DVDs I bought or received in the month of July
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The Bourne Supremacy (R0 USA, HD DVD)
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Casualty: Series 2 (R2 UK, SD DVD)
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The Collected Adventures of Asterix (R2 UK, SD DVD)
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Colt 38 Special Squad (R1 USA, SD DVD)
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Constantine (R0 USA, HD DVD)
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Final Destination 3: Thrill Ride Edition (R1 USA, SD DVD)
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Jenifer (R2 Denmark, SD DVD)
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A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (R2 Italy, SD DVD)
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Million Dollar Baby (R0 USA, HD DVD)
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Murder Rock: Special Edition (R1 USA, SD DVD)
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Puzzle (R2 Denmark, SD DVD)
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V for Vendetta: Deluxe Edition (R2 UK, SD DVD)
DVD debacle
V for Vendetta (the HMV-exclusive 2-disc R2 UK release, SD DVD) and
A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (R2 Italy, SD DVD) both arrived this morning.
I spent part of the morning working my way through the first hour of
A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, cataloguing all the instances in which I'll have to mix and match the audio when I come to do my composite version, which will marry the audio from the cut American print version with the video of the uncut Italian version, and I think I've got a feeling for what Federal Video have done.
Wherever possible, they seem to have used the same good quality but cut American print that Media Blasters used for their release. Now, as many people are probably aware, for one reason or another Media Blasters, in addition to this print, used another, poorer quality one which had severe discolouration and print damage. (The scene were Florinda Bolkan is chased by the hippy at the asylum is probably the worst affected.) For these scenes, and for the material that was missing from the American print, Federal Video have used
another print, which is more damaged and has a more compressed greyscale than the "main" print, but looks significantly better, in these scenes, than either Media Blasters' cut print, or (of course) their uncut, VHS-sourced, fullscreen version.
I have, however, come across one discrepancy. This takes place during the orgy/dinner crosscutting scene near the start of the film, which is differently edited depending on whether you're watching the US or Italian version. The Italian version (and this applies to both Federal Video's release and the VHS-sourced version provided by Media Blasters) is missing an extended shot of Anita Strindberg approaching and then canoodling with a comatose man. The missing material, featuring some notable buttock action courtesy of Ms. Strindberg, is included as a deleted scene on both Federal Video and Media Blasters' releases. For the latter, it is hidden as an easter egg, and is an incredibly poor quality VHS dupe, but Federal Video's version looks almost perfect, and I intend to splice this in for my composite version. This may lead to some audio issues, since I belive that inserting it would make the scene longer than either the US or Italian versions, but if need be I will steal some additional music from either an earlier scene or the score CD.
There's more missing from the American print than I'd previously realised, by the way. In addition to the world-famous "eviscerated dogs" scene (the effects of which were so convincing that they landed Lucio Fulci in court) and much of the sapphic dream sequences, various gore shots have been trimmed, and an entire sequence involving Carol realising her guilt in the Julia Durer murder before the police discover it has been sent to the scrapyard. For this scene, quite a lot of dialogue has been lost, so I'll probably have to subtitle it myself (hopefully I can get player generated subs to work; otherwise I'll have to burn them into the image itself).
See - that wasn't so hard, was it?
Update, 15:26: Well, I've now managed to successfully reintegrate the missing Anita Strindberg scene. I've no idea why Federal Video didn't do this themselves, because the requisite audio exists in the American print, so I didn't even have to do any looping or borrowing from other scenes. It took me about 10 minutes in Goldwave and then Adobe Premiere, and now I have on my hands a "perfect" Italian copy of the film running to its full length - something that, to the best of my knowledge, does not currently exist anywhere in commercial form. Up next: inserting the English dialogue, which is going to take considerably longer.
Update #2, 17:18: The first 28 minutes are now properly synchronised. I suspect I'll have to leave the subtitling till last, and then I'll be able to see whether or not creating player generated subs is a straightforward task.
Random drawings
Just a few random scribbles to prove that I'm still drawing.
Angel: Season 1, Episode 1: City of
Written Joss Whedon & David Greenwalt; Directed by Joss Whedon
And thus begins my slog through five seasons of
Buffy's more mature and meaner spin-off. This pilot episode does a good job of summing up what
Angel has to offer that its parent show doesn't. The mood is decidedly darker and more
noir-inspired, and the scale is clearly larger, incorporating the entire city of Los Angeles in comparison with
Buffy's comparatively contained Sunnydale. The violence is also considerably more aggressive, at least during the first season, which resulted in it getting an 18 certificate for its UK DVD release.
On to the show itself. First impressions: I like Doyle - it's too bad he didn't stick around longer. Cordelia is a much more rounded character here than on
Buffy, and almost immediately we get to see just how much of a front her high society girl persona is. And hey, I'm liking Angel a whole lot more already now that he's out of Sunnydale - maybe it's because he's not gasping "Buffy?" every time he opens his mouth. Did David Boreanaz take acting lessons during the summer hiatus or something?
Marks off for the crummy-looking vampire make-up (apparently they were trying out a new style, but quickly reverted back to the
Buffy look when they saw how bad it looked) and extremely clumsy manner in which Angel's back-story is conveyed. Seriously, Doyle literally shows up and tells the poor guy his own history. Yeesh! Couldn't they have just done a "previously on..." style recap?
Overall rating:
8/10.
Next time:
Lonely Hearts.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 4, Episode 1: The Freshman
Written and Directed by Joss Whedon
It's all change! Angel has skulked off into the shadows. Cordelia has disappeared without so much as a mention. Willow has short hair. Giles has turned into Hugh Heffner. Oh, and now we're in college... although, for some reason, the corridors of UC Sunnydale look an awful lot like the corridors of Sunnydale High with a brand new paint job. Can't think why
that would be!
Anyway, as season premieres go, this is a pretty decent one. It constitutes the biggest shake-up to the series' formula since it first began, so understandably a lot of time is spent establishing the new setup. Right from the bat we see a rehearsal of some of the main themes that will be played out throughout the remaining 21 episodes, namely Giles and Xander's feelings of uselessness, Willow's burgeoning self-confidence (see how she's already started talking and dressing completely differently?), and the gradual fragmentation of the old gang. We're in for some massive changes over the course of the season, so it's somewhat comforting to see that, in spite of all that's already different, some things are still the same - namely, the gang brainstorm and Buffy slays the bad vampires. And this episode's Villain of the Week, Sunday, is such a hoot that I find myself wishing she'd been kept as the Big Bad instead of... well, I won't spoil the later episodes right now.
Overall rating:
8/10.
Next time:
Living Conditions.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3 (1998-1999)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3
Season 3 reviews:
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Episode 1: Anne 8/10-
Episode 2: Dead Man's Party 6/10-
Episode 3: Faith, Hope and Trick 8/10-
Episode 4: Beauty and the Beasts 4/10-
Episode 5: Homecoming 6/10-
Episode 6: Band Candy 9/10-
Episode 7: Revelations 8/10-
Episode 8: Lover's Walk 9/10-
Episode 9: The Wish 10/10-
Episode 10: Amends 4/10-
Episode 11: Gingerbread 8/10-
Episode 12: Helpless 8/10-
Episode 13: The Zeppo 7/10-
Episode 14: Bad Girls 9/10-
Episode 15: Consequences 8/10-
Episode 16: Doppelgangland 9/10-
Episode 17: Enemies 6/10-
Episode 18: Earshot 9/10-
Episode 19: Choices 8/10-
Episode 20: The Prom 7/10-
Episodes 21 and 22: Graduation Day 8/10 and
9/10Prior to rewatching Season 3, my memory of it was that of a fun but unremarkable season. In the end, I'm surprised by how much better it was than I remembered it. Looking at the episode rankings, only two scored lower than 5/10 - a pretty impressive achievement given the number of clunkers in Season 2, which, until recently, I considered my favourite.
Season 3 gets an overall rating of 8/10, rounded up from 7.64, which averages out as the same rating Season 2 got. That's probably a bit of a mislead, though, since, looking at it now, Season 3 is definitely the better of the two. True, only one episode gets a 10/10 rating, versus four in Season 2, but, on the other hand, there are an impressive number of episodes rated 8/10 and higher. Season 3 is, simply put, more fun and more consistent, and, while it lacks the urgency and feeling of impending doom of its predecessor - the Mayor is introduced too slowly, if you ask me - it makes up for it with sharper humour and a more consistent sense of character progression. Yes, there are some real misfires - Xander's affair with Willow and the return of Angel are mid-bogglingly botched - but they can be overlooked.
As of now, we're entering into forbidden territory. If Season 3 has usurped Season 2, my original favourite of the show, it's anyone's guess how Season 5, my original second-favourite, will hold up. Season 4, as well, is going to be an interesting experience since, while its main arc is a bit of a mess, it's arguably the best season from the perspective of character development. It also contains my two favourite episodes ever -
Hush and
Restless. Also, because I'll be watching the first season of
Angel alongside it (thankfully, at this stage it's pretty straightforward: watch
Buffy 4.01, then
Angel 1.01, then
Buffy 4.02... and so on), it's going to be even more complex to keep track of the various plot developments and ongoing character arcs.
It's going to be interesting, I tells ya!
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episodes 21 and 22: Graduation Day
Written and Directed by Joss Whedon
Graduation Day is not of the same standard as Season 2's finale,
Becoming, but all the same, it's better than I remembered it. At least they've finally had the decency to split Buffy and Angel up, ending that turgid little romance, but unfortunately they spend the duration of Part 1 gazing soulfully at each other. Yawn! Oh, and that CGI snake is so awful-looking it still gives me nightmares.
On the plus side, we have Buffy quitting the Council, Wesley getting knocked out, Cordelia staking a vampire, the entire school raising weapons to face the aforementioned awful-looking CGI snake, and a genuine sense of closure. It wouldn't surprise me if, when this episode was being written, it was assumed that this was going to be the last episode... but, then again, they knew the show was getting a spin-off in the next season, so perhaps that's not an entirely likely theory. In any event, this is the end of an era, and it feels like it. After this it's on to college for Buffy and Willow, and the flawed but intermittently brilliant Season 4 for us. Hope you join me there.
Overall rating:
8/10 for Part 1,
9/10 for Part 2.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episode 20: The Prom
Written by Marti Noxon; Directed by David Solomon
I appreciate what they were trying to do with this episode, but a whole lot of it really didn't work for me. Part of it, I suppose, is that I find the whole prom business, and all the faux emotions surrounding it, to be hopelessly hokey. Another is that it contains the immortal line "Right now, I'm just trying to keep from dying", which, try as she might, Sarah Michelle Gellar can't manage to deliver with any sincerity. (That's not an insult to her abilities, though - I can't think of many actors that could pull off such a clunker and maintain any semblance of legitimacy.) Still, at least it has another priceless appearance by Anya, although I must confess that I prefer clueless Season 4 Anya to cranky Season 3 Anya.
Overall rating:
7/10.
Next time: the two-part
Graduation Day.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episode 19: Choices
Written by David Fury; Directed by James A. Contner
Pretty nifty. It's not as good as David Fury's other episode of the season,
Helpless, but it's a solid episode that advances the story and, for once, lets Willow be a hero. I'm very conscious that, at this stage, the cast is hopelessly bloated (in addition to the seven main stars there's also Faith, Anya, Wesley, Joyce, etc.), the result being that they're all vying for attention, and some of them pass an entire episode with just the odd token scene or line of dialogue. At this stage in the game, this is especially true of Cordelia, who seems only to be waiting for
Angel to start so she can head over to it. Nice moment for Oz, knocking over the pot, though.
Overall rating:
8/10.
Next time:
The Prom.
Superbit super-order
It recently occurred to me, when looking through my DVD collection, that I don't actually own any Superbit DVDs. Well, I own two that use the Superbit logo -
Panic Room and
Léon: The Professional, but they aren't "true" Superbits, at least by my understanding of the term. The former is simply a "normal" DVD that had the Superbit tag slapped on it when none of the extras were ready in time for its release date, while the latter comes from the same grotty old master that's been used to mint every single other release.
Superbit, as Columbia Tristar would have you believe it, is a series of DVDs that "utilize a special high bit rate digital transfer process that optimizes video quality". In reality, this is just marketing spin. There is nothing "special" about the process used to create these DVDs - it's just that, in theory, by removing all the bonus features, more space is available for the film itself, resulting in a higher possible bit rate and, theoretically, at least, better overall quality. It also means that, if those carrying out the encoding are smart enough, the higher bit rate will mean that they can get away with less filtering while avoiding compression artefacts. This is not rocket science:
anyone can create a high bit rate transfer by simply not including any (or many) extras on the first disc, and instead putting them (if there are any) on a separate disc.
Anyway, I want to see if these DVDs are all they're cracked up to be, so I've ordered
The Fifth Element (R1 USA) - apparently one of the best-looking titles - and
Hannibal (R2 UK). The latter is exclusive to PAL territories, and is now out of print because Columbia Tristar's deal to distribute select Universal titles in certain territories, including Europe and Australia, expired some time ago. As a result, it, and the Superbit releases of other Universal titles that were covered by the deal, such as
Gladiator, are now out of print, but I managed to snag myself an "as new" copy from the
Amazon.co.uk Marketplace, for only £7.72 including shipping. Because I own the standard 2-disc release (Disc 1 of which is extras-free anyway, apart from an audio commentary), I'll be able to do one of my usual DVD image comparisons so we can see whether or not the Superbit line is all just fluff.
Oh yeah, and apparently, when upscaled in the Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player,
The Fifth Element Superbit looks about the same as the Blu-ray release. Sheesh.
I also ordered Baz Luhrmann's
Strictly Ballroom (R1 USA) alongside
The Fifth Element, since it was cheap and I was under the customs limit anyway.
DVD debacle
A bunch of standard definition review DVDs popped through my letterbox this morning. From
DVD Pacific: Lucio Fulci's much-maligned
Murder Rock and
Colt 38 Special Squad, a 2-disc package featuring both that film and the never-released Luciano Ercoli film
La Bidonata (both R1 USA). From
CD-WOW:
Final Destination 3 (R1 USA).
Murder Rock first, and I must say that I am impressed... by Media Blasters, that is. Given how bad the transfers for many of the titles I've bought from them have been, they've pulled out the stops for this one and delivered an extremely watchable presentation. No, it's not perfect, but it's the best I've seen come out of that company, and it certainly shows that, while other studios now seem to be getting worse and worse at transfers, Media Blasters are committed to improving. It's too bad the same can't be said about the film, which is a laughable cross between a giallo and one of those 80s dance movies like
Flashdance or
Dirty Dancing. I swear, never before has the sight of sweaty, leotard-clad women girating and thrusting their crotches in the air proved so unappealing.
Final Destination 3 served as afternoon viewing, and, ironically, it turned out to be the exact reverse of the
Murder Rock situation: crap transfer, decent movie. It doesn't hit the heights of
Final Destination 2, which is arguably the best of the trilogy from the perspective of sheer fun, but as a black comedy it works extremely well, with some great exchanges and extremely twisted deaths. The sunbed sequence, in particular, had me cackling my head off. This is one horror movie series that doesn't take itself at all seriously - and I mean in a good way, not in a "nudge-nudge, wink-wink"
Scream way.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episode 18: Earshot
Written by Jane Espenson; Directed by Regis B. Kimble
Good comeback! In interviews, commentaries, etc., Jane Espenson always talks about how obsessed she is with continuity, and this episode is a great example of this. Not only does she fit in some very funny references to Giles and Joyce's car sex in
Band Candy, she also remembers about Larry's coming out to Xander in the previous season (and given how much the issue is pushed here, I get the impression that, at this stage, they were leaning towards having Xander exit the closet in Season 4 rather than Willow).
Anyway, this is a good all round fun episode that actually manages to make a decent point about internal turmoil. It's also one of the two episodes this season that were delayed because of the Columbine massacre (the other being
Graduation Day: Part 2). Apparently, Sarah Michelle Gellar pushed extremely hard for it to be aired, and as a result of this the network branded her as "difficult". There's a lot of bad press going round about her being a diva on the set (apparently the rest of the cast referred to her as "the Princess"), but, at this stage at least, you can't fault her commitment to the show.
Overall rating:
9/10.
Next time:
Choices.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episode 17: Enemies
Written by Douglas Petrie; Directed by David Grossman
Well, the home run couldn't last forever. After six episodes all ranking 7/10 or higher, this one feels like a big step down. It's not that it's terrible, but it's not of the same standard as the group of stellar episodes that preceded it. The problem, quite apart from the extremely lame demon mage with the most annoyingly pompous voice you ever heard, is that it's one of those "actually they were pretending all along" episodes that cheats the audience by not giving them a chance to work out that it's all a charade. Angel pretends to lose his soul and becomes the Angelus we all know and love from Season 2... but no! He just put on an act, and dear distraught Buffy was actually in on it all along! Yeesh. If my memory serves me correctly, they pulled this stunt on
Angel (the series) numerous times, and it always felt like a kick in the unmentionables.
Overall rating:
6/10.
Next time:
Earshot.
The Collected Adventures of Asterix
So, for the £29.99 asking price, what do you get? Six rather fetching coasters is the answer. Optimum have really dropped the ball with this release, which is a hodge-podge of different sources, only around half of which come even close to being watchable. By putting this release out and charging a premium price for it, they are showing utter contempt for their customers. Their thinking, I would assume, is that children will be happy enough with them, but quite honestly, when these shoddy presentations (or ones similar to them) were served up to me when I was a child, I was far from satisfied. In any event, I'd hazzard a guess that most Asterix fans these days are adults who, rightfully so, have come to expect better from Optimum.
I've
reviewed The Collected Adventures of Asterix, a 6-disc box set featuring the first six animated adventures of the wily Gaul. Optimum's R2 UK standard definition release leaves something to be desired, to say the very least...
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episode 16: Doppelgangland
Written and Directed by Joss Whedon
This episode is so downright enjoyable that I'm prepared to forgive Joss Whedon for the disaster that was
Amends. That's not to say it's a masterpiece, but the idea behind it - effectively getting Alyson Hannigan to play four different versions of Willow - is sheer class. So here we have normal Willow, vampire Willow, normal Willow pretending to be vampire Willow, and vampire Willow pretending to be normal Willow, and somehow all of them seem very different but still recognisably the same person. There's a heck of a lot of foreshadowing going on here, and I'm not just talking about the more obvious "I think I'm kinda gay" line. Watching it again, I'm amazed at just how much Willow's descent into darkness in Season 6 is prefigured here, which makes me wonder just how far these storylines were planned out in advance. I know that the "Willow turns gay" idea was merely one of two possible options (the other was having Xander turn out to be gay) the writers were considering, and that Seth Green's abrupt departure more or less forced their hands, but I'd have been curious to see how the "Dark Willow" storyline would have played out if Willow had remained straight (given that one of the main criticisms of that storyline was how closely it connected her sexuality with her emerging evilness).
Overall rating:
9/10.
Next time:
Enemies.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episode 15: Consequences
Written by Marti Noxon; Directed by Michael Gershman
This episode serves as a double bill of sorts with
Bad Girls, and it's the rare instance of Part 1 actually being better than Part 2. There's nothing particularly wrong with
Consequences, just a whole bunch of plot points that niggle me. Generally, they're issues that are not followed through properly in subsequent episodes, such as the fact that the murder of Finch is simply brushed under the carpet. I mean, I know Sunnydale's authorities are used to town's the high body count, but I find it hard to believe the police would simply drop an unsolved murder investigation. Maybe I should be blaming the later episodes for this oversight, but I feel that this one is deserving of at least some of the blame for setting up a plot twist that the writers had no intention of dealing with.
Oh - and one more thing that's bugging me: how did two puny members of the Watchers' Council, one of them the weedy Wesley, manage to overpower Faith and forcibly extract her? Okay, I know that, later on
Angel, Wesley turned into a gristled gun-slinging action hero, but I find it a bit of a stretch all the same.
Overall rating:
8/10.
Next time:
Doppelgangland.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episode 14: Bad Girls
Written by Douglas Petrie; Directed by Michael Lange
What strikes me as the most noticeable aspect of this episode up front is its impressive stunt work. There are some pretty nifty moves going on, even if the stunt doubles are at times a tad obvious. It also has a great, disgusting, intriguing villain, Balthazar (the great fat blob sweltering in a huge vat of water), and some of the best Buffy/Faith exchanges ever. It was at this point, I suspect, that the writers realised just what a catch Eliza Dushku was for the show, given her ability to dominate every single scene in which she appeared. (And nowhere is this more true than in the Sexy Dance, which made its way into the opening credits for the next two seasons, despite the fact that Faith was, by then, long gone.) Given this, I'm not surprised that her tenure on the show was short - it could so easily have become
Faith the Vampire Slayer. (I'm still disappointed that we didn't get that spin-off, by the way.)
On the downside, it's becoming increasingly obvious that Angel is simply treading water until he gets his own show. He appears for a perfunctory scene or two in every episode, but in reality contributes absolutely nothing. Would it have been too much to have simply kept him dead until nearer the end of the season instead of bringing him back at the start and then giving him nothing to do but mope?
Overall rating:
9/10.
Next time:
Consequences.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episode 13: The Zeppo
Written by Dan Vebber; Directed by James Whitmore Jr.
I think whether or not you like this episode depends on how seriously you take the whole mythos of the show. Personally, I'm more interested in the characters and their interactions than in the whole demonology aspect, but I know some people who get far more involved with the latter than I do, so it comes as no surprise that they tend to find this episode a bit frustrating. Myself, I don't mind the fact that it essentially makes fun of the entire ethos of the series and relegates one of its famed "end of the world" plots to mere window dressing. I do, however, find the episode a tad overrated. Not sure why, but I guess the fact that we never believe Xander is in any real danger has something to do with it. I suppose it all really comes down to the very point of the episode - that Xander is the non-essential sidekick - being the very reason that it seems so inconsequential. You could remove this episode from the line-up and no-one would be any the wiser, since Xander's right back to square one again in the very next instalment. (Barring him getting bonked by Faith, I suppose, since that does get referenced at a later date.)
Overall rating:
7/10.
Next time:
Bad Girls.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episode 12: Helpless
Written by David Fury; Directed by James A. Contner
A good episode, and one that, at this point in the show's life, was extremely necessary, because it shows that Buffy's strength is not merely physical but also mental. It's a cliché, admittedly, but it works. A lot of people, I've noticed, get the idea that Buffy isn't particularly bright, and the show at times plays into this, focusing on her not particularly great performance at school, among other things, but this episode shows that, even when zapped of all her fighting powers, she can still overpower an opponent considerably stronger than her.
Overall rating:
8/10.
Next time:
The Zeppo.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episode 11: Gingerbread
Teleplay by Jane Espenson; Story by Thania St. John & Jane Espenson; Directed by James Whitmore Jr.
Well, this one turned out to be better than I remembered. It's one of those "vigilante justice doesn't work" tales, although it's somewhat undercut when you consider what, if not a vigilante, Buffy is. I'm also slightly bothered by drastically out of character manner in which the townspeople, especially Joyce, react. I know they were under the influence of mind control by a powerful demon, but I always consider it something of a disservice to characters if they can be so easily manipulated. (And the ease with which "Hansel" and "Gretel" pull off their stunts makes the First Evil look even more pathetic than it already did.) Also, why were only select characters possessed? Giles, after all, is an adult, but was completely unaffected, while certain schoolkids were also affected, if the treatment of one-shot character Michael is anything to go by.
Still, this was a good solid episode. It really manages to sum up what it feels like to be arguing with someone who's completely blind to logic, while the portrayal of the gung-ho MOO (Mothers Opposed to the Occult) gang is positively frightening in its ferocity. This is also the one time we meet Willow's mother, and what a monumental disaster she turns out to be. I wonder whether they'd come up with the "magic spells = lesbian sex" metaphor yet. If so, the torch-bearing mob hunting out the witches gets a disturbing extra twist.
Oh yeah, interesting that they bring up the "slayers don't kill people" rule that would end up being invoked following Faith's accidental stabbing of the Mayor's assistant in just a few episodes' time.
Overall rating:
8/10.
Next time:
Helpless.
An update
Updates have been a bit sporadic lately, given that quite a few things have been going on. Top of the list, unsurprisingly, as been my dissertation. As I've mentioned before, the final draft has to be submitted by September 4th, and I've agreed on a deadline of August 15th for me to send my first draft to my supervisor, which should hopefully leave ample time for her to read it, get back to me and let me make all the millions of changes that will no doubt be required in order to prevent it from being a complete wreck. Unfortunately, the heat, while better than it was at around this time last week, hasn't exactly been ideal for writing. As a result, my
DVD Times review schedule has gone a bit belly-up - I need to do write-ups of the following:
Constantine,
The Bourne Supremacy,
Casualty: Series 2,
The Hills Have Eyes and
The Collected Adventures of Asterix... and
Lyris as the HD DVD of
Tomb Raider on its way, which I'll no doubt feel obliged to cover as the only reviewer in the UK currently covering the format.
Major Concern Number 2 is the disappearance of four DVDs I foolishly sent out via Second Class mail to lend to one of my online buddies. Seriously, I sent them out on July 4th, and some clown at Royal Mail lost them. They're gone. Unfortunately, the titles in question -
Death Laid an Egg,
What Have They Done to Your Daughters?,
Don't Torture a Duckling and
The New York Ripper - weren't exactly the cheapest of easiest to source, but the good news is that I can apply for up to £32 compensation. That, coupled with a generous donation from said buddy (despite it being my fault, not his), should go some way towards recouping the cost of replacing the DVDs. And replace them I did - three of them arrived this morning, with only
Don't Torture a Duckling still being MIA. At the moment, it's sitting in the "Pending" section at
DVD Import despite them claiming that it's in stock. Grrr.
In somewhat better news, if you live in the UK, you may be aware that
Film Four, Channel 4's dedicated film service, recently became free. Not only is it the UK's first non-subscription-based movie channel, it's also a very good one. Last night, for example, I experienced the eclectic mix of the Marx Brothers comedy
Duck Soup, Baz "
Moulin Rouge!" Luhrmann's directorial debut
Strictly Ballroom, Luc Besson's bizarre futuristic wankfest
The Fifth Element and the bitingly funny
Ghost World, featuring Thora Birch, star of such classics as
American Beauty, and Scarlett Johansson, star of such classics as
Home Alone 3. Four films, all extremely enjoyable in their own way, in the space of one evening - and I didn't have to pay a penny for them. (Although the fact that I'm going to end up buying DVDs of at least a couple of them sort of puts paid to that.)
Anyway, more posts soon, and hopefully I'll have something to show for all my toiling before too long, whether it's a chapter of my dissertation or a hastily-penned review. Adios, suckers!
Great cartoony news!
Some excellent Disney/Pixar animation news for you today:
AWN reports that John Musker and Ron Clements, the directors behind
The Little Mermaid and
Aladdin, are back at Disney and are currently helming a new
2D feature entitled
The Frog Princess, while Eric Goldberg, who animated the Genie in
Aladdin, among other characters, is in charge of a new programme at the studio dedicated to creating theatrical shorts.
Meanwhile, according to
Upcoming Pixar,
Toy Story 3 will see the light of day after all - created by the original Pixar team and directed by the man himself, John Lasseter. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen will, unsurprisingly, be reprising their roles as the voices of Woody and Buzz, and the project is apparently "progressing faster than previously expected".
It certainly sounds as if the future is bright for Disney animation. Hopefully it won't be too long before we can actually see with our own eyes the positive results of John Lasseter taking over control of Feature Animation.
Where was I?
Sorry for the lack of posts yesterday. I was at a wedding. Those of you who have been reading this site for any length of time will know how I feel about these events, so I won't bother rehashing old ground. I will, however, say that, this time, the speechifying was mercifully short - a far cry from some of the 40-minutes-plus affairs I've been to.
The Bourne Identity
I rented it. I watched it. I can't, after all, very well write a review of
The Bourne Supremacy without first seeing its predecessor. And, ultimately, I am of the opinion that
The Bourne Identity is the better film -
significantly better. Part of it, I think, is that it has a human element running throughout it, in the form of Marie, Franka Potente's character, which, beyond the first act, isn't present in
The Bourne Supremacy (I'm trying hard to avoid spoilers here).
I mean, let's face it - Jason Bourne is a blank slate played by an incredibly wooden actor. True, he's a more realistic spy than James Bond, but most Bond actors are capable of more than one facial expression and can be relied on to actually exhibit the odd human emotion. Bourne is, by the very nature of his character, pretty much a robot, and, because of the way he's played, I have trouble believing he even remotely cares about anything. As such, I don't care about him. I
do, however, find myself caring about Marie, because she's a human being rather than a superhero.
As a result,
The Bourne Identity is actually quite exciting. Yes, it has the same air of detachment to it that annoyed me about its sequel, but it's fast-paced, reasonably intelligent, and has that globe-trotting aspect that makes films of this type so appealing. The direction is also considerably better, with Doug Liman (
Go) keeping the shakyvision camera in check in a way that Paul Greengrass utterly failed to do with the sequel. There's also a really good car chase through the streets of Paris that puts to shame anything in
The Bourne Supremacy.
That said, I'm going to watch
The Bourne Supremacy again before I review it. Maybe, now that I've absorbed with relevant back-story, I'll be less critical of it.
But good god, man! After watching
The Bourne Supremacy in shiny HD, going back to standard definition was just horrible.
The Bourne Identity doesn't exactly have a particularly good transfer anyway, but even so, I was shocked by the drop in definition. I hope this comes out on HD DVD soon (it makes no sense that the sequel is available but not the original), because I'd definitely consider picking it up.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episode 10: Amends
Written and Directed by Joss Whedon
This has seriously got to qualify as a "what the fuck?" episode, and not in a good way. I have no idea what Whedon was aiming for here, but the end result is so hokey and so clearly designed as a stereotypical "Christmas miracle" episode that I spent most of its running time scratching my head.
It's also the episode that introduces the First Evil and the Bringers, who would turn out to be the woeful villains of the even more woeful Season 7. As such, it's hard to stay positive about it, but I'm going to refrain from marking it down just because of this. Besides, there's enough wrong with it anyway without looking to pick holes in it. It's the worst episode of the entire series to be written and/or directed by Whedon, that's for sure.
Oh yeah - in this episode, Angel apparently finds out the reason for his being "brought back". Shame he decided not to share it with us because, four more seasons of
Buffy and five of
Angel down the line, I'm still none the wiser.
Overall rating:
4/10.
Next time:
Gingerbread.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episode 9: The Wish
Written by Marti Noxon; Directed by David Greenwalt
Wow - a Marti Noxon episode that I wholeheartedly like. Wonders will never cease! In retrospect, I like this considerably more than
Lover's Walk, but then I've always had a thing for the "alternate reality" episodes that show up on both
Buffy and
Angel from time to time. This one is a really powerful one that functions as a macabre, vampiric form of
It's a Wonderful Life and also introduces a great character - Anya - that would serve the show well for the next few seasons. The only strange thing is that the Anya that appears here bears absolutely no resemblance to the one that shows up in Season 4 onwards. Sure, they're both played by Emma Caulfield, but this Anya, far from being a sex-obsessed capitalism enthusiast with no understanding of the finer points of human etiquette, is presented here as being quite worldly wise and a lot like Cordelia. It's okay, though - I can live with it. In any event, I don't think they'd have been able to get much mileage out of her if they'd simply used her as Cordelia II in Season 4 and beyond.
Anyway, great episode.
Doppelgangland's going to have its work cut out to beat this.
Overall rating:
10/10.
Next time: the confusingly poor
Amends.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episode 8: Lover's Walk
Written by Dan Vebber; Directed by David Semel
I think that this was the episode where the writers decided on their "relationships don't work" message, which they carried all the way through to the end of the series. Certainly, Spike pretty much sums the whole thing up with his "You'll fight, and you'll shag, but you'll never be friends" speech. Odd, then, that such a crucial episode was handled by someone who'd never written for
Buffy before and would only write one other (the rather overrated
The Zeppo) - but he handles the whole thing very well. In fact, this may be my favourite episode of the season... although I'll have to watch
The Wish and
Doppelgangland again to make sure. Luckily, the former just so happens to be the very next episode.
Overall rating:
9/10.
Next time:
The Wish.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episode 7: Revelations
Written by Douglas Petrie; Directed by James A. Contner
Once again, enjoyable stuff. Not as good as
Band Candy, but still an impressive debut for a new writer, and one that manages to do a lot with the various character arcs while still serving pretty well as a stand-alone episode. That said, I must admit that Gwen Post has always bugged me - not only do the Watchers' Council fail to inform Giles that there is a rogue Watcher on the loose, she is also accepted by him without any evidence of her having proven her credentials. Still, the plot that develops out of it is good enough that I'm willing to let it slide. Oh, and is it just me, or were the special effects in this episode considerably better than those of the previous week?
Overall rating:
8/10.
Next time:
Lover's Walk.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episode 6: Band Candy
Written by Jane Espenson; Directed by Michael Lange
Ah, now this is more like it. It's the best episode of the season so far, and I can easily understand why so many people put it in their personal Top 10. I wouldn't go that far, but it
is undeniably fun, with the only real negatives being the continuation of that baffling Xander/Willow affair and a bad-looking CGI snake that, as it turns out, is merely a foretaste to the really hideous one that appears in the season finale. The main element, though - the personalities of Young Giles, Young Joyce and Young Snyder - is brilliantly executed and, between you and me, I think that Jane Espenson, whose first episode of
Buffy this was, did a far better job with the "reverting to youth" plot mechanic than Joss Whedon did with the Season 4
Angel episode
Spin the Bottle (which will be reviewed in due course, I expect).
Overall rating:
9/10.
Next time:
Revelations.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episode 5: Homecoming
Written and Directed by David Greenwalt
Well, it's better than
Beauty and the Beasts, that's for sure, but it's still not great. It has moments that I like, the introduction of the Mayor and Faith's ownage of Scott Hope being the high points, but the whole Homecoming plot bores me to tears with its silliness, and the affair between Willow and Xander has got to be one of the worst ideas in the history of the series. It makes no sense, and seems to have been forced in for the soul purpose of driving Xander and Cordelia apart in
Lover's Walk - which could have been achieved in countless other ways.
Overall rating:
6/10.
Next time:
Band Candy.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episode 4: Beauty and the Beasts
Written by Marti Noxon; Directed by James Whitmore Jr.
"All men are beasts."
Years before Marti Noxon got to swing the
Baseball Bat of Anti-Metaphor full-time in her capacity as showrunner, she took a few practice swings with this bludgeoningly clumsy parable for domestic abuse. I don't have much to say about this episode, other than that it annoyed me with its heavy-handedness and overly simplistic outlook.
On a side note, it's no wonder people consider Angel's return to be completely botched, given that it occurs during this decidedly below average outing. He somehow managed to find himself a rather fetching pair of trousers, though, despite his feral state.
Overall rating:
4/10.
Next time:
Homecoming.
The Collected Adventures of Asterix - collect this review, Optimum
This morning, I received check discs of the much-delayed UK SD DVD release of
The Collected Adventures of Asterix from
Optimum. Given the poor treatment of the
Asterix series on video in this country, I wasn't exactly expecting any great shakes from these DVDs, but I must say that they've turned out to be even worse than I'd previously imagined. Basically, it goes like this:
Asterix the GaulOriginal aspect ratio: 1.33:1. 1.33:1 master used, blown up and zoomed in to anamorphic 1.78:1. Opening credits are a combination of windowboxing and horizontal stretching. Opening credits are in English.
Asterix and CleopatraOriginal aspect ratio: 1.33:1. 1.33:1 master used, blown up and zoomed in to anamorphic 1.78:1. Opening credits are slightly windowboxed and slightly cropped. There are also numerous frame rate problems, as if the computer being used to capture the film wasn't powerful enough for the task. During the opening introduction, you can actually see the image tracking up and down in an attempt to get the relevant information (speech bubbles, character animation) in the frame. Opening credits are in English.
The Twelve Tasks of AsterixOriginal aspect ratio: 1.66:1. Slightly over-matted at 1.78:1 but still watchable. This is actually a cleaner print than the one used for the French DVD from Citel Video, but its colours seem too dark and with a noticeable yellow cast. The only transfer that is, overall, anything of an improvement on what was already available. Opening credits are in English and are extremely cheap-looking, with a granite slab motif presumably being used to cover up the original French titles. End credits are in French.
Asterix vs. CaesarOriginal aspect ratio: 1.66:1. Uses the same transfer as the French Gaumont Video DVD from 2005, and is thus presented in its correct aspect ratio but suffers from noticeable DVNR artefacts. Opening and closing credits are in French.
Asterix in BritainOriginal aspect ratio: 1.66:1. Uses the same transfer as the French Gaumont Video DVD from 2005, and is thus presented in its correct aspect ratio but suffers from noticeable DVNR artefacts. Opening and closing credits are in French.
Asterix and the Big FightOriginal aspect ratio: 1.85:1. Bafflingly, this transfer is taken from an analogue pan and scan master, and is thus cropped to 1.33:1. This is the same master that was used for the Australian Release from Video Unlimited. Opening credits are in English, closing credits are in German.
Oh, and all of the films are dubbed into English. The original French audio is nowhere to be found. There are no extras of any kind either, although, to be honest, this is the least of this set's problems.
Optimum have really dropped the ball here and have clearly invested the least possible effort. This set is a complete hodge-podge of different sources, only three of which (the three that are presented in, or reasonably close to, their original aspect ratios) can even be considered watchable. By putting this release out and charging a premium price for it, they are showing utter contempt for their customers. Their thinking, I would assume, is that the kiddies will be happy enough with them, but quite honestly, when these shoddy presentations (or ones similar to them) were served up to me when I was a kid, I was far from satisfied. In any event, I'd hazzard a guess that most
Asterix fans these days are adults who, rightfully so, have come to expect better from Optimum. Maybe, if they'd spent more time sourcing better masters instead of hacking up the ones they had, we wouldn't be in this situation now.
To make matters worse, at the end of last year, when we first became aware of the DVNR artefacts present on the French DVDs,
Lyris sent Optimum an email warning them of the problem, in the event that the French releases were used as a source. Not only was his email not replied to, his advice has clearly been ignored point-blank, and, to add insult to injury, ironically-named Optimum have committed far greater crimes against these films than the French distributors ever did. Third-rate service from a third-rate distributor.
Expect a scathing review soon.
HD DVD: 24p in Europe for Studio Canal titles
Source:
AV ForumsExcellent news in AV-land! It has been confirmed, by Microsoft, that the HD DVD titles
announced for release in Europe by Studio Canal, including heavyweights such as
Mullholland Dr. and
Terminator 2: Judgment Day, will be presented in 24p. This means that not only will we not have to put up with the dreaded 25 fps 4% PAL speed-up that has plagued video and DVD releases of films in PAL territories since the inceptions of the formats, but that we will be able to play them on our shiny American HD-A1 HD DVD players (which, annoyingly, can't output a 50 Hz signal).
Mother of Tears update
Source:
Profondo Rosso StoreThe bad news:
- Shooting has been delayed until "next November or later". I sincerely hope that "next November" is a mistranslation and that it means this November, not November 2007.
The good news:
- Asia Argento will be starring.
It's too hot, plus musings on music
Sorry for the complete lack of updates yesterday. I'd like to say I had a good excuse, but in reality it's simply because I couldn't be bothered. (I might also argue that it was because nothing particularly interesting happened in the movie/DVD/HD DVD world yesterday, but it's not as if that stopped me before.) Why couldn't I be bothered? Because, quite simply, it's too damn hot.
All around me people seem to be cheering about the sun. Well, sorry to be such a party pooper, but I hate this weather and I hate this time of year. It's odd, because summer is traditionally the time at which I have the most time to do what I want (although this year I'm working on my dissertation), and yet I always find that I can't wait for it to end. When faced with the choice of the heatwave we're currently experiencing and the sub-zero temperatures we had for months last winter, I'd pick the latter every time, the simple fact being that, if it's cold, it's easy enough to put on thicker clothes or turn on the heating, but, when it's hot, there's precious little you can do about it. This kind of weather is, to me, absolutely vile, and it constitutes a dangerous precedent: a little thing called global warming.
People are so quick to sing their hallelujahs whenever the weather gets like this, but if they had any sense at all they'd be deeply worried. I don't think anyone can deny that the world is getting hotter and hotter, and this kind of weather is simply yet another manifestation of this. Great, if you like it like this, but spare a thought for the melting glaciers in the Arctic... oh, and for the OAPs and little kids that are literally dying of the heat.
Anyway, on to some more happy posting. Two days ago, I ordered a copy of the recently released score for
Chi l'ha Vista Morire? (a.k.a.
Who Saw Her Die?), from
DigitMovies. As giallo composers go, Ennio Morricone is pretty much the undisputed champion, and as his scores go, this constitutes him at the top of his game (
What Have You Done to Solange?,
A Lizard in a Woman's Skin and
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage are other giallo high points in a career filled with high points). There's a good interview with Morricone in
the Guardian, by the way.
Which reminds me, I really need to get round to updating the
CD Collection pages on this site that are completely out of date. I'll do it this summer, yer honour, I promise.
Serenity
Shoddy cover art aside, Serenity on HD DVD is a magnificent package, and indeed is a strong contender for the best release I've seen on this format so far. Fans of the film who are capable of playing HD DVDs are well advised to throw their grotty old DVD copies on the scrap heap and invest in this absolutely magnificent presentation of a fun, highly engaging sci-fi romp.
Joss Whedon's resurrection of his short-lived sci-fi series
Firefly arrives in high definition! I've
reviewed the R0 US HD DVD release of
Serenity, which features all the bonus materials from the standard definition release in addition to an eye-popping 1080p transfer and explosive Dolby Digital-Plus audio.
Ultraviolet
Classic review.Just one more of the many great titles that you, yourself, can own on Blu-ray, today.
Don't buy Blu-ray - it's rubbish
Projector Central has posted a great article that explains, in very clear terms, why HD DVD is the only viable option for high definition home entertainment, and why Blu-ray, if not doomed to outright failure, can never hope to conquer the market.
So we must ask ourselves as consumers: How big of a deal is this fuss over studio support anyway? What if I invest in HD-DVD today and Disney decides not to support it after all? Our answer is an emphatic so what? Not being able to see a Disney film in HD is not the end of the world. Disney films will always be available on regular DVD. You can pop those DVDs into your HD-DVD player anytime you want, upsample them to 1080i, and see them in very close to the same quality as Blu-ray is delivering today. Problem solved.
Brilliance. Sheer brilliance.
Puzzle
If you approach Puzzle expecting a giallo in the classical sense of the term, then you will be sorely disappointed. It lacks the body count, gore and nudity that many have come to demand, and its camerawork is functional rather than the star of the show. It is, however, a potent and involving thriller that keeps the audience guessing and boasts far stronger characterisation than most examples of the genre. There's nothing revolutionary on offer here, but this modest giallo ultimately succeeds, ironically, thanks to its less than grandiose aims. Simply put, it achieves what it sets out to do.
I've
reviewed Puzzle, a little-seen 1974 giallo from Duccio Tessari, starring Senta Berger and Luc Merenda. Another World Entertainment's R2 Danish standard definition DVD release features mediocre audio-visual quality and limited extras.
A Lizard in a Woman's Skin
Those of you who read Whiggles.com regularly will probably have noticed my numerous posts regarding an Italian standard definition DVD release of Lucio Fulci's classic giallo
A Lizard in a Woman's Skin. Information on this disc has been pretty sketchy, and for a while it looked as if
Cecchi Gori, the company responsible for putting it out, were simply going to create a standards conversion of the already available US release from
Media Blasters, which, much to fans' rage, is censored (although it does include a pan and scan, VHS-sourced copy of the uncut version as a minor consolation).
Viewers, of course, reacted with righteous ire on Cecchi Gori's
forum, and the good news is that their complaining has paid off. Cecchi Gori delayed the release and were suddenly, miraculously able to source an uncut print - which the ever-deluded John Sirabella of Media Blasters claimed did not exist when justifying his releasing of the censored version in the US. (Funny how things that were previously impossible suddenly become possible when people threaten not to buy your product, isn't it?)
Anyway, the DVD was released earlier this month, and Nick over at
DVD Trash has got the skinny on it. Good news all round: it sounds like a winner. Not only is this version apparently uncut (the cover even states that it is the
"version integrale"), its image quality is apparently better than that of Media Blasters' cut release. The bad news is that there are no English language options on this disc, but that's never stopped me before, and given how much I love this film, I think I might just try my hand at creating a composite version that marries the audio from the cut US DVD with the image from the uncut Italian DVD. (If I remember correctly, the cut scenes have little or no dialogue in them, so the end result should be perfectly watchable.) I've ordered my copy from the friendly people at
Thrauma. Apparently they're expecting stock to be delivered on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, at which point they will "ship fastly".
Head over to DVD Trash now for an
image comparison and
the full skinny on the contents of the disc.
I can hardly contain myself!
Warner's Blu-ray announcement
Source:
DVD TimesThe
rumours have turned out to be true: yesterday, Warner announced its first slate of Blu-ray titles. Their initial line-up will be comprised of
Training Day,
Good Night, and Good Luck,
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and
Rumor Has It, with future announcements to be made at a later date. Interestingly, all but
Good Night, and Good Luck are already available on HD DVD (and, in any event, it is unlikely to remain a Blu-ray exclusive for long), so proper side-by-side comparisons of the same title on HD DVD and Blu-ray should emerge before to long.
Given that these four titles have been
confirmed as MPEG2 encodes, I'm not expecting the comparisons to be particularly favourable for the boys in blue.
The Bourne Supremacy
My review copy of
The Bourne Supremacy (HD DVD, R0 USA) arrived this morning from
DVD Pacific.
I've just finished watching it, and while I'm happy to report that the transfer is excellent - another one that, at least to my eyes, seems to be perceptually flawless - I was less than enthused by the film itself. Don't get me wrong, it was okay, and I enjoyed it to an extent, but I found the whole experience a bit frustrating. The script is all over the place, substituting genuine intrigue with incomprehensibility, and the star, gorilla-faced Matt Damon, is about as expressive as a plank of wood. Worse still, the handheld camerawork is annoying in the extreme - the damn thing never stops moving, and even in the more quiet scenes is constantly swaying about as if the operator has a bladder infection.
A couple of nice stunt sequences and some globetrotting fun notwithstanding, I saw nothing remarkable about this film. Yes, the complete lack of CGI and stupid gadgets must have been a welcome change when this was released, given that the previous major spy film was the ludicrous
Die Another Day, but it has nothing on, say,
Licence to Kill or
The Living Daylights. Still, it wasn't a complete waste of two hours, and at least the first half-hour has Franka Potente (of
Run Lola Run) in it. Maybe it's just me, but I found it a bit of a treat to see an indie actor in a Hollywood blockbuster - a bit like Eva Green in
Kingdom of Heaven.
I suspect I'll track down a copy of the first film in the "Bourne" series,
The Bourne Identity, before I do my final write-up.
Casualty: Series 2
The R2 UK standard definition release of
Casualty's second series, which I ordered from
Play, arrived yesterday.
I'm not sure how many of Series 2's 15 episodes I've seen - I'm sure I must have caught some, or at least bits of them, on UKTV Drama at some point, but otherwise I suspect this will be a new experience for me. I took a gander at the first episode last night, alongside commentary by creators/writers Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, and was surprised to discover that, at least in terms of its ambitions, the look was at times quite cinematic - at least more so than the first series.
John K interview
CHUD has posted an exclusive interview with John K, in which he discusses the
Ren & Stimpy: The Lost Episodes DVD, animated music videos for Weird Al and Tenacious D, future projects and the general decline of society. Worth a read.
