HD DVD

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.

Asterix and the HD Vikings

A while back, I reported that the most recent Asterix film, Asterix and the Vikings was due to be released on HD DVD at some point in the first quarter of 2007 by DeAPlaneta in Spain. As you can probably gather, it has yet to materialise, but the good news is that, according to FilmTalk, it will be coming out in France on October 3rd. Of course, I'll definitely be picking up a copy, and the fact that the French standard definition DVD included English audio and subtitles also bodes well for the HD DVD. I just hope it has a better transfer than Paprika, the only full-length 2D animated feature I currently own in HD.

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.

Cease your meddling!

Above: the original 1999 version; below: the re-graded 2004 version

George Lucas isn't the only filmmaker to indulge in revisionism. That's right, the Wachowski brothers are at is as well. No, the alterations that have been made to The Matrix aren't quite on the same level as the "Greedo shoots first" debacle - no footage has actually been reshot, and the special effects are unchanged - but they're significant nonetheless. When the film was re-released on DVD in 2004, the entire film was digitally graded to bring its look into line with the two rubbish sequels, and, now that I have the ability to take screen captures of HD DVDs, I can show you just how extreme the difference is.

Above: the original 1999 version; below: the re-graded 2004 version

I'm curious as to how people feel about this. On the one hand, I do think that the re-graded version is aesthetically preferable. Creating a digital intermediate allows filmmakers much more control over the final look of their movie than traditional lab work, and we can therefore presumably assume that the look of the new version of The Matrix is closer to representing what the Wachowskis originally intended than what was initially released. On the other hand, it's hard not to see this as being a "because we can" situation. The central concept - that the Matrix had a green tint, whereas the "real world" had a blue tint - was conveyed subtly in the original version, but, in the re-graded version, has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. The shadow detail is also seriously hampered by the manner in which the contrast has been pumped up.

Above: the original 1999 version; below: the re-graded 2004 version

Oh, and the HD DVD of The Matrix is indeed edge enhanced. It's not as bad as on some titles - it's no Crank or An American Werewolf in London, for example - but it's there all right. I noticed it within less than a minute of the film starting, and yet many people continue to tell me that I'm imagining things, or that there is a problem with my equipment, or whatever other outlandish excuse they can come up with. That's the great thing about being able to do screen captures: I can now provided visual evidence! Now who's crazy, guys?

Tartan slaps on the woad

Source: DVD Times

In a move that certainly surprised me and, I suspect, will have surprised a lot of others as well, UK independent DVD studio Tartan Video has announced support for Blu-ray, and will be debuting high definition editions of Paul Verhoeven's Black Book (also due out in the US from Sony a month later) and Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal on August 27th, with Park Chan-Wook's Oldboy to follow on September 24th. Expect AVC encodes, DTS-HD Master Audio and, it would seem, some but not all of the extras from the standard definition variants. The RRP for each, by the way, is a rather bloated £29.99, seemingly because Tartan intends to package the standard definition version on a separate disc in the same case.

I hate to say it, but the pessimist in me suspects that this may be the beginning of the end for HD DVD. This time last year, I never in a million years dreamed that any of the independents would back Sony's format, but with this, and the announcement of Starz/Anchor Bay's decision to launch a Blu-ray line via MGM, suggests that one of HD DVD's key advantages - cheaper manufacturing and licensing costs - really isn't enough to entice the little guys. All I can say is that Sony must be offering some major incentives to these smaller studios (one commenter suggests that they may be supplying free authoring services) to get them on the bandwagon. I'd still like to think that HD DVD can get its act together and reclaim some of the momentum that it lost in its disastrous decision to basically sit back and do nothing at the beginning of the year, but I'm beginning to have serious doubts... especially as, for me, the news of support by Tartan and Anchor Bay is worth a thousand 20th Century Foxes.

Blurry Blu-ray

My copy of the French Blu-ray release of Paprika arrived today from FNAC. Time didn't permit me to actually sit down and watch the whole thing, but I have a few preliminary observations to make.

First of all, this disc features no less than nine audio tracks (Japanese PCM, and Japanese, French, English, German, Czech, Italian, Spanish and Polish Dolby Digital) and 24 subtitle tracks. This, combined with the fact that the disc is multi-region and displays an FBI logo if your player's default language is set to English, strongly suggests that Sony is planning to release the same disc throughout much of the world.

Second, for the first full-length 2D animated HD title I've picked up, the transfer is decidedly underwhelming. It's an MPEG2 encode, and, while compression problems don't appear to be too apparent based on my viewing of the opening 15 minutes, the image looks rather soft and filtered, lacking the crispness that I would have hoped for from an animated film produced entirely in the digital domain. Like many of the Studio Ghibli releases, it's also windowboxed, needlessly throwing away several lines of resolution. I'm not sure why this practice seems to be so widespread with anime films, but it's a very annoying one and I wish the companies wouldn't do it.

As for the film - let's just say it hasn't grabbed me yet. I'm going to sit down with it at some point this weekend and give it my full concentration, but my initial impressions suggest that my various esteemed commenters were right.

Oh yeah, and Sony has announced a few new Blu-ray titles for release in the US on September 25th, including Black Book and the extended cut of Underworld. I've already got the German HD DVD release of Underworld, due out on September 3rd, pre-ordered, and that will remain the case, since the early bird catches the worm, but I'm all over Black Book, which, in addition to being an extremely engaging film, looked a little underwhelming in its UK DVD release from Tartan.

Fox, king of lies

Guess it's full steam ahead for Phase Hydra.

It may have escaped your notice, but a brand new web site geared around marketing Blu-ray, entitled Hollywood In Hi-Def, was recently launched. The idea, presumably, is similar to the HD DVD Promotion Group's The Look and Sound of Perfect, with the only differences being a URL that's easier to remember, and the fact that Hollwood In Hi-Def doesn't make its Blu-ray bias explicit. It's fairly obvious (the next-to-zero mention of HD DVD and the blue colour scheme are dead giveaways), but it's underhand tactics like these that cause me to view the Blu-ray camp with a great deal of suspicion. Don't get me wrong: I know that both sides are, at the end of the day, out to make money by any means necessary, but I always feel that there's something slightly more honest about the way the HD DVD camp conducts itself.

Nowhere is the Blu-ray Disc Association's willingness to lie, in spite of how blatantly transparent their porkies are, than in a recent article regarding the lack of titles from 20th Century Fox so far this year. Fox, as you may or may not be aware, haven't released a single Blu-ray disc since Night at the Museum on April 24th. Recently, however, the forums became abuzz with the news that several new titles had been announced for release in various European countries, including France and Germany. Not so, according to Fox themselves:

There have been reports of Fox releasing on Blu-ray internationally while still on hold in the U.S.

A Fox executive told us and some late-night commenters at High-Def Digest that it isn't true. Fox has made no Blu-ray announcements in Europe, Asia or the U.S. since its last Blu-ray title, "Night at the Museum," on April 24.

Oh really?

Is that so?

Wait a minute...

Do Fox seriously think their US customers are so isolated from the rest of the world that they will somehow fail to notice the various sites not only listing the various titles announced for release on the other side of the Atlantic, but also their cover art, technical specs and bonus content? That would appear to be the case, as a comment posted to the article in question, featuring links to announcements for various German releases, was mysteriously deleted as I was typing this entry. Based on the evidence, I'd have to say that Fox really do think we're as stupid as they are.

Update, July 12th, 2007 08:31 PM: Looks like the links were not deleted after all. By default, the site only displays the four most recent comments.

Sacré bleu! Mr. Bean goes HD!

Source: DVD Times

News that Mr. Bean's Holiday was to get an HD DVD release in Australia on August 15th has essentially been common knowledge for some time now, and it should come as no surprise that a UK release date was announced today. Arriving five days later than its counterpart down under, on August 20th, this release, which will presumably be identical to the Australian version, will feature the usual razzmatazz (1080p VC-1 transfer, Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio in a variety of languages, and the same extras as the standard definition release). I missed seeing this at the cinema, and, while I have my suspicions as to the film's quality (based in part on the largely negative reviews), I'll no doubt be picking up a copy of this. Now if only Universal would release the original Bean in HD as well.

But it's just cartoons, innit?

Generally speaking, Japanese animation doesn't do a whole lot for me, unless it's by Hayao Miyazaki, and even then I tend to be a bit picky. Back when I was doing my MLitt, however, we had a lecture on anime, during which we were shown Tokyo Godfathers, which, in addition to having an incredibly witty and involving narrative, boasted the most outrageous posing and facial expressions I've ever seen outside of Warner Brothers and Spumco - a far cry from the usual static faces with only the mouths opening and closing favoured by anime directors. The director of this film was Satoshi Kon, whose greatest claim to fame appears to be Perfect Blue, described by some as the closest thing in existence to an anime giallo.

Anyway, his latest film, Paprika, was recently released on Blu-ray in certain territories, including Japan and France. Judging by the trailers and stills that I've seen, its animation eschews the flamboyance of Tokyo Godfathers in favour of the more static, conservative look usually associated with anime, but, given the complete and utter dearth of 2D animation on either of the HD formats (barring the three Looney Tunes cartoons included on The Adventures of Robin Hood HD DVD), I'm willing to take what I can get, and in any event I'm hoping that Paprika demonstrates the same quality of storytelling seen in Tokyo Godfathers. Anyway, I've ordered a copy of the French release, which DVDRAMA tells me is region-free and includes English subtitles.

Speaking of 2D high definition animation in France, according to FilmTalk, Sylvain Chomet's Les Triplettes de Belleville (or Belleville Rendez-vous, or The Triplets of Belleville, depending on where you are in the world) is to get an HD DVD release (from Warner, presumably, as they released the standard definition version) on October 31st 2007. Given that it is almost completely dialogue-free, English subtitles (or lack thereof) should not be an issue. Needless to say, I'll definitely be picking this one up too.

The return of Captain Whiggles

I'm back, and I'm a whole day older. I have now walked this blighted earth for 24 wholes years and a day (give or take a couple of hours), although, believe it or not, I don't feel a whole lot different. Actually, since I turned 18 and could legally do pretty much anything I might want to do, my actual age has ceased to be much of a concern for me, to the extent that, when people ask me how old I am, I often actually have to stop and think about it.

Anyway, I had a pretty good day, albeit with a couple of minor monkey-wrenches thrown in. I had a bunch of parcels waiting for me when I got up yesterday morning:

The big box at the back is, as you can probably gather, the Lego Café Corner set I ordered a couple of weeks back. I finally finished putting it together this morning, and, while I can't exactly claim it to have been a challenge, it took me a decent enough amount of time, and the level of detail present in the finished building is commendably higher than what you get in most of the sets aimed at a younger audience. Now, if only Lego would do something featuring a similar level of detail for a castle or a pirate ship...

In front of the Lego box, from left to right, we have: The Simpsons: The Complete Sixth Season and The Simpsons: The Complete Seventh Season on DVD, Black Snake Moan on HD DVD, and Crank on Blu-ray. And yes, that hideous Homer head for The Simpsons' sixth season really is as bad as everyone says. The plastic outer "cover" was dented out of shape when it arrived (unavoidable, given its flimsy construction, and I don't hold DVD Pacific, the US Postal Service, Royal Mail or anyone else responsible for this - the blame lies solely with 20th Century Fox), and the tray housing the four discs that resides inside the cover is a pain, filled with bits of paper (advertisements, episode booklet) that fall out as soon as you open it. It's very frustrating that the standard cardboard box was never released to buy in the US, as it was elsewhere, because ordering the replacement is, for someone without a North American postal address, a bit of a challenge. By the way, I've taken a look at some of the episodes from both Seasons 6 and 7, and, while there are still some visible DVNR artefacts, they are nothing like as bad as the ones affecting the PAL version.

Me and Lyris also watched Crank last night. First, the bad news: the film looks like ass. It was shot in 1080p, so ideally this should have been a pixel-to-pixel reproduction of the source materials (barring compression, of course). Unfortunately, someone took it upon themselves to add a tonne of edge enhancement, making the picture look harsh and ugly. Strangely enough, the edge enhancement is is inconsistent, with some scenes (basically those in which the protagonist doesn't appear) being less affected, and the two of us both came to the conclusion that the filmmakers intentionally decide to over-sharpen the image as a stylistic choice, presumably to make it appear "harsh" and "raw". Whoever is to blame, though, they should be severely chastised for their decision.

Luckily, it's an enjoyable film. I hesitate to call it "good", because, to be honest, it was pretty much a complete load of garbage, but it continually kept us entertained, and was, on several occasions, laugh out loud hilarious. Jason Statham's hard man shtick gets a little old after a while (I'm still not sure why they got a Brit to play this part), but the characters surrounding him help keep him in check, and Amy Smart plays the greatest blonde ditz I've seen in a film since Anna Faris in Lost in Translation: "Don't talk to him like that! My boyfriend kills people!" Oddly enough, the most similar film I can think of to this is not Speed, as most people seem to suggest, but Run Lola Run. Obviously, it's less high-brow, but it has the same sort of energy and the same basic plot - if "person runs around the city for 90 minutes" counts as a plot.

Oh, and Black Snake Moan has a really impressive transfer, at least judging by the brief glance I had at the first couple of scenes. Paramount has really come a long way in the last few months.

Anyway, I also went to Braehead Shopping Centre for lunch and shopping. Luckily, I didn't see any shifty types looking to ram burning vehicles into buildings (Braehead is just down the road from Glasgow Airport), so I was able to make my purchases in peace. I actually ended up buying a hell of a lot more than I intended, not least an Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on. You may remember that I bought one earlier this year and ended up selling it on to a friend, because it didn't meet my needs. Luckily, the situation has now changed. For one thing, Lyris now has an Xbox 360, so we both decided that this would be the perfect moment to dispose of our large, clunky Toshiba HD-A1 player and replace it was something faster and less space-hungry. In addition, HD decryption software has progressed considerably in the last six months, which makes it much easier now to rip discs to my hard drive and take screen captures for review purposes (the add-on connects to either the Xbox 360 or a PC via USB, so it only takes a couple of seconds to plug it into the required device).

I also picked up two HD DVDs and one Blu-ray disc, all of them blind buys: La Haine, Syriana and Layer Cake. I know next to nothing about any of them, but it's nice to be pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, the goons at HMV not only forgot to take the security tabs out of La Haine and Layer Cake, meaning I couldn't actually open them to get the discs out (most store-bought UK DVD and high definition cases feature a plastic tab which seals it shut and can only be removed using a special machine in the store), the case for La Haine was also quite badly smashed (okay, so it's partially my fault for not noticing until I got home). Luckily, my dad was able to run me back in to get the tabs removed and the case for La Haine replaced.

I'm not done yet, though! I also bought the soundtracks to Serenity and Cars, and picked up the games Empire Earth II and Quake 4 in a "2 for £15" deal at GAME.

So yeah, all in all a good day was had, although my wallet is no longer speaking to me.

High definition charity

Source: High-Def Digest

As part of a move to get more independent content on to HD DVD, Microsoft and Amazon have joined forces to subsidise the production of independent titles. Entitled "The 1000 HD DVD Indies Project", due to the number of titles to eventually be made available, this venture will see Microsoft offering their authoring services for free to independent filmmakers who make the grade, while Amazon will then package the discs and sell them exclusively on their web site. The idea, it would appear, is that the discs will be made to order, eliminating much of the overhead associated with bulk production, and with the proceeds going straight back to the filmmakers.

There's no word yet on any of the titles that we can expect to see through this scheme, but it's interesting news for sure, and goes some way towards showing how serious Microsoft is about supporting the HD DVD format.

Spooks and spectres in high definition

Source: AV Science Forum

The cover art for the upcoming German HD DVD releases of Silent Hill, Underworld: Extended Cut, 12 Monkeys and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider has been unveiled... and I don't know about you, but personally I think that this Silent Hill artwork is streets ahead of what was used for the American Blu-ray and DVD releases. Of course, better cover art is not, for me, an adequate reason for double-dipping, but I've pre-ordered a copy of it (and Underworld) all the same, given that I'm hoping for a superior encode to the Blu-ray release, which crammed an MPEG2 copy of the film on to a single-layer 25 GB disc. The new release date, by the way, is September 3rd, a few days later than the originally announced August 31st.

Update, July 1st, 2007 04:23 PM: As Jayson pointed out in the comments selection, this release of Underworld is to be the extended cut.

DVDs I bought or received in the month of June

• Black Book (R0 UK, DVD)
• Brotherhood of the Wolf (R0 France, HD DVD)
• Lost in Translation (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• Mulholland Drive (R0 France, HD DVD)
• The Odessa File (R2 UK, DVD)
• Problem Child Triple (R2 UK, DVD)
• The Rock (R0 France, Blu-ray)
• The Skeleton Key (R0 USA, HD DVD)

Not a bad month as far as the quantity of HD content is concerned, although the quality has been rather mixed, to say the least.

HD DVD review: The Skeleton Key

Universal's HD DVD for The Skeleton Key constitutes a definite improvement on the standard definition release in terms of audio-visual quality, although it's still far from the upper echelons of the format's capability. Unless you enjoyed the film a great deal, or habitually rebuy all your standard definition titles in standard definition, there's not a great deal here to justify shelling out for the same film twice, but if you don't already own the DVD, this HD DVD is a fine place to start.

The Bayou goes high definition in The Skeleton Key, released on HD DVD by Universal with all of the content from the standard definition release intact. Descend into the swamps at DVD Times...

Beauteous Blu-ray

High-Def Digest is reporting that Sleeping Beauty is to see the light of day on Blu-ray in 2008, according to a press release from Disney. No specific release date of specifications have been given as of yet, but this is excellent news indeed, because there has been a complete dearth of 2D animation in high definition so far (the three Looney Tunes titles included with The Adventures of Robin Hood HD DVD being the only high-def cartoons I own). Sleeping Beauty isn't my favourite Disney feature by a long shot, but I'm going to take what I can get at this stage. Let's just hope that the likes of Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland, Lady and the Tramp and Lilo & Stitch (my personal preferences) aren't too far off.

High definition is rockin'!

I was really looking forward to the release of The Rock on Blu-ray - not because it's one of my favourite films (I certainly like it, don't get me wrong, but it's no classic), but because Criterion's standard definition DVD was one of the best ever released, so I was eager to see how it would stack up in high definition. Unfortunately, Disney's US wing recently indefinitely postponed both it and Pixar's Cars, which were, let's face it, two of my main reasons for ending my HD DVD exclusivity. Luckily, France has come to the rescue once again: both The Rock and Crimson Tide, another Jerry Bruckheimer explosionfest culled by Disney in the US, are currently available in the land of baguettes and fine wine, and I've ordered my copy of the former from Fnac. It's also coming out in the UK on July 2nd, but, as you probably know by now, I'm not the sort of person who likes to wait. In any event, I want to be sure it arrives before my birthday (July 4th).

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, the French release has been confirmed as region-free and with removable subtitles. Apparently it's also "a little grainy", which, in conjunction with a BD50 and an AVC encode, would seem to bode well as far as image quality is concerned. It also seems to have all of the extras from the European special edition, which, by my reckoning, means everything that was included on the Criterion - unless the poster is referring to a different continental special edition that I'm not aware of.

Oh yeah, and I've also pre-ordered the French HD DVD release of Hannibal, due out from Universal on August 1st, from Amazon.