Reviews

HD DVD review: Wolf Creek

Over a year later and Optimum have delivered a version of Wolf Creek that fails to improve on the older US release from the Weinstein Company and, in many ways, constitutes a step back. For what it is, it's not a bad disc, but, unless you absolutely feel the need to own the original shorter cut, my advice would be to avoid this one and pick up the US version.

Optimum continues to serve fans whose interests lie slightly off the beaten track with an HD DVD release of Wolf Creek, Greg McLean's nasty and effective shocker. Review at DVD Times.

The wonder of Victoria Alexander

Earlier tonight I soliloquised about Mark Kermode and his deliciously brutal reviews. Now I present the work of another reviewer for your pleasure. Unlike Kermode, she doesn't have podcasts or vodcasts, but she more than makes up for this technological deficiency for being madness personified.

Ever wanted to read a review in which women are decried as irresponsible for resisting rape? Check out her thoughts on 28 Days Later.

Not sure whether you liked the remake of The Omen? Well, neither is she, judging by her write-up, but hey, at least it's apparently "better than the original since a 30 year-old [huh?] Mia Farrow runs off with the deaf-mute [huh?] Antichrist". Huh?????

Who ever saw the original version of The Wicker Man? Not Ms. Alexander, and apparently not many other people according to her. But apparently there's a lot to like in the remake, including a "stringent lesbian cult". She was also surprised by the ending.

Think Jarhead was disappointing for being "a war movie with not one shot fired, no visible enemy, and soldiers standing around in the desert" that's "[m]ore gay than Capote"? You'll love her appraisal of it.

Oh, and want to find more obscure and derogatory references to homosexuality? She's written over 600 reviews, so take your pick.

Having examined the evidence, I can only conclude that either we are the victims of an elaborate practical joke, or Ms. Alexander is certifiably insane. Credit where credit's due to Parma Violets for pointing the ramblings of this demented crone out to me.

Oh, and she's the one who praised Norbit for its positive portrayal of fat black women.

The glory of Dr. Mark Kermode

Over the past few hours, I have been discovering a hitherto unfound appreciation for Mark Kermode. Kermode, for those who don't know, is an English film critic who, in addition to penning two books on The Exorcist and being hauled out for virtually every horror retrospective piece under the sun, have a regular spot on BBC Radio 5 where, every Friday at 3 PM, he reviews the latest cinema releases in his own inimitable style.

To say that Kermode is somewhat opinionated is like saying the Pope is slightly Catholic. If Kermode sees something he doesn't like, he will let you know in no uncertain terms, and believe me, there's a lot he doesn't like. He has no qualms about insulting the actors and directors who don't float his boat, and I always have a huge amount of respect for people who speak their mind and don't feel the need to sugar-coat things. "Absolutely rubbish" is an oft-repeated phrase, although he generally finds more creative ways to express these sentiments. When he gets on to a favourite hatred - such as the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy and Michael Bay movies - he really lets rip and pulls no punches. I've listened to at least 30 of his reviews this evening, and, even when I completely disagree with what he has to say (which is with some degree of frequency), I find myself nodding my head and appreciating his no nonsense tone.

You can find an archive of his podcast reviews at the BBC Radio 5 Live site, and a few choice favourites are also available, with video, on YouTube:

Death Proof - I like it, Dr. Kermode most certainly doesn't. He has a few choice things to say about Quentin Tarantino and his style of "homage".

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - a ten-minute out of control rant that has since passed into legend. I haven't seen this instalment in the franchise, but his diatribe is more entertaining than the first two films put together.

Transformers - in which Dr. Kermode loses it completely and explains why Michael Bay's entire directorial philosophy is analogous to masturbation.

The case for euthanising Eddie Murphy

I thought it would be a long time before I came across a film worse than Dr. Uwe Boll's House of the Dead. Now, however, thanks to the magic of Amazon's rental service, I've found one.

As you may have noticed, my HD Image Quality Rankings list includes several films that I myself don't own. The reason for this is that I like to keep abreast of developments in HD-land by renting and checking out as many titles as possible. I don't always manage to watch them all the way through, but usually I can get a reasonably good impression of how a particular disc measures up within a few minutes. And, if the film happens to be particularly good - or bad - I'll be more inclined to stick with it for the duration. Late last year, I became aware that a particular film had been released on HD DVD (and Blu-ray). Its name was Norbit, it starred Eddie Murphy, and it brought with it a reputation so abhorrent that I just knew it and myself would cross paths one day.

No escape clause, unfortunately.

As you will know if you have been reading my brother's site, he is shortly to be the proud owner of a projector. You'll probably also be aware that projector bulbs aren't cheap, which means that, every time you use it, you can almost hear the pennies dropping out of your wallet and hitting the ground. The notion of using some of the bulb's valuable power on a film like Norbit wasn't exactly what he had in mind, but we eventually reached a deal: Norbit could be viewed on the projector, but only on the condition that I wrote a full-length review of it.

However, the best-laid plans of mice and men and all that... One of the problems with online DVD rental programmes is that you often don't know which title you'll be receiving next. I had banked on Norbit not reaching me until the projector had safely arrived and been installed, so imagine my surprise (and faint feelings of nausea) when it turned up yesterday. (For some reason, this title does not appear to have been in high demand.) Realising, however, that, if I returned the disc or held on to it until the projector arrived, I would have wasted one of my precious monthly rental slots, I decided to bite the bullet and watch Norbit anyway, projector or no projector.

Fifteen minutes in, my brother turned to me and said "You know, it's okay if you want to just tear up the contract."

I persevered, however. What sort of watcher of bad movies would I be if I let a little thing like Norbit scare me away? Besides, I knew that my loyal readers would be waiting on tenterhooks for my verdict...

Norbit is yet another low-brow comedy in which Eddie Murphy dons a fat suit and plays several different characters. One of these is the titular Norbit, a weedy, pathetic little man who is married to Rasputia (also Murphy), a virtual elephant of a woman with a personality as foul as her odour. Norbit is an orphan, who was brought up by a Chinese man named Mr. Wong (Murphy, again, this time in yellowface). Mr. Wong's orphanage is up for sale, and the prospective owners include Rasputia's three vicious brothers, who plan to turn it into a titty bar and make Norbit's life hell at the same time. The other is Kate (Thandie Newton), a fellow orphan and the love of poor, browbeaten Norbit's miserable life. (Can you say "ahhhh"?) Oh, but she's engaged to Deion (Cuba Gooding Jr., who can currently be seen stepping into dear old Eddie Murphy's shoes in Daddy Day Camp, the follow-up to that masterpiece, Daddy Day Care), who is in league with the evil brothers! Will this delightful fairytale romance have a happy ending, or will Norbit have his face smashed in with a rusty hook? (I know which I'd prefer.)

Norbit's humour is best summed up as a never-ending series of fat jokes that aren't funny, with copious amounts of toilet humour and a healthy dose of racism thrown in for good measure. As an example of what passes for a gag in this supposed comedy, let's take the scene in which, having failed to carry his overweight bride over the threshold (because she's fat), Norbit stands quaking in his boots in the bedroom as the delightful Rasputia thunders towards him. She lands on top of him, the force throwing him backwards on to the bed (because she's fat), at which point the bed collapses (because she's fat). Safe in the knowledge that the audience will find this absolutely hysterical, the filmmakers then proceed to repeat the exact same gag three times, the only differences being the various costumes that the two Eddies are wearing. Oh, and, on the final occasion, the bed doesn't collapse, because it has been reinforced with concrete. You laughing yet?

Take, for another example, the film's witty wordplay. At the wedding reception, the delightful Mr. Wong, delivering the best man's speech, tells the guests that he is sad for Norbit because he is married to a gorilla. The aforementioned gorilla's family take exception to this, at which point Wong hastily reassures them that he is only kidding.

That's the joke.

No really, that's it. The entire film is one long series of build-ups without any punchlines. Each time the writers provide us with a situation, we continually assume that it's going somewhere, but it never does. At the same wedding, it is discovered that a slice is missing from the wedding cake. Cut to a shot of Rasputia with icing and sponge all over her face. You assume that the laughs will come from either her or the other characters' reactions. Instead, the film carries on to the next scene. "Norbit!" screams the cover art. "Funny!" is hollers underneath. I assure you, it is anything but.

Oh, and before I forget, I must take the time to mention that Mr. Wong is easily the single most racist creation I can remember seeing in a film in god knows how long. Why Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips continues to be suppressed while Eddie Murphy is allowed to paint himself yellow and utter all manner of inanities in a guttural voice (hilariously substituting "r" for "l", by the way - gotta love the attention to detail) is a mystery to me. You get the impression that perhaps the filmmakers were aware that this portrayal of a Chinese man might be a tad offensive, so they attempt to offset this late in the game by revealing that Wong is in fact a screaming racist himself ("Yes, Wong very racist. Don't like black. Don't like Jew either. But black and Jew love Chinese food. Go figure."), which, judging by the inverse logic to which the writers clearly ascribe (the same logic which allows them to mistake "devoid of humour" for "full of humour"), presumably means that everything's okay. I should probably point out that, if a white actor dressed up as a Chinese man and made these sort of "jokes" in this day and age, he would probably be lynched. However, Eddie Murphy, as a member of a minority group, seems to have a licence to offend every other minority group under the sun.

The rest of the film is made up of the same sort of inane gibberish and schoolyard bullshit that a kindergartener could have come up with. I could be charitable and say that Rick Baker's make-up effects are impressive (Murphy's transformation into Mr. Wong is nothing short of completely convincing), but that's like dishing out accolades for coming up with a completely authentic recreation of faecal matter which even smells like the real thing. It wasn't funny when Murphy did it in his remake of The Nutty Professor and it sure as hell isn't funny now. This is a tedious, mean-spirited, nasty, unfunny, noxious, loathsome, fucking tragic waste of celluloid. Baron Scarpia, I lay down the gauntlet.

Victoria Alexander in her review for FilmsInReview.com (one of the only positive appraisals I could find) crowed about how the film "celebrat[es] a big black woman who has not been victimized by a non-achievable, absurd standard of beauty fostered upon black and white women". Assuming she wasn't being ironic, then I can only lament for a culture that actually considers Rasputia to be a positive portrayal of a fat black woman.

1/10.

Oh, and to add insult to injury, the HD DVD transfer is flawless.

Ask and ye shall receive

Well, I've taken today as annual leave (my parents are away for the weekend, and, if I was going out to work, I would have had to get up at 6 AM to walk the dogs beforehand, so this means less hassle beforehand), so I decided to take the opportunity to answer a reader request and put together a permanent HD Image Quality rankings list.

You may be aware of my semi-infrequent postings in which I provide a breakdown of the various HD releases I've seen and how their image quality compares. When I first jumped aboard the high definition bandwagon back in the summer of 2006, I immediately began to notice major discrepancies between the ratings being awarded to the image quality of HD DVD and Blu-ray releases on major review sites, and what I was seeing with my own eyes. As with standard definition DVD, I quickly lost track of the number of times a reviewer would praise a transfer to the heavens, only for me to discover that it was in fact blurry, filtered and/or edge enhanced, or for them to utterly trash (or at the very least remain indifferent to) discs that turn out to feature smooth, natural, film-like image quality. Broadly speaking, there seems to be a lack of understanding among reviewers, even so-called professional ones, of what constitutes a filmic "look" and how to accurately describe the various strengths and weaknesses on display in a transfer. I thought, and still think, that reviews such as these can potentially cause damage to the format (a distributor, for example, might see that a filtered and/or edge enhanced title is receiving rave reviews and therefore mandate that all transfers have the same work done on them) and bring the profession into disrepute (by appearing ignorant).

Therefore, I made up my mind to add my own voice, wherever possible, and "call it as I see it". Initially, reviewing every disc that landed on my doormat wasn't too much of a tall order, but, as I ended up buying or otherwise receiving more and more discs, this became increasingly difficult until, fairly quickly, I realised that it would be impossible to write in detail about every single HD DVD and Blu-ray disc I'd seen. This is why I decided to create the rankings chart.

I was recently asked if I would consider creating a specific section on the site in which to store all this information, the contents of which would be continually updated and therefore meaning that there would be a permanent URL to which to refer, rather than having to wait for each new unscheduled update. I agreed, and the results, which I knocked together over the course of a couple of hours this morning, can be seen here.

High definition hootenanny

A handful of discs have landed on my doormat over the last couple of days. First up, on Tuesday, was a check disc for Optimum's UK HD DVD release of Wolf Creek, replacing the Blu-ray release which wouldn't play in my Japanese Playstation 3 thanks to a strange bug called region coding. I've taken a quick look at it in advance of putting together a full review for DVD Times, and I can report quite categorically that those who already own the Weinstein Company's US release should stick with it. Optimum have inexplicably decided to encode their version using MPEG2, and the result is a heck of a lot of artefacting. You still get a nicely detailed picture, and some shots do look flawless, but the number of shots that show excessive macro-blocking make this a less than immersive experience.

Oh, and the menus appear to be bugged, at least for Xbox 360 users: the scene selection screen won't load. The on-screen overlay disappears, leaving the background footage to play in an infinite loop, requiring the disc to be ejected and reinserted.

Then, on Wednesday, while I was out at work, the Blu-ray release of Masters of Horror: Season 1, Volume 3, containing Don Coscarelli's Incident On and Off a Mountain Road, Tobe Hooper's Dance of the Dead and Larry Cohen's Pick Me Up, arrived. Then, today, this was supplemented by the fourth and final volume of Masters of Horror's first season, containing Takeshi Miike's Imprint (the episode which so horrified the executives that they refused to air it in the US), Joe Dante's Homecoming and Mick Garris' Chocolate. Given that the only episode I've watched so far is Sick Girl in Volume 2 (having previously seen Jenifer one and a half times, which was more than enough), it looks like I've got quite a bit of viewing ahead of me.

Blu-ray review: Ratatouille

All things considered, this is a superlative release. The audio-visual quality is so impressive that, if it had been bare-bones, this disc would have been getting my unreserved recommendation. As it is, you may have to sift through the material on offer to get to the juicy bits, but there is a wealth of information on offer provided you are able to put up with the less than ideal menu system. Ratatouille on Blu-ray is just what this diner ordered.

I've reviewed Disney's Region A Blu-ray release of Pixar's latest film, Ratatouille, after having promised not to abuse this opportunity to use as many metaphors about cooking as possible.

How low can you go?

Just when you thought the whole Kane & Lynch: Dead Men fiasco couldn't get any worse, publisher Eidos Interactive has been caught with its pants down yet again. As reported by Kotaku, someone at the company marketing department seems to have decided that, if they can't get a positive review from Gamespot, then they'll damn well make up their own and falsely attribute them to other review sites. Care to guess what's wrong with the image below?

If you answered "Eidos pulled these quotes and scores out of its collective anus," you'd be half way there. As Kotaku explains:

GameSpy did not say "It's the best emulation of being in the midst of a Michael Mann movie we've ever seen" in their review of the game. They said that in their E3 2007 coverage. In other words, a preview. They also did not give the game five stars. They gave it three.

As for Game Informer, same deal. The highlighted quote does not appear in the review of the game. Nor do they give it five stars. Game Informer don't even score in stars. They gave it a 7/10.

Head over to Kotaku for the rest of the story.

Um... say what?

Now, I'm no stranger to publishers using reviews in - shall we say? - creative ways. I have seen certain publishers post extracts of my reviews on their web sites with certain parts edited out to make my overall appraisals sound more glowing than they actually were. I've also seen quotes attributed to myself (or, more often, DVD Times) appearing on the backs of DVD covers that could only have been compiled by pasting together a word here and a word there. (I mean, come on, does "A little seen gem... with nudity, gore and three Bond girls!" really sound like something I would write? It is, according to Blue Underground's packaging for The Black Belly of the Tarantula. Well, at least they chose a film that I was genuinely impressed by rather than attempting to make out that I was lavishing praise on something I hated.) This is on an entirely different level, though. I suppose, if the DVD distributors had as little integrity and self-respect as Eidos, I could expect to see quotes like "It's... very [good]! [Bianchi's] camerawork is... as accomplished as... Argento's [most] impressive endeavours!" and "You have to admire Dr. Boll. He consistently churns out [masterpieces]! Alone in the Dark was merely foreplay!" attributed to myself appearing on new releases of Strip Nude for Your Killer and House of the Dead respectively.

It's nice to know that Eidos is seemingly intent on digging an even deeper hole for itself. Add to that the fact that Gamespot members, protesting against the firing of Jeff Gerstmann, have taken it upon themselves to award Kane & Lynch 1/10 ratings en masse, and you now have a game that, in all likelihood, was nothing more than hopelessly mediocre, but, thanks to Eidos and Gamespot's dodgy dealings, has now acquired a far worse reputation than it would ever have had if they had simply elected to keep their noses out and let the reviewers get on with reviewing.

Nice one, guys.

Thanks to Lyris for the tip-off.

HD DVD review: Les Triplettes de Belleville

It's great to see more traditional animation becoming available in high definition, particularly when it's a film as good as Les Triplettes de Belleville. With its solid audio-visual presentation, this release is a must-have for HD DVD-ready animation aficionados.

"Swinging Belleville rendez-vous..." I've reviewed the recent French HD DVD release of Sylvain Chomet's excellent Les Triplettes de Belleville.

HD DVD review: Pan's Labyrinth

Optimum's HD DVD release of Pan's Labyrinth is a good one, and one which improves substantially on all current DVD releases in terms of image quality. It does have its shortcomings, however, particularly with regard to the problem of audio synchronisation, and looks set to be superseded by New Line's substantially meatier US release, due out towards the end of the year. If you want your HD fairytale fix now, however, you could do a lot worse than picking up this release.

I've reviewed the recent HD DVD of Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, released in the UK by Optimum on a feature-packed disc.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8, Episode 8: No Future For You, Part Three

Written by Brian K. Vaughan; Illustrated by Georges Jeanty

I suspect this is a failing on the part of Season 7 rather than Season 8, but I really don't get why Buffy and Faith are at loggerheads once again, after getting on pretty well during the final episodes of the television series. Don't get me wrong, I was as baffled as anyone by the fact that Buffy and her friends so readily forgave Faith for trying to, y'know, murder them, but even so, given that the writers decided to go down that route, brushing all of Faith's past indiscretions down the carpet, they should really have carried this through into the comic book realm instead of doing what strikes me as a massive retcon. Now, Buffy, who happily fought alongside Faith in Chosen, comes across her once again and immediately assumes that Faith plans on killing her.

To be fair, Faith is, at that present moment, in the company of one Lady Genevieve Savidge, who most certainly does plan on killing her, but even so, it seems like a bit of a leap in logic. Genevieve, by the way, has some absolutely delicious dialogue (most of it relating to her bored observation that most of her tutors have been "filthy paedos" - Vaughan has done a pretty effective job of capturing the lingo and obsessions of the inhabitants of the British Isles), but it wasn't enough to distract me from the problematic nature of the Faith/Buffy relationship. I'm also growing increasingly weary of the use of generic fantasy archetypes in these comics: in The Chain we had fairies, whereas, in this episode, we have a little hobgoblin man assisting Giles.

Some nice artwork in this issue, though - quite a bit more dynamic than the previous couple of episodes. Oh, and the final frame immediately reminded me of Gargh Marenghi's Darkplace. If you read the comic and have seen that particular show, you'll probably know what I mean.

7/10.

Pan's pipes

I received a couple of review copies of upcoming high definition releases from Optimum on Friday: Wolf Creek on Blu-ray and Pan's Labyrinth on HD DVD. Both titles are coming out on both formats (the Blu-ray versions were released on November 19th, whereas the HD DVD versions have been delayed a week, until November 26th), and I'm fairly sure HD DVD versions were requested for both, so I'm not sure why I got a Blu-ray Wolf Creek. In any event, I'm not able to review it, because it is coded for Region B only, and, as you may know, my Blu-ray hardware (Playstation 3) is Region A. As far as I'm concerned, Optimum is merely shooting themselves in the foot here, as they are simply denying themselves sales. It makes particularly little sense when you consider that region coding doesn't exist for HD DVD, so anyone in the world can play their HD DVD titles, whereas only the privileged few who shelled out for overpriced European Blu-ray players will be able to play their Blu-ray titles.

Anyway, I may not have been able to look at Wolf Creek, but I have given Pan's Labyrinth a cursory glance. The image quality is a bit uneven, with a strange "eroded" appearance that appears to be the result of attempting to suck out the film grain. As a result, textures tend to look a bit waxy and "cut-out", particularly faces, while a lot of the fine detail has been removed from the foliage in the scenes taking place in the woodland. It's a strange effect, as it means there is a superficial sense of crispness, but not the sort of detail you would expect from an image so sharp.

Extras, by the way, seem to mirror Optimum's UK DVD release, with only the bonus trailers for The Devil's Backbone and cover art of Cronos missing in action. Of course, the only audio option provided is a Dolby Digital-Plus 5.1 track, so I suspect many people will prefer to wait until New Line release their own version in the US on December 26th, for its DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track and PiP visual commentary. More significantly, the picture on this release seems to be lagging slightly behind the audio at all times, resulting in some noticeable lip synchronisation errors (particularly apparent given the rapid-fire Spanish in which most of the characters converse).

Expect a full review at DVD Times in the not too distant future.

DVD review: The Stendhal Syndrome

If you already own a copy of the Italian release of The Stendhal Syndrome, then whether you consider this new edition to be a worthwhile purchase will be dependent on whether you feel that the price is worth paying for a slightly improved transfer and new bonus materials. If, however, you only own the poor quality Troma or Dutch Film Works releases, then I would definitely recommend this release.

I've reviewed Blue Underground's recent release of Dario Argento's The Stendhal Syndrome, presented for this first time uncut in North America in this 2-disc special edition, courtesy of DVD Pacific.

Blu-ray review: Oldboy

It's great to see more non-Hollywood content appearing on Blu-ray, particularly a solid film like Oldboy, but it's hard not to feel somewhat shortchanged by Tartan's failure to port over all of the bonus content from their 2-disc DVD set, while the image, despite being a definite step up from every prior release of the film, falls short of the high standard set by their Blu-ray release of Black Book.

I've reviewed Tartan's recent UK Blu-ray release of Oldboy, Chan-wook Park's critically acclaimed revenge flick. This Region 0 release features decent if not outstanding transfer and audio treatment, while some but not all of the extras from the DVD release have been ported over.

Alan Jones on Mother of Tears

Reviews of Dario Argento's Mother of Tears have been pouring in for some time now, some good, some bad, some split right down the middle, but, for many fans, the review they have been waiting for is the one penned by all-round Argento expert Alan Jones. After much anticipation, he has finally written a few words on the film, as well as its Rome premiere on Halloween.

As to the film itself, well, it's not the conclusion to the SUSPIRIA and INFERNO trilogy any of us wanted to see.

[...]

While it's easy to criticise LA TERZA MADRE (occasionally different to the US MOTHER OF TEARS version) for what it isn't rather than what it actually is - a gory, campy supernatural romp - the main problem with the film is simple. The layers of ethereal artifice given by lush cinematography and arch style to the prior two classic films lent their fractured stories a further atmosphere of palpable fever dream unreality. Stripped of that, and saddled with Fasano's dull realism (his DO YOU LIKE HITCHCOCK photography was superior), the film's equally episodic narrative comes off as contrived, crude and kitsch. Why on earth didn't Argento use again the vivid colour palettes that made SUSPIRIA and INFERNO so fabulous to look at? He had the chance in Jace and Adam's jewel-bleeding concept, but axed it as too fairytale instead of embracing its rich atmospheric possibilities.

[...]

Claudio Argento said it best at the premiere performance. He told me, "For the general public it's a good solid movie, for Dario's fans I'm not so sure".

For the full piece, which includes several photographs from the premiere, head over to Dark Dreams.

DVD debacle, Blu-ray bonzana, HD DVD hullabalooza!

I've kind of been slacking on updates regarding new DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD releases that have been pouring on to my desk. As it happens, one of each has arrived in the last week (not counting Les Triplettes de Belleville, discussed here). What can I say? I haven't been feeling all that great over the last week or so, and as a result I've been a bit distracted. I was feeling decidedly queasy on Saturday, and in addition to that I think I've done something to a muscle, or joint, or bone, in my hip. For over a week, I've been having pains of varying degrees throughout my left hand side from my waist down, and, on Saturday night, I woke up with my whole leg spasming of its own accord. I was actually contemplating going to the hospital, but things seem to be settling down somewhat now, so I'm currently assuming that whatever was damaged is sorting itself out. I have a suspicion that it has something to do with the heavy crates I was carrying about at work just under a fortnight ago. One incident report coming right up!

Anyway, in jollier news...

My review copy of Blue Underground's US 2-disc Special Edition of Dario Argento's The Stendhal Syndrome reached me. I've done little more than take a cursory glance at the transfer, which doesn't appear to be particularly good (although not much worse than I was expecting, given Blue Underground's track record for having an unhealthy obsession with the edge enhancement and filtering dials), and watched the Dario Argento interview on the second disc (which was very informative, even if he did gloss over the supposed conflicts he had with cinematographer Guiseppe Rotunno during the shoot). I intend to take a fuller look at it towards the end of the week, with a review (including a newly rewritten article on the film, similar to what I did for Suspiria and Inferno) coming soon.

I also picked up a copy of Fox's recent Region A Blu-ray release of The Fly, making this my first ever high definition David Cronenberg film (with Eastern Promises to follow on HD DVD in December) and only my second Fox DVD. From what I've seen of it, it appears to be a pretty good representation of the source materials, although perhaps a bit softer than I would have liked. Unfortunately, the original stereo audio mix has been junked in favour of a souped up 5.1 remix. For shame, Fox, for shame.

Finally, the HD DVD release of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey arrived on Saturday. Believe it or not, I haven't seen the film before and am decidedly curious to sit down and watch it for the first time. I have a feeling it's going to be one of those films that takes a while to "get", but one thing I do know for sure, at this stage, is that it features a very nice transfer. While I am a little concerned about its almost grainless look, in every other area it appears to be excellent, with a much higher level of detail than I am generally used to seeing from Warner's HD releases. The line-up of extras looks very good, too, with the Channel 4-made documentary 2001: The Making of a Myth thrown in along with a commentary and several other documentaries and featurettes. The other four Kubrick titles released on HD DVD at the same time (A Clockwork Orange, Eyes Wide Shut, Full Metal Jacket and The Shining) are also on their way, although, due to supply issues at Amazon.com, they were all dispatched at different times.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8, Episode 7: No Future For You, Part Two

Written by Brian K. Vaughan; Illustrated by Georges Jeanty

It seems like it was ages ago that I wrote my last Buffy review - so much so that I'd almost forgotten what the ongoing story was, and had to reread the preview issue to remind myself of what was going on.

To tell the truth, these "episodes" are so short that it's quite difficult to review them on an individual basis: generally speaking, not enough happens in each one for you to get much of an idea of the quality of the storytelling until you've read the entire multi-part story (discounting one-shots like The Chain, of course). This issue continues Faith's mission to infiltrate rogue Slayer Genevieve's party and assassinate her, as well as briefly hopping back to the issue of Dawn and her giantness. I'm enjoying the Faith plot, even if it seems that they're retreading old ground at times; the Dawn stuff, less so. Generally speaking, if you're going to tease a plot out over the course of several months (don't forget that we're only seeing one issue per month, if that), it had better be an interesting one. Dawn being huge because she had sex with a Thricewise (whatever that is) is not particularly interesting, and the idea of a sixty foot tall girl mooching around in a Scottish glen is a bit too farcical, even by Buffy standards, to hold up week after week. I sincerely hope they do something with this plot strand before too long.

Still, the Faith stuff occupies 90% of the comic, so my reaction to this episode was on the whole positive, and, because Faith has always struck me as a far more interesting character than Buffy herself, I didn't object to the titular heroine's non-appearance for the second time (the impersonator in The Chain doesn't count). (Actually, a show based solely around Faith, Willow, Giles and Dawn, who are the only regulars to appear in this episode, wouldn't strike me as a bad thing at all. Well, okay, maybe not Dawn, although it least in comic book form you don't actually have to listen to her.) As I mentioned before, there's a certain sense of déjà vu to what the writers are doing with Faith, although to be honest they made such a pig's ear of her character development in Season 7 that it's difficult to be too negative here.

Nice shock ending too. I had some idea of what was coming, but the way it was handled was pretty nifty.

7/10.

Halloween HD DVD review: Underworld: Extended Cut

In terms of bonus content, Sony Pictures' recent US Blu-ray release of Underworld, which ports over most of the extras from the standard definition release of the extended cut, is definitely preferable. For those who are restricted to HD DVD only, however, this release provides a magnificent audio-visual presentation of the film that I struggle to imagine being bettered.

Concluding this year's Halloween special, I've reviewed Concorde Home Entertainment's HD DVD release of Underworld, a film which may not offer much in the way of seasonal cheer, but at least has vampires and werewolves in it.

Halloween DVD review: Inferno

Unlike the Definitive Edition of Suspiria which I reviewed earlier today, the differences between this iteration of Inferno and the earlier Anchor Bay release are not a clear-cut case of something being "wrong". Rather, they constitute a decidedly different-looking version of the same film, but one that is probably equally accurate to Argento's vision. While dedicated fans will undoubtedly wish to pick up both DVDs, those only looking for one to add to their library are advised that both editions have their own strengths and weaknesses. The choice is up to the viewer.

Continuing the joint celebration of Halloween and the Italian theatrical release of Mother of Tears, I've reviewed the recent Italian R2 release of Inferno, Dario Argento's third film in the Three Mothers trilogy.

Halloween DVD review: Suspiria: Definitive Edition

The so-called Definitive Edition of Suspiria proves to be anything but: a thoroughly disappointing release whose only claim to fame, beyond buggering up the look of the film something rotten, is its nifty tin case. And thus the quest for the definitive DVD release of Dario Argento's masterpiece continues...

To celebrate Halloween, and to coincide with the Italian theatrical release of Mother of Tears, Dario Argento's concluding part to the Three Mothers trilogy, I've reviewed the recent R2 Italian "Definitive Edition" of the first instalment, Suspiria, which comes in a nifty metal tin.