Cloverfield Blu-ray Disc (Matt Reeves, 2008)

Paramount (USA)
1.85:1 1080p
84 minutes
Audio: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English; DD 5.1 French; DD 5.1 Spanish
Subtitles: Optional English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese
Extras: Special Investigation Mode; audio commentary by director Matt Reeves; deleted scenes and alternate endings with audio commentary; Document 01.18.08: The Making of Cloverfield; Cloverfield Visual Effects; I Saw It! It’s Alive! It’s Huge!; Clover Fun

Released: 3 June 2008
Blu-ray case

The Jason Bourne movies accelerated the rhythms of the gun-and-edit style and managed to draw critical acclaim even though other gun-and-edit directors (such as Michael Bay and Tony Scott) draw critical ire. The folks who made Mission: Impossible III and Casino Royale (2006) clearly emulated the Bourne visual style even though those franchises started before Matt Damon’s interpretation of Jason Bourne appeared in theatres. J.J. Abrams, the director of MI3, seems intent on pushing the limits of gun-and-edit to the point of incoherence.

J.J. Abrams produced but didn’t direct Cloverfield, and the movie owes more of a debt to The Blair Witch Project than to the Jason Bourne series. Still, the movie is obviously a reflection of Abrams’s interest in sci-fi and fantasy as well as predilection for gun-and-edit. In Cloverfield, a giant monster attacks New York City one night, and that night’s events are captured on a video camera by a bunch of young people. The video is played as if it was footage recovered by the U.S. Army, and the Department of Defense is conducting research.

The movie is a nauseating mess. I literally almost threw up several times even though I was watching it at home on a small TV screen. I probably would’ve passed out had I seen this in a movie theatre. The herky-jerky cinematography is atrocious in the extreme, and I guesstimate that I must’ve not comprehended at least 50% of the images that I saw.

It’s probable that the filmmakers meant for the movie to be disorienting and “realistic”, but I don’t understand what the point is of making a fake documentary about a completely unrealistic premise. A fake documentary about terrorists attacking an American city or a fake documentary about war? Sure, no problem. A fake documentary about Godzilla’s bosom buddy? Who cares?

The movie’s value is further decreased by a script that focuses on shallow characters and by flat acting. The fellas playing soldiers have such awful line readings that I chortled despite my intense dizziness.

I took one for the team with this movie, peeps. Please don’t subject me to this kind of visual style ever again.

Video:
The dimly-lit 1.85:1 1080p image looks terrible, though be advised that the digital compression artifacts are mostly intentional since the camera was “found” beneath a pile of rubble. Compared to the SD DVD, the Blu-ray’s image has vastly improved detail, but again, as the movie simulates the look of consumer-grade video cameras, the image frequently looks dull and flat.

Audio:
Here’s where the movie cheats big time. We’re supposed to be watching footage from someone’s video camera, right? To my knowledge, cheap consumer cameras don’t have awesome microphones that can record multi-channel surround sound with deep bass. Therefore, the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English track, while impressively immersive and thunderous, is a lie. I would’ve been able to accept 5.1 sound if the entire movie was literally based on a person’s real perspective (i.e. his/her eyes), but for what it is meant to simulate, Cloverfield is a fraud. The TrueHD track has tighter bass presence and improved clarity compared to the DVD’s DD 5.1 track, but the differences are minimal.

You can also watch the movie with DD 5.1 French and DD 5.1 Spanish dubs. Optional English, English SDH, French, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles support the audio.

Extras:
All of the video extras are presented in high-definition.

First up is a Blu-ray Exclusive, the “Special Investigation Mode” that provides a GPS Tracker of the characters and the monster, a Creature Radar, and various text messages while you watch the movie.

Director Matt Reeves contributed an audio commentary. Sorry, I didn’t try to listen to it as I didn’t want to watch the movie again.

There are four deleted scenes and two alternate endings with optional audio commentary by Matt Reeves. The deleted scenes are entirely superfluous, and the alternate endings are really lame (just short snippets to replace the Ferris Wheel ending).

“Document 01.18.08: The Making of Cloverfield” is a general overview of the production. Much is made of the secrecy surrounding the script, but the secrecy was meant to build buzz for a bankrupt concept, not because the story was genuinely surprising.

“Cloverfield Visual Effects” and “I Saw It! It’s Alive! It’s Huge!” are two featurettes that reveal the computer work that was involved in destroying Manhattan.

“Clover Fun” is a gag reel.

According to Paramount’s press information website, the disc has at least ten Easter Eggs. Sorry, I didn’t bother looking for them.

Heroes of the East (Liu Chia-liang, 1979)

Region 1 Genius Products (USA)
NTSC, 2.35:1 16x9 enhanced
104 minutes
Audio: DD 2.0 mono Mandarin Chinese; DD 2.0 mono Cantonese Chinese; DD 2.0 mono English
Subtitles: Optional English, English SDH, Spanish
Extras: audio commentary by Bey Logan; Spotlight on a Legend; Hero of Shaolin; Shaolin vs. Ninja; trailer gallery; previews for other movies

Released: 27 May 2008
keepcase

It’s no secret that the Chinese and the Japanese have deep-seated fears and resentments about each other. History is a sticky thing, and just as Jews and Germans will always be haunted by the Holocaust, the Chinese and the Japanese will always be haunted by the wanton savagery of the Japanese military in China during the 20th Century.

Just as the science fiction and fantasy genres are frequently employed as allegories for contemporary society in the West, martial arts films are often allegories for contemporary pan-Chinese concerns. Sino-Japanese relations figure prominently in the three types of martial arts cinema:

1) Supernatural--sustained flying; explosives being fired by empty hands; everyday objects (such as needles) being used as deadly flying weapons; heavy bloodshed; most horror/gore martial arts movies; etc.

Example: In The East Is Red, Chinese and Japanese soldiers try to subdue Asia the Invincible while also trying to establish their mother countries’ regional hegemony. (The Chinese Ghost Story Trilogy is another example of Supernatural Martial Arts.)

2) Fantasy--brief flying; characters being able to stand on objects that wouldn’t support their weight in real life; light bloodshed; etc.

Example: In Duel to the Death, a Chinese swordsman and his Japanese counterpart fight to the bitter end in order to defend their notions of personal honor. (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is another example of Fantasy Martial Arts.)

3) Realistic--combat forms that are possible in real life; level of bloodshed is determined by artistic preference rather than by sub-genre’s conventions; etc.

Example: Any Bruce Lee movie with a Chinese hero beating up “foreign devils”.

Heroes of the East is a Realistic Martial Arts film. In the movie, a Chinese martial-arts expert marries a Japanese woman who’s also a gifted fighter. They want to enjoy each other’s company, but cultural differences and nationalistic pride cause them to brawl rather publicly. A misunderstanding leads to several showdowns between the Chinese and Japanese warriors.

Movies like Heroes of the East and Jet Li’s Fearless highlight how easy it is for China and Japan to mire themselves in avoidable squabbles even though they’re eternal neighbors and should know each other well by now. Both movies show that there are unreasonable extremists on both sides and that idealists need to defend righteousness, and both movies argue that peace must be maintained despite the recent past. Otherwise, China and Japan will weaken each other, giving Westerners and opening to dominate Asia once again. (Fearless fits between Fantasy and Realistic.)

Heroes of the East is one of the best martial-arts “showcases”. Gordon Liu is highly skilled with several different kinds of weapons and fighting styles, so his face-offs with various Japanese weapons/styles reveal the advantages of many techniques. These variations also remove the repetitiveness that deadens so many other action movies. The movie was shot and edited in a way that allows viewers to see that the actors knew what they were doing. (As much as I like the Jason Bourne Trilogy, it’s quite obvious that the gun-and-edit style hides the fact that Matt Damon doesn’t know how to fight formally.)

The fights between the Chinese man and his Japanese wife also have a surprisingly (welcome) comedic tone that softens the racial discord, though some viewers may find the depiction a tad sexist.

Needless to say, the Chinese guy wins and teaches everyone else a moral lesson.

Of all of Dragon Dynasty’s releases so far, Heroes of the East is my favorite.

Video:
Alas, the 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen image is a bit a of downer, just like the Come Drink With Me transfer. There is noticeable print damage, and colors are sometimes heavily faded. Excessive softness is also an issue.

Audio:
During the period in which Heroes of the East was made, Hong Kong movies were regularly distributed with both Mandarin and Cantonese tracks depending on where they were shown (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, etc.). Both dialects show up as separate DD 2.0 mono tracks. Dynamics are slightly improved compared to Come Drink With Me, though many sound effects are still muffled and flat. The dialogue sounds remarkably good. (Many of the Japanese characters speak in Japanese rather than a Chinese dialect. Also, the two Chinese tracks are mixed differently, with the sound effects being much louder in the Cantonese track.)

You can also watch the movie with a DD 5.1 English dub. Optional English, English SDH, and Spanish subtitles support the audio.

Extras:
We get yet another excellent audio commentary by Bey Logan. At this point, there’s little more praise to be heaped on Logan. He worked for many years in the Hong Kong film industry, and he’s done mountains of research. His insights are invaluable.

“Spotlight on a Legend” celebrates the career of director Liu Chia-liang (Mandarin), aka Lau Kar-leung (Cantonese).

“Hero of Shaolin” is yet another interview with Gordon Liu.

“Shaolin vs. Ninja” is a showcase of weapons and fighting forms from China and Japan. This is yet another Dragon Dynasty featurette hosted by Zea Wong, who played Jubilee in the live-action X-Men movies.

Finally, you also get trailers for Heroes of the East and Come Drink With Me.

--Miscellaneous--
An insert promotes other Dragon Dynasty DVDs.

Come Drink With Me (King Hu, 1966)

Region 1 Genius Products (USA)
NTSC, 2.35:1 16x9 enhanced
91 minutes
Audio: DD 2.0 mono Mandarin Chinese; DD 5.1 English
Subtitles: Optional English, English SDH, Spanish
Extras: audio commentary by Bey Logan and Cheng Pei-pei; The King and I; Come Speak With Me; A Classic Remembered; The Drunken Master; trailer gallery; previews for other movies

Released: 27 May 2008
keepcase

Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon turned Zhang Ziyi into an international star, but the movie also features performances by Michelle Yeoh and Cheng Pei-pei. Both Yeoh and Cheng have had lengthy careers as action heroines. This fact is lost on most Western viewers, but IMDB.com and the DVD format are helpful in educating neophytes.

Come Drink With Me is the latest Dragon Dynasty title from the Weinstein brothers. It’s quite obvious that this movie heavily influenced CTHD. Cheng Pei-pei plays Golden Swallow, who’s on a mission to rescue a government official. Golden Swallow teams up with a frequently drunk brawler, and together they take on a deadly pale-faced assassin and a gang of brutal bandits.

Cheng Pei-pei has a luminous screen presence that is no less commanding when compared to Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi (or Maggie Cheung and Brigitte Lin). The fight choreography is well-staged and occasionally breathtaking. Come Drink With Me also has a light touch that is most welcome. There was a time when Chinese martial-arts movies weren’t all dead serious and weren’t afraid to have a joke or two. Don’t get me wrong--you won’t get any belly laughs, just some chuckles, but you don’t walk away feeling depressed. It’s always better to be a little silly instead of ponderously self-important (see Feng Xiaogang’s The Banquet, released by the Weinsteins as The Legend of the Black Scorpion.)

Video:
Unfortunately, as beloved and highly-regarded as this movie is, the 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen video transfer is a disappointment. The opening moments are filled with out-of-control grain and print damage. Colors are generally faded (with the exception of greens, which look naturalistic and vivid), and some scenes are darker than one might expect them to be. The image is a tad soft, leading to a general lack of resolution. The picture is watchable, but adjust your expectations accordingly.

Audio:
The primary DD 2.0 mono Mandarin Chinese track is typical of audio recordings from the era. Punches, kicks, and whooshes sound harsh and flat, and loud music cues are frequently distorted. Some dialogue sounds pinched, though the actors’ voices are never lost in the tumult.

You can also watch the movie with a DD 5.1 English dub. Optional English, English SDH, and Spanish subtitles support the audio.

Extras:
Upon loading, the DVD plays previews for other movies.

Usual-suspect Bey Logan shows up for yet another sterling audio commentary, and he’s joined by Cheng Pei-pei for an enjoyable chat. Logan’s enthusiasm is obviously heightened by Cheng’s presence, and cheerful banter is always more welcome than dull lectures (though Logan hasn’t been guilty of dull lectures yet).

In “The King and I”, director Tsui Hark talks about his association with King Hu.

“Come Speak With Me” is an interview with Cheng Pei-pei.

In “A Classic Remembered”, Bey Logan shares additional information about King Hu, Cheng Pei-pei, and Come Drink With Me.

“The Drunken Master” is an interview with actor Yueh Hua.

Finally, you get trailers for Come Drink With Me and Heroes of the East.

--Miscellaneous--
An insert promotes other Dragon Dynasty DVDs.

Grace Is Gone (James C. Strouse, 2007)

Region 1 Genius Products (USA)
NTSC, 1.85:1 16x9 enhanced
84 minutes
Audio: DD 5.1 English
Subtitles: Optional English SDH, Spanish
Extras: A Conversation on Grace; Inspiration for Grace Is Gone; Profile of TAPS; theatrical trailer; previews for other movies

Released: 27 May 2008
keepcase

John Cusack has an undeniably cool vibe, and he’s usually the best thing in any given movie. However, even though he’s appeared in his share of sell-out projects (such as Con Air), he hasn’t been able to leap into the top ranks of highly-paid stardom. What’s disappointing is that Cusack has said that he knows that most of his career is comprised of disappointing dreck. Maybe the actor needs to pay the bills as much as the next guy, but a man of Cusack’s talents should be able to hit the jackpot, right?

Grace Is Gone wasn’t a jackpot--its subject matter hits too close to home for contemporary audiences to see in big numbers--but it’s a fine showcase for Cusack’s abilities as a purely dramatic actor. There’s no sarcasm, irony, or black humor, just straightforward goodness in his portrayal of a man whose wife dies in the Iraq War. Numbed by the news and unable/unwilling to face reality, Stanley Phillips takes his two daughters on a road trip to Florida. While on the road, Stanley realizes how much of a gap with his daughters he has to bridge even though he’s the one who stayed at home with his family.

Grace Is Gone doesn’t rise above the middle of the pack, but it has some noteworthy touches. We’re used to seeing war widows, but the movie presents war widowers as the facts of life that they are in this age. At the beginning of the movie, war spouses meet to talk about their emotions and how they saw off their partners. Stanley is the only male, so he feels awkward about sharing intimate details with the others. The difficulties that all fathers face when dealing with rapidly-maturing daughters are magnified drastically in Stanley’s case.

Last year, there was a lot of buzz about the final shot in Michael Clayton, in which George Clooney gets in a cab with a camera fixated on his face for about a minute. Towards the end of this movie, a camera observes Stanley and his daughters as they drive down a lonely road. This sort of long take is rather rare in American cinema now, and the long take in Grace Is Gone allows viewers to witness a skillful actor’s ability to convey genuine anguish.

Video:
The 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen video has a flat, dull yellow tint with noticeable fine grain. The picture’s appearance suitably mirrors the characters’ everyday-ness. The source image itself is in good condition (no blemishes or damage).

Audio:
The DD 5.1 English audio track is a muted affair. Most of the activity resides in the center channel, with the front mains providing some stereo ambience courtesy of low-key music cues. The rears are mostly quiet except for some background effects.

(You might be interested to know that Clint Eastwood composed much of the music. Eastwood received two Golden Globe nominations for this movie--music score and original song.)

Optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles support the audio.

Extras:
Upon loading, the DVD plays previews for other movies.

“A Conversation on Grace” is a brief collection of interviews with members of the cast and crew.

“Inspiration for Grace Is Gone” is a military news brief about a real-life story that influenced this movie.

“Profile of TAPS” is another military news brief about the Tragedy Assistance Program.

Finally, you get Grace Is Gone’s theatrical trailer.

The Air I Breathe (Jieho Lee, 2007)

Region 1 Image Entertainment (USA)
NTSC, 2.40:1 16x9 enhanced
95 minutes
Audio: DD 5.1 English, DD 2.0 surround English
Subtitles: Optional English SDH, Spanish
Extras: audio commentary by director Jieho Lee and others; deleted scenes; outtakes; theatrical trailer; previews for other movies

Released: 20 May 2008
keepcase

After Paul Haggis’s Crash won the Best Picture Oscar, it seems like everyone in Hollywood (and not just quirky foreigners) wants to make movies about human interconnectedness. Heck, Brendan Fraser, who was in Crash, is one of the big names who appears in Jieho Lee’s The Air I Breathe, which adds a dash of the supernatural into yet another ill-conceived story about how we all affect one another in mysterious ways. What’s particularly galling about these movies is that they plunge their characters into unnecessary and avoidable crises but shy away from following the grimness to logical ends. Instead, these movies reach out to hold the viewer’s hand, reassuring us that everything will be okay. On top of straining credulity, these movies pander.

The Air I Breathe begins with a black man (Forest Whitaker) trying to strike it rich by gambling on a fixed horse race. The black man finds himself in trouble with a gangster (Andy Garcia), so he has to rob a bank. The gangster’s right-hand man (Brendan Fraser) can see into the near future, so he’s handy in sticky situations. A pop starlet (Sarah Michelle Gellar) winds up under the gangster’s control. A doctor (Kevin Bacon) needs the pop starlet’s rare blood type to save the love of his life (Julie Delpy), who’s married to his best friend. Emile Hirsch, Kelly Hu, and a couple of other recognizable faces show up, too.

The Air I Breathe’s biggest accomplishment is the fact that the director managed to corral so many big names to work with a newcomer. The movie actually has high technical standards, but the script is too tidy and trite to offer any substance. Brendan Fraser’s character keeps talking about how “it’s not the future if you know it and can change it”, but then he also says that he’s not able to change the future any way. This sort of mumbo-jumbo needs to be grounded in some sort of narrative coherence to make any sense at all, but the ending makes it seem like the filmmakers just want us to fantasize about walking off into the sunset with Sarah Michelle Gellar. That’s not a bad dream to have, but The Air I Breathe doesn’t do anything to deserve it.

Video:
The movie was shot with HD video cameras, so bright scenes can be a bit washed out. Otherwise, this is an enjoyable 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer with no blemishes. Some video noise wreaks havoc with the colors, but the visual grittiness is welcome considering how obviously “safe” the movie will be by the time that it’s over.

Audio:
For the most part, the DD 5.1 English is rather subdued as there is a lot dialogue. Therefore, the rear channels and the subwoofer are fairly quiet. The center channel carries the dialogue very well, and music cues enjoy a comfortable separation across the front. However, be warned that there are a few moments when the subwoofer packs a wallop. Gunshots can be startlingly loud, and a sequence with Sarah Michelle Gellar being mobbed by fans also has intense LFE.

You can also watch the movie with a DD 2.0 surround English track. Optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles support the audio.

Extras:
Upon loading, the disc plays trailers for other movies.

Director/co-writer Jieho Lee and several other behind-the-scenes personnel contributed an audio commentary. They explain the script’s origins in Asian proverbs/philosophy as well as how they did what they did. Mainly, they’re very enthusiastic about getting the opportunity to work with so many established actors.

There are four deleted scenes and a handful of outtakes (bloopers).

Finally, you get The Air I Breathe’s theatrical trailer.

Stargate Infinity: The Complete Series (2002-2003)

Region 1 Shout! Factory (USA)
NTSC, 1.33:1
600 minutes
Audio: DD 2.0 stereo English
Subtitles: none
Extras: Animated Stargate Effects Test; Animated Character Walking Models; Concept Art

Released: 13 May 2008
thin double keepcases in cardboard slipcase

Roland Emmerich’s Stargate was a moderate performer at the box office, but the movie has spawned two TV series with a devoted following. Stargate: SG-1 ran for ten seasons, and Stargate: Atlantis has been in production for more than five years. Given the brand’s fan base, MGM decided to branch into Saturday morning animation. The result was Stargate Infinity, a show set several decades after the two live-action TV series.

In Stargate Infinity, a group of humans and their robot companion have to battle their way through interplanetary portals in order to get back to Earth. Since the show lasted for only one season (twenty-six episodes), the series just ends without any sense of resolution. There is very little attempt at narrative continuity with the other series, though fans of the live-action shows probably don’t need to have this in their collections any way.

Stargate Infinity is not particularly good, though to be fair, it’s not any worse than what’s been/being produced for consumption by children. Every so often, I have fits of nostalgia for shows like M.A.S.K. and GI Joe, but I find myself unable to sit through even 20-minute episodes any more. The same goes for Stargate Infinity--you just get a lot of heroes and villains shooting at each other, and the characters try to teach viewers a moral lesson at the end of the day. This is a good formula for young kids experiencing cartoons for the first time, but there’s a reason why most people grow out of cartoons after a short while.

Video:
I thought that Stargate Infinity would have a lackluster appearance on DVD due to its orphaned status, but the source materials must be in excellent condition. There are no blemishes, and the garish colors of Cartoon-land are bright and vivid. The animation is flat and simple by today’s standards, but judged on its technical merits, the video is near-perfect.

Audio:
The audio is a very basic DD 2.0 stereo English presentation. There are so few localized effects that one should simply expect imaging to be centered between the two front mains. Dialogue is always given priority, even during the busiest of battle sequences.

You don’t get any dubs or subtitles.

Extras:
All of the extras are on Disc 4. “Animated Stargate Effects Test” shows a rough presentation of the warping animation that’s on screen when character walk through the Stargate portals. “Animated Character Walking Models” and “Concept Art” show sketches that were used during early pre-production stages.

--Miscellaneous--
The four discs are housed in thin double keepcases held in a cardboard slipcase.

Bee Movie Blu-ray Disc (Simon J. Smith & Steve Hickner, 2007)

Paramount (USA)
1.85:1 1080p
90 minutes
Audio: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English; DD 5.1 French, DD 5.1 Spanish
Subtitles: Optional English, English SDH; French, Spanish
Extras: The Animator’s Corner: Picture-in-Picture Storyboards; Barry’s Trivia Track; The World of Bees; audio commentary; lost scenes; alternate endings; TV Juniors; live-action trailers; Jerry’s Flight Over Cannes; Inside the Hive: The Cast of Bee Movie; Tech of Bee Movie; Meet Barry B. Benson; “We Got the Bee” music video; DreamWorks Animation Video Jukebox; The Buzz About Bees; The Ow! Meter; That’s Un-bee-lievable!; Be a Bee; Pollination Practice; My Menus

Released: 3 June 2008
Blu-ray case

Seinfeld was a very popular show during its broadcast run on NBC, and it still has a large audience in syndication and on DVD. I never understood why it attracted so many viewers. After all, it was about four selfish, irresponsible, and in the case of Kramer, potentially mentally-ill characters. The whiny exasperation that Jerry Seinfeld offered as “humor” was greeted by stone-faced reactions from me when I caught the tail ends of episodes while waiting for another program to start.

Jerry Seinfeld’s style of comedy was already incomprehensible to me in its real-life incarnation, so you can imagine how utterly un-funny Bee Movie was for me. Like other recent animated movies such as Ratatouille and Flushed Away, Bee Movie features a lower life form frequently considered to be a pest as the hero. This lower life form has surprisingly human-like physical behavior, ambitions, and neuroses. Through the hero’s interactions with humans, viewers are supposed to see how silly and destructive we can be. Well, that’s good and all...but these scripts are over-written by committees to the point that they’re utterly banal. The youngest of children might be entertained by the frantic commotion, but intelligent kids will get much more mileage from watching National Geographic documentaries than from this sort of affair.

Bee Movie is just another “B” movie, especially when you consider how mature, insightful, humorous, and powerful animated movies like Millennium Actress and Final Fantasy are.

Video:
The 1.85:1 1080p transfer is plastically shiny, loudly colorful, cheerily bright, and crystal sharp. Digital-animation movies from the major studios have super high-production values, and it’s rare to encounter one that’s transferred poorly to DVD. Of course, as animation and digital-compression techniques improve, home-video transfers also improve. From a technical standpoint, Bee Movie looks as good as Shrek 3 (HD DVD) and Ratatouille (Blu-ray), though aesthetically, it’s not as rich as what Pixar routinely delivers.

Audio:
I don’t want to induce groans with another pun, but I might as well go for it--the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English track is as busy as a bee. The Seinfeld bee is constantly in danger of being killed by loud humans, and there are plenty of whizzing sonic elements flying all over the room. Subwoofer activity is surprisingly throaty and heavy for a movie about such tiny creatures.

You can also watch the movie with DD 5.1 French and DD 5.1 Spanish dubs. Optional English, English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles support the audio.

Extras:
All of the video extras are presented in HD.

First up is “The Animator’s Corner: Picture-in-Picture Storyboards”.

“Barry’s Trivia Track” is a text-based pop-up stream of information about the movie.

“The World of Bees” is yet another while-the-movie-is-playing bonus that lets you see information about the characters as well as the voice actors.

Jerry Seinfeld and various filmmakers contributed an audio commentary. There’s a convivial atmosphere with everyone talking about how great some element or other is and with everyone laughing at Seinfeld’s jokes.

There are three “lost” scenes and six alternate endings. There are also fifteen “TV Juniors”, which are TV commercials that last between one and two minutes. You also get two live-action trailers.

“Jerry’s Flight Over Cannes” details Seinfeld being flown over Cannes on a wire in a promotional stunt.

“Inside the Hive: The Cast of Bee Movie” throws kudos at the voice actors.

“Tech of Bee Movie” explains the animation and voice-acting processes. “Meet Barry B. Benson” is an “interactive” interview with the movie’s protagonist. You also get a “We Got the Bee” music video and the DreamWorks Animation Video Jukebox (song-and-dance clips from various movies).

In “DreamWorks Kids”, you’ll find “The Buzz About Bees” (a bee documentary), “The Ow! Meter” (information about how much pain bees and humans can cause each other), “That’s Un-bee-lievable!” (a trivia game), “Be a Bee” (information about various bee jobs), and “Pollination Practice” (a game about pollinating flowers).

With “My Menus”, you can choose from four different menu themes.

Finally, you get previews of other movies.

Understandably, you lose the 2-disc SD DVD’s DVD-ROM activities (coloring pages, recipes, Sudoku games, a videogame demo, etc.), but you’re not losing much of substantive value.

Next Blu-ray Disc (Lee Tamahori, 2007)

Paramount (USA)
2.35:1 1080p
96 minutes
Audio: PCM 5.1 English; DD 5.1 English; DD 2.0 surround French; DD 5.1 Spanish
Subtitles: Optional English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese
Extras: Making the Best Next Thing; Visualizing the Next Move; The Next “Grand Idea”; Two Minutes in the Future With Jessica Biel; theatrical trailer

Released: 3 June 2008
Blu-ray case

Once upon a time, there was a great actor named Nicolas Cage who was daring and inventive enough to eat a cockroach for real in one of his movies. Cage was quirky and brilliant, and his peers admired him enough to give him an Oscar. He parlayed critical success into big paychecks in mega-productions like The Rock and Con Air. When he first started appearing in such fare, he invested his characters with as much conviction, energy, and uniqueness as he did as a character actor. However, he quickly became a monotone/monotonous somnambulant robot in junk like Snake Eyes, Gone in 60 Seconds, and National Treasure. Cage still appears in low-key dramas like Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and The Weather Man from time to time, but I feel that his last good movie was Face/Off, all the way back in 1997.

Next is yet another loud, stupid action movie with poorly-conceived ideas about being able to see the future. It also has the misfortune of featuring one of Cage’s worst haircuts ever. Like Minority Report and Paycheck, Next is based on a Philip K. Dick story, and like Paycheck, Next is so inept and unoriginal that it simply rips off Minority Report for its better ideas and visuals (such as the eyeball brace placed on Cage’s head). Fans of Jessica Biel will be disappointed to see that there’s no fan service at all. “Next!” is exactly what you’ll be saying after seeing this movie.

Video:
As good as the SD DVD looks, it pales in comparison to the Blu-ray, which is a beauty. The 2.35:1 1080p is very vibrant and detailed, with warm colors and excellent contrast. On the downside, there are some relatively static scenes that are rather grainy, and the increased resolution makes a lot of the CGI effects look terrible.

Audio:
Whereas the Next HD DVD has a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English option, the Blu-ray Disc has a PCM 5.1 English selection for lossless audio. As to be expected with a recent big-budget action movie, the sound mix is very aggressive and boomy with plenty of fun directionality effects. However, this isn’t a very subtle or artful mix, just an active one.

You can also watch the movie with a DD 5.1 English track as well as DD 2.0 surround French and DD 5.1 Spanish dubs. Optional English, English SDH, French, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles support the audio.

Extras:
All of the extras are presented in high-def video.

“Making the Best Next Thing” is a promotional featurette. This piece begins with everyone talking about how great Cage is before the participants start talking about how great all the other actors and the director are.

“Visualizing the Next Move” examines the creation of the movie’s computer visual effects.

“The Next ‘Grand Idea’” takes a look at the shooting of a date with Cage and Jessica Biel’s characters.

“Two Minutes in the Future With Jessica Biel” is two minutes of Biel blathering about whether or not she wants to be able to see into the future.

You also get the theatrical trailer.

Face/Off Blu-ray Disc (John Woo, 1997)

Paramount (USA)
2.35:1 1080p
138 minutes
Audio: DD 5.1 EX English, DTS 6.1 English, DD 5.1 French, DD 5.1 Spanish
Subtitles: Optional English, English SDH, French, Spanish
Extras: audio commentary by John Woo, Mike Webb, and Michael Colleary; audio commentary by Mike Webb and Michael Colleary; 7 deleted/alternate scenes; The Light and the Dark: Making Face/Off; John Woo: A Life in Pictures; trailer

Released: 20 May 2008
Blu-ray case

When the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray Disc tussle began, Paramount and Warner were initially format-neutral, releasing movies on both formats. However, after some behind-the-scenes maneuvering, Paramount joined Universal in the HD-DVD-only camp. Paramount’s move was a sudden surprise, which meant that some titles that had already been pressed or authored stayed in storage. These titles included Blades of Glory, Face/Off, and Next.

Well, Toshiba has given up on its HD-DVD efforts, so Paramount and Universal have switched allegiance to Blu-ray, too. Paramount’s return to Blu-ray begins with re-releasing its previously-canceled titles without any modifications. This might disappoint fans of Dolby TrueHD and bonus materials as most of Paramount’s early Blu-ray releases don’t have TrueHD tracks and the Babel disc will still lack the documentary of the two-disc special edition SD DVD.

Face/Off, like Bee Movie, Blades of Glory, and Next, is a new Blu-ray release in North America. Outside of Canada and the U.S., Disney has already released a bare-bones Blu-ray Disc of this movie. However, fans of John Woo’s best American film should get Paramount’s Blu-ray Disc as it is loaded with fine extras and impressive video/audio.

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Some Westerners dig John Woo solely for the director’s action choreography. Many, however, hate his movies because the action or the emotions (perhaps even both) are “over the top”. Both the action-lovers and the Woo-haters miss the point.

Cinema is, first and foremost, a visual medium. John Woo was a champion ballroom dancer, so his visual style is graceful and kinetic, even in comedies like Once a Thief. Woo’s action sequences are not “over the top” because he’s not just interested in telling stories; rather, he wants audiences to absorb the pleasure of watching the human body in motion. Unfortunately, in an age when ballet and musicals are ghettoized as “gay” pastimes, few people know how to appreciate a Woo production with just their eyes.

With regards to the emotions on display in Woo’s movies, one has to understand that the Chinese director didn’t grow up in a society filled with detached irony. His childhood was mired in crushing poverty, and he’s very grateful for the charity extended to him by a Christian family that sponsored his education. Woo takes emotions at face value, and he’s unafraid to present unabashed sentiment (sentiment, not sentimentality). Take, for example, his comments about Nicolas Cage’s mirror-bashing scene in Face/Off. Cage asked Woo if he could say, “Fuck you!” to the other actors. Woo said yes. When Cage invested the scene with heart-rending despair, Woo said that he was shocked and almost cried.

Due to small budgets, rushed shooting schedules, and a variety of other reasons, John Woo’s Hong-Kong productions--even the best ones--have a certain sloppiness/unfinished feel. True, Face/Off doesn’t have Chow Yun-fat, but it has a completeness and emotional resonance that puts it at the top of Woo’s oeuvre with A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Once a Thief. The duality and male-bonding themes are there, but Face/Off also benefits from an examination of two families on opposite sides of the law. Female characters are often presented as comical sidekicks or bumbling meddlers in Woo’s movies, but in Face/Off, they’re as serious, tough, and passionate as the men. The opponents want to destroy each other, of course, but the resolution brings the families together in a way that heals them. After years filled with “heroic bloodshed”, Woo showed us the “heroic healing” in which he believes.

Video:
The video transfer looks identical to what’s offered by the HD DVD.

2007 was Face/Off’s 10th anniversary, and as the movie has a devoted following, Paramount saw fit to clean up the film negative and create a new high-def digital master. Colors are rich and bold, and the high level of detail is wonderful. On the negative side, there is some edge enhancement.

Audio:
The audio (and subtitle) selections are identical to what’s offered by the HD DVD.

The Blu-ray Disc upgrades the vanilla 1-disc DVD’s audio to DD 5.1 EX English and DTS 6.1 English. (It also seems like someone dialed up the volume when re-mixing the audio.) The new audio tracks sound cleaner and punchier than the old DD 5.1 mix, and the rear center channel adds to the immersion into the movie.

You can also watch the movie with DD 5.1 French and DD 5.1 Spanish dubs. Optional English, English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles support the audio.

Extras:
Whereas Paramount needed to use two 30-gig discs for the HD DVD edition, the studio was able to fit all of the content on one 50-gig disc for the Blu-ray edition.

You can watch the movie with your choice of two audio commentaries. The first one is with John Woo and writers Mike Webb and Michael Colleary. The second one is with just the two writers. Though Woo and the writers are clearly in the same room recording the first commentary together, the writers’ comments on both commentaries sometimes sound so similar that I wonder what the point was of having two audio commentaries, especially when the second commentary repeats much of what John Woo says in the first yak track. Overall, it’s worth your while to listen to the commentaries if Face/Off is one of your all-time faves, but you won’t miss out on much if you listen to only one of them.

There are seven deleted scenes that are interesting to watch but wouldn’t have added anything to the movie. The alternate ending is rightly dropped; it belongs in a silly horror/sci-fi production, not an action drama. The deleted scenes have optional audio commentaries by Woo, Webb, and Colleary. They’re presented in high-definition video, but the film quality is spotty.

“The Light and the Dark: Making Face/Off” is a five part, 60-plus-minute documentary that covers various aspects of the production. A lot of interesting tidbits are revealed, though there are overlaps with the audio commentaries and other extras. There are a lot of behind-the-scenes moments and additional deleted scenes. Some of the actors and crew members contributed new interview material, though the interviews with John Travolta and Nicolas Cage were taken from when the movie was in production. Although the gushing about John Woo is excessive, the participants shed light on some of the battles that they had with the studio.

“John Woo: A Life in Pictures” presents John Woo and his collaborators talking about his life and his career. Mission: Impossible 2 is featured a few times, though with the exception of a still photo, there is no reference to Paycheck, a movie that John Woo directed for Paramount and DreamWorks (which is now owned by Paramount anyway).

Finally, you get the theatrical trailer.

(All of the video-based extras are presented in high-definition video, but they vary in quality depending on their sources.)

Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (Ai Nu) (Chu Yuan, 1972)

Region 1 Image Entertainment and Celestial Pictures (USA)
NTSC, 2.35:1 16x9 enhanced
87 minutes
Audio: DD 2.0 stereo Mandarin Chinese; DD 2.0 mono English
Subtitles: Optional English
Extras: Intimate Confessions of 3 Shaw Girls; Production Stills Gallery; trailers

Released: 22 April 2008
transparent keepcase

The Weinstein brothers aren’t the only ones releasing Shaw Brothers productions here in the U.S. Image Entertainment has a distribution deal with Celestial Pictures, the company that now owns the copyrights to Shaw movies. The technical aspects of Image’s DVDs are more or less the same as the ones released in Hong Kong by Celestial.

Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan, or Ai Nu, is infamous for its depictions of nudity and lesbianism. Seen through today’s eyes, the movie is perhaps kinky but not especially outrageous. However, during the early 1970s, Ai Nu was scandalous--and a box office hit. Ai Nu drew so many viewers in Taiwan and Hong Kong that people began to wonder about traditional Chinese values. Were traditional Chinese values on the decline, or was the movie simply a curiosity?

The answer is simple--people are always interested in sex. Basic research into any civilization’s history reveals mountainous amounts of materials devoted to various aspects of sensuality and sexuality. Homosexuality was acceptable or even prevalent in many cultures, and people in the past were much more comfortable with homosociality than we seem to be today.

Worldwide suppression of gay culture began in earnest sometime in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when revolutionaries began paving the way for the unification of nation-states. When you send young men to die in the millions, you need heterosexual couples to replenish your ranks quickly. Thus, homosexuality/homosociality came under attack essentially for mechanistic reasons.

Ai Nu is the story of a peasant girl who is abducted to work in a brothel. Her fierce resistance draws the attentions of four old lechers, who pay huge sums of money to deflower her. Ai Nu (her name means “love slave”) plots to take revenge on the brothel’s owner as well as the men who destroyed her purity.

Even though Ai Nu gained quite a bit of notoriety for its subject matter, the story ultimately moves in a predictably conservative fashion. Ai Nu engages in lesbian acts only because she wants to kill the people who wronged her, not because she actually is a lesbian. However, even though she is “right”, she still violated 20th Century Chinese values. (Remember, the Chinese lost hundreds of millions of people during the first half of the 20th Century, and Taiwan was still at war with China.) Therefore, the protagonist has to die; otherwise, this movie could never have been shown in theatres during the 1970s.

Video:
Though generally clean, the 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen image has not been restored. Therefore, you’ll see some vertical projector thread lines and other minor instances of print damage. Although yellows are bright and eye-catching, blues and greens tend to be faded. The transfer does reveal how fake the clay-colored blood is, though.

Audio:
The primary DD 2.0 stereo Mandarin Chinese is reflective of the technology of the movie’s production period. While dialogue is generally intelligible, high-pitched voices can be flat and distorted. Music and sound effects are muffled and thin.

You can also watch the movie with a DD 2.0 mono English dub. Optional English subtitles support the audio.

Extras:
The most-prominent bonus is the “Intimate Confessions of 3 Shaw Girls” featurette, which has interview clips with three actresses who worked for the Shaw brothers. They talk about their reactions to Ai Nu as well as the movie’s receptions in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Next up is a Production Stills Gallery.

Finally, you get more than twenty trailers for various Shaw Brothers (including Ai Nu) and other production companies’ movies.

--Miscellaneous--
The transparent keepcase reveals a collage of images from the movie printed on the inside of the cover art, and you also get a small catalog of other Asian movies.

Indiana Jones: The Adventure Collection (Steven Spielberg, 1981, 1984, 1989)

Region 1 Paramount (USA)
NTSC, 2.35:1 16x9 enhanced
115, 118, 126 minutes
Audio: DD 5.1 English, DD 2.0 surround French, DD 2.0 surround Spanish
Subtitles: Optional English, French, Spanish
Extras: teaser trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; introductions by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas; The Indy Trilogy: A Crystal Clear Appreciation; The Mystery of the Melting Face; Snakes Alive! The Well of Souls Storyboards; Creepy Crawlies; Discover Adventure on Location With Indy; Hold Onto Your Hat! The Mine Cart Chase Storyboards; Indy’s Women Reminisce; Indy’s Friends and Enemies; The Birth of an Action Hero! The Last Crusade Opening Scene Storyboards; photo galleries; preview of a LEGO Indiana Jones videogame

Released: 13 May 2008
thin keepcases in cardboard box

It’s been nineteen years since Harrison Ford rode off into the sunset in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The character is undoubtedly very popular, but I’m sure that Ford’s recent string of box-office duds convinced him to don a fedora and crack a whip once again in this summer’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Paramount released the theatrical movies in widescreen and Pan&Scan box sets back in 2003, and the studio has also released The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones in a series of three box sets. In order to cash-in on the new movie’s theatrical release, Paramount is flogging the previous three films on DVD again as stand-alone “special editions” as well as an “Adventure Collection” box set.

The Indiana Jones movies are Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’s tributes to the serials that they enjoyed as children. The movies are also Spielberg and Lucas’s answer to James Bond. Therefore, in addition to cliff-hanging, nail-biting adventures, you also get exotic international locales and beautiful femme fatales.

What some viewers don’t know is that the movies are also structured into roughly “one reel” sequences to simulate the episodic nature of serials. Each episode of a serials lasted for only one reel of film, and one reel of film has 12 to 15 minutes of film. Therefore, the Indiana Jones movies have self-contained segments that end cleanly roughly 15 minutes, though Spielberg and Lucas’s adherence to this format became looser and looser as the series progressed.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark is the one that most people love, but I don’t think that it has aged well. The movie is fairly slow and uninvolving up until the magnificent truck chase. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is not as bad as most people think, though it also has some dead spots. My personal favorite is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which has a great dynamic between Harrison Ford and Sean Connery (as Indy’s father), an awesome desert chase, and the series’s best leading lady, Alison Doody.

Video:
These new DVDs feature the same 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen video transfers as the 2003 discs. (In fact, even the main menus are practically identical.) The movies look vibrantly pristine, as if they were made recently. Colors are bright and naturalistic (no fading whatsoever), and the transfers are clean and sharp. However, edge enhancement can be intrusive in some instances, and expect to see some grain due to the various cameras, lenses, and film stocks that were used.

Audio:
These new DVDs also feature the same DD 5.1 English tracks that the earlier discs did. Although the audio was sweetened from stereo surround mixes, nothing sounds “artificial” or “mis-guided”; the audio sounds and feels like the audio that you’d expect from movies made during the 1980s. Dialogue is given top priority, and John Williams’s rousing scores are a close second. There is deep bass when appropriate, but it’s never over-powering as we’ve experience with recent overkill movies.

You can also watch the movies with DD 2.0 surround French and DD 2.0 surround Spanish dubs. Optional English, French, and Spanish subtitles as well as optional English closed captions support the audio.

Extras:
This new box set has new featurettes. Unfortunately, you don’t get any of the extras that were on the bonus disc of the previous box set.

Upon loading, the DVDs all play a teaser trailer for Indiana Jones 4. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas also recorded new introductions for each movie. Each disc also has multiple photo galleries and a preview of a LEGO Indiana Jones videogame.

--Raiders--
In “The Indy Trilogy: A Crystal Clear Appreciation”, various people connected to the series (including the fourth movie) talk about their love of the films.

“The Mystery of the Melting Face” details how a Nazi villain’s face was turned into pudding.

“Snakes Alive! The Well of Souls Storyboards” shows how a key set piece was developed.

--Temple--
“Creepy Crawlies” revels in the movies’ delight in making audiences squirm.

“Discover Adventure on Location With Indy” takes viewers globe-hopping.

“Hold Onto Your Hat! The Mine Cart Chase Storyboards” shows how a key set piece was developed.

--Crusade--
“Indy’s Women Reminisce” offers footage from an event hosted by the American Film Institute that was meant to promote the previous box set. The leading ladies of the first three films talked about their experiences, and Harrison Ford showed up at the end of the session for a photo op.

“Indy’s Friends and Enemies” is a superficial retrospective of some of the secondary characters.

“The Birth of an Action Hero! The Last Crusade Opening Scene Storyboards” shows how a key set piece was developed.

--Miscellaneous--
The discs are kept in thin keepcases, which are housed in a cardboard slipcase.