| Video Roundup July 2008
Recent HD Releases
 Across the Universe
(Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Blu-ray) ****
Julie Taymor has directed something unique in Across the
Universe, a film that in the same instant seems familiar and nostalgic yet fresh,
vital, and alive. The soundtrack is all songs by the Beatles, reimagined and rearranged to
fit a plot about a Liverpool boy named Jude (Jim Sturgess) who comes to America, falls in
love with Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), loses her, leaves, then returns to reclaim his love.
Along the way, we’re given a snapshot of America in the 1960s. I never thought of the
Beatles as chroniclers of history, but Taymor makes it work. There are solos, duets, and
flashy production numbers. Almost the entire movie is sung, a feat pulled off really well
by the young, largely unknown cast (no original Beatles recordings are used), and the
Blu-ray Disc’s Dolby Digital TrueHD track preserves the clarity and transparency of
the original film. Across the Universe might first be considered a delight to hear,
but it’s also very easy on the eyes: the video transfer’s color and definition
are both first-rate. The extras include longer versions of many of the songs, and a breezy
yet informative commentary track from Taymor and music producer Elliot Goldenthal. There
are also some appealing production featurettes and, exclusive to the Blu-ray edition, a
gallery featuring drawings from the film’s production, which can be viewed one at a
time or as a slide show underscored by music from the movie.
Men in Black (Sony Pictures Home
Entertainment, Blu-ray) ****1/2
A wry script, a brilliant deadpan comic performance from
Tommy Lee Jones, and believable special effects made this film a huge hit at the box
office, and in what seem to have been umpteen versions on SD DVD. This Blu-ray edition
trumps them all. The video transfer is sharper than ever, and every problem of contrast
and shadow detail has been overcome. Backgrounds and foregrounds are in focus --
almost every scene has a realistic feeling of three-dimensionality, and some are
breathtaking. The Dolby TrueHD audio is clean and well balanced. The surround channels
aren’t always active (Men in Black was made in 1995) but make themselves known
in the noisier scenes, and the front-channel dialogue track is clear at all times. All of
the extras from the SD disc have been carried over to make an impressive list of features,
though they’re still in SD -- and the load times are fairly long. Approach this disc
with enthusiasm tempered with patience, and you’ll find the wait well worth it.
The 6th Day (Sony Pictures Home
Entertainment, Blu-ray) ***1/2
The 6th Day, one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s
last action films, is pretty much like a lot of the others. It’s set in the future
and concerns cloning, so there’s not just one but two Arnolds to deal with. Which is
the clone? You’ll have to watch to find out. The real star is the set design:
Automobiles, helicopters, and malls have been updated to what they plausibly might look
like in 15 or so years. Bathroom mirrors double as computer screens -- as you shave or
primp in the morning, you can get messages and plan your schedule. An otherwise fairly
normal-looking mall boasts a holographic aquarium ad from Pioneer. And so on. There are
lots of chases, and almost nonstop action. Then there’s the video transfer. You might
not want to put The 6th Day on to impress your friends with solid drama, but the
look of it will blow them away. Obviously transferred from a pristine print, almost every
scene looks three-dimensional, thanks to all the detail. The colors are what you see every
day in life -- there’s one picture-postcard "wow" scene after another.
Blacks are solid, and shadow detail is downright amazing. The audio has been remixed, for
solid bass and a good feeling of a 360-degree soundfield. If you have a 2.0 profile
Blu-ray player, there’s an exclusive BD Internet link, but all it gives you is access
to a handful of trailers for other Sony Blu-ray titles.
Short Circuit (Image Entertainment, Blu-ray)
***
This attractive, lightweight film has enough of a cult
following to have convinced Image Entertainment to release it early in the Blu-ray game.
The plot involves a robot, No.5, who receives a large jolt of juice from a passing
thunderstorm and suddenly comes "alive." No.5 is taken in by Stephanie Speck
(Ally Sheedy), an animal-rights gal who collects homeless critters, while the robot’s
creator, Newton Crosby (Steve Guttenberg), searches for it. For an older film, Short
Circuit has received a fairly nice transfer. The picture is bright and colorful, with
excellent definition of both foregrounds and backgrounds, so that there’s a good
three-dimensional feel. The quality varies -- the transfer seems to have been patched
together from different prints -- but overall it looks much better than the SD DVD
edition. The Dolby Surround audio has been adroitly mixed to DTS-HD MA 5.1. A lot of
subtle sounds I never noticed before, in both David Shire’s score and the sound
effects, come through with pinpoint clarity. There are many promotional featurettes and
stills, mostly period. The extremely low list price ($19.98) makes the package even more
appealing.
Step Into Liquid (Lions Gate, Blu-ray) ****
At the beginning of Step Into Liquid, these words
appear on the screen: No special effects, No stuntmen, No stereotypes. This
declaration of cinematic honesty permeates the film from beginning to end -- it’s not
only one of the best movies ever made about surfing, it’s a great documentary,
period. The basic theme is the joy of surfing: one woman comments that the greatest surfer
alive today is the one having the most fun. I was amazed at how widespread surfing is.
There are scenes from California, Hawaii, and Australia, but . . . Sheboygan, Wisconsin?
And surfers catching the wakes of big oil tankers and freighters in the Gulf of Mexico?
There’s a moving segment about a disabled young man who still surfs, although he can
now only lie down on the board. The video is generally high-class hi-def, and some
sequences are better than others. The best give a three-dimensional feeling of ascending
the curl of a giant wave, then riding in the barrel it produces. The water at each surfing
location has a different texture that you can not only see in Step Into Liquid, but
almost feel. The transparent DTS-HD MA 7.1 mix spreads the music and sound effects (lots
of water sounds) all around the room, while the narration and interviews remain solidly in
the center channel. There are lots of nifty extras.
Twister (Warner Bros., Blu-ray) ***1/2
Thanks to the proliferation of home video cameras, not much
happens these days without being filmed, and that includes nature’s most powerful
storm, the tornado. This past spring, we were inundated with news footage of the aftermath
of tornadoes, as well as shots of the beasts themselves. The special-effects team of Twister
did a really good job of re-creating the funnels, but their cinematic tornadoes still
don’t shock and awe like the real thing. Nonetheless, Twister includes some
pretty exciting moments, and they have been faithfully transferred to Blu-ray. The picture
is sharp, with no edge enhancement, thus just missing looking crisp. The Dolby TrueHD
sound is close to demonstration caliber. Though these SFX storms never quite approach the
meteorological "freight trains" described by the survivors of actual tornadoes,
they have plenty of distortion-free wallop, and the surround channels whip winds all the
way around the viewer. The overall impact is of a demo disc that belongs in most
collections. The extras are fluff, for the most part, except for a History Channel
documentary, Nature Tech: Tornadoes, which is intelligent, factual, and more
frightening than the movie.
The Spiderwick Chronicles (Paramount,
Blu-ray) ***1/2
A mother (Mary Louise Parker) and her three children move
from New York City to a big, sprawling, Addams Family-type home out in the country. One of
the boys (Freddie Highmore) finds an old book -- a guide to a world that exists beyond a
magic circle of mushrooms the author has caused to grow around the house. In this world
are ogres and other nasty things who want the book so they can have absolute power. The
kids locate Aunt Lucinda Spiderwick (a feisty Joan Plowright), and the adventure becomes
complicated as they race to a showdown with the baddies. There are moments of charm, even
of magic, but not quite enough to give this fantasy top billing. As far as video goes, the
Blu-ray Disc is nearly the state of the art. The picture has been cleaned up --
there’s no grain, and every detail is sharply delineated without edge enhancement.
The audio is lively, the sound effects making great use of the entire 360-degree
soundfield. The minus is that the music, a rather good score by James Horner, is mixed so
low as to be, at times, nearly inaudible. There’s a large group of interesting
extras, including deleted scenes, production featurettes, and a pop-up trivia feature one
can activate to display interesting (and not so interesting) facts while the movie is
playing.
. . . Rad Bennett
radb@hometheatersound.com |
