Top 5 New Blu-ray releases for the Week of May 10

Pre-order Star Wars The Complete Saga on Blu-ray

// you’re reading...

Top 5 New on Blu

Top 5 New Blu-ray releases for the Week of May 10

By Brenden ⋅ May 11, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Filed Under 2D Animation, Arthur Miller, Billy Wilder, Choi Min-Sik, Clark Gable, Criterion, Derek Cianfrance, Didier Gustin, Duncan MacNeil, Eilidh Rankin, Frédéric Lebon, George 'Red' Schwartz, George Raft, Hoot Gibson, Jack Lemmon, Jacques Tati, Jean-Claude Donda, Jeff Daniels, John Wayne, Jonathan Demme, Ken Curtis, Kim Jee-Woon, Lee Byung-hun, Leib Lensky, Marilyn Monroe, Melanie Griffith, MGM, Michelle Williams, Montgomery Clift, Pat O'Brien, Pathé, Ray Liotta, Ryan Gosling, Sony, Sylvain Chomet, The Criterion Collection, Tony Curtis, William Holden

Argh! I know, another new release post that’s hitting a day late. Sorry about that. Aside from being swamped at my office job, this weeks Top 5 was a killer to put together. There are a ton of discs hitting shelves this week but very few truly worthy of your time and hard-earned cash. I’ve paired the list down to the essentials (cheating at number 3 but hey, if you read this list with any regularity you’re used to that by now) while including package art and links for the rest below.

As always, clicking the Blu-ray package art will zip you over to Amazon where every purchase you make through our links helps the site stay on its feet. We appreciate every single click and thank you again for continuing to read The Blu-ray Blog.

1. THE ILLUSIONIST

From the Director of the Oscar®-nominated classic The Triplets of Belleville, The Illusionist is a story about two paths that cross. While touring concert halls, theaters and pubs, an aging, down-on-his-luck magician encounters a young girl at the start of her life’s journey. Alice is a teenage girl with all her capacity for childish wonder still intact. She plays at being a woman without realizing the day to stop pretending is fast approaching. She doesn’t know yet that she loves The Illusionist like she would a father; he already knows that he loves her as he would a daughter. Their destinies will collide, but nothing – not even magic or the power of illusion– can stop the voyage of discovery.

In a lot of ways, I feel like Sylvain Chomet‘s The Illusionist was robbed of a golden statue earlier this year. It clearly wasn’t the popular choice amongst it’s more kid-friendly peers but it’s most likely the best animated film of the past year. The Oscar, of course, went to Toy Story 3 (was there ever any question?) but my affections are rewarded to The Illusionist – a sensitive, watercolour love-letter to late-filmmaker Jacques Tati and my favourite city in the world, Edinburgh.

Sony‘s Blu-ray presentation of The Illusionist is flawless – one of the finest ever for a cel-animated film. Don’t expect the crisp CGI perfection of Pixar animation here, though. The image on this Blu-ray is an accurate representation of lush, sometimes soft, sometimes dark, hand-painted animation cels. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless audio track isn’t aggressive by any means but provides sufficient ambient texture to bring the nearly-wordless film to life. Music is given more than enough dynamic headroom to breath in this overall natural and pleasing track.

I have to say that I’m a bit disappointed that the North American home video release of The Illusionist doesn’t include the 77-minute interview with Chomet from the UK DVD. Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather have a bare-bones Blu-ray than a DVD of any variety. But, despite the nice, little collection of bonus features included here, I just feel like we could have/should have had more. A commentary, interview or documentary of significance (all the featurettes on the disc are under 10-minutes, most under 5). Something!

Nevertheless, on the basis of the film itself and the quality of its presentation, the Blu-ray is highly recommended!

Special Features:

“The Making of The Illusionist” Featurette
The Animation Process: A rare look at the line tests and progression sequences
“Chasing the Rabbit” Line Test
“Window Shopping” Line Test
“Fish and Chips” Line Test
“Morning Routine” Line Test and Completed Scene Montage
Garden Party & Travel Before & After Animation Sequences
Steam, Splashes, Smoke and The Flying Scotsman Before & After Animation Sequences
Tatischeff Before & After Animation Sequences

AMAZON: $24.99

2. SOMETHING WILD

A straitlaced businessman meets a quirky, free-spirited woman at a downtown New York greasy spoon. Her offer of a ride back to his office results in a lunchtime motel rendezvous—just the beginning of a capricious interstate road trip that brings the two face-to-face with their hidden selves. Featuring a killer soundtrack and electric performances from Jeff Daniels (Terms of Endearment, The Squid and the Whale), Melanie Griffith (Body Double, Working Girl), and Ray Liotta (Field of Dreams, Goodfellas), Something Wild, directed by oddball American auteur Jonathan Demme (Stop Making Sense, The Silence of the Lambs), is both a kinky comic thriller and a radiantly off-kilter love story.

Watching Something Wild, it’s hard to believe that the film emerged from the hand of the same man responsible for bringing Silence of the Lambs to the big screen only five years later. But perhaps that’s due more to the differing tones of the screenplays and less to the choices of the director. In Something Wild, Jonathan Demme crafts something of a genre hybrid. Unlike the razor-sharp, single note, intense style of Lambs, this earlier work drifts into being as a casual, fun road-movie but eventually winds its way into becoming an edgy crime-thriller. Griffith leads Daniels down the garden path, from his hum-drum office-job existence, into a world of chance and impulse. Oh, it starts innocently enough – an unpaid bill here, a little shoplifting there – but the road-trip eventually digs into Griffith’s past, which comes back to haunt she and Daniels in a dangerous way.

Something Wild sports one of the finest high-def transfers that Criterion has released thus far in 2011. And that’s saying something. The film looks remarkably clean, colourful and detailed for a nearly-forgotten eighties relic. I didn’t note any untoward use of digital manipulation on this extremely handsome, film-like presentation. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 is robust and clean, with a surprising dynamic range.

Supplemental material is a bit on the lite side for a Criterion disc but of the highest standard, as you’d expect. Aside from a trailer for the film and an excellent 16-page illustrated booklet, the only extras are a couple of interviews – a half-hour chat with Demme and 10-minutes with the writer, E. Max Frye.

AMAZON: $26.99

3. MGM Classics: THE MISFITS, SOME LIKE IT HOT, THE HORSE SOLDIERS

Wow. Fox and MGM have unleashed a torrent of films onto Blu this week. While most have been on shelves in some form or another before (some are newly re-issued in Blu-ray Digi-book format, others have been retail exclusives until this week) the three titles above are of note. Not only are all three classic films from the MGM library but they’re also notable for making their high-def debut this week! I haven’t laid eyes on any of them as yet but, if gauged by the quality of recent catalogue releases from the studio, I would guess that all three will sport pleasant, film-like transfers that won’t quite take your breath away. I’m excited to get my hands on them and will report back when I do. I’m not holding my breath for greatness with these but I expect them to be head and shoulders above their DVD counterparts.

UPDATE: I just received all three of the above discs. I haven’t had time to sit through the films in their entirety but here are my initial impressions of the quality of the discs…

THE MISFITS: What a great film. Written by Arthur Miller, directed by Huston and the final film of stars Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. The transfer seems source accurate, with softer (read: romantic) shots of Monroe popping up now and then. Grain is apparent and detail is beyond what you’ll find on the old 2001 DVD. The print appears to be quite clean in my sampling of it. An overall film-like presentation. The DTS-HD MA track seems clean and clear as well but fairly up the middle, with little separation. Extras are limited to the theatrical trailer.

SOME LIKE IT HOT: The classic Billy Wilder comedy with Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis has most likely never looked better on home video. The transfer is reminiscent of The Misfits and other MGM catalogue discs, appearing rough around the edges but generally film-like and satisfying with no sign of digital tampering. There is some print damage of which to speak but it’s generally minor and won’t distract at all. Contrast and detail benefit the most from the 1080p presentation, showing improvement from the 2006 DVD transfer. The DTS-HD Master 5.1 audio track is nice, providing a dynamic boost for the music of the film. While not as expressive as modern soundtracks, this is clean and clear and overall quite pleasing to listen to. It’s a shame the original mono track isn’t included as an option.

Special features mimic the previously available DVD and are plentiful – Audio Commentary with Paul Diamond, Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel (and featuring cuts from archival interviews with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon), 25-minute doc “The Making of Some Like It Hot“, 20-minute doc “The Legacy of Some Like It Hot“, 30-minute doc “Nostalgic Look Back” with Leonard Maltin and Curtis, “Memories from the Sweet Sues” featurette, “Virtual Hall of Memories” gallery and the theatrical trailer.

THE HORSE SOLDIERS: John Huston‘s 1959 film looks colourful and rich on Blu-ray. It lacks the depth of the best HD transfers but is a pleasure to look at, with more detail, thick film grain and warm but accurate skin tones than the 2001 DVD throughout. Again, there doesn’t appear to be any nasty digital tampering or boosting here, leaving the image looking natural if not a bit dark. Audio is faithfully reproduced in a clean DTS-HD Master Audio track, adapted from the original mono. Music sounds full enough, given the extra dynamic headroom of the lossless track but, as you’d expect from a film over fifty years old, sound effects won’t rattle your china or give your subwoofer a workout. The only bonus feature on The Horse Soldiers Blu-ray disc is the theatrical trailer.

AMAZON: $14.99, $14.99, $11.99

4. BLUE VALENTINE

Blue Valentine is the story of love found and love lost told in past and present moments in time. Flooded with romantic memories of their courtship, Dean and Cindy use one night to try and save their failing marriage. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams star in this honest portrait of a relationship on the rocks.

Blue Valentine isn’t for everyone. It’s a raw, truthful examination of a couple at the end of their rocky marriage. Director Derek Cianfrance turns in a stylistic, if somewhat depressing film that rocks the verite like there’s no tomorrow, with stunning performances from leads Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling. The Blu-ray presentation is only as fine as the source material, which is all over the map. It’s a faithful transfer of the film but the disc won’t be the one you pop in to showcase your home theatre setup. The dialogue-heavy DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio track is solid and clean. Extras include a director’s commentary track, deleted scenes, a ‘making-of’ doc and a short film.

AMAZON: $18.99

5. I SAW THE DEVIL

I Saw the Devil is a shockingly violent and stunningly accomplished tale of murder and revenge. The embodiment of pure evil, Kyung-chul is a dangerous psychopath who kills for pleasure. On a freezing, snowy night, his latest victim is the beautiful Juyeon, daughter of a retired police chief and pregnant fiancée of elite special agent Soo-hyun. Obsessed with revenge, Soo-hyun is determined to track down the murderer, even if doing so means becoming a monster himself. And when he finds Kyung-chul, turning him in to the authorities is the last thing on his mind, as the lines between good and evil fall away in this diabolically twisted game of cat and mouse.

I Saw the Devil isn’t for everyone (yes, another film that isn’t for everyone…) but if you like your revenge films brutal, bloody and from Korea you’re in luck. You’ll recognize Oldboy‘s Choi Min-sik and Lee Byung-hun from G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra but it’s the beautifully stylized imagery of director Kim Ji-woon that you won’t be able to take your eyes off of. The film looks like a million bucks on Blu, sporting a detailed, colourful, film-like image. Audio is delivered via English or Korean language tracks, both in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. (Skip the English dub.) Extras include 25-minutes of deleted scenes, a half-hour long ‘behind the scenes’ featurette and trailers.

AMAZON: $19.99

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: