This is an overwhelming week of Blu-ray releases if I’ve ever seen one! What’s a film fan and disc collector to do when faced with so many options? My first reaction – grab up the new Criterion discs. Second – the restored classics. After that, if I’m not in the poor house already – the best of the rest. This week is a poor-house week, if ever I’ve seen one…
1. RED DESERT
Ah, Red Desert! This was to be my first Criterion Collection review disc but alas, it hasn’t come to pass. I was hoping to give an honest assessment of this new Blu-ray release but the review copy never showed up. Sigh…we reviewers have it so hard, don’t we?
But listen, that’s not going to stop me from rushing out to grab this Blu-ray now that it’s on store shelves. Any new release of a classic Michelangelo Antonioni film in high-def is cause for celebration and I’m absolutely positive that this one won’t disappoint. This was his first colour film and what he delivers amounts to a gorgeous moving painting, with his muse Monica Vitti gliding elegantly from frame to frame, lost in a world of industrial complexes and power plants as she flirts with her husband’s co-worker, played here by the wonderful Richard Harris. This is an incredible, classic film that I’m certain will look stunning on this new Criterion Blu-ray!
Disc Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
- Audio commentary by Italian film scholar David Forgacs
- Archival interviews with director Michelangelo Antonioni and actress Monica Vitti
- Two short documentaries by Antonioni: Gente del Po, about a barge trip down the Po River, and N.U. about urban street cleaners
- Dailies from the original production
- Theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film writer Mark Le Fanu, a reprinted interview with Antonioni conducted by Jean-Luc Godard, and writings by Antonioni on Gente del Po and N.U.
Also new from The Criterion Collection: CLOSE UP
Read more: Criterion adds Close-up and Everlasting Moments to June Blu-ray Lineup
As I said in my review of A Star is Born, I’m not a fan of musicals but there’s something very special about this classic film by director George Cukor that transcends the genre. This is not only one of the most important Blu-ray releases of the week but of the entire year and each and every film fan and home theatre enthusiast should do themselves a favour and rush out to pick it up.
Read my full review here: A Star is Born Blu-ray Disc Review
You’ve got to feel by now that you can’t go wrong with any HBO series on Blu-ray. Sure, the bonus features are generally a mixed bag, ranging from the extraordinary efforts on Rome and Band of Brothers to the unfortunate oversight of The Sopranos Season One boxed set. But the programs themselves seem to always look and sound incredible on Blu! And the same can be said for the studios new releases this week, the sixth season of the hit show Entourage and the first season of the new Thomas Jane vehicle, Hung. I’m an old fan of the former and a brand new fan of the latter and extremely pleased with the presentation of both here on Blu. I’m only sorry that Hung seems so short at a very brief 10-episodes (Entourage, and most HBO dra-medies generally clock it at around 12-eps a season!) I’m really looking forward to season two which premieres this Sunday, June 27, along with the seventh season of Entourage.
Full reviews for both titles coming shortly.
4. GREEN ZONE
I had the good fortune of being able to catch Paul Greengrass‘ Green Zone in the theatre while it was still playing. There was a lot of talk surrounding perceived similarities to his Bourne franchise work (he directed the second and third installments) but I think this film stands on its own two feet, apart from those more easily digestible popcorn fliks. I’m still not being sent any screeners from Universal so I can’t comment on the disc itself but can recommend the film wholeheartedly.
You know, I kind of/really enjoyed this film. There’s absolutely nothing of note here. Nothing that you haven’t seen a million times already. But everything at play in She’s Out of My League, all of the players in the film, the script, the direction, everything hits just the right note. It’s the perfect cookie-cutter teen/20-something romantic comedy. You won’t find any surprises here but you’ll probably have a decent time watching. The Blu-ray looks and sounds just about right for the film – reasonable transfer, reasonable soundtrack and a small but fun collection of bonus features (deleted/extended scenes, blooper reel, commentary and more.)
ANIME OF THE WEEK:
GUYVER: THE COMPLETE SERIES BOX SET
This is kind of a blast from the past for me! I used to watch the old Guyver series of OVA releases when I was much, much younger. The series was a personal favourite of mine at the time. Hell, I even enjoyed the live action film (you remember the one, co-starring Mark Hamill!!) Well, FUNimation‘s new box-set of the complete modern re-interpretation of the popular manga stories is a delight for me to watch! All the old players are back, telling the same story all over again but this time with a lot more flare! The animation is TV quality this time around, with some apparent shortcuts taken. But it never gets in the way of the action. The Blu-ray set is clearly the result of an up-res – you’ll note frequent aliasing and degradation of the line-work in the drawings. But as far as resolution enhanced animation goes, the Guyver series is far from the worst. It usually looks pretty decent. Fans of the series most certainly will not be disappointed. Special features include a handful of commentary tracks, a manga to anime comparison, clean opening and closing animation and a collection of trailers.
3D DISC OF THE WEEK:
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 3D
I’ve got a really big, really long article on the topic of 3D Blu-ray inside me, just waiting to get out onto the blog. Sadly, now is not the time or place to tackle all of my issues with this new tech overtaking our movie-space. But I will say that I’m happy to see that the studios are no longer making their Blu-ray content exclusive to hardware packages! Until Sony‘s release of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs on 3D Blu-ray today, you had to buy a new TV and Blu-ray player just to get your hands on a 3D Blu-ray movie. Which is ridiculous. Kudos to Sony for being the first to drop this nonsensical plan and get a title out into the wild for all to consume.
Read more: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Blu-ray Disc Review
ALSO AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY THIS WEEK
Clicking an image will take you to Amazon.com where you can learn more about and purchase the Blu-ray disc:
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by theblurayblog, theblurayblog. theblurayblog said: TOP 5 NEW on BLU-RAY: 'Red Desert', 'A Star is Born', 'Hung', 'Entourage', 'Green Zone', 'She's Out of my League' more http://bit.ly/8ZviEf [...]
Just wanted to let you know that your blog is awesome. But your rss feed has been hacked to interject spam headlines. :\
Thank you so much, Chris! I’ve torn the blog apart and put it back up online now. I notice some of the older posts are still displaying spam in the RSS but the newer ones seem fine. Hoping to get it all sorted soon!