HD DVD

Import proof

Apparently, German distributor Senator Home Entertainment, currently an HD DVD distributor, will be following in Warner’s footsteps and dropping support for the format to concentrate exclusively on Blu-ray.

Among the various titles the format owned the rights to and planned to release on HD DVD were the two halves of Grindhouse, Planet Terror and Death Proof, the latter of which was even listed on Amazon.de and which I had pre-ordered. With it now unlikely to see the light of day, I’ve cancelled my order.

The sad part of this is that, so far, Senator’s Blu-ray releases have apparently been region coded, which means that, unless I supplement my Region A Playstation 3 with a Region B model, I probably won’t be able to play any eventual Blu-ray releases of these two films. Aren’t you just loving this new Blu future?

HD banditry

Although they have been floating cover art, vague specs and a “coming soon” release window for some time now, Universal have, until today, not unveiled many specifics about their upcoming HD DVD release of Ridley Scott’s latest film, American Gangster.

Today, however, they issued an official announcement, confirming its release date as February 19th, along with its full specs. This will be an HD DVD/DVD combo release, and, oddly enough, while the HD DVD side contains only the theatrical cut, the DVD side, via seamless branching, also throws in what is being described as an “Unrated Extended Cut”, clocking in at 19 minutes longer than its theatrical counterpart.

My first reaction upon reading this announcement was “No!!! You morons! What are you thinking releasing it like this?” The more that I think about it, though, the less this annoys me. Does anyone remember the last Ridley Scott film to be released as an “Unrated Extended Cut” (as opposed to a “Director’s Cut”)? It was Gladiator, and it opened with a visibly pissed off Scott, scarcely able to hide his contempt, telling us that the version we were about to release was categorically not his director’s cut. The fact that he and writer Steven Zaillian have provided an audio commentary for the theatrical version rather rather than the extended cut suggests to me that this is their preferred version. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to discover that the extended version was just another Gladiator, with a few scenes that were rightly left on the cutting room floor spliced back in.

Bottom line, it would have been nice to have had both versions in HD, but I’m not losing sleep over this. Unlike some people, I’m not about to cancel my pre-order.

I am, however, disappointed to note that many of the extras from the DVD have been left off this release… although it may turn out that much of the missing material may be replicated in the picture-in-picture feature on the HD DVD.

Now this is more like it

Last night, Lyris and I watched his recently-acquired HD DVD of the Director’s Cut of Zodiac. Like Crank (see here), it was shot entirely in the digital realm, but unlike Crank, it didn’t have a bunch of chimpanzees fiddling with the image control knobs. Zodiac continues Paramount’s winning streak for new releases, with a virtually flawless transfer that makes the standard definition release appear even more embarrassing than it did already. If you look very closely, you can see a teeny tiny bit of sharpening, which I suspect was added during post production (the on-screen text, such as credits and location type, are unaffected), but otherwise this is one of the absolute best presentations of a movie I’ve ever seen (at least in a technical sense - I’m personally not a fan at all of the completely grain-free look).

Zodiac: Director’s Cut
(Paramount, USA, AVC, 24 GB)

Universal still loves you

Source: High-Def Digest

After almost a week of ominous silence, Universal has finally made a public statement regarding its HD DVD support. As some of you will know, the studio’s exclusivity deal with the format expired recently and has, as yet, not been renewed, prompting rumours ranging from it going format neutral to going Blu-ray exclusive and abandoning HD DVD completely à la Warner. While I don’t think anyone in their right mind would doubt that we’ll be seeing Universal titles on Blu-ray be the end of the year (if not the end of the month), those who are currently HD DVD-only will probably be quite relieved to hear that

“Contrary to unsubstantiated rumors from unnamed sources, Universal’s current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format,” said Ken Graffeo, executive vice president of HD strategic marketing for Universal Studios Home Entertainment and co-president of the HD DVD Promotional Group.

In addition,

A Universal spokesperson told us this afternoon that the studio plans to issue new upcoming HD DVD title announcements in the near future.

We shall see…

There’s life in this old Bolshevik yet

Well, the news of Warner’s switch to Blu-ray’s exclusivity and expected demise of HD DVD may have stolen the headlines, but the format certainly isn’t going to vanish overnight. Before Universal and Paramount move over to Blu-ray as well, hammering the final nail into HD DVD’s coffin, I will continue to buy new releases that are exclusive to the format.

One of these is Eastern Promises, which arrived this morning. I wasn’t too taken by David Cronenberg’s previous two films, Spider and A History of Violence, but this one, while very much a companion piece to them, for some reason appealed to me much more. Maybe it’s the excellent cast, including Naomi Watts, Viggo Mortensen, Sinéad Cusack and Vincent Cassel, but the other two films had stellar talent in front of the camera as well (including Mortensen, in the case of A History of Violence). Maybe it’s the fact that the London location resonates with me more than Violence’s small-town America - but then again, Spider was also set in London. It’s not even the subject matter, since gangster movies generally irritate me. (Not that this is a typical gangster movie in any sense: for one thing, the gangsters in this film don’t say “fuck” in every sentence and call each other “faggots” every five minutes. For another, it’s not shot in near-black and white, headache-inducing shakeycam.) I don’t know why, but this one really clicked for me, and I’m sorry I didn’t get to see it before the end of 2007, because, if I had, it would have garnered a pretty high position in my annual Top 10.

Oh, and the HD DVD transfer is also solid, proving once again that Universal’s standard for DI-sourced material is among the best (the less said about their track record for catalogue releases, though, the better). It looks to have been slightly degrained, and it isn’t as razor sharp as something like Resident Evil: Extinction or The Bourne Ultimatum, but it is a pleasant, rich, detailed image with no visible compression problems. And Naomi Watts doesn’t look half bad occupying 130” of my wall.

Eastern Promises
(Universal, USA, VC-1. 15.7 GB)

New Line in the deep Blu sea

In a move that is sure to have surprised precisely no people, New Line Cinema have announced their plans to follow parent company Warner and support Blu-ray exclusively. Charitably described as a “transition” by High-Def Digest, this move is more of the “jump cut” variety, as the move is effective immediately, making the studio’s first HD DVD release, Pan’s Labyrinth, also its last. New Line’s stance towards HD DVD was always more lukewarm than Warner’s, with its non-catalogue releases Hairspray and Rush Hour 3 delayed on HD DVD due to cited concerns over the format’s lack of region coding. Therefore, despite announcing that these titles would be arriving on the red format at a later date, this will no longer be the case. Good things, it would seem, don’t always come to those who wait. Or bad things, in the case of Rush Hour 3.

In other news, Paramount and Universal are remaining tight-lipped about the situation, with the usually garrulous Universal declining to comment, while Paramount, despite reaffirming its support for HD DVD, has decided to make no new release announcements at the present time, stating that the titles they had planned to unveil at CES are now “up in the air”.

The Warner shopping list

With Warner’s HD DVD support on the way out, it no doubt stands to reason that the titles they have already released on at format will now only be on store shelves for a limited time. With that in mind, I thought it would be useful to put together this little post together, cataloguing Warner titles that are either not (yet) available on Blu-ray, or are available on Blu-ray in inferior versions, therefore giving people the opportunity to pick up any titles they want before it’s too late.

Please note that this list is not complete by any means, so if you spot any missing titles, or title that are there but shouldn’t be, then please leave me a comment and I’ll make the necessary changes.

Titles which feature superior audio on HD DVD:

- The Ant Bully (TrueHD)
- Happy Feet (TrueHD)
- Lady in the Water (TrueHD)
- Nip/Tuck: The Complete Fourth Season (1.5 Mbps on HD DVD, 640 Kbps on BD)
- The Phantom of the Opera (TrueHD)
- Superman Returns (TrueHD)
- Training Day (TrueHD)
- The Wicker Man [remake] (TrueHD)

Titles which feature VC-1 encodes on HD DVD but MPEG-2 on BD:

- The Fugitive
- Good Night, and Good Luck
- Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
- Rumor Has It
- Space Cowboys
- Training Day

Titles which are limited to 1080i output on BD:

- Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (replacement programme expected)

Titles which feature more extras on HD DVD:

- 300
- Blood Diamond
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Pan’s Labyrinth (New Line)
- Troy: Director’s Cut

Titles which are currently only available on HD DVD:

- The Adventures of Robin Hood
- Batman Begins
- Caddyshack
- Casablanca
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- Constantine
- The Dukes of Hazzard
- Excalibur
- Forbidden Planet
- Grand Prix
- The Matrix Trilogy
- Mutiny on the Bounty
- The Perfect Storm
- Poseidon
- Troy (theatrical cut)
- V for Vendetta
- Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

It stands to reason that, with PiP now working on Profile 1.1 Blu-ray players, Warner will begin to release titles originally delayed on Blu-ray because the functionality wasn’t there, including Batman Begins and The Matrix Trilogy. Older catalogue titles such as Casablanca and Mutiny on the Bounty reportedly sold poorly on HD DVD, and have no technological reason not to have been released on Blu-ray, so it may be that Warner will simply write them off as expensive mistakes until high definition media has a larger market hold.

Update, January 7th, 2007 02:25 PM: Added Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, which on BD is limited to 1080i output rather than full 1080p (thanks to Jayson for pointing this one out).

Update, January 7th, 2007 08:01 PM: Added Training Day to the audio section and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory to the “not available on BD” section. Thanks again, Jayson.

Update, January 10th, 2007 06:51 PM: Removed Million Dollar Baby from the “Titles which feature VC-1 encodes on HD DVD but MPEG-2 on BD” section, as it is in fact a VC-1 encode on both formats (thanks, Anthony).

Update, January 11th, 2007 08:59 AM: Added various titles to the audio section (thanks, Anthony).

The fat lady sings

It’s all over:

Warner to go Blu-ray exclusive from June 2008

In response to consumer demand, Warner Bros. Entertainment will release its high-definition DVD titles exclusively in the Blu-ray disc format beginning later this year, it was announced today by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. and Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.

“Warner Bros.’ move to exclusively release in the Blu-ray disc format is a strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want,” said Meyer. “The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger. We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers, and most importantly, consumers.”

Warner Home Video will continue to release its titles in standard DVD format and Blu-ray. After a short window following their standard DVD and Blu-ray releases, all new titles will continue to be released in HD DVD until the end of May 2008.

At this stage, unless HD DVD somehow manages to pull something miraculous out of the bag, the writing is on the wall for the format. On the plus side, it’s a positive thing, I suppose, that someone has taken a stance and decided to help steer the “war” towards an end. The only major regrets I have are that we’ll now have to endure months of squealing from fanboys on both sides of the fence, and that we’ll have to look forward to a future in which the dominating format is the one that supports region coding and more stringent DRM than the competition.

Personally, I’ll continue to enjoy my Universal and Paramount (and Studio Canal, Concorde, etc.) HD DVDs, as well as all the Warner HD DVDs I’ve bought so far. I suppose this means I’ll now move to buying Blu-ray versions of future Warner titles, but my existing collection ain’t going anywhere, and I think that’s what all the HD DVD customers who are feeling burned right now have to remember.

The funny this is that although, as a format neutral customer, this decision doesn’t really affect me one way or the other, it’s hard not to feel a little disappointed. The whole affair leaves a sour taste in my mouth, particularly given that, as little as a month ago, Warner was still giving customers assurances that it wasn’t changing its format neutral stance. This is quite an about-face, and I feel really sorry anyone who got an HD DVD player for Christmas.

Ultimate quality

Tomorrow, I will be sending my review disc of The Bourne Ultimatum back for a replacement. The reason? It’s the first high definition disc I’ve received, on either format, that suffers from severe playback issues. By “severe”, I mean “half the time, the disc won’t even start”. HD DVD/DVD combo discs like this do, apparently, have a higher fail rate than single-sided discs, so I’m pretty surprised that it’s taken till now for me to end up with one. Before packaging up the disc, however, I did manage to take some screen captures - mostly from the first half of the film, as I got a whole bunch of read errors during the second. Enjoy.

The Bourne Ultimatum
(Universal, USA, VC-1)

Feature: Top 10 HD Transfers of 2007

In years gone by, I’ve done articles, either for DVD Times or for this site, to celebrate the best (and sometimes worst) DVD releases of the year. For reasons too complex to get into (translation: I can’t remember them), I didn’t do one last year, but I decided that I couldn’t repeat this oversight again. So, with that in mind, I’ve taken a break from complaining about edge enhancement, filtering and dodgy standards conversions to say nothing but nice things. Be amazed at my coverage of the Top 10 HD Transfers of 2007.

A $75 million turkey

My first two optical discs of 2008 arrived this morning, and I’m sorry to say that neither one turned out to be particularly impressive, albeit for different reasons. The first, The Simpsons Movie on Blu-ray, I’ll discuss in a minute, but for the moment, I want to take a moment to discuss Cat People on HD DVD (the Paul Schrader remake, not the Val Lewton original), which features, hands down, the worst high definition transfer I’ve ever paid money to see. Okay, so Traffic and Spartacus (both also from Universal, as it happens) both look worse, but I didn’t pay to see these.

From start to finish Cat People has been attacked, and I mean attacked, with the edge enhancement and noise reduction filters, to the extent that every high contrast edge is surrounded by a large white outline, and every time the camera moves the screen turns to mush, while every texture, from skin to fabric to hair, looks like wax. Even more infuriatingly, the clips that play behind the main menu look nothing like this. They are alive with unmolested film grain and, beyond the still-visible edge enhancement, generally look pretty tolerable. Now don’t get me wrong: I suspect that the master used was less than stellar to start with, as is true of many catalogue titles from Universal and other studios. However, I also suspect that, had the image simply been left alone, it would have looked no worse than the likes of Enternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Lost in Translation, which fall way below my standards of acceptability but are at least watchable. Cat People is just… ugh.

Now, on to the main point of this post (no, I’m not done ranting): The Simpsons Movie. I’ll probably be doing a full review for this at some point, so I’ll withhold my comments about the transfer until then, save to say that the ringing that some people have pointed out is indeed present from beginning to end, and you’ll no doubt be able to see the evidence on my brother’s site when he does his own post on the subject very soon. (Incidentally, it really sticks in my craw when people don’t themselves see problems that have been identified with transfers, and illustrated through solid evidence, and have the audacity to claim that those who do see them either have faulty equipment or have somehow got “a bad copy” of the disc in question. If you have even the slightest comprehension of how digital replication works, then you’ll know how ridiculous the latter is.)

No, my blithering will primarily be restricted to the film itself and what a tragic waste of time it is.

I like The Simpsons, I really do. The first five seasons are almost consistently hilarious, and, for all their bland animation and shoddy timing, they are pretty hard to fault. However, I think it’s fair to say that the show has not been at its prime for some time now, and the only thing worse than a has-been show is one that is unceremoniously hauled on to the big screen, where the flaws become even more readily apparent.

I saw The Simpsons Movie late last summer and was thoroughly underwhelmed by it. Foolishly, I thought that a second viewing might improve my appreciation of it, so I decided to pick up a copy of the Blu-ray release. Besides, we’re somewhat starved for high definition traditional animation, so, as the saying goes, beggars can’t be choosers. Unfortunately, I now find myself wishing I hadn’t bothered. The simple reason for this is that, second time round, I already knew the story, so there was nothing, and I mean nothing, left to engage me. Had this, the result of the toiling of fifteen writers, god knows how many animators and a gaggle of overpaid actors who sound like they’ve never taken voice direction in their lives (that’s $75 million to you and me), been broadcast as part of the regular series, it would have been the worst episode of The Simpsons I’ve ever seen (bearing in mind that I stopped watching regularly at around Season 11). As it stands, it’s three times longer than the worst episode of The Simpsons I’ve ever seen, which means that it’s actually three times worse than the worst episode of The Simpsons I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen the one where Homer gets raped by a panda.

I don’t often say “Can I have an hour and a half of my life back?” after watching a film, no matter how bad, but I’m going to say it this time. I honestly can’t understand how anyone could have a positive word to say about it. The sad part is that it isn’t even awful. It’s just empty, bland, insincere and ultimately pointless. It’s not even funny - I laughed at it perhaps three times: once at Bart’s “doodle”, once at the gag where Bart defaces the Wanted picture of his family (itself a retread of a gag used at least twice before in the show), and then at the one genuinely funny line in the entire film: “You just bought another load of crap from the world’s fattest fertiliser salesman!” Which, oddly enough, is exactly how I felt when I remembered I’d given 20th Century Fox my money for this film.

So can I have an hour and a half of my life back, please?

Update, January 3rd, 2008 09:52 PM: Lyris’ post, with pictures, can now be found here.

Unleashed unleashed

Courtesy of the goons at Blu-ray.com comes the news that the HD DVD exclusive (in the US) Unleashed is being released on Blu-ray in Japan on February 22nd, under its original title of Danny the Dog. I already have the US HD DVD, but the fact that it is being released under the title that seems to be reserved for the slightly longer, more character-oriented French cut of the film, has sparked my interest in this version. I’ve no idea which cut of the film was released in Japan, but the title, along with the fact that both China and Hong Kong got the French cut, means that, by my estimation, chances are pretty high that this Blu-ray release will be the same.

Given the extortionate prices of Japanese optical disc media, I’m going to wait till I know for sure which version will appear on this disc, but it would be nice to replace (or supplement) the in my opinion inferior American version. Additionally, given that the HD DVD transfer was somewhat filtered, it would please me greatly if this version looked better.

It’s sweepstakes time!

Top 10 films of 2007:

1. Black Book (Netherlands/Germany/Belgium: Paul Verhoeven)
2. Zodiac (USA: David Fincher)
3. The Lives of Others (Germany, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)
4. Planet Terror (USA: Robert Rodriguez)
5. Sicko (USA: Michael Moore)
6. Hot Fuzz (UK/France: Edgar Wright)
7. Ratatouille (USA: Brad Bird)
8. Death Proof (USA: Quentin Tarantino)
9. Black Snake Moan (USA: Craig Brewer)
10. Mother of Tears (Italy/USA: Dario Argento)

(Also posted at DVD Times)
 

Top 10 optical disc releases of 2007:

Black Book (Blu-ray, Sony Pictures, USA)
Blade Runner: 5-disc Complete Collector’s Edition (HD DVD, Warner, USA)
Cars (Blu-ray, Disney, USA)
Casino Royale (Blu-ray, Sony Pictures, Finland)
Children of Men (HD DVD, Universal, USA)
Hot Fuzz (HD DVD, Universal, UK)
Mulholland Drive (HD DVD, Studio Canal, France)
Ratatouille (Blu-ray, Disney, USA)
Silent Hill (HD DVD, Concorde, Germany)
Les Triplettes de Belleville (HD DVD, France Télévisions Éditions, France)

(Also posted at DVD Times)

 
Notes: These lists are based solely on what I myself have seen of the films and discs released in 2007. I make no claims as to them being all-inclusive. Some of the films listed were still playing in UK cinemas in 2007 despite being released in 2006. The top optical disc releases were chosen from a combination of the quality of the films themselves, the audio/visual presentation and the extras.

The Year in Review, 2007

Well, another year has been and gone. We’re all a year older, but probably not much wiser. As usual, I’m going to do a brief run-down of various events and issues that I’ve touched on in my news posts over the year. It’s generally not my style to comment on current affairs, so I won’t be saying anything about the murder of Benazir Bhutto, Tony Blair’s departure from office or anything like that. This year, I’ve decided to split things into several sections.

 
Life Itself

Life™ was somewhat different for me this year. The biggest change was, fairly obviously, that, at the end of March, I landed myself a full-time job, working for the NHS on their Smoking Cessation programme. I spent four and a half months working thirty-seven and a half hours a week in an office, entering data and phoning people to ask them whether they had managed to successfully stop smoking, and, while I’m not about to claim that this was the most unpleasant way anyone could ever spend four and a half months, I won’t deny that I was extremely relieved to see the back of the place in August, at which point I went into a part-time Library Assistant position at the Gallery of Modern Art. To say that I find this job vastly preferable to my previous one would be the understatement of the year, and that’s not just because I work fewer hours.

On a not entirely unrelated note, my application for funding for my PhD was unsuccessful, but my four and a half months of back-breaking (I kid) labour with the NHS was enough to pay for my first year of part-time study, and more besides. I started the PhD, on portrayals of gender in the giallo (following on from my MLitt dissertation on the same area), at the end of September and, while illness in November prevented me from making as much headway as I would have liked, the work that I’ve done so far has certainly gone a long way towards getting me back into the swing of things, academically speaking, and I look forward to properly delving into my subject of choice over the next twelve months.

 
Zeros and Ones

The big technological issue of 2007 was the ongoing battle between the two rival high definition home video formats, HD DVD and Blu-ray, and the perpetual game of teeter-totter in which each format continued to vie for supremacy, engaging in a conflict of words as much as sales. A war in which what your opposition doesn’t have is every bit as important as what you do have, the biggest surprise was undoubtedly Paramount’s shock decision, in August, to ditch Blu-ray entirely and concentrate on HD DVD. With no end to the format war in sight any time soon, 2008 looks set to be another interesting year.

For me, my most significant purchase was that of a Japanese Playstation 3, reneging on my single format stance and embracing neutrality. Personally speaking, the balance continues to lie firmly in favour of HD DVD in terms of exclusive titles (a fact only compounded by the aforementioned Paramount decision), but I can’t deny that it’s nice to be able to own and watch high definition copies of Casino Royale, The Descent and Ratatouille.

I also bought three additional pieces of hardware: a new desktop PC in May, an Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on drive in July (to replace my clunky and oversized stand-alone HD-A1 player), and a Blu-ray enabled laptop in October. In the case of the latter, my original intention was to use it primarily for PhD work, although, in reality, I’ve got just as much, if not more, use out of it as a convenient means of taking screen captures from Blu-ray discs.

 
At the Pictures

Perhaps largely due to my period of full-time employment, I watched somewhat fewer films this year than in the previous two years. By my calculation, I watched a total of 164 films, 77 of which were ones that I hadn’t seen before, down from 216 (99 new) in 2006. Still, I did manage to see several significant films, including the great - 2001: A Space Odyssey, Babel, Black Book, Black Sabbath, the Final Cut of Blade Runner, Blood Diamond, Children of Men, Full Metal Jacket, Grindhouse, Hot Fuzz, Inside Man, Life of Brian, The Lives of Others, Pan’s Labyrinth, Ratatouille, Sicko, This Film is Not Yet Rated, Zodiac - the reasonably good - 1408, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Brokeback Mountain, Brotherhood of the Wolf, The Bourne Ultimatum, Chicago, Crank, The Game, Hard Candy, Idiocracy, Mission Impossible, Mission Impossible III, Mother of Tears, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Red Road, Syriana, Tideland, Transformers - and the guff - Aeon Flux, Fantastic Four, The Fountain, Futurama: Bender’s Big Score!, Hostel, House of the Dead, The Matrix Revolutions, Mission Impossible II, Norbit, Paprika, A Scanner Darkly, The Simpsons Movie and the remakes of Poseidon and The Wicker Man.

Best new film I saw in the year? Either Black Book or Children of Men. Worst? Without a shadow of a doubt, Norbit.

I bought or otherwise received 118 films on disc, 42 of which were HD DVDs, 31 Blu-ray discs and 45 standard definition DVDs. I wrote 44 reviews for DVD Times, down from last year’s 66. Of these, 16 were for HD DVDs, 12 for Blu-ray discs and 16 for standard definition DVDs.

 
Bibliothèque

I read the following books: Legion by William Peter Blatty, The Naked Drinking Club by Rhona Cameron, Casino Royale by Ian Fleming, The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File by Frederick Forsythe, Carrie by Stephen King, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, The Red Dahlia by Lynda La Plante, Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin, Almost Blue by Carlo Lucarelli, The Dead Hour by Denise Mina, The Mephisto Waltz by Fred Mustard Stewart, Odette by Jerrard Tickell, Mercy Alexander by George Tiffin, and The Devil Rides Out, Gateway to Hell, Strange Conflict and To the Devil - a Daughter by Dennis Wheatley. Which, now that I think about it, is a heck of a lot more than I’d expected.

 
Song and Dance

I snagged the following CDs: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (Ennio Morricone), Blood Diamond (James Newton Howard), Cars (Randy Newman), The Descent (David Julyan), Grindhouse: Planet Terror (Robert Rodriguez/John Debney/Graeme Revell), The Iron Giant (Michael Kamen), Kingdom of Heaven (Harry Gregson-Williams), Mother of Tears (Claudio Simonetti), The Professional (Eric Serra), The Secret of NIMH (Jerry Goldsmith), Serenity (David Newman), This is the Life (Amy MacDonald), V for Vendetta (Dario Marianelli), Veronica Guerin (Harry Gregson-Williams), Why Bother? (Peter Cook and Chris Morris).

 
Well, all in all, I think that’s it for another year. Look back on it, it reads a bit like a shopping list with the occasional personal titbit, but I suppose that’s the way of things in our evil capitalist society. Anyway, here’s to a great 2008 and yet more wanton spending.

DVDs I bought or received in the month of December

• 28 Weeks Later (R2 UK, DVD)
• Blade Runner: 5-disc Complete Collector’s Edition (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• The Bourne Ultimatum (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• Four Flies on Grey Velvet (R0 Germany, DVD)
• Halloween: Unrated Director’s Cut (R1 USA, DVD)
• Inside Man (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• Jackass Number 2 (R2 UK, DVD)
• Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5 (R1 USA, DVD)
• Masters of Horror: Season 1, Volume 3 (RA USA, Blu-ray)
• Masters of Horror: Season 1, Volume 4 (RA USA, Blu-ray)
• The Psychic (R1 USA, DVD)
• Running Scared (R0 Germany, HD DVD)
• Sicko (R1 USA, DVD)
• Tekkonkinkreet (R2 UK, DVD)
• Tideland (R0 Germany, HD DVD)
• Veronica Guerin (R2 UK, DVD)
• Wolf Creek (R0 UK, HD DVD)

A pretty shockingly large line-up to send off 2007. I guess I should count myself lucky that several of these were either free or Christmas presents.

Post turkey syndrome

Well, Christmas has come and gone once again. The dust has settled, the unruly guests have left the house and things are beginning to get back to normal. I previously posted about the games, HD DVDs and DVDs I had ordered for Christmas, so I’ll simply link you to that rather than repeat myself. To my surprise, I also ended up with a new comfy chair and a pair of headphones from my parents. Oh, and a Terry’s Chocolate Orange.

Of the movies I received, the only one I’ve had a chance to watch yet is Tideland, and I’m still trying to work out how I felt about it. Like virtually every movie released these days (and I know I’m beginning to sound like a broken record here), it’s at least half an hour too long. In many ways it feels like a less impressive version of Pan’s Labyrinth, infused with the touch of Terry Gilliam rather than Guillermo Del Toro. Rather predictably, it starts out better than it ends, as I felt was also the case with Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but it’s nowhere near the stinker that the critics suggest. Transfer-wise, Concorde’s HD DVD is relatively good, but suffers from noticeable filtering and edge enhancement. In fact, it looks decidedly similar to second-tier Warner titles like The Matrix Trilogy and V for Vendetta. Most reviewers will probably rate it highly.

Oh, and continuing in the Gilliam vein, Lyris got the Blu-ray release of Life of Brian. We watched it on Christmas Day itself, which seemed strangely appropriate, but were less than enthused by its transfer. You can read his thoughts at the NTSC-UK forum, and I’m sure he’ll do a more in-depth post on his site at a later date.

I’ve also been dabbling with the two games I got, The Witcher and Unreal Tournament III. The former looks like it could be a very strong game, but I haven’t been able to devote sufficient time to it yet in order to really get into it, while I must confess that I’m having a lot more fun with Unreal Tournament III’s level editor and the hours of video-based tutorials that come with the Collector’s Edition than I am with the game. Don’t get me wrong, it seems to be a solid enough package, and I’m happy to report that not every level is as colour-free as the ones included in the demo (although there has been a definite tendency to dull things down across the board in comparison with its predecessors), but the whole thing is too mode-based for my liking. I’ve never really enjoyed the more mission-based modes like Capture The Flag and Warfare in FPS games, so the fact that there are far fewer Deathmatch maps this time around, and the single player campaign seems to consist almost exclusively of non-Deathmatch missions, means that I don’t think I’ll be retiring Unreal Tournament 2004 from my hard drive any time soon.

Bourne again

My review copy of the HD DVD release of The Bourne Ultimatum arrived yesterday. My brother had actually bought the UK version about a week earlier, so we’d already watched the film, but will be doing so before I write my final review, for two reasons. First of all, I haven’t seen this film on the projector yet, and the experience is always better when the image fills your entire field of vision. Secondly, it features a different encode: the transfer for the UK version comes without any burned-in location type or subtitles (for non-English dialogue) to facilitate international distribution. These are then generated by the player in your language of choice. As a result, the two discs feature different encodes, so it could be that the US release has flaws not apparent in the UK one (the UK transfer scored a perfect 10/10, as it happens). Either way, I vastly prefer the “burned-in” location type and subtitles: it’s more authentic, and the UK version ends up looking rather stupid due to a few minor timing errors and the fact that the “typing in” sound effect accompanying the location type is still present, despite the text itself merely flashing on to the middle of the screen, subtitle-style. It’s a shoddy practice that happens all too often with European DVD (and now, it would seem HD) releases, and it just cheapens the whole package. There will be a review soon, hopefully before Christmas.

We watched the first film in the trilogy, The Bourne Identity, tonight, and I was once again reminded of the fact that it is, in my opinion, by far the best instalment in the series. Much of this comes from Franka Potente’s character, who gives the audience a point of identification that it just doesn’t have in the stone-faced Matt Damon, but a lot of it also has to do with the photography and editing. I’m not a fan of Paul Greengrass’ trademark “shakycam” and rapid cutting, which is all over The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, and, watching Identity, I found myself wishing that Doug Liman’s comparatively restrained touch had been extended to the entire trilogy.

Tinkering till perfection

Yesterday, my order of the HD DVD release of Blade Runner (5-disc Complete Collector’s Edition - whew!) arrived from DVD Pacific. Considering the plethora of material contained in this release, including five different cuts of the film and a wealth of bonus features, the asking price of £15.90 seemed like a steal.

Anyway, last night, we watched the Final Cut on the wall. I was very impressed by the presentation - I think this is one of the few film-sourced (as opposed to digital intermediate) high definition transfers I’ve seen without edge enhancement. A handful of shots do appear to have been over-sharpened, but by and large the image looks very film-like and untreated. There are some astoundingly detailed shots, and the colours are eye-popping. Okay, so it’s not as consistently amazing as something like Casino Royale or Ratatouille, but, given the film’s age and the number of effects shots done the old fashioned way, it seems churlish to complain about what are more than likely faults inherent in the source material.

Some direct screen captures are provided below.

Blade Runner: Final Cut
(Warner, USA, VC-1)

I’ve also thrown in a few comparative shots to demonstrate the visual differences between the various different cuts included in this release. The Final Cut and Workprint both come on their own discs, while the three “Archival Versions”, on a single disc, are essentially a stand-alone version of the film with the differences between the US, international and 1992’s Director’s Cut editions achieved through seamless branching (which the Blu-ray camp at one point claimed wasn’t possible on HD DVD). As you can probably tell, some colour work has been done on the Final Cut, subtly changing the overall look. Oddly enough, though, in some cases, there appears to have been a reduction in detail at the same time (look at Example 2, and see how much crisper the Archival version looks than the Final Cut). Of course, the Workprint is not in the best of shape and, oddly enough, has been cropped to a ratio of 2.20:1, but it does appear that Ridley Scott and his production team went out of their way to find the best possible elements for this presentation. I look forward to further investigating the differences at a later date.

Example 1
(Left: Final Cut; Right: Archival Version; shot not contained in Workprint)

Example 2
(Left: Final Cut; Middle: Archival Version; Right: Workprint)

Example 3
(Left: Final Cut; Middle: Archival Version; Right: Workprint)

O Weinstein, where art thou?

When DVDs of Planet Terror and Death Proof, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s respect entries in the Grindhouse double feature, were released in the US this year, I made a point of not buying them, as I assumed that the Weinstein Company would release both on HD DVD before too long. Unfortunately, with no new Weinstein HD releases since June, one can only assume that, unhappy with the low sales, they got cold feet and decided not to release anything further on the format.

Worry not, however, for German distributor Senator are picking up the slack with separate HD DVD releases of both films in the New Year. Death Proof will be out first on January 7th, with Planet Terror to follow on March 10th. Both films will feature 1080p VC-1 encodes (Death Proof will be in its original theatrical ratio of 2.39:1, while Planet Terror will, like the DVD, be reframed to 1.85:1, as per Rodriguez’s intentions) and English and German audio tracks (DTS-HD 5.1 and Dolby Digital-Plus 5.1 for both), with optional German subtitles. No word yet on the extras for Planet Terror, but Death Proof appears to include everything from the DVD, so I don’t see why its stablemate will be any different. In addition, both will come in a nifty “steelbook” case, presumably similar to Europacorp’s Ultimate Edition DVD of Danny the Dog, Dark Sky’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and that horrible “Definitive Edition” of Suspiria.

All I want for Christmas is you

Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but it will soon be Christmas - a mere eight days to go. While virtually everyone I know is running around in a flap, braving the cold winds of Glasgow in December, not to mention the bustling crowds of like-minded last minute shoppers, I find myself sitting back with a look of rather smug self-satisfaction on my face. I, you see, have discovered the wonders of Internet shopping, and the savings in time, money and worry that come with it. With more or less everyone else’s gifts accounted for, I decided it was time to give some thought to myself and what I would like to receive for Mithras’ birthday.

First up, a couple of games: the Collector’s Edition of Unreal Tournament III and The Witcher. Unreal Tournament III you already know about, from my previous complaint about the desaturated visuals in its pre-release demo. It’s undeniably a fun game, though, and the saturation control can, to some extent, be used to compensate for the predominance of grey and brown. The Collector’s Edition, in any event, looks somewhat interesting, given that it comes with an art book and a DVD exploring the history of the franchise and the making of this instalment, not to mention ten hours’ worth of tutorials for the Unreal Editor.

The Witcher, meanwhile, is not a game that I’ve had an opportunity to experience for myself, but it sounds like an interesting attempt to do a complex, non-linear single player RPG that eschews traditional notions of good vs. evil and allows the player’s choices to impact the story and world in a very noticeable sense. Ironically, the game’s qualities seem to have been overshadowed by the controversy surrounding the publisher’s decision to censor female nudity from its American release (the European versions are intact), calling into question all sorts of debates regarding the games industry’s bizarre relationship within the human body (you can dismember it as much as you like, but God help you if you happen to spot a nipple).

I also picked up a couple of German HD DVD releases from Amazon.de: Wayne Kramer’s Running Scared and Terry Gilliam’s Tideland. The former is a film I know next to nothing about, but the transfer appears to be extremely good, and I do like to take the odd risk now and then with my movie watching (Inside Man certainly paid dividends, and I liked Kramer’s previous film, The Cooler). Tideland, meanwhile, I’ve wanted to see for a while, even if the word of mouth has been largely negative so far. Interestingly, it is also, as far as I can tell, the only release of the film to present it in its original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1: most DVD releases are open matte at 1.78:1, while the UK release is in a ratio of 2.25:1, which is supposedly Gilliam’s preferred ratio. (It may turn out that the HD DVD is also 2.25:1, despite what the packaging claims, but I figure that either is preferable to having an open matte 1.78:1 presentation, so I won’t be too fussed either way.)

Oh, and, surprising as it might seem, I haven’t yet completely given up on the world of standard definition. I ordered the Region 1 US releases of Michael Moore’s Sicko and, carrying on a tradition that was started back at Christmas 2003, the latest release in the Looney Tunes Golden Collection series, Volume 5. I actually have no idea which cartoons are included in this line-up - I like to be pleasantly surprised, although I’m not holding out too much hope for Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs making an appearance any time soon.