Reviews

"Ya rotten kids, ya should be locked in cages!"

After many years of shoddy treatment at the hands of its distributor, Problem Child, one of my favourite bad movies ever, has finally been released properly!

This film, and its sequel, the imaginatively named Problem Child 2, have, for some time, only been available on DVD in 4x3 full frame format. Obviously, these aren't the most prestigious titles Universal has ever released, and you won't see them being added to the studio's HD DVD line-up any time soon (then again, considering some of the junk they've released in high definition, you'd think they might be well at home there), but no movie, not even Voodoo Academy, deserved to be butchered in such a way. Thankfully, Universal's European distribution wing have come to the rescue, releasing the two original "classics", and an apparently embarrassing made-for-TV sequel, on April 3rd, in a 3-disc box set, named, like its two-film US counterpart, the Problem Child Tantrum Pack. Recognising the important place that these films hold in the history of cinema, the BBFC have also agreed to waive the cuts they originally demanded to Problem Child 2 (the film was unlucky enough to be released at the height of the board's nunchuk obsession).

Naturally, I've ordered myself a copy, from Play. I also took the opportunity to order a copy of Black Book (Zwartboek in its native Dutch), a film I originally intended to go to see at the cinema (yeah, yeah, how many times have I said that and not gone through with it?). It's a Paul Verhoeven film, so chances are it's laughably bad, shamelessly tasteless, or both, but it got some pretty good write-ups at the time of its theatrical release, so I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt. Oh yeah, and hope to get my reviews of both The Fountain (boo, hiss) and Pan's Labyrinth (which I still haven't got round to watching) before the end of the weekend.

Blu-ray review: Casino Royale

Despite the lack of decent bonus material on this release, I suspect that most people will be more than happy with the sumptuous image quality and solid audio. For Bond's first high definition outing, Sony have certainly come up trumps, and I only hope that future releases in the series will be able to come close to matching this quality. Provided you import an uncut copy, and don't consider in-depth extras to be an essential part of the viewing process, it's hard to go wrong with Casino Royale on Blu-ray.

James Bond gets his first ever high definition outing with Casino Royale. I've reviewed the recent Finnish Blu-ray release from Sony Pictures.

The Historian

In the 21st century, writing a novel set in the present day (or near enough to it) and featuring the character of Dracula is nothing if not a challenge. The figure has become so ingrained in popular culture that the author really only has two options: (a) pretend that the last century or so of Dracula-inspired literature, cinema and all-round pop culture never happened and, in doing so, make the characters of your novel seem incredibly out of touch, or (b) acknowledge that Bram Stoker, Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee et al did indeed happen, and run the risk of becoming incredibly self-conscious (in the Scream mould) in the process. With The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova does something rather interesting, acknowledging the existence of Stoker's book, the Lugosi film and so on, but spending a minimum amount of time with them and instead attempting to combine Dracula with an actual historical figure, the 15th century Romanian warlord Vlad the Impaler, from whose surname, Drâculea, comes the name of the fictitious vampire.

This works for two reasons. First of all, the origin of Dracula's name is already widely known, although the extent to which Stoker based his character on the historical figure has been greatly exaggerated. This gives Kostova's use of Vlad the Impaler a certain degree of authenticity. Secondly, Kostova has invested considerable effort in establishing a network of fictional historical sources, events, characters and places, portrayed in a manner that makes them seem genuinely credible. (Occasionally, she oversteps the mark: sitting down to read an entire chapter which served as fictional historical paper turned out to be every bit as mind-numbingly tedious as my experiences with the real thing.) The author manages to cross-cut between at least three separate storylines spanning more than half a century without it ever becoming confusing (although I did, at times, become rather aware that I was essentially ready chapter after chapter about people reading about people reading about people). Apparently, the novel took ten years to write; based on the complexity of the narrative and the ordered manner in which it is presented, I can well believe it.

Unfortunately, it would be something of a stretch to claim that I was thoroughly gripped by the book from start to finish. The amount of time it has taken me to finish it since I began it shortly after finishing Casino Royale, back in February (!!), should serve as some indication of the extent to which my interest in it dipped and peaked. Sometimes I found myself genuinely engrossed in the narrative, but on other occasions I actually considered the prospect of sitting down to read another chapter to be an unnecessary chore. The book is 700 pages of fairly tense text, and, despite being unkindly referred to by some pundits as "The Dracula Code", based on its narrative similarities to The Da Vinci Code, it moves at a snail's pace for the most part. A page-turner this is not, and I wonder how on earth Sony Pictures are planning to adapt the narrative for their upcoming movie adaptation.

Part of the problem is that none of the characters are all that vividly depicted. The unnamed narrator, a teenage girl who finds herself traversing 1970s Europe searching for her missing father (whose disappearance has something to do with the legend of Dracula), is pretty much a blank slate. This may be partly down to the fact that, for the most part, she is underused, serving as little more than a means of relaying the content of her father's letters to the reader, but the various individuals whom she meets, or about whom she reads, are either similarly ill-defined or else exaggerated caricatures of stock figures. Kindly but stuffy English professors, excessively polite Turkish academics and wizened Slavic women living in huts are in abundance, and it's hard to really care about any of them, or visualise them as real people. There are also some serious problems with the pacing as, after moving incredibly slowly for around 650 pages, the final climax (actually, make that a series of climaxes) is crammed into the remaining 50 and wrapped up in the space of a couple of chapters. Considering the complexity of the material that precedes it, the eventual encounter between Dracula and the narrator feels a bit anticlimactic.

In the end, it's difficult to know where I stand as regards The Historian. Do I regret reading it? No, but at the same time I'm acutely aware that I would probably have been able to read at least two more engaging novels of similar length in the same space of time. With a good book, as with a good film, I tend to sit and think about what I've just experienced once I've read the final page or watched the final line of the credits scroll to the top of the screen. Last night, when I finished The Historian, I shut the book, switched off the light and promptly fell asleep.

HD DVD review: HDScape: Antarctica Dreaming/Visions of the Sea

Of the two titles, Antarctica Dreaming is the most substantial, operating as a fully-fledged 83-minute documentary, whereas Visions of the Sea is essentially a series of undeniably visually arresting but ultimately unconnected images, which rapidly outstays its welcome if you attempt to engage with it for its full 60-minute duration. For those who find the subject matter interesting, these discs are likely to hold some appeal, but those considering buying them simply to act as demo material are advised that there are many better-looking titles on offer.

It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it. I've taken a look at two nature documentary titles in the HDScape line, Antarctica Dreaming and Visions of the Sea, presented on two HD DVD/DVD combo discs.

Interesting promotional tactics

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=64873

Given the number of negative reviews this film has received, I'm surprised they picked a quote that could so easily be misinterpreted.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8, Episode 3: The Long Way Home, Part Three

Written by Joss Whedon; Illustrated by Georges Jeanty

As I suspected as soon as I saw the cover, much of this episode is a pyrotechnics extravaganza, a showdown between Willow and Amy, whose sudden hatred of Buffy and co is something I sincerely hope is going to be explained before too long, because it seems to have come out of nowhere and makes no sense at all (like so many ideas that materialised during Season 7). The amount of power with which Whedon has infused Willow is also giving me cause for concern. Unless he can find a convincing way of curbing her obviously impressive magical prowess, people are going to start wondering why, if she can turn all the Potentials in the world into full-blown Slayers, she can't, oh, say, end world hunger, go back in time and prevent World War 2, resurrect her dead girlfriend (or anyone else who happens to be dead, come to that)... I'm getting shades of vengeance demon Anya from early Season 7 all over again, where the writers suddenly realised that having a character who can teleport anywhere at will created a few plot problems.

Elsewhere, Buffy's atmospheric dream continues, although personally I found its resolution slightly anticlimactic. Some definite issues to be worked out between herself and Xander, methinks - although romantic angst, in my opinion, certainly beats the manic-depressive angst of Season 6 (and, to some extent, Season 7). Some nice dialogue as well, and, shockingly, the best line of the episode goes to Dawn: "Fe fi fo fucking fum!"

6/10.

Blu-ray review: Dragon's Lair

How much you get out of Dragon's Lair on Blu-ray will unsurprisingly depend on how fond your memories are of the arcade original. This is undeniably the best it has ever looked (although pointless "restoration" techniques incompetently applied prevent it from reaching its full potential), and the bonus features are uniformly excellent. However, I personally struggle to find a single kind word to say about the game itself, while there is no guarantee that the disc will work correctly or at all if you do not own one of the small number of players on which it was tested prior to release, thanks to the blasé attitude of the Blu-ray Disc Association regarding the format's interactive functionality. Caveat emptor, as the saying goes.

For DVD Times' first ever review of interactive HD content, I dig up some 80s nostalgia for a review of the Blu-ray adaptation of the popular arcade hit Dragon's Lair.

Chasing the dragon

I'm well aware that a deliciously derisive review of the monumental suckfest that is Dragon's Lair on Blu-ray should have been forthcoming by now, and I really hope to get it done before the weekend, but the fact is that I've been feeling a little down in the dumps since Friday with a rather bad cold. The thing laid me low to the extent that I actually called in sick on Monday and Tuesday (not that I minded not having to go into that sweltering office and sit in front of a flickery monitor), and I'm still feeling a bit zapped of energy and motivation. I'll give the thing one more try before putting pen to paper, but I have to honestly say that this is going to be one of those rare 1/10 reviews. It's a failure as a game and an even bigger failure if you try to class it as a movie, so I'm not sure there's anything nice I can say about it at all. Sometimes genuinely scathing reviews can be fun to write, but in this case, I suspect that it's going to be little more than a chore.

It's a royal flush!

Wrong game, I know, but I don't know anything about cards. The point is, my copy of the Finnish release of Casino Royale on Blu-ray arrived today.

(Coincidentally, Lyris also received the free copy of the UK release which, as Playstation 3 owners, we were able to sign up for. I had a look at the torture scene on this copy, and found the manner in which it was edited quite curious. Gone is Le Chiffre placing the rope on Bond's shoulder, and his line, "Such a waste." Some of the sound effects and Bond's screams also seemed to have been toned down slightly, although, without doing a side by side comparison, it was impossible to be sure, so don't quote me on this. Either way, Bond's balls still get a bloody good walloping, and I remain incredibly disturbed by the notion that the BBFC found elements of this scene to be sexualised.)

Anyway, on to the matter at hand - the Finnish disc. I can confirm that it is indeed region free, and that it is indeed completely uncut... although I had a rather hare-raising moment at first, because, in my eagerness to take a look-see at my new disc, I accidentally put the American disc in by mistake! Put that down to having four copies of the same film, each with almost identical covers, in the same room. Thankfully, I had enough sense to rectify this mistake before I went blustering on to the Internet to verbally abuse those who had told me the Finnish release was uncut. The disc label, incidentally, also has an Australian OLFC certificate on it, lending credence to the theory that the exact same disc was released down under, which should please those who prefer enormous ratings stickers on their front covers to non-English text. Furthermore, although I will be doing some careful inspections of the various releases before offering my final judgement, an initial glance at this disc suggests that it has identical image quality to the US/Korean version.

Now that I have a copy of Casino Royale that I'm happy with, I can finally get on with my long-delayed review.

Third time's a charm

In what is becoming something of an obsession for me, I've just ordered my third copy of Casino Royale on Blu-ray, and am hoping that this will finally be one that I am satisfied with. After discovering that the supposedly uncut Korean release did in fact feature the same censored PG-13 version of the film as its US counterpart (actually, an identical disc was released in both territories, right down to the "Made in the USA" text on the disc label), I vowed to be more careful about my double-dips in future. However, several independent sources have now confirmed that the film has been released uncut on Blu-ray in both Australia and Scandinavian territories, and that, contrary to previous suspicions, it is in fact a multi-region (ABC) rather than Region B release. This makes the US/Chinese/Korean/Thai Region A release the only one to be region coded - ironic, considering that it features the most butchered of all the cuts of the film.

I was going to pick up the Australian version, simply for the convenience of having English text on the cover (silly, I know), but unfortunately it has sold out at EzyDVD, my regular port of call for Aussie discs. Instead, I headed over to Finnish site Filmifriikki and placed an order for the local disc from that country.

Once I have my hands on a copy of the film that I'm happy with, you can probably expect me to finally get round to that review I've been intending to provide for so long.

David Manning rides again

Source: AV Science Forum

Never ones to shy away from blowing their own trumpet (see the David Manning and PSP lie blog fiascos), Sony has launched yet another round of shameless self-promotions, this time in the guise of the obscurely-titled Phase Hydra. The aim of the game is to

seed "high profile" forums with Blu-ray advocates and target bloggers to promote Blu-ray to get the word out to the world.

This is hilarious, it really is. Many people, myself included, have long suspected that Sony was ordering employees to infiltrate forums related to the high definition video formats in order to promote Blu-ray under the guise of consumers, and it seems that we now have the closest we're going to get to proof of this. Stories like this only serve to remind me why Sony is so hated by such a large number of people.

Of course, the question now is why they are so desperate as to resort to these cheap tactics. Could it have something to do with yesterday's surge in HD DVD sales during the AVS "buy an HD DVD" celebration?

Oops!

HD DVD review: A Scanner Darkly

A solid presentation of an extremely flawed film, this HD DVD release of A Scanner Darkly should please those who enjoyed the film. While this is not a title that shows off the prowess of high definition to any great extent, it is an undeniable improvement on the standard definition release and, if nothing else, a curious novelty in that it is one of only a tiny number of animated (or, in this case, quasi-animated) titles to be available in HD.

A revolutionary technique or just a gimmick? I ponder Richard Linklater's curious live action/animation hybrid A Scanner Darkly, released on a solid HD DVD by Warner. Review courtesy of DVD Pacific.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8, Episode 2: The Long Way Home, Part Two

Written by Joss Whedon; Illustrated by Georges Jeanty

Well, this is better than the first episode - a lot better actually, in virtually every way imaginable, although the first few pages did give me cause for concern. The plot is, initially at least, rather disjointed, flicking between various locations and attempting to draw parallels between the lessons of three different "teachers" to the junior Slayers. The first of these is Giles, who makes a not unwelcome return, although he seems to be both written and drawn more like the Giles of Season 1 than the more rounded, developed character who emerged later during the show's duration. The second of these is Buffy, who, for some reason, looks rather unlike Buffy in these panels (although she certainly talks like Buffy). The third, alas, is Andrew, who is annoying even in comic book form. Actually, I thought he was Jonathan reincarnated at first, given the manner in which he is drawn, but as soon as he opened his mouth I found myself convulsing in horror as memories of Seasons 6 and 7 came flooding back. Actually, while we're on the subject, why is Andrew serving as a mentor to the Slayers? Why is he qualified to do this? Why isn't he in jail yet?

Elsewhere, the army nonsense continues to give me worries that Season 8 is going to be another Season 4-style clumsy amalgamation of science and magic, although it consumes less than three pages in this particular episode. There are some amusing lines of dialogue, and a couple of panels in which Georges Jeanty's artwork comes impressively close to capturing the essence of the characters as embodied by the actors in the TV series (the manner in which Buffy tucks her hair behind her ear on page 15 is very Gellar-like). There's also a genuinely unsettling dream sequence which, if filmed, would have been highly effective. Oh, and there's Giant Dawn taking a bath in a highland loch... although she looks considerably less emaciated than Michelle Trachtenberg.

I'm sufficiently interested in the story now to want to see how it develops. The final panel promises some interesting pyrotechnics in the next instalment (although I'm not quite sure why Willow is dressed as a ye olde medieval wench, Once More With Feeling style). Whedon even has the balls to mention Tara's name in this episode (in comparison with Season 7, where it took until Episode 7 for that forbidden word to be uttered). There's also a fan letter at the end of the comic where a young lady named Alissa warns the author, in no uncertain terms, that she will have his head on a pike if he doesn't bring back her favourite witch. Given that they posted this letter, I have a feeling they're going to go somewhere with this.

7/10.

HD my left walnut

As most people will be aware by now, there have been some amazing high definition transfers on both HD DVD and Blu-ray, and some rather less than amazing ones. When you're working with a native resolution of 1920x1080, you'd better hope that your master is of the highest quality, because little flaws that would go unnoticed in standard definition will stick out like sore thumbs. The two titles most commonly dragged out for a public for a ritual flogging are Sony's House of Flying Daggers and The Fifth Element on Blu-ray, transfers that are generally regarded to constitute a decidedly miniscule improvement on their DVD counterparts. Indeed, even Sony have apparently realised this, given that they are currently in the process of preparing a new version and setting up a disc replacement programme.

Unfortunately, it seems that the crown for worst HD transfer must pass from Blu-ray to HD DVD. AV Science Forum member Xylon recently started providing side by side comparisons of standard definition and high definition titles, many of which admirably demonstrate the undeniables improvements that are possible in HD with even the least visually inspiring films. Unfortunately for certain less than proficient reviewers, however, these highly effective demonstrations have shown up their amateurish postulating for the sham that it is. These screenshots serve to confirm many of the opinions I've been expressing for a while now, e.g. that Batman Begins looks underwhelming, while Serenity looks fucking incredible.

The shit really hit the fan a few days ago when Xylon posted a comparison of Steven Soderbergh's Traffic, released last September on HD DVD by Universal. When initially released, many people commented that the transfer looked less than stellar. Such individuals were quickly put in their place by being told that Traffic intentionally looked rough and grainy, and that they shouldn't expect 3D whizz-bang effects and crystal clarity from every title (a sentiment that I fully agree with). Now, however, Xylon's screengrabs demonstrate the truth that dare not speak its name:

Traffic on HD DVD is a 480i upconvert.

Not only that, it actually looks worse than the DVD, with additional ringing and what appears to be even less fine detail. I really am absolutely flabbergasted, especially given some of the reviews that have emerged. The notorious Peter M. Bracke of High-Def Digest gave the transfer a 4/5 and said this:

Bottom line, this HD DVD transfer delivers. The source material is as good as the film stock allow, with no major defects visible such as print tears or distracting blemishes, though grain is intentionally excessive for much of the film. Black levels are consistent throughout, while contrast is all over the map. Some story threads have whites so blown out that fine detail is all but obscured, while others are bathed in darkness or excessively saturated colors. Thus, there is some noise and smeared hues, but again it appears intentional. Overall detail and depth to the image is about as good as can be expected. No, I was never blown away by the presentation as I've been with other HD DVD releases, but then I never anticipated otherwise.

The infamous Joshua Zyber of DVD Talk, meanwhile, rates it 3/5, and claims that

The disc looks exactly like the film is meant to look, and it actually has some fascinating textures, but this just isn't the type of movie you buy for crystal clear HD image quality. While certain scenes show off the High-Def fairly well (primarily the blue-filtered Michael Douglas segments), on the whole there isn't much fine object detail or depth. Aside from some minor edge ringing in a few scenes, the disc represents the movie's intended style faithfully and I can't fault it for that, but most viewers will probably not find it a huge upgrade over standard DVD.

Sorry, but the comparisons speak for themselves, and, coupled with some additional screen captures from a still crummy-looking but undeniably superior 720p broadcast version, it's difficult to imagine anyone trying to claim that Universal have done anything other than screw up royally. Unfortunately, this is not the case: Zyber is currently ransacking what little dignity he has left by attempting to poo-poo the screenshots and tell us that what we're seeing is untrue.

Josh Zyber, Peter Bracke: please consider retracting your reviews. The visual evidence speaks for itself, and not even the most blinkered individual could attempt to claim, based on the screenshots in question, that the Traffic HD DVD is anything other than a standard definition upconvert. Reviews such as these bring this profession into disrepute and mean that prospective buyers cannot make an informed decision about their purchases. Worse, they give lazy distributors ample reason to pump out any old garbage and charge a premium for it rather than spend money on new, decent-quality masters. Based on these phenomenally misguided reviews (and I'm sorry, but in this particular instance, we are talking about fact, not opinion), I highly doubt that I will ever trust a single article from these two writers ever again.

More ill-informed reviews:

DVD "Authority"
Upcoming Discs

One thing that should be remembered, however, is this: as ignorant, ill-informed and damaging as these reviews are, they are the small fry in this debacle. The people who should truly be hanging their heads and grovelling for apologies are Universal, who blew a 480i master up to 1080p, slapped it on a disc and had the nerve to sell it as "The Look and Sound of Perfect".

Update, April 12th, 2007 09:08 PM: A separate thread has now appeared at AVS, with the topic starter demanding (rightfully so) that Universal acknowledge their screw-up. Unfortunately, Mr. Zyber is continuing to make a fool of himself by refusing to admit the obvious.

HD DVD review: Children of Men

Presenting one of 2006's best films with a stellar transfer and audio, and some genuinely informative extras, this HD DVD of Children of Men is one of the best high definition releases I've seen so far, and one that gets my unreserved recommendation. In fact, I'd even go so far as to recommend that those who are currently not yet HD DVD-ready pick up a copy, if they don't already have a copy of the DVD, given that the DVD side includes all of the content from the stand-alone release.

One of the most powerful films of the last year arrives in high definition. I've reviewed Universal's HD DVD/DVD combo of Children of Men, given a stellar audio-visual presentation and some insightful extras.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8, Episode 1: The Long Way Home, Part One

Written by Joss Whedon; Illustrated by Georges Jeanty

It feels weird to be writing a new Buffy review, not least because of the rather drastic change of medium: from television to comic book. In a sense, it's a good idea: realistically speaking, there's no way the series can ever continue in televisual form, unless most (if not all) of the characters ended up being recast. At the same time, though, this means that it's difficult to see the comic as anything more than a poor man's substitute. That's perhaps overstating the case a bit, and, to be fair, the graphic novel format does offer some benefits not available to a TV series - for one, the scale and ambition of the locations, monsters and battles is now limited to the author's imagination and the artist's ability rather than the budget. That said, it naturally lacks a great deal of what made the show enjoyable, not least the performances of the various regulars.

Not constrained by such bothers as actors' contractual obligations, Joss Whedon does something a little different with this season premiere, choosing to showcase a limited number of his characters. Buffy, Xander and Dawn are the only three regulars to appear, along with a handful of new character who will presumably be relegated to supporting roles as the "season" develops. Unfortunately, these new characters are all either forgettable or annoying. We have an irritating, clichéd army general, Krull, and a whole gaggle of new Potentials (actually, I suppose they're technically full-blown Slayers now), who somehow manage to be just as annoying as their live action counterparts. Worse, the extent to which technology is showcased in this season premiere (we are introduced to Buffy and various other Slayers parachuting out of a helicopter, brandishing firearms) is giving me flashbacks to Season 4's more cringe-inducing moments. The artwork is also not as good as it could have been: it's technically sound, but the characters don't really look much like the actors who played them in the show, and the colour palette has a weird "gooey" pink and yellow style (a shame, because the cover art for this and the various upcoming episodes that have been previewed is excellent).

It's also short. The story is a mere 24 pages, with several large full-page or half-page illustrations, and I read it in less than 10 minutes. Allowing for dramatic conventions and the naturally slower pace of filmed narrative, I suspect that, were this episode filmed, it would last for around 20 minutes at most. Perhaps my expectations were a little high, but the fact that this was marketed as a new "season" did make me think that each "episode" would be something close to the equivalent of a full episode (or at least half of one) of the show. I'm also not that much of a fan of Whedon's decision to have Buffy and Xander "narrate" much of the episode through their inner thoughts, although I suppose it's a necessary evil given that, unlike the show, he can't rely on the performances of the actors to convey what their characters are feeling.

That said, the tone is still clearly Buffy. There are some funny lines, a couple of Buffy's trademark mid-combat quips, and some nice scenes between Buffy and Xander, and Buffy and Dawn (who has undergone certain, er, transformations since our previous encounter with her, in more ways than one). The final frame also sets up a nice cliffhanger with the reintroduction of a previous character: a certain witch. That's all I'm saying.

Ultimately, while reading the comic, I did my best to dramatise it in my head as a regular episode of Buffy, and it's based on this interpretation that I'm going to review it. Had it aired on TV, I would probably have described it as an extremely ambitious and technically impressive but thematically jarring episode. The characters feel like the ones we know and love (or hate, as the case may be), but the situations in which they find themselves feel a bit like a betrayal of the world and rules established by Whedon and his writers in the show. As such, I award it a cautious...

5/10.

DVD review: Peter Pan: Platinum Edition

It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to consider Peter Pan to be the most disappointing release yet in the Platinum Edition series. While Disney has released other, poorer DVDs, it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect something more from a line that the studio itself claims delivers "state-of-the-art bonus features" and top-notch audio-visual presentations. Those who don't already own this title on DVD should pick this release up, if only for the inclusion of the mono audio, but those who have one of the earlier editions would be advised to consider whether it's worth it in the long run.

Following the the second star to the right, I've flown away to Never Land to do battle with the nefarious Captain Hook in a review of Disney's recent Platinum Edition release of Peter Pan...

DVD review: Asterix and the Vikings

Despite these criticisms, Asterix and the Vikings leaves an overall impression of being one of the better adaptations of the series. We've been starved for traditional animation lately, and to see a new film that is not only hand-drawn but also drawn well is a rare treat indeed. Still, if you're already a fan of the book, don't expect this adaptation to convey the depth and tone of the source material, although, conversely, it may give you a newfound appreciation for what Goscinny and Uderzo were able to achieve in only 44 pages that the filmmakers struggle to convey in 75 minutes. That said, a new Asterix has been a long time in coming, and I only hope we don't have to wait another 12 years for the next one.

I've reviewed the UK DVD of Asterix and the Vikings, the latest animated feature starring the wily yellow-whiskered Gaul, given a decidedly unimpressive release by Optimum.

Blu-ray review: American Psycho

Looking at this Blu-ray release of American Psycho, I am left with the unshakable feeling that Lions Gate put the least possible amount of effort into it. With a shoddy transfer that should never have been allowed through quality control, and a greatly pared-down array of extras, this disc really should not have been released in its current state.

I've provided a review for the transfer, audio and bonus content of Lions Gate's recent Blu-ray release of American Psycho.

I haven't reviewed the film itself this time round, just the technical elements of the disc. American Psycho is a film that demands an in-depth treatment which, at the moment, I don't really have the time, inspiration or motivation to give. Therefore, rather than waffle out a couple of putrid paragraphs, I've skipped the film portion of the review so I can get the word out regarding this crummy-looking disc as quickly as possible. If you're interested in reading about the film itself, I recommend D.J. Nock's coverage of the standard definition release. It's an appraisal that I more or less agree with 100%, and it's better than anything I could have written within a reasonable time frame.

DVD review: Waking the Dead: Series 4

Waking the Dead is one of these shows that can rub people the wrong way. Many viewers dislike the character of Boyd and his temper tantrums, and the manner in which Trevor Eve portrays him (although, in comparison with the most recent series, he is an absolute saint here). Others find it confusing for the sake of being confusing (again, this may be true of later series, but the cases presented here are for the most part, logical). I consider it an excellent series, however, and one which, at least at this stage in its life, could be relied on to deliver solid entertainment week in, week out. It may be resembling CSI more and more with every year that passes (there's always something slightly painful about an older child aping its younger siblings), but it's nice to see a home-grown crime series which doesn't insist on insulting its audience's intelligence.

With the sixth series of Waking the Dead having recently drawn to a close, I've taken a look at the Cold Case Squad's fourth series, released on DVD by 2 Entertain.