Man, this week has just flown by. Office work, Blu-ray screenings, wedding parties and the like have eaten a lot time that could’ve gone to Fantasia but I managed to sneak away to a few films over the last few days, nonetheless.

FOXY FESTIVAL

You know, it’s beginning to seem to me that the Korean films at Fantasia are always a safe bet. Curated and often distributed by Mi-Jeong Lee and the crack crew at her Montreal-based company, Ciné-Asie, the lineup of Korean films at the fest grows each year and, in my experience, hasn’t included a stinker in it’s roster yet. Their stellar batting average continues with Foxy Festival, an ensemble piece that takes a candid look at socially unacceptable sexual behaviour. It’s a movie about the pervert within us all.

I haven’t seen writer/director Lee Hae-young‘s previous film, Like a Virgin, but if it’s anywhere near as funny, sensitive and generally as well crafted as this film it’s most likely brilliant. In fact, watching Foxy Festival, I found it tough to believe that such a remarkably mature effort could be the product of a filmmaker with only a single previous film under his belt. The direction and the performances are so self assured that it’s almost unnervingly comfortable, sitting in on these discussions about masturbation, penis size, S&M, cross-dressing, doll fetishes and the like. In the end, the film seeks to inform that we’re all perverts in some fashion or another and we should wear our indecent behaviour publicly, for all to see, and with some pride. It’s not your typical feel good kind of film but Foxy Festival does a pretty good job of encouraging you to feel something…or somebody.

Foxy Festival is available on Region 3 Korean DVD.

BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW

Beyond the Black Rainbow is getting a lot of great word of mouth. It’s a trippy, hallucinogenic, visually resplendent couple of hours of film. It’s really too bad that it’s also deadly boring, pretentious and deeply flawed.

As much as I was drawn in to the aesthetics of the film, it was all I could do to keep from leaving the cinema during what felt like the longest screening in film history. I should mention, I would have been following a parade of fellow filmgoers to the exit doors. It’s really not a good movie but has a lot of great things going for it. The production design, cinematography, sound design and music are all pitch perfect and beyond reproach, giving the film a rich, retro-’80s vibe that’s right on the money. But the writing, if you can call it that, is pedestrian and amateur. The story takes about five or six pages of plot from X-Men and THX-1138 and stretches what should play out in minutes to a couple of hours. Which is fine, if you’re showing the audience something compelling. But there’s not enough story here to ground the intriguing imagery. And what little there is devolves into a trashy slasher film in the final act (abolishing any argument about whether or not the film is meant to be an abstract vibe-piece), with a resolution that seems tacked on, as if writer/director Panos Cosmatos, when faced with actually having to deliver the narrative goods, just threw his hands in the air and gave up. I could go on but let’s just leave it at that. Did I mention Beyond the Black Rainbow looks and sounds amazing?!

Beyond the Black Rainbow has been acquired by Magnet in the US and Mongrel Media in Canada. Expect a home video release late this year or early 2012. It screens again at Fantasia on August 3rd at 3:15 pm.

LITTLE DEATHS

I wasn’t planning on seeing Little Deaths but it fit snuggly between a couple of other screenings so I thought, what the hell. This little, British horror anthology looks pretty good. And sure enough, it is!

You get three horror shorts in this tight, ninety-minute package, each stylistically different but riffing on similar themes. If you couldn’t guess from the title, each story has something to do with “La petite mort”, as the French call it. Orgasms. The peak of sexual pleasure. And each story treats it in vastly different ways. To describe even the set-up of each tale would spoil too many of the surprises (outside of the somewhat predictable first story, that is.) Just know that the second-piece in this trilogy of terror is one of the most twisted and strange works of cinema I’ve ever seen. There are enough vampires, hungry dogs, bondage, buckets of semen and torture in this one to hold any horror fan’s interest for the short runtime. Fun, really gross stuff from the UK.

Little Deaths screens again at Fantasia, August 4th at 4:55 pm.

RABIES

Rabies (Kalevet) is supposedly the first horror film to come out of Israel. Thing is, I’m not really sure it sits comfortably in the “horror” genre. I mean, it’s got a bit of the old slasher-thing going for it at times but overall, it’s far more of a tongue-in-cheek thriller than horror film. Whatever genre you feel to lump it into, Rabies is stellar.

What a great film! I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people wincing, giggling and squirming in their seats in a cinema as I did during the screening of Rabies at the fest. After the first few horrific maimings, the filmmakers purposely telegraph the pain the characters are about to suffer. And then they drag it out, fates sealed, as the audience, unable to withstand the anticipation of violence, scream at the screen and lurch from their seats. I can’t begin to tell you how great the cheers and applause were as the credits rolled, the audience finally able to relax, spent, after suffering a hilarious yet ghastly ninety-minutes of bloodletting and death. This is truly fantastic stuff. The kind of film Fantasia is all about. I really wish there was another screening so I could force people to check it out but I guess we’ll just have to wait until it hits home video.

“Kalevet” is apparently available on Region 2 Israeli DVD (but I can’t find a whole lot of information about it, so buyer be warned!)

I haven’t had as many opportunities to get out to Fantasia screenings as I would have liked over the last few days but damn, if the fliks I’ve seen haven’t been some of the best I’ve checked out in the cinema in an age. Here’s a quick look at the best of this past weekend:

CLOWN

Clown (Klovn) might be the best movie of the year. All right, I guess I’m exaggerating but it’s one of the best of 2011 and definitely the funniest movie I’ve ever seen at the theatre. I don’t remember ever laughing as hard in public as I did at this film. Nor have I ever heard an audience laugh as loud and long. It’s honestly that hilarious. For real(s).

It’s a theatrical continuation of the hit Danish television series of the same name. Brimming with nudity, sex and bathroom humour, the film is most certainly for a mature audience with a juvenile sense of humour. Lucky for me, I like nothing more than a good fart joke. If my enjoyment and understanding of the film is any indication, no knowledge of the previous six seasons of the TV show is necessary but I have to admit, I’m probably going to waste a lot of time trying to get my hands on English subbed versions of the episodes, in hopes that they might live up to the big-screen appeal of the film.

Clown is available on Danish Blu-ray (Region B) with English subs. Seasons 1-6 of the television show are available on Danish DVD (PAL format only) with English subs.

THE SILENCE

I really enjoyed the German detective thriller The Silence (Das Letzte Schweigen) but admit to being way too sleepy to properly appreciate it. At over two hours, presenting a methodical police investigation/character study at less than a brisk pace, I was drifting in and out of attentiveness throughout the film’s runtime. Okay, I nodded off twice. But just for a few seconds each time. It was late and I’d been working in the office all day, then ran to catch a couple of Fantasia screenings, this being the latter of the two. I know, excuses, excuses.

But, despite my fatigue and a couple of moments of shuteye at the narrative’s expense, I really enjoyed The Silence. It plays like a great UK detective series. Like watching a couple of episodes of Cracker back to back. I look forward to seeing it again on my own terms, bright eyed and bushy tailed, coffee in hand.

The Silence screens again tonight, July 25th at 5:00PM. It’s available on German Blu-ray but without an English language option.

TRUE LEGEND

I mostly loved True Legend – the latest sword-swinging, tree-dancing, martial-arts fight-fest from famed director/combat choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping of The Matrix and Crouching Tiger fame. I’d even go so far as to say that the first three-quarters of the film work as an almost perfect kung fu fantasy. Possibly the best I’ve ever seen, mixing straight up hand-to-hand with excellent wire work, make-up effects and dazzling (if somewhat modestly budgeted) CGI to produce some truly epic, fantastical fight scenes. And then (spoiler alert) the antagonist, the coolest character in the film, drops out of the action. And so does all the fun and the fantasy and the conflict. And poor True Legend is left to play out its third act, a necessary part of the famous folk legend of the character, I understand, in a depressing, dull drunken haze, only snapping out of it long enough to wipe the floor with a bunch of random Russians.

Sigh. So close to perfect. At least watching True Legend taught me the secret of the Five Venom Fist!!

True Legend plays again at Fantasia, tomorrow, July 26th at 3:00PM. It’s set for release on Blu-ray on September 13th in the US and September 27th in Canada through Vivendi Entertainment.

Whew! And we’re back. And by that I mean, I’m back. Back in Montreal and back to work. And as of yesterday, back to scrounging some time to watch movies. Though I’ve got a stack of Blu-ray screeners to wade through I thought I should try to get out there and catch some of the more interesting looking films playing at the Fantasia festival before it passes me by for another year. So, I picked up my pass and hit the screens. Here’s what I saw on my first day:

PETTY ROMANCE

Petty Romance is a cookie-cutter Korean rom-com – boy meets girl, boy and girl are clearly meant for each other but can’t see it, boy and girl hook up. The spin on this one is that the couple meet in the hope of creating a pornographic comic book together – he, the artist, she, the writer – possibly winning them a cool hundred-grand USD to share. But she’s never been with a man and, despite having written a sex-column for a magazine and clearly having a vivid imagination, she can’t get her head around how a man and woman might actually get together in the real world. And him? He just wants to win the money. And draw awesome comics, of course.

The film rolls along, hitting the typical beats in a most inoffensive way until the third act where everything just falls apart. But nevermind. This is some funny, funny stuff. I had a great time watching it. I freely admit to being a sucker for a good sex or bathroom gag and this film has them in spades. Throw in tons of comic book art and sequences where the film becomes an animated spectacle of hand-rendered-porn and violence and you’ve got a real crowd-pleaser.

Petty Romance plays again at the festival on August 6th at 5:20pm. Available on DVD only from Korea.

THE CORRIDOR

I was hearing nothing but buzz – good buzz – about The Corridor before heading into the screening of the film, so I’ll admit my expectations were high-ish. Maybe medium-high. And, to be fair, there’s a lot to like here. For an indie-flik from Halifax, this is one well put together, ballsy, imaginative thriller. But on the whole it just doesn’t work for me.

It’s about a group of old buddies – young old buddies (these guys all look about 20-22) – who gather at a cottage to patch up an earlier fallout between them. Fallout is a kind word. One of them had a meltdown and cut and stabbed the others. So, that guy is finally out of the looney bin and it’s time to make up. And to pay respects to his dear departed mother. The problem is that she keeps turning up in visions and on old videotapes. And then there’s this weird energy barrier out in the forest. What is it? Yeah, I have no idea. Even after watching the film. As the guys gather within its walls, it expands to a lengthy corridor and starts messing with their minds, turning them homicidal. The filmmakers try to explain how and why this abstract hallway of terror exists (something about a star that fell and a radio tower on the hill?) but it all comes off like metaphysical mumbo-jumbo. I’m sure it all makes sense to someone but to me, it’s all just an excuse to reap some crazy-ass violence.

And that, the film does surprisingly well. Blood and gore is far from my cup of tea but I found myself genuinely shocked and amazed at the ingenuity of the horror sequences in The Corridor. There are also a couple of jump-out-of-your-seat scares in the short 99-minute run time. In addition, I have to give a nod to the excellent cinematography of Christopher Ball, whose snow-covered, rural vistas and claustrophobic chalet interiors made the film a delight to watch. The moody music by Great Lake Swimmers (Wainfleet, represent!) is nothing to shake a stick at either.

LOVE & LOATHING & LULU & AYANO

This was the best film of the three films. I think if any of them stick with me, it’ll be Love & Loathing & Lulu & Ayano. It’s a subtle, almost quiet tale of a shy, reserved young girl who loses herself in the porn business. Junko (Norie Yasui) is made into an otaku dream girl, Lulu, a sort-of blue-haired Sailor Moon type whose greatest desires are sweaty, overweight nerds with hairy legs. That kind of fan service sells DVDs and makes Lulu a star but also introduces a dangerous element into the mix. In an effort to sort out her new life in the spotlight, as it is, Junko turns to former bike gang leader turned porn actress, Ayano (Mayu Sakuma). The two become fast friends and try to find a way to escape their problems together.

The film might trivialize the lives of those working in the porn industry at times but it presents the characters with a unique depth and sensitivity that gives the film its deeper resonance. You feel for Lulu and Ayano. The performances are fantastic across the board but Norie Yasui really knocks it out of the park here. Kazuhiro Suzuki‘s cinematography is stunning and perfectly complimented by the spare, rarely heard score by Jun Kawabata, the few times it happens to pop up in the mix. I admit to not having seen any of director Hisayasu Sato‘s previous fifty-five films (he’s apparently quite prolific in the “pinku” genre) but Love & Loathing & Lulu & Ayano has certainly inspired me to seek them out.

Love & Loathing & Lulu & Ayano plays again at the festival tomorrow, Saturday July 23rd at 5:00. Available on DVD from Japan.

Here we go again. You might recall last years Lord of the Rings controversy, regarding the questionable image quality of the Blu-ray transfers on the discs in the theatrical edition boxed set. Particularly the soft, noise-reduced presentation of the first film, The Fellowship of the Ring. Well, the boxed set of the Extended Editions of the films, due out next week, seems to be rousing the ire of film fans who’ve had the opportunity to screen it early. This time around, however, it’s not the quality of the transfer that’s at issue.

Both critics and fans agree that the these new Blu-ray transfers, supervised and approved by director Peter Jackson and cinematographer Andrew Lesnie, look detailed and film-like. Far and away superior offerings to the Theatrical edition discs. Both critics and fans are also in agreement that the colour grading of Fellowship has been tweaked. There’s no argument there. But the tweaks themselves are proving divisive, with some claiming that the tonal shift is too harsh, at times harsh enough to eat into detail.

Theatrical edition on left. Extended image, right. Images via blubrew.com. Click to enlarge.

While screengrabs and digital rips aren’t the best way to judge the changes (images and chunks of film can’t be accurately assessed out of context and through different, more compressed mediums) it’s best to be aware that the Fellowship you see in the new Blu-ray set, won’t look exactly like the same old film you’re used to. That said, early reviews from critics are unanimously positive, the colour shift a veritable non-issue on a properly calibrated setup.

What do you think of the re-imagined colour timing? Is Jackson making the right move, continuing to fiddle with his films? Will you be picking up this new boxed set of Blu-ray discs when it hits shelves in just over a week or will you be awaiting the eventual Ultimate Collector’s Edition with all 3 Rings films, the 2 upcoming Hobbit films and all the extras?

UPDATE: Just a little note to point you towards Amazon.ca to purchase the boxed set, if you’re so inclined. Right now The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (Limited Extended Edition) is selling for only $64.99!

See more images and read the full review at blubrew.com.

Read film-archivist Robert A. Harris‘ take on the Blu-ray set and the reactions of fans and fellow critics at the Home Theater Forum.

Read Bill Hunt‘s excellent, well thought out review at The Digital Bits.

“Is Blu-ray an Inferior Format to DVD?”

David Chen of /Film asks this question in a follow up to a controversial piece written by former New York Times design director, Khoi Vinh. The short answer is, of course, no, the format itself is not inferior. Not by a long shot. But the user experience is, in many cases. And just about everyone from the hardware manufacturers to the Hollywood studios are to blame.

Amongst his many observations about the Blu-ray experience, Vinh describes his frustrations with firmware updates and all-around issues with speed:

“None of the four or five DVD players I’ve owned ever required firmware updates, but this Blu-Ray player seems to survive on a monthly diet of them. Each firmware update is labeled with a long and confusing version number (e.g., BEv1.03_090528_BDP3600_XAA) and provides virtually no clue as to what improvements it holds or problems it corrects…Speed is also a general problem with Blu-Ray. Network-connected features slow down the disc loading experience so much that I’ve resorted to disabling some of these ostensibly value-added features. Even without the network issues, a disc takes longer to load and menus take longer to navigate than on a stock DVD player.”

Both Vinh and Chen continue, describing such a level of dissatisfaction with their Blu-ray players and the media they’ve purchased/rented since investing in the format that they’ve found their hardware languishing, their disc collections sitting upon the shelf, unwatched and unloved. For them, Blu-ray has effectively killed the casual joy of putting on a movie, sitting back and enjoying the entertainment. This is a sentiment I hear time and again from friends and colleagues as they give away, sell and bin their disc collections in favour of streaming and downloading. (This image, posted in the comments section of Vinh’s post, sums up exactly why consumers often prefer alternatives to the optical disc experience.)

While the complaints and arguments are valid here and should be heeded by studio execs and hardware manufacturers (forced trailers suck, FBI warnings only punish those who’ve acquired their media by legal means, nobody really cares about network-connected bonus content, DVD/Blu-ray player owners aren’t engineers and can’t be bothered managing their hardware), there’s very little in either Vinh’s or Chen’s list of complaints that sets one format apart from the other. A menu-lite, ad-free Blu-ray like Robinson Crusoe on Mars from The Criterion Collection will load ten-times faster on my 3-year old Playstation 3 than a DVD copy of Fox‘s recent The A-Team does on my parent’s DVD player. My first DVD machine from 2001 won’t play certain discs beyond the layer change (my Criterion copy of Insomnia went only partially viewed for years.) There are still no firmware updates to fix incompatibility with that machine. Most, if not all points of dissatisfaction are hardware and software relative. Very rarely is one issue specific to a format.

The fact of the matter is that films look and sound so much better on Blu-ray. DVD can’t hold a candle to it. It simply can’t compete. The image on a Blu-ray disc offers more detail, truer colour and contrast than its standard-def progenitor, while the sound on a BD can finally be presented uncompressed, in a manner that isn’t chopping away at its fidelity. The further fancy features of the format – the network connectivity, BD-Live, Java-powered interactive features like games – are just bells and whistles that are quite often getting in the way. They don’t make Blu-ray inferior to DVD by any stretch of the imagination but studios need to recognize that in a lot of cases, their window dressing is getting in the way of the window. We consumers just want to see your movies. Don’t make it difficult to do so!

Despite my love for Blu-ray, I always recommend it to people with caveats in place. Taking the sentiments of Chen and Vinh into consideration, I would encourage anyone intent on investing in the format to choose their player wisely, if speed and ease of management are concerns (read: The Top 10 Reasons the PS3 is the Best Blu-ray Player). And if I could, I’d love to point out to Khoi Vinh that despite initial enthusiastic reviews from CNET, his Samsung BD-P3600 player has been consistently hammered by consumer reviews as a buggy, slow machine often not recommended for purchase. It’s not really fair to claim that a horse-drawn carriage is all-around better than a car just because you happened to buy a lemon from the lot.

I hate award shows. I was almost able to avoid the whole Academy Award fiasco last night. Sadly, I caught the opening few minutes of this years self-congratulatory Hollywood travesty, like a stray botox-bullet to the face. I’ll no doubt spend the rest of the week recovering.

I caught up on all the Oscar award winners afterward and I can’t say I was surprised or delighted by much of the news. I am happy to tell you though, that most of the films that took home a statue are either already available on Blu-ray or have been announced to be released on the format soon. Are you more apt to pick up any of the following titles, now that they are Academy Award winners?

AVATAR – ART DIRECTION, CINEMATOGRAPHY, VISUAL EFFECTS

Available now in 2D movie-only Blu-ray and DVD and 4-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray sometime in November (unofficial) from Fox.

THE BLIND SIDE – SANDRA BULLOCK – BEST ACTRESS

Available now from Warner.

THE COVE – DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Available on Blu-ray only in France and Germany with no domestic release pending from Lionsgate.

CRAZY HEART – JEFF BRIDGES – BEST ACTOR; ORIGINAL SONG – “THE WEARY KIND (Theme from Crazy Heart)”

Available now from Fox.

THE HURT LOCKER – DIRECTING; FILM EDITING; BEST PICTURE; SOUND EDITING; SOUND MIXING; ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Now available on Blu-ray from Summit.

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS – CHRISTOPH WALTZ – BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Now available on Blu-ray from Universal.

PRECIOUS – MO’NIQUE – BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS; ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Available now from Lionsgate.

EL SECRETO DE SUS OJOS – BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM (Argentina)

Blu-ray announcement pending from Sony. Available in Spain now.

STAR TREK – MAKEUP

Now available on Blu-ray from Paramount.

UP – ANIMATED FEATURE; ORIGINAL SCORE

Now available on Blu-ray from Disney.

THE YOUNG VICTORIA – COSTUME DESIGN

Available now from Sony.

With thanks to Blu-ray.com.

“Missed it by that much!” – Maxwell Smart, Get Smart

Huh. Yeah. That new Apple iPad is full of potential. I really want to want one but it feels like it’s just missing the mark by a hair. And that hair is going to keep this writer from buying. At least for now.

I’m not going to run down all the details of the iPad. I’m sure you’ve read an article or watched a newscast that’s covered the tablet in-depth. If not, watch Apple’s overview video above. That should do the trick.

…

You see? It’s not a smart-phone and it’s not a laptop. Apple claims it’s a whole new category of device. I get that. And I think the devices it’s directly competing with are the Amazon Kindle (a dedicated book reader) and the netbook (crippled, mini-laptops). But the iPad doesn’t offer the easy-on-the-eyes ePaper screen of the Kindle, making eye-strain a probable issue when reading ebooks. And it doesn’t have the ability to multi-task or the extensibility of a mini-laptop. The iPad only has one port and it’s not standard. If you want to plug anything into it, you’ll need a handful of adapters.

So, it’s not the best eBook reader and it’s not the best mobile workstation. At the end of the day, it just comes across as a big iPod Touch or iPhone, right?! Another window to consume media. Well, here’s where Apple missed the boat. They focused on functions that we see everyday on our phones, and functions that other, cheaper devices do better. They spent their keynote speech demonstrating the devices ability to read text and create spreadsheets. They should have shown us new things. Things that this device can do better than anything on the market. Like comic books. Like magazines. Any two-bit e-reader can handle text. There isn’t anything on the market at the moment that can allow a comic or magazine as printed to resonate with a reader in digital form. The iPad can do that. It can display full, large coloured pages as they were designed. As they were meant to be read. And I’m certain it will, through applications like ComicZeal, Comixology and iVerse.

But more exciting to me is the potential for this device to become something new in my home. Like, for instance, to become my media controller. I can envision myself sitting on the couch, leaning back with my iPad, scrolling through all my music, movies, TV, books, comics, magazines. The access is all there in my hands. But I imagine some of this content living on my Macbook Pro hard drive, on an external HD networked through my Airport Extreme or on another dedicated media device like Apple TV or PS3. I should be able to find a movie, no matter where it’s living in my house and click play on my iPad. And when I want to share it with others in the room, the iPad should be able to move the film to my 40″ LCD display, whether through a media centre like the Apple TV or directly through a wireless DLNA connection. All of these things are possible with the hardware built in to the iPad.

When I say that the iPad misses the mark, it’s really in relation to our expectations of the product. We were hoping for something revolutionary and transformative but were shown more of the same. Only bigger. In hardware terms, it fails to make the grade by not including a more universal port (like USB) and a webcam to video chat. I’m not sad that it doesn’t include a Blu-ray drive. I think it’s ridiculous to expect a thin, handheld device to contain a spinning optical drive. I got over carrying my discman around with me about fifteen years ago.

In terms of the software, the sky is the limit. Anything is possible. So, to my mind Apple really missed out on impressing its consumers and critics by failing to provide an example of the potential of the product, leaving it up to application developers to dream of new directions for the product. It could be so much more if Apple will only allow it to be. If they have the vision to take it there.

Will I buy an iPad this year? I’m still undecided. Do I hope it succeeds? Absolutely. I look forward to owning an iPad that proves itself to be more than my iPhone. And more comfortable on my lap and in my hands than my Macbook Pro. And if it manages to somehow become interoperable with my Blu-ray player so much the better!

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.

Continued on Page 2

The Blu-Con 2.0 Presidents Panel included (L-R) moderator Jessica Reif Cohen, Mike Dunn of Fox, Ron Sanders of Warner, Craig Kornblau of Universal and David Bishop of Sony Pictures. Photo: Home Media Magazine

(NOTE: This article was written yesterday, Nov. 4th, 2009. The Blu-ray Blog suffered some downtime offsetting its publishing by one day.)

I really wish I could have attended Blu-Con 2.0 yesterday but I’m playing in a new band and we’ve got a big show tonight. Rushing back to Montreal from Los Angeles this morning would have left me a bit exhausted for our performance tonight so I decided to skip out on Blu-Con this year in the hope that the conference would receive ample coverage from other outlets (I’m really looking forward to Bill Hunt‘s update on the Con on his site The Digitial Bits. He should have it posted later today!) So far, I’ve read a bunch of reports from Home Media Mag, Video Business and The Hollywood Reporter. Nothing too exciting or informative but I’ve got a few comments and suggestions to add to what’s been written, so let’s just dive into my round-up of articles that are out there so far:

Home Media Mag: Best Buy Exec: Portability Blu-ray’s Biggest Obstacle

“Mike Vitelli, EVP of Best Buy’s customer operating groups, compared consumers’ choice between DVD and Blu-ray Disc to buying a cup of coffee, but being charged a different price if you take it to go. … Calling portability the No. 1 obstacle for mass Blu-ray adoption, Vitelli said consumers today may be aware of Blu-ray and its benefits, but they’re still not familiar with it.”

I’ve got a beef with Mike, (His company, Best Buy owns Future Shop here in Canada. They are liars.) so I’m going to hold my tongue here. But lack of portability is an issue. It impacts me directly. I think it stinks that I can’t get an Apple laptop/notebook computer with a Blu-ray drive in it. Lame!

Home Media Mag: Studios Say Economy Accounts for Majority of Industry Trouble

“The home entertainment industry’s current malaise is 80% due to the economy, and the business should be back in growth mode by 2012. So say the home entertainment presidents of four of the six majors, speaking Nov. 3 at a Blu-Con 2.0 panel discussion moderated by Merrill Lynch senior analyst Jessica Reif Cohen. … Ron Sanders, president of Warner Home Video, said he expects sellthrough of physical discs, down just less than 14% so far this year, to rebound slightly before 2009 draws to a close, thanks to a powerful pre-holiday release slate. … (Mike Dunn, president of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) maintains the economy accounts for 80% of the decline in disc purchases, with catalog exhaustion a further factor.”

You know why your industry is in trouble? Because everybody is aware of the price of an optical disc now (I know, Blu-ray discs are more expensive and nobody takes production, marketing and distribution costs into account. But I’ll tell you what – nobody cares. The perceived value is more important to the consumer.) It’s tough for consumers to validate spending the suggested retail price of $44.99 for a rom-com like The Proposal when they can rent it for a couple of bucks or download a rip for free. You guys have got to price media more competitively! And the double-dipping has got to stop! I have so many friends who won’t pick up a title they want because they’re afraid there’s going to be a better, more complete version the following year. Your short-sighted need for cash is killing your consumer’s desire to consume!

In terms of selling Blu-ray, it’s quality that matters. And quality restorations! I can’t tell you how many people I know who have been sold on Blu-ray by experiencing CBS/Paramount‘s dazzling transfers of the old Star Trek series or MGM‘s incredible Dr. No disc. More evidence comes in the new restoration of Wizard of Oz selling out at retail! Warner can’t keep the stores in stock! Don’t just count on the newest, flashiest Transformers film to sell the format. Spend the money on your catalogue films. Restore and remaster for HD. Sheesh. Excuse me while I take a break to watch my North By Northwest Blu-ray disc, newly restored by Warner (Keep up the great work guys!)

Home Media Mag: Scorsese: Blu-ray Is Incredible

“Celebrated filmmaker Martin Scorsese has emerged as one of Blu-ray Disc’s biggest cheerleaders, praising the high-definition format for faithfully recreating the theatrical experience better than any of its predecessors, including DVD. … The director of such films as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas and The Departed also applauded Blu-ray Disc’s superior audio capabilities, including the option of including the original mono or “crude stereo” soundtracks along with the enhanced sound choices. … Scorsese added that the clarity of Blu-ray allows classic movies to look new and crisp again, making them a lot more palatable to younger audiences.”

I dunno. Scorsese? I mean, his movies are amazing but he wouldn’t have been my first choice to speak about Blu-ray. But I get it. Big name, Hollywood director brings more heat to the Con. The crowd will love it. Press will love it. Me? From the coverage I’ve read so far, I think the keynote was a gimmick. It sounds like Scorsese has a genuine love for the format but, outside of raving about the how great Blu-ray can look and sound, I’m not sure he had a whole lot to add.

The Hollywood Reporter: Martin Scorsese talks up Blu-ray

“Meanwhile, Sony senior vp restoration and mastering Grover Crisp said Scorsese’s infectious enthusiasm for Blu-ray seems has been a boon for Sony and others working on disc remastering and special features.

“It has been great because he has also gotten other directors like Michael Mann and Christopher Nolan involved as well,” Crisp said.”

Okay. I stand corrected. Scorsese did have something to add. I guess he’s roping in other directors to the Blu-ray passion. That’s all right by me! It would’ve been nice if he’d spoken about extending the format beyond the presentation of film on Blu-ray. How about his take on what Blu-ray can do for special features? Or its connectivity – allowing fans direct access to filmmakers/studios? Or where he sees this format existing in a world quickly being overtaken by comparatively poorer quality, streaming or downloadable options? Or how about this…

High Def Disc News: Ultra-High Definition Television Coming as Early as 2017

“Featuring a resolution of up to sixteen times that of current high def standards, and twenty two channel audio, (Ultra-High Definition) is the next step forward for television. UHD, like HD, will come in two different resolutions. The lower resolution of 4K – 3840 x 2160 – is four times that of 1080p, while 8K – 7680 x 4320 – offers sixteen times the resolution.”

Uhhh…okay. So, we’re already on to the next format. Guess nobody was really talking about this at Blu-Con, huh?

Further coverage of Blu-con:

Variety: Bullish on Blu-Ray: Confab predicts format’s bright future

Video Business: Scorsese a fan of Blu-ray

Video Business: Streaming content popular Blu-ray player feature

Look, this isn’t really news. Not to any of us who’ve been grabbing up every Criterion Blu-ray for the last year, anyway. But Home Media Magazine has just published a nice, lengthy piece on the glory of Black and White film presentations on Blu-ray disc. When they’re done right, there’s nothing better!

There are a lot of great quotes in the article from the likes of restoration expert, Robert A. Harris to disc producer, Van Ling. Lee Kline, technical director for Criterion gets in on the action stating,

“Now we’re able to replicate more precisely these films as they first appeared.”

He pointed to the July Blu-ray release of Roman Polanski’s Repulsion as a great example.

“Once you look at Blu-ray, you can’t imagine watching the DVDs of these films ever again,” he said.

The piece gets a little bit more technical, addressing the need for film grain and quality of dynamic range in b&w. Really interesting stuff! Head on over and check out the article. It’s certainly worth a read.

Previously on The Blu-ray Blog: