| Video Roundup April 2009
Blu-ray Update
A selection of movies on Blu-ray for April 2009.
 Bolt (Walt Disney Home
Entertainment) ****
In a year without WALL-E, this charming film might
have picked up some actual awards among its 19 nominations. John Travolta is the voice of
Bolt, a Hollywood stunt dog who, with his young owner, Penny (Miley Cyrus), appears on a
weekly TV show aimed at teens and young adults. But Bolt has been kept in the dark about
special effects -- he believes he can actually perform all his superhero stunts. Bolt
escapes, is shipped to New York City by mistake, and sets out to find Penny. In his
travels across the continent he’s accompanied by a scrawny cat, Mittens (Susie
Essman), and a hamster, Rhino (Mark Walton), who lives in a plastic exercise ball. This
heartwarming story teaches many good lessons, including that such a story doesn’t
always have to be about a boy and his dog. Travolta’s natural, appealing
characterization of Bolt raises celebrity voice tracks to a new level, and Miley Cyrus
isn’t far behind as Penny. Together they strike sparks and create a satisfactory team
that’s heard to great effect in the song "I Thought I Lost You," heard over
the end titles. The animation is first-rate -- the CGI artists have gotten just the right
feeling for Bolt, whose wide repertoire of accurately observed canine mannerisms makes him
believable and endearing. This set includes Blu-ray and DVD versions. The latter is
excellent, but the Blu-ray is the state of the art. Bolt was also made in a 3D
version for theatrical release, but the Blu-ray edition has so much definition, with great
depth in every scene, that I didn’t miss the 3D at all. The sound is also as good as
it gets, ranging from single voices in dialogue to musical moments to thunderous sound
effects. Though there’s big impact in the latter (including a lot of oomph
from the LFE channel), there’s also a lot of transparency and space. Lots of extras
are provided, including deleted scenes, and a digital copy for those on the go.
 The Boondock Saints
(20th Century Fox) ***
This cult favorite features Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman
Reedus as two Irish brothers in South Boston who are out to rid the world of evildoers.
They begin with the Russian Mafia, and soon move on to other targets. Willem Dafoe plays
Paul Smecker, a thinking man’s gay FBI agent who pursues them, only to discover that
he actually supports what they’re doing. Director Troy Duffy obviously wants to make
an action film à la Quentin Tarantino here, but his style is far too uneven. The
Boondock Saints is worth watching once for its high points and Dafoe’s
scenery-chewing performance. The picture is crisp and clean, just short of demonstration
caliber. The surround sound is effective, especially in the frequent gun battles, where
the realistic ricochets made me want to duck. Both the theatrical and the slightly longer
director’s cut are included, as is a director’s commentary (theatrical version
only). Outtakes, deleted scenes, and the shooting script finish off the extras. Worth a
rental, but think twice about buying.
 Hurricane on the Bayou
(Image Entertainment) ***1/2
Shot in IMAX format and originally shown in those theaters,
this documentary is an impassioned plea to save the New Orleans wetlands, which act as
natural "speed bumps" to slow down the hurricanes that move in from the Gulf of
Mexico. When director-producer Greg MacGillivray began filming, a huge storm that could
almost completely destroy New Orleans was still a hypothetical event, however probable.
But while the crew was in the final stages of production, Hurricane Katrina struck to
fulfill the film’s prophecy. The crew returned to New Orleans to shoot scenes of the
aftermath and residents’ hopes for the city’s rebirth, then re-edited the film.
The powerful result makes it clear that humans can seldom win battles with Nature when
they disrupt the flow of natural events. There are many memorable scenes shot before,
during, and after Katrina. It’s an awesome and pitiful sight to see baby alligators
tossed about by hurricane winds as if they were tumbleweeds, or a bicyclist engulfed by a
huge wave that breaches a seawall. Any film about New Orleans would also have to be about
music and musicians, and on hand are Allen Toussaint, Tab Benoit, Chubby Carrier, Amanda
Shaw, and Marva Wright. The handsome Benoit, an activist for wetland protection, provides
a significant portion of the commentary (along with narrator Meryl Streep).
The picture is clean and clear, if not quite as crisp as
one might like. You’d think an IMAX film would be a perfect candidate for the Blu-ray
treatment, but so far this has not proven true. Perhaps it’s the difference in aspect
ratios involved in the transfer. The DTS-HD Master Audio track is very impressive, both
for music and the sounds of the storm -- the latter are terrifying. Extras include
information about the musicians and filmmakers, and a production featurette that offers
much pertinent and interesting information, especially about the plight of the zoo animals
that had to be left behind. One little penguin will steal your heart.
 Transporter 3 (Lions
Gate Films) **
I found The Transporter (2002) a guilty
pleasure. It’s not Shakespeare, but if you can ignore the preposterous plot holes,
it’s great action-adventure entertainment. Jason Statham is an appealing lead as
Frank Martin, a guy who transports things for people in his tricked-out car. Statham can
apparently defeat an entire army with his fight moves, and these are skillfully
choreographed and expertly filmed. In this third outing Frank is pitted against Johnson,
played by Robert Knepper, loathed with delight by fans of Prison Break but wasted
here. The premise is OK -- while unconscious, Frank is outfitted with a bracelet that
can’t be more than a certain distance from his car or he will die -- and the fights
are fine, but the movie is a disaster: director Olivier Megaton proves thoroughly inept.
Seeming to have no confidence in a superb team of stuntmen, Megaton uses such rapid jump
cuts in the fight scenes that it made my head spin not with excitement, but confusion. The
attempts to enrich the plot by having Martin fall for Valentina (Natalya Rudakova) are
awkward and tedious. It would have been far better to concentrate on the fights with a
less nervous camera. The very clear picture is a little sharper in bright scenes than in
dark ones, and the absolutely stellar DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 soundtrack is twice as good
as the movie deserves. If you want to hear why Megaton considers Transporter 3 a
success, consult the extras, but he didn’t convince me. A rental at best.
 Twilight (Summit
Entertainment) **
Twilight, based on Stephenie Meyer’s hugely
successful novel, is a story of teen angst: a boy who wants to practice abstinence because
he knows he’s bad for the girl who loves with him with a passion so hot she’s
willing to risk anything to be with him. But there’s another dimension to this
romance: the boy, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), is a vampire, and the girl, Bella Swan
(Kristen Stewart), is human. There’s also a lot of silliness. I haven’t read the
novel, which teenage girls have swooned over by the millions, but this film version is
slow and thoughtful to the point of being lugubrious. The chemistry between the leads
should sizzle. Instead, it fizzles like a wet firecracker. There are some decent special
effects and a few subordinate characters of interest. I didn’t see Twilight in
a theater, but the color on this Blu-ray edition is very much on the blue-green side. Skin
tones border on green -- and not only for the vampires. Other than that, the picture is
clean but not crisp, with nothing that cries out "hi-def!" -- it might as well
be an upsampled DVD. The audio is largely up front, and the DTS-HD Master Audio track
includes four or five annoying dropouts. The extras include deleted scenes, a production
featurette, and a commentary by the two leads and director Catherine Hardwicke. If
you’re a fan of the book, rent this and weep; if not, save your time and your money.
. . . Rad Bennett
radb@hometheatersound.com |
