Here's the Blu-ray reviews from The Virginian-Pilot newspaper/online in Norfolk, VA
The Virginian-Pilot
© December 14, 2007
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX
HD and standard-def widescreen, 2007, PG-13 for sequences of fantasy violence and frightening images
Best extra: Extras vary among the three formats. Blu-ray and standard-def offer a 44- minute TV special: "The Hidden Secrets of Harry Potter," tracking the first five books and films with commentary by cast, crew and Potter fans. The In-Movie experience, only on the HD DVD/DVD combo, offers trivia, interviews and more as the film runs.
DIRECTOR DAVID YATES and crew have achieved the impossible. No, not the adaptation of J.K. Rowling's book. They have successfully herded cats.
The Blu-ray and standard-def DVD offers a series of featurettes where we learn that the kittens shown on the hundred or so collector plates in Dolores Umbridge's (Imelda Staunton) office were filmed live. They were then individually cropped onto each plate. Anyone who has ever tried to control kittens en masse should stand and applaud.
Additional featurettes give viewers time to look at the thestrals, skeletal horse creatures with bat wings, and the house at No. 12 Grimmauld Place. The detail is stunning. I'm with Daniel Radcliffe; I could move in, too.
Still, the movie is what we want to see and there is plenty to enjoy. Each format looks and sounds great, although the HD versions kick everything up several magical notches. It is genuinely amazing that, although this is a fantasy world, all of the elements continue to look genuine. CGI blends with real-world filming; special effects are flawless. (And leave me wondering why I can't get my own broom to fly.)
Kay Reynolds
LOST: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON - THE UNEXPLORED EXPERIENCE
HD Widescreen, 2006-07, unrated
Best extra: Being an avid reader, I thoroughly enjoyed The Lost Book Club, which focuses on the books featured in the series, including Stephen King's Carrie.
LOST MAKES ITS HI-DEF DEBUT this week just in time for the fourth season's debut in early 2008. The third season is another white-knuckle head-trip mostly focused on Jack, Kate and Sawyer's imprisonment by the Others at their camp, where Jack is forced to perform an operation to save the life of Ben, the leader of the Others.
The two-hour season finale, Through the Looking Glass, is the single best episode of Lost thus far and one of the most imaginative and shocking finales in television history. Like The Prisoner, and The X-Files before it, Lost understands that the answers to the questions are never as satisfying as the questions themselves and that the journey is more important than the destination.
All 23 episodes are presented in stunning 1080p, which truly kicks the 720p hi-def broadcast version to the curb, boasting vivid colors (green mountains and foliage, deep blue seas) and striking detail (look at Matthew Fox's stubble!). This is the best Lost has ever looked. Sound is also excellent with a PCM 5.1 Surround mix.
Extras include featurettes (the excellent Lost in A Day takes viewers behind-the-scenes for a look at a day's work creating the show), deleted scenes, bloopers and more. An exclusive Blu-ray BD-Java feature that claims to be more interactive than it actually is feels tacked on and unnecessary.
Josh Boone
CAST AWAY
HD widescreen, 2000, PG-13 for intense action sequences and some disturbing images
Best extra: The commentary track with director Robert Zemeckis and his production crew.
JUST WONDERING: How in the world did Tom Hanks win the Oscar for Forrest Gump and not for Cast Away, a fascinating look at man vs. nature that reunited him with Gump director Zemeckis?
Hanks, who doubled as producer, plays Chuck Noland, a Fed Ex troubleshooter who lives by the clock. When his beeper goes off during Christmas Eve dinner, he dashes off for a flight across the Pacific. The plane crashes, marooning Chuck on a desert island for four years. In the film's most daring segment, some 40 minutes pass without background music or sound effects as Chuck, truly alone, learns to cope.
The Blu-ray presents a solid hi-def picture a notch above the DVD. It's the DTS HD sound that's far superior. Warning, don't be so quick to sell-off your two-disc DVD.
Either, Fox forgot to include the four documentaries from the DVD or just they didn't have room on hi-def disc. That's disappointment. Those extras were fascinating with stories from Hawks, Zemeckis and screenwriter William Broyler Jr. whose own voluntary survival course in Baja, Calif., the inspiration for the film. Broyler learned to split coconuts and build a fire. He also developed a relationship with a volleyball that washed ashore.
Thank goodness the Blu-ray includes the original commentary with its bounty of info. For example: The script from Broyler, with an assist from Hanks, required 125 revisions. Sound crazy? Zemeckis tells us that's normal. The director also pinpoints the shooting schedule, shot in two parts with a one-year hiatus so Hanks could lose 50 pounds to play the leaner Chuck. As a final bonus, Fox includes a pop-up trivia track with more cool facts. Zemeckis' team spent a year looking for the perfect island, Monuriki, 90-minutes away (via plane) from the mainland of the Fiji Islands.
Bill Kelley III
MR. & MRS. SMITH
HD widescreen, 2005, PG-13 for sequences of violence, intense action, sexual content and brief strong language.
Best extra: Losing many of the special features available on both DVD releases, Fox has only seen fit to retain three audio commentaries, deleted scenes and a brief Fox Movie Channel featurette.
BRAD PITT AND ANGELINA JOLIE play married assassins ordered to take each other out "Prizzi's Honor" style. The film is presented in its theatrical cut instead of director Doug ("The Bourne Identity") Liman's unrated director's cut. The director's cut is a slight improvement over the already enjoyable theatrical cut. Liman was never able to properly test the film with audiences to help in final edits and made some changes after the film opened for DVD. Hopefully, this alternative cut will show up on hi-def in the future.
The 1080p transfer is colorful and detailed with plenty of 3-D pop for HD junkies. A DTS 5.1 Master Lossless audio track is equally engrossing, showing off the film's gunplay and explosions. An excellent presentation on a technical level.
I'm beginning to be annoyed with studios that don't carry over all DVD special features to hi-def. With 50GB discs, there's no reason all the features from the two standard special editions of this film and the alternate director's cut couldn't be included.
Josh Boone
PAPRIKA
HD widescreen, animated, 2006, R for violent and sexual images
Best extra: Tsutsui and Kon's Paprika: Making-of Documentary explores the original material from Yasutaka Tsutsui and its anime adaptation.
ANIME HAS MADE great inroads among Western viewers, deservedly so with animated films and series such as Spirited Away, Grave of the Fireflies and Tokyo Godfathers, also directed by Kon Satoshi. But Paprika doesn't sell the medium despite its bold soundtrack and vivid color.
Too much of the film is taken up by rampaging and intricate dream sequence. It does, indeed, chew the scenery and everything else on screen. A device called the DC Mini, invented to access and interact with people's dreams, is being misused by a bad guy intent on controlling dreams. Stock characters make this little more than an exercise in abandoned animation. Even the fine hi-def in Blu-ray can't save this.
Kay Reynolds
PATHFINDER: UNRATED
HD widescreen, 2007, unrated, but look out for scenes of violence, battle action sequences, torture, some nudity and gore.
Best extra: The making-of with interviews from wild man director Marcus Nispel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 2003), the crew and actors is a hoot - for those with a dark sense of humor.
PATHFINDER - WITH ITS GREAT CAST of characters including Karl Urban, Russell Means, Moon Bloodgood, Clancy Brown and Jaye Tavare - is now available in a super Blu-ray presentation.
Moody Vancouver locations shine with detail and definition. It's a big improvement over standard-def where cinematographer Daniel Pearl's monochromatic palette swallowed a lot of the action and character nuance.
Admittedly, nuance is not Marcus Nispel's goal. An exclusive extra, The Path Revealed: Secrets On Screen, features hundreds of pop-up factoids. Some are useless, advising viewers about details of the film industry that most are familiar with. Others may raise an eyebrow as we learn that, yes, those Vikings are riding Clydesdales. (Thundering hooves and elaborate battles definitely rumble the sound system.)
That leads us to a fantasy element - or plot hole - in the story. Where did those giant horses come from? History tells us the longboats wouldn't be long enough to bring them over from Norway to America, yet that's what we're led to believe. But this is the kind of thing viewers must accept to enjoy the story.
Pathfinder evolves around a legend where Vikings made their way to America first. An orphaned Viking child, Ghost (Urban), is raised by Native Americans. He comes in handy later when the Vikings return, garbed in armor inspired by Frank Frazetta's Death Dealer and looking for slaves, blood and souls for Odin.
Kay Reynolds
The Virginian-Pilot
© December 14, 2007
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX
HD and standard-def widescreen, 2007, PG-13 for sequences of fantasy violence and frightening images
Best extra: Extras vary among the three formats. Blu-ray and standard-def offer a 44- minute TV special: "The Hidden Secrets of Harry Potter," tracking the first five books and films with commentary by cast, crew and Potter fans. The In-Movie experience, only on the HD DVD/DVD combo, offers trivia, interviews and more as the film runs.
DIRECTOR DAVID YATES and crew have achieved the impossible. No, not the adaptation of J.K. Rowling's book. They have successfully herded cats.
The Blu-ray and standard-def DVD offers a series of featurettes where we learn that the kittens shown on the hundred or so collector plates in Dolores Umbridge's (Imelda Staunton) office were filmed live. They were then individually cropped onto each plate. Anyone who has ever tried to control kittens en masse should stand and applaud.
Additional featurettes give viewers time to look at the thestrals, skeletal horse creatures with bat wings, and the house at No. 12 Grimmauld Place. The detail is stunning. I'm with Daniel Radcliffe; I could move in, too.
Still, the movie is what we want to see and there is plenty to enjoy. Each format looks and sounds great, although the HD versions kick everything up several magical notches. It is genuinely amazing that, although this is a fantasy world, all of the elements continue to look genuine. CGI blends with real-world filming; special effects are flawless. (And leave me wondering why I can't get my own broom to fly.)
Kay Reynolds
LOST: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON - THE UNEXPLORED EXPERIENCE
HD Widescreen, 2006-07, unrated
Best extra: Being an avid reader, I thoroughly enjoyed The Lost Book Club, which focuses on the books featured in the series, including Stephen King's Carrie.
LOST MAKES ITS HI-DEF DEBUT this week just in time for the fourth season's debut in early 2008. The third season is another white-knuckle head-trip mostly focused on Jack, Kate and Sawyer's imprisonment by the Others at their camp, where Jack is forced to perform an operation to save the life of Ben, the leader of the Others.
The two-hour season finale, Through the Looking Glass, is the single best episode of Lost thus far and one of the most imaginative and shocking finales in television history. Like The Prisoner, and The X-Files before it, Lost understands that the answers to the questions are never as satisfying as the questions themselves and that the journey is more important than the destination.
All 23 episodes are presented in stunning 1080p, which truly kicks the 720p hi-def broadcast version to the curb, boasting vivid colors (green mountains and foliage, deep blue seas) and striking detail (look at Matthew Fox's stubble!). This is the best Lost has ever looked. Sound is also excellent with a PCM 5.1 Surround mix.
Extras include featurettes (the excellent Lost in A Day takes viewers behind-the-scenes for a look at a day's work creating the show), deleted scenes, bloopers and more. An exclusive Blu-ray BD-Java feature that claims to be more interactive than it actually is feels tacked on and unnecessary.
Josh Boone
CAST AWAY
HD widescreen, 2000, PG-13 for intense action sequences and some disturbing images
Best extra: The commentary track with director Robert Zemeckis and his production crew.
JUST WONDERING: How in the world did Tom Hanks win the Oscar for Forrest Gump and not for Cast Away, a fascinating look at man vs. nature that reunited him with Gump director Zemeckis?
Hanks, who doubled as producer, plays Chuck Noland, a Fed Ex troubleshooter who lives by the clock. When his beeper goes off during Christmas Eve dinner, he dashes off for a flight across the Pacific. The plane crashes, marooning Chuck on a desert island for four years. In the film's most daring segment, some 40 minutes pass without background music or sound effects as Chuck, truly alone, learns to cope.
The Blu-ray presents a solid hi-def picture a notch above the DVD. It's the DTS HD sound that's far superior. Warning, don't be so quick to sell-off your two-disc DVD.
Either, Fox forgot to include the four documentaries from the DVD or just they didn't have room on hi-def disc. That's disappointment. Those extras were fascinating with stories from Hawks, Zemeckis and screenwriter William Broyler Jr. whose own voluntary survival course in Baja, Calif., the inspiration for the film. Broyler learned to split coconuts and build a fire. He also developed a relationship with a volleyball that washed ashore.
Thank goodness the Blu-ray includes the original commentary with its bounty of info. For example: The script from Broyler, with an assist from Hanks, required 125 revisions. Sound crazy? Zemeckis tells us that's normal. The director also pinpoints the shooting schedule, shot in two parts with a one-year hiatus so Hanks could lose 50 pounds to play the leaner Chuck. As a final bonus, Fox includes a pop-up trivia track with more cool facts. Zemeckis' team spent a year looking for the perfect island, Monuriki, 90-minutes away (via plane) from the mainland of the Fiji Islands.
Bill Kelley III
MR. & MRS. SMITH
HD widescreen, 2005, PG-13 for sequences of violence, intense action, sexual content and brief strong language.
Best extra: Losing many of the special features available on both DVD releases, Fox has only seen fit to retain three audio commentaries, deleted scenes and a brief Fox Movie Channel featurette.
BRAD PITT AND ANGELINA JOLIE play married assassins ordered to take each other out "Prizzi's Honor" style. The film is presented in its theatrical cut instead of director Doug ("The Bourne Identity") Liman's unrated director's cut. The director's cut is a slight improvement over the already enjoyable theatrical cut. Liman was never able to properly test the film with audiences to help in final edits and made some changes after the film opened for DVD. Hopefully, this alternative cut will show up on hi-def in the future.
The 1080p transfer is colorful and detailed with plenty of 3-D pop for HD junkies. A DTS 5.1 Master Lossless audio track is equally engrossing, showing off the film's gunplay and explosions. An excellent presentation on a technical level.
I'm beginning to be annoyed with studios that don't carry over all DVD special features to hi-def. With 50GB discs, there's no reason all the features from the two standard special editions of this film and the alternate director's cut couldn't be included.
Josh Boone
PAPRIKA
HD widescreen, animated, 2006, R for violent and sexual images
Best extra: Tsutsui and Kon's Paprika: Making-of Documentary explores the original material from Yasutaka Tsutsui and its anime adaptation.
ANIME HAS MADE great inroads among Western viewers, deservedly so with animated films and series such as Spirited Away, Grave of the Fireflies and Tokyo Godfathers, also directed by Kon Satoshi. But Paprika doesn't sell the medium despite its bold soundtrack and vivid color.
Too much of the film is taken up by rampaging and intricate dream sequence. It does, indeed, chew the scenery and everything else on screen. A device called the DC Mini, invented to access and interact with people's dreams, is being misused by a bad guy intent on controlling dreams. Stock characters make this little more than an exercise in abandoned animation. Even the fine hi-def in Blu-ray can't save this.
Kay Reynolds
PATHFINDER: UNRATED
HD widescreen, 2007, unrated, but look out for scenes of violence, battle action sequences, torture, some nudity and gore.
Best extra: The making-of with interviews from wild man director Marcus Nispel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 2003), the crew and actors is a hoot - for those with a dark sense of humor.
PATHFINDER - WITH ITS GREAT CAST of characters including Karl Urban, Russell Means, Moon Bloodgood, Clancy Brown and Jaye Tavare - is now available in a super Blu-ray presentation.
Moody Vancouver locations shine with detail and definition. It's a big improvement over standard-def where cinematographer Daniel Pearl's monochromatic palette swallowed a lot of the action and character nuance.
Admittedly, nuance is not Marcus Nispel's goal. An exclusive extra, The Path Revealed: Secrets On Screen, features hundreds of pop-up factoids. Some are useless, advising viewers about details of the film industry that most are familiar with. Others may raise an eyebrow as we learn that, yes, those Vikings are riding Clydesdales. (Thundering hooves and elaborate battles definitely rumble the sound system.)
That leads us to a fantasy element - or plot hole - in the story. Where did those giant horses come from? History tells us the longboats wouldn't be long enough to bring them over from Norway to America, yet that's what we're led to believe. But this is the kind of thing viewers must accept to enjoy the story.
Pathfinder evolves around a legend where Vikings made their way to America first. An orphaned Viking child, Ghost (Urban), is raised by Native Americans. He comes in handy later when the Vikings return, garbed in armor inspired by Frank Frazetta's Death Dealer and looking for slaves, blood and souls for Odin.
Kay Reynolds
