Mainstream Cinema

Descending into the Blu

The Blu-ray releases of Enemy of the State and The Descent arrived from DVD Pacific this morning. Having just watched Enemy of the State, I can categorically state that my first encounter with a Disney BD was a mixed bag. First of all, although the disc has all of the extras from the recently released Extended Edition DVD, it actually contains the theatrical cut of the film itself. Given that the Extended Edition merely spliced in some previously deleted scenes, as far as I can tell without the involvement of director Tony Scott, I tend to think that the theatrical cut is preferable, but opinions will no doubt differ. In terms of transfer, "underwhelming" is probably the word of the day. This looks like an old master to me - likely the same one used for the old 1999 DVD - and it shows signs of edge enhancement and filtering at all times. The film also looks fairly diffuse throughout. Unlike most of your recent 2.35:1 blockbusters, Enemy of the State was not shot in Super35 but Anamorphic Panavision, which theoretically allows for increased resolution (because it uses the entire area of the negative), but also has poorer depth of field and can lead to focus problems. Initially I wondered if the softness was due to this, but Red Dragon on HD DVD, which is also an Anamorphic Panavision film, looks much crisper. I'd peg this as a low 7/10.

I haven't had a chance to watch The Descent all the way through yet, just sample a few scenes here and there, but it looks much better: very crisp, no sign of edge enhancement, nice grain. I suspect that there are some compression artefacts in the darker scenes, but I'll have to look more carefully to confirm. Incidentally, this is one of two notorious Lions Gate BDs which feature a "fake picture-in-picture" mode (the other is Crank). Essentially, because the BD-Java functions required to get PiP to work are not yet ready (and, of the currently available players, only the Playstation 3 will ever be able to support it), Lions Gate created a PiP experience by including two copies of the film on the same disc, one with a video window superimposed on top of it. Great use of those oh-so-expensive BD-50s!

HD DVD review: Brokeback Mountain

The original DVD of Brokeback Mountain felt rather empty in terms of extras. Even in this more feature-packed variant, it still feels as if the bonus materials are only scratching the surface, providing a strangely superficial look at what is as much a cultural event as a movie. As such, in conjunction with the very disappointing transfer, this release really doesn't feel as if it's all that it could have been, although it is undoubtedly the best home video iteration of the film thus far.

Courtesy of DVD Pacific, I've reviewed the HD DVD/DVD combo release of Ang Lee's Oscar-winning Brokeback Mountain, presented here in a package replicating all of the extras from the recent 2-disc Collector's Edition DVD.

So much to see, so little time

It looks as if this is going to be quite a busy month for me as far as reviews are concerned. In addition to Brokeback Mountain (HD DVD) and Waking the Dead: Series 4 (DVD), which are hold-overs from January that I still need to complete (and I really should also do a write-up on last year's Waking the Dead: Series 3, for the sake of completeness), I've also put in reservations for this month's upcoming releases of Lucio Fulci's Perversion Story (personally, I prefer its more literal translation title of One on Top of the Other), and Dario Argento's episode for the second season of Masters of Horror, Pelts. Having already seen both, albeit not in the most ideal form, I'm expecting to lavish praise on the former and deliver a more lukewarm appraisal to the latter, although I am looking forward to seeing them both again.

I've also managed to snag a chance to review Paramount's upcoming (February 20th) HD DVD of Babel, the latest film by Alejandro González Iñárritu, whose previous film, 21 Grams, I thought was excellent. Incidentally, it's nice to see Paramount finally releasing something in high definition, even if its arrival does little more than to highlight how threadbare their slate of titles is: barring this, Failure to Launch and Payback are the only titles they have announced for 2007 so far. Oh, and interestingly enough, for Babel they would appear to have abandoned VC-1 as their HD DVD codec in favour of AVC (the Blu-ray variant is MPEG2, because Sony handles their HD release on the Blu front).

Oh, and I finally got fed up waiting for Amazon.fr to ship my copy of Beatrice Cenci, and ordered it instead from Fnac, who actually have it in stock. In the past, I've found Amazon (.fr, .co.uk, .com - you name it) to be irritatingly slow for deliveries. Basically, unless it says "Usually dispatched within 24 hours", it's more or less a foregone conclusion that it won't actually ship for weeks, if at all. The same is true of the recently released Grande Collection edition of Asterix and the Goths, which I also cancelled from Amazon and ordered from Fnac (its partner in the February release schedule, Asterix and Obelix All at Sea, did, however, leave Amazon in a reasonably timely fashion). Amazon.co.uk did, however, dispatch my copy of the score to The Iron Giant, which I ordered last night, in less than 12 hours. Luckily, I should be able to afford all these expenses, given that I punted my Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on to a friend for £130 today.

More high-def movie madness

I've pre-ordered the upcoming HD DVD release of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (due out on April 24th) from Amazon.com. This is one of the few HD DVD titles announced with a definite release date that I'm actually interested in, which is sad to say the least - particularly given the impressive momentum that team HD DVD had last Autumn.

In the meantime, there are a few Blu-ray titles due out between now and Summer that I'm definitely interested in picking up. I've already got Casino Royale on pre-order, and I'll also be picking up American Pyscho (February 6th), Hannibal and The Silence of the Lambs (both April 3rd), Cars (June 5th) and The Rock (June 8th). Whichever way you look at it, it's not the most stellar line-up ever announced, but Lyris has also got Flightplan and Chicago on the way, and hopefully Warner and Universal will provide some definite HD DVD release dates before too long, so with any luck we won't be left completely high and dry.

By the way, with all this high definition fun and excitement, I forgot to mention that the DVD of This Film is Not Yet Rated arrived last Thursday (February 1st). If you have any interest in films, Hollywood or otherwise, this is a must-watch, as it delves into the very heart of the Motion Picture Association of America, one of the most clandestine bodies in America, revealing just how messed-up the whole industry is. Weary, battle-scarred veterans, who have had their tussles with the sinister MPAA, bravely appear on camera to recount the hypocrisy, prejudice and pettiness with which they were faced in the process of trying to get their work certified. Particularly revealing are side by side comparisons of R-rated heterosexual and NC17-rated homosexual sex scenes, which clearly highlight the organisation's anti-gay bias, while the most excitement comes in the form of private investigator Becky Altringer's efforts to dig up dirt on the organisation and uncover the secret identities of its nameless, faceless raters. There are certainly some areas in which I felt it could have gone into more detail - perhaps, for example, discussing the ins and outs of a movie industry in which a rating which bars children from seeing a film is such a kiss of death, or indeed debating whether or not children should be allowed to see films such as Se7en and The Passion of the Christ in the first place, with or without parent supervision - but on the whole I found this to be an enlightening, and often shocking, look at the whole process. Now, I just wish someone would make a similar documentary on the (admittedly more accountable) BBFC...

Update, February 4th, 2007 11:50 PM: I pre-ordered American Psycho from DVD Pacific.

Blu-ray review: Silent Hill

All things considered, Sony has delivered a stellar audio-visual presentation for Silent Hill's high definition debut, but the complete lack of bonus materials makes it difficult not to feel a bit short-changed. Still, if all you're after is the best home theatre presentation of the film, this release will not disappoint.

As one of the earliest Blu-ray discs, Sony's Region 0 release of Silent Hill met with considerable consternation from reviewers. But is it really as underwhelming as was made out? I set the record straight at DVD Times.

I've been a bad little boy

What better piece of equipment to play the excellent-looking Silent Hill Blu-ray Disc on than the world's best Blu-ray Disc player, the Playstation 3? The ugly hunk of junk (and it is really ugly) arrived today, shortly behind a £64.96 customs charge, which I strongly intend to contest, given that the declared value of the package, $129 US (which isn't what the item cost, I know, but it's what was listed on the package and invoice, so it's what Thieves & Excise should have gone by), converts to a mere £65.61 - and I don't know about you, but £64.96 doesn't sound like 17.5% (the VAT rate in the UK) of £65.61.

Anyway, despite its alarming obesity and general unattractiveness, the PS3 handles surprisingly nicely. The games don't interest me in the slightest, but, as an all-in-one media centre, it looks to be impressively versatile, with a slick menu interface and a solid range of features. One slight annoyance is that, in order to get the PS3 Blu-ray remote (which must be purchased separately - I did) to work, you need to update the firmware, but this is easily achieved by simply connecting the machine to the Internet via the Ethernet port. Still, this isn't much use for those without Internet access (or those without an Ethernet connection). Controls are, on the whole, far more responsive than the Panasonic DMP-BD10 (which Lyris has recently reviewed here), and the price of the PS3, along with its support for picture-in-picture functionality (which none of the currently available stand-alones support), make me wonder why anyone would choose to buy a stand-alone Blu-ray player.

Don't believe all they tell you

It's a decent picture, but not superb.

- James Plath, DVD Town

Here we have yet another wildly inconsistent HD transfer from Sony. The movie has terrific photography and production design that should make nice High Definition eye candy, but what we get on disc alternates between periods of mediocre, awful, great, mediocre, great, and awful again.

- Joshua Zyber, DVD Talk

Granted, the transfer's consistency does seem to improve a bit as the film's runtime drags on, but maybe I was just getting used to the compression craziness. Either way, this one is just not a great example of what pre-recorded high-def should look like.

- Peter M. Bracke, High-Def Digest

These reviewers are talking about the Blu-ray release of Silent Hill, which arrived on our doorstep this morning (Lyris picked it up for a mere £10.49 at MovieTyme). Based on these advance warnings, we were expecting a frustrating viewing experience followed by a rapid listing of the disc on eBay. As it turns out, we were misled. Grossly. Reviews like these, as Lyris puts it, do damage to home theatre. Silent Hill on Blu-ray is a magnificent achievement, one of the most detailed and film-like high definition presentations I've ever seen, mirroring Kong Kong in terms of overall clarity and coming amazingly close to the top (10/10) tier. The compression isn't perfect, due to Sony's insistence of using MPEG2 as opposed to something more robust, and there is a hint of edge enhancement at times, but I was floored by this presentation. It is an exceptional piece of work by a talented encoder who clearly knew his stuff. It pains me that beautiful transfers like this are rubbished by incompetent reviewers while mediocre crap like Fantastic Four is praised to the high heavens.

Expect a full review at DVD Times soon to set the record straight.

Blu-ray review: Fantastic Four

Fantastic Four arrives on Blu-ray with a superb, demo material certifiable audio track. However, the sheer lack of material contained on this disc, combined with the lacklustre visual presentation, make the £28.99 RRP frankly outrageous. For fans of the film this will no doubt be an essential purchase, despite the loss of several extras in comparison with the DVD release, but probably only once the price is reduced.

For DVD Times' first ever Blu-ray review, I take a look at 20th Century Fox's recent Region B UK release of Fantastic Four...

It's an HD DVD capture extravaganza!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I took out a subscription to LoveFilm to facilitate the reviewing of Blu-ray discs I wouldn't want to actually buy. Unfortunately, the number of available region-free Blu-ray discs in the UK is pretty small, and LoveFilm requires a minimum of ten titles to be in your "wanted" list before your account will become active. As a result, I threw in a bunch of HD DVDs I hadn't yet seen, and, despite marking them as low priority and the Blu-ray titles as high priority, it was the HD DVDs that arrived today, including Doom and Van Helsing (both very good, but not outstanding transfers), and King Kong. Kong truly is a beauty to behold, and Microsoft were extremely wise to bundle this title with their Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on drive (unlike Sony, who were daft enough to include the apparently poor-looking Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby with the Playstation 3). Were it not for some very light edge enhancement, this would undoubtedly be the best-looking title I've ever seen. As it is, it's an extremely high 9/10 (and I mean something like 9.9/10), but I really do want my 10/10 ratings for high definition material to mean absolute perfection.

By the way, this is, I think, pretty much conclusive proof that, during my screen capturing process, some detail is being lost. Compare my Shot 6 with almost exactly the same frame as captured by AV Science Forum member Gooki. I hope to get to the bottom of this eventually, but I'm selling my HD DVD add-on to a friend on Monday, so I'm afraid that, for the time being at least, this is likely to be my final HD DVD capture gallery.

DVDs I bought or received in the month of January

• Brokeback Mountain (R0 USA, HD DVD/SD DVD combo)
• The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire (R0 Germany, SD DVD)
• A Lizard in a Woman's Skin: Remastered Edition (R1 USA, SD DVD)
• The Mephisto Waltz (R2 Spain, SD DVD)
• Waking the Dead: Series 4 (R2 UK, SD DVD)

DVD and HD DVD purchases this month were somewhat overshadowed by the ordering of a Playstation 3 and some Blu-ray discs to play on it. Look for impressions on these some time in early February.

Feeling Blu

My Playstation 3 and the three Blu-ray discs to play on it haven't arrived yet, but this afternoon I got to experience Blu-ray in the comfort of my own home for the first time, thanks to the Panasonic DMP-BD10 that Lyris managed to snag for review. It's a rather nicely-designed piece of equipment, and it certainly boots considerably quicker than our HD DVD player, but nothing that I've seen so far this afternoon has made me regret the decision to go with HD DVD way back in June.

We got three discs with the player: two demonstration reels, one from Panasonic and one from 20th Century Fox, and a copy of Fantastic 4 from Fox. Of the two demo discs, the Panasonic one, which features three music performances from different artists, encoded with MPEG4 AVC and featuring a variety of audio options, including uncompressed 7.1 LPCM and DTS 5.1, was the most visually impressive, with the only visible flaws seemingly being the result of the digital photography itself rather than the encoding. The same cannot be said about Fox's MPEG2 demo disc, which featured clips and trailers from a variety of different films, ranging from striking (Walk the Line), to decent but soft-looking (Kingdom of Heaven), to completely unimpressive (X2: X-Men United). The latter description perfectly sums up Fantastic 4, which is one of the worst-looking high definition presentations I've seen so far. Virtually every artefact associated with a digital transfer is present here to some degree, from light edge enhancement to heavy-handed temporal noise reduction, which causes grain to clump and textures to drag when in movement. It also looks decidedly soft, much closer to, say, Studio Canal's Basic Instinct HD DVD than I would have expected for such a recent, CGI-heavy blockbuster. Given that it is an MPEG2 encode on a 25GB disc, I'm slightly surprised that I didn't find more compression artefacts than I did, but they're definitely there, and the fact that most of the bonus materials have been tossed aside in order to cram the film on to the disc speaks volumes about how inefficient the codec is.

Oh, and the Java-powered menu system is an absolute nightmare. It's slow and unresponsive, and makes me see just how much better a deal our HD DVD player is given that, despite its slow booting time, menu access is smooth and instantaneous.

Obviously I can't evaluate an entire format based on one film and a couple of demo discs, but so far I've not seen anything to wow me. If I'd just spent £1,200 (which is what this player costs in the UK) on what I'd been promised was "the ultimate home theater [sic] experience", I'd be a bit pissed.

PS. We have this player for a couple of weeks, so I intend to make the most of this by renting and reviewing as many Blu-ray titles as possible.

Eternal format wars

Universal continued its somewhat tepid support of HD DVD today by announcing two new titles for release on April 24th: Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the Eddie Murphy masterpiece The Nutty Professor. Given how much I enjoyed the former, I'll definitely be picking up its high definition incarnation; as for the latter, well, let's just say my life has already been "enriched" by that particular title, and it's not an experience I feel compelled to repeat. Slightly more encouraging is the appearance of several highly regarded titles on the HD DVD Promotion Group's Release List, including E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Psycho and The Shining. Obviously, without release dates, this can't be taken as an official announcement, but it does imply that there is at least an intention to release these films on HD DVD at some point in the future.

In other news, I pre-ordered the upcoming Blu-ray release of Casino Royale (due out on March 13th). This will likely be my first ever Sony Blu-ray disc, given that they own very little worth bothering about (yes, believe it or not I'll be passing on Little Man and Click), and, given the reports I've been hearing, I'm not expecting great things. Then again, they're apparently going to switch from MPEG2 to MPEG4 AVC for this title, which means that it will hopefully not be the compression nightmare that many of their earlier titles were. I've also taken out a one-month subscription to LoveFilm, which means I will be able to rent the small number of region-free Blu-ray discs released in the UK in order to get a feel of what the format has to offer in terms of image quality. Obviously, this discounts all Fox titles, which are coded for Region B, as well as Sony's releases of recent films (their policy is to make catalogue titles region-free).

Even more HD DVD captures

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is another really nice-looking disc: very smooth, rich colours, great compression, only a few minor signs of noise reduction slightly marring it. Okay, so it isn't razor-sharp in the way that Serenity is, but few films are, and the smooth appearance is very appropriate for this film noir homage.

PS. Another problem with these captures that I've begun to notice is that, in addition to adding some softness that shouldn't be there, colour banding is also appearing.

Yet more HD DVD captures

These shots are from Corpse Bride, which has emerged as one of the strongest-looking high definition discs. As before, these screen captures simply don't do the transfer justice, and, until I can get to the bottom of this softening that seems to be going on, I'm going to have to warn against taking these as being indicative of the actual quality of HD DVD.

More HD DVD screen captures

These are from Unleashed. It's not quite as good-looking as Serenity (a little softer and some very mild signs of temporal noise reduction), but still an absolute beauty to behold - especially when you consider that the file for the film itself, including audio, is a mere 12.8 GB. It's because of transfers like this that I struggle to believe the mantra espoused by many Blu-ray supporters that 30 GB is not enough. This film comes on a single-layer (15 GB) HD DVD/DVD combo disc and looks amazing!

Warner saves Europe

Source: AV Science Forum

DVDRama has just unveiled a rather impressive-looking line-up of titles to be released on HD DVD throughout this year in France. As a nice bonus to HD DVD-only people, this includes titles distributed by Blu-ray studios in the US but owned by Warner in Europe, including The Prestige and The Island. Even more interestingly, though, a roster of titles featuring the In-Movie Experience are listed here as HD DVD exclusives (in other words, not coming to Blu-ray). The reason for this is clear: the Blu-ray camp has yet to get their interactive BD-Java technology working properly, and many of the first generation players will probably never be able to fully support it. As a result, Warner has been holding back many IME HD DVDs in the US to keep the playing field level, as it were. Such generous but moronic ideals are clearly not operating in Europe, though, with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire already available to buy in the UK. Whatever you think of the films in question, the titles with the "HD DVD only" tag attached should warm the cockles of any HD DVD supporter's heart:

April 25

• The Island

May

• The Prestige

June

• The Prestige
• Natural Born Killers
• The Matrix (IME) (HD DVD only)

July

• Mad Max 2
• The Matrix Reloaded (IME) (HD DVD only)

August

• The Goonies
• The Matrix Revolutions (IME) (HD DVD only)
• Letters from Iwo Jima

September

• L.A. Confidential
• Blade Runner
• Poltergeist
• 300 (IME) (HD DVD only)
• Blood Diamond (HD DVD only)
• Zodiac

October

• Dirty Harry
• The Enforcer
• Sudden Impact
• Magnum force
• The Dead Pool
• Music and Lyrics
• The Reaping

November

• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (IME) (HD DVD only)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (IME) (HD DVD only)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (IME) (HD DVD only)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (IME) (HD DVD only)

December

• 2001 A Space Odyssey
• A Clockwork Orange
• Eyes Wide Shut
• Ocean's eleven (1960)
• Ocean's eleven (2001)
• Ocean's twelve
• The Shining
• The Wizard of Oz

Note: the full list actually also includes several titles already available in the US, which explains why the first few months, as presented here, appear to be so sparse.

Sign me up for The Matrix (thank god I don't have to buy it in a box set with the shoddy sequels), Blade Runner, A Clockwork Orange, Eyes Wide Shut, and possibly a couple of others depending on my finances and what titles are being released by other studios at around the same time.

HD DVD screen captures

Ha! They told me it couldn't be done. In fact, the studios did everything in their power to make things impossible, but the old adage applies: if it can be encrypted, it can be decrypted. The images below are from the UK version of Serenity, and, as far as I can tell, there is no downscaling going on, although I'm still not 100% certain, as there is a certain sheen of softness to these images that isn't present when watching them on a TV. (It may be that the software decoding of PowerDVD isn't as effective as it could be.) Anyway, click the thumbnails below for larger versions.

Obtaining these screen captures is a rather long and tedious process that I won't go into here for fear of swarms of Hollywood dragoons descending on me, but, suffice to say, it would appear that the impossible is in fact possible.

The best-looking HD title?

King Kong is considered by many people to be the best-looking high definition disc out there. I've not viewed it myself, but, based on these screenshots, I think I can see why it's so highly-regarded:

http://david2k.orcon.net.nz/kk12.jpg
http://david2k.orcon.net.nz/kk25.jpg

More at http://david2k.orcon.net.nz.

PS. Judging by these shots, it is actually possible to get full 1920x1080 screen captures of HD DVD titles from a PC. The process apparently involves getting hold of the disc's volume key by exploiting a loophole in WinDVD HD, then decrypting the disc, then running the decrypted files in PowerDVD 6.5. In other words, much harder than with a standard definition DVD, but definitely possible.

DVD review: The Mephisto Waltz

There's nothing particularly unique about The Mephisto Waltz that can't be found in the countless other Rosemary's Baby-inspired horror films from the same period. Then again, the book itself was unremarkable despite being an enjoyable pulpy read, so it's difficult to feel too surprised that the film turned out to be equally pedestrian. It's an enjoyable enough way to kill a couple of hours, though, especially on a cold winter's night, and that inimitable air of 70s kitsch makes it considerably more appealing than most of its more recent ilk.

A forgotten horror gem or just another Rosemary's Baby rip-off? I've reviewed the R2 Spanish release of The Mephisto Waltz, which bears the distinction of being the only film 20th Century Fox produced in 1970.

Updated HD DVD image quality rankings

Lyris' recent purchase of a 40" 1080p-capable display has caused me to re-evaluate a few titles. By and large, not much has changed, although Corpse Bride has emerged as the closest to being technically "perfect" (personally, I prefer the grainy aesthetic of Serenity, though).

10/10

• Corpse Bride (Warner, USA)
• Serenity (Universal, UK)
• Serenity (Universal, USA)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Warner, UK)

9/10

• The Bourne Supremacy (Universal, USA)
• The Adventures of Robin Hood (Warner, USA)
• Miami Vice (Universal, USA)
• Unleashed (Universal, USA)
• Casablanca (Warner, USA)
• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Warner, UK)

8/10

• Red Dragon (Universal, USA)
• Constantine (Warner, USA)
• Land of the Dead (Universal, USA)
• V for Vendetta (Warner, USA)
• The Machinist (Toshiba, Japan)
• Sleepy Hollow (Paramount, USA)
• Million Dollar Baby (Warner, USA)

7/10

• Wolf Creek (The Weinstein Company, USA)
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Universal, USA)
• The Mummy Returns (Universal, USA)
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Warner, USA)

6/10

• Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (Paramount, USA)
• An American Werewolf in London (Universal, USA)
• Brokeback Mountain (Universal, USA)
• Basic Instinct (Studio Canal, France)

I'll continue to post this list, with updates, at regular intervals (probably around once a month). Also, expect Blu-ray titles to begin to be added starting with the next major update.