Metal Shifters (Iron Invader) (Blu-ray Review)
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Loading ...The moral of the story: alcohol is good.
You need a bigger gun.
Metal Shifters, a.k.a. Iron Invaders, comes from the good folks at SyFy, so audiences familiar with that channel's original movies
pretty much know what to expect with this one. Metal Shifters represents more of the same on many levels, but it does show a slight uptick
in overall quality, similar in that regard to, if not still a notch below, another of these films recently released on Blu-ray,
Video
Metal Shifters sparkles on Blu-ray. Anchor Bay's 1080p 1.78:1-framed transfer is a superb, no-corners-cut presentation that rivals the best
transfers of major films. Fine detail is steady and often breathtaking. Clothing is remarkably intricate, faces are naturally complex and well-defined, and
various elements seen throughout the movie -- chipped and dented machinery at the scrapyard, scuffed wooden floors, particleboard -- look great, very
natural and sturdy. The image is very
Audio
Metal Shifters arrives on Blu-ray with a high quality and very active Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Indeed, information is thrown all
over the soundstage with regularity, but not without purpose and balance. The track makes good use of a very wide soundstage; music is spacious and
crisp, playing with a natural balance and a good accompanying low end. Ambience excels and plays naturally all over the soundstage, whether birds and
insects or establishing, environment-shaping
Supplements
Metal Shifters contains 'Metal Shifters:' Behind the Scenes (1080p, 15:02), a short piece featuring cast and crew discussing the plot,
character development, the movie's style, practical effects, favorite scenes, the work of the actors, and the mood on the set. Also included is the
Metal Shifters trailer (1080p, 1:43).
Final Words
In essence, Metal Shifters isn't quite the movie it could have been, and despite wallowing in some standard SyFy elements and disappointing
with a goofy, anticlimactic ending, it still ranks amongst the best of these types of movies, which is certainly more an admonishment of the collective
SyFy whole than it is an acclamation of what may be an outlier but is hopefully more representative of a baby step in the right direction where "cheesy"
and "cheap" can co-exist with a more refin...
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Metal Shifters (Iron Invader) (Blu-ray Review)
Lindsey Buckingham with Special Guest Stevie Nicks: Live (Blu-ray Review)
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Trying to Go His Own Way
Singer, songwriter, producer, virtuoso guitarist and general impressario, Californian Lindsay
Buckingham won a cult following in 1973 with his debut album, Buckingham Nicks, which, as
the title indicates, he recorded with then-girlfriend Stevie Nicks. But it wasn't until Buckingham
and Nicks joined the long-established British band Fleetwood Mac (on New Year's Eve 1974,
according to show biz lore) that they achieved the worldwide success that resulted in their
induction, in 1998, i...
Video
I am running out of ways to praise the efforts of director Joe Thomas and his technical crew for
Soundstage. The 1080i, AVC-encoded image for Lindsay Buckingham: Live represents another
fine effort from Image in reproducing their accomplishments. Buckingham is an intense
performer, but it's a tightly coiled intensity. The demands of simultaneously singing and playing
guitar limit his motion around the stage. Instead of resorting to frantic movement, the cameramen
have kept it simpl
Audio
The DTS-HD MA 5.1 track reflects HD Ready's usual approach to mixing concerts recorded for
Soundstage. The viewer is placed in the position of an audience member with the sounds of
cheering and applause directed to the surrounds, while the band and vocalists (here, primarily
Buckingham) remain spread across the front soundstage, with some degree of presence in the
surrounds to create a sense of space and depth. Buckingham's ensemble is the smallest for any
Soundstage concert I've reviewed,
Supplements
Since I don't count the bonus tracks, there are no extras on the disc.
Final Words
It may be impossible for Buckingham ever to escape his association with Fleetwood Mac, but
there are worse fates. Besides, it will probably be impossible for Fleetwood Mac ever to escape
its association with Buckingham, despite having existed for twelve years and released nine (9!
) albums before Buckingham played a note with them. Some combinations are magical, and no one
knows why. Watching Buckingham sing and play guitar (a remarkable sight in itself), one can't
help but recogni...
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Lindsey Buckingham with Special Guest Stevie Nicks: Live (Blu-ray Review)
Ocean Heaven (Blu-ray Review)
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Jet Li wireless.
Autism has become one of the great medical mysteries of our time. A whole range of behaviors, from low end Asperger
Syndrome to fully involved autismhas fallen under the label of this little understood disorder, and the causes
attributed to autism are similarly varied. Some insist that mercury in inoculations is the culprit (despite a number of
recent clinical studies which tend to suggest otherwise), others point to genetic components, and a few even insist that
a lack of nurturing p...
Video
Ocean Heaven is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This
film has been significantly filtered in its digital intermediate stage, with blues being pushed to the point of near blooming at
times. This aspect, which obviously plays on the watery ambience of the entire film, sometimes robs the film of sufficient
contrast, and the image assumes a soft, fuzzy look with a lack of fine detail. The film also has fairly noticeable crush
Audio
Ocean Heavens two lossless DTS-HD Master Audio tracks, one in 2.0 and the other in 5.1, are fine, excellently
rendered affairs that nonetheless never really rise to a wow factor simply by dint of the fact that this is a quiet, intimate,
dialogue driven film. The surround track does significantly open up the soundfield in several key sequences, notably the
opening segment in the rowboat and, later, a sequence that takes place in a circus. Both of these tracks offer excellent
f
Supplements
- Making Of (SD; 11:07) explores director Xue Xiaolus personal experience with special needs children and
their families and how that informed her work on Ocean Heaven. - Original Teaser (SD; 00:38)
- Trailer (HD; 2:01)
Final Words
Jet Li fans may be completely thrown for a loop when the pop Ocean Heaven in their Blu-ray player, for this is unlike
anything the iconic martial arts star has done before. The film is a mixed bag, with some truly touching moments probably
outweighing the fanciful depiction of an autistic kid who is both high functioning and severely disabled. Li brings a certain
nobility and stoicism to the role of the put upon father, and Wen Zhang is sweet and affecting as Dafu. Writer-directo...
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Ocean Heaven (Blu-ray Review)
Ef: A Tale of Memories - Complete Collection (Blu-ray Review)
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Memories, pressed between the pages of their minds.
When Love Story swept the
publishing and then the film worlds in the late sixties and early seventies, it seemed like a breath of fresh air, a callback
to a simpler time when boy met girl, girl got fatal disease, and lots and lots of Kleenex were gone through. After the
turmoil of the sixties, something that certainly spilled over into movies of that era, Love Story was a rather odd
property to be...
Video
Ef: A Tale of Memories is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in
1.78:1. This is one of the most immaculate high definition anime presentations in recent memory. The design aesthetic of
the series is made for high def, and this Blu-ray pops magnificently throughout the first seasons twelve episodes. Colors
are incredibly vivid and variegated, and the series really cool graphical elementswhere things like characters are
displa
Audio
Ef: A Tale of Memories has two lossless audio tracks, both DTS-HD Master 2.0 stereo mixes, one in the original
Japanese and the other a quite good English dub. Purists will probably want to opt for the original Japanese track, as it
evidently offers some of the original voice actors from the visual novel series, but those who prefer not to read subtitles
wont have a lot to complain about with the English voice cast, as the styles and even timbres of the English language cast
is
Supplements
Note: While the titles for the supplements are in the singular (i.e., Animation), each supplement actually contains at
least two items, hence the longer running times.
- Clean Opening Animation (HD; 3:04)
- Clean Closing Animation (HD; 13:49)
Final Words
Sometimes theres nothing there there and a show must make its mark by other means, if its able to make its mark at all.
Ef: A Tale of Memories actually does make its mark, despite the plot line being simultaneously slow and also
over the top. Young love has always been the stuff of angst and amped up emotions, and thats certainly the case with
Ef: A Tale of Memories, but if that sounds like a turn off, dont let it be--Ef is actually more than this one ...
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Ef: A Tale of Memories - Complete Collection (Blu-ray Review)
La Jetée / Sans Soleil (Blu-ray Review)
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Chris Marker's "La Jetée" (1962) and "Sans Soleil" (1983) arrive on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include two video interview with director Jean-Pierre Gorin; excerpts from the French television series Courtcircuit (le magazine); "Junkopia", a six-minute film by director Chris Marker; and more. The disc also arrives with a 44-page illustrated booklet featuring Catherine Lupton's essay "Memory's Apostle: Chris Marker, La Jetee, and Sans Soleil"; interview...
Video
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.64:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Chris Marker's La Jetée and Sans Soleil arrive on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.
The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray disc:
"Approved by director Chris Marker, these high-definition digital transfers were created on a Spirit 2K Datacine. La Jetée was mastered from a 35mm fine-grain master positive and Sans Soleil from
Audio
There are four audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: English LPCM 1.0 and French LPCM 1.0 for La Jetée and English LPCM 1.0 and French LPCM 1.0 for Sans Soleil. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English and English SDH subtitles for both films.
The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray disc:
"The original monaural soundtracks were remastered at 24-bit from 35mm optical track prints. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum wer
Supplements
- Jean-Pierre Gorin - in this video piece, French filmmaker, writer, and educator Jean-Pierre Gorin discusses La Jetée and director Chris Marker's body of work. The video piece was filmed in 2005. In English, not subtitled. (24 min, 1080i).
- Chris on Chris - a short piece on director Chris Marker, made by London-based writer and film critic Chris Darke. The piece also features comments by American filmmaker Michael Shamberg. In English
Final Words
Trying to describe or analyze Chris Marker's La Jetée and Sans Soleil truly is an impossible task. I've seen them a number of times during the years and to be honest each time they forced me to ponder different questions. They are beautiful, very original films, but definitely not easy to immediately embrace. There are some fascinating concepts about time and reality in them, but the possibilities and observations the French director introduces with them could be quite overwhelming...
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La Jetée / Sans Soleil (Blu-ray Review)Dangerous Liaisons (Blu-ray Review)
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...What's Love Got to Do With It?
Timing is everything. When French army officer Pierre Choderlos de Laclos published the book
Les Liaisons dangereuses in 1782, it was considered trash. Only later was it elevated into one
of the great works of Western literature, one of the most famous in a new form: a novel told
exclusively in letters (the so-called "epistolary novel"), with the occasional wry observation by
the "editor" of the compilation. Today, though, Laclos has few readers outside the academy. One
of them wa...Video
As Frears and Hampton note in their commentary, the photographic style for much of Dangerous
Liaisons was borrowed from two previous period films, Fellini's Casanova and BarryLyndon,
where the brightest light source in the frame for key scenes is a candle. This challenging
approach can yield a detailed image in the hands of a talented cinematographer like the Oscar-winningPhilippe Rousselot (A River Runs Through It), but there's no way to avoid se
Audio
Dangerous Liaisons was released to theaters in stereo. The original track was remixed for 5.1
for the film's 1997 DVD, and the Blu-ray appears to contain the same track in a lossless DTS-HD
MA presentation. The remix is conservative, keeping the voices and effects in the front and using
the discrete format to expand the space in which George Fenton's score accentuates the drama
(with assistance from Bach, Handel and Vivaldi). The orchestral arrangements sound perfectly
fine in thiSupplements
- Commentary with Director Stephen Frears and Writer Christopher Hampton: This
commentary has not appeared on any prior release of Dangerous Liaisons in region 1 or
region A with which I'm familiar. Internal references indicate that it was recorded
sometime after 2003, because the speakers refer to the Korean adaptation of Laclos'
novel, The Scandal. Neither Frears nor Hampton had seen the film for a long time, and
there are numerous pauses durinFinal Words
One indicator of the success of Dangerous Liaisons at perfecting Hampton's dramatization of
the novel is the degree to which the film has overshadowed the play that spawned it. A Broadway
revival in 2008 with a first-rate cast felt wan and bloodless compared to the emotional depth and
nuance that Frears captured from the film's cast and in the absence of the story additions that the
film medium allowed. Examples of less-than-successful translations from stage to screen abound,
but...Read full review: Blu-ray.com
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Dangerous Liaisons (Blu-ray Review)Ten Commandments (Blu-ray Review)
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...A good companion film to the superior 1956 masterpiece sports a decent Blu-ray release from Echo Bridge.
I'm not a king. I'm a shepherd.
A good story is worth telling more than once. A great story is worth telling with regularity. A timeless story lives in perpetuity in many forms. One
such timeless tale is the Bible's Old Testament story of Moses, which includes the freeing of slaves from Egypt following 400 years of bondage and God's
delivery of the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments to Moses. The story has been told in its written form through the ages, and...Video
The Ten Commandments features a fair but generally underwhelming Blu-ray presentation. The 1080p/1.78:1-framed transfer nearly dazzles
in spots, disappoints in others, and proves serviceably good in most instances. The picture can be either razor-sharp or modestly soft. Generally, it falls
into a middle ground where fine detailing is adequate. Facial textures fare well enough and clothing -- both the slaves' tattered garb and the Egyptians'
cleaner, more regal costumes -- usuallAudio
The Ten Commandments arrives on Blu-ray with a myriad of soundtracks, none of which are fantastic, none of which are awful. There seems to
be no rhyme or reason why Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0, and LPCM 2.0 presentations had to all be included. One might reasonably
think that the LPCM and a pick
'em between the 5.1 offerings would have sufficed. Nevertheless, a sampling of all four throughout the movie yielded little perceptible difference outside
of surroundSupplements
The Ten Commandments contains two extras. The Making of 'The Ten Commandments' (1080p, 22:50) features narrator Omar Sharif
guiding viewers throughout he making of the film. Included is behind the scenes footage, clips from the film, and cast and crew interviews which cover
the film's story, its themes, the making of the movie, comparisons to DeMille's film, historical influences, digital effects, set design, costumes, and more.
Also included is The Ten
CommandmentsFinal Words
The Ten Commandments is a decent enough movie considering it's something of a faux-epic, a made-for-television "spectacular" that certainly
fares better than many of its TV contemporaries in terms of sheer quality and story. Still, it pales next to the DeMille/Heston classic, no surprise, but this
Ten Commandments is a
watchable movie in its own right, even through uneven acting, modest and relatively phony digital effects, and a lesser pace and technical prowess. It
goes...Read full review: Blu-ray.com
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Ten Commandments (Blu-ray Review)Queen: Days of Our Lives (Blu-ray Review)
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...They were the champions.
The seventies are often thought of, rightly or wrongly, as being a cultural wasteland in terms of rock and pop music,
especially after the halcyon days of the sixties, which saw an incredible variety of artists manage to claw and scratch
their way into the mainstream. In fact the sheer volume of iconic acts which debuted in the sixties probably meant that
any comparison with the following decade was almost sure to leave that decade suffering by comparison no matter how
great its music m...Video
Queen: Days of Our Lives is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision Entertainment with an AVC encoded 720p transfer in 1.78:1.
Because this documentary relies so heavily on archival footage, the video quality here is understandably less than spectacular a lot of the time.
Some of this footage has never been previously seen, and its obviously culled from old 16mm (and apparently even 8mm in a few instances)
source elements. The results are ragged, grainy, extremely fuzzy aAudio
Queen: Days of Our Lives features a lossless LPCM 2.0 audio track that suffices extremely well for both the musical elements as well as
the spoken confessionals. The documentary itself is rather briskly edited, so no really full performance segments are included. There are tons of
great little snippets of the band in concert and in some nascent music videos, but only the supplemental material (which also includes a lossless
LPCM 2.0 audio track) provide unedited musical performanSupplements
- Additional Videos include:
Seven Seas of Rhye (720p; 2:28)
Killer Queen (720p; 2:45)
Somebody to Love (720p;4:56)
We Are the Champions (720p; 3:13)
Crazy Little Thing Called Love (720p; 2:45)
Under Pressure (720p; 3:43)
Radio Ga Ga (720p; 4:48) - Additional Scenes (720p; 59:08) contains a glut of extra material covering all different phases of the band.
Archival and contemporaFinal Words
Queen: Days of Our Lives is a great time capsule assortment of archival video interspersed with contemporary interview segments. The
band made the big time right at the cusp of the music video age and a lot of their nascent music videos, as well as some of their actual
music videos, are included here, not to mention some fantastic and rare concert footage and archival interview footage. Dramatically, this piece
isnt quite the revelation it wants to be, only because the ba...Read full review: Blu-ray.com
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Queen: Days of Our Lives (Blu-ray Review)Big Year (Blu-ray Review)
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...One for the birds.
The allure of birding--I learned today that "birdwatching" apparently has negative connotations--isn't hard to grasp. You're outdoors with a
purpose. You're communing with nature, appreciating the beauty and variety of birds. There's also a "collect-them-all" element involved, a thrill in
tracking down elusive species and crossing them off a birding bucket list. It's a hobby for some, a way of life for others, and--for the record--I have a
real respect for dedicated birders. I say t...Video
The Big Year flaps onto Blu-ray with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that's always better than merely acceptable, but rarely--if ever--stunning.
The movie was shot on 35mm and has a rather heavy grain structure, which is mostly untouched here, although some scenes look to have been given a
light DNR dousing. There are times when the picture takes on a slightly filtered look, and the occasional halo-ish borders on certain hard
outlines--like branches in the woods--suggest that aAudio
In four words: good, but not great. But you could've guessed as much. Family comedies aren't exactly known for ear-assaulting, room-shaking sound
design. 20th Century Fox has given The Big Year the usual lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, and the mix does what it needs to
do with little flourish. What matters most here is that dialogue is clean, perfectly balanced, and easily understandable at all times. And it is. Everything
else is just a bonus. The mix is rooted upSupplements
- The Big Migration (1080p, 18:28): The only feature of substance on the disc is this making-of special, which follows the crew as they
trek across North America. - Deleted Scenes (1080p, 17:37)
- Gag Reel (1080p, 5:58)
- Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 1:47)
- Sneak Peak (1080p, 4:50): Trailers for In Time and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
Final Words
So, The Big Year was big flop at the box office, and I'm guessing it'll suffer a similar fate on Blu-ray. A comedy about birdwatching isn't the most
exciting premise, so the film would be a hard sell even if it were good. And it's not. It isn't bad bad, but there's little to recommend
here; it's not funny, the story is uninteresting on screen, and at every turn the filmmakers have played it safe. Birders, especially, will be disappointed
that the joys of their hobby ar...Read full review: Blu-ray.com
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Big Year (Blu-ray Review)Big Year (Blu-ray Review)
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...One for the birds.
The allure of birding--I learned today that "birdwatching" apparently has negative connotations--isn't hard to grasp. You're outdoors with a
purpose. You're communing with nature, appreciating the beauty and variety of birds. There's also a "collect-them-all" element involved, a thrill in
tracking down elusive species and crossing them off a birding bucket list. It's a hobby for some, a way of life for others, and--for the record--I have a
real respect for dedicated birders. I say t...Video
The Big Year flaps onto Blu-ray with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that's always better than merely acceptable, but rarely--if ever--stunning.
The movie was shot on 35mm and has a rather heavy grain structure, which is mostly untouched here, although some scenes look to have been given a
light DNR dousing. There are times when the picture takes on a slightly filtered look, and the occasional halo-ish borders on certain hard
outlines--like branches in the woods--suggest that aAudio
In four words: good, but not great. But you could've guessed as much. Family comedies aren't exactly known for ear-assaulting, room-shaking sound
design. 20th Century Fox has given The Big Year the usual lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, and the mix does what it needs to
do with little flourish. What matters most here is that dialogue is clean, perfectly balanced, and easily understandable at all times. And it is. Everything
else is just a bonus. The mix is rooted upSupplements
- The Big Migration (1080p, 18:28): The only feature of substance on the disc is this making-of special, which follows the crew as they
trek across North America. - Deleted Scenes (1080p, 17:37)
- Gag Reel (1080p, 5:58)
- Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 1:47)
- Sneak Peak (1080p, 4:50): Trailers for In Time and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
Final Words
So, The Big Year was big flop at the box office, and I'm guessing it'll suffer a similar fate on Blu-ray. A comedy about birdwatching isn't the most
exciting premise, so the film would be a hard sell even if it were good. And it's not. It isn't bad bad, but there's little to recommend
here; it's not funny, the story is uninteresting on screen, and at every turn the filmmakers have played it safe. Birders, especially, will be disappointed
that the joys of their hobby ar...Read full review: Blu-ray.com
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Big Year (Blu-ray Review) - The Big Migration (1080p, 18:28): The only feature of substance on the disc is this making-of special, which follows the crew as they
- Additional Videos include:
- Commentary with Director Stephen Frears and Writer Christopher Hampton: This
(4.67 out of 5)