Top New Blu-ray releases for the Week of February 28

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Top 5 New on Blu

Top New Blu-ray releases for the Week of February 28

By Brenden ⋅ February 29, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

Filed Under Ben Kingsley, Chloë Grace Moretz, Criterion, Louis Malle, Martin Scorsese, Paramount, Sacha Baron Cohen, The Criterion Collection, Vanya on 42nd Street

Well, the Top Pick this week is a no-brainer but there are more Blu-ray discs new on shelves that are worth a look. Scroll down to the bottom to check out a handful of discs that didn’t make my list this week like Scarlet Street from Kino and the latest collection of Top Gear episodes new on Blu.

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.

Blu-ray disc of the week: HUGO

Welcome to a magical world of spectacular adventure! When wily and resourceful Hugo discovers a secret left by his father, he unlocks a mystery and embarks on a quest that will transform those around him and lead to a safe and loving place he can call home. Academy Award-winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese invites you to experience a thrilling journey that critics are calling “the stuff that dreams are made of.” *Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

I’m not going to mince words here. Hugo is fantastic. It’s inventive, reverent, intelligent, humourous, visually resplendent and full of heart. It’s also a kid’s movie, more or less, that’s directed by Martin Scorsese. And from what I gather from the reaction of a few of my film-going pals, that combination of genre and director set up a lot of confusing and confused preconceived notions of what the film would be for a lot of people. A lot of them didn’t like it. For them, it was too cerebral to be a “real” kid’s film or too tame to be a “real” Scorsese effort. That’s what expectation will get you! But Hugo is the kind of magic that’s at its best when you don’t see it coming. When you don’t have any expectations of it other than to be entertained. And it does that with fantastic zeal.

There’s not a sour note in the whole production, if you ask me. Both kids in the lead roles, Asa Butterfield with ghost-blue eyes and Chloë Grace Moretz affecting a near-flawless English accent, steal the show from the rest of the veteran cast with mature, star-making performances. And that’s saying something, up against Ben Kingsley‘s spot-on portrayal of cinema-legend Georges Méliès and the brilliant modern-day Chaplin/Keaton physical-comedy routines of Sacha Baron Cohen‘s Station Inspector. The production design is absolutely sumptious, clockwork gears and lost silent films turning up around every corner of turn of the century Paris. There’s a lot of green screen work here but it works for the storybook imagery at play. Just about the only criticism I want to extend to this film is that I wish they hadn’t truncated the original name of Brian Selznick‘s book. “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” has a much nicer ring to it, don’t you think?

Paramount has delivered a spectacular transfer and encode for the Hugo Blu-ray. Talk about flawless, this thing is one of the best looking discs I’ve seen in ages. Detailed, colourful and completely accurate to the digital source, the Hugo Blu-ray is your new demo disc. And feel free to crank up your sound system for that demo because the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track is just as perfect.

The special features on the disc are well done and definitely worth a look but are limited to short documentary pieces. Those hoping for a Scorsese commentary track will be sorely disappointed. But let me tell you, you need to watch the featurette on ‘The Mechanical Man at the Heart of Hugo‘. The automatons in that piece will blow your mind. The 15-minute long featurette, ‘The Cinemagician, Georges Méliès‘ is also necessary viewing for those not familiar with the master’s works.

Highly recommended!

Special Features:

Shoot the Moon (The Making of Hugo)
The Cinemagician, Georges Méliès
The Mechanical Man at the Heart of Hugo
Big Effects, Small Scale
Sacha Baron Cohen: Role of a Lifetime

AMAZON: $21.99 and $27.99

VANYA ON 42ND STREET

In the nineties, André Gregory mounted a series of spare, private performances of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in a crumbling Manhattan playhouse. These treasures of pure theater would have been lost to time had they not been captured on film, with subtle cinematic brilliance, by Louis Malle (My Dinner with André). In Vanya On 42nd Street, a stellar cast of actors—including Wallace Shawn, Julianne Moore, Brooke Smith, and George Gaynes—embark on a full read-through of Uncle Vanya (adapted into English by David Mamet); the result is as memorable and emotional a screen version of Chekhov’s masterpiece as one could ever hope to see. This film, which turned out to be Malle’s last, is a tribute to the playwright’s devastating work as well as to the creative process itself.

I said my peace about Vanya On 42nd Street in the post linked to below. I place it high on my list of Top new Blu-ray discs this week for the film’s pedigree and the studio releasing it but until I get a chance to see it myself, I’ll retain some reservation. Urgh. Theatre people just get under my skin…

AMAZON: $27.99

JUSTICE LEAGUE: DOOM

The Justice League are Earth’s finest super heroes and protectors of humanity. But in the mind of the Dark Knight, they are potentially the most dangerous people on the planet should any of them go rogue. Over time, Batman has compiled top-secret contingency plans in the event he is forced to neutralize one of his fellow Justice League members such as Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Cyborg, Martian Manhunter or the Flash. When these files are stolen from the Batcave by the evil Vandal Savage, the Justice League faces its gravest challenge yet. Weaknesses exposed and rocked by betrayal, the League must band together against Savage’s Legion of Doom and its master plan of world destruction while Batman is left with one final decision that could ultimately leave him standing alone.

Am I the only one still having a great time with these direct-to-video DC Comics animated films? I hate to say it, but I feel like there’s little enthusiasm for them, outside my office-mate and I. I mean, I totally get it, you know, if animated super-heroes aren’t your thing. These productions hit that weird closet demographic looking for more mature stories told with characters created for kids – Batman and Superman cartoons with fairly brutal violence meted out by characters who often have dark, complex issues. It’s not Saturday morning stuff, to be sure. But, for me anyway, these animated films really scratch my nerd-itch! And Justice League: Doom is one of the more exciting, entertaining efforts to come out of the DC/WB animation studios in the past year.

I’ve never read the Mark Waid-penned Tower of Babel story that Doom was adapted from or inspired by but I understand there are significant changes. And some folks are taking issue with them. It’s no big deal to me. Just a lot of fun, reasonably well animated super-hero action with a bit of a brainy twist – the team of do-gooders are taken down by a plan formulated by their own teammate, Batman! This would play out as an excellent surprise in the film if this plot point weren’t spoken of so explicitly in all the marketing materials. But as it stands, it still works. The big problem with this story isn’t the spoiler on the package, it’s that the plot as executed can only push your suspension of disbelief so far. It’s not spoiling much to tell you that the bad guys have really got the Justice League on the ropes in this one but the ridiculous part is that nearly all the villains walk away from the scene of their final triumph, gloating all the way back to their secret lair before actually finishing their jobs. Needless to say, this oversight comes back to bite them on their collective ass. But come on, one of these jokers (no pun intended) should have at least tried to finish off a hero! That was the intended goal, after all. Sheesh. Weak sauce.

Thankfully, Justice League: Doom sees slight improvement in the quality of its transfer and encode. Actually, I still maintain that most of the issues with these animated releases is further up the production chain, in the way the animation is finally put together. But nevertheless, there are still issues of artifacting and banding that the more eagle-eyed amongst you are going to go bonkers over. The rest of us can just enjoy one of the better transfers of a DC cartoon in recent memory. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, on the other hand, is absolutely killer! Dialogue is clean and clear through all the immersive and ambient effects and low-end rumbling. Though the sub won’t exactly bring your walls crashing down here it will leave you surprised you’re hearing such a boom from a cartoon!

The bonus goodies include a couple of really nice surprises in the way of a nearly 40-minute long tribute to late-writer/genius Dwayne McDuffie (a must-watch for any comic or cartoon nerd) and the requisite Bruce Timm bonus cartoon picks being presented in HD this time around. The Blu-ray also includes a commentary track but, as glad as I am to see the return of this feature to the animated releases, it would be nice to hear from the production staff instead of DC Comics Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns and DC Entertainment creative director Mike Carlin, who had little if anything to do with actually bringing this thing to life. The disc is rounded out with a couple of decent story and character based featurettes (‘Guarding the Balance: Batman and the JLA‘ – 19-minutes and ‘Cyborg: His Time has Come‘ at 6-minutes), a preview of the next release, Superman vs. The Elite and a few pages of the digital version of the comic that inspired the film.

AMAZON: $14.99

BABA YAGA

Legendary sex symbol Carroll Baker (“Baby Doll”, “The Watcher In The Woods”) stars as a mysterious sorceress with an undying hunger for sensual ecstasy and unspeakable torture. But when she casts a spell over a beautiful young fashion photographer (the gorgeous Isabelle De Funes), Milan’s most luscious models are sucked into a nightmare world of lesbian seduction and shocking sadism. Are these carnal crimes the result of one woman’s forbidden fantasies or is this the depraved curse of the devil witch known as “Baba Yaga”? Blue Underground is now proud to present “Baba Yaga” newly transferred from pristine vault materials and presented in kinky High Definition.

I can say a couple of things right off the top about Baba Yaga – it’s the weirdest comic book adaptation I think I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen Howard the Duck!) and, at the same time, it’s exactly the type of mildy-kinky euro-horror movie you think it is. And if that sort of thing rings your bell, well then, you’d best grab up a copy of this early ’70s Italian underground classic, because it’s never looked or sounded better.

I went into my viewing of the film without having ever read the comic it’s based on, or having previously seen the film itself but being fairly well versed in the legends of the titular witch. Baba Yaga is traditionally a hag who kidnaps children from her flying cauldron, and lives in a run-down shack perched atop a single, giant chicken leg. Yep. There’s nothing like that here. Based on the notorious S&M fumetti (comic) Valentina by Guido Crepax, writer/director Corrado Farina‘s witch is more elegant and modern and far more inclined to picking up and seducing hot ladies on the streets of Milan from her hot stretch limo than the myths would have you believe. The narrative is plodding but makes some serious attempts at blending the horror of being stalked by a witch with the eroticism of, well, being lured into her house, stripped down and whipped. There’s not a lot of substance here but the film is short, the imagery is potent and Farina pays stylistic tribute to the film’s origins by using panels and comic book imagery onscreen.

Blue Underground has another winner on their hands with their sublime transfer of the nearly forty year old Baba Yaga. This is a very, very film-like presentation, exhibiting solid contrast, bold colours and a ton of detail. There are two DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks for you to choose from – one in English and one in Italian. I can’t, for the life of me, tell which one is the “original” as they both seem to be dubs over actors speaking both languages. Crazy.

There are a fair amount of special features here but not too much that I love. The 22-minute ‘Farina and Valentina‘ interview with the director is the highlight, covering a lot of production detail while offering a lot of insight into Farina’s career and reasons for making the film. The 12-minute long doc ‘Freud in Color‘ takes a quick look at the art and life of artist Guido Crepax. There are 10-minutes worth of deleted scenes which can actually be found cut into the film in the international edit, available on Blu-ray in the UK. The disc is rounded out with a poster and still gallery, a comic-to-screen comparison and the theatrical trailer.

AMAZON: $15.99

HOW THE UNIVERSE WORKS

“How The Universe Works” shows you how the cosmos is designed, built and how it actually works. From the beginning of time, stars, galaxies, planets, solar systems and more have been working individually and together to produce all that is and all that we see. See as never before the inner workings of our world, and explore black holes, supernovas, neutron stars, dark energy and all the titanic forces that make us who we are. With a dynamic cast of experts and a new generation of CGI, “How the Universe Works” looks under the celestial hood to reveal the inner workings of outer space: the story of how it’s made and how it runs. This is your ultimate Cosmos Operator’s Manual. Includes: “Big Bang”, “Black Holes”, “Alien Galaxies”, “Extreme Stars”, “Extreme Planets”, “Supernovas”, “Alien Solar Systems” and “Alien Moons”

I love documentary shows like this one. Discovery‘s How The Universe Works runs for eight episodes and covers a lot of the nuts and bolts of astrophysics and astronomy, explained in an easily digestible way by luminaries of the field like my boy, Michio Kaku (who you may recall from the time-travel-related special features on the Back to the Future Blu-ray set.) Production value of this series is off the charts, featuring some of the best looking, most effective CGI I’ve seen in this sort of program. The only drawback of watching this exceptional series all the way through, episode to episode, in a short time, is the repetition of detail that crops up near the half-way mark. Host Mike Rowe will remind you at great length and in great detail of the science he covered in previous episodes. I mean, it makes sense, as each episode builds on the one before it, but I watched the whole shebang in one marathon sitting and got sick of hearing the same science-stuff repeated ad nauseum. It’s a minor gripe about an otherwise exceptional series.

The 1080i encode is pretty nice here. How The Universe Works looks incredible when it’s showing off its digital interpretations of the magic of the universe. It’s not perfect though, exhibiting banding and mild artifacting through some of the CGI. Interview footage is uneven but no doubt a result of the source material being gathered with varying types of equipment. The package lists the audio as compressed Dolby Digital but you’ll be pleased to learn the series is presented in lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1! Sadly, there are no special features included in this 2-disc set.

AMAZON: $13.99

ALSO AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY THIS WEEK
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