Blu-ray

Michael Bay: “Now I love HD DVD”

Source: High-Def Digest

This just gets funnier and funnier. After going off on a rant about how he wouldn’t direct Transformers 2 because Paramount had ditched Blu-ray, he has suddenly had an epiphany, deleted his original post, and come out in full favour of HD DVD:

As a director, I’m all about people seeing films in the best quality possible, and I saw and heard firsthand people upset about a corporate decision.

So today I saw 300 on HD, it rocks!

So I think I might be back on to do Transformers 2!

This guy flip-flops like a fish out of water! Who wants to bet Paramount executives woke up to find his words being bandied all over the web and had a quiet word with him?

Oh, and Paramount CTO Alan Bell has submitted to an extremely interesting interview with PC World, where he discusses his company’s reasons for switching to HD DVD exclusively in a commendably candid way:

Bell: Paramount has been getting experience with publishing titles in both formats for the last year. We’ve had a hands-on ability to see how these formats work in practice. And after some hands-on analysis, we decided that HD DVD was the format we wanted to support.

PCW: Why was that?

Bell: For one thing, the lower prices of the players: It’s good for consumers, it’s good for our customer base.

For another thing, HD DVD came out of the DVD Forum. The DVD Forum is very experienced at developing and managing specs. [HD DVD] was launched in a very stable way, with stable specifications, and they had specified a reference player model, so all players had to be compatible with the HDi interactivity layer, and all players had to be capable of the interactivity. So when we publish titles in the future that have interactivity, we can be assured that every HD DVD player will be able to handle this content.

Oh, and he reiterates that the current situation represents an “indefinite commitment”.

A suggestion to Michael Bay: stop your whining

Until today, I didn’t realise that Michael Bay, director of such, er, delights as Armageddon and Pearl Harbor (and The Rock, but I wasn’t going to mention it as I actually like that film), had his own web site. Turns out he does, though, and he has been using his forum to mouth off about Paramount’s decision to drop support for Blu-ray, which affects his most recent film, Transformers:

I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were progressive by having two formats. No Transformers 2 for me!

So, Mr. Bay, where were you when Disney elected not to release The Rock and Pearl Harbor on HD DVD? It works both ways, you know. I must admit, it’s quite amusing watching a big-shot Hollywood moviemaker (albeit not a very good one) throwing a tantrum because one of his films isn’t coming out on what is fairly obviously his preferred format. Not to worry, though - I’m sure he’ll still have a promising career producing limp horror remakes once he’s finished burning his bridges with the major studios.

Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you

I was going to post about this yesterday, but it sort of got overshadowed by the massive news regarding Paramount and Dreamworks (which I’m still trying to properly digest). Anyway, my copy of the Blu-ray release of Arlington Road arrived yesterday from DVD Pacific, and it serves as something of a reminder that Universal isn’t the only studio putting out underwhelming-looking catalogue titles in high definition. Arlington Road feels like it should have come out a year ago, when Sony were being justifiably harangued for the shoddy treatment of their Blu-ray releases: it’s MPEG2-encoded and comes on a single-layer BD25. It also appears to have been sourced from a dupe print, and, when taking all these factors together, it’s unsurprising that it doesn’t “pop”. There doesn’t appear to be any artificial enhancement, but it looks rather flat and diffuse, and the inefficient codec combined with the lack of available disc space creates some rather unsightly artefacts in the grain-filled low light scenes (and, in this film, there are a lot of those). It’s not really a bad disc per se, just not a particularly great one - a mid-range 7/10.

Oh, and Christ, is that cover artwork bad or what?

Fox: “Don’t worry, we’ll still release our overpriced crap on Blu-ray”

Source: AV Science Forum

The news that Paramount and Dreamworks have dropped Blu-ray has clearly caused a bit of a stir among their former cohorts, as 20th Century Fox, notorious for having announced a slew of titles for the format at CES ‘07 and then released absolutely nothing since March, swiftly released a press release confirming their support for the format with “an aggressive global Blu-ray Disc release strategy including 29 new release and ‘must-have’ catalog titles that runs through the end of the 2007 calendar year”. Well, I hate to rain on their parade, but if, as most people suspect, this was specifically designed to counteract the loss of a major studio and its subsidiaries, then it looks a little tragic:

Master & Commander - October 2nd
The Day After Tomorrow - October 2nd
From Hell - October 9th
The Fly (1986) - October 9th
Edward Scissorhands - October 9th
28 Days Later (shot on standard definition DVCAM!) - October 9th
Robocop - October 9th
Amityville Horror (1979) - October 9th
Battle of Britain - November 6th
A Bridge Too Far - November 6th
I, Robot - November 13th
Die Hard - November
Die Hard 2: Die Harder - November
Die Hard with a Vengeance - November
Red Dawn - November
Mr. and Mrs. Smith - December 4th
Independence Day - December 4th
Cast Away - December 4th
Ronin - December 4th

So what d’you want to bet? MPEG2, BD25, no extras, $40 MSRP? With the first titles due out on October 2nd, by my reckoning that gives Fox just under six weeks to start cancelling these releases. I mean, why break with tradition?

Update, August 20th, 2007 10:33 PM: As per DVD Times’ coverage, we can expect AVC encodes.

Blu-ray: “We’ve just lost Paramount”

Sources: Viacom; Lyris Lite

The underdog fights back! After fighting a losing battle against Blu-ray for the better part of the year, the HD DVD camp have just launched a massive salvo against the rival format by securing the exclusive support of Paramount Pictures. Paramount, and all studios whose movies are distributed by them, including DreamWorks Animation SKG, DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films, will release their films exclusively on HD DVD as of August 28th, when Blades of Glory will become their first title not to be available on Blu-ray.

The only exception to this new state of affairs will be Steven Spielberg-directed films (those he merely produced will still be exclusive), which, to quote the press release, “are not exclusive to either format”.

All I can say is that this is really, really going to hurt certain people when the likes of Shrek, Transformers, Titanic and Braveheart are released.

Update, August 20th, 2007 06:51 PM: I’m currently camping on the Blu-ray.com announcement thread. It’s a laugh riot.

The Jungle Book coming to Blu-ray… oh wait, no it’s not

A couple of days ago, the shills at Blu-ray.com announced that Disney’s classic The Jungle Book would be coming to Blu-ray on October 2nd, alongside the film’s Platinum Edition standard definition DVD release… then promptly retracted the statement, admitting that no, it actually wasn’t coming out. Their source appears to have been an issue of Home Media Magazine, whose editors got their wires crossed. A simple enough mistake, you might say - although Blu-ray.com did themselves no favours by beginning their rather official-sounding statement with “Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has announced that…” The cynic in me sees this as pure Blu-ray: announce a major title and then swiftly retract it once you’ve got enough attention. Blu-ray.com may be a completely unofficial site, but they’ve certainly picked up the tricks of their idols. Then again, the HD DVD camp can’t exactly talk, given their official announcement then retraction that several Spielberg titles would be coming to the format.

Disney themselves quickly rectified the matter, categorically stating that there are currently no plans to release The Jungle Book on Blu-ray. Those who want classical Disney animation (i.e. not Chicken Little or The Wild) in HD will have to wait till Autumn 2008, when Sleeping Beauty will be making its Blu-ray debut, at around the same time as Pixar’s Finding Nemo (which I’ll definitely be buying - the standard definition transfer for that film is by far Pixar’s worst to date).

Blu-ray review: The Rock

A solid catalogue release from Disney, The Rock holds up well in high definition, and indeed compares favourably to many HD releases of more recent films. While the missing audio commentary is a shame, at the end of the day the impressive (albeit not flawless) audio-visual presentation means that those who already own the film on DVD are highly advised to pick up a copy of the Blu-ray release.

It’s got explosions, it’s got car chases, and it’s got Nicolas Cage doing his “I’m a loveable dope” shtick. Yep, sounds like the perfect HD release. I’ve reviewed Disney’s recent French Blu-ray release of The Rock.

High definition vermin

Source: High-Def Digest

Disney have confirmed that they intend to release Pixar’s latest film, Ratatouille, on Blu-ray on November 6th, the same day as Cars and the Pixar Short Film Collection. In addition to the ubiquitous 1080p transfer and PCM 5.1 audio, this release will also feature “a new documentary on the making of the film, deleted scenes and the short film ‘Your Friend the Rat.’ ” In addition, the Blu-ray version will include an exclusive game (yawn) and a “Cine-Explore” mode, which, according to Disney, is “the ultimate behind-the-scenes innovative experience”. Of course, it’s anyone’s guess what this means in practice - I’m hoping for something along the lines of a picture-in-picture commentary feature, but in reality it could well be nothing more than text-based factoids.

Either way, this is a must-have. I had the opportunity to see the film recently and, while it’s neither Pixar nor Brad Bird’s best (that would probably be Toy Story and The Incredibles respectively), it’s definitely very enjoyable and surprised me on more than a couple of occasions.

Shame about the cover.

“Mum, it’s no good - the picture’s all funny!”

In a completely unexpected move, Entertainment In Video appears to have become the first studio to enable the Image Constraint Token for high definition content. This flag, when checked, only allows content to be output at its full resolution via a secure HDCP-compliant HDMI or DVI connection: in other words, those watching their HD material via component, VGA or non-HDCP DVI will end up seeing a downscaled 960x540 resolution image - in other words only slightly mor horizontal resolution than standard definition, and less vertical resolution than standard definition PAL. I can see the headlines already: “EIV’s HD transfers as bad as their packaging!”, “EIV begins producing HD content… but only some of you can watch it!”, and so on.

The Hollywood studios purportedly agreed not to enable the ICT flag until 2012, effectively giving audiences a “good grace” period in which to make the transition to HDCP-compliant hardware. Unfortunately, not being a Hollywood studio, it would appear that EIV are not bound by this agreement. The only title currently confirmed to be affected is their recent Blu-ray release of The Crow, but I’d put money on reports similar to this one pouring in for their other titles before long. Oh, and they’re also coded for Region B only.

EIV, eh? You gotta love ‘em.

O Hannibal, where art thou?

I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised. The HD DVD release of Hannibal, scheduled to come out in France on August 1st, has not materialised. None of the online French DVD stores I know of are currently shipping it, and I’ve yet to find a single person who has a copy of it. Furthermore, Amazon.fr lists it as “Actuellement indisponible. Nous ne savons pas quand cet article sera de nouveau approvisionné ni s’il le sera.” Basically, it’s not available and we don’t know whether it ever will be.

First the Blu-ray release yanked from the schedule and now this. I’m beginning to wonder if this title is cursed. It’s too bad, as it was one of my most anticipated high definition releases. Oh, well, the months ahead are likely to be pretty expensive for me anyway when it comes to HD releases, so perhaps it’s for the best from my point of view that at least one of them has, so far, failed to materialise.

Update, August 13th, 2007 07:17 PM: According to this list, it’s been put back to October 5th.

Remember me?

No updates in over a week! You thought I’d forgotten about you, didn’t you? Nothing could be further from the truth, as it happens. I did forewarn you that updates might be scarce until I’d got past my unusually busy work period, but I never for a moment thought that I wouldn’t post anything at all. As it happens, though, this ended up being the best solution, because it meant that I wasn’t forcing myself to make half-hearted posts in my state of perpetual weariness. I now have Thursday and Friday waiting ahead of my completely free, so you can expect a variety of posts on all sorts of exciting subjects, including the latest information on Starcraft II and Hellgate: London, a review of Episode 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s eighth season, news on some exciting upcoming DVD and HD releases, an overview of Casualty’s recently-finished twenty-first series, some of the rare gialli I’ve managed to get my hands on, and much more.

First things first, though, the employment front. I started my new job at the Gallery of Modern Art library on Wednesday August 1st, but I didn’t actually finish working with the NHS until yesterday. I thankfully managed to wrangle a few days of paid holiday, covering the days during which the two jobs would overlap (and Thursday and Friday this week, as it happens - yay!), but that doesn’t mean I haven’t had my plate full recently. I really am absolutely shattered, with the past three weeks having felt like a blur of early starts and late finishes, thanks to my parents leaving me and Lyris in charge of the dogs for a week when they went on holiday, seguing immediately into my moonlighting fiasco. Even last Sunday wasn’t much of a reprieve, as we went on a family outing to watch my cousin’s first child being forcibly inducted into a weird cult called Christianity, when I just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep. I got there in the end, though, and I got a nice send-off from the NHS, with two lunches out an impromptu party complete with carrot cake!

Anyway, I think I’m going to like working at the library. It’s surprisingly tiring work, since I’m basically on my feet all day, but time passes much more quickly at the NHS, the work is more varies, and, hey, it’s only two days a week! The breaks are also extremely generous, with 20 minutes in the morning, an hour for lunch, and a further 20 minutes in the afternoon. I suspect my “weekend” will end up being Sunday and Monday once I get started on my PhD, since I’m working Wednesdays and Saturdays, and intend to make myself adhere fairly strictly to a five-day week.

Anyway, it’s good to be back.

DVDs I bought or received in the month of July

• Arrivederci Amore, Ciao (R3 Thailand, DVD)
• Being John Malkovich (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• Black Snake Moan (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• Blood Diamond (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• The Bourne Identity (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• Crank (RA USA, Blu-ray)
• The Fifth Element (remastered) (R0 USA, Blu-ray)
• La Haine (R0 UK, HD DVD)
• Layer Cake (R0 UK, Blu-ray)
• Paprika (R0 France, Blu-ray)
• The Secret of NIMH: Family Fun Edition (R1 USA, DVD)
• The Simpsons: The Complete Seventh Season (R1 USA, DVD)
• The Simpsons: The Complete Sixth Season (R1 USA, DVD)
• Syriana (R0 UK, HD DVD)

PS. I know I said I wouldn’t be posting much at all over the course of the next week and a half, but I felt the need to acknowledge that we have lost to cinematic visionaries, Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni, in the space of 24 hours. Shockingly, I haven’t seen a single Bergman film, but this news has made me feel an intense need to rectify this problem immediately.

Pixar shorts coming to Blu-ray

The Man Room is reporting that a Blu-ray release of Pixar’s various short films is scheduled to come out on November 6th, the same day as the Blu-ray release of Cars. Called, appropriately enough, the Pixar Short Film Collection, a generous 13 segments will be featured, with an RRP of $34.99:

One of the shorts, ‘Mater and the Ghost Light,’ should also be available on Buena Vista’s upcoming ‘Cars’ Blu-ray Disc release. The other shorts include ‘The Adventures of Andre & Wally B,’ ‘Luxo Jr.,’ ‘Red’s Dream,’ ‘Tin Toy,’ ‘Knick Knack,’ ‘Geri’s Game,’ ‘For the Birds,’ ‘Mike’s New Car,’ ‘Boundin’,’ ‘Jack-Jack Attack,’ ‘One Man Band,’ and ‘Lifted.’

This announcement comes as a complete surprise, at least to me, but you can definitely sign me up for a copy. I suppose it’s just too much to hope for an uncut copy of Knick Knack.

Random HD update

There have been several big announcements in HD-land over the last couple of days, and, for your viewing pleasure, I’ve summarised them all in one post.

First up, Warner have unveiled special editions of several Stanley Kubrick films, due to debut on both HD DVD and Blu-ray on October 23rd. Released separately rather than as a box set, the titles on offer are 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Eyes Wide Shut, The Shining, and a new deluxe edition (presumably with a non-bobbed transfer) of Full Metal Jacket.

All titles have been restored and remastered and will offer both archive and new bonus features. Exact specs are to be confirmed, but initial details suggest all titles will use dual-layer BD50 and HD30 discs (potentially 2xHD30s on A Clockwork Orange if the early details are correct) and boast 1080P Widescreen transfers, English Dolby True HD 5.1 Surround audio on both formats (though the Blu-ray Disc listing for 2001 suggests Blu-ray owners will get a PCM 5.1 offering instead) and of course regular Dolby Digital/Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 tracks in English, French and Spanish languages.

Unfortunately, it would seem that the version of Eyes Wide Shut being released is the American R-rated cut, complete with superimposed CGI figures to obscure some of the more intimate details of the orgy scene. As such, you can probably guess that I won’t be buying it. Instead, I’ll be holding out for a non-American, uncut release.

Warner have also announced Blade Runner: The Final Cut for release on both formats on December 18th. With specs suggesting that this release will topple The Ultimate Matrix Collection from its “most feature-packed HD release” throne, this deluxe set will feature a whopping five discs, and will feature four different cuts of the film, including the all-new “final cut” and the fabled work-print version. For the true obsessive, an Ultimate Collector’s Edition will also be available:

The Ultimate Collector’s Edition will be presented in a unique 5-disc digi-package with handle which is a stylish version of Rick Deckard’s own briefcase, in addition each briefcase will be individually numbered and in limited supply. Included is a lenticular motion film clip from the original feature, miniature origami unicorn figurine, miniature replica spinner car, collector’s photographs as well as a signed personal letter from Sir Ridley Scott.

See a picture of the goodies here.

Finally, Highlight will be releasing the director’s cut of Zhang Yimou’s Hero on HD DVD in Germany on October 11th. No word yet on the specs (I’m a little worried that English subtitles won’t be in the offing), but I’ll definitely be keeping track of this one, especially as there currently isn’t anything approaching a half-decent release of the director’s cut on DVD.

Update, July 27st, 2007 07:10 PM: A Warner representative has just confirmed that the Eyes Wide Shut HD DVD and Blu-ray releases will include both the censored R-rated and uncut unrated versions. Thank god for that!

Samsung caught two-timing

Source: Electronic House

The full specifications for Samsung’s upcoming HD DVD/Blu-ray hybrid player, the BD-UP5000 Duo HD Player, have been unveiled. Due to be released in the fourth quarter of 2007, this machine is noteworthy for the fact that, unlike LG’s solution, it doesn’t appear to short-change one of the two formats (the LG player doesn’t support full interactivity for HD DVDs). Personally I’m happy with my Playstation 3/Xbox 360 add-on solution, but, if you haven’t got into either of the two formats yet, this player looks set to be an enticing prospect… depending on the reviews, of course.

You must try harder

The “remastered” Blu-ray release of The Fifth Element and the HD DVD of The Bourne Identity both arrived yesterday. I’ll discuss the former first, since I’ve watched it from beginning to end, and it’s also the more significant of the two releases, albeit not for positive reasons. As you probably know, The Fifth Element was one of Sony’s launch titles when the Blu-ray format first lifted off last summer. You probably also know, therefore, that many of Sony’s initial Blu-ray discs were mercilessly derided - some unfairly (Silent Hill is still a fine-looking disc in spite of its compression problems), but others most definitely fairly. The Fifth Element, judging by the screenshots I’ve seen, fell into the latter category: lacking in fine detail, horribly compressed and viciously noise reduced, a certain comparison which quickly circulated around all the best home entertainment forums showed there to be surprisingly little difference between it and the standard definition Superbit release.

At the time, it looked as if Sony’s lax quality control could actually end up costing them the format war. The tides now seem to have turned, and Sony’s desire to improve Blu-ray’s image has been realised in a new “remastered” version of The Fifth Element, released on July 17th. As a gesture of goodwill, they event set up an exchange programme so those who were gypped on the original release can trade in their copies for the new edition. The original release has been discontinued, and Sony’s plan is clearly to make the transition from old to new as discrete as possible, given that the packaging of the new version is almost identical to the previous one, the only giveaways being the copyright date, the presence of Dolby TrueHD in the audio specifications, and some other minor changes.

Anyway, on to the image quality itself. My verdict would be “good, but not great”. Lyris does a pretty good job of summing up the pros and cons, so I’ll keep this brief and simply say that, broadly speaking, it seems to be an improvement over its predecessor in terms of compression (the move from MPEG2 to AVC, and from a BD25 to a BD50, is definitely appreciated), but much of the supposed increase in detail that certain reviewers have pointed out is really little more than edge enhancement. Obviously, not having seen the original release in motion, it’s hard to offer a definitive review, but I’d peg this as a low 7/10. The effects shots look considerably less detailed and exhibit more ringing than the non-effects shots, and that’s something that can’t be helped, but that doesn’t change the fact that the edge enhancement is rather pronounced, and the tell-tale signs of a 1080i to 1080p conversion rear their head on occasions in the form of combing artefacts (Lyris noticed them within a couple of minutes, and once we knew they were there, they became extremely difficult to ignore). I’ve no idea if the previous release also shows these (to date we seem to be the only people to have posted about them on either release - then again, we seem also to be the only people to have noticed that the Blu-ray District B13 is also a 1080i to 1080p conversion (and a bad one at that) - but my message to Sony is ultimately: “So near and yet so far.”

Maybe when Pathé release it on HD DVD (whenever that happens), they’ll get it right.

For The Bourne Identity, fortunately, the case seems to be somewhat more clear-cut. What we basically have is a nice-looking transfer that isn’t perfect by any means but it still rather better than most of Universal’s recent catalogue releases. Whereas The Bourne Supremacy’s HD DVD was derived from a digital intermediate, The Bourne Supremacy is film-sourced, and (probably as a result) appears slightly less defined, and with a (naturally) rougher texture. There are also some signs of mild ringing, but all in all I’m happy with what I’m seeing. It won’t find its way into any “best of” lists, but I doubt that too many people will be disappointed by it.

HD DVD debacle

The HD DVD release of Being John Malkovich arrived yesterday from Amazon. Knowing that the most recent Universal catalogue titles generally haven’t looked all that hot, and having read some rather critical reports from individuals known to be - let’s say - less than discerning, my expectations weren’t exactly all that high. In fact, I was partly fearing a 480i upconvert à la Traffic, so I was actually somewhat relieved to discover that it doesn’t look all that bad. No, I wouldn’t call it good as such - there is some fairly obvious DVNR and also quite a bit of edge enhancement - but it’s far from the worst HD transfer I’ve ever seen. I’d put it on about the same level as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (which, coincidentally, shares the same writer, Charlie Kaufman, and the same studio, Universal) - a low to mid 6/10.

This morning, Blood Diamond, which I must confess I’d actually forgotten I’d ordered, arrived from DVD Pacific. It came out on Blu-ray more than a month ago, but, given that, thanks to the incomplete status of the BD-Java spec, that release lacked the picture-in-picture In-Movie Experience feature, so I decided to just wait and get the more complete package. I haven’t had a chance to watch it from beginning to end yet, but I’ve taken a look at the transfer and it seems to be pretty decent. I was initially concerned that it looked a little diffuse, but a quick look at its technical specifications on IMDB reveals it to have been shot using an anamorphic process called Hawk Scope. I’ve been tending to notice that anamorphic films tend to look a little soft at 1920x1080, presumably as a result of the short focal range of the lenses, and, looked at in that light, my guess is that Blood Diamond’s slight softness is inherent in the source material rather than as a result of digital tampering. Certainly, there is no ringing or clumpy grain to suggest filtering.

By the way, I’m aware that I haven’t posted an updated HD Image Quality Rankings list for some time. I’ve got a handful of titles that I haven’t looked at closely enough to rate with any certainty yet (La Haine, Layer Cake and Syriana), so I’ll leave it till I’ve had a chance to watch them from beginning to end. My current (35 and a half hours per week) job ends in just over a fortnight, so my lighter load come mid-August should afford me ample opportunity to engage in some much-missed movie-watching.

High-def happenings

I’ve got a whole parade of high definition updates for today. First of all, after being postponed from its original June 5th release date, High-Def Digest has revealed that Cars will now see the light of day on Blu-ray in North American territories on November 6th. The reason for the delay, it would seem, is “additional involvement from Pixar”, which comes in the form of two BD-exclusive bonus features: a new deleted scene and a BD-Java “Car Finder”. Woo. How about some worthwhile bonus materials, Disney - like, I don’t know, a visual commentary? Cars is currently the only Pixar film not to have been released on DVD as a fully-loaded 2-disc special edition, and I was somewhat hopeful that the Blu-ray release would feature all the usual bells and whistles… but it would seem not. Oh, well - even so, it’s still a must-have.

Meanwhile, New Line would appear to have tired of waiting for Warner’s TotalHD dual format discs to appear, and have decided to get cracking with HD releases of their films, beginning with Hairspray (the remake, not the John Waters original), coming to both HD DVD and Blu-ray at some point in the fourth quarter of 2007. Hairspray is currently the only title to have been announced, but I’m crossing my fingers for some of the rumoured titles before too long, especially Blade, Final Destination and Se7en… oh, and Peter Jackson’s version of The Lord of the Rings, provided it’s the Extended Editions and not the theatrical cuts. (I’d still rather have Ralph Bakshi’s version, though.)

Oh, and, after many delays, Entertainment In Video have finally confirmed their intention to release on Blu-ray in the UK, with a roster of eight titles to come out on August 13th: Gangs of New York, The Phantom of the Opera (2004), Million Dollar Baby, Brokeback Mountain, The Departed, The Crow and Lucky Number Slevin. Several of these titles are already available on HD DVD (or HD DVD and Blu-ray) in the US, and the only title to take my fancy from that list is Gangs of New York. Unfortunately, EIV have decided to punish people like myself who own Region A Blu-ray players by encoding these discs for Region B only, so it looks like I’ll have to wait for Disney to release it in North American territories, or for the proposed HD DVD releases to materialise in Spain or France. Way to lose business, EIV.

Lost in translation

This morning, I forced myself to sit down and watch Paprika… with an emphasis on forced, because I really did find it a chore to sit through. I have nothing against nonsensical films that operate in the world of dream logic - Mulholland Drive and Inferno being two of my absolute all-time favourites - but, if the director doesn’t know what he or she is doing, or loses his or her sense of perspective, it’s easy to lose track of what counts. With Paprika, I can only assume that, as with Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain (another dream logic film I saw recently and hated), everything made sense to writer/director Satoshi Kon in his head, but he was unable to translate this on to the screen in a way that resonated… with me at any rate. I never felt as if I was actually experiencing a dream, just viewing one nonsensical scene after another.

“I’m not bland, I’m just not good at expressing my emotions.”

It doesn’t help that, unlike the other Satoshi Kon film I’ve seen, the excellent Tokyo Godfathers, the visual style is that bland, stilted, lifeless look that I (rightly or wrongly) associate with anime. Rather than moving their whole faces when they speak, characters’ mouths just open and close, and the voices (in the original Japanese - the English dub is unsurprisingly cringe-worthy) certainly don’t add any more life to these wooden personalities. There is some nice colour work, and a couple of interesting visual images, but most of the latter are to be found in the opening credits - really not a good sign. The designs are mostly bland and generic, and I find myself wondering how the same director could produce such inventive visuals in Tokyo Godfathers, working with a much more reality-based storyline, and yet give this high fantasy such an uninspired look.

I do intend to seek out Satoshi Kon’s other work - Perfect Blue and Millenium Actress - but I sincerely hope my enjoyment of Tokyo Godfathers wasn’t just a fluke.

4/10.

Finally, some Blu-ray titles worth owning

So far, a few decent titles have been released as Blu-ray exclusives, but hardly any of them have been must-haves. For me, Casino Royale, The Descent, The Devil’s Rejects and Kingdom of Heaven are the only titles that would fall into that category, with only The Descent standing out as a near-classic. All that will change in October, however, when Starz Home Entertainment/Anchor Bay will release their first slate of titles. DavisDVD has the scoop on the cover art, rough specs and release dates of their initial line-up:

October 2nd, 2007: Dawn of the Dead, Halloween, Evil Dead II and Day of the Dead
October 16th, 2007: Masters of Horror Season 1 Volume 1 (Cigarette Burns, Dreams in the Witch-house, The Fair Haired Child), Masters of Horror Season 1 Volume 2 (Jenifer, Sick Girl, Deer Woman)
November 6th, 2007: Beowulf & Grendel
November 13th, 2007: Masters of Horror Season 1 Volume 3 (Incident On and Off a Mountain Road, Dance of the Dead, Pick Me Up)
December 11th, 2007: Masters of Horror Season 1 Volume 4 (Imprint, Homecoming, Haeckel’s Tale, Chocolate)

I’ll definitely be picking up all of the October 2nd releases, and am currently undecided on Masters of Horror. I’ll probably get Volume 2 for Jenifer, so I can own some HD Argento, even if it’s bottom drawer HD Argento, but I’m not convinced I can see myself splurging on the other volumes. I’ll probably wait to see what my finances are like at the time, or perhaps look into the prospect of a review copy or two. Beowulf & Grendel is the odd one out in this otherwise horror-themed line-up, and I can’t see myself rushing out to pick it up… although it does star Sarah Polley, who can make just about anything watchable (why else d’you think I’m buying the Dawn of the Dead remake on HD DVD?). One thing’s for sure, Anchor Bay are to be commended for having the guts to step into the murky waters of high definition, and I sincerely hope the sales of these releases persuade them to continue releasing titles on Blu-ray. (How ‘bout those Tenebre and Phenomena special editions - pleeeeease?)

Specs for the first four releases are as follows, by the way: 1080p transfers (duh), PCM 5.1 audio, and all of the extras from the standard definition releases. Each disc will carry an RRP of $29.97. No word on the video codec - I’m just hoping it’s not MPEG2, which their HD distributor, MGM, favours. Oh, and I’m assuming Dawn of the Dead is just the standard theatrical cut.