It’s almost the end of 2009 but the year has a few more choice Blu-ray releases for us!
I have a feeling thatJennifer’s Body is going to do all right on home video. The film took a lot of flack for being a vapid Megan Fox vehicle when it hit theaters a few months ago but there seems to be a lot of enthusiasm for the Blu-ray now. Or is everybody just flocking to my post announcing Jennifer’s Body on Blu-ray for the accompanying risqué video?
Okay. I’ve been kind of down on 9. I really don’t care for the design of it. But I have to admit to being quite sad that I haven’t had an opportunity to see it yet. I’m a sucker for anything animated. And I love me some Tim Burton. Maybe I’ll treat myself to a 9 New Years Blu-ray gift!
It’s another talking animal movie from Walt Disney Home Entertainment and another video review from my nephew and niece, Max and Olivia.
You know, kids are pretty easily entertained. A movie doesn’t have to be particularly good for little ones to enjoy it. Luckily for me (and my sister, who has to endure review screenings with her children) G-Force really isn’t too bad. It’s a pretty entertaining little talking animal romp with a healthy helping of fart jokes. And one that the kids, of course, fell completely in love with.
Geez, I hope those kids didn’t trample too much on copyright there with that “thumb” review. I’ll be sure to keep them to a numerical scale next time! But those thumbs speak volumes. The kids loved G-Force. And my sister’s rave review involved praising the film for not making her want to, “…tear out her eyeballs, like most kids movies these days!” so I guess there just might be enough to please everyone here, if they’re in the right mood.
However you may feel about the film, the G-Force Blu-ray disc is a real stunner! It’s absolutely gorgeous! Colours run a bit hot some times but black levels and detail are beyond reproach. Combine that with a well executed, if not explosive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track and you’ve got a great Blu-ray package.
This disc is full of bonus content that the kids won’t give a spit about but hey, don’t say Disney isn’t thorough. They provide a full length “Cine-Explore” Picture-in-Picture function with director Hoyt Yeatman sharing his commentary time with CG guinea pigs, Blaster and Darwin, a handful of “making-of” featurettes and some deleted scenes. The big hits with the kids here are the music videos (I know. Kind of sad, considering all the work the studio put into providing extras. But the kids are going to like what they like…) while the most popular extra with the adults is the “G-Farce Bloopers and Flubs” short – 2 minutes of actors struggling to perform with non-existent talking animals. Hilarious!
We’re only a few days away from Christmas, which means there’s not much time left to pick up that perfect gift for the Blu-ray fanatic in your life. If you’re having trouble finding something, we recommend using our handy-dandy gift guide, full of ideas from boxed gift sets to the best Blu-ray player in the world. If you still don’t see anything you like, maybe one of these new releases will float your boat.
I just watchedDistrict 9 on Blu-ray. This is one of the best films of the year. I’m blown away! And not only is the film itself amazing but the Blu-ray is damn fine as well. Great looking, packed with great special features and a killer demo of God of War 3 for the PS3 which cost me several hours of my Sunday evening. Super-extra-highly recommended!
I’m not a big fan of Family Guy. But I loves me some Star Wars! So I’m game to check out any send-up of the franchise. I watched the Blue Harvest Family Guy film and wasn’t that impressed but I can’t say I didn’t have any fun watching it. There’s something kind of cool about how slavishly they follow the original films. Anyway, I’m looking forward to watching Family Guy Presents: Something Something Something Dark Side.
I literally just accepted delivery of my review copy of (500) Days of Summer a couple of minutes ago. I’m so excited to see this! There’s been a lot of talk about this film being one of the better releases of the year. A sort-of romantic comedy for intelligent people. Let’s hope it lives up to the hype!
Extract is the new film from Mike Judge, the man who brought us Office Space and the King of the Hill animated TV series. Word of mouth on this film has been less-than stellar. In fact, some folks flat-out don’t care for Extract. But I think high-expectations, based on Judge’s stellar Office Space, have muddied the waters a bit, not allowing the film to be judged on its own merits. I’ve got my review copy here and hope to see for myself tonight. Review pending…
I shouldn’t be allowed to review these Harry Potter films. I’ve lost all objectivity. From the moment the first frames of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince burst from my home theatre projector and onto my screen I was lost in the film. If it’s anything but a perfect movie, I’m completely unaware.
Okay. I know it’s not perfect. It’s one of those sequel films without much set-up, that tosses you directly into the middle of a plot with the assumption that you’re well acquainted with the details of the previous episodes. It skips around a bit, from plot point to point, leaving some characters out there, twisting in the wind. And it’s dark! DAMN dark! You’ll spend the film wishing that someone would just flip a bloody light-switch on. But who really cares! Criticizing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince feels like tearing into an episode of Lost at this point. And as anyone who watches programs with ongoing narratives will attest, each episode is merely a piece of a larger, more complex puzzle. The Harry Potter films are well beyond the point where they can can be judged as singular, standalone films. And as a series, I think the production team is getting most things just about perfect. I can’t really complain.
I’ve never read the books, but it’s quite clear that the plot of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince draws the second act of the over-arching narrative to a close, leading into the third and final act, to be played out through the remaining two films. This film in particular has that Empire Strikes Back feel to it – jump into the middle of the story and end with a cliffhanger, with very little feeling of satisfaction. By the time you finish watching it, you may feel lost, wondering what it was that you just sat through. Mark my words, in time, this will be heralded as one of the better Potter films, just as Empire is now lauded as the best of Star Wars. Just go with it and enjoy the ride while it lasts. We’ve got two more of these puppies coming at us over the next year and half. I, for one, can hardly wait!
The Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Blu-ray disc has been the subject of much debate here on the internets, with early reviews claiming a faulty transfer. I beg to differ. Like I said, this film is dark, dark, dark. And Warner Home Video has handled the cinematography perfectly, delivering a film-accurate transfer and a great encode. This is really and truly as good as this film can look in a home theatre environment. So don’t worry about your system or the disc when things get a bit dark on your screen. It’s supposed to look that way…
The Blu-ray disc set is also quite spectacular in the special feature department although, I have to say, this is the first time I’ve been disappointed with Warner’s Maximum Movie Mode. The MMM has been a highlight on many recent Warner discs. But the Harry Potter track here tends not to do much more than pop-up video of the main actors giving their thoughts on the characters. There is some variation every now and then but I found the feature a bit tedious. Much more pleasing are the plethora of excellent featurettes found on disc-2 of the set. The best of which are actually hosted in a light and playful tone by the actors from the series and provide a lot of insight into who these kids are and how they remain pals on and off screen.
“Close Up with the Cast of Harry Potter” lets the actors explore different behind-the-scenes aspects of putting the film together – Daniel Radcliffe in the editing bay, Emma Watson in the make-up room, Evanna Lynch in the costume department. You get the idea. It’s a lot of fun because the kids seem to be having a lot of fun with it. I’m still amazed that actor James Phelps is now not only one of the Weasley twins but also an Assistant Director on the films!
Another fun featurette called “What’s On Your Mind” is hosted by Draco Malfoy, Tom Felton as he asks a lightning round of questions to his cast mates. You’ll learn more about the kids in this quick 7-minute feature than in most documentaries on the films.
In addition, you’ll also find a lengthy 50-minute doc on author J.K. Rowling, a preview of the next Potter film, some deleted and additional scenes and a look at Universal Studios’ new Harry Potter theme park attraction. Very cool! I can’t wait to go with my niece and nephew!
Don’t forget all the BD-Llive treats available through the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Blu-ray Disc. There are a handful of featurettes and trailers but the best part of the BD-Live experience on the disc has to be the Live Community Screening hosted by Daniel Radcliffe. This took place on December 12th but should be available to view after the fact. It’s well worth a listen. He and producer David Barron take questions from viewers and generally have a pretty good time re-watching the film and chatting. Let’s hope they decide to do another in the near future!
In most cases, when a machine is capable of performing a great variety of tasks, it rarely has the ability to do any one thing particularly well. That’s not the case with Sony‘s Playstation 3. It can do a whole mess of things and amazingly manages to do most of them as well as any competitor. On top of being a technological jack-of-all-trades, the PS3 is the best Blu-ray player on the market. Here are ten reasons why:
10. FAST, ACCURATE, STABLE BLU-RAY DISC PLAYBACK: From the get-go the PS3 was heralded as an amazing Blu-ray player, capable of the fastest load-time of any machine on the market and the ability to playback any type of Blu-ray disc (single-layer, dual-layer, discs with complex BD-Java content, etc.) Several years on, it’s still up near the front of the pack due to the powerful Cell processor at its core and constant firmware updates that assure it stays up-to-date. And just to make sure all its playback-bases are covered, the PS3 is one hell of an up-converting DVD player!
9. BLU-RAY PROFILE 2.0 AND BEYOND: There are still a lot of early profile Blu-ray players on the market. They’re the ones being sold off for low, sub-$100 prices at the moment. And they’re probably great for playing back your favourite Blu-ray films. But players with modern firmware, called Profile 2.0 are capable of so much more, like Bonus view picture-in-picture, BD-Live networking and more! I bought my PS3 long before Profile 2.0 was upon us, comfortable in the knowledge that it was the only player available that could be upgraded when the time came. I am just as confident now that the PS3 can handle anything the future throws at it. Like the ability to playback future 3-D films on Blu-ray (see #4 on the list!)
8. HIGH-DEF VIDEO GAMES ON BLU-RAY: This is a no-brainer. The Playstation name is synonymous with video games. And though the PS3 can do so much more, it is, at its core, a video-game platform. It possesses the ability to deliver cutting edge graphics, sound and gameplay stored on Blu-ray discs and crunched through the uber-powerful Cell processor. And with studios finally becoming more comfortable with programming for the intricacies of the system, the PS3 is exploding with incredible, inventive and graphically sumptuous titles like Uncharted 2, God of War 3 and the amazing Little Big Planet. Oh and don’t forget, you get to play them all online over the free Sony Network!
7. FULLY UPGRADEABLE AND CUSTOMIZABLE: Sick of using your PS3 controller to manipulate the on-screen keyboard? Grab that old PC keyboard you’ve got laying around and plug it in. Voila! Instant PS3 keyboard. What’s that you say? You want to video chat with your pals? Likewise, plug in any-old PC compatible web-cam and you’re in business. The PS3 is not only user friendly, it’s customer friendly. Sony has learned from their mistakes of the past and no longer forces you to buy system-locked hardware to make the most of your machines. In fact, they almost encourage you to upgrade the PS3 hard-drive storage yourself by making it easily accessible and compatible with any 2.5-inch SATA notebook hard disk. Turn that 80GB system into a 500GB system in no time!
6. PSN STORE: Download movies, TV, music, games and more through Sony’s PSN store. With a constantly upgraded line-up of new content, you’ll be sorely tempted to forego watching your latest Blu-ray for the instant pleasures of the PSN download. Keep in mind, these shows don’t look anywhere near as good as the content on a Blu-ray but the convenience is incredible. And, let’s face it, there aren’t many people who’ll pay $40 for The Proposal on Blu-ray but a few dollars to watch a download of it is within the realms of acceptability! Sadly, the store experience differs by region with the USA having the most robust selection.
It’s another talking animal movie from Walt Disney Home Entertainment and another video review from my nephew and niece, Max and Olivia.
I shouldn’t be allowed to review these Harry Potter films. I’ve lost all objectivity. From the moment the first frames of 
