The Blu-ray Blog » Michael Jackson

Blu-ray Picks for the Week of January 26

Brenden — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:26:55 +0000

I don’t know. I don’t think this is a particularly exciting week of Blu-ray disc releases. But who am I? There are a few neat titles, for sure. Hell, there’s something new again from Criterion! But none of these titles are really inspiring me to get out to the shops and buy today, if you know what I mean. Anyway, have a gander at what’s new and see if anything tickles your fancy. As always, we appreciate any Amazon purchase you make through our links.

I guess I kind of went through a Jacko phase when I was, like, nine or something. But you’ve got to give me some leeway there, as the whole world was buzzing about the Thriller album at the time. Needless to say, it didn’t last long. And here I am now, an old man in his thirties, pretty apathetic about the film This Is It and all the hype surrounding Michael Jackson‘s last recorded days. If you’re a fan, though, this is a must-buy!

Amazon: $23.99

I didn’t mind Surrogates. I’ll get my full review up here shortly but I’ll just tell you now that it’s pretty entertaining. I was distracted, however by the weird digital-noise-reduced look of some scenes. I don’t believe they actually were DNR’ed at all but in an effort to make humans look like robots, there’s just a lot of smoothed-over detail, which pretty much kills the thrill of high-def. Anyway, Surrogates is Philip K. Dick-lite, starring Bruce Willis in a shitty blonde hairpiece. Check it out. Have a good time with it.

Amazon: $23.49

Whip It looks like a lot of fun. I’ve requested a screener from Fox and am hoping to be able to review it soon (Fox always sends review discs out after the title has been released.) I’ve heard good things about this one. I really like Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore and have high hopes that the movie delivers. And as it’s a brand new film I’m certain the Blu-ray will look and sound great. Ahem…cough…lookin’ at you here, Fox!! No pressure…

Amazon: $23.99

Remember when I said there wasn’t anything out today that excited me? Yeah, well, I guess I was kind of lying. Because I’m actually pretty stoked to see Wim Wenders‘ Paris, Texas, new on Blu-ray today from the wonderful Criterion Collection. I really like Wenders. But more importantly, in this case, I’m in love with the cast of the film. Starring Harry Dean Stanton, Dean Stockwell and Nastassja Kinski, Paris, Texas features a quirky/cool line-up of talent David Lynch would be proud of. If you picked up Criterion’s recent perfect release of Wenders’ Wings Of Desire on Blu-ray, you owe it to yourself to grab this film that preceded it by three years.

Amazon: $26.49

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:

Michael Jackson This Is It Blu-ray Announced and Detailed

Brenden — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:23:14 +0000

Like I said before, I won’t mind watching This Is It once. I’m not a Michael Jackson fan by any stretch of the imagination but I suspect this collection of footage from rehearsals for his ill-fated final tour will be pretty spectacular. The Blu-ray disc was initially scheduled to be released in time for the holidays but theatre owners cried foul and Sony pushed the date back to January. We’ve got all the details of the release now and it looks feature packed. Read all about it below:

THIS IS IT
(January 26, 2010 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1080p AVC
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio

Special Features:

Two making-of documentaries
Eight featurettes
All-new Smooth Criminal vignette (BD-exclusive)
Making Smooth Criminal featurette (BD-exclusive)
All-new Thriller vignette (BD-exclusive)
BD-Live:
- movieIQ
- ‘This Is It’ interactive playlist

Brüno Blu-ray Disc Review

Brenden — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:34:23 +0000

BRÜNO (2009, Blu-ray released November 17, 2009 – MSRP $39.98)

I really enjoyed comedian Sacha Baron Cohen‘s film Borat. I had the pleasure of viewing it in Poland while on tour with my band at the time. An amazing experience. Watching his follow up film, Brüno from the comfort of my living room theatre was certainly not anywhere near as magical. It was, however, just as cringe-inducing and hilarious!

I don’t really like Brüno as a film. I guess what I’m trying to say is that the story isn’t really great. It’s a simplistic framework constructed to allow improvisational moments with and pranks on unsuspecting victims. It’s not that it doesn’t work, it’s just really transparent. In fact, Cohen’s character in this film plays out an arc identical to the character in his previous film. That’s right, Brüno is in most ways a simple echo of Borat: Fish-out-of-water gets in over his head, loses everything before finding himself while conducting some hilarious interviews along the way. The only real difference this time around is that the main character is gay and exposes rampant fear of homosexuals in America, as opposed to being Kazakhstani and exposing rampant fear of foreigners in America. It’s unfortunate that Borat had to come first and that Brüno follows it so closely because it could most likely hold its own without comparison. As it stands, one can’t help but compare the two. Brüno is in almost every sense a remake or re-envisioning of Borat. But a really, really funny one. So, it can’t be all bad, right?

You don’t enter into watching a film like this for the story. You want the pranks. You want to see how far Cohen will push his gags. Will push people. And he pushes hard here. I laughed almost all the way through the film. Then I put on the deleted/additional/extended scenes and laughed for another hour. Brüno delivers exactly what you want from it. He takes on celebrities, politicians, religion and a whole host of really scary, back-water folk who hate gays and love their guns. However you feel about the humour, you’ve got to give Cohen props for having a huge pair. I’m amazed that he escaped the filming of Brüno with all of his parts intact.

What I didn’t realize was how close he came to imprisonment, physical injury and death during the making of the film. I sat through the Blu-ray discs video commentary in awe. It’s like a survivor’s document. Cohen and director Larry Charles walk you through every aspect of making the film, occasionally stopping the movie to explain something in greater detail or just to take a moment to break off on a tangent and tell another story. To be honest, I found this feature far more gripping than the film itself! I literally had trouble turning it off. I recommend checking it out. It will give you an all new insight and appreciation for the film. Despite the vast collection of hilarious outtakes, BD Live stuff and Pocket Blu mobile features on the disc, the video commentary is the special feature to give your time to. Astounding!

I usually like to touch on the technical quality of a BD before the end of a review. But there’s just not much to discuss here. The video presentation on the Brüno disc comes from a lot of different sources. It’s highly inconsistent but totally appropriate for the film. There’s enough detail to remind you that you’re watching a high-def presentation but not enough quality for the Blu-ray connoisseur. The DTS HD Master Audio suffers much the same fate, being at the mercy of the source material. But seriously, who cares. Content is king here and you won’t be disappointed with Brüno on Blu-ray. The disc makes the most of what it has to work with.

Previously on The Blu-ray Blog: [VIDEO] Bruno Blu-ray Deleted Scene – La Toya won’t imitate Michael Jackson

[VIDEO] Bruno Blu-ray Deleted Scene – La Toya won't imitate Michael Jackson

Brenden — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:29:54 +0000

I’m not sure what makes me more uncomfortable here: the naked, portly man covered in sushi or the strange, inhuman laughter from La Toya Jackson as she’s pressed by Bruno (Sacha Baron Cohen) for information on her brother Michael. Urgh. I can see why they chopped this scene out the film, which reached theaters mere weeks after the singer’s June 25th death. Check the cut scene out for yourself.

This is only a couple of minutes of the nearly one-hour of bonus, deleted content on the Bruno Blu-ray, which hits shelves on Tuesday. I’ll post my full review over the weekend.

Previously on The Blu-ray Blog: Michael Jackson This Is It Blu-ray Package Art

Michael Jackson This Is It Blu-ray Package Art

Brenden — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:30:40 +0000

I’m interested in watching this film once. I’m not a Michael Jackson fan but after reading Roger Ebert‘s review of This Is It, the film chronicling Jackson’s rehearsals for his final tour that would not be, I’m officially interested. It hasn’t even hit theatres yet but we’ve already got the package art for the upcoming Sony Blu-ray edition of the film. Sadly, no other details, including price or releases date are available yet. We’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, check out the Blu-ray art below:

The Blu-ray Blog » Michael Jackson

Blu-ray Picks for the Week of January 26

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