Blu-ray Review: Hara-kiri - Death of a Samurai (2011)

Hara-kiri: Death of a Samurai is director Takashi Miike’s second dip into the waters of feudal Japan in as many years, and like the well received 13 Assassins (see my review – although note that I now like the film more than I did when I wrote it, enough to rank it my eighth favourite film of last year) it is a remake. The original in this instance, though not as well known as Kurosawa’s many samurai classics, is revered as a masterpiece, so Miike was taking a bit of a risk in updating it – in 3D no less. But, even more so than 13 Assassins, Hara-kiri is a restrained piece; largely contained within two small locations (a feudal lord’s palace, and an impoverished samurai’s own house) and with a marked economy of motion in both camera and actors.

Blu-ray Review: Super 8 (2011)

Super 8 sets its stall out early with its opening logos. After the familiar Paramount peak, we see a boy cycling in front of the moon: the Amblin logo, Steven Spielberg's company, its iconic motif of course spawned from E.T.. Only then is it followed by J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot insignia. Not only does it show just how reverently Abrams regards Spielberg, it also encapsulates the tone, subject matter and even time period of the film to follow. Super 8 is a shameless Spielberg riff through and through - and manages to be the best Spielberg film since the heyday of The Beard himself. A cinematic love child of Close Encounters and E.T., albeit with a rather less friendly alien beastie at its centre, Super 8 encapsulates exactly the sort of exuberant fun, married to real heart and soul, that propelled the young Spielberg to such unmatched heights of critical and commercial success.

Blu-ray Review: Braveheart (1995)

It's clear throughout Braveheart that it is very much Mel Gibson's baby. Gibson's typically Australian antagonism towards the English, continued in 2000's The Patriot, is given plenty of airing here. Taking on the unenviable task of both starring in and directing (for the first time) this monstrous, "they don't make 'em like this any more" three-hour epic, Gibson's lion-maned William Wallace dominates the film. The actor's Scottish accent may have been the subject of some ridicule since, but Gibson nails the essential charisma and physicality demanded by the part; you can understand why men would follow him into battle, and factor that the leading men in some subsequent historical pictures such as Alexander and Kingdom of Heaven have struggled to emulate. In the light of his subsequent directorial effort The Passion of the Christ, precursors in Gibson's direction can be identified, and indeed, the theme of heroic, selfless sacrifice is central to both, even if it takes up more of the running time in The Passion. (Wallace is even attached to a crucifix for the climactic torture sequence.)

Blu-ray Review: Mad Men, Season One (2007)

The likes of The Sopranos, The Wire and The West Wing now long gone, it has fallen to Mad Men to hold the current mantle of 'the best thing on TV'. The first venture into drama by US network AMC (who have since have a major hit with The Walking Dead), Mad Men started life as a relatively small and unassuming show, albeit one with a strong pedigree - creator Matt Weiner cut his teeth on The Sopranos. Four years later, it had won the Best Drama Emmy for each of its four seasons. Unlike previous Emmy hoarders, though, Mad Men has never quite caught on with the general public, its critical adoration and small but ardent fanbase keeping it alive despite low ratings.

Blu-ray Review: Hugo (2011)

Hugo is Martin Scorsese at play. Never before has he had such a toolbox at his disposal. It is his first venture into 3D and also his most extensively effects-based movie yet, and the master does not disappoint. Hugo is a technical tour de force but also a completely enchanting picture, its extravagant effects and sumptuous production design used in the service of telling a charming story. Scorsese has said he made this film so that his 12-year-old daughter could finally watch one of his films, but Hugo isn't just a children's film; indeed, it will probably hold much more interest for adults, especially those with a love of Paris and cinema history.

Blu-ray Review: Wuthering Heights (2011)

After Red Road (2006) and Fish Tank (2009), a pair of highly acclaimed gritty urban dramas, Andrea Arnold is one of the current champions of British independent cinema. For her third feature, she has taken a detour to what initially sounds like costume drama territory: Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, the classic story of a doomed romance on the Yorkshire Moors. Unsurprisingly, though, the result is a big departure from the typical confines of heritage cinema. With its sparse dialogue, naturalistic filming style and occasionally uncompromising brutality it's designed to shock those expecting another Pride & Prejudice (although those with any knowledge of the story should know its harshness well enough already).

Blu-ray Review: Game of Thrones, Season 1 (2011)

Game of Thrones is HBO's latest sensation, and deservingly so. Based on George R.R. Martin's as-yet-unfinished series of novels called A Song of Ice and Fire, it's a fantasy saga that's more medieval than Middle-Earth. The title, taken from the first book of the series, could not be more apt, as the series' main preoccupation is the constant intrigue surrounding the seven kingdoms of Westeros, with numerous contenders claiming their right to the throne that unites them all. (The throne itself, made of hundreds of melted-down swords, is already an iconic image.) There's also the everpresent threat of an invasion of mysterious, demonic 'White Walkers' from the north, a frontier that is protected by a massive ice wall, which is where the pilot episode begins.

Blu-ray Review: Cleopatra (1963)

"Surely Cleopatra will come to mark the end of a Hollywood era... There will always be movies of course, and presumably better ones than there ever were before; and yet they won't be quite as grand, as foolish, as wonderful as they used to be." These were the prophetic words of Cleopatra publicist Nat Weiss, written in 1962 after his first viewing of the film. He's not wrong: you don't get films more grand or more foolish than Cleopatra, whose production woes are perhaps more legendary than the film itself. Star illnesses, production delays, director firings, studio relocations, and the real-life celebrity romance of celebrity romances - this one had the lot.

Blu-ray Review: Transformers - Dark of the Moon (2011)

For his third bite at the Transformers cherry, Michael Bay has gone back to the drawing board, or at least made a gesture in that direction. After the cacophonous Revenge of the Fallen, a film Bay himself has admitted some shortcomings of (which can’t have been helped by the writer’s strike forcing a half-written script to be produced), Dark of the Moon feels slightly more in the vein of the first, successful, outing. Bay certainly hasn’t reinvented the wheel, and indeed this third instalment is no less bombastic than its processor (more, perhaps, if that’s possible), but it is less muddled and convoluted. In fact, after misguidedly trying to forge some sort of epic mythology in the second film, this time it’s relatively more streamlined, with a more straightforward plot. The opening ten-minute prologue sets it all up nicely, showing how an Autobot ship crashlanding on the moon was the catalyst for NASA’s Apollo missions. A clever melding of actual archive footage and CG-assisted reconstructions delivers the necessary exposition efficiently, allowing the rest of the film to move forward without getting too bogged down.

Unfortunately, but predictably, the first hour or so thereafter is largely uninspiring. We’re back with Shia LaBeouf’s Sam Witwicky and his new implausibly hot girlfriend played by English model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Bay and Megan Fox having had a public spat. Her replacement is not quite as awful as you might expect in the acting department, but her role is as token as it gets (look great in spotless white clothes while running though scenes of massive destruction). LaBeouf has marginally toned down his manic antics and thankfully a lot of the dead weight characters from the prior films have been dropped, replaced by a some enjoyable newcomers like an orange John Malkovich, smarmy Patrick Dempsey, and the grizzled voice of Leonard Nimoy but this first hour still feels slightly aimless. Also trimmed is the writing team, Ehren Kruger now receiving sole credit, but that hasn’t eliminated the traditional Transformers propensity for gaping plot holes. As suspected, it proves largely to be just treading water to delay the grandstand finale, which consists of an hour or more of alarmingly scaled carnage.

Bay knows how to put his budget on screen like few others. The finale basically sees the whole of Chicago engulfed in mechanised warfare, and it’s thrillingly staged, if a little overextended at points (e.g. when an enormous Decepticon worm-thing demolishes a skyscraper, which goes on far too long). It’s spectacle in its purest form, narrative cast by the wayside in the quest for ever bigger bangs, which could be a good or a bad thing. For my part, I must admit, on a visceral level I found it extraordinary. It’s rare to see scale this monumentally huge, and despite all Bay’s detractors, he can certainly construct an action scene. For the most part the geography remains clear and concise, and he tends to hold back slightly from his music video cut-cut-cut style, allowing each shot a bit more time to breathe and the viewer more time to take it all in (it’s hardly Kubrick, though). This may be a consequence of his employing 3D for the first time. It’s a combination that seems a recipe for a headache, but Bay’s wise easing of his more ADHD tendencies pays off, even when watching in good old two dimensions. Strangely, given all the bombast, the end is again abrupt, as if Bay is saying, “Right, you’ve got what you paid for, so I’m done.”



Release Information
Country: UK / Region: Free / Version: N/A / Discs: 1 / Distributor: Paramount

Presentation
As you'd expect, the disc is a treat for the eyes and ears - an advert for Blu-ray. The film was mostly shot digitally in native 3D (this Blu-ray is 2D), but it looks very filmlike throughout, albeit retaining Bay's usual penchant for extremely saturated colours. Detail and clarity is beyond reproach and the effects are seamless. The soundtrack comes in Dolby TrueHD 7.1 - Paramount being one of the only studios preferring Dolby to DTS-HD these days - and it's fantastic, making some of the best use of surround sound I've ever heard. With endless depth, impact and nuance, it's beyond reproach.

Extras
Nothing whatsoever - Paramount are saving them for the 3D edition.



Summary
A definite improvement over the second film, Dark of the Moon is no revelation but it does deliver everything most fans could want out of a Transformers flick, never skimping on the phenomenal action.

Blu-ray Review: Wall Street - Money Never Sleeps (2010)

Since the original Wall Street in 1987, the career of Oliver Stone has been on something of a rollercoaster, from the highs of JFK and Born on the Fourth of July to the almost crippling nadir of Alexander.* Since that epic landed with such a thud, Stone has made low-key efforts World Trade Center and W., neither of which made any great waves, and now he's apparently sunk even further, resorting to dredging up an old success to make a belated sequel. However, this is one delayed sequel where contemporary events warrant its production: the world of the Wall Street trader has transformed beyond all recognition over more than two decades, from the decadent boom of the 1990s to the recent and ongoing financial collapse.

It is during the unprecedented period of market turbulence in 2008 that the events of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps take place. The real-world relevance is one of the best things that the film has going for it, the glimpse (albeit Hollywood-tinted) behind the curtain of the economic downturn adding a good deal of intrigue and fascination. Hero/villain - depending on your viewpoint - of the original film, Michael Douglas' Gordon Gekko, begins this film having just been released from prison, but he remains very much a supporting, even peripheral, character for most of the running time. The protagonist is Shia LaBeouf's Jake Moore, boyfriend of Winnie Gecko (Carey Mulligan), estranged daughter of Gordon. LaBeouf's largely endearing screen presence helps the fact that he is not granted a clearly defined storyline, which is indeed a problem with the film itself: while engaging with current economic affairs, a clear narrative is largely absent, leaving the film at times sluggish and meandering. Dialogue-heavy scenes come along in quick succession, which are often bewildering and lacking in the sort of wit that, say, Aaron Sorkin could bring to liven up jargon-strewn exchanges for the layman.

Money Never Sleeps is at its best in the first hour, when Stone seems to be getting his teeth into a subject with more passion than he has since the early '90s. The pacing is effective and the early scenes where LaBeouf and Douglas meet crackle with energy, particularly a dialogue scene on a subway train where tension is generated simply through line delivery and nifty editing. Also, Frank Langella as a weary old hand adds pathos to the early going. a fiery Josh Brolin proves to be a very good, believable antagonist, and the scenes in mahogany-panelled Federal Reserve boardrooms evoke the meetings of the Five Families in The Godfather. Later on, sadly, the film seems to lose steam somewhat, becoming more convoluted than intricate, leading to a finale that goes on about fifteen minutes past what could have been an effective, if cynical, end point. Still, the interplay between the characters remains entertaining.

*A film that is nowhere near as bad as its reputation, but I've already discussed that elsewhere.



Release Information
Country: UK / Region: B / Version: N/A / Discs: 1 / Distributor: 20th Century Fox

Presentation
Very good: a wholly satisfying, crisp image retaining a fine grain and deep contrast, and a surprisingly enveloping DTS-HD track to go with it.

Extras
It's evident that a lot of effort has gone into the selection of bonuses here, making the disc worth a punt despite reservations about the film. An hour's worth of featurettes cover the history of Wall Street itself, the original film, the boom and bust, and the making of this long-gestating sequel in sometimes fascinating depth. There's a whole heap of deleted scenes (30 mins), which give an interesting glimpse into the editorial process. The best part of the disc is Oliver Stone's superb commentary - another insightful, thoughtful discussion from the talkative director.



Summary
A rare thriller that manages to engage and excite without any violence, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps isn't quite a return to Oliver Stone's previous highs but it's an encouraging sign. Worth a watch, especially for those with a passing interest in investment banking, but it doesn't quite sustain its conviction to the end.

Blu-ray Review: Minority Report (2002)

The noughties was a slightly disappointing decade for maestro Steven Spielberg; after directing the then-highest-grossing-film-ever in each of the three previous decades (Jaws, E.T. and Jurassic Park), not to mention a string of critically lauded masterpieces, the 2000s saw him lose a little of his mojo. You could put it down simply to age, but the films he did make were never short of energy or filmmaking creativity. Perhaps he was attempting to depart from his image as a conjuror of cinematic fairground rides (an unfair billing even at the start of the decade, with World War 2 brace Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan under his belt). Minority Report was amongst the best of the decade's output for the legendary man: though still some way short of his best, it still contains more than enough excitement and invention to thrill all but the most jaded of cinemagoers.

An adaptation of a Philip K. Dick short story (Blade Runner, Total Recall), Minority Report seems perhaps like an ill fit for Spielberg, and it was in fact star Tom Cruise who first brought the project to his director's attention, the pair having been intent on working together for some time (they would go on to make the underrated War of the Worlds too). The story of a near future - 2054 to be precise - where the crime of murder has been eradicated by three clairvoyant savants called Precogs, the film centres on Cruise's John Anderton, an officer in the Precrime Division, who is himself implicated in the future murder of a stranger. It's a neat conceit but one that takes a lot of explaining and exposition to fill in all the quirks, meaning that the film takes a good half hour to really get going.

Indeed, Spielberg's famous knack for precision pacing is slightly skewed here throughout, that sluggish start followed by a burst of exhilarating action (two showpiece sequences are consecutive), followed by another lull, before another superb set-piece (one word: Spyders) and an enjoyably clever, if not quite revelatory, finale. Fortunately this vision of the future is compelling and unique; elements of it manage to be plausible too, though the central concepts remain distinctly the realm of science fiction. Spielberg is assisted by his regular lenser Janusz Kaminski, who gives the film a layer of grain, washed out colours and a distinct blue tinge. It's not always what you'd call eye candy, but it is stylish.

Cruise is his usual intense self, and performs reliably well, though his character is based upon essentially one trait: the fact that his son disappeared from a public swimming pool some years earlier, leaving him estranged from his wife and now a dabbling drug user. Colin Farrell, still during the period when he was billed as the next superstar, basically fulfils the role of Mr. Exposition (he's the new guy who has to get everything explained to him). The most memorable performance is one we see little of for the first two thirds: Samantha Morton, as primary Precog Agatha, is spookily alien yet human, childlike but wiser than any of the other characters - a difficult set of contradictions that Morton pulls off with aplomb.

Indeed the film is a contradiction: a sci-fi thriller which aims for dark places but is at its best during the quality popcorn-munching action sequences, and whose quest for thematic depth and resonance is undermined by its director's reluctance to leave you at all depressed.



Release Information
Country: UK / Region: Free / Version: N/A / Discs: 1 / Distributor: 20th Century Fox

Presentation
This Blu-ray from Fox does not quite gleam as it might. The feature bitrate is a mere half of the Paramount US release, which houses its extras on a second disc. The Fox UK version crams all the same material onto one disc, including several featurettes in HD. Without personally having watched both, it's hard to judge quite how the added compression impacts picture quality, but the overall feeling is that the image is a little soft, with the heavy and deliberate grain sometimes obscuring rather than picking out detail. Still, the intended downcast look is rendered faithfully, and the audio track seems to be the full-fat version: no issues there.

Extras
An ample set, which adds to the already good 2-disc DVD supplements with several more newly produced ones. Being a Spielberg film, there is of course no commentary, but the sheer number of featurettes more than compensates. Everything is covered, from the Philip K. Dick origins to the CGI effects. The only negative is that despite some of the extras being newly assembled, none of them feature newly recorded interviews.



Summary
Lacking the most graceful or efficient storyline, Spielberg nevertheless manages to wrestle Minority Report into something occasionally thrilling and always interesting, with some trademark slick action.

Blu-ray Review: Ben-Hur (1959)

When you mention the term 'biblical epic', one film instantly leaps to mind above all others, despite Hollywood having produced numerous examples of the genre. That film is Ben-Hur, William Wyler's legendary tale of a Jewish prince who, freed from slavery in a Roman galley, battles his childhood friend - now Jerusalem's Roman consul - in a mammoth chariot race, meeting a certain carpenter from Nazareth along the way. Everything about Ben-Hur screams epic, from the pacing (slower than most films could get away with), to the scale, and even the poster design, where the title is seemingly chiselled out of rock, towering above human figures. Leading man Charlton Heston, the man whose very name has come to connote the epic, is a similarly towering presence in the film, his gravitas and authority overcoming any acting limitations. This is probably his finest performance, mastering a role that runs the gamut of emotions while also requiring immense physicality. (He spent months learning to drive a chariot himself.)

There's a good reason why Ben-Hur remains at the top of the pile amongst epics, because it's not only one of the most successful (its record-setting 11 Oscars remaining unbeaten, not to mention its box office haul): it's also one of the best. Only Spartacus, released a year later and motivated by Kirk Douglas losing out on the Ben-Hur role, challenges it amongst the sword 'n' sandal school. What makes it work on a level that, say, Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 The Ten Commandments fails to, is by treating the narrative as a human, character-driven story, rather than one where the epochal events drive the characters. Heston's Judah Ben-Hur feels like an active agent rather than a bystander. Anchoring the story in an intimate family struggle also engenders greater engagement with the protagonist plight, which is instrumental in holding the attention for three hours and forty minutes.

Of course, the film's most iconic sequence is the chariot race, and justifiably so. A brilliant combination of seamless scale and dynamic editing, it is this ferocious set-piece that elevates the film to the status of classic (and inspired George Lucas to imitate it in The Phantom Menace). It has been called the first modern action sequence, which may well be the case; with its superb construction, maintaining immense kineticism throughout and showcasing some jaw-dropping stunt work, other action sequences of the period pale in comparison. Just compare, say, the battles in Heston's next epic, the Spanish medieval adventure El Cid (1961): they're logistically impressive but dated and stodgy, which Ben-Hur's chariot race certainly is not.

While you would not call the rest of Ben-Hur modern, it did represent a clear step towards realism in the set design and costuming, which favours the naturalistic over gaudy Technicolor stylings. The lighting is also exemplary, Wyler content to bath swathes of his elaborate sets in deepest shadows, taking some inspiration from film noir. The pacing, on the other hand, is defiantly old-school; you could probably eliminate thirty minutes by just tightening most of the dialogue exchanges, without losing anything, and the middle section and the last hour or so after the chariot race do drag. But that was part of the deal with epics back in the day: the bigger the better, and they don't come much bigger than Ben-Hur.



 
Release Information
Country: US / Region: Free / Version: Fiftieth Anniversary Limited Edition / Discs: 3 / Distributor: Warner Bros.

Presentation
Ben-Hur has received an 8K restoration, one of the first of its kind, taking full advantage of the 65mm resolution to deliver a truly stunning image. There's almost no grain but DNR is nowhere to be found; this is entirely down to the large-format film stock. Detail is accordingly outstanding and colours shine through - just check out the reds of the Roman cloaks. The picture is stable throughout with not a speck of print damage or dirt having eluded the restorers. This is a grade-A job, and perhaps the best HD transfer of an older film yet seen. It really is like looking through a window at times. The only drawback is unavoidable - with such a wide aspect ratio (2.76:1) the black bars take up a lot of screen real estate.

There was less to work with in the sound department, the capabilities of 1950s recording equipment not quite equalling the visuals. Still, the 5.1 DTS-HD track is perfectly competent, giving Miklos Rosza's stirring score room to breathe; on the other hand, there's little depth or LFE.

Extras
This 3-disc set houses the film on two discs (to maintain the highest bitrate), divided by the intermission, while the third contains the extras. They consist of everything found on the 4-disc DVD, including two hour-long documentaries, the full 1925 silent film of Ben-Hur (even more impressive scale-wise than its remake), screen tests - including Leslie Nielsen! - and more. The documentaries are superb, one being a well-made Ted Turner-produced Making Of from the 1990s, the other a retrospective made for the 2005 DVD release. The commentary - mostly by film historian FX Feeney, but also with some input by the late Heston - is also present and correct.

These are further complimented for the Blu-ray by a brand new 80-minute documentary comprising home video footage shot by Heston's wife during the prolonged making of the film, also encompassing the actor's childhood, and with numerous interview contributors. This US release also contains a booklet featuring reproduced pages from the Heston's diary, which is truly fascinating and shows he was a highly intelligent man who thought deeply about his work. Finally, there's another book too, a large glossy photo book with numerous stills from the film and the production. (The UK release excludes these physical extras and the fancy packaging but is much cheaper - the choice is yours.)



Summary
Ben-Hur epitomises the Hollywood epic, and remains a stirring adventure. The chariot race is justifiably legendary; the rest of the film, sometimes overwrought and sluggish, slightly less so. It probably hasn't looked or sounded better since its premiere.

Blu-ray Review: The Princess and the Frog (2009)

This section is a reproduction of my original cinema review.

An unfortunate side-effect of Pixar's emergence onto the scene from 1995 onwards was the diminishing fortunes of the traditional hand-drawn animation. Of course, Hollywood being Hollywood, it was deemed that the decline in the box office revenues of traditional cartoons was due to the fact that the kids now wanted CG and nothing else, rather than the fact that many traditional 'toons of the late '90s and early 2000s were simply lacklustre films. Fittingly, it is Pixar's founder John Lasseter who has provided a voice of reason and overseen the rebirth of classic animation at the Mouse House, and The Princess and the Frog is the first progeny of his new creative direction.

Something that is quite readily apparent with the film is that despite Lasseter's involvement, the traditional Walt Disney format has not been "Pixarised" at all; Princess belongs completely within the realm of the musical fairytale, rather than the more postmodern and contemporary charms of the Lasseter school. It makes for a hugely refreshing change of pace. There's a character and magic to the film immediately, borne out of the evident loving care applied to every frame, and the clear commitment to make a film that rises above run-of-the-mill to sit alongside prior Disney classics, such as those produced in the early '90s renaissance. The Princess and the Frog achieves that goal in some style; it's a heartwarming, engrossing fable that both rejuvenates some of the old Disney staples and injects some original and unpredictable touches of its own.

The art design of the film is simply fantastic. The decision to set the tale in period New Orleans is a masterstroke, which both gives it an absolutely distinctive visual style and also influences composer Randy Newman's musical approach, which is heavily jazz-, ragtime- and gospel-based. Beginning with a prologue with main character Tiana as a young girl, which illustrates her less than privileged upbringing in a subtle and endearing way. Soon the film skips a number of years to meet Tiana in young adulthood. She's working as a lowly waitress but harbours a dream, inspired by her late father, to own her own restaurant. It's a surprisingly mature beginning, and while it takes some time for this set-up to transition into a story about her meeting an eastern prince who has been transformed into a frog by a sinister voodoo practitioner, then finding herself transformed into a frog too, the way it is handled - with good humour, appealing songs and that beautiful artwork - means that it's captivating from the start.

If the film's subsequent detour into a trek through the bayou accompanied by a trumpet-playing crocodile and a Cajun firefly feels like a concession to the kiddies, the tonal shift is relatively seamless, and the anthropomorphised animal characters are more than simple comic relief. Less well defined is the film's villain Dr. Facilier, the aforementioned voodoo conjuror, whose insidious plot is never made particularly clear, and the character himself is unmemorable. That's not the fault of the voice actor, Keith David, however, and indeed the whole cast, mercifully free of incongruous but attention-grabbing star names, acquit themselves very well indeed, from Anika Noni Rose's feisty but vulnerable heroine (Disney's first black protagonist, a fact which is subtly referenced but never shoved down our throats) to Jim Cummings as the firefly with the thick bayou accent.

Although, as a fairytale, the ultimate outcome of the plot is a foregone conclusion, it doesn't restrict the entertainment value at all, and there are a couple of twists that even jaded viewers may not see coming. There's a joie de vivre present throughout that makes the film simply a pleasure to watch.



Release Information
Country: UK / Region: Free / Version: Triple Play / Discs: 3 (1 BD/1 DVD/1 Digital Copy) / Distributor: Disney

Presentation
The exquisite artistry of Princess' recreation of New Orleans was always going to shine on Blu-ray, and indeed it is magnificent: the colours! The detail! The clarity! (And not a hint of aliasing or banding, as can be a problem with animation in HD.) Equally sublime is the audio, the opening number, "Down in New Orleans", providing a perfect showcase - you can make out the individual instruments in Randy Newman's orchestra.

In short, Disney + animation + Blu-ray = audio-visual perfection.

Extras
There's not a huge amount here, but it is wonderfully good-natured and passionate. The most substantial is a 20-minute Making Of and a jovial commentary; thankfully there are few exclusively kiddie extras like games that they're never going to play. Naturally, there's much discussion of this being the rebirth of Disney hand-drawn animation; sadly, further more recent showpieces for the technique have been conspicous by their absence.



Summary
The CG-animation bandwagon has long been overcrowded. The Princess and the Frog is a breath of fresh air, full of vitality, charm and artistry - reminding us exactly what made Disney animation so beloved in the first place.

Blu-ray Review: The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

I completely agree with Joel's review of The Adjustment Bureau on its theatrical release, no rather than reiterate similar points I'm reproducing his review here with salient Blu-ray specific comments below.

The Adjustment Bureau, with its morose grey tones, quick-paced chase scenes and pseudo-spiritual focus, is doomed to be compared with Christopher Nolan's Inception, though the plot actually has little in common with 2010's extravaganza. Instead of a staid, defeated Leonardo DiCaprio, we have Matt Damon, his co-star from The Departed, as David, a bullish, up-and-coming politician, who stumbles onto the knowledge that his entire life has been engineered by a group of men who claim to work for someone called The Chairman. They alert him that the big man's 'Plan' entails that he not hook up with a feisty ballerina (the wonderful Emily Blunt) which would derail him from his career and ruin hers.

From the get-go, it's made clear who/what The Chairman is, as well as his workers. These are bureaucrats from the Other Side, who fascinatingly seem to have the same type of business hierarchy as a large government office and are very fond of snappy fedora hats. It's a strange, slightly silly conceit, but perhaps that's what makes it brilliant. (It also gives an excuse to quote perhaps the most unintentionally hilarious line of the year: "The most important thing to remember is that everyone wearing a hat is a threat!")

Director George Nolfi is clever not pretending that Philip K. Dick's source material isn't a little silly, and he actually embraces it. Consequently the chase scenes, with Damon being followed by ten men in sharp suits, flips between being a charming Hitchcock pastiche and actually a little frightening. Indeed, the director isn't afraid of fun - something Christopher Nolan could maybe take a lesson from.

Damon and Blunt display some of the best chemistry on-screen you are likely to see post-Golden Age Hollywood. Though their relationship is based on only three chance meetings, their slow-burning yet jovial banter makes it seem credible that they would be willing to take on God to keep it intact. John Slattery (famous for portraying silver fox Roger Sterling in Mad Men) is also terrific as a cosmic middle manager. And as David's case worker, Anthony Mackie takes what could be a small, exposition-heavy character, and turns him into a melancholic, disillusioned soul with every turn of phrase.

The man at the helm of the project, first-time director and long-time screenwriter, Nolfi makes more than a solid debut behind the camera and the whole film is smoothly shot, with numerous moments of standout cinematography. Considering where the film is based (New York), and the events that occur, there isn't a huge amount of scope to produce impressive visuals, and as such Nolfi should be very satisfied with his input. One aspect that works well is the handling of the Bureau's agents' supernatural movements. They have the ability to alter the location that appears when they step through a door, thus being able to create portals to practically anywhere they like; this is handled very slickly and never appears clunky.

Nolfi also understands that this is an entertainment commodity and he never tries to make bold political and ideological statements, perhaps barring the one time Damon refers to the people "running the country" as "idiots". The correct way to approach The Adjustment Bureau is not to put much serious thought into it. This is not the new Blade Runner; it is a long way from a thought-provoking sci-fi thriller of that particular depth although the film offers many interpretations regarding predestination. Rather, it is a romance story, juxtaposed with elements of sci-fi.

The thematic impulse behind The Adjustment Bureau is a familiar one, that true love is worth more than anything else this life has to offer. The keys to Nolfi putting it over effectively in this real world but quasi-sci-fi context are his great success in making the connection between Damon and Blunt so convincing and worth fighting for.



Release Information
Country: UK / Region: Free / Version: Triple Play Steelbook / Discs: 3 (1 BD/1 DVD/1 Digital Copy) / Distributor: Universal

Presentation
The Adjustment Bureau doesn’t come with quite the sort of slick, polished transfer we’re now used to with new releases. In spots it’s quite soft detail-wise, but this varies quite a lot (some close-ups, for example, look exceptional). There’s a fair amount of grain but it looks inherent in the film stock, and a high bitrate means that compression artefacts, such as undue noise or blocking, are never in evidence. The colour scheme is the most impressive part – the rich palette of colours (especially blues) in John Toll’s cinematography shines through, showing off the film’s unusually extensive New York location shooting magnificently. The soundtrack is commendably immersive at times, though the refreshing lack of bombast means it’s never a showstopper in terms of depth or bass response.

Extras
Meagre, unfortunately. First time director George Nolfi (writer of Ocean’s Twelve and The Bourne Ultimatum) badly needs a partner on the commentary, as his delivery is not the most confident or engaging, despite the fact that he’s evidently passionate about the project. The Interactive Map of New York sounds nifty, but its execution is limited and clunky: choose various story locations on a Google Earth map, watch a (very brief) behind the scenes clip, and ‘travel’ through the door to wherever it leads, like the bureau do in the film. The three remaining featurettes are too short, adding up to only 20 minutes or so; disappointing considering what you do see is interesting.



Summary
Lightness of touch is not what one expects in fictional portrayals of monolithic entities bent on world domination, so the subtle tone George Nolfi maintains here represents something fresh and welcome. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt are sublime.