The Blu-ray Blog » James Mason

Top 5 New Blu-ray releases for the Week of June 22

Brenden — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 15:21:43 +0000

This is an overwhelming week of Blu-ray releases if I’ve ever seen one! What’s a film fan and disc collector to do when faced with so many options? My first reaction – grab up the new Criterion discs. Second – the restored classics. After that, if I’m not in the poor house already – the best of the rest. This week is a poor-house week, if ever I’ve seen one…

1. RED DESERT

Ah, Red Desert! This was to be my first Criterion Collection review disc but alas, it hasn’t come to pass. I was hoping to give an honest assessment of this new Blu-ray release but the review copy never showed up. Sigh…we reviewers have it so hard, don’t we?

But listen, that’s not going to stop me from rushing out to grab this Blu-ray now that it’s on store shelves. Any new release of a classic Michelangelo Antonioni film in high-def is cause for celebration and I’m absolutely positive that this one won’t disappoint. This was his first colour film and what he delivers amounts to a gorgeous moving painting, with his muse Monica Vitti gliding elegantly from frame to frame, lost in a world of industrial complexes and power plants as she flirts with her husband’s co-worker, played here by the wonderful Richard Harris. This is an incredible, classic film that I’m certain will look stunning on this new Criterion Blu-ray!

Disc Features

New, restored high-definition digital transfer (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
Audio commentary by Italian film scholar David Forgacs
Archival interviews with director Michelangelo Antonioni and actress Monica Vitti
Two short documentaries by Antonioni: Gente del Po, about a barge trip down the Po River, and N.U. about urban street cleaners
Dailies from the original production
Theatrical trailer
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film writer Mark Le Fanu, a reprinted interview with Antonioni conducted by Jean-Luc Godard, and writings by Antonioni on Gente del Po and N.U.

Amazon: $29.49

Also new from The Criterion Collection: CLOSE UP

Amazon: $34.49

2. A STAR IS BORN

As I said in my review of A Star is Born, I’m not a fan of musicals but there’s something very special about this classic film by director George Cukor that transcends the genre. This is not only one of the most important Blu-ray releases of the week but of the entire year and each and every film fan and home theatre enthusiast should do themselves a favour and rush out to pick it up.

Read my full review here: A Star is Born Blu-ray Disc Review

Amazon: $23.99

3. HBO: HUNG, ENTOURAGE

You’ve got to feel by now that you can’t go wrong with any HBO series on Blu-ray. Sure, the bonus features are generally a mixed bag, ranging from the extraordinary efforts on Rome and Band of Brothers to the unfortunate oversight of The Sopranos Season One boxed set. But the programs themselves seem to always look and sound incredible on Blu! And the same can be said for the studios new releases this week, the sixth season of the hit show Entourage and the first season of the new Thomas Jane vehicle, Hung. I’m an old fan of the former and a brand new fan of the latter and extremely pleased with the presentation of both here on Blu. I’m only sorry that Hung seems so short at a very brief 10-episodes (Entourage, and most HBO dra-medies generally clock it at around 12-eps a season!) I’m really looking forward to season two which premieres this Sunday, June 27, along with the seventh season of Entourage.

Full reviews for both titles coming shortly.

Amazon: $26.99, $24.99

4. GREEN ZONE

I had the good fortune of being able to catch Paul Greengrass‘ Green Zone in the theatre while it was still playing. There was a lot of talk surrounding perceived similarities to his Bourne franchise work (he directed the second and third installments) but I think this film stands on its own two feet, apart from those more easily digestible popcorn fliks. I’m still not being sent any screeners from Universal so I can’t comment on the disc itself but can recommend the film wholeheartedly.

Amazon: $24.99

5. SHE’S OUT OF MY LEAGUE

You know, I kind of/really enjoyed this film. There’s absolutely nothing of note here. Nothing that you haven’t seen a million times already. But everything at play in She’s Out of My League, all of the players in the film, the script, the direction, everything hits just the right note. It’s the perfect cookie-cutter teen/20-something romantic comedy. You won’t find any surprises here but you’ll probably have a decent time watching. The Blu-ray looks and sounds just about right for the film – reasonable transfer, reasonable soundtrack and a small but fun collection of bonus features (deleted/extended scenes, blooper reel, commentary and more.)

Amazon: $25.99

ANIME OF THE WEEK:
GUYVER: THE COMPLETE SERIES BOX SET

This is kind of a blast from the past for me! I used to watch the old Guyver series of OVA releases when I was much, much younger. The series was a personal favourite of mine at the time. Hell, I even enjoyed the live action film (you remember the one, co-starring Mark Hamill!!) Well, FUNimation‘s new box-set of the complete modern re-interpretation of the popular manga stories is a delight for me to watch! All the old players are back, telling the same story all over again but this time with a lot more flare! The animation is TV quality this time around, with some apparent shortcuts taken. But it never gets in the way of the action. The Blu-ray set is clearly the result of an up-res – you’ll note frequent aliasing and degradation of the line-work in the drawings. But as far as resolution enhanced animation goes, the Guyver series is far from the worst. It usually looks pretty decent. Fans of the series most certainly will not be disappointed. Special features include a handful of commentary tracks, a manga to anime comparison, clean opening and closing animation and a collection of trailers.

Amazon: $40.99

3D DISC OF THE WEEK:
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 3D

I’ve got a really big, really long article on the topic of 3D Blu-ray inside me, just waiting to get out onto the blog. Sadly, now is not the time or place to tackle all of my issues with this new tech overtaking our movie-space. But I will say that I’m happy to see that the studios are no longer making their Blu-ray content exclusive to hardware packages! Until Sony‘s release of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs on 3D Blu-ray today, you had to buy a new TV and Blu-ray player just to get your hands on a 3D Blu-ray movie. Which is ridiculous. Kudos to Sony for being the first to drop this nonsensical plan and get a title out into the wild for all to consume.

Amazon: $27.99

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:

A Star is Born Blu-ray Disc Review

Brenden — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 00:43:07 +0000

A STAR IS BORN (1954, Blu-ray released June 22, 2010 – MSRP $34.99)

I hate musicals. I’ve never been able grasp this notion that people might just randomly burst out in song to melodically illustrate some aspect of their lives. It’s weird. As such, I thought I would hate George Cukor‘s A Star is Born as well, a grand musical Judy Garland vehicle. But the songs make narrative sense here. And that narrative is extraordinary!

The beautiful hardcover digibook that the Blu-ray edition of A Star is Born is packaged within opens with a quote describing the film as Warner‘s great film, their “…masterpiece which would sum up all of (the stuio’s) skills in a tremendous effort of talent and will.” I can see that. Star is Cukor’s Cinemascope masterpiece – the epic rise of a Hollywood star aside the tragedy of her husband’s fall. Every scene is meticulously crafted, rehearsed to perfection and shot beautifully. But the real star here was meant to be the lavish musical numbers. Personally, I find them to be far too numerous and each one far too long. I get the point – Garland’s character is a movie star performing these lengthy, pithy songs in her films. I don’t need to see every number in its entirety, though. The highlight of the entire picture for me has got be James Mason, as Garland’s husband, who struggles with his career and the devil in the bottle (perhaps one as a result of the other.) He’s astounding and represents the heart and soul of the story. He’s a brilliant one-man-inciting-incident and, as far as I’m concerned, outshines Garland at every turn.

A Star is Born arrives this week on Blu-ray in a brand new two-disc set from Warner. And it’s a beauty! This is another one of those sets that every film enthusiast should invest in. Much like their recently released Dr. Zhivago, Star is packaged in a 40-page digibook, with the feature on Disc one and the extras on Disc Two.

The feature looks and sounds tremendous here, considering the limitations of the source material. Those who watch it without context may, upon cursory examination, find the image quality painfully close to that of the old DVD at times or may express displeasure at the ‘Scope distortion that exists between the edges of the frame and the central part of the image (objects seem wider in the middle of the frame while becoming thin and slightly bent nearer the edges.) Let me assure you, what you’re seeing is as accurate a representation of the best existing elements possible, scanned at a whopping 6K resolution and restored as best as modern tech will allow. The version of Star on Blu-ray is the 1983 restoration, exhaustingly researched and assembled by the late archivist/historian Ronald Haver. The source footage used to assemble the edit ranges from the marvelously preserved to grainy 16mm blow-up to…well, the non-existent – there are entire scenes missing from the film replaced with recovered and restored audio, fitted with appropriate stills representing what might have been had the original 182-minute version of the film not been cut so drastically and permanently down to a criminal 154-minutes. But one thing strikes you throughout a viewing of A Star is Born on Blu-ray – that a great deal of love and hard work went into recreating the film at its most complete and the end result is remarkable, if not flawed.

And the same love and hard work went into harvesting various three mag-striped release prints from the studio as well as the Library of Congress (amongst other sources) to recreate the film’s original four-track stereo mag master, which was erased more than fifty years ago. The result is a brand new, fairly clean and boisterous DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track that may be even more impressive than the accompanying video! The isn’t modern audio work here but the results are impressive and no doubt the finest Star has sounded at home.

The Blu-ray disc, as I mentioned above, comes packaged with a second disc, a DVD replete with bonus features that run, altogether nearly four hours! The unfortunate thing here is that there isn’t a documentary, featurette or retrospective to be found among those extras. It’s a crying shame, considering the struggle to create the film in 1954, followed by the struggle to save it in 1983 – events only touched on within the digibook essay. Oh, and in the 3-minute introduction to the film. The contents of the DVD are primarily deleted scenes, screen tests, alternate takes, outtakes, newsreel footage and trailers. There’s also 107-minutes of archival audio, including outtakes, radio broadcasts and music. As a bonus, you’ll have a laugh at Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck in the Looney Tunes short, A Star is Bored!

North By Northwest: 50th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Disc Review

Brenden — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:04:50 +0000

NORTH BY NORTHWEST: 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION (1959, Blu-ray released November 3, 2009 – MSRP $34.99)

We’re entering into an unprecedented era of film restoration. As time marches on, we run the risk of losing our cellulose acetate film treasures to vinegar syndrome, fire and neglect. Luckily for us, Warner has stepped in on this count and delivered a revelatory new edition of Alfred Hitchcock‘s North By Northwest. This is, no doubt the finest presentation the film has seen since first being exhibited in theatres fifty years ago!

But before rambling any further about restoration and film transfers allow me a moment to address the film itself. North by Northwest is one of those rare Hitchcock films that has eluded me for years. I don’t mean that I’ve had difficulty grasping its meaning. I’ve just never had the chance to watch it! Crazy. I know. I own countless numbers of Hitchcock DVD boxed sets, catch his films on TV when I can and have even had a rare occasion to enjoy a few on the big screen. But never North by Northwest. That is, until I got my hands on the new Blu-ray 50th Anniversary Edition from Warner Home Video!

North By Northwest is what you’d call a “typical” Hitchcock thriller, crafted on a familiar thematic backbone in his familiar style. The isolated “wrong man”, in this case cocky ad exec Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant in one of his most famous roles), who is confident and popular by nature, now lost and alone. Mistaken for a government agent and drawn into a world of espionage and danger with nowhere safe to turn. The femme fatale (Eva Marie Saint) who may be keeping him from danger or leading him to his death. The heavy (James Mason) and his lethal underling (a very young and lean Martin Landau). All the pieces are in place and set to a fantastic, humourous tale of intrigue featuring some of the most famous and signature scenes in all cinematic history – the bi-plane pursuit in the the cornfield, the stabbing in the U.N. building, the chase across the faces of the Mount Rushmore monument. This is classic, perfectly sculpted intrigue. A romantic thriller and a perfect showcase for the charm, comic timing and charisma of Grant.

The Blu-ray disc features a brand new restoration of North By Northwest from the original VistaVision elements. And holy crap, the results just blew me away! Watching this disc makes me want to hug someone over at Warner. Somebody over there really, really cares! Make no mistake, the film still has the appearance of something made mid-century but the film transfer to video in this case is damn near perfect. This must be what it was like to watch North By Northwest in 1959! Um…except that there wasn’t an awesome Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio track to enjoy back then.

The Blu-ray comes packaged in a beautiful, little hardcover digibook. I’ve mentioned a few times how much I’ve come to love these things. If I have to own packaged media, let it be book style! The BD-50 disc is completely crammed with bonus features. To be honest, I’m not quite sure how Warner managed to include the film in such a high-bitrate encode AND squish all of these extras on there along with it. Amazing compression work. Aside from a commentary track by screenwriter Ernest Lehman (recorded five years before his death in 2005) which begins a bit dull but quickly heats up, the disc presents you with four documentary features of varying lengths – a couple of them in HD and exclusive to the Blu-ray! They’re all quite wonderful and include a “making-of” from the 2000 DVD release, a near-90 minute 2004 PBS biography of Cary Grant and a half-hour look at the film by a host of modern filmmakers. My favourite of the bunch, however was the hour-long “The Master’s Touch: Hitchcock’s Signature Style“. My only complaint is that the doc is far from comprehensive, primarily focussing on Hitchcock films in the Warner library. I guess that doesn’t come as much of a surprise in a Warner produced feature. Trailers and a gallery of 43 stills round out the set.

The Blu-ray Blog » James Mason

Top 5 New Blu-ray releases for the Week of June 22

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