DVD

Tim Lucas on the new Lizard

I'm expecting my own sample copy to arrive at some point very soon, at which point I'll offer my own opinions, but it would seem that the redoubtable Tim Lucas has beaten everyone to it, posting his impressions of Media Blasters' new integral release of Lucio Fulci's A Lizard in a Woman's Skin on his Video WatchBlog.

Shriek Show is hoping to make good for their earlier release by issuing a new and improved single-disc remaster of Fulci's classic psycho-thriller that, they hope, will provide the best of all possible Lucertoli for the film's admirers. Having been given a first look at the new disc, I can attest that this new version is -- like the Federal presentation -- a unique cut of the film that was likely never shown in any theater anywhere in the world. It runs a full minute longer than Federal's earlier composite and is certainly the most complete version of the film likely to surface on DVD.

Visit Lucas' site for a full rundown of his findings: it certainly seems like this release is as complete as humanly possible, although a handful of his references to footage missing from various versions is inaccurate (for example, the Federal Video DVD was missing some Sapphic canoodling during the opening dream sequence, not the footage of Florinda Bolkan writhing around as referred to by Lucas), so there is still room for doubt in a couple of instances. In any event, you can expect a full rundown of what is and (hopefully not) isn't on the new DVD when my copy arrives, as well as a full-blown review at DVD Times. Preliminary observations, however, would suggest that Media Blasters have come up with a winner.

Stay tuned!

Lizard in March

Fangoria has unveiled detailed specs for Media Blasters' upcoming re-release of Lucio Fulci's classic giallo A Lizard in a Woman's Skin. Due out on March 13th, this DVD will feature the full-length 103-minute cut of the film, with a 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, and English 5.1 and mono and Italian mono soundtracks. Special features include:

• Half-hour interview with Fulci expert Professor Paolo Albiero
• Featurette on the history of the film's censorship, with Albiero
• Original Italian titles
• Fulci trailer reel
• Shriek Show trailers

All the extras from the already available Italian release are therefore being included, no doubt with English subtitles. This is definitely good news, but it's a shame that the extras from Media Blasters' previous release aren't being ported over. A reason to hang on to the old one, I suppose.

HD DVD review: An American Werewolf in London

An American Werewolf in London is the most disappointing HD DVD title I have reviewed thus far, although it constitutes an undeniable improvement on its standard definition counterpart. Unfortunately, edge enhancement and a lack of the original mono audio mix make this release difficult to recommend to all but the most dedicated fans.

HD pickings have been slim for horror fans so far, but Universal has sought to rectify this with the release of John Landis' classic An American Werewolf in London. I've reviewed the R0 US DVD/HD DVD combo.

ATI to the rescue

nVidia be gone! The Canadians have come to restore my sanity! My ATI Radeon X1950XT arrived this morning - for some reason, Chillblast sent me a PowerColor model rather than the Sapphire one I ordered, but, as they are exactly the same card, only with a slightly different fan and a different box, I'm not particularly bothered. In any event, I installed the thing this morning, and in the process found that I had to chuck out my case fan, because the card itself comes with the largest fan I've ever seen, and meant that there simply wasn't enough room in my PC's case. In any event, the case fan's only real purpose was to cool the video card, so I suspect that its own dedicated fan will perform exactly the same function without any real difference in the long run.

Anyway, despite my criticisms of ATI's Catalyst Control Center and its dependence on Microsoft's .NET framework, I'm so glad to be back to it. nVidia's control panel, while not exactly bad, had numerous problems, including the fact that features available in the newer system, integrated with the most recent driver releases, are missing from the older and more functional classic control panel (and vice versa). It's also nice to not have to reset my overlay settings every time I boot the computer and every time I want to watch a video.

I did, however, have a rather nasty surprise when I popped in Ren & Stimpy: The Lost Episodes in order to test DVD playback. Put simply, when I enabled AVIVO acceleration in PowerDVD (AVIVO is essentially ATI's version of the advanced hardware video playback functions called PureVideo by nVidia), I noticed that a massive amount of noise reduction was being applied, resulting in outlines and colours trailing, with the contents of one shot being ghosted into the next. The control panel featured no way of disabling this, but a quick search in Google revealed this thread, where it was revealed that, after dragging their feet for some time, ATI had finally acknowledged the issue and provided a registry tweak to turn off noise reduction completely. It's not the world's most perfect solution, but ATI deserve credit for actually listening to their customers, unlike nVidia, who have failed to fix the overlay colour temperature bug, despite it having existed for over a year. (I will, however, give nVidia credit for allowing users to modify noise reduction and edge enhancement settings as they see fit... although this too seems to be fraught with problems for some users.)

Once the noise reduction had been successfully disabled, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the AVIVO deinterlacing is actually superior to that of nVidia's PureVideo. As you may recall, every so often PureVideo's otherwise commendable motion adaptive deinterlacing would slip up, resulting in the fields jumping every few seconds. Not so with AVIVO: in fact, I watched an entire 15-minute stretch of Ren Seeks Help and didn't notice a single problem.

Oh, and just for shits and giggles, I ran Futuremark's two graphical benchmark applications, 3DMark '03 and 3DMark '05, to see what, if any, difference the new card made to performance. As I suspected, it appears that my CPU is the deciding factor, given that there's only so much a new graphics card can do if the CPU itself isn't equally cutting-edge. Still, I did see my 3DMark '03 score jump from 12,582 (12,836 on the GeForce) to 15,106, while my 3DMark '05 score went from 6,067 (5,875 on the GeForce) to 7,749. Not the world's most amazing statistics, and I doubt it will result in any major improvements to my gaming performance, but a definite rise nonetheless.

Zimmer 13

Note: thanks to Keith for setting me up with a copy of this film.

West Germany/Denmark/France: Harald Reinl, 1964

Zimmer 13 (Room 13) is my first encounter with the krimi movement, a series of thrillers produced in Germany during the late 1950s to early 1970s based on the writings of British novelist Edgar Wallace and his son Bryan Edgar Wallace. These films are often compared to the Italian giallo movement, and indeed many gialli were marketed in Germany is krimis - for example The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, What Have You Done to Solange? and Seven Bloodstained Orchids. Compared with their Italian counterparts, these films tend to emphasise professional detectives and organised crime rather than amateur sleuths up against lone madmen, while the (70s) Italian modernism favoured by giallo directors tends to be eschewed in favour of an image of what appears to be a pre-World War 2 England.

I'm feeling in the dark here, so bear with me. The plot focuses on a private detective, Johnny Gray (Joachim Fuchsberger, who also appeared in Solange, further emphasising the krimi connection), asigned to protect Denise (Karin Dor), the daughter of Sir Marney (Walter Rilla), who finds himself owing a favour to the wrong crowd and fears for her safety. There's also a razor-wielding maniac on the loose, and a maverick ganster named Joe Legge (Richard Häussler), planning a grand heist with his lackeys in the ominous Room 13.

The strongest element of the film, and its most giallo-like part, is the mystery surrounding the identity of the razor killer. I didn't guess the outcome, and it came as significantly surprising, although I tend not to think too analytically about a killer's identity the first time I watch a film. The heist itself, as it happens, is not particularly interesting or remarkable - the whole thing is made out to be intricately planned, right down to the second, but in reality it's just a run of the mill train robbery. The ominous-sounding Room 13 also turns out to be anything but - it's just a room in a club where the gansters meet (given that the film is named after it, I was expecting a little more).

Still, the film is nicely-paced, and the monochromatic Scope photography, by Ernst W. Kalinke, is rich and evocative (I always considered a shame that so few gialli were shot in black and white, with Mario Bava's The Girl Who Knew Too Much being pretty much the only one I can recall right now). Elsewhere, Fuchsberger makes a reasonably effective lead, even if he's not particularly convincing as a "brilliant" detective - a failing of the script rather than his performance. Karin Dor is also a sympathetic heroine/damsel in distress, cut from the Nora Davis (to again reference The Girl Who Knew Too Much) mould - vulnerable, but not completely gutless. Some attempts at comic relief, most involving bumbling police scientist Dr. Higgins (Eddi Arent), don't work particularly well, given that they tend to crop up at the most inappropriate moments - usually immediately following a death.

As my first krimi, I don't really know how this compares to the rest of the line-up. Chances are I've either slated what is considered a masterpiece or bigged-up a clunker. Who knows. I also have Dead Eyes of London to watch, so maybe I'll have a better idea of what these films are generally like soon. In the meantime, this gets a 7/10.

The Year in Review

2006 - the year of HD

Note: I'm not going to cover worldwide hot topics like the execution of Saddam Hussein or the continued botch-job that is the situation in Iraq. This is simply a set of personal musings about my own experiences this year.

On a technological front, by far the biggest development on the HMS Whimsy this year was the arrival of an HD DVD player - a late change from our original intention to pick up a Blu-ray player. Originally, I had expected to perhaps have half a dozen titles in high definition by the end of the year, but have in fact ended up with 21 (plus another two that Lyris bought). Certainly a number of these are films that I probably wouldn't have bought had their been a better selection available, but still, if you'd told me that, a mere six months after its launch, the format would included crystal-clear copies of Casablanca and The Adventures of Robin Hood, not to mention more obscure cult titles like An American Werewolf in London and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, I wouldn't have believed you. All in all, HD DVD got off to a great start in 2006, with I only hope will continue to be bettered in 2007.

Including both standard definition and high definition, I bought or received for review a total of 107 DVDs. I wrote 66 reviews for DVD Times (two down from last year's record of 68), and went to the cinema a whopping two times. I watched 216 films (including those watched more than once), 99 of which I had never seen before. These tended to be of the more obscure variety, although I did see a number of "major" (both in the sense of being "important" and of being blockbusters that just about everyone ended up seeing) titles that had, for one reason or another, passed me by until last year, including Trains, Planes & Automobiles, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Blade Runner, Tout Va Bien, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Collateral, Corpse Bride, The Piano Teacher, Theatre of Blood, A History of Violence, V for Vendetta, 5x2, Bitter Moon, Walkabout, Fritz the Cat, Vertigo, Exorcist II: The Heretic, The Descent, The Constant Gardener, Serenity, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, Duck Soup, Strictly Ballroom, The Fifth Element, Ghost World, Cars, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, Being John Malkovich, Black Sunday, The Omen (remake), Witchfinder General, Topaz, Torn Curtain, Casino Royale, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Miami Vice, Basic Instinct and The Adventures of Robin Hood. Quite clearly, this list features some real gems and some absolute garbage, including gems that I thought would be garbage and garbage that I thought would be gems.

In terms of television, meanwhile, I watched the first two seasons of Veronica Mars and the final season of Alias. I also went through the entire seven-season run of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with its steadily diminishing returns post-Season 5 gradually driving me towards the brink of suicide (I exaggerate). The long-running medical drama Casualty also celebrated its 20th anniversary, with the launch of the first three series on DVD - it's anyone's guess how long they will continue this, given that each series becomes progressively longer, until they eventually run for more or less the entire year. Speaking of Casualty, that particular show shocked me in delivering perhaps the best two hours of television I'd seen all year, with the much-heralded return of former writer (and Waking the Dead creator) Barbara Machin for a one-off guest writing gig. Much to my delight, the magnificent Garth Marenghi's Darkplace was finally released on DVD, although the same team's follow-up, the satirical chat-show Man to Man with Dean Learner, turned out to be a huge disappointment. The fifth season of Spooks also aired, and, while it was suitably engaging, it sacrificed some of the subtlety of previous years in favour of increasingly unbelievable conspiracies and hostile takeovers. Oh, and on the TV/film front, Channel 4's dedicated film channel, FilmFour, became free in July, providing the UK with its first free-to-air channel dedicated to movies.

After over a year's worth of procrastination, I finally recorded a new fan commentary, this time for Dario Argento's Profondo Rosso. Once again, feedback for this seems to have been largely positive, although it's anyone's guess what I'll think of it myself when I finally brave listening to it again.

The Third Mother, the long-awaited conclusion to Argento's Three Mothers trilogy (started with Suspiria and Inferno in 1977 and 1980 respectively), finally went into production, wrapping at some point in late November/early December, with a projected May 2007 release date. Argento also helmed another episode in the American Masters of Horror television series: Pelts turned out to be less shameful than 2005's Jenifer, but a far cry from his home-grown exploits nonetheless. Meanwhile, the much-feared Hollywood remake of Suspiria was finally axed.

After much talk of the two companies going their separate ways, Disney bought Pixar and instated John Lasseter as the joint president of feature animation for both studios. Shortly before the end of the year, it was announced that, following the release of Meet the Robinsons, Disney would be abandoning CG animation entirely and returning to the hand-drawn realm in which it made its name.

Once more in the animated world, John Kricfalusi, the creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show and the industry's last great hope, started up an excellent blog in February. July also saw the release on DVD of Ren & Stimpy: The Lost Episodes, containing six new installments featuring everyone's favourite dog and cat duo, three of which had never even aired on TV. Sadly, there seems to be no indication that sales of the DVD have persuaded Paramount to order more episodes.

I got into computer games this year to a far greater extent than I had for some time, picking up Guild Wars: Factions, Guild Wars: Nightfall, The Movies: Stunts and Effects, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: Legend, as well as replaying Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, Icewind Dale II, Starcraft: Brood War and Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Lyris also picked up the new Nintendo Wii console in November, resulting in much enjoyment as all on sundry made asses of themselves waving its newfangled controller about. Oh, and Blizzard Entertainment "postponed indefinitely" (read "cancelled") its troubled console action game Starcraft: Ghost, much to the disappointment of the three or four people that still cared about it.

I also bought rather more technological gadgets than is normal for me: I picked up a digital camera in February, and a swish new widescreen LCD monitor in June. I also replaced my Creative Zen Micro MP3 player with a Sony NW-HD5 in November, and made the mistake of buying an nVidia-based video card for my computer in December (the replacement ATI model will hopefully arrive soon after business returns to normal after the New Year holiday).

In September, I finally finished my MLitt, handed in my dissertation, and, much to my shock, was awared a Distinction. Unable to find a job, I went on unemployment benefit - what fun.

Oh, and on the web site front, September saw a new site design and a return to Movable Type as a publishing platform after slightly over a year with Blogger. In November, meanwhile, I finally got sick of my useless host, Fuitadnet, constantly screwing up and making life difficult, and moved to Donym, where the rent is cheaper and everything runs much more smoothly to boot.

DVDs I bought or received in the month of December

• The Adventures of Robin Hood (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• An American Werewolf in London (R0 USA, HD DVD/SD DVD combo)
• Basic Instinct (R0 France, HD DVD)
• Casablanca (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• The Double Life of Véronique: The Criterion Collection (R1 USA, SD DVD)
• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (R0 UK, HD DVD)
• Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume Four (R1 USA, SD DVD)
• Miami Vice (R0 USA, HD DVD/SD DVD combo)
• Operation Crossbow (R1 USA, SD DVD)
• The Quiller Memorandum (R1 USA, SD DVD)
• Serenity (R0 UK, HD DVD)
• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: Ultimate Edition (R1 USA, SD DVD)
• Wolf Creek (R0 USA, HD DVD)

This month, the number of HD DVDs I picked up exceeded the number of standard definition DVDs for the first time: long may this trend continue.

Jingle bells

In case you didn't notice, yesterday was Christmas. As luck would have it, the various presents I had ordered all showed up on Saturday, contrary to all expectation (Saturday being the last day for the postal service until the 27th), and I got one or two surprises in addition to those. Thanks must go especially to Lee for sending me a copy of Burton on Burton, which, as you can probably guess, is a book on director Tim Burton and his bizarre gothic fantasies. I'm sure I'll enjoy getting stuck into it when I next have a spare moment.

Otherwise, there were no huge surprises. I got The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - The Complete Recordings (what a mouthful!) on CD but haven't had a chance to listen to anything but the first couple of tracks. And, in terms of DVDs, my collection now includes Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 4, The Double Life of Véronique (Criterion), The Quiller Memorandum and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Ultimate Edition). I've not had the time to watch any of them, but I gave most of them a brief glance, and have collected my thoughts below.

• The Double Life of Véronique: This release looks slightly better than the French MK2 release (repackaged in the UK under the Artificial Eye label), but it's a close call. There is less noise reduction and the compression is better handled, giving the image a more eye-pleasing, filmlike appearance. However, I am once again annoyed that Criterion, who are (wrongly, in my opinion) frequently held up to be the pinnacle of DVD production companies, have chosen to assault the image with edge enhancement and brick-wall filtering. Especially following the advent of HD DVD, I am acutely aware that the vast majority of DVDs simply aren't of an acceptable level of quality.
  
  
• The Quiller Memorandum: Probably the worst transfer I've seen all year. This DVD was released only a month ago, and yet it looks almost like a LaserDisc master. The image is flat, detail is non-existent, and I once again find myself wondering how Fox, like Criterion, can garner so much praise for such feeble efforts.
  
  
• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: This restoration, undertaken by Synapse's Don Mar Jr., has been praised to the high heavens on the Internet, and with good reason: the film has undoubtedly never looked better on a home video format, and the material May had to work with can't have been in particularly good condition. All the more reason, then, for my to be annoyed by Dark Sky's DVD, which is ineptly encoded, resulting in some of the most blatant macro-blocking I've seen in a long time. At times, the screen is such an array of compression blocks that it resembles a UK Freeview TV broadcast (which anyone who has witnessed this ingenious but flawed "digital TV through an antenna" solution will agree is capable of looking very bad indeed).

That's all for now. Thoughts on the Looney Tunes discs will follow eventually.

PowerDVD HD - finally

As you probably know, I use my computer quite extensively for DVDs - not just for playback, but also for taking screen captures for reviews, analysing bit rates, carrying out in-depth comparisons between different releases of the same film, and so on. As you can therefore probably imagine, I'm dying to start doing the same thing with HD DVD content. Originally, I thought this would mean either buying an expensive HD DVD drive or waiting for them to come down in price, but the recent discovery that the $200 Xbox 360 add-on drive could actually be hooked up to any PC and used for HD DVD playback right out of the box was a considerable relief, and means that, when they finally become available again (the initial shipments were snatched up faster than you can say "steal of the century"), I will certainly be picking one up.

More good news, then, that Cyberlink has finally released its long-delayed high definition version of the venerable PowerDVD suite. PowerDVD Ultra can play both HD DVD and Blu-ray movies (although the word on the street is that it can only do one at a time, meaning that you have to choose which format you want to play during the install process). At $99, it's a bit steep, but I expect it will eventually come down in price, and, in any event, I won't be buying it until I've ascertained that it is capable of playing titles in full 1920x1080 resolution. The early HD-enabled versions of PowerDVD bundled with HD DVD PC systems downscaled the image to 960x540, regardless of the fact that, so far, no commercially released titles have had the resolution-limiting ICT flag enabled, and despite the fact that those with HDCP-enabled video cards and displays (like me) are being affected by what should, for them, be a non-issue. Apparently, this is because PowerDVD were terrified of being sued, and therefore chose to mangle the viewing experience for their customers rather than face the wrath of the Hollywood thugs. Obviously, if I can't watch, analyse and capture discs in their native resolution, there's not much point in the whole affair, so I certainly won't be frittering away any pennies until I know exactly what I'm dealing with. I hope for a trial version before too long.

Update #2, December 24, 2006 11:55 AM: I seem to have been misinformed about the downscaling issue, which it turns out does not affect PowerDVD. I give visitor Demented's response below in full:

"You have slightly got your facts wrong here. PowerDVD 6.5, which came bundled with Toshiba HD-DVD laptops and other HD-DVD drives, does play titles at full resolution. The problem with this early version is that it is full of bugs.

You appear to be confused with the Intervideo Japanese Win DVD HD-DVD software which would automatically downscale titles to 960x540. I can confirm that the Intervideo BD player does play titles in full 1080p.

PowerDVD Ultra does also play titles in full 1080p but the upcoming Intervideo release looks to be slightly better and much cheaper. Another problem for PowerDVD Ultra owners is that you have to specify which version you install – either BD or HD-DVD. This is yet another needless annoyance for those of us who have both formats."

As such, I suspect I'll now wait to see what Intervideo come up with, although personally I've always found the interface design of Cyberlink's players to be more intuitive.

HD DVD review: Miami Vice

Miami Vice is ultimately close to two and a half hours of posturing, insincere characterisation and abrasive style, none of which would suggest, barring the appearance of his name during the opening credits, that a filmmaker of Michael Mann's calibre was behind it. To describe it as a failed experiment would be charitable: a mess is a more accurate description.

Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx don their designer shades and head out to the beach as I review Universal's recent HD DVD/DVD combo release of Miami Vice.

Le DVNR et la compression

My copy of Studio Canal's recently released HD DVD of Basic Instinct arrived from Amazon.fr this morning.

Unfortunately, the transfer, while clearly in a different league compared to standard definition, is artefact-ridden in a way that I've never seen on an HD DVD until now. Daylight scenes generally look fine, but those taking place at night or in subdued interior lighting conditions (which accounts for a considerable portion of the film's duration) look smeared and defocused. Grain patterns stick to the walls and actors' faces during panning shots, making it pretty clear that some intensive DVNR has been applied. And why? The film isn't even 15 years old, and the compressionists have 30 GB of data to play with (and no extras, barring a trailer for other Studio Canal titles and some test patterns). I don't think I'd go so far as to say that this is the least impressive HD DVD I've seen so far (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and An American Werewolf in London are contending for that crown), but it's definitely underwhelming and not the sort of thing I'd show to someone to sell them on the delights of high definition.

I just hope this isn't indicative of what we can expect from Studio Canal as a whole. Certainly their trailer reel, which showcases everything from The Elephant Man to Rambo to Ran, looks rather mixed in terms of quality, with some material looking absolutely excellent (the grain in Rambo looks phenomenal, and their version of Million Dollar Baby looks more impressive than Warner's), but some not so impressive (Ran is marred by giant edge enhancement halos).

High definition, every hour on the hour

To get an idea of the general sales performance of the two rival HD formats, I generally refer to The DVD Wars, which provides a comprehensive run-down of Amazon.com's DVD (which also encompasses HD DVD and Blu-ray, for some reason) sales rankings. The site is a valuable resource, but it has its shortcomings, among them an inability to display the sales rank of every available title. That's where HD Game Database's new HD DVD/Blu-ray Sales Rank page comes in.

According to them,

This page is a different representation of the same data. The primary reason for this page is due to curiousity raised by the top 10 listing on The DVD Wars...namely, what lies beyond each format's top 10?

The data below is sortable by several different fields. Both HD DVD and Blu-ray are listed in one ranking list. All movies in the database have been scrubbed of any invalid DVDs (WMV-HD, etc.). The data retrieved from Amazon.com contains ALL available next-generation titles (including pre-orders). The data displayed below contains only those movies with a sales rank.

A studio summary is listed at the bottom and is updated according to the list size (Top 10, Top 25, etc.) selected in the drop down list.

There are certainly some interesting numbers on display, especially with regard to the number of titles released by each studio: for example Warner, the studio that, along with Universal, continues to be the most enthusiastic supporter of either format, has 55 titles on HD DVD, but only 33 on Blu-ray. The statistics are not infallible, however: while Paramount seems to have 16 titles on Blu-ray but only 15 on HD DVD, in actual fact this is due to U2 - Rattle & Hum inexplicably not being listed as available on HD DVD, when in fact it is.

DVD image comparison: An American Werewolf in London

It's that time of the month again: I've done a brand new DVD Image Comparison, this time focusing on John Landis' horror classic An American Werewolf in London. Entering the ring tonight are the DVD side of the recently-released US HD DVD/DVD combo (which seems to be identical to the standalone R1 DVD), and the R2 UK Twenty-first Anniversary Special Edition (how's that for a mouthful?).

Who will be victorious? Click and all will be revealed.

Kerbang! Boom! Crash!

My copy of Operation Crossbow (R1 USA) arrived from DVD Pacific this morning. As I mentioned back in August, back in May 2006 Warner gave fans the chance to vote for which catalogue titles they would like to see released. The only title in the list that appealed to me was Operation Crossbow, a World War 2 spy/action movie that I'd loved ever since I happened to catch it on TV back in the early 1990s, so naturally it was the title I voted for. Apparently I'm not alone in my love of this film, for it was one of the five titles announced for a December 2006 released (another five will be released in January).

I've seen the film several times before, but never in its original 2.35:1 ratio. Uncropped, you really come to appreciate the scale of the piece, especially the cavernous underground set in which most of the film's second half takes place. Warner's transfer is also very nice: it's certainly not a Casablanca or Citizen Kane style of restoration, but that suits me absolutely fine, because it looks just as I would expect a film from 1965 to look, with grain, white flecks and the occasional visible splice. I was a little concerned, initially, by the fact that the only English track on the disc is a 5.1 affair, but it turns out that the 70mm prints of the film were accompanied by a 6-track recording, on which I presume the DVD's track was based.

But what of the film itself? How does it stack up after all these years? Very well, for the most part. It certainly runs hot and cold, thanks to a rather uneven pace and an inability to keep the focus on the spies/saboteurs once they enter the underground rocket lab (it keeps jumping back to London, where the goings-on are considerably less interesting). Sophia Loren, who gets top billing, is also wasted in a role that turns out to be not much more than a glorified cameo. Otherwise, though, this is a great mindless romp that keeps me engaged despite the two-hour running time. It's no Where Eagles Dare, that's for sure, but it is the sort of movie you can pull out every few years and still find as entertaining as it was the first time you saw it.

DVD review: My Summer of Love

Universal have not exactly rolled out the red carpet for My Summer of Love, which would be forgivable were it not for the fact that more materials than are on offer here clearly existed. As a UK film by a UK-based director, the lack of a commentary on this release when one exists for the US version is surprising and also rather unfair, while the absence of a 5.1 track makes this package feel like a rather second-rate effort.

Much to my chagrin, I recently discovered that, when I converted my entire site over to the new version 9 layout, I forgot to do anything about the various DVD reviews hosted on the site. I've now finished converting them, meaning that the site is now finally complete (for real this time), and I decided to throw in a special holiday bonus: a review that had been lying around, partially complete for several months: My Summer of Love (R2 UK). Check out the full review, but watch out, lads - it has lezzies in it! LOL!!!11~

2007: year of the pervert

Source: DVD Maniacs

Severin Films have unveiled the specifications, cover art and release date for their upcoming DVD of Lucio Fulci's long-lost giallo, One on Top of the Other... although they have elected, presumably for marketing reasons, to go for the seedier alternate title of Perversion Story.

Released on February 27 2007, this will be a 2-disc set, with the first disc (a DVD5) featuring nothing more than the trailer and a Fulci bio. The second, however, will be a "rare bonus CD featuring music by Riz Ortolani" - although it's unclear whether this will be the actual score to the film or simply a compilation of various pieces by Ortolani, akin to the Stelvio Cipriani compilation NoShame Films provided in their Luciano Ercoli Death Box Set earlier this year.

Oh, and the DVD will come with both English and Italian audio (and English subtitles) - a very nice move by NoShame that I wish some of their competitors (*cough* Anchor Bay *cough* Blue Underground) would also adopt.

Strap yourself in and feel the Gs!

My new video card, the EN7600GT/HTDI/256M model of the nVidia GeForce 7600GT family, finally arrived today, after having accidentally been sent the wrong version by the supplier. Ripping out my old card and putting the new one in didn't take too long, and I even ended up with a bit more room for ventilation in my case due to the fan on the new card not hogging an extra PCI slot (the Radeon X850XT had a very large but very efficient and quiet one). I half-expected everything to go wrong at the driver installation stage (I've read horror stories about ATI drivers remaining in the system and causing problems with nVidia devices, and vice versa), but everything went smoothly.

As I expected, switching video cards made little difference to my overall gaming performance either way. Both are, after all, from roughly the same generation and as such are generally considered to be pretty much two sides of the same coin. My 3DMark '03 score jumped from 12,582 to 12,836 (the actual numbers are meaningless - they're simply a way of comparing performance between different systems, but obviously higher=faster), while my 3DMark '05 score fell from 6,067 to 5,875. In the real world, the differences are negligible either way, and I certainly have yet to find myself remarking "Wow, that's a lot faster!" or "Christ, it wasn't always this slow!" while playing a game.

Anyway, all this was to be expected. There were two reasons for me buying this card: (1) HDCP compliancy, and (2) improved video playback. Since I bought my X850XT, numerous improvements have been made to the PC playback of DVDs (and now, of course, HD DVDs), with yet more of the decoding being shifted away from the CPU to the graphics card to improve performance, as well as greatly improved deinterlacing quality, and a variety of other neat features that you would expect as standard on a decent stand-alone DVD player, including bad edit correction and inverse telecine. The GeForce 7600GT features all of these, in addition to a couple of tools that, as you can probably imagine, I won't be touching with a ten-foot pole: edge enhancement and noise reduction.

First impressions are very positive. I threw Ren & Stimpy: The Lost Episodes in and watched it in PowerDVD 6 with inverse telecine enabled. Where once lines jumped all over the place the image is now smooth, just like you would expect from a standalone player. The deinterlacer still occasionally slips up, resulting in the odd jumping line, but, unless you have a DVD player equipped with an extremely high-end chipset, you're going to get that anyway. The point is, my DVD playback is now greatly improved for non-progressive content.

Some quibbles, though. The first problem is that the fan on the new card is rather noisy. If you're simply browsing the Internet or word processing or whatever, the card is smart enough to not run the fan, because it's not needed. However, as soon as an application calls for the card to be used (we're basically talking games and video here), it kicks in, and it sounds a little like a quiet vacuum cleaner. In the past, I've generally left the side off my case in order to improve ventilation, but I've put it back on for the first time in a over a year, in an attempt to dull some of the noise.

Problem number 2: for a princely sum of $20 to $50, depending on which version you buy, nVidia allows you to use PureVideo, which apparently further improves the efficiency and image quality of video playback. I downloaded a free 30-day trial, but as of yet have been unable to get it to work. My system simply behaves as if it isn't there, and, based on what I've read on various forums, I'm not alone in this regard. I'm going to continue to search for a solution to this dilemma, but I'm extremely glad I didn't pay any money for this software, because this is really not an acceptable situation.

Ah well, time to eBay the Radeon (or, if you want to take it off my hands for a fine price, let me know).

SD to HD image comparison

No, no, I haven't actually somehow magically managed to get HD DVDs to play in my computer. This is merely a demonstration to give you some idea of the difference in resolution between standard definition and high definition, using the 1080p QuickTime V for Vendetta trailer (available here) as a source. I'm afraid I couldn't capture the exact same frame, and the black levels are a little off (blame whoever encoded it, not me), but you should still be able to get some idea of the phenomenal leap in quality that is achieved. The DVD image was upscaled to 1920x1080, and a 508x721 portion was then selected to prevent the image from being monstrously huge on your average computer screen.

Mouse over to switch between versions:
Standard definition | High definition

Quite something, isn't it? It certainly lets you appreciate the added level of facial detail.

HD for High Disappointment

Two new HD DVDs winged their way to me from DVD Pacific this morning: An American Werewolf in London, from Universal, and Wolf Creek, from the Weinstein Company. Unfortunately, these are the most disappointing high definition discs I've received so far.

Let's start with An American Werewolf in London. Prior to receiving it, I was under no delusions as to how it would look. This is a low budget film from 1981, and one that, despite its cult following, is neither prestigious enough to be eligible for a Casablanca-style restoration, nor for the same standard of storage. So far, all of the HD DVD's I've bought have been of recent (i.e. less than 10 years old) films, many of them sourced from digital intermediates with the film negative itself being scanned almost as soon as it was shot. As such, there is a certain "look" that you can expect from them that you aren't going to get with something like American Werewolf. Still, I expect the technicians to do the best they can with the materials they are handed, and not to attempt any sort of invasive digital manipulation. Unfortunately, those responsible for the master used for this HD DVD clearly missed that particular memo from the HMS Whimsy, for they have attempted to compensate for the inherently somewhat soft look of the source materials by adding a tonne of edge enhancement. The aliasing on this particular title is the worst I've seen on any HD DVD, and would probably be considered pretty noticeable even on a standard definition release. All things considered, this gets a very low 6/10 from me.

Even the sound is a disaster - a 0/10 affair. American Werewolf was, unsurprisingly, mixed in mono, but, for the most recent theatrical re-release, Universal undertook a whiz-bang new DTS 5.1 remix, and in doing so not only fed the existing audio through multiple channels, but also threw in all manner of new sound effects not present originally. Unfortunately, on the DVD, and now the HD DVD, only this mangled 5.1 mix is provided. As far as I am concerned, this is not the film as it was originally released, and as such is a faulty product. Sorry to be harsh, but intrusive revisionism of this sort has absolutely no place on a disc whose cover art proclaims "The Look and Sound of Perfect™", unless of course the original version is also provided as an option.

Wolf Creek next, and I'm afraid things go from bad to worse. This film is actually not a "film" at all, since it was shot in 1080p high definition. As such, an HD DVD encoded at 1080p should theoretically provide a more or less perfect pixel to pixel replication of the original image that was recorded. Unfortunately, Wolf Creek has what Lyris refers to as "the Blu-ray look". The image is incredibly inconsistent. Some shots look absolutely brilliant, with razor-sharp details, while the fake grain added to many scenes to make the movie look a little more intense (and less like a home video) is accurately represented. Other scenes, though, show noticeable compression artefacts and give everything an odd "waxy" look, as fine details are smeared out, a little like the HD DVD of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Unlike most North American HD DVD studios, the Weinstein Company are using AVC/MPEG4 as their codec instead of VC1, and, while I personally was very pleased by the results that this produced for the Japanese HD DVD of The Machinist, I'm beginning to see why so many people are down on it if Wolf Creek is representative of how it generally looks. Another 6/10.

Oh, and the disc took absolutely ages - about three minutes - to boot. Apparently this problem affects all of the Weinstein Company's HD DVDs, for some reason.

Captain Whiggles' Christmas list

It's nearly that time of the year again and, in order to avoid any potential disappointments, I've decided to put together my Christmas list and get my orders in now, rather than waiting till the last moment. Therefore, on the birthday of everyone's favourite fictional deity (Mithras), I shall (hopefully) be receiving the following:

• Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4 (R1 USA). For the last few years now, it has been something of a custom for me to receive the latest instalment in this collection of remastered (and sometimes mangled) cartoon classics, and to spend a copious portion of the morning watching them with Lyris. The notion of a whole disc full of Speedy Gonzales cartoons on this set doesn't exactly seem like the most welcome prospect... although I don't imagine it being considerably worse than the Road Runner disc in the previous set.
   
• The Double Life of Véronique: The Criterion Collection (R1 USA). Although Krzysztof Kieslowski's brand of spiritualism doesn't really do much for a heathen such as myself, I must confess to being absolutely enthralled by his use of colour and imagery. His Three Colours: Blue is one of my favourite films ever for its cinematography and lyricism. I already own the French release of Véronique from MK2, but, for some reason, I never got round to watching it, and the news that the new Criterion release duplicates all of its extras, plus adds several of its own, in addition to a better transfer, makes this a must-have in my book. Expect to see the French release on eBay before too long. Oh, and check out John White's review of the Criterion set at DVD Times.
   
• The Quiller Memorandum and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: Ultimate Edition (both R1 USA). Two catalogue titles picked up in the same order from DVD Pacific for a very reasonable combined price. I haven't seen The Quiller Memorandum, but I do love me my Cold War-era spy thrillers, and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is one of the greatest American horror films ever made, so it makes sense to add what is apparently the definitive edition to my collection (having previously sold the non-anamorphic UK release).
   
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers: The Complete Recordings (on CD). Last Christmas, I bought the Complete Recordings package of The Fellowship of the Ring, a 4-disc set (3 CDs and one audio DVD) turned out to be a massive improvement on the heavily-truncated single-disc release, so it stands to reason that this instalment should also be a worthwhile acquisition. The Two Towers always struck me as having the weakest score of the three Lord of the Rings films, but I suspect that this is because, perhaps more than the other two films, it was severely short-changed by having some of its most impressive cues left out of the single-disc release.

I'm also currently pursuing replacing my current video card, Sapphire's ATI Radeon X850XT, with the similarly-performing nVidia GeForce 7600GT from ASUS, the EN7600GT/HTDI/256M model of which includes an HDMI output and HDCP compliancy, in addition to various high-end video processing features, such as inverse telecine, temporal de-interlacing, bad edit correction and hardware VC1 decoding. I'd originally planned on waiting to pick up a DirectX 10-enabled card from nVidia, but the price and power consumption of even the lower-end 8800GTS model were enough to persuade me to forego sheer brute strength and just settle for improved DVD (and eventually, I hope, HD DVD) playback. Besides, such a high power graphics card would probably be all but useless on my now-outdated Pentium 4 configuration.

Anyway, I bought a EN7600GT/HTDI/256M on eBay for a not unreasonable price, but, due to a mix-up, I was sent the non-HDMI, non-HDCP model instead. The correct model has been located, however, and I sent the other card back yesterday, so should hopefully be receiving the right one before too long. As an added bonus, the fact that I am buying what is technically a card from the previous generation of graphics technology means that I should hopefully be able to sell my current ATI card for not too much less than what I'm paying for this new one.