digital Copy and BD-Live) [Blu-ray]
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 06/09/2009 Run time: 116 minutes Rating: RClint Eastwood’s Gran Torino, an unassuming picture shot during a post-production lull on his elaborate period piece Changeling, was quietly rolled out at Christmastime 2008, whereupon it proceeded to blow away all the Oscar-bait behemoths at the box office and win its 78-year-old star the best reviews of his acting career. Both film and performance are consummately sly–coming on with deceptive simplicity, only to evolve into something complex, powerful, and surprisingly tender. Just as Unforgiven was a tragic reflection on Eastwood’s legacy in the Western genre, Gran Torino caps and eloquently critiques the urban heritage of Dirty Harry and his violent brethren. And on top of that, the movie becomes a savvy meditation on America in a particular historical moment, racially, economically, spiritually. Call it a “state of the union” message. But call it that with a wry grin.
The latest Dirty Harry is actually a grumpy Walt: Walt Kowalski (Eastwood playing his own age), widower, Korean War veteran, retired auto worker, and the last white resident of his Detroit side street. It’s hard to say who irks him more–his blood kin (a pretty lame bunch) or the Hmong families who are his new neighbors. Kowalski’s a racist, because it has never occurred to him he shouldn’t be. Besides, that’s the flipside of the mutual ethnic baiting that serves as coin of affection for him and his working-class buddies. Circumstances–and two young people next door, the feisty Sue (Ahney Her) and her conflicted brother Thao (Bee Vang)–contrive to involve Walt with a new community, and anoint him as its hero after he turns his big guns on some ruffians. The trajectory of this may surprise you–several times over. Eastwood opted to film in economically blighted Detroit–a shrewd decision, but it’s his mapping of Walt’s world in that classical style of his that really counts. Every incidental corner of lawn, porch, and basement comes to matter–and by all means the workshop/garage that houses the mint-condition Gran Torino which Walt helped build in a more prosperous era. This is a remarkable movie. –Richard T. Jameson
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Was He YOUR Father, too?
I should have saved Gran Torino for Father’s Day, this coming weekend, and watched it together with my son, maybe as a double feature with The Great Santini. Looking over the reviews of this film here on the Big River, I find that the stars are closely correlated with the reminiscences of ornery old bustard fathers. Mine was one. In fact, my Dad looked almost exactly like Walt Kowalsky, Eastwood’s character, at the same age. He dressed the same, walked the same, drank almost the same (slightly better taste in beer), and definitely hated the same. Only his accent was different — my Dad’s — being a weird acquired country-western drawl on top of his still-Swedish pronunciation. He worshiped, like Kowalski, in the great American Church on Wheels; he was a car mechanic most of his life, and he had a Plymouth Barracuda that he cared for more tenderly than either of his two children. He was washing his car one afternoon, at age 91, when he had a stroke and died with the hose running. Neighbors found him a few hours later when the water started to flood their yard. Those neighbors were Salvadoreños rather than Hmong, as in Eastwood’s film, but the neighborhood dynamics were equivalent.
Some critics have ‘explained’ Walt Kowalsky’s bitter racism and self-hatred as the consequence of his experiences in the Korean War. Eastwood himself expresses that through his character’s mouth and through the starchy dialogue between Walt and the young priest who tries to ‘understand’ him. Honestly, I don’t think the atrocities of war were necessary to create a Walt Kowalsky. My father was of an age to have fought in WW2, but he didn’t. He dodged, and the rest of his life he did his best to pretend he hadn’t. In the ’60s, he “disowned” me - temporarily - for refusing service in Viet Nam. I see this exoneration of Walt Kowalsky, as a victim of PTSD, as a slight weakness in the concept of Gran Torino, a too-easy excuse for the racism and xenophobia of “our” fathers’ generation(s).
The most touching moment of Gran Torino comes when Walt murmurs that he feels more in common with his g**k neighbors than with his upwardly-mobile sons and their families. That’s not a unique perception. Garrison Keillor has expressed it time and again in his Lake Wobegon sketches. Farmers in Iowa, according to NPR, have been finding themselves sharing more with their hired Guatemalan help than with their college-gone heirs; they end up selling the farm to the newcomers and staying on as guests.
But my own father never had Walt Kowalsky’s epiphany. Tragically, he remained a ranting rightwing racist till the end. The virtue of this film — this re-examination of ‘Dirty Harry’ by the actor who made “dirty Harry’ an iconic figure — is Clint Eastwood’s powerful affirmation of a new integrated America, the land where diversity and assimilation can be reconciled. I wish all our fathers had gone that route.
Artistically, cinematographically, Eastwood’s performance in the role of Kowalsky is the only five-star feature of Gran Torino. The script is no masterpiece, and the other actors range from “not bad” to “well, I’ve seen worse.” Clint Eastwood is his own most iconic story, from his spaghetti westerns to his comedy surliness to his current confessional maturity. I wonder who has the film rights to produce “The Eastwood Chronicle” when he dies…
5 Stars 2 BIG FAT THUMBS UP!!!
I consider myself hard to please when it come to movies. I absolutely loved this movie so much that I had to write a review. Clint Eastwood is very talented. If you get offended by distasteful racial comments then this is a warning because you’ll hear it from beginning of movie to the end and he did’nt miss hardly any race or nationality. Highly recommend this movie.
5 Stars About Schmidt Meets Dirty Harry..Sort of
In what promises to be Clint Eastwood’s valedictory role as an actor he once again reimagines the Man With No Name-Dirty Harry persona so that’s so burnished in our collective psyche. Walt Kowalski(Eastwood) is a retired Ford worker who can be best described as grizzled, profane, and just a little bit Archie Bunker-ish in his worldview. Not the least bit misanthropic he feels more of a connection to his ‘72 Gran Torino than he does his own family. Dig a little deeper, though, you find a man bearing the scars of his service in the Korean conflict. Walt has an ingrained perception of the American dream but finds that being challenged by the changing face of his Detroit neighborhood particularly his reaction to the Hmong family who live next door to him. Through a series of events, though, Walt developes a connection daresay a deep-rooted respect for the Hmong. Walt also feels, even in his dotage, the obligation to serve as protector to this family in an ever increasing hostile environment. I harken back to “Unforgiven” when Eastwood re-evaluated his Western persona. Here, Eastwood does a re-examination of his more reactionary film characters. This film was cleverly advertised by it’s makers as a geriatric action extravaganza. For sure justice is meted out in the end but not remotely in a way you would think. This film definitely stands out in the canon of Eastwood’s illustrious career.
5 Stars Hard to watch, provocative, and fearless
Spoilers…..
Many parts of this story are hard to watch–there’s a brutal Hmong gang which does terrible things even to their leader’s own family members. The subject matter is very provocative, as it pertains to a crusty old Korean war veteran who must learn to live with his Hmong neighbors in the deteriorating suburbs of a Michigan city. A young man is burned with a cigarette, and his sister is gang-raped. It ends up in a showdown between Eastwood and the dangerous and deadly gang.
There is no easy way out of this mess and no clear-cut solution. This is why I call it fearless. There is no totally happy ending here where everyone finally learns to get along and live happily ever after. Thank goodness–we get too much of that dreck already.
It’s not easy viewing, but it is worth consideration.
5 Stars WITHOUT A DOUBT THE BEST MOVIE OF 2008
This movie had everything you’d ever want in a story. Humor, drama, real-life terror situations, you name it. An amazing ending to an amazing story.
Firefly: The Complete Series [Blu-ray]
Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 11/11/2008 Run time: 658 minutes Rating: NrAs the 2005 theatrical release of Serenity made clear, Firefly was a science fiction concept that deserved a second chance. Devoted fans (or “Browncoats”) knew it all along, and with this well-packaged DVD set, those who missed the show’s original broadcasts can see what they missed. Creator Joss Whedon’s ambitious science-fiction Western (Whedon’s third series after Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel) was canceled after only 11 of these 14 episodes had aired on the Fox network, but history has proven that its demise was woefully premature. Whedon’s generic hybrid got off to a shaky start when network executives demanded an action-packed one-hour premiere (”The Train Job”); in hindsight the intended two-hour pilot (also titled “Serenity,” and oddly enough, the final episode aired) provides a better introduction to the show’s concept and splendid ensemble cast. Obsessive fans can debate the quirky logic of combining spaceships with direct parallels to frontier America (it’s 500 years in the future, and embattled humankind has expanded into the galaxy, where undeveloped “outer rim” planets struggle with the equivalent of Old West accommodations), but Whedon and his gifted co-writers and directors make it work, at least well enough to fashion a credible context from the incongruous culture-clashing of past, present, and future technologies, along with a polyglot language (the result of two dominant superpowers) that combines English with an abundance of Chinese slang.
What makes it work is Whedon’s delightfully well-chosen cast and their nine well-developed characters–a typically Whedon-esque extended family–each providing a unique perspective on their adventures aboard Serenity, the junky but beloved “Firefly-class” starship they call home. As a veteran of the disadvantaged Independent faction’s war against the all-powerful planetary Alliance (think of it as Underdogs vs. Overlords), Serenity captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) leads his compact crew on a quest for survival. They’re renegades with an amoral agenda, taking any job that pays well, but Firefly’s complex tapestry of right and wrong (and peace vs. violence) is richer and deeper than it first appears. Tantalizing clues about Blue Sun (an insidious mega-corporation with a mysteriously evil agenda), its ties to the Alliance, and the traumatizing use of Serenity’s resident stowaway (Summer Glau) as a guinea pig in the development of advanced warfare were clear indications Firefly was heading for exciting revelations that were precluded by the series’ cancellation. Fortunately, the big-screen Serenity (which can be enjoyed independently of the series) ensured that Whedon’s wild extraterrestrial west had not seen its final sunset. Its very existence confirms that these 14 episodes (and enjoyable bonus features) will endure as irrefutable proof Fox made a glaring mistake in canceling the series. –Jeff Shannon
On the Blu-ray discs
Firefly has a picture that’s a little softer than most Blu-ray discs (especially in the effects shots), but it is an improvement over the DVDs (even in an upconverting DVD player or Blu-ray player), and the punchy sound (DTS HD 5.1 compared to the DVDs’ 2.0 surround) is a definite upgrade. In addition to the original bonus features, there are a couple new ones: a 25-minute conversation among Whedon, Nathan Fillion, Ron Glass, and Alan Tudyk in which they discuss the series and a number of specific episodes (Fillion recalls thinking he was getting fired after the first episode), and a new commentary track by the four fellows on “Our Mrs. Reynolds.” And since it’s easy to get sucked into watching multiple episodes, it’s nice to have a Play All feature on the BDs. –David Horiuchi
Beyond Firefly on Blu-ray
 Stargate: Continuum |
 Blu-ray Sci-Fi Bundle |
 Sunshine |
Stills from Firefly (Click for larger image)
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User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars Blu-ray isn’t worth the price
The show was only airing for about 14 episodes, so you’re paying quite and bit for one season (if you pay the $90 price tag they show). The Blu-ray looks like a poor remaster and hardly worth it. Buy the standard version, save your cash, and allow your BR player to upscale. You’ll have similar quality.
The show was ended before it’s time, thank you Fox and your discontent for all things sci-fi.
3 Stars Scenes Cut On Blu-Ray
This was an excellent series, too bad it was prematurely cancelled. I was excited to get the Blu-Ray version but when I watched it I noticed some scenes had been cut on the BR edition. One example - towards the end of The Train Job - where the medical supplies are returned - is not on the BR version. I would recommend the regular DVD version of the series.
5 Stars It was already perfect
I got this as a gold box deal of the day for $39.99. Maybe I wouldn’t be as emphatic in my opinion if I had paid 50% more. That’s probably the right price point to buy this if you already own the SD set. I would not have paid $50+. This way I get the added benefit of being able to give the other set to someone who should already have seen it.
I’ve only watched the pilot Serenity but I think the special effects scenes look improved. The scavenger scene early in the episode looked great. I always had a hard time picking serenity out of the flotsam in the standard definition, now it’s crystal clear.
Maybe wait until you can grab it for < $40 and you've found someone you want to give your old copy to. Then it's 5+ stars all the way.
5 Stars 2 thumbs up!!
best scifi in a long time!
had it on DVD, soon as i saw it was available on bluray i just had to get it!
Watchmen (Director’s Cut) (Amazon Digital Bundle + Digital Copy and BD-Live) [Blu-ray]
Everybody’s favorite graphic novel comes to the screen (after years of rumors and false starts), less a roaring work of adaptation than a respectful and faithful take on a radical original. Watchmen is set in the mid-1980s, a time of increased nuclear tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, as Richard Nixon is enjoying his fifth term as president and the world’s superheroes have been forcibly retired. (As you can probably tell, the mix of authentic history and alternate reality is heady.) Things begin with a bang: the mysterious high-rise murder of the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a masked hero with a checkered past, puts the rest of the retired superhero community on alert. The credits sequence, a series of tableaux that wittily catches us up on crime-fighting backstory, actually turns out to be the high point of the movie. Thereafter we meet the other caped and hooded avengers: the furious Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), the inexplicably naked Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup, amidst much blue-skinned, genital-swinging digital work), Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman), Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson), and Ozymandias (Matthew Goode). The corkscrewing storytelling, which worked well in the comic book, gives the movie the strange sense of never quite getting in gear, even as some of the episodes are arresting. Director Zack Snyder (300) doesn’t try to approximate the electric impact of the original (written by Alan Moore–who declined to be credited on the movie–and illustrated by Dave Gibbons) but retains careful fidelity to his source material. That doesn’t feel right, even with the generally enjoyable roll-out of anecdotes. Even less forgivable is the blah acting, excepting Jeffrey Dean Morgan (lusty) and Patrick Wilson (mellow). Watchmen certainly fills the eyes, although less so the ears: the song choices are regrettable, especially during an embarrassing mid-air coupling between Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II as they unite their–ah–Roman numerals. In the end it feels as though a huge work of transcription has been successfully completed, which isn’t the same as making a full-blooded movie experience. –Robert Horton
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Good but not what i was expecting
Watchmen was based upon one ot the greatest graphic novels ever made but in my opinion they included too much what i think the audience wanted and less of the story it they had made it more of a mystery i believe it would have been spectacular overpowering the excessive sex scenes not including manhattan because the less use of cloths shows his detachment from the human race and use of gore but it doesn’t matter the directors cut has tales of the Black freighter and more from the book
5 Stars Perfection
To make this succinct, this movies was fantastic. From this point out superhero movies have a new mark to meet. just like the original graphic novel did the movie redefined what we should expect from comic book movies. For a concise and more verbose review that is right on the mark read The Great Rocky Hill’s review it is excellent and accurate.
5 Stars A Visual Masterpiece
Based on Alan Moore’s classic Graphic novel, The Watchmen is an absolute feast for the eyes.This movie was geared towards the fans of the novel,but that being said it may be a bit of a headscratcher for the regular audience.Im making this review short and sweet,If your a fan this is an absolute must buy!
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete [Blu-ray]
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 06/02/2009 Run time: 126 minutes Rating: UrThe question facing any viewer of the Japanese CG feature Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is: do you have to know the games on which it’s based in order to understand the film? And the answer is: it certainly helps. But even complete novices (i.e., most parents) in the Final Fantasy world will find some entertainment in its wealth of fantasy-based action, and the animation never fails to astonish. Picking up two years after an epic battle between the forces of good (represented by brooding soldier Cloud) and evil (Cloud’s former general, Sephiroth), FFVII opens in the devastated city of Midgard, whose youthful occupants suffer from a ghastly disease known as Geostigma. A trio of brothers arrives with what appears to be a cure for the plague, but their gesture conceals a more sinister purpose: to revive Sephiroth and bring about the end of the world. Cloud and his companions must once again rise to the occasion to stop the siblings and the revived Sephiroth from unleashing total destruction. Complex and self-referential to the point of occasional incomprehension, Final Fantasy VII will definitely be most appreciated by fans of the game series, but if others can look past the numbing dialogue and frenetic action (which is a bit too intense for very young children), the film offers a carefree and action-packed viewing experience. The two-disc set contains the original Japanese language version of the film as well as an English-dubbed edition (Rachel Leigh Cook and Christy Carlson Romano, among others, provide the vocal talent) and a version edited for the Venice Film Festival. A 30-minute featurette that recaps the Final Fantasy story up to VII, as well as a making-of documentary, deleted scenes, and promotions for future Final Fantasy VII games and products round out the extras. –Paul Gaita
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars WEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
This is a visually jaw-dropping movie, but for non-FFVII people, the fun ends there, especially if you already sat through regular FF VII: AC. But if you liked the regular version, then you’ll love this! Some of the changes/additions made simply explain/develop characters more completely, and some of the changes/additions make the action more believable (adding dirt smudges to characters’ faces, adding blood, adding more realistic sound effects, etc.)
4 Stars The saga continues, and it’s good, but not great
Like Advent Children (incomplete?), this is a good movie. It adds much new footage to the original, much of which is very, very good. Unfortunately, it fails in some areas that the previous version did not.
For starters, the previous version led you on Cloud’s path of discovery - as he discovered what, exactly, the Remnants were up to, so did you. In this version, Rufus spills the beans almost immediately.
Which brings me to another point. Uninterrupted monologues can be fine in books, but they become rather tedious in movies; and, unfortunately, not only is Rufus now King of Destroying-the-Suspense, he’s also King of Nonstop-Monologues. 
Seriously, Rufus is one of my favorite characters in the movie, so, theoretically, more talking from him is a good thing. But Rufus is also a very concise, calculating talker; he doesn’t give away anything less than absolutely necessary. This came across perfectly in the first film; not so in the second.
Now, arguably, the audience already knows what happens, so spilling the beans early on isn’t a big deal; I don’t mean to imply that the movie is ruined (or anything of the sort) by it. I do think it lacks a sense of intrigue that the first maintained, though. The tension that the characters’ quest for answers created helped to make the movie interesting each time; now they know, almost immediately. Also, some of the added scenes (at least for me) didn’t add much to the movie. There’s a fine line, I know, between enhancing the FF saga and making a great movie; I think a lot of the additional scenes were aimed at continuing and enhancing the saga rather than making a spectacular movie. Which, again, is not to say that they were bad; they were good, but I view them as someone coming from the FF7 saga.
Finally, on the visual level, the Blu Ray version is awesome, and AC Complete generally looks fantastic. The only exception to that would be the heavy-handed application of dirt smudges during fight scenes, etc. While the idea of adding realism through dust, rumpled clothes, etc., is a great one, I think they went a little overboard at times; dumping dirt on the characters is just as bad as having none.
Now, all of this said, keep in mind that I am highlighting the problems with the movie, and saying little about the good parts of the movie. I do this in large part because most of what the original had going for it, this has going for it. It IS a good movie, despite its flaws, with an interesting story line, fun characters, and lots of action. AC Complete has enough additional footage and new touches that it is well worth seeing at least (personally, I added it to my library; if you’re a FF7 fan, you’ll likely do the same). I may not see it as often as I’ll see the original, but is a very enjoyable movie. 4/5 stars
4 Stars Expands on the FF7 saga
First off, I’m a huge fan of FFVII and consider it among the best of the series (the top spot still belongs to 3/6, however). The original movie expands on Cloud’s story and shows us what’s become of the world of FFVII after the events of the game’s climax. But what it did was leave a lot of questions unanswered with a somewhat shaky plot, despite the jaw-dropping visual effects and CGI.
This movie was made for fans, pure and simple. And if one has never played the game, it’s not going to make much sense to you. That said, the graphics still hold up very well despite the original film being nearly 4 years old. The added scenes are a welcome addition, particularly the highway chase scene and the final fight between Cloud and Sephiroth. Even some of the soundtrack pieces have been remixed and rearranged, with some new additions as well. The new music is relatively minor, but sharp-eared fans may recognize some familiar tunes taken from the game. Nobuo Uematsu does great work.
The plot has been expanded to include more background on Denzel (whom I wondered what was the point of in the original film) and Cloud’s activities prior to the main events of the movie. The debilitating effects of the geostigma are seen more clearly as well, and it helps the viewer identify more with the victims’ desperation in going along with the villains in the hope of a cure. Extended scenes with supporting characters like the Turks are a nice touch.
Cloud, to his credit, hasn’t just been moping around all this time being all emo, as some have complained about, but has been searching for a cure (though without success). And to those who do complain; the whole point of his character here is that he still blames himself for Aeris’s death and that he’s afraid to let anyone get too close to him for fear that he won’t be able to save them in the end like he failed to save Aeris.
Still, there are some problems with this director’s cut. Some scenes drag on too long (particularly the dialogues with Rufus and Tifa), or are poorly edited (inter-spliced with other scenes for a jarring chronology). The pacing of the middle of the movie becomes bogged down by these scenes, and the angst of our hero does become rather tiresome even to diehard fans (even if Cloud gets over it at the end). The action, while crazy and over the top, can be enjoyable if chaotic and eye-twitch inducing, requiring additional viewings to catch what’s happening.
All in all, this film is what the original movie should have been. If director Nomura can work on his editing and dialogue, I’m sure his future films will be much improved over this effort. On a final note, the choice of song during the Cloud motorcycle scenes at the end credits was fairly blah as far as J-pop goes. I’m not sure why they decided to change it as the song Calling from the original was much better suited to those scenes (it sounded much more to me like an open road song rather than that new J-pop song).
5 Stars FF7 AC Complete Blu Ray… DAMN GOOD SHOW!!!!
Seen the DVD version before, thought it was very good… But watching it again on Blu-Ray… It’s amazing… This version has an additional 26 minutes and over 100 revised scenes…. make the storyline feels more complete making it even better than the DVD copy.
In terms of picture quality, as a whole, most part of the show is a bit grainy, probably due to the upscaling from DVD version, but the newer and revised scenes are freaking sharp and nicely done. I could tell right away it’s newly rendered just for this Blu-ray.
I don’t have a nice set of speakers, so I couldn’t tell much about the Audio Quality. But I am a big fan of Nobuo Uematsu and Final Fantasy Soundtrack, so listening to it again with the movie, brings back memory of the FF7 game years ago.
For those of you still thinking whether this is a good buy, I say just get it… This is a fantastic version of FF7:AC and it’s a must have for any Final Fantasy fan or any Blu-Ray movie collector!
5 Stars Now a full movie on its own. the way it was meant to be
I am really happy after watching the Blu-ray version of Advent Children complete, it was totally worth what I paid, regardless of already owning the original version.
Now it is a full movie on its own, doesn’t feel like a featurette for eye candy anymore.It vastly benefits from the other elements of compilation of final fantasy vii released after it, in particular Crisis Core, which if you have played it you will know has a storyline full of emotion that really adds up when giving context to many of the extra scenes featuring zack.
But even if the almost half an hour of extra scenes is not enough for you, you will get also a full animated feature of the first volume of on a way to a smile. (the small booklet that came with the second release as a small novel) telling the story of Denzel, a pretty sad story. The animated feature does a great job of capturing the feelings written in the small tale, and gives a lot of context for the main film.
Finally, the review of compilation of final fantasy vii, is mindblowing, really!. It contains short clips of all the compilation, even before crisis that was never released in the US. Even better they do a great job at combining them in cronological order giving you very strong scenes such as the arrival of zack, cloud and sephiroth to nibelheim from the ff7, crisis core and before crisis perspective, it is just awesome.
The video quality is really really good, and I am watching this on a high def plasma with pretty good contrast and black levels. The new scenes in particular are significantly more detailed than the ones rendered for the original movie, which even though it makes the movie feel slightly uneven looks quite good.
You will also get to hear new arranged music of ff7 themes during the movie, of particular attention are the highwind and aeris themes, and even for a few moments anxious heart.
It is true that square enix has released this film many many times, in many different editions, but even if you don’t want to buy it, at the very least you really have to see it if you played ff7, it is totally worth it.
Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 05/12/2009 Rating: UrWhat could be a skillful but ordinary action flick gets a surprising emotional heft from the presence of Liam Neeson as the hero. Bryan Mills (Neeson) has given up his career as a spy to form a relationship with his estranged teenage daughter–but when, on a trip to Paris, she’s kidnapped by slavers, Mills uses all his connections and skills to turn the city of lights upside down and rescue her. Like most of the movies that writer/producer Luc Besson has a hand in (such as La Femme Nikita, The Transporter, Unleashed, and many other French action movies), Taken drips with lurid violence (a bit toned-down to get a PG-13 rating, but there’s still plenty of it), deranged sentimentality, and stereotypes of all kinds. But this doesn’t stop his movies from being effective thrill-rides, and Taken is no exception. Taken pays just enough attention to the illusion of procedure–making it seem like Mills knows all the right steps to track down his daughter–that the movie cheerfully seduces your suspension of disbelief, despite many plot holes and scenes where Mills doesn’t get scratched despite bullets flying in all directions or pretends to be a French policeman despite not speaking French or even adopting a French accent. What holds it all together is Neeson; his gravitas and emotional availability make his character–the usual action fantasy of impossible competence and righteous fury–somehow seem real and relatable. –Bret Fetzer
Stills from Taken (Click for larger image)
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User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Nice!
This is one movie I had less expectation and was turned quite the opposite. At the beginning I almost turned it off looking at a situation that the father was in, but I’m glad I didn’t.
I was never let down, & from scene to scene it just kept pushing and moving on. The action was great & I just like where the movie went as did almost every person I know.
I won’t speak about plots so as not to ruin anything if you haven’t seen this yet. Just know there’s few movies I say great things of, but this is a good one. If you haven’t, just go see it.
3 Stars “It Was All Personal To Me”
A movie with a premise that might have spawned a real 5-star film (in the vein of the far superior Bourne Ultimatum), TAKEN left me feeling, well, taken. The movie has nice action sequences, a lovely setting and some intense moments, but ultimately is too implausible and sometimes even silly. The acting is marginal, and the plot has some large holes. That said, watching scumbags get blown away by a grim-faced and seemingly indestructible angel of vengeance dad is fun enough–especially if you enjoy popcorn action flicks (Commando anyone?!?). Just be aware of what you’re getting here: this is 80 minutes of bad-guy beat-downs with a plot exists simply to try and pull it all together.
Neeson plays an ex-CIA ‘preventer’ turned remorseful dad trying to earn back his daughter’s affections in typically silly single-dad ways. When she decides to head to Paris with her teenybopper, valley-girl friend, overprotective dad begrudgingly agrees to let her go, but lays down some rules, and gives her an international cell phone to call him with each morning and night (something he might have learned in a previous career as a parole officer). Of course things go horribly awry and the girls are kidnapped by some deviant Albanian sex-traders. Albanians appear to be the new Russians in post cold-war thriller movies. I guess the Russians deserve a break; they had a good run.
The first 30 minutes of the film are spent on the set-up, and by the time Neeson finally lands in Paris and starts to administer a few butt-kickings, my response was ‘it’s about freakin time!’ since I had been led to believe this was in fact a thriller/action flick, not a commentary on overprotective, guilt ridden fathers and their whining, uncoordinated daughters–Remember when I said the acting was marginal at best? Maggie Grace who plays daughter Kim, spends most of her screen time awkwardly running from place to place, arms and legs akimbo– or yet another divorced dad/mom are both jerk stories.
The story thunders forward with all the subtlety of a freight train running off its rails as Neeson beats up roomfuls of villains with an ease that makes the viewer believe he could probably still do it with one arm tied behind his back. He is also most definitely a marksman; I believe he never misses who he’s aiming at through the entire film–in fact he seems to administer single shot kills like Kobe drains three-pointers. Overall, his amazing marksmanship and Batman like superiority even in 10-1 combat scenarios are what really destroyed the movie for me: there is never a time when the viewer is forced to worry for Neeson. There is no ‘burden’ on the viewer to pull for him. We already know what’s going to happen.
In the entire film, Neeson is in real jeopardy for about 3 seconds. That’s right, three seconds. That is during a brief stint as a captive in the basement of Mr. St-Clair (by far the movies most compelling baddy, a sort of super-pimp selling girls to the worlds richest scum bags) before he immediately locates an escape route and continues with his reign of holy terror. It is also St-Clair who tells Neeson “You have to understand, it was always only business,” to which Neeson replies “It was all personal to me,” a classic one-liner for which I’ve bumped the movie up a half star. It made me laugh.
If there is one thing that Neeson’s character is not, it’s conflicted about doing what’s necessary to find and save his daughter. He is as unconcerned with torture as he is with collateral damage or even shooting a complete innocent in the arm just to prove a point. Nothing is more important than saving his daughter, and while that might make him a pretty awful neighbor in real life, it comes across as refreshing in a Hollywood environment where soul-anguished mamby-pamby heroes seem to be all the rage.
By the film’s conclusion, Neeson has succeeded in killing probably about a 100 thugs, creeps, perverts, and scum bags. –SPOILER WARNING!– He’s got his daughter back, is safe in the States, and has even earned the respect of his Ex and her Mr. Monopoly husband. Not bad. However, it was all so easy, so painless (for Neeson at least!), and the darker underpinnings of the movie handily swept under the rug (like the fate of Kim’s valley-girl friend or the implications of ends-justify-the-means torture) that watching Kim head off to voice lessons with a Jewel/Brittany hybrid in the obligatory Hollywood ending is just too sappy & stupid for my tastes.
2.5/5 Stars. Silly in many ways, but there is some fun to be had watching jerks getting head-shotted by an angry Uber Dad. Too bad it wasn’t built around a better plot with a bit more intelligence (something like The Punisher but directed by Paul Greengrass and starring Hugh Jackman–Now that I would happily pay to see).
5 Stars Excellent movie and price!
I buy most of my movies on Amazon because it is reasonably priced and they are in great condition.
4 Stars Overly Protective Dad
Good action movie about a father who’ll go to any length to keep the boys away from his little girl. If you like action thrillers you should like this movie.
QUANTUM OF SOLACE BLU-RAY (BLU-RAY DISC) Daniel Craig hasn’t lost a step since Casino Royale–this James Bond remains dangerous, a man who could earn that license to kill in brutal hand-to-hand combat… but still look sharp in a tailored suit. And Quantum of Solance itself carries on from the previous film like no other 007 movie, with Bond nursing his anger from the Casino Royale storyline and vowing blood revenge on those responsible. For the new plot, we have villain Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), intent on controlling the water rights in impoverished Third World nations and happy to overthrow a dictator or two to get his way. Olga Kurylenko is very much in the “Bond girl” tradition, but in the Ursula Andress way, not the Denise Richards way. And Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, and Giancarlo Giannini are welcome holdovers. If director Marc Forster and the longtime Bond production team seem a little too eager to embrace the continuity-shredding style of the Bourne pictures (especially in a nearly incomprehensible opening car chase), they nevertheless quiet down and get into a dark, concentrated groove soon enough. And the theme song, “Another Way to Die,” penned by Jack White and performed by him and Alicia Keys, is actually good (at times Keys seems to be channeling Shirley Bassey–nice). Of course it all comes down to Craig. And he kills. –Robert Horton
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Quantum of Solace
We very much enjoyed this movie. Daniel Craig does a great job playing the part of James Bond.
4 Stars Breaking From The Formula
Quantum of Solace marks a departure for the Bond franchise its a breaking from the formula that has worked so well through the years. The film has given up some of the gadgets and guns for a grittier approach to the spy saga and after a few viewings it works quite well.
Daniel Craig returns as OO7 in a direct sequel to Casino Royale. In fact the story starts where the last film left off. Bond has a new adversary in the mysterious Quantum Organization. Along the way the plot takes us into revenge for the suicide of Vesper Lynd as possible motivation for Bond’s actions. The plotting is more global this time and for the first time we get an environmental plot line. The girls are beautiful as always and Russian beauty Olga Kurylenko as Camille does a great job as does Gemma Arterton as Strawberry Fields. Along for ride are the always impressive Judi Dench as M and Giancarlo Giannini as Mathis. As a villian Mathieu Amalric serves his purpose nicely though not as memorably as some of the villians of the past.
After some initial problems getting the Blu Ray to load (which necessitated a player upgrade) I was quite impressed with the presentation. The photography by Roberto Schaefer is stunning as are the locations chosen by the team to film in. The disc is not short on special features. There are shorts on loction filming, the stunts, Marc Forster as director, a music video, and an expanded interview section called Crew Files that introduces us to 31 of the crew members who worked on the film.
Hopefully the series will keep on improving.
5 Stars Quantum of Solace
I bought this for my son’s birthday, you’ll have to get a review from him.
The three-day Woodstock music festival in 1969 was the pivotal event of the 1960s peace movement, and this landmark concert film is the definitive record of that milestone of rock & roll history. It’s more than a chronicle of the hippie movement, however; this is a film of genuine historical and social importance, capturing the spirit of America in transition, when the Vietnam War was at its peak and antiwar protest was fully expressed through the liberating music of the time. With a brilliant crew at his disposal (including a young editor named Martin Scorsese), director Michael Wadleigh worked with over 300 hours of footage to create his original 225-minute director’s cut, which was cut by 40 minutes for the film’s release in 1970. Eight previously edited segments were restored in 1994, and the original director’s cut of Woodstock is now the version most commonly available on videotape and DVD.
The film deservedly won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, and it’s still a stunning achievement. Abundant footage taken among the massive crowd (”half a million strong”) expresses the human heart of the event, from skinny-dipping hippies to accidental overdoses, to unpredictable weather, midconcert childbirth, and the thoughtful (or just plain rambling) reflections of the festive participants. Then, of course, there is the music–a nonstop parade of rock & roll from the greatest performers of the period, including Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Canned Heat, The Who, Richie Havens, Joan Baez, Ten Years After, Sly & The Family Stone, Santana, and many more. Watching this ambitious film, as the saying goes, is the next best thing to being there–it’s a time-travel journey to that once-in-a-lifetime event. –Jeff Shannon This director’s cut of Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music, released to coincide with the 40th anniversary of that legendary concert event, has to be one of the most impressive Blu-Ray releases of 2009 or any other year–and that’s even before you put the discs in your player. The box is designed to resemble a faux fringe jacket (with an iron-on patch attached), and inside are all manner of shiny bells and whistles, including a lucite paperweight with images from the event, a reprint of LIFE Magazine’s original festival feature, and reproductions of various Woodstock memorabilia, right down to notes left by concertgoers (”Please meet me in front of stage. I have your insulin pills”) and a three-day ticket to the event. And hey, if you’re looking for subtitles in Finnish, Thai, or Polish, you’ve come to the right place.
The movie itself now weighs in at nearly four hours long, and is presumably the way director Michael Wadleigh wanted it in the first place. The Blu-Ray transfer is definitely an upgrade, as is the soundtrack, which was originally recorded on 8-track tape under less-than-ideal conditions. (Using modern digital technology, audio engineer Eddie Kramer, who was hunkered down in what passed for a recording booth at the Woodstock site, has painstakingly restored the soundtrack–even bringing in some of the musicians to re-play their original parts, as on Santana’s “Evil Ways,” one of the previously unreleased bonus performances. Considering that the event is something of a sacred cow by now, this trick may strike some as blasphemous. Then again, this is hardly the first time that a live concert recording has been sweetened, re-recorded, or otherwise enhanced. In fact, it’d be hard to find one that wasn’t. And the additions would have gone largely unnoticed if we hadn’t been told about them.) In the end, though, there’s only so much improvement possible, and Woodstock was never about technical brilliance anyway. Nor was it mostly about the music, either. Nor was it mostly about the music, either. There are some terrific performances, from acoustic numbers by Richie Havens and Crosby, Stills & Nash to powerful electric contributions from Santana, Sly & the Family Stone, and Joe Cocker. But the truth is that Monterey Pop, which happened two years earlier, was the more exciting concert, and of the several artists who appeared on both bills (including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Who, Jefferson Airplane, and others), all of them made better music at the California festival. But Woodstock was always less a concert than an overall cultural happening, and Wadleigh and his crew, often employing an effective split-screen technique, do a superb job of corralling and conveying the remarkable atmosphere and spirit of it; you didn’t have to be there to recognize that this was the zenith of the Age of Aquarius (it was also the twilight; with Altamont looming, things would never be this peaceful and idealistic again).
Of principal interest on the second disc will be two hours of additional musical performances, including both additional tunes by those who are in the main feature and appearances by five artists who for various reasons (ego, money, quality, time) never made it into the film at all; of the latter, Creedence Clearwater Revival is excellent, Paul Butterfield and Johnny Winter are good, Mountain is mediocre, and the Grateful Dead, with an interminable (38 minutes!) “Turn on Your Love Light,” are awful (a special Blu-Ray-only feature lets users organize this material as they see fit). Meanwhile, “From Festival to Feature,” a new, hour-long look at the making of the movie, is absorbing and minutely detailed. The Amazon-exclusive content (included on disc 2) is an additional 20 minutes of never-before-seen performance footage in high definition from Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish plus three bonus featurettes. –Sam Graham
Product Description
1969 was a year unlike any other. Man first set foot on the moon. The New York Mets won the World Series against all odds. And for three days in the rural town of Bethel, New York, half a million people experienced the single most defining moment of their generation; a concert unprecedented in scope and influence, a coming together of people from all walks of life with a single common goal: Peace and music. They called it Woodstock. One year later, a landmark Oscar®-winning documentary captured the essence of the music, the electricity of the performances, and the experience of those who lived it. Newly remastered, the film features legendary performances by 17 best selling artists. Bonus content includes: • Customize your own Woodstock playlist!• BD Live Enabled Features Including Media Center, My Commentary, & Live
Blu-ray UCE feature list:
- Amazon-exclusive bonus content (included on disc 2) with never-before-seen performance footage in hi-def from Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish plus three bonus featurettes
- 40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition includes:
- -Lucite display with images from the festival
- -60-page commemorative LIFE Magazine reprint
- -Iron-on Woodstock patch
- -Woodstock fact sheet
- -Reproductions of festival memorabilia, including handwritten notes and a three-day ticket
- New retrospective: The Museum at Bethel Woods: The Story of the Sixties and Woodstock
- Woodstock: Untold Stories: Over two hours of never-before-seen musical performances by Joan Baez, Paul Butterfield, Canned Heat, Joe Cocker, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Mountain, Santana, Sha Na Na, the Who, and Johnny Winter (Exclusive to Blu-ray: customize your own Woodstock playlist)
- Woodstock: From Festival to Feature: comprehensive featurette gallery chronicling the festival and the filming from start to finish, interwoven with interviews from Martin Scorsese, Grace Slick, director Michael Wadleigh, Woodstock Festival executive producer Michael Lang, and more
- Enhanced BD-Live bonus features
Stills from Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music Director’s Cut
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User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars The incentive to buy the Blu-ray version isn’t that strong…
Michael Wadleigh’s Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music, a comprehensive, Oscar-winning documentary of the biggest musical event the world has ever seen, makes its way onto Blu-ray glory with the Director’s Cut (1994) in a truly impressive presentation Warner Brothers has chosen to call The Ultimate Collector’s Edition. Lasting just 15 minutes shy of 4 hours, Woodstock features performances by musicians who left a lasting impression on the world scattered in between clips of the festival, its audience and its organizers.
The significance of Woodstock is hard to overplay; in an age of public turmoil, when rifts existed between countless subsets of American culture, Woodstock set everything aside for three days political expression through music. Some artists delivered mini-sermons before playing their set while others let their instruments do all the talking. There are those who insist Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner” used guitar distortion to emulate the dropping of bombs from the Vietnam War, to others it was nothing but creative instrumentation.
It’s truly fortunate this event had a film crew to capture so much material. Unto itself, the traditional cut of Woodstock already features an incredible set list, even if a vast majority of the concert will never make its way to a final release (or was filmed at all). But when a concert stretches on for three days, with little rest, a four hour film of highlights gives audiences more than most have a right to expect from a documentary. Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Joe Cocker & the Grease Band, Jefferson Airplane, Arlo Guthrie, Santana, Janis Joplin and Crosby, Stills & Nash make up but a part of the artists performing. Woodstock was originally an event of political expression for an entire generation, now it’s a historic happening and a crash course in rock `n’ roll greats.
For the Blu-ray transfer you have to consider which aspect of the film you value most. For the most part the video has no real chance of getting a substantial boost in quality. It’s crystal clear picture at some points, but the blur and haze of the original film can’t be removed, so in that way the documentary will never have pristine video. However, outside of a minor case of distortion at the beginning of the film, the film’s audio, the part that truly matters on a film such as this, sounds magnificent. Guitars sound crisp, vocals have outstanding depth and the songs will have you in musical Nirvana should you have a surround sound system on hand.
Director’s Cut Performances:
Crosby, Stills & Nash - “Long Time Gone”
Canned Heat - “Going Up the Country”
Crosby, Stills & Nash - “Wooden Ships”
Richie Havens - “Handsome Johnny” & “Freedom”
Canned Heat - “A Change Is Gonna Come”
Joan Baez - “Joe Hill” & “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”
The Who - “We’re Not Gonna Take It” & “Summertime Blues”
Sha Na Na - “At the Hop”
Joe Cocker & the Grease Band - “With a Little Help From My Friends”
Country Joe & the Fish - “Rock and Soul Music”
Arlo Guthrie - “Coming into Los Angeles”
Crosby, Stills & Nash - “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”
Ten Years After - “I’m Going Home”
Jefferson Airplane - “Won’t You Try”
John Sebastian - “Younger Generation”
Country Joe McDonald - “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag”
Santana - “Soul Sacrifice”
Sly & the Family Stone - “I Want to Take You Higher”
Janis Joplin - “Work Me Lord”
Jimi Hendrix - “Voodoo Child”, “The Star-Spangled Banner” & “Purple Haze”
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - “Woodstock”
Crosby, Stills & Nash - “Cost of Freedom”
Blu-ray Extra Features:
The tricky thing about offering extra features, as we define them currently, on a 40 year old film is that save for retrospectives there’s precious little to include. Before discussing
“The Museum at Bethel Woods: The Story of the Sixties & Woodstock” is the video brochure for exhibit in the museum celebrating the event that was Woodstock hosted by Living Colour’s Vernon Reid. Sound like a bit of a stretch for an extra feature? It is. It serves as little more than a 4 ½ minute long advertisement for the Museum at Bethel Woods’ exhibit which blends multimedia with genuine artifacts. Not really worth watching.
“Woodstock: Untold Stories” might hold the material of greatest interest to lovers of the film: musical numbers never before released on previous DVD releases. Additional performances include:
The Who - “My Generation” & “We’re Not Gonna Take It”
Joan Baez - “One Day at a Time”
Country Joe McDonald - “Flying High”
Santana - “Evil Ways”
Canned Heat - “I’m Her Man” & “On the Road Again”
Mountain - “Southbound Train” & “Beside the Sea”
Grateful Dead - “Turn On Your Love Light”
CCR - “Born on the Bayou”, “I Put a Spell On You” & “Keep on Chooglin’”
Jefferson Airplane - “3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds”
Joe Cocker - “Something’s Coming On”
Johnny Winter - “Mean Town Blues”
Paul Butterfield - “Morning Sunrise”
Sha Na Na - “Teen Angel”
*** The Blu-ray version of this release has an additional feature (the only Blu-ray exclusive to be mentioned) allowing you to compile a playlist of the performances and watch them in any order you choose.***
Of secondary importance in the “Woodstock: Untold Stories” section are two aptly titled features, “Opening of Festival” and “Closing of Festival” which feature authentic footage of people milling about as radio reporters and the concert’s announcer give updates on the concert’s progress and general public instructions. Combined the two don’t run longer than 5 minutes, but even then it’s not worth watching since it’s so dull.
“Woodstock: From Festival to Feature” is a series of 15 segments ranging from in-film clips, to brief exposés on production, camera placement and film requirements, organizing the festival, getting the film through the studio system and much more. Some of these are the most basic of featurettes that virtually every film these days includes on the disc. But some of these featurettes could only occur with a film like Woodstock. Director Michael Wadleigh appears in a good number of these 1-5 minute featurettes with his take on every angle imaginable on how Woodstock was filmed. Considering most of these are remarkably short, it’s in your best interest as a fan or history buff to take them all in.
Now, considering this is the Ultimate Collector’s Edition, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the plethora of physical goodies included in the packaging. While some “Special Editions” come in booklet cases with 30-page inserts about the film, this behemoth goes so much further. First off, it comes in a hefty case covered in frayed leather to resemble a piece of hippie clothing with a detachable iron-on patch in the front. Once you open it up you’ll find replications of notes found at Woodstock, fake tickets, a reproduction of the LIFE 1969 Special Edition Report on Woodstock in a handy little booklet format and a lucite lenticular display of vintage festival photos (which is one of the things that makes this package so hefty).
It’s a great example of packaging, though Blu-ray buyers should consider whether they want to shell out the $70 for the Blu-ray version when the only thing separating it from its DVD counterpart is the playlist option for the 18 bonus performances.
3 Stars Woodstock - Blu-ray Info
Version: U.S.A / Warner / Region Free
VC-1 BD-50 / AACS
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Running time: 3:44:19
Feature size: 38,912,059,392 bytes
Disc size: 39,450,524,539 bytes
Total bit rate: 23.13 Mbps
Average video bit rate: 17.24 Mbps
Dolby Digital Audio English 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps
Dolby TrueHD Audio English 1919 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1919 kbps / 16-bit (AC3 Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps)
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Thai
Number of chapters: 50
#Woodstock: From Festival to Feature (SD - 77 minutes)
#Untold Stories (SD - 143 minutes)
#Customizable Playlist
#Festival Opening and Closing (SD - 5 minutes)
#The Story of the Sixties & Woodstock (SD - 5 minutes)
#BD-Live features
–My WB Commentary
–Live Community Screening
–Media Center
#Amazon Exclusive Bonus Content (20 minutes)
5 Stars Can you still say “groovy” in 2009?
Just got this last night, and I have to say it’s stunning. I purchased Woodstock as an excuse to purchase a blu-ray player, and I’m happy I did. The colors pop, you see detail you never saw in the original DVD.
And yes, some of the songs have been “repaired” with added instrumentation, which I have NO PROBLEM WITH. I suppose it would be immoral if they didn’t tell us they did it. But they told us. They even made a video to show the process, which is pretty amazing.
So quit complaining and turn it up!
And oh yeah, groovy.
Kaz
3 Stars Full screen Not Widescreen
Wouldn’t you think it would be an incredible waste of money to spend on carefully restoring the picture and hiring musicians to remaster the sound and then just show the film in full screen format? I’m sure people who could afford to buy a blu ray player probably has a wide television screen. Other than that the restoration was wonderful and the sound is just like being there. I got a contact high watching the Movie.
Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 05/12/2009
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars star trek movie collect
I found the Star trek movie collection to be a fantastic buy. They have done a very fine job with the transfer to blu ray. This collection looked 200 times better than I thought it would. Great product.
5 Stars Good remaster - Captain’s Summit quite enjoyable
If you liked the original movies, you will enjoy the remastered blu rays. Video and sound quality is excellent, and of course, all my favorite lines are still there. This is worth upgrading to the blu ray. I especially enjoyed the Captain’s Summit.
5 Stars Fascinating….
(Edits for all movies to follow)
ST1:
Well, after watching Star Trek the Motion Picture on Blu Ray after a several years’ hiatus I can claim to be half right about my thoughts. The movie does lack the general humor that is so important to the flow and chemistry of the characters.. however in place of that you have a movie MUCH more epic and genuinely more grounded than what I remember from here on out.
I think director Robert Wise is more to credit for the true professionalism and less ‘camp’ than the ensuing sequels.. in many ways this is the true sequel to the series in terms of look; it’s quite primitive. Even though exactly 10 years had passed between the series and this movie it looks more like 4 or 5.. and I like that.
It’s probably less entertaining on most every level but I was entertained in a few unconventional ways.. like the sets, the story set up, and the transfer. IMO this is a must own movie from a sci fi standpoint if less than a must see from a Star Trek standpoint.
Overall -
8.5 out of 10 for the movie
9.5 out of 10 for the transfer
ST2:
I’m not a huge fan of this movie. Firstly I do not care for the actor playing ‘David’ and do not believe his performance.. I can’t see him as Kirks son for some reason. I’ve never cared for Kahn’s ‘Krew’.. the casting seems awkwardly young, plus the ‘look’ (wardrobe) has never appealed to me. This is a bit too actiony for me, this movie spends too much time for my tastes on either bridges or outward shots of space battles, I prefer the human elements in this series.
I do like the transfer of this movie also, not as consistent as Prt 1 but certainly better than it’s ever looked by far. I do think the original cast is in fine form and back to their usual selves but the problem is; aside from Kirk and Spock most have little to do. I must note; I LOVE Montalban, certainly a role for the ages. I actually just prefer watching the series episode ‘Space Seed’ to this movie.
Overall -
7.5 out of 10 for the movie
8.5 out of 10 for the transfer
Please do not let the naysayers sway you.. I sold my first 5 Trek dvds for $48 and got this set of 6 Blu Ray Movies plus the Summit for a song… NO REGRETS. What are you going to do, watch your dvds on your HDTV? Ugh. No Thanks.
4 Stars First Impressions
Ok I just recieved the boxed set, within 5 days from ordering from Amazon. The packaging is good and a neat litle hologram on the box. Annoyingly the proof of purchase token is on the removable shiny paper backing, well I threw it out, hopefully I’ll never need it.
To the meat. Ok so I was excited when this arrived. I’m running this on a fully firmware updated PS3 on a 52″ 1080 Samsung LCD with surround sound.
I watched BD “The Wrath of Khan”. The sound is really good. Picture, well ok it’s clearly HD but not the leap I was expecting. It’s not “Batman Returns”, of course people will say hey it’s old. Well I also watched the first Sean Connery BD Bond, “Dr No”, it looked terrific plus I have both the HD and BD Star Trek Original Series (1) which looks amazing but the HD version had some sound issues.
I then popped in a regular Star Trek DVD for comparison. Honestly maybe I’m missing something it’s (the BD version) is just not as good picture wise as I’d expected.
I rely a lot on Amazon reviews, maybe my expectations where too high? But I suspect that with Toshiba paying for the restoration of The Original Series and I guess someone doing the same for Bond, I expected that standard here and it’s absent so far. I’ll update this as I watch the others. I have no axe to grind and I’m very glad I paid only the $60 or so on Amazon rather than full price. Just a heads up I don’t know about some of the reviews, I imagine people want to like this product more, hey I would too.
5 Stars 5 star trek movies whats not to love
Paramount does a real good job remastering their movies. This re-release of the class first 5 movies on Bluray is fantastic. On Bluray you will see new detail you didnt see with basic DVD discs. The extras is normal nothing spectacular but you shouldnt buy the discs for the extra stuff anyway for me its all about the movie. Ok the first and third movie are pure garbage I mean we all could have written better movies than the writters for those two movies but the rest is worth the package.
Casino Royale (Two-Disc Collector’s Edition + BD Live) [Blu-ray]
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 10/21/2008 Run time: 144 minutes Rating: Pg13 The most successful invigoration of a cinematic franchise since Batman Begins, Casino Royale offers a new Bond identity. Based on the Ian Fleming novel that introduced Agent 007 into a Cold War world, Casino Royale is the most brutal and viscerally exciting James Bond film since Sean Connery left Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Meet the new Bond; not the same as the old Bond. Daniel Craig gives a galvanizing performance as the freshly minted double-0 agent. Suave, yes, but also a “blunt instrument,” reckless, and possessed with an ego that compromises his judgment during his first mission to root out the mastermind behind an operation that funds international terrorists. In classic Bond film tradition, his global itinerary takes him to far-flung locales, including Uganda, Madagascar, the Bahamas (that’s more like it), and Montenegro, where he is pitted against his nemesis in a poker game, with hundreds of millions in the pot. The stakes get even higher when Bond lets down his “armor” and falls in love with Vesper (Eva Green), the ravishing banker’s representative fronting him the money.
For longtime fans of the franchise, Casino Royale offers some retro kicks. Bond wins his iconic Astin-Martin at the gaming table, and when a bartender asks if he wants his martini “shaken or stirred,” he disdainfully replies, “Do I look like I give a damn?” There’s no Moneypenny or “Q,” but Dame Judi Dench is back as the exasperated M, who one senses, admires Bond’s “bloody cheek.” A Bond film is only as good as its villain, and Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre, who weeps blood, is a sinister dandy. From its punishing violence and virtuoso action sequences to its romance, Casino Royale is a Bond film that, in the words of one character, makes you feel it, particularly during an excruciating torture sequence. Double-0s, Bond observes early on, “have a short life expectancy.” But with Craig, there is new life in the old franchise yet, as well as genuine anticipation for the next one when, at last, the signature James Bond theme kicks in following the best last line ever in any Bond film. To quote Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin, now I know what I’ve been faking all these years. –Donald Liebenson
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Long but amazing.
An all around good flick gets a little drawn out at the end but jumps right back into the action.
4 Stars What a surprise!
I was ready to be fully disappointed by “CR”, specifically with Daniel Craig as the new James Bond. Ever since pretty boy Roger Moore left his bland tenure as Bond, Bond flicks had become enjoyable again, with Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan bringing the franchise back to respectability again in movies with ACTUAL PLOTLINES, like “The Living Daylights”, “Goldeneye” or “The World Is Not Enough”. And now they were going to “reboot” the franchise with a new actor that just did NOT fit the mold as typically suave and debonair?? CHEZ INFAMIE!!
However, “Casino Royale”, and its followup, “Quantum of Solace”, actually WORK!! In “Casino”, based on the very first Bond novel by Ian Fleming, Bond earns his “double O” status within the first ten minutes of action in the teaser. He proceeds to track down a bomber somewhere in Uganda, offending “M” in the bargain, breaking into her apartment, hacking her computer and generally compromising her own little security capsule. Oddly enough, Judi Dench is held over as the head of MI6 in this film, even though she was Brosnan’s “M”, and we know that Bond had MALE “M’s” before Brosnan. Oh, and here’s another twist, for some reason, the gunsight intro doesn’t take place until the movie ENDS in this one!
Craig’s Bond is a lot colder, a lot brasher….more along Timothy Dalton’s line than either Moore, Brosnan OR Connery, but there IS the working class edge that Connery has….though I think, perhaps, Craig might have made a better Harry Palmer than ol’ Jimmy Boy. There is a LOT of action in this movie and “Quantum”.
Oddly enough, the Palmer movies were produced by the very same people that produce the Bond films.
Fancy that.
5 Stars One of the best Bond pictures
I’ve been a fan of the Bond series since Sean Connery. I’ve seen them all, and Casino Royale is one of my favorites. This movie has it all with an interesting story, a grand and moving score, great action, intense drama, and heartfelt romantic scenes. From the opening moments I was hooked. I knew this was going to be a smart movie when they used the gun barrel introduction as part of the action. Outstanding!
Daniel Craig gives a good performance as Bond, and his range seems somewhat broader than some of the actors who’ve played Bond in the past. Frankly, I would have a difficult time believing some of the previous incarnations would be capable of falling in love. We also get to see the evolution of Bond from his heated and nieve beginning, to the complex and colder agent we all know. I think Craig was a wise choice, and I look forward to his future roles. I just hope the series continues to focus on story, and the more realistic elements of the Bond character.
The extras are nice including: Becoming Bond, James Bond: For Real, Bond girls are forever, and the Chris Cornell Music Video. If you’re a fan of Bond, or just a great drama, pick up this DVD.
5 Stars best since Sean Connery
What we really liked about this movie was that it was character driven. Unlike the Bond movies from recent times, this one relied on story and good acting to carry the plot instead a bunch of phony gadgets and actresses with overdeveloped chests playing PHD’s.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Skynet Edition) [Blu-ray]
Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 05/19/2009 Run time: 152 minutes Rating: R Arnold Schwarzenegger returns as The Terminator in this explosive action-adventure spectacle. Now he’s one of the good guys, sent back in time to protect John Connor, the boy destined to lead the freedom fighters of the future. Linda Hamilton reprises her role as Sarah Connor, John’s mother, a quintessential survivor who has been institutionalized for her warning of the nuclear holocaust she knows is inevitable. Together, the threesome must find a way to stop the ultimate enemy - the T-1000, the most lethal Terminator ever created. Co- written, produced and directed by James Cameron (The Terminator, Aliens, Titanic), this visual tour de force is also a touching human story of survival.
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User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars LOVE it
well i love this bluray i think need to keep current on there updates i had maybe at best 30 seconds wait time to load but no issues
5 Stars MUCH BETTER BLU-RAY RELEASE! CLEAN VIDEO DETAIL!
First I’m happy to report that even on my old Sony BDP-300, load times are very reasonable. 2 minutes to load opening menus + 1.5 minutes to start movie for a total of 3.5 minutes! Not too bad at all. I was a bit concerned after reading some alarming reviews quoting up to 20 minute wait times.
I will point out that I have the latest firmware (released 1/09) installed for this model via Sony’s great support website. All that is required with any company’s blu-ray firmware is to download the file and burn it to CD-R as instructed.
After loading the disc in the tray, I pressed nothing. Just let it load without pressing anything. The message about a blu-ray profile 1.x player with no internet connection comes up for about 2 minutes.
As far as the picture quality, it is DEFINITELY MUCH CLEARER AND SHARPER than the original blu-ray release! I’m a picky videophile viewing on a 46″ Sony flat LCD. If I thought the picture was sub par I would say as much. There is a slightly soft look which undoubtedly helps hide film stock grain. The picture is so detailed that even the slightest differences is camera focus are immediately obvious. The original 2006 release was HORRID! I couldn’t believe it was called a blu-ray movie. In fact my upscaled T-2 DVD looked pretty much the same or better. It was hammered with bad reviews. Now I see that the original blu-ray and its reviews on not even listed on Amazon.
THIS ‘SKYNET’ VERSION IS CLEARLY SUPERIOR! It’s also loaded with extras which the original blu-ray was not.
Planet Earth - The Complete BBC Series [Blu-ray]
PLANET EARTH: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION (BLU-RAY DISC)As of its release in early 2007, Planet Earth is quite simply the greatest nature/wildlife series ever produced. Following the similarly monumental achievement of The Blue Planet: Seas of Life, this astonishing 11-part BBC series is brilliantly narrated by Sir David Attenborough and sensibly organized so that each 50-minute episode covers a specific geographical region and/or wildlife habitat (mountains, caves, deserts, shallow seas, seasonal forests, etc.) until the entire planet has been magnificently represented by the most astonishing sights and sounds you’ll ever experience from the comforts of home. The premiere episode, “From Pole to Pole,” serves as a primer for things to come, placing the entire series in proper context and giving a general overview of what to expect from each individual episode. Without being overtly political, the series maintains a consistent and subtle emphasis on the urgent need for ongoing conservation, best illustrated by the plight of polar bears whose very behavior is changing (to accommodate life-threatening changes in their fast-melting habitat) in the wake of global warming–a phenomenon that this series appropriately presents as scientific fact. With this harsh reality as subtext, the series proceeds to accentuate the positive, delivering a seemingly endless variety of natural wonders, from the spectacular mating displays of New Guinea’s various birds of paradise to a rare encounter with Siberia’s nearly-extinct Amur Leopards, of which only 30 remain in the wild.
That’s just a hint of the marvels on display. Accompanied by majestic orchestral scores by George Fenton, every episode is packed with images so beautiful or so forcefully impressive (and so perfectly photographed by the BBC’s tenacious high-definition camera crews) that you’ll be rendered speechless by the splendor of it all. You’ll see a seal struggling to out-maneuver a Great White Shark; swimming macaques in the Ganges delta; massive flocks of snow geese numbering in the hundreds of thousands; an awesome night-vision sequence of lions attacking an elephant; the Colugo (or “flying lemur”–not really a lemur!) of the Philippines; a hunting alliance of fish and snakes on Indonesia’s magnificent coral reef; the bioluminescent “vampire squid” of the deep oceans… these are just a few of countless highlights, masterfully filmed from every conceivable angle, with frequent use of super-slow-motion and amazing motion-controlled time-lapse cinematography, and narrated by Attenborough with his trademark combination of observational wit and informative authority. The result is a hugely entertaining series that doesn’t flinch from the predatory realities of nature (death is a constant presence, without being off-putting). At a time when the multiple threats of global warming should be obvious to all, let’s give Sir David the last word, from the closing of Planet Earth’s final episode: “We can now destroy or we can cherish–the choice is ours.” –Jeff Shannon
More Planet Earth
 The BBC High-Definition Natural History Collection, featuring Planet Earth |
 Planet Earth on DVD |
 More BBC DVDs |
Stills from Planet Earth (click for larger image)
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User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars AWESOME
This DVD Collection is awesome. the product was in great condition and well worth all the money i spent. You think you see more when you watch a normal movie over and over, try seeing the whole world in one watch 
5 Stars Astonishing
Spetacular video quality, amazing soundtrack. BBC quality - can’t get any better. What else can you expect? Just fantastic. Everyone should buy it.
5 Stars Planet Earth - Nature
This is what Blu-ray is all about. Armchair travel at it’s very best. Soar with the eagles, dive with the fishes and walk with the beasts. Beautifully filmed and narrated. Informative too. You’ll wonder how they got some of these shots.
5 Stars Stunning footage!
Planet Earth in HD is a must have for anyone with a high definition set.
5 Stars Best present yet
Everyone has someone who just never asks for anything come the holidays. You know the type, they have everything. This was the gift I chose and it was so well recieved. The person I purchased for was thrilled that while watching was in tears. This is a breathtaking series so well done, I can not think of any reservations or reason for someone NOT to purchase. I really brings peace to your heart and mind while watching, truly spetacular.
True Blood: The Complete First Season (HBO Series) [Blu-ray]
Studio: Hbo Home Video Release Date: 05/19/2009 Run time: 720 minutesAlan Ball’s True Blood series works well for television, as it has enough sensationalism to tantalize and enough story girth to make the viewer care about the characters. That one can finally invest emotion into monsters, including an undead Civil War victim, a transformer who can shapeshift into various animals, and a female mind reader, speaks volumes about America’s willingness to accept fantasy. Of course, television has always produced good fantasy shows (I Dream of Genie), but True Blood’s Southern Goth brand of fun horror is more macabre and more perverse, not to mention gorier, than most shows of its kind to date. Adapted from Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse novels, True Blood thrills because of its equal blend in each episode of erotica, humor, tragedy, mystery, and fantasy.
Set in a rural, swampy Louisiana parrish, the show centers around Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) and her clan, sweet grandmother Adele (Lois Smith) and air-headed brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten). Illicit love is spawned early on, when Sookie saves vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) from having his blood stolen in the parking lot of Merlotte’s diner, owned by Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell) who completes what will form a complex love triangle. As tensions between Sookie’s suitors loosen or tighten, many side plots, such as her African American best friend Tara’s (Rutina Wesley) struggle with an alcoholic, Bible-thumping mother and her brother’s dangerous crush on drug addicted hippie, Amy Burley (Lizzy Caplan), keep one wondering who will succeed in this podunk place. The main tension throughout, however, is a race war waged between vampires and humans. As murders of “fang bangers” occur (human girls who let vampires bite them) and dumb policeman Andy Bellefleur (Chris Bauer) fails to find clues, one sees the metaphorical implications of vampirism and feels deeper resonance with what can be a downright trashy show. Gossip galore, especially about what kinds of babies interbreeding will produce, is rampant. One of the funniest characters is Tara’s flamboyant cousin, Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis), who deals drugs, works as a fry cook, and services the local white politicians, while making sure he’s always up in everyone’s business.
What makes True Blood smarter than pure soap opera is the parallels it draws between its monster mash and actual, familiar societal problems. Sookie and her friends watch the news, where Evangelicals bash vampires and prohibit mixed marriage, and everyone is addicted to V, a.k.a vampire blood, that effects like psychedelic heroin. Even its gore reflects a mix of serious and silly, as vampires explode into red, sticky goop. Though it may not be attempting to qualify for the best vampire footage ever shot, True Blood is as addictive as that substance the town’s youth obsesses over, which is a metaphor in itself. –Trinie Dalton
Stills from True Blood: The Complete First Season (Click for larger image)
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User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Something to sink your teeth into.
A terrific series.Well acted with great characters. Even if your not into the Vampire thing,it still is a fun show to watch.
5 Stars Oh Sookie!
I won’t go into great detail about the series itself, except to say I got hooked quite by accident on this excellent show one night when I caught in on HBO. I only saw a show or two after that, but knew I had to have it if it ever emerged on Blu-ray!
Well, after just completing the last of the Season One blu-rays, I have to say I’m amazed at the quality of both sound aand picture. This is quite a step up from how it was broadcast in HD on HBO. There is a lot of fine detail I just never noticed on the HBO showings! Colors pop, blacks are deep, and there is no compression or artifacts like you get watching cable broadcasts.
Audio was also right up there, and again, a huge improvement over what I was hearing on the cable broadcast in HD.
I was so impressed with this, I just did a pre-order on Season 2, even though I have not experienced any of the second season. If the show quality and audio/video quality meet this one, it’s going to be well worth it!
4 Stars True Blood on Blu-ray but HBO aggravations
I really like this series and decided after it was first broadcast by HBO that it would be one of the first Blu-ray disc sets that I would buy. I have mostly good things to say about it, from fine audio and crisp picture to a fascinating series. But I have a problem with many of HBO’s DVDs and now Blu-rays, which I find extremely user-UNfriendly. Going back to the DVD set of the very first season of “Sex And The City” I was startled that viewers weren’t given an easier way to jump from episode to episode on each disc. We were forced to have to choose each episode individually and unable to avoid going BACK to the menu. Nor could we skip the opening credits (and their annoying music) with a single click to the actual start of that episode. There should have been a “play all” feature and easy movement from one episode to the next without having to go BACK to the menu to select the next one. I regretted never writing HBO, because, to my horror, they did the same thing with seasons 2 and 3 and 4 (I stopped buying them at that point). Unfortunately I found the same thing with the Blu-rays of “True Blood,” only even worse. For example, the first 3 discs each had 2 episodes. So when I got to the 4th disc I ejected it after its second episode but then had to put it back in for episode 3. Only I couldn’t just go directly to 3 and was forced to go through the first episode, skipping tracks, but slowing down to play the entire closing credits so it would take me to the menu for the NEXT one — if I fast forwarded through the closing credits, it took me BACK to the menu for the present episode and I’d have to start the fast forwarding for it all over again. So I had to do that for the first 2 episodes until we FINALLY got to the 3rd, which was quite maddening. If there is some trick to this that I missed, it wasn’t readily evident, which is why I continue to feel that HBO seems to go out of their way to make their DVD and Blu-ray sets extremely user-UNfriendly.
But I love “True Blood” and the Blu-rays look and sound wonderful!
VALKYRIE BLU-RAY (BLU-RAY DISC)Unpretentious and dramatically straightforward, Valkyrie is a suspenseful yet ennobling story about the last attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler prior to the end of World War II. Tom Cruise is effective if a little opaque as hero Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, who channels his anger at Hitler’s atrocities and mismanagement of the war by joining a secret organization bent on killing the Führer. When the outspoken Stauffenberg hits on the idea of linking Hitler’s death with an official policy to safeguard Berlin during a government crisis–a contingency plan called “Valkyrie”–the group realizes a post-assassination coup could be covered by rapidly implementing the plan. History tells us the plot failed, of course, and Hitler killed himself months later. But that doesn’t stop Cruise or director Bryan Singer from approaching the film as a thinking person’s thriller, told from inside the conspirators’ camp, where the outcome of their deeds were uncertain for several tense hours.
In the tradition of The Great Escape, Valkyrie is a war movie full of famous faces, including Kenneth Branagh, Terence Stamp, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy and Eddie Izzard. (The lesser-known David Bamber is very good as Hitler, hunched and cracking under pressure.) The film’s gravity is offset a bit by the fun of seeing all these actors in a factually-based slice of history, and by a few, interesting stylistic flourishes on Singer’s part, including the peculiarly unsettling image of a mosquito sizzled to death in close-up. –Tom Keogh
Stills from Valkyrie (Click for larger image)
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User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Not the Usual Suspects . .. at all
Given all the advance negative press for this movie, its postponed release date and the flap over potentially doctored photos of Stauffenberg allegedly to make him look ‘more like’ Tom Cruise than the already-existing resemblance, I had reason to fear that a sad but noble real-life historical event was being manipulated into a self-promotional stunt by an actor bent on career rehabilitation, an actor best known for the likes of “Top Gun” and “Mission:Impossible I, II and III. I feared that the resultant film was going to be epically bad. Having Bryan (’X-Men’,'Superman Returns’) Singer at the helm did not predispose me to think that “Valkyrie” was going to get respectful, sober, ‘adult’ treatment, either, even with some British heavy guns in the supporting cast.
Having seen the film, once in the theatre and once more on DVD, I have to issue both Mr. Cruise and Mr. Singer apologies, and kudos for defying my expectations so thoroughly. The last scenes of this film brought me to tears both times, and I do not cry at schlock. Bravo. Though I wish with all my heart that the outcome of this brave attempt to stand up to tyranny could have been a positive one, this film treatment is a worthy addition to the von Stauffenberg canon, giving testament to the fact that many brave Germans were willing to defy Hitler to the end, even though it meant making the ultimate sacrifice.
Cruise inhabits the skin of Stauffenberg like he was born to it. Not only does he master the haircut, uniform and demeanor of a high-ranking German military officer, he also must master navigating a tricky plot while embodying Stauffenberg’s war injuries. The Colonel lost a hand, half the other and an eye in Tunisia, where we first see him writing an anti-Hitler screed in his diary that in itself would have been a capital offense. Cruise opens with a very creditable German voiceover, but wisely shifts to his own voice for the rest of the film. As do the other actors. Mr. Cruise is the only American, but this fact fades into the background soon enough, and he displays more than enough gravitas to be a respected leader of men. The ubiquitous Tom Wilkinson is comfortable in either British or American, and here he opts, interestingly, for an American accent as Stauffenberg’s nemesis in the officer corps. All the supporting actors are fine, but I want to give special mention to the young actor playing Stauffenberg’s lieutentant, who emobodies ultimate loyalty to his commanding officer, and to Carice van Houten, for a brief but powerfully touching role as Stauffenberg’s wife and mother of his five children. She died in 2006, which was too soon to have seen this film, but I can’t help thinking she would be pleased. In the hands of Cruise and Singer, her husband is unquestioningly, a hero of the people. Highly recommended, even for folks like me who don’t like Tom Cruise. Maybe especially for them.
5 Stars Breathtaking, inspiring, storytelling
I just watched this movie on DVD again after seeing during it’s release in December 2008. I was curious to see if it would have the same impact the second time around. It absolutely did not disappoint.
I don’t read movie reviews as a rule, nor do I know much about actors…
All I can say is this is one of the most well-acted, incredibly well told
historical films I have ever seen. I am so glad the sacrifices and struggles endured by the real conspirators have been honored by such a well-crafted, beautifully scored film.
I would recommend this film highly to families with older children who are particular about quality viewing. The story itself a relentless lesson about character and sacrifice for the greater good that has few rivals in history.
4 Stars What Might Have Been
VALKYRIE is one of those rare period films that knows how much reality to leave in while bending facts just enough to make a compelling film. Complete with an fantastic ensemble cast led by Cruise–who despite being a bit of a loon does in fact know how to act–the film is compelling, well made, and thoroughly enjoyable. It’s only real downside is the obvious problem that we already know the ending, and no matter how much we want the plot against Hitler to succeed, we know that it can’t and won’t. Director Bryan Singer does a great job of keeping things suspenseful under the circumstances, but it is really the stellar cast that drive the movie forward.
The sets and art direction are fantastic, and as a fan of WWII history and especially warplanes, it was a pleasure to see the HE 111s, and even more so the fully restored P-40s used in the opening scene. About as historically accurate as I expected, the film is able to convey a more nuanced view of German officers than the stereotypes typically presented in American propaganda pieces that portray all of them as baby-murdering psychopaths. There were plenty of those among the Nazis, don’t get me wrong, but it’s interesting to have probably the most hated regime of the modern era presented in the light of their poorly known resistance movement and its divergent heroes. In light of their impossible situation, it brings interesting questions to the surface: faced with a similar situation, how many of us would have the bravery to stare evil in the face and forfeit our own lives for our beliefs?
As a film, VALKYRIE succeeds. As a history lesson, it’s just as good. It’s a great movie to watch with your kids (as long as they’re old enough to handle the violent moments of the film) to start a discussion of the moral complexities of war; of how good men and women can get stuck on the wrong side, and of how blind love of your country can lead you down some pretty scary paths.
4/5 Stars. Excellent, underrated, and well worth buying or renting.
Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 06/02/2009
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User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars This show keeps finding new routes.
I do not LOVE this show*, but I find it very entertaining and each season gets more exciting. I enjoy seeing how the plot thickens and moves along season to season. Season 4 takes the show to a whole new place and I have really enjoyed it.
*I love some of the actors and am annoyed by others. I think the writing is generally good and I love the plot development.
3 Stars When good writing goes bad
Season 4 is when Weeds jumped the shark. I’d say beware of spoilers but it seems that nobody warns about spoilers anymore so here goes. Nancy starts dating a mayor/drug czar from Tijuana??? Doug and Andy become immigrant coyotes??? Really? It’s still relatively entertaining because I’ve had so much enjoyment watching the lives of the characters for the first 3 seasons. I want to see what happens, I’m invested in the story, but good lord, the writers screwed this season from the get go. Disappointing.
4 Stars Mostly strong season and still hilarious
Other than the weak spot, for me, of having Nancy romancing a man who uses violent henchmen to run drugs and also puts her over his knee, this is a pretty strong season of hilarious dialogue, wacky situations like Doug and Andy trying to be coyotes, the marvelous Elizabeth Perkins tearing it up every minute she has on screen as Celia Hodes, a star turn by the wonderful Albert Brooks as Nancy’s father-in-law, and a new location: beach grow houses.
I do miss the Agrestic and Majestic days and the little boxes, but I quickly got used to the new digs, the new weeds, and the Cheese shop being turned into a front along with the maternity store front.
MLP is as great as ever with her timing and delivery.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button [Blu-ray]
Paramount The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (Blu-ray) “I was born under unusual circumstances.” And so begins “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button”, adapted from the 1920s story by F. Scott Fitzgerald about a man who is born in his eighties and ages backwards: a man, like any of us, who is unable to stoptime. We follow his story, set in New Orleans, from the end of World War I in 1918 into the 21st century, following his journey that is as unusual asany man’s life can be. Directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett with Taraji P. Henson, Tilda Swinton, Jason Flemyng, EliasKoteas and Julia Ormond, “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button” is a grand tale of a not-so-ordinaryman and the people and places he discovers along the way, the loves he finds, the joys of life and the sadness of death, and what lasts beyond time.The technical dazzle of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a truly astonishing thing to behold: this story of a man who ages backwards requires Brad Pitt to begin life as a tiny elderly man, then blossom into middle age, and finally, wisely, become young. How director David Fincher–with makeup artists, special-effects wizards, and body doubles–achieves this is one of the main sources of fascination in the early reels of the movie. The premise is loosely borrowed from an F. Scott Fitzgerald story (and bears an even stronger resemblance to Andrew Sean Greer’s novel The Confessions of Max Tivoli), with young/old Benjamin growing up in New Orleans, meeting the girl of his dreams (Cate Blanchett), and sharing a few blissful years with her until their different aging agendas send them in opposite directions. The love story takes over the second half of the picture, as Eric Roth’s script begins to resemble his work on Forrest Gump. This is too bad, because Benjamin’s early life is a wonderfully picaresque journey, especially a set of midnight liaisons with a Russian lady (Tilda Swinton) in an atmospheric hotel. Fincher observes all this with an entomologist’s eye, cool and exacting, which keeps the material from getting all gooey. Still, the Hurricane Katrina framing story feels put-on, and the movie lets Benjamin slide offscreen during its later stages–curious indeed.–Robert Horton
Stills from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Click for larger image)
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User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
We found the movie to be most excellent. All aspects of the movie were very well done.
3 Stars Well written but pretty long.
I like it when Oscar nominees of December get a release on Blu-Ray and DVD, then you get the Criterion Collection. This is what “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” has to offer on Blu-Ray and 2-Disc Special Edition DVD. When I saw the Academy Awards in February, I was very happy to hear that “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” won several Academy Awards. Sure, it didn’t match to “Slumdog Millionaire,” but it matched a little to “The Dark Knight.”
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” tells the story of an old man named Benjamin Button who was born at the age of 80. As time goes along instead of increasing his age, his age decreases. This is kind of like the backwards life of him which was pretty interesting. Throughout his life, Benjamin has a family, a love, a child and it goes through like a biography.
The movie was pretty good. It was close to three hours (almost 2 hours and 47 minutes of its running time). It’s a predictable story, so you know what goes on, and the ending gets very sad, too.
If you need a good story, you should enjoy “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” I thought it was not as good as “The Dark Knight” but somewhat better than the overhyped “Slumdog Millionaire.” I still think that “Milk” should’ve won.
Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 06/02/2009 Run time: 136 minutes Rating: RThree ferociously committed actors fill the roles of the Bielski brothers, Jewish partisans who escaped into the forests of Eastern Europe during the Second World War. Daniel Craig (taking a break from 007 duty) is Tuvia, the leader of a group of refugees who eventually number over a thousand; Liev Schreiber is Zus, the antagonistic warrior; and Jamie Bell is Asael, a peacemaker no less devoted to the survival of the community. The three performers give life to director Edward Zwick’s account of this little-known chapter of Jewish resistance to the Holocaust, which otherwise plays more like a history lesson than a full-blooded movie. The film’s best achievement is its strong location work, in Lithuania–as the community makes its home in the forest, the landscape becomes an important player in the drama at hand, and the changing of the seasons is charted with bone-chilling detail. Schreiber manages to get a little wry humor into this otherwise sober enterprise, and Daniel Craig creates an unusual character: a sort of anti-Bond, a hero whose body is all too fallible and whose decision-making is sometimes hesitant or morally compromised. It’s a rare hero in a World War II movie that tends to withdraw from scenes rather than stride into them, but that’s what Craig does. More than likely, the movie’s main achievement will be sending the curious to read the histories of the Bielski brothers and why they matter in the chronicles of the Holocaust. –Robert Horton
Stills from Defiance (Click for larger image)
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User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Defiance
A superb film showing the resourcefulness of people in diversity and the horrors of racial / religious intolerance at an extreme. Dinial Criag gives a good portrayal of a man under stress and attempting to provide help for his family, friends and total strangers against an implacable enemy.
A film to watch several times and hope history is NOT repeated.
5 Stars I Love This Movie
I saw this film in my local movie theater and I picked it up as soon as it came out on blu-ray. I loved it then and I still love it. It is a true story of the holocaust that has almost never been heard before: three Russian brothers who created a community of Jewish survivors of the Nazi genocide deep in the forest, under constant threat of starvation, the elements and the Nazi invaders who had taken over their country.
This film is great on every level: script, direction, special effects, etc. But it is the acting that is really a marvel: Daniel Craig is simply outstanding as the oldest brother Tuvia. I admire his performance as 007, however here he is simply fantastic. How he did not warrant an academy award nomination as best actor is simply beyond me. He is almost matched by Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell as the other two Bielski brothers.
This film does not depict the holocaust in such graphic terms as Schindlers List or War and Remembrance. I think it can be watched and understood by younger viewers. I would recommend it to young people who really do not know anything about the holocaust.
The picture and sound on the blu-ray are outstanding. The special features include a nice retrospective on the making of the film and I especially enjoyed a short subject featuring current interviews with the children of the Bielski brothers, including numerous home movies. This segment was excellent.
This film did okay business upon its opening late last holiday season. It received mediocre reviews and received only one oscar nomination for best music. The fact that it received so little interest from the jaded movie reviewers proved to me, without a shadow of a doubt, that the holocaust is no longer of major interest to the elitist movie critics. This is a excellent film that is worth your time.
5 Stars A Fight For Survival & Dignity In A Horrible Time In History!!
Of the recent batch of movies dealing with WW2/Nazi/Holocaust
subject matter, this well-acted/directed film is one that stands
out and will move and entertain at the same time.
Others like “The Boy In The Striped Pajamas” as well as “The Reader”
all find a way to tell their own stories dealing with the same
kinds of subject matter from this period in very unique ways.
Daniel Craig & Liev Shreiber head a stellar cast of actors who
expertly capture this amazing story of survival and resistance.
It’s the perfect balance of tear-jerking drama and action flick.
This is well worth adding to your DVD collection.
Dark City (Director’s Cut) [Blu-ray]
Studio: New Line Home Video Release Date: 07/29/2008 Run time: 111 minutes Rating: RIf you’re a fan of brooding comic-book antiheroes, got a nihilistic jolt from The Crow (1994), and share director Alex Proyas’s highly developed preoccupation for style over substance, you might be tempted to call Dark City an instant classic of visual imagination. It’s one of those films that exists in a world purely of its own making, setting its own rules and playing by them fairly, so that even its derivative elements (and there are quite a few) acquire their own specific uniqueness. Before long, however, the film becomes interesting only as a triumph of production design. And while that’s certainly enough to grab your attention (Blade Runner is considered a classic, after all), it’s painfully clear that Dark City has precious little heart and soul. One-dimensional characters are no match for the film’s abundance of retro-futuristic style, so it’s best to admire the latter on its own splendidly cinematic terms. Trivia buffs will be interested to know that the film’s 50-plus sets (partially inspired by German expressionism) were built at the Fox Film Studios in Sydney, Australia, home base of director Alex Proyas and producer Andrew Mason. The underground world depicted in the film required the largest indoor set ever built in Australia. –Jeff Shannon
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Shame On You, Amazon.com: Anyone Who Thinks This Film is “Style Over Substance” Just Doesn’t Get It
About Jeff Shannon’s review of Dark City:
I’ve been a fan of this movie since I first saw it on cable in 1998. I purchased the DVD not long after, and this Director’s Cut is a true “cut above.” Its additional 11 minutes answers questions and fills gaps, and all-in-all provides a completely satisfying sci-fi-noir experience. This is a film best seen more than once - because once you do, you know that its characters have all the dimension they need. After all - the plot IS about humans who have no permanent character traits, since the strangers are constantly shifting their memories and character “dimensions” around.
Is Dark City “a triumph of production design?” Of course it is. Is it a “classic?” ABSOLUTELY. If you stop and think about it, no small part of what makes Blade Runner a “classic” is a terrific cast which includes Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer. While Dark City doesn’t boast that star power, Rufus Sewell, a young Jennifer Connelly, and William Hurt are “just right” in their roles.
Is it “painfully clear” that Dark City “has precious little heart and soul?” ABSOLUTELY NOT. What IS painfully clear is that Amazon.com allows people to write their reviews who have “precious little heart and soul” when it comes to recognizing an outstanding example of a genre and giving credit where credit is due.
Shame on you, Amazon.com, for allowing such a narrow mind to write a review under your by-line. Anyone who thinks this film is “style over substance” just doesn’t get it.
5 Stars An all-time classic!
I don’t see why this film was considered to be terrible when “The Matrix” was a hit. Many people consider this movie hard to understand, but the plot is no more complex than “The Matrix”. In fact, this film inspired “The Matrix”. This film has great performances, great directing, great sets, great special effects, and a great plot. This is very much a sci-fi mystery with some great action scenes added into the mix. The plot is very thought provoking, and keeps you on the edge of your seat. This director’s cut features some added scenes to let you get to know the charaters a bit more and deletes the annoying opening narration. These changes greatly add to the film. If you are a fan of “The Matrix”, then I highly recommed this movie.
4 Stars So weird yet awesome
It is hard to give this movie a star-grade yet we got to do it right? If you like some of the good older scifi movies this is definitely following that and I got to say this is as far as I know the newest movie that completely plays on the older ways of making a classic scifi!
Definitely worth watching for those who enjoy a good movie a dark night!
4 Stars Great flick for genre fans, so-so Blu-Ray
The film:
Dark City is one of the standout science fiction movies of the 1990s, along with Gattaca, The Matrix, Total Recall, and Starship Troopers. It portrays a bizarre world in which humans live in an eternal night and are manipulated by a group of strange creatures known as the Strangers.
The sense of claustrophobia and dread are well developed, and the setting, which uses evocative period details, especially art deco and 50’s modern styles, is eerie and cool. Definitely watch the Director’s Cut - there is really no reason to watch the theatrical cut, which shortens a few scenes and adds a terrible voice over the spoils the mystery at the very beginning of the film. This is a film that rewards multiple viewings, and the DC is the way to go to get the most out of it.
I will say that I found one moment at the conclusion kind of annoying and pat. Basically, it was a line of dialogue in which Sewell’s character avers that the essence of humanity is in some sort of soul, whilst pointing to his heart. Blargh. How cheesy. But overall, the momentum of the story, the creepiness, and the unsettling plays on identity and memory work very well.
The Blu-Ray:
Detail is middling for a Blu-Ray. Certainly, it is superior to the awful original DVD. But digital noise reduction has scrubbed away some detail, especially in faces. Rufus Sewell and Jennifer Connelly’s faces in particular have a waxy look that is noticeable. There is no film grain whatsoever, which is a bad thing, since the computer programs that reduce grain tend to scrub away those fine details mentioned above. It’s not the sort of transfer that’s going to beat you over the head by “looking HD.” Brightly lit scenes fare much better in terms of detail, which is part of the issue in a film called “Dark City.” There are several scenes which are very strong, showing good detail in cloth, or textures of walls, streets, etc. If you let it work on you for 2 hours, there are pleasing things to be found, and to be sure, it’s not awful. It’s just not as good as it could have been.
Production documentaries total about 1 hour 20 minutes, and there are 3 commentaries on the Director’s Cut, two commentaries on the theatrical. Overall, it’s a nice selection of extras, especially for a “catalog” release of a not terribly successful film.
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For $13, any fan of science fiction with a Blu-Ray player should pick this up. It’s a very strong science fiction plot with a lot of good creepiness and a few mind twisting themes. It’s well acted, and the selection of extras, especially a superior Director’s Cut, make this a fine purchase. It’s too bad that the transfer was manhandled in such a overpowering way with DNR, but it’s still superior to the DVD, and, while it is not among the best HD transfers on Blu-Ray, it’s at least as good as very good cable TV HD.
Transformers (Two-Disc Special Edition + BD Live) [Blu-ray]
Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 09/02/2008 Run time: 143 minutes Rating: Pg13″I bought a car. Turned out to be an alien robot. Who knew?” deadpans Sam Witwicky, hero and human heart of Michael Bay’s rollicking robot-smackdown fest, Transformers. Witwicky (the sweetly nerdy Shia LaBeouf, channeling a young John Cusack) is the perfect counterpoint to the nearly nonstop exhilarating action. The plot is simple: an alien civil war (the Autobots vs. the evil Decepticons) has spilled onto Earth, and young Sam is caught in the fray by his newly purchased souped-up Camaro. Which has a mind–and identity, as a noble-warrior robot named Bumblebee–of its own. The effects, especially the mind-blowing transformations of the robots into their earthly forms and back again, are stellar.
Fans of the earlier film and TV series will be thrilled at this cutting-edge incarnation, but this version should please all fans of high-adrenaline action. Director Bay gleefully salts the movie with homages to pop-culture touchstones like Raiders of the Lost Ark, King Kong, and the early technothriller WarGames. The actors, though clearly all supporting those kickass robots, are uniformly on-target, including the dashing Josh Duhamel as a U.S. Army sergeant fighting an enemy he never anticipated; Jon Voight, as a tough yet sympathetic Secretary of Defense in over his head; and John Turturro, whose special agent manages to be confidently unctuous, even stripped to his undies. But the film belongs to Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, and the dastardly Megatron–and the wicked stunts they collide in all over the globe. Long live Transformers! --A.T. Hurley
More Than Meets the Eye
 The Original Movie |
 Transformers Mania |
 The Soundtrack |
Transformers Image Gallery (click for larger image)
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User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Entertaining, but understandably predictable.
I doubt this review will be very useful, as the sequel is near release. I did enjoy this movie. Excellent special effects. A nice mix of humor. My only, (tiny,) complaint is that the plot was predictable. I understand why, as the movie is based on a very established story line. Overall, I liked it, and recommend this to a friend.
5 Stars Amazingly Very Good!
After watching the TV show as I was growing up, I was tremendously against ever seeing this movie because I thought it would completely ruin my childhood memories. My brother finally convinced me that this was indeed a good movie, and he was right.
First thing’s first, the dialogue isn’t Gone with the Wind. It’s mediocre at best and sometimes really bad. But there’s also some bright spots, and some subtle humor in lines from Optimus Prime that I really enjoyed.
The human characters are mostly very well played. Although I think the leader of the secret government agency in the movie is written very poorly. I wanted that guy to get crushed by an Autobot or Decepticon immediately. John Voight is, as always, perfect in his role as the Secretary of Defense. Although I have to admit I’m biased in his favor in the first place, I’ve loved everything he’s done on screen. Shia Lebeouf gives a credible performance as the main human character Sam. I also appreciated that the character seemed to grow by the end of the movie. At the beginning it’s pretty clear Lebeouf’s character is a complete weenie who’s totally afraid of Megan Fox’s character and hardly is able to talk to her. By the end he’s grown up some. I like it when there’s at least some attempt at character development in an action movie.
However, the action scenes are what makes this movie great. The explosions are tremendous as is the destruction. The movie also I think doesn’t stray into too much action or violence just to have another explosion. To me, every action scene was well done and appropriate.
The best thing I took away from this movie is a new found appreciation and caring for The Transformers and the Autobots in particular. The movie not only didn’t destroy my memories of what I watched as a kid, it gave me a new appreciation of the story. I think if a skeptical Transformers fan gave this movie a chance they’d find the same thing I did, that it’s very well done and doesn’t do a disservice to what we all remember watching as kids.
5 Stars Lives up to the hype
Like many, i was skeptical over the “hype” surrounding Blu-ray. So i set up my own “experiment” - which was simply to have a 2 copies of Transformers - 1 in Blu-Ray and 1 DVD, and obviously have my Sony DVD Player[Upscaling with HDMI] and my PlayStation3 set up respectively. I switched back and forth throughout the movie, and i must say, the picture quality was absolutely superb in Blu-Ray. While the DVD was sharp and vivid, Blu-Ray simply added a whole new viewing dimension with its crisp, spectacular rendering - particularly in the special effects department. Even rudimentary scenes such as conversations were a pleasure to watch. Considering the negligible price difference between DVD’s and Blu-Rays, it just makes sense to purchase the Blu-Ray version, particularly for big budget special effects movies like Transformers, The Dark Knight and Iron Man.
How long will the technology be around is anyone’s guess. But even after all these years, people still cling on to LP’s, Laser Discs, DiVX and 8 Track Tapes! At the end of the day it boils down to personal choice. Only serious movie buffs like myself with a sharp eye for detail, and appreciation for special effects film-making are most likely to be the ones to truly appreciate this next step in viewing technology. However, until Blu-Ray players become more affordable - and therefore widespread - for most people DVD’s will suffice.
5 Stars Only One Word “Excellent”
I got it before they’re told me, in excellent conditions. and the Blu-ray have everithing, incluid BD-Live you can download stuff for free. i`m very happy with this buy.
The Dark Knight (+ Digital Copy and BD Live) [Blu-ray]
The follow-up to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight reunites director Christopher Nolan and star Christian Bale, who reprises the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne in his continuing war on crime. With the help of Lt. Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to destroy organized crime in Gotham for good. The triumvirate proves effective, but soon find themselves prey to a rising criminal mastermind known as The Joker, who thrusts Gotham into anarchy and forces Batman closer to crossing the fine line between hero and vigilante. Heath Ledger stars as archvillain The Joker, and Aaron Eckhart plays Dent. Maggie Gyllenhaal joins the cast as Rachel Dawes. Returning from Batman Begins are Gary Oldman as Gordon, Michael Caine as Alfred and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox.The Dark Knight arrives with tremendous hype (best superhero movie ever? posthumous Oscar for Heath Ledger?), and incredibly, it lives up to all of it. But calling it the best superhero movie ever seems like faint praise, since part of what makes the movie great–in addition to pitch-perfect casting, outstanding writing, and a compelling vision–is that it bypasses the normal fantasy element of the superhero genre and makes it all terrifyingly real. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) is Gotham City’s new district attorney, charged with cleaning up the crime rings that have paralyzed the city. He enters an uneasy alliance with the young police lieutenant, Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), and Batman (Christian Bale), the caped vigilante who seems to trust only Gordon–and whom only Gordon seems to trust. They make progress until a psychotic and deadly new player enters the game: the Joker (Heath Ledger), who offers the crime bosses a solution–kill the Batman. Further complicating matters is that Dent is now dating Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal, after Katie Holmes turned down the chance to reprise her role), the longtime love of Batman’s alter ego, Bruce Wayne.
In his last completed role before his tragic death, Ledger is fantastic as the Joker, a volcanic, truly frightening force of evil. And he sets the tone of the movie: the world is a dark, dangerous place where there are no easy choices. Eckhart and Oldman also shine, but as good as Bale is, his character turns out rather bland in comparison (not uncommon for heroes facing more colorful villains). Director-cowriter Christopher Nolan (Memento) follows his critically acclaimed Batman Begins with an even better sequel that sets itself apart from notable superhero movies like Spider-Man 2 and Iron Man because of its sheer emotional impact and striking sense of realism–there are no suspension-of-disbelief superpowers here. At 152 minutes, it’s a shade too long, and it’s much too intense for kids. But for most movie fans–and not just superhero fans–The Dark Knight is a film for the ages. –David Horiuchi
On the Blu-ray disc
The Dark Knight on Blu-ray is a great home-theater showoff disc. The detail and colors are tremendous in both dark and bright scenes (the Gotham General scene is a great example of the latter), and the punishing Dolby TrueHD soundtrack makes the house rattle. (After giving us only Dolby 5.1 in a number of big Blu-ray releases this fall, Warner came through with Dolby TrueHD on this one.) One of the most interesting elements of The Dark Knight was how certain scenes were shot in IMAX, and if you saw the movie in an IMAX theater the film’s aspect ratio would suddenly change from standard 2.40:1 to a thrilling 1.43:1 that filled the screen six stories high. For the Blu-ray disc, director Christopher Nolan has somewhat re-created this experience by shifting his film from 2.40:1 aspect ratio (through most of the film) to 1.78:1 in the IMAX scenes. While the effect isn’t as dramatic as it was in theaters, it’s still an eye-catching experience to be watching the film on a widescreen TV with black bars at the top and bottom, then seeing the 1.78:1 scenes completely fill the screen. The main bonus feature on disc 1 is “Gotham Uncovered: The Creation of a Scene,” which is 81 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage about the IMAX scenes, the Bat suit, Gotham Central, and others. You can watch the film and access these featurettes when the icon pops up, or you can simply watch them from the main menu. A welcome and unusual feature is that in addition to English, French, and Spanish audio and subtitles, there’s an audio-described option that allows the sight-impaired to experience the film as well.
Disc 2 has two 45-minute documentaries on Bat-gadgets and on the psychology of Batman, both in high definition. They combine movie clips, talking heads, and comic-book panels, but aren’t the kind of thing one needs to watch twice. More engaging are six eight-minute segments of Gotham Central, a faux-news program that gives some background to events in the movie, plus a variety of trailers, poster art, and more. The BD-Live component on disc 1 is more interesting than on some earlier Blu-ray discs, which could be simply a matter of the content starting to catch up with the technology. There are three new picture-in-picture commentaries, by Jerry Robinson (creator of the Joker), DC Comics president Paul Levitz, and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.–he’s a Batman fan who’s made some movie and TV cameos), plus you can record your own commentary and upload it for others to watch. There are also three new featurettes (”Sound of the Batpod,” “Harvey Dent’s Theme,” and “Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard”) and two motion comics (”Mad Love,” featuring Harley Quinn, and “The Shadow of Ra’s Al Ghul”). Last, there’s a digital copy of the film compatible with iTunes and Windows Media (standard definition, expires 12/9/09). –David Horiuchi
Product description
The follow-up to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight reunites director Christopher Nolan and star Christian Bale, who reprises the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne in his continuing war on crime. With the help of Lt. Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to destroy organized crime in Gotham for good. The triumvirate proves effective, but soon find themselves prey to a rising criminal mastermind known as The Joker, who thrusts Gotham into anarchy and forces Batman closer to crossing the fine line between hero and vigilante. Heath Ledger stars as archvillain The Joker, and Aaron Eckhart plays Dent. Maggie Gyllenhaal joins the cast as Rachel Dawes. Returning from Batman Begins are Gary Oldman as Gordon, Michael Caine as Alfred and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox.
Blu-ray features:
- Movie with Focus Points (picture in picture)
- Explore your favorite movies through BD-Live™, an interactive gateway to exclusive content
- 2.40:1 aspect ratio, with IMAX sequences in 1.78:1
- Gotham Uncovered: Creation of a Scene: Director Christopher Nolan and creative collaborators unmask the incredible detail and planning behind the film, including stunt staging, filming in IMAX®, and the new Bat-suit and Bat-pod.
- Batman Tech: The incredible gadgets and tools (in HD)
- Batman Unmasked: The Psychology of The Dark Knight: Delve into the psyche of Bruce Wayne and the world of Batman through real-world psychotherapy (in HD)
- Gotham Tonight: 6 episodes of Gotham Cable’s premier news program
- The Galleries: The Joker cards, concept art, poster art, production stills, trailers and TV spots
- Digital Copy of the feature film
Stills from The Dark Knight (click for larger image)
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User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars Overlong, with a weak third act
The Bottom Line:
The Dark Knight, despite being one of the best reviewed films of 2009, does not measure up to the accolades bestowed upon it or to its prequel Batman Begins; it’s poorly-plotted (the ending *actually* hinges on a magical technology that allows Batman to see what everyone in the city is doing), severely overlong at 150 minutes, inconsistent with its characters (Harvey Dent is supposed to be enraged at the death of his fiancée, yet he teams up with her murderer) and just not the gem that it is made out to be.
2.5/4
3 Stars I was expecting a better film than this
I’m so disapointed in this movie.I’m glad I waited for “The Dark Knight”to come on HBO instead of paying for the DVD.
Heath Ledger is great,He really is the Joker,but TOO much Tongue.A couple of times is alright,but every scene !
Christian Bale is horrible.He sounds like Puddy on Seinfield.I can’t believe he was cast to play Batman.
“The Dark Knight”is not a film I want to watch again.
4 Stars “epic” comes to mind
Saw this in an iMax theater. Movie was so good that I went back again…plus bought the Blu-Ray. You do the math.
Everybody knows the story. Everybody knows the characters.
Let’s talk about the product itself. It comes with two Blu-Ray discs plus an “electronic” copy for your computer. The first disc is the “money disc”. It holds the movie and over an hour of special features that could stand on their own — without the movie. The special features pull back the curtain on the movie-making process and reveal some remarkable facts about this movie. (no spoilers here!) I replayed several portions of the special features. Ok, one non-spoiler is how they prepared for the Hong Kong stunts. A stuntman actually leaps off of a building while attached to a bungee cord…which is connected to a helicopter. The video shows the man doing a swan dive off a huge building (had to be 30+ stories). You see him just fly through the air and appear to be heading directly into the side of another building. The helicopter takes up the slack and the guy just floats in the air waving to people down below. The shot is just…it took my breath away.
Ok, one more. Another segment shows how the semi flipped in the downtown scene.
Oh, and the “wacker drive” chase is taken apart piece by piece. You get to see several camera views that were not in the movie.
Disc 1 is a goldmine.
There is also a BD-Live component that I didn’t test. It involves something about adding your own commentary or clips. Nothing spectacular.
The second disc has more fluff and filler on it. There’s an hour long piece on how Batman developed and claims to delve into Batman’s psychology. In truth, it was poorly produced and poorly written. The amount of comics involved also turned me off to it. The other piece on disc 2 was so uninteresting that I’ve already forgotten it.
Packaging is up to par. This set will look great on your shelf.
Wish there was more special features. Seeing all the iMax stuff behind the scenes was just fascinating. I’ve developed a new appreciation for the work involved in making this masterpiece of a movie.
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