Mainstream Cinema

Michael Bay: "Now I love HD DVD"

Source: High-Def Digest

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

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

So today I saw 300 on HD, it rocks!

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

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

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

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

PCW: Why was that?

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

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

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

The Giallo Project #4: Blowup

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni; Starring: David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles; Music: Herbie Hancock; US theatrical release date: December 18th, 1966

"Slowly, slowly... against the beat." - The unnamed photographer of Blowup

"What's the meaning of this?" you ask. "I thought this was the Giallo Project?" It's a valid enough question, and I thought long and hard about whether or not to include Blowup in this rogue's gallery, but eventually I came to the conclusion that I couldn't afford to ignore it. You see, while I don't believe it possible to describe this as a giallo in the truest sense (although both Blood and Black Lace and The Giallo Scrapbook 2 do so), I suspect that it had a profound impact on virtually every giallo beyond a certain point in history. It undoubtedly had a huge influence on Dario Argento, who adapted several of its themes into The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and indeed all of his 1970s gialli, and, in turn, the various directors who set out to imitate Argento's work ended up adopting these same themes and stylistic traits second-hand - imitations of an imitation, as it were. Besides, I thought it only right that I do something to acknowledge Antonioni's recent death.

Beyond the plot, which, if you break it down, is basically the same as virtually every Argento giallo - an artist living as an outsider in a contemporary urban space, flitting around unable to settle, witnesses (or believes he has witnessed) a crime taking place, the solution to which lies in a single image or memory that he can't quite understand - it's the very atmosphere that so closely mirrors everything from The Bird with the Crystal Plumage to The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh: a sort of decadence, a society of bourgeois excess, where people are obsessed with useless commodities and avant-garde art, and seem to have to real purpose in life. I wasn't around to experience the 60s first-hand (far from it!), but I can easily see this as a defining statement of the atmosphere and mood of the period. In some respects, it makes the same point as Blood and Black Lace, and yet the bleak urban landscapes are a world away from the gothic opulence of Bava's film.

David Hemmings' unnamed photographer is clearly the forerunner to Sam Dalmas and Marc Daly - and indeed, Argento even cast Hemmings as Marc in the seminal Deep Red, itself a clever inversion of Blowup which actually manages to outclass its predecessor. In many respects, though, he's a far nastier piece of work than the two of them put together. Daly had some rather antiquated ideas about the place of women in society, while Dalmas seemed to treat his girlfriend as a commodity, but they pale in significance to the character in Blowup (referred to as "Thomas" in many sources but never actually named in the film itself - actually, names are almost completely absent, a reference, perhaps, to the characters' lack of identity and failure to find a place for themselves in the world), who manhandles several models, forcibly "posing" them and berating them for being useless, not to mention toying with blackmailing a woman (Vanessa Redgrave) who objects to having her picture taken on the sly. That's effectively Antonioni's (and Argento's) point, though: he is a vain, self-absorbed prick, continually searching for a perfect image that doesn't exist, and searching for meaning where there is none. Of course, it's therefore entirely appropriate that the central mystery is a single image whose very meaning continues to elude him (and the more he focuses on the image, the more he loses perspective).

In many regards, Blowup is about as anti-giallo as you can get - there are no on-screen murders, and the film is famous for its deliberate refusal to provide a solution to its central mystery - and yet in orders, you can see the roots of so many 70s gialli in it that it's impossible to ignore it completely. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the giallo of the golden age is effectively a marriage between Bava's early efforts and Blowup, filtered through Argento's sensibility and adopted by a slew of imitators - a reinterpretation of the form in the context of the post-1968 cultural revolution. It's a brilliant, baffling, mesmerising film in its own right, but when you consider the knock-on effect that it had on the giallo movement, its importance becomes all the more clear.

Next time, I'll be dipping into the bizarre world of Giulio Questi's baffling Death Laid an Egg.

A suggestion to Michael Bay: stop your whining

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fox: "Don't worry, we'll still release our overpriced crap on Blu-ray"

Source: AV Science Forum

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

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

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

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

Blu-ray: "We've just lost Paramount"

Sources: Viacom; Lyris Lite

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

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

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

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

The Jungle Book coming to Blu-ray... oh wait, no it's not

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

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

Universal, where have you Bean?

If you've been following the coverage of the high definition formats recently, you've probably noticed a fair amount of negative press surrounding many of Universal's most recent transfers, with many agreeing that their treatment, especially of catalogue titles, has left something to be desired. For the record, I thought The Skeleton Key and The Bourne Identity looked fairly decent, whereas Lost in Translation, The Game, Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind could charitably be considered average-looking. Every now and then, however, Universal puts out a disc which reminds us that they really can deliver the goods when they feel like it. Their latest is Mr. Bean's Holiday, which features a visual presentation that I'm sure many are going to say is better than the film itself deserves. My copy arrived yesterday from Play (its UK street date is tomorrow), and, barring a terribly minor amount of filtering, which leads to the occasional bit or ringing on high contrast edges, it looks absolutely perfect: a very high "9" on my HD image quality scale and just about on par with the much-lauded Blu-ray release of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (without the noticeable edge enhancement, into the bargain).

As for the film itself, it's no masterpiece - but you probably knew that already, didn't you? The critics gave it a complete slating, but in my opinion it's really not that bad, and considerably funnier than The Simpsons Movie, the only other 2007 comedy I've seen so far. I actually laughed out loud several times, and if the plot doesn't appear particularly substantial, then at least it's more faithful to the original television series than the previous movie, which rather clumsily shoehorned Mr. Bean into an American family and a rather unconvincing storyline. This one is mainly an excuse for Rowan Atkinson to indulge in various extended episodes of physical comedy, and as a result it really does feel as if someone has given the TV show a larger budget and plonked it on the big screen. Like the previous film, it tends to reuse gags (with Atkinson even delving into a routine from his stand-up days on one occasion), but it's undemanding, and its good-naturedness is quite infectious.

Blu-ray review: The Rock

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

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

High definition vermin

Source: High-Def Digest

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

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

Shame about the cover.

"Mum, it's no good - the picture's all funny!"

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

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

EIV, eh? You gotta love 'em.

The Simpsons Movie

At the beginning of The Simpsons Movie, the world's most famous yellow family are at the local theatre watching the latest exploits of cat and mouse duo Itchy and Scratchy. Homer, unable to understand why anyone would pay to see on the big screen what they can get for free on TV, chastises the audience for being suckers. It doesn't take a genius to work out that this is a reference to those viewers and critics who will say exactly the same thing about The Simpsons Movie - the message being, presumably, that the film does offer more than an extended episode of the TV series. Unfortunately, that's really all it is, and, depending on how you feel about the series, this is either a good or a bad thing. Personally, I would have been more than happy if it had captured the tone of the early seasons, back when the show was still good. Unfortunately, despite being in the making for four years and featuring the combined talents of many of the writers responsible for the best episodes of the early seasons, The Simpsons Movie definitely feels more like the tired, unimaginative dreck that Fox has been shovelling out for the past few years.

Its biggest problem, and a pretty major one for what is meant to be a comedy, is that it isn't funny. In 85 minutes I laughed out loud twice, and one of these was at a joke that has already been used at least three times in the show. Seriously, it took eleven writers and 158 drafts to come up with this? (Then again, maybe that's the problem: too many cooks continually refining it until the whole thing has been completely watered down.) Instead, all we get is the Simpsons shoehorned into a generic adventure story with a hefty dose of fake pathos injected in an attempt to give some semblance of sincerity.

Even the animation is more or less the same as the TV show. Despite a supposed budget of $65 million, it still has that lame, farmed out to Korea appearance (and yes, it seems that the bulk of the animation was indeed outsourced, to regular Simpsons sausage factory Akom), with only a handful of scenes showing anything more than the bare essentials. Yes, the colour palette is richer, and some soft shadows have been applied to the characters, but it still looks third-rate. The celebrity cameos, meanwhile, while taking up comparatively less screen time than they tend to on the show itself, are still incredibly annoying in the "Hi, I'm..." vein. One can only assume that it was them, and the regular cast, rather than the animation crew, that received the bulk of the aforementioned $65 million.

I can't say that my expectations were all that high, and yet I was still incredibly disappointed by this. I never for a minute kidded myself that I was going to see a masterpiece, but I had at least expected to be entertained and get a few decent laughs out of it. Sadly, it couldn't even manage that. 4/10.

O Hannibal, where art thou?

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

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

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

DVDs I bought or received in the month of July

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

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

Pixar shorts coming to Blu-ray

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

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

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

Random HD update

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

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

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

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

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

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

See a picture of the goodies here.

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

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

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.

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.