This week, our Blu-ray critic, always hungry for shiny bits of foil, shares his secret for a cornucopia of hi-def movie options.
Life without Blu Over the past few months, I’ve espoused the virtues of Blu-ray. Then again, it’s virtually impossible to find a decent, nonvirtual Blu-ray merchant in New York (Barnes & Noble is the last man standing). Blockbuster’s Blu-ray rentals are positively anemic, and Netflix’s Blu-ray offerings are plagued with scratched product. My dirty little secret: The last five films I’ve watched in superb hi-def never saw the blue laser light of any player. What’s the answer, budget-minded technophiles? Three letters: HBO. Read more »
Our Blu-ray geek goes mutant, sprouting metallic claws and tearing apart the new box set. If only he’d turned himself into a naked, blue-skinned Rebecca Romijn instead. We’d watch that.
What is it? Disingenuously packaged as the “X-Men Trilogy” despite last week’s release of the franchise’s fourth film, this new box set is a superheroic geek-out. Fanboys aching to watch their favorite mutants—from meteorological wet dream Storm (Halle Berry) to iron fetishist Magneto (Ian McKellen)—can’t possibly be disappointed by definition. Plus there’s a surfeit of bonus material both ridiculous and sublime spread over nine discs (six discs, really, plus an extra disc of each movie that’s meant for ease in transferring to computers or iPods).
What’s so Blu about it? As examples of CGI wizardry smartly dispatched in the name of storytelling, the first two X-Men films are peerless. (Brett Ratner’s X-Men: The Last Stand? Pretty, but stupid.) Visually speaking, these titles really kick out the parameters of a Blu-ray deck. The only Blu-ray exclusive is a lame opportunity to buy advance tickets to Wolverine, which—only after the purchase is complete—leads to a sneak peek at one of the film’s schlocky action scenes. Woo?
Worth owning? “It’s not my nature to be putting out multiple DVDs of films,” says director Bryan Singer in one of the most unintentionally ironic moments of commentary ever recorded. But that’s not up to you, is it, Bryan? Fox will mine this franchise for all the adamantium it’s got, which is why the supplements have been repurposed from earlier DVD releases. There’s no new HD material here, a shame.
Am I Blu-ray? My final verdict: a qualified buy. The extras are a recycled disappointment, but the features themselves look absolutely stunning.
Just a missive today from our Blu-ray critic, who comes bearing body blows for the lazily presented Blu-ray of The Wrestler. Still, there’s one thing about it that he hearts to death.
Make no mistake, The Wrestler looks great on Blu-ray. But fans aren’t seeing this movie for the pretty pictures—no offense to the mock-doc style of cinematographer Maryse Alberti. Darren Aronofsky’s acclaimed drama is a simple, sentimental and effective study of redemption. Mickey Rourke is the anchor, and all of his pain pops vividly on Blu-ray. (Honestly, it does just as well on DVD.) Fox Searchlight’s disc is bare-bones: no director’s commentary, no deleted scenes or trailers, no press footage of the film’s top-prize triumph at the Venice Film Festival or even Rourke’s hilariously foulmouthed BAFTA acceptance speech (a rambling, good-natured purge some wonks feel might have cost him his Oscar).
So why pay any attention at all? One reason only: If you grew up watching pro wrestling—and names like “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake bring back fuzzy memories of grown men hammering each other to a pulp—then this Blu-ray is heaven-sent. Exclusive to the HD version of The Wrestler is a 25-minute extra called “Wrestler Round Table,” in which five lionhearted hall-of-famers (including the aforementioned duo) talk eloquently and poignantly about their reaction to Aronofsky’s film. Superlative and astute are only two of the words hurled around like folding chairs in a veterans’ hall. In conversation, they share bitter memories of a career with no health care, a rabid public that sometimes got too fanatical (Piper talks of being stabbed three different times) and the rush of adrenaline from hearing your name chanted by thousands, which helped numb the physical pain. “The film legitimizes what we do,” says “Diamond” Dallas Page, agreeing that a cold bed in a trailer park was the only pension plan he ever got. What do they hope to get from the popularity of The Wrestler? Piper has only one word: “Respect.” Here’s a taste, courtesy of Fox Searchlight:
Today, our Blu-ray critic dives deep under the covers of Criterion’s In the Realm of the Senses—and is pleasured immensely.
This week marks my column’s first X-rated recommendation—but I might just have to make it a dirty habit with more titles like this. Nagisa Oshima’s 1976 erotic drama, In the Realm of the Senses, is one of the few films to have actually been banned briefly in New York City. A surprisingly touching art-house picture about a doomed romance (with almost two dozen acts of coitus, a sexagenarian pity fuck and a hard-boiled egg shoved into a horny minx’s vajayjay), this Franco-Japanese coproduction was a cause célèbre for decades, especially in Japan, where the uncensored version still hasn’t been screened. But what’s really going to engorge your Blu-ray player is how vivid the images are. You want truer than life? Prepare to have your tech specs blown. Read more »
Would you please open the pod-bay doors for our Blu-ray critic Stephen Garrett? Sorry, Stephen, but I’m afraid we can’t do that. Stephen, Stephen, give us your answer do…
Honestly, how stupid was the idea of making a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey? Cocreator Arthur C. Clarke was perfectly entitled to publish 2010: Odyssey Two in 1982, more than 14 years after collaborating on the script of Kubrick’s landmark film, and MGM exercised its legal right to make it a flick. But was there no decency on hand? Director Peter Hyams tried to spin a franchise out of a profound philosophical rumination, one that Kubrick’s hippie marketers rightly dubbed “the ultimate trip.” It ain’t the penultimate trip, folks. It’s the ultimate. And 2001 is also, arguably, the ultimate Blu-ray. Read more »
It wouldn’t be Tuesday without a dispatch from our high-def correspondent, Stephen Garrett, and “Am I Blu-ray?” This week, Stephen’s tracking down some killer options for the discerning home-video connoisseur.
Blu-ray converts have been bludgeoned with a steady stream of homicidal maniacs over the past few months, so it seems the right time to decide which cinematic nightmares are worth seeing in razor-sharp HD. Do they all deserve to be upgraded? Not really. I know saying this might get me my very own lotion basket and underground dungeon. But I’m firm on the matter. Only one of the four newish titles is an absolute must-own on Blu-ray—and it’s a chillingly ideal format for the subject matter.
But I get ahead of myself. Friday the 13th deserves a tip of the old machete for its cultural impact, spawning ten sequels and a recent reboot. The Blu-ray reveals the 1980 original for what it is: a quickie done on a shoestring budget. The direction and cinematography are about as spooky as an instructional video, and Kevin Bacon’s famous arrowhead tracheotomy is slightly more believable than a party-store novelty trick. The movie was better served by inferior technology like VHS; transferring such mediocrity to the unforgiving digital environment is, well, overkill. Read more »
The Little Film That Did is totally available today on Blu-ray. Luckily for everyone involved, we actually have a Blu-ray geek on hand to appraise it. Stephen Garrett’s personal opinion of Danny Boyle’s popular triumph seems to have bloomed. Call it the lure of digital perfection. Call it a rags-to-riches story. Call it today’s Am I Blu-ray? Read more »
Tuesdays means Am I Blu-Ray?, our exclusive media column about the digital hotness. In this installment, Stephen Garrett sees the end of the road for a generation of collectors. Cranky pants? Maybe so. But his essay is neat: a complete history of home video in 500 words. You try that. We double-dare you. In short, according to Garrett, Blu-ray is a gift that connoisseurs may never see again. Read more »
Even if you’re not a Blu-ray vampire, you still have plenty to look forward to on this proverbial new-release Tuesday. We don’t remotely mean Howard the Duck, though our DVD section (scroll down to the bottom of the page) does feature a fairly hilarious takedown of the movie. As if it needed it. On the other end of the suckometer: Pinocchio. Who doesn’t love a little wooden boy? That sounded dirty.
Today, the creepalicious Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In comes out on Blu-ray. It’s also Tuesday—the day our Blu-ray critic Stephen Garrett emerges from his own light-tight crypt for a little blog exposure. This week, Garrett’s got some shockingly Luddite advice for his legion of Blu-ray succubi. It’s the second half of his “Do I need to rebuy everything?” essay, and it’s after the jump. Read more »
Starting this week in a two-part piece, our fearless Blu-ray critic tips toward the edge of madness: Do I really need to upgrade my entire collection? In this recession? Which titles? And why? Are there rules for making such decisions? Stephen Garrett’s going to try to come up with some, after the jump. Read more »
Today is Tuesday, which means it’s lean-out-of-speeding-cars-and-shoot-guns-in-France day. That, and our weekly Blu-ray column, “Am I Blu-ray?” After the jump, Stephen Garrett weighs in on one of the supreme car-chase movies, out on Blu this week. But is it worth the tune-up? Read more »
It’s Tuesday, and not an election day. So what does that mean to you? May we humbly suggest it means reading our new weekly Blu-ray column? Fine, you don’t own a Blu-ray. Neither do we, actually. But we do have an excellent critic taking measure of interesting films each week. Plus, one day you will own a Blu-ray player. It’s the future. It’s unavoidable. Or is it? Maybe these geeky issues of fidelity and pixels and whatnot actually mean something. All I know is, “unavoidable” or not, I’m happy to be single thankyouverymuch.
There’s the pantheon of greats, and then there’s Martin Scorsese atop it. Do I speak as a fan? Yes. But I also speak as someone with eyeballs. And when the subject is Scorsese’s brutal, magnificent Raging Bull, we’re talking prime Marty. But how essential is the brand-new Blu-ray transfer of the movie? And what is Blu-ray anyway? Check out Stephen Garrett’s Blu-ray column every Tuesday: “Am I Blu-ray?” This week, Stephen goes a few rounds with De Niro. (Not the fat, lazy De Niro at the end of the movie; the pumped De Niro.)
Honestly we’re not quite sure. That’s why we found an actual Blu-ray geek (and a damn fine critic to boot) to figure it out for us on a weekly basis, starting today. Check in with “Am I Blu-ray?” every Tuesday on the Film home page for reviews of the latest Blu-ray releases, along with all sorts of intense video comparisons. TONY: We’re geeks like that.
