Another late entry. Sorry, dudes. I ended up out of town for the week on another project and have been playing catch-up since returning to town on Friday. Let’s not waste any more time chatting about things and get to the reviews of this week’s releases. There’s some amazing stuff out this week. Check it out!

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Blu-ray disc of the week: THE IDES OF MARCH

“Ambition seduces and power corrupts in this nerve-wracking thriller from Academy Award nominated director George Clooney. Idealistic campaign worker Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) has sworn to give all for Governor Mike Morris (Clooney), a wild card presidential candidate. However, during a brutal Ohio primary Stephen gets trapped in the down-and-dirty battle and finds himself caught up in a scandal where the only path to survival is to play both sides.“

I think 2011 might have been the year that Ryan Gosling became the coolest man on Earth. The one-two punch of Drive and George Clooney’s The Ides of March, making its Blu-ray debut this week, have cemented the steeley, chiseled Canadian as one to watch through 2012. Can he remain cool for a further 365 days or were these two films a fluke? It remains to be seen. But let me tell you, if you feel his performance was too simple, direct or one-note in Drive, Gosling proves he’s got the chops to deliver in Ides of March. As dutiful Stephen Meyers working for Clooney’s Governor Mike Morris (yes, the multi-talented Clooney not only directs, produces and shares writing credit here but stars in the film as well) Gosling might play it cool but political and personal games that threaten his character’s hard-won career see the actor run the gamut of emotions. I think he’s the real thing. And, more importantly here, The Ides of March is really good. Actually, it’s really great. Fans of political thrillers like All The President’s Men will want to check this one out post haste!

In addition to being one of the better films of late 2011, The Ides of March is one of the best looking Blu-ray discs I’ve had the pleasure of screening in recent memory. This is great work from Sony (via Alliance on the Canadian disc I watched) with a natural, rich grain structure, a ton of detail and colour that’s spot on. A perfect transfer with a perfect encode. Beautiful! The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is, likewise, right on the money but features less of a ‘wow’ factor, as much of the soundtrack is center-channel-focused dialogue. Bonus goodies on the disc include an excellent, if not slightly dry commentary from Clooney and writer/producer Grant Heslov and almost half an hour of featurettes.

Highly recommended!

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Commentary with George Clooney and Grant Heslov
• Developing the Campaign: The Origin of The Ides of March
• Believe: George Clooney
• On The Campaign: The Cast of The Ides Of March
• What Does a Political Consultant Do?

AMAZON: CDN $27.99

Also available: THE IDES OF MARCH (US Edition)

AMAZON: $17.99

REDLINE

““Redline” is about the biggest and most deadly racing tournament in the universe. Only held once every five years, everyone wants to stake their claim to fame, including JP, a reckless dare-devil driver oblivious to speed limits with his ultra-customized car – all the while, organized crime and militaristic governments want to leverage the race to their own ends. Amongst the other elite rival drivers in the tournament, JP falls for the alluring Sonoshee – but will she prove his undoing, or can a high speed romance survive a mass destruction race.“

Redline is, without question, one of the most hotly anticipated Blu-ray releases of the last year. Hell, it’s so good I damn near proclaimed it “Disc of the Week”. There’s only a couple of things that keep this exceptional Blu-ray release from that distinction, here on The Blu-ray Blog – the first is the fact that anime is still a niche genre of product that I can’t really recommend to everybody (there’s no way my sister would ever sit through this film) and the second is that, while this is a remarkable film on so many levels, the story and plot are pretty inane and somewhat incomprehensible. But honestly, for this sort of animated film, I don’t mind some weakness in narrative if there’s an overwhelming inventiveness elsewhere. And Redline is hella inventive! From the outlandish characterizations, automotive design and all-’round nutso animation, every aspect of this film simply screams originality. I challenge you to watch Redline and not enjoy the hell out of it. If you like anime, that is.

Anchor Bay‘s high-bandwidth encode rocks the Redline transfer, handling the grand swaths of black and fast action with aplomb. This is a fantastic, vivid, colourful Blu-ray presnetation from start to finish! Great looking stuff here. The Japanese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack is also all kinds of awesome! I only sampled a touch of the English mix but it seemed to replicate the original in clarity, immersiveness and all around crazy-ass bombast.

Special features include a thorough, hour-long “Perfect Guide to Redline” with interviews, designs, storyboards and more. There’s also a documentary piece that’s half as long and half as interesting. This excellent Blu-ray release is topped off with the “2006″ trailer.

AMAZON: $19.99

FIRST SQUAD

“Set during the opening days of World War II on the Eastern Front. Its main cast is a group of Soviet teenagers with extraordinary abilities; the teenagers have been drafted to form a special unit to fight the invading German army. They are opposed by a Schutzstaffel (SS) officer who is attempting to raise from the dead a supernatural army of crusaders from the 12th-century Order of the Sacred Cross and enlist them in the Nazi cause.“

Sigh. I had such high hopes for First Squad: The Moment of Truth. On the surface, it’s a super-cool Russian/Japanese co-production, slickly designed and animated by the geniuses at Studio 4°C (Tekkon Kinkreet, Genius Party.) But, at its core, it’s a collection of genre cliches that hues too close to Zack Snider‘s Suckerpunch for comfort. The story is supposed to take place during the second world war but the filmmakers have made certain that the First Squad all sport clothing and makeup that ratchets up their “cool factor” without consideration for the period. Is there a reason that the protagonist has a katana with a mini beanie baby dangling from the hilt like a modern day cell phone charm other than someone in the production team thought it would be “cool”? That’s what most of the film feels like – a hodgepodge of stereotypical anime elements mashed-up with a touch of Russian history. I like girls with katanas slicing through zombie soldiers as much as the next nerd but for me, First Squad just doesn’t come together.

I will say, however, that Anchor Bay’s Blu-ray presentation of the film is gorgeous. Though colours are purposely desaturated, the image is radiant and clean, with tons of detail to spare. When animation is well handled on Blu-ray, it really makes the format shine. First Squad is very fine, well rendered high-def eye candy, to be sure. The Russian Dolby TrueHD 5.1 I selected for viewing was also quite strong, though I found the soundtrack/subtitle combinations to be dodgy until I settled on Russian audio with English subs (the default seems to offer mostly English language dialogue but neglects to sub the audio that remains in other languages. D’oh!) Aside from a shorter, hour-long cut of the film, which normally runs 73-minutes, there isn’t a special feature of which to speak of on the disc. It’s a shame, as I’d be keen to know how this co-production came together.

AMAZON: $19.99

BELLE DE JOUR

“The porcelain perfection of Catherine Deneuve (Repulsion) hides a cracked interior in the actress’s most iconic role: Séverine, a chilly Paris housewife by night, a bordello prostitute by day. This surreal and erotic late-sixties daydream from provocateur for the ages Luis Buñuel (Viridiana) is an examination of desire and fetishistic pleasure (its characters’ and its viewers’), as well as a gently absurdist take on contemporary social mores and class divisions. Fantasy and reality commingle in this burst of cinematic transgression, which was one of Buñuel’s biggest hits. “

This week’s premiere Criterion release, if you ask me, is the long awaited Blu-ray edition of Buñuel’s Belle de Jour, arguably the surrealist filmmaker’s most accessible and most commercially successful work. I generally prefer his style when he’s working the more eye-slicing, ants-emerging-from-wounds end of the spectrum but here, in this examination of a woman’s psychological struggle, he uses his skills juxtaposing disparate images to imply narrative in a more direct yet subtle fashion. The film follows Séverine down a path of experimentation with Buñuel cutting occasionally to images from her subconscious – moments from her past and her quite vivid imagination – to allow the viewer some insight into the motivating factors at play inside her. It’s not quite as jarring nor as uncanny as previous work but the more evocative and direct choices give the film a less playful and more earnest feel in line with the themes of the narrative and Deneuve’s stoic beauty.

The Blu-ray disc marks another fine, very film-like presentation from Criterion. There appear to be similarities in this and the print used for the Studio Canal Region B disc but colour timing is unique to both (warm scenes in one are often cold in the other and vice versa.) Both discs are very fine and quite detailed, leaving your selection of which to purchase down to personal preference or Region lock. The lossless mono audio track is also excellent, proving quite robust and dynamic, despite its limitation of age and channels. Music sounds full and expressive and the French language dialogue is clean and clear.

Supplements, as per Crierion’s usual, are plentiful and very well done. The commentary track by Princeton professor Michael Wood, author of the BFI Film Classic book Belle de Jour, is jam-packed with information about the film itself and its cast and crew but is often quite dryly delivered. Mister Wood sounds like a typical academic and would clearly benefit from having a lively companion in the sound booth. The highlight of the disc is a nearly 20-minute long doc newly produced by the studio. That Obscure Source of Desire features commentary on the themes of Belle de Jour by writer and sexual-politics activist Susie Bright and film scholar Linda Williams and is well worth watching. The 11-minute interview with screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere is also worth a look (and, surprisingly, it’s in English!) There’s also an 8-minute long segment from a 1966 program called Cinema which features on-set interviews with Carriere and Deneuve. The disc is rounded out by several trailers and a booklet featuring an essay by critic Melissa Anderson and a 1970s interview with Buñuel.

Recommended!

AMAZON: $27.99

TRAFFIC

“Traffic examines the question of drugs as politics, business, and lifestyle. With an innovative color-coded cinematic treatment to distinguish his interwoven stories, Steven Soderbergh embroils viewers in the lives of a newly appointed drug czar and his family, a West Coast kingpin’s wife, a key informant, and police officers on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. The film, which delivers a complex and nuanced take on an issue of international importance without sacrificing any energy or suspense, is a contemporary classic, and the winner of four Oscars, for best director, best screenplay, best editing, and best supporting actor for Benicio del Toro.“

I didn’t receive a review copy of Criterion’s Traffic upgrade (their DVD version of the film was released back in 2002) but this Steven Soderbergh film is certainly worth a look for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet. The Blu-ray disc carries over the fantastic collection of special features from its SD counterpart, including multiple commentary tracks, tons of deleted scenes and several process demonstrations.

AMAZON: $27.99

DEAD POETS SOCIETY

“Academy Award winner Robin Williams (Best Supporting Actor, “Good Will Hunting”, 1997) delivers one of his most memorable performances in “Dead Poets Society” – digitally restored and presented for the first time ever in breathtaking Blu-ray High Definition. For generations, Welton Academy students have been groomed to live lives of conformity and tradition – until new professor John Keating inspires them to think for themselves, live life to the fullest and “Carpe Diem.” This unconventional approach awakens the spirits of the students, but draws the wrath of a disapproving faculty when an unexpected tragedy strikes the school. With unforgettable characters and beautiful cinematography, “Dead Poets Society” will captivate and inspire you time and time again.“

It had been years since I’d seen Peter Weir‘s Dead Poets Society and my recollections of it had faded, entering into a screening of the new Blu-ray disc edition of the film. Much of the film remains timeless and quite powerful – the stunning, pitch perfect photography of John Seale (The English Patient, Witness), the performances of the boys, their parents and the teachers (Kurtwood Smith will always be criminal Clarence Boddicker to me but here, playing an overbearing dad, I almost forget how he nearly killed Robocop) and the stuck-up-private-school-versus-free-thinking story itself. The two elements that occasionally pulled me out of the film, however, are also occasionally the things that give it its flavour.

Dead Poets Society is some of Robin Williams’ best work but every now and then he lets go and does his schtick. I think that might have worked back in the ’80s but it really feels out of place now. Likewise, composer Maurice Jarre delivers some truly inspired music throughout but his occasional overuse of dated synthesizers really drags the flavour of the film down. It’s too bad, because the compositions are excellent, it’s just the voices he’s using to play them that bring the cheese. But don’t allow these minor missteps to keep you from the film. It’s still a winner after all these years and definitely a mid-century prep-school drama worth a look.

Dead Poets Society has always been a fairly soft film and remains so in its Blu-ray debut. This 1080p, high-def presentation however, is in every way a faithful representation of how the film is meant to look and does it justice in just about every way. Colour is rich, blacks are deep and the whole affair maintains a nice film-like quality about it. You’re not going to convert anyone to Blu-ray with this disc but it’s got it where it counts. The largely front-heavy DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 also seems to be source-accurate, only lacking in areas where age and source material keep it from reaching the top of the class.

Special features have been carried over from the previously released DVD edition of the film and include and excellent commentary track from Weir, Seale and writer Tom Schulman, a nearly half-hour long retrospective doc (that, sadly, is all the worse for the lack of comment from Weir and Williams) and 8-minutes of ‘Raw Takes‘. There’s also a brief look and the life and career of late sound designer Alan Splet and a 15-minute long ‘Cinematography Master Class‘ with Seale. The disc is rounded out with a trailer.

AMAZON: $13.99

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM

“For the first time in stunning Blu-ray High Definition, Academy Award winner Robin Williams (Best Supporting Actor, “Good Will Hunting”, 1997) delivers a tour-de-force performance in the 25th Anniversary Edition of the hit comedy “Good Morning, Vietnam“! Enjoy the unsurpassed digital sound quality of Blu-ray High Definition as Army deejay Adrian Cronauer (Williams) spins a red-hot soundtrack of ’60s hits. His sidesplitting comedy and rapid fire wit make him a hero to the troops, but quickly get him in hot water with his by-the-book superiors. Featuring a behind-the-scenes look at Williams’ hilarious radio monologues, “Good Morning, Vietnam” remains the quintessential Robin Williams comedy.“

It must be Robin Williams week over at Disney, because the studio decided that simply releasing a single Blu-ray disc starring the famous funny man just wouldn’t do. I have to say, after screening both films, that Barry Levinson‘s Good Morning Vietnam holds up a lot better after all these years than Dead Poets does. Williams’ humour is on point here and, in fact, the focus of the narrative. It’s as if the story was crafted to take advantage of his particular skills. The supporting cast is all around brilliant, the photography often beautiful to behold and the music selections absolutely classic. It’s hard to find fault with Good Morning Vietnam. I guess if you happen to find Williams grating you won’t like the movie but in that case, I’d question why you even started watching it at all, given it’s clearly his showcase.

Good Morning Vietnam looks suspiciously clean in its Blu-ray debut. Closer inspection reveals some haloing and edge enhancement – telltale signs that the studio has been hard at work using their DNR and sharpening tools to “spruce” things up here. Don’t get me wrong, this is still far and away the best I’ve seen the film look since my initial viewing in the theatre but those in search of a perfect, pure transfer won’t find it here. At least the music in the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sounds like a million bucks! The track itself is far from perfect but the music in the mix doesn’t seem to suffer.

Like the Dead Poets Society Blu-ray release, special features have been carried over from the previously available DVD and include a pretty decent, 35-minute long ‘Production Diary‘ and 13-minutes of raw footage of Williams behind the radio station microphone, riffing and improvising on the material in the script. Great stuff!

AMAZON: $13.99

GANTZ II: PERFECT ANSWER

“Determined to resurrect friends who have died in battle, Kei and other members trapped in the “in-between” world of Gantz are aiming to score the 100 points needed to break through. An emergence of a mysterious investigator, however, complicates the situation further. The battle continues on as the two dimensions start to merge together. Some fight for love, and others fight for justice. At the end, who will sacrifice the most.“

What just happened there? Huh? Granted, it’s been a few months since Warner sent over the first part of the Gantz film series but I’ve got to admit, I’m still kind of lost. Gantz II: Perfect Answer opens with a recap of the previous film that had me nodding and saying “Uh huh” and “Oh yeah, that guy!” quite a bit but once things got rolling with the story I found myself stupefied. I did get up to speed in most aspects of the plot before things drew to a close but let me tell you, this film provides everything but the “Perfect Answer.”

SPOILER ALERT

Unless I missed something critical, there’s no perfect answer about where the black ball comes from and/or why it wants the aliens killed. It’s clear that the aliens have got a beef but man, after sitting through two-and-half hours of this business, you’d think we, the audience, deserve some kind of explanation.

SPOILER OVER

In any case, no matter my disappointment with the plot, I found this Gantz film to be nearly as much fun as the first, with a ton of amazing action and more stylish production design than you can shake a stick at. If you like super-fast martial arts, swordfights and gun battles without a clear plot than you’ll enjoy the hell out of these films.

Much like the Blu-ray disc of the first film, Gantz II: Perfect Answer looks great in 1080p. There’s plenty of detail, colours, though desaturated, appear spot on and the blacks are deep and rich. Video is encoded at a nice, high bandwidth allowing for an encode that can handle all the fast movement through the films multitude of dark environments. The Japanese language DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is even more impressive, providing a clear rendering of all environments, with clean dialogue from the center channel, a dynamic, full representation of the score and impressive low-end response that nearly took out one of our walls in the house. Most impressive! Note: Avoid the English dub track and just watch in the original Japanese with English subs. You won’t like the English dub. Trust me.

Bonus features on housed on a seperate DVD and feature a 22-minute interview with director Shinsuke Sato, trailers and cast profiles. There’s also a DVD copy of the film included in the package.

AMAZON: $19.99

LICENSE TO DRIVE

“For teenager Les Anderson (Corey Haim), the two most important things in life are getting his driver’s license and getting together with the hottest girl in high school (Heather Graham in one of her first film roles). But when Les fails the exam, he “borrows” the family’s prized ’73 Cadillac for his big date. An innocent girl. A harmless drive. What could possibly go wrong? Try a fearless best friend (Corey Feldman) with an insane plan, a high school hottie with too much to drink, angry drag racers, crazed militants, a police roadblock, a crash course in car theft, a very angry father (Richard Masur), a very, very pregnant mother (Carol Kane) and much more! Nina Siemaszko and Grant Goodeve co-star in the awesome ’80s comedy hit.“

Here’s another one I haven’t seen since I was about fifteen years old. I can’t believe I’m saying this but my sister and I used to love License to Drive. It wasn’t a “Two Coreys” thing (although I’m sure she was probably keen on one of them to some degree back in the day) or a Heather Graham thing (she’s actually not very cute in this film) but rather just a love of fast, fun kid-hijinks movies. Watching this one again now kind of reminds me of the programs my niece and nephew watch on the Disney channel – there are teenage crushes, gross-outs aplenty, the foiling of nasty jocks, parents who “just don’t understand” and incorrigible siblings. All the ingredients are there for this to be an episode of the Hannah Montana or iCarly or the like. That’s not a bad thing, just good reason for why I feel totally out of touch with the film now, as a thirty-something old man. Folks my age will get a kick out of re-visiting License to Drive once but will want to pass this disc down to their kids as soon as they’re done with it.

Anchor Bay affords this little throwback with a surprisingly decent transfer. There’s nothing remarkable here – detail, colour and contrast are all fine but not breathtaking – but this presentation is far better than you’d expect an aging catalogue film like this warrant. Kudos to the folks at Anchor Bay for caring! The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track is nothing to write home about but is clear and clean and allows sufficient dynamic headroom for the awesome ’80s music to sound pretty good. Sadly, the only special features on the disc are a 7-miinute long vintage promotional featurette and the theatrical trailer. I guess that’s better than nothing, right?

AMAZON: $12.99

ALSO AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY THIS WEEK
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