Terminator Salvation

Terminator and Terminator 2 were ground breaking movies, they were movies that had us gripped to our seats and left us with that uncomfortable feeling that nuclear devastation and a fight against machines was a mere hair breadth away. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machine for me was not such a good ending to the franchise and the chance to give a truly superb ending was missed; now 6 years on we have Terminator Salvation that will, hopefully, give us a different take on things.

It is 2018 and john Connor (Christian Bale) is fighting the machine as a member of the resistance, he is constantly listening to old tapes of his mother, Sarah Connor in an attempt to glean information in his quest to bring down skynet, so far everything that his mother had predicted has come to pass. He is also aware of the name of his father, Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) and tries to find him.

In the meantime a new man comes on the scene, Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), he had already teamed up with Kyle and his mute sidekick Star but after a fight with the machines Reese and Star are captured and sent to Skynet, Wright finds Connor through a downed pilot Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood). Not is all as it seems and Connor needs to trust his heart and a machine in order to find Reese and take the battle to Skynet.
I feel that they really got the balance right with Terminator Salvation. We are treated to some fantastic special effects that don’t dominate and strange the screen like they do on the 2nd transformers film and yet the action is almost relentless from beginning to end, but not so much so that there is no storyline to follow. Christian Bale is typical Christian Bale, putting in a performance that is excellent and brooding.

Sam Worthington I think was on par with Bale in this film, in fact it is he we see at the very beginning of the film where he signs his body over to Cyberdyne systems years before the events shown in the film, this scene sets the ground into us thinking he is a bad guy. When he reappears in 2018 we are not sure what kind of character he is and he lives on this edge for the first 3rd of the film, I think he runs that line quite well and certainly has been given enough screen time with which to prove himself.

Anton Yelchin is an excellent Kyle Reese, he actually looks similar to Michael Biehn in many ways but also has what I would say are his mannerisms too, he shows multiple character traits ranging from a knowledgeable fighter who is aware how to avoid Terminators to protector of a small child, although a fairly small character in the film in terms of screen time his role is actually extremely important to the franchise.
If there is anything negative about the film it is the ending. It all feels like is has been wrapped up too quickly and I must admit I was hoping that with this the 4th instalment in the series that we would finally get some closure on the whole thing, however with “Salvation” being the first in a new trilogy the only thing that we can be sure of is that he’ll be back.

Extras

Reforging the Future: (20 mins approx)
Essentially a making of documentary,  why decisions were made, ideas behind what appeared on screen. Basically everything to do with choices made throughout the film.

The moto terminator: (10 mins approx)
A look at the motorbike terminators that make an appearance in the film.

Focus Points

Digital destruction, enlisting the airforce, molten metal and the power of simulation, building the gas station, crating the VLA attack, exploding serena’s lab in miniature, hydrobots, an icon returns, terminator factory, Stan Winston shop, napalm blast.

Small experts that concentrate on one portion of the film at a time.

Picture & Sound

As should be expected of a new movie the picture is fantastic, night scenes are dark and rich and yet do not lack details, day time shots are bright and clear. Soundtrack is punchy and the dialogue is clear and concise, altogether a great soundtrack and visual feast.

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Terminator Salvation Blu Ray Review

Winged Migration as the title hints at is a visual story about migrating birds.

The Main Event

Winged Migration or “Le Peuple migrateur” is a 2003 Oscar nominated feature documentary about the migratory habits of birds, although I have to say that the term documentary can only loosely be associated to the production. For me a traditional documentary will give you some fairly detailed commentary over the visuals to explain what you are seeing. Think David Attenborough. Winged Migration doesn’t do this. In fact even when the narrator does speak (about once every 10 minutes) he comments on something quite general rather than anything specific to what we see on screen. What we do get is sequence after sequence of stunning footage that will blow you away and leaving you asking yourself “how did they film that?” However I think it is the lack of any real commentary throughout that will endear this DVD to you or not.

At the very beginning we are told that no special effects were used in filming the birds and whilst that maybe true the making of extra give clues as to how they “cheated” to get the desired effects. This involved taking the eggs of wild birds so they could be hatched in controlled conditions, also they were in close contact with humans from the day they were born so they were used to having human beings around them, this included the noise that aircraft made. This of courses aided the filmmaker’s immensly when the sequences were filmed amongst the birds in flight. Whilst this method has allowed the crews to capture some stunning footage of birds in flight the “no special effects were used” comment seems to indicate that it was all filmed on the back of perseverance and patience and whilst I am sure that those traits were still needed the fact that the birds were at least partially domesticated (that how it seems to me) takes a little of the wow factor away.

I found the intro particually good, the first few minutes of the film plays out more as a intro to a feature film, there are some nice shots of a small body of water with a quaint village in the background, some Geese come to settle in the water and one of the Geese gets trapped in some netting, a small boy cuts the bird free and she is off, into the sky flying with her kind, from this point onwards were are told a story in a visual manner, and 80% of those images look unique and absolutely stunning; very different to what you are used to when watching programs of this ilk, the other 20% of the shot are standard documtary type shots and although good will not stand out from other discs/features that you may of seen.
I have several favourite scenes one is where a small chick loiters precauriously on the edge of a sheer cliff before taking a plunge which seems like hundreds of feet so he can get to the water and another is where a couple of birds land on a military vessel in order to rest, they promply plonk themselves ondeck put their heads under their wings and grab 40 winks. Other scenes that although maybe neccesary to the production but that I felt awkward about was when you saw sucks being shot from the sky by hunters, all I could think about was that they had travelled thousands of miles only to be shot by someone out hunting for the day… humans, they seem to spoil everything.

Image

Wow… The emergence of blu-ray now allows us to appreciate these kinds of documentaries in a new way; the visuals are truly amazing. Right from the beginning when we see the robin in the dilapidated shack by the river through to the penguins diving through rough seas at the end you will be amazed, not only with the superb camera shots but also with the endurance that these birds, some of whom we see in our own parks, truly have.

Sound

The Disc played on my system in Dolby Digital 5.1 (as it is unable to achieve HiDef specific soundtracks) and although the rears are used to a degree I do wish that they were utilised more, the scene with the avalanche for example (about 16 minutes in) certainly rumbled the LFE a little but the main sound was still mainly from the front array, I certainly didn’t feel that I was being overtaken by snow. And the horses at around 22 minutes, the sounds of their hooves galloping are punchy and awesome but I never felt that I was in the middle of a stampede, surrounded by wild horses.
The music was nice, adding some reall drama to some of the scenes, in fact sometimes the music felt like it should be more for a feature film than a documentary, and I felt I hint of “walking in the air” from the Snowman on some scenes whenthe camera was amongst the birds in flight.
Discussion wise as in the narrator talking about what is being shown is very poor I felt, the occasional line every 10 minutes, this was obviously a concious effort to keep talkiong to a minimum so that you can admire the wonderous beauty of the camera work and the birds on screen, and you do admire these things, but as I came to the end of the run time I was losing interest a little as I had watched all the “wow” scenes and thought that a narrator would be nice by that point.

Special Features

There are a total of 6 extras on the disc    the best of which is the making of, it takes place over 52 minutes and it explains how they hatched the eggs, imprinted the birds making them used to human noises and presence as well as giving information on how they filmed the fantastic scenes. Some of the people involved with bringing up the birds spent so much time with them they must of developed some real emotional bonds with them, Other extras are a commentary, which struck me as a bit dull, creating the music, interviews with the film makers, a photo gallery and some previews of open season 2 and surfs up.

Overall

I enjoyed the documentary; the visuals are stunning that much cannot be denied, the music was nice and very apt to the scenes we were being shown, however the soundtrack could have done with some more oomph and towards the end I started getting a little distracted because although the stunning visuals hold everything up at the beginning there comes a time towards the end of the feature where you have seen all the great camera work and there is only an empty space where a narrator should be, after all there is only so many birds taking off, flying and landing that you can take before thinking that someone should be saying something here. However when the French Narrator does comment it seems dull and uninteresting so perhaps it was a good idea to not say much.

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Winged Migration – Blu Ray Review

The Damned United

Even if you only have a passing interest in football the chances are that you would have heard of Brian Clough. He was an immensely successful football player and manager having scored 197 goals in 213 appearances for Middleborough and 54 Goals in 61 appearances for Sunderland before being injured in 1962, an injury which essentially retired him as a player. In 1965 he became manager of Hartlepool and with the help of his assistant Peter Taylor was extremely successful with them as well as Derby County and Eventually Nottingham Forest where he took the small team on to win the  European Cup in 1979 and successfully retain it in 1980.

The Damned United is interesting in that it shows us two periods of time, firstly when at Derby County with Peter Taylor it shows us their enormous success taking a club from near the foot of the 2nd Division all the way up to the 1st Division and Secondly it explains the unsuccessful 44 days when Clough became manager at Leeds United. This position was surprising in that Clough had for some time been critical of Leeds United style of play as well as their Manager Don Revie. Clough took over from Revie at Leeds when he became the England Manager.

But onto the film itself.

I was wondering what to expect with this film, I like football, and I was familiar with some of the names (mainly from the Panini sticker books from my youth) but I would not say that I am a massive football fan, however Michael Sheen is an actor that I enjoy watching and with him having some success at playing other famous public figures I hoped that the film would be entertaining and something that I would enjoy.. I wasn’t disappointed although I do think that opinions will be split over the movie. On one hand the purists will be spitting bullets at the historical inaccuracies in the film, indeed Johnny Giles actually successfully sued the publishers of the book stating that many of the things that were portrayed in the book, and hence the film, never actually happened. But for those people that see it only as an entertaining movie will for the most part enjoy it, and I don’t even think you have to be a football fan to like it.

As mentioned earlier rather than concentrating on one period of time the Damned United is a film that focuses mainly on two opposing periods of time in Cloughs management career, firstly the overall successful period of time he and Taylor had at Derby County and secondly the torrid 44 days he had with Leeds United in 1974, but outside of this the film is more about Brian Cloughs relationships, be it with the Chairman and board of directors within clubs that he manages, his players or his assistant Peter Taylor and I think it is here that the film gets its charm, and also the reason why you don’t have to be a football fan to enjoy the film. The real life Clough was known as “ol big ead” he was outspoken and this often got him into trouble with his bosses and although Sheen shows glimpses of this fiery nature for the most part he plays him as a likeable, if sometimes cocksure guy.

The Damned United

Timothy Spall is also good as Peter Taylor, in fact Clough was not as successful a manager without Taylor and this is seen in the on screen relationship between these two actors, where Spall and sheen have a good rapport with each other that gives credibility to their characters.
The other main actors are the brilliant Jim Broadbent, who plays Sam Longson, the Derby Chairman and a very good Colm Meaney who undertakes the part of Don Revie the Leeds/England Manager Both (I think) are underused in the film, particularly Meaney who is firmly on the sidelines whilst Broadbent gets a little more screen time and is particularly good when at loggerheads with Clough which happens mainly of the transfer of players that Clough buys without Longson sanctioning them.

I do not really know where to place this film; it isn’t really a biopic as such because we don’t find out masses about Brian Clough the man. You will see some of his faults, you will see his cocky nature and get glimpses of the obsession he had with Don Revie and Leeds United and why that obsession came to the fore but it is a little bitty in that respect so people unfamiliar with him will not get the whole story, and it also isn’t a football film as we don’t see much actual football, additionally although the film is called The Damned United indicating the 44 days he spent at Leeds the movie doesn’t really spend much time with him at Leeds either. The common theme seems to be his initial respect and then ultimate dislike for Don Revie and I suppose the Dammed United is a snapshot of that more than anything else.

Something I personally found endearing and indeed made me want to find out more about the man himself was his statistics as a player and a manager come up toward the end of the film and they are pretty impressive, and after witnessing those I for one have to agree that Brian Clough was indeed the best manager that England never had.

The Damned United

Extras:
The disc comes with a decent amount of extras. He have the almost obligatory commentary with Director Tom Hooper, actor Michael Sheen and producer Andy Morris, we then have a set of 9 deleted scenes. These can be viewed with or without the directors commentary; I viewed then with it on, you can also choose to play all or view each individually.

We then have “cloughisms” which I believe just shows us the interviews that Michael Sheen did as Brian Clough for the TV shows within the film. After which there is a 16 minute making of; this was quite interesting as all the main actors get their say about the film. Creating Clough :  Michael Sheen takes on “ol big ead” is my favourite extra, Michael Speaks about how he researched Clough and speaks a little about the man himself whereas remembering Brian is another short extra that shows us the man himself, the odd interview and such like. Lastly we have changing game which is almost an add on documentary with a few 70s football players and they discuss how the game has changed since the days of old and how football these days is simply a money gravy train.

Picture:
I found the picture quality was superb, the hue has a little of that washed out feeling that 70s TV was all about and yet everything is crystal clear and bright. The night shots, for example when a football match was played at night in the rain looked beautifully clear and daytime shots were full of detail.

Audio:
My AMP isn’t compatible with HD specific audio streams so I listened in 5.1 Dolby Digital which was beautifully clear and concise. Not that there is a massive amount of dynamic range needed in the film the dialogue and soundtrack were evenly balanced.

The Damned United

Overall:
An extremely enjoyable snapshot of an interesting man’s life, It may help to know about or be interested in football but certainly not a pre requisite (My missus doesn’t like football and she enjoyed this film) and although not the greatest football film around, I do think it is in the top one.

Film:	★★★★★★★★☆☆
Video:	★★★★★★★★★☆
Audio:	★★★★★★★★☆☆
Extras:	★★★★★★★★★☆
Overall:	★★★★★★★★☆☆

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The Damned United – Blu Ray Review

Labyrinth

Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) is a teenager who lives in a word of dreams, magic and fantasy. And this particular evening she is supposed to babysit her baby half brother, something she doesn’t really want to do. He is crying all the time and so Sarah tells him a story, a story whereby she will wish him away to the Goblin King Jareth (David Bowie). Unbeknownst to her the words she uses awakens a horde of muppets…erm I mean Goblins as they along with Jareth whip the child away as she recites the magic words. Confronted by Jareth she decides that she needs the get Toby (The Baby) back and so the oh-so-fearsome Goblin king gives her 13 hours to get through the Labyrinth after which the baby will become his and live in the castle forever. As time slips by Sarah enters the maze and meets across a plethora of different characters, some who help and some who hinder her way to the Goblin Kings castle.

If I told you that this movie was directed by Jim Henson of The Muppets fame you will probably understand exactly what this film is like and to whom it is aimed and so anyone who remembers the muppets and that silly humour would warm to the concept. Although it has to be said that it was an overwhelming failure at the box office on release, and only over the years has it earned a bit of a cult following. Personally I remember it as an entertaining movie that was typically watched on a Sunday afternoon and before the disc went in I was wondering if it had held its charm like The Goonies which I watched again recently.

Sadly the answer was no.

I think that there are a few reasons for this. Let’s look at the two actors. Jennifer Connelly was a young teenager when this was made in 1986, I believe this was her 4th movie and so she was still finding her feet as an actress. Bowie of course is an iconic Rock musician and Henson’s first choice to play the Goblin king, he also wanted Bowie to do the soundtrack and I think that we can see one of the main issues with the film right there, Inexperience on the part of both parties. Connelly’s lines seem forced and wooden in places, especially at the beginning of the film. And Bowie looks and sounds decidedly awkward doing pretty much everything that doesn’t involve singing. And these things are very much apparent in this movie when watched today.

Image from Standard DVD Release

The other reason was the length, it was an immense chore for me getting through to the end and seemed infinitely longer than the (approx) 100 minute running time and I will admit to being more than slightly relieved when the credits started to roll. I wonder if toddlers and small kids who may still enjoy this movie today will bored and wander off.

There are some nice touches to the movie; for the most part the special effects are quite good. There were a couple of scenes were you could tell that the background was a matte painting but overall the production values were pretty good and that certainly holds the film in good stead. The “good” characters are also quite endearing. Ludo who reminded me in many ways of Sully from Monsters Inc would be a favourite amongst youngsters. Initially looking quite scary he is soon shown to be a big softie. Didymus whom is a manic, hyperactive character in an energetic little fella who likes to pick fights way above his station; his humour gets a little tedious but generally he is the punch to Ludo’s Judy and Hoggle who when you analyse it is your worst type of person to have as a friend as he wants to be good, but his “fear” of the Goblin king often leads him to betray you. Although in the end we see his heart is in the right place.

But apart from these characters and the special effects the film was a bit of a miss for me, and it didn’t play out as I remembered it all those years ago. Something to watch out for though is a cameo from Yoda? Don’t believe me? Just check out the character that seems like a woman with a ton of items on her back. Its Yoda with a wig on, I swear.

Image from Standard DVD Release

Audio/Visual
My AMP doesn’t play HD specific audio steams so I had to listen to it Dolby Digital 5.1 and it was pretty good, dialogue and soundtrack came across as clear and concise from the front array, although I cannot remember any specific stand out audio from the surrounds. Picture wise the studio will be pleased with the transfer with a movie that is over 20 years old the details are nice and the colours seem natural and balanced.

Special features:

There are five extra features to tuck into on the disc. I think the best of these is “Inside the labyrinth, making of documentary” The “storytellers picture in picture” is just an occasional commentary speaking about the film in general whereas the “Commentary with Brian Froud” is ok in that it imparts a fair bit of information but it all seemed quite dull and monotone to me. The other features are “Journey through the labyrinth”,” kingdom of characters” and “Journey through the labyrinth, the quest for goblin city”

Overall:
I do not think that the film has aged well; unsuccessful when released I think I now understand why. It is too long and the dialogue was bad in places although I appreciate that toddlers may like it (if they have the patience to sit through it). But for me it took all me will power not to throw it into the Bog of Eternal Stench.

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Labyrinth – Blu-Ray Review

At the moment within banks across the world being scrutinised due to their gross mismanagement this film would always garner a little more interest than just a standard film of this genre, however we need to look back into the late 1980’s/early 90’s for the inspiration around this particular film. This being BCCI (Bank of Credit & Commerce International) which, if you read the entry in Wikipedia, seems to draw more than just a slight resemblance to the fictional IBBC as portrayed in “The International”.

Whereas banks these days are being investigated due to bad management and excessive bonuses the IBBC seems to have gone several steps further by getting involved in arms dealing, be that supplying African rebels with small arms, or supplying both Palestinians AND the Israelis with weapons all the way up to purchasing missile systems and assassination.

Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) and his partner are close to exposing the IBBC by meeting with a high ranking executive from the bank however things get awry when Salinger’s partner is killed in front of him via mysterious means. With the stakes now personal he teams with assistant district attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) and together they try and get enough evidence against the bank in order to expose what it does.

“The International” is a competent thriller rather than an action film; it was originally geared to be a period piece set in the late 70s early 80s however after some heated discussion that idea was forgotten and due in no small part to the current banking crises they made it a  contemporary film, one that could even be accused of being a little slow in places with the one best action scene taking place inside the Guggenheim Museum in New York towards the later half of the film, (which was actually a massive recreation of the museum that was set up in Germany) however the toned down nature struck me as being more realistic and that for me was a welcoming change to the “blow everything up” rule that permeates this genre.

This is helped in no small part by the male lead, Clive Owen. Owen is an actor that I have always felt was on the brink of doing great things, and he has indeed been in some pretty good movies; a while ago I even thought that he would make a good James Bond before Daniel Craig took that and made it his own. But here he seems to be in his element as a tough Interpol agent who is out to do well, but is frustrated at almost every turn. he fleshes out his character with a suggestion of some haunted past which he brings into the character just enough to make you think that those events still plague him.

Naomi Watts as DA Eleanor Whitman seems to have been shoehorned in so that we have a pretty, blonde female in scene, that isn’t to say she didn’t bring anything to the role at all because she did and she did compliment Owen well, but I always felt she was there for the look on the screen rather than any necessity for the story indeed it states in the extras that the character was originally going to be a man, which would have been a guy too many in the movie, so I am glad that they kept with a female in the end.

For the bad guys the three standouts for me were Jonas Skarssen (Ulrich Thomsen), Wilhelm Wexler (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and the Consultant (Brian F. O’Byrne). Skarssen comes across as every inch the CEO of a large bank, but also as someone that makes those tough decisions without the experience of having been the one carrying those decisions out, he comes across as all business and quite ruthless when in the comfort of his large, state of the art HQ in Luxemburg but reveals his true self when caught outside of a comfortable (for him) situation.

Mueller-Stahl strikes me as a ruthless man, although someone that was not always that way, he gives a speech in the film to indicate (to me) that he was pushed by others into being the man that he was today, and that he would have been a good man had he been able to control events, this off course is just what I took from it, you may think something else entirely.

Lastly I liked the whole idea of the consultant played by Brian F. O’Byrne whom is essentially an assassin. He looks totally non descript and yet is quite deadly and it certainly made me think that there must be so many people around that look so harmless and yet are not what they seem be it on your train or walking to work, even in your workplace. although saying that he is non descript is not 100% true as there is something you find out about him during the film that would make him a person who is not that inconspicuous, but from a normal person in street giving a casual look he is non-descript.

Overall I liked the film, the main male lead very good in the whole and all the supporting actors were believable from corporate lawyers through to New York detectives. There are some good set piece action sequences that hold up well, the best of which was set in the Guggenheim and it is all about bad bankers who are people we all love to hate at the moment.
7/10

Audio:
The score adds real atmosphere to the movie, giving it a sense of dread in the places where it is needed, I played this via 5.1 Dolby Digital and thought it very good, there was a nice balance between fronts and rears with lots of effects being heard through the surrounds. The dialogue was clear and when needed the bass was punchy and clean.
8/10

Visual:
I found the visuals to be stunning, the pictures when in the cities seems to take on a gun metal, tungsten look which sets itself off brilliantly against the architecture that is portrayed, and again when out in Istanbul the sandy look of everything lends a fantastic contrast to what we have seen before, I just wish that I had a Blu-Ray capable drive in the computer so that the screen shots could show the superb clarity of everything.
10/10

Special Features:
There are a number of extras including the almost obligatory commentary, but I think the ones that stand out are the making of and shooting at the Guggenheim. If you do manage to sit through all the extras then you will see that the same material crops up in certain parts. I also found the commentary to be quite taxing to listen to.
7/10

Overall:
An above average thriller, with stunning visuals and a decent audio track the special features seem comprehensive enough although they do repeat in places
7/10

Film:	★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Video:	★★★★★★★★★★
Audio:	★★★★★★★★☆☆
Extras:	★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Overall:	★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Reviewers set up:
32” Sony Bravia
Harman Kardon AVR7300 through KEF Q Series Speakers
PS3 via HDMI Connection (Video) and Optical connection via the AMP (Audio)

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The International – Blu-Ray Review

The Punisher:

There have been three Punisher films. The first back in 1989 starred Dolph Lundgren as Frank Castle or the Punisher as he is more widely known. The second, also called The Punisher was in 2004 and starred Thomas Jane in the leading role and also had John Travolta in it. The latest incarnation is called The Punisher: War Zone and yet again the main actor has changed, this time Ray Stevenson has taken the Punisher moniker for an outing, Thomas Jane leaving the franchise due to alleged creative differences. Marketed as a reboot of the series it never really harks back to anything in the past accept some very short flashbacks when Frank Castle holds the corpses of his murdered family, obviously turning the once exemplary military man into the one facial expression Punisher that he is today.

Frank Castle/The Punisher (Ray Stevenson) is (at a basic level) an anti-hero vigilante taking down bad guys that for some reason the law cannot seem to touch. This time he goes after mob boss Gaitano Cesare and in the process of taking him and his organisation out he disfigures Billy (The Beut) Russoti in a glass crusher. Billy who now goes by the new name of The Jigsaw is bent on revenge and sets about implementing a plan whereby he can kill The Punisher, that plan includes releasing his psychopathic brother Looney Bin Jim (Doug Hutchinson) from the asylum. In the meantime The Punisher who mistakenly killed an FBI undercover agent when fighting the mob family withdraws in on himself and considers giving it all up, however he is forced to change his mind when the wife and child of the agent he killed is targeted and he dons the suit of the punisher once again to try and make the wrong things right.

The Punisher is a gruesome movie that is heavy on the gore and light on the storyline, indeed in the first ten or fifteen minutes our main protagonist doesn’t say a word, he merely has a determined grimace and an available arsenal that would put Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Commando to shame as he slaughters wave after wave of heavily armed gangsters (that cannot shoot straight) whilst spinning upside down from a chandelier.

There were other points that brought the movie down for me too. For example some of the accents came across as forced and clichéd in certain scenes. Also as the guy is a vigilante, officially the law is supposed to be after this guy AND they know his identity, he doesn’t try to mask who he is and yet they haven’t been able to capture him in 6 years, in fact a lot of the Police don’t seem that interested in catching him at all, after all he is dispatching all the criminals and judging by the number of files in the Punisher task force section there can’t be many bad guys left on the planet. But they make a half hearted show of trying to do something when they introduce F.B.I agent Paul Budiansky (Colin Salmon) yet he carries out his work relatively unhindered.

All these things I mention may make it seem that I didn’t enjoy the film, that isn’t true, in fact I admit that I although I thought it would be exceptionally bad, I actually enjoyed it as the credits rolled. Anyway this Marvel Comic adaptation is never supposed to be that realistic. In fact the decision on it you like this movie or not will be on if you like liberal bloodletting or not.

Ray Stevenson who plays Frank Castle/The Punisher is fitting for the role; he is certainly a big enough guy although his facial expressions never seem to change much regardless of if he is angry, or sad. I saw him recently in Outpost, another B film that is actually very good and I think he is a capable actor.

Dominic West who plays Billy Russoti overplays it a bit I think on occasion in terms of both acting and the accent that he uses. And his brother (in the film) Looney Bin Jim (Doug Hutchinson) overplayed the crazy a little too much as well. If they had maybe toned things down a tad I feel that they would have been more convincing.
7/10

Audio:
My AMP does not play the soundtracks that come with High Definition movies and so I listened to it in 5.1 Dolby Digital. The Dialogue comes across clear and concise although it is all mainly through the front array with hardly anything through the rears. So I was disappointed that the soundtrack did not utilise the surrounds more.
5/10

Video:
Some of the colour palette used seems a little weird; they have gone for a heavy implementation of Brown, Green or Blue hue (for example) in a lot of places. They do seem to work well however but it came across as a little strange initially, there are some decent camera angles used to keep things interesting although the detail seems a little soft in places.

Special Effects are well done; I think that is where the bulk of the estimated $22,000.000 budget went,
7/10

Extras:
Extras wise we have the almost obligatory commentary with Director Lexi Alexander and Cinematographer Steve Gainer, we then have a number of fairly short features such as The making of Punisher: War Zone, which spends time with the Director Levi Alexander and the main cast members. Then comes Training for the Punisher which takes us through some of the moves Ray Stevenson had to learn in order to be convincing as an ex military man. The Weapons of the Punisher takes us through all the nice shiny guns that everyone uses whereas Meet Jigsaw gives us a short with Dominic West and his makeup routine when he becomes Jigsaw. The last real extra is Creating the look of the Punisher where it explains about the heavy colour hues that I mention in the video part of this review, they decided that there should be no more than 3 main colours in any scene and I suppose that it actually works.
6/10

Overall:
I was entertained by the film, the bad points that I mention in the review did not spoil the film to the point whereby it was terrible so I would class this as an above average B film. As for how it compares in terms of quality to the two other Punisher films I have no idea as I have not seen those version. I would say that if you like deep meaningful story lines then this is not for you, however if you like heavy violence and gore then this will push the right buttons for you. You can check out more information on the website at http://www.punishermovie.com/
7/10

Reviewers set up:
32” Sony Bravia
Harman Kardon AVR7300 through KEF Q Series Speakers
PS3 via HDMI Connection (Video) and Optical connection via the AMP (Audio)

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Punisher: War Zone Blu-Ray Review

The Crow is a film that has been in my DVD collection for sometime. Having recently upgraded the disc I had for the R2 Scandinavian 2 disc Limited Edition steel-book version I thought that I would review a film that is amongst my favourite movies.

Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) and his fiancée Shelly (Sofia Shinas) are murdered on the eve of their Halloween Wedding by T-Bird and his gang of delinquents sent over there on the orders of Top-Dollar (Michael Wincott).

Legend has it that when someone dies The Crow carries their soul to the land of the dead but sometimes something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can’t rest. Sometimes the Crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right.

So at its basic level it is a story of revenge and Let’s face it, that storyline isn’t exactly over spilling in the originality stakes but don’t let that put you off as Director Alex Proyas and director of photography Dariusz Wolski     have created a wonderful visual feast of entertainment that sets The Crow apart from other movies of its ilk.

On watching this movie again recently I was reminded of Blade Runner; The depressing look and feel of the locations. The seemingly endless rain that falls down on the filth of the city but at the same time it is filmed in a graphic novel style not a million miles away from the more recent film noir Sincity. But on top of this if anyone remembers the Max Payne PC game from way back in 2001? This is how I imagined the real life world of Max Payne to look like.

The casting is spot on in all areas but special mention needs to be made for Brandon Lee. He is absolutely fantastic in this, his look is very much the Batman’s joker and I could really believe that his look influenced the make up in Heath Ledgers character. Another similarity between Ledger and Lee is that they both died young and in tragic circumstances, Lee was actually killed by a faulty prop gun during the making of this very film and his face was digitally superimposed on another actor in several shots. The tragic scenes that were filmed when the accident occurred were destroyed without being developed and are not in the movie at all. But I think this would have been the movie that would have propelled him onto bigger things.

His acting is spot on here. Take the opening scenes for example when we see him emerge from the grave and make his way back towards the now deserted apartment that he shared with his fiancée I could feel the pain and confusion of what was happening to him and the initial difficulty he has in coming to terms with what was going on.

Ernie Hudson plays the humane policeman Sergeant Albrecht, he is a shining light in what is mainly a sea of filth, he attempted to pursue the case when Shelly and Eric were killed but was stonewalled at every turn and eventually demoted. But when he sees Eric again he tries to help (after getting over the bewilderment of seeing a dead person alive). He even manages to get a few light hearted moments.

Sarah is a streetwise kid mostly abandoned by her barmaid/whore mother Darla (Anna Levine) and fends for herself most of the time; she was good friends with Shelly and Eric and misses them both very much. I thought she played her role very well, she seemed natural in the role and not wooden at all, I am surprised that she has not acted since.

Michael Wincott has always come across as a good bad guy, or shady character in a number of movies that I’ve seen him in, he just has that bad guy face and his gruff voice lends an air of malevolence that is on par with John Malkovich at his most evil. In fact in one scene we see him with a samurai sword on his back and for some reason I thought that he would have looked very good in “Highlander”.

For me the film has everything, stunning visuals, a great soundtrack, decent bad guys and some pretty good acting, if that doesn’t get you going then I am at a loss of what will.

Audio/Video:
I listened to this via a DTS soundtrack and it was awesome. The soundtrack was punchy and loud, bass rippled through my front room with that satisfying low noise. The haunting music suits the images on screen so well.

The dialogue was clear and concise too, never being overshadowed by the soundtrack. Surrounds were used nicely too with various effects panning the room.

Visually I found the transfer to be stunning, it is a very dark movie but I never felt there was a lack of detail, there was no detectable damage, it was a joy to behold.

Extras:

Disc 1:
Audio Commentary with Producer Jeff Most and Screenwriter John Shirley:
I was wondering why it wasn’t the director giving the commentary; Saying that the dialogue is quite interesting in explaining the dynamics of the story.

Disc 2:
A Profile on James O’Barr:
This is the guy that wrote The Crow graphic novel. A fairly interesting look at the creator of the comic, he seems like a fairly nervous guy and we find out about his life and the sad things that happened in his life that went on to influence his drawings.  We get excerpts of his drawings but the camera work when he is on screen is terrible, way too close and shaky. However I was enthralled by it and had to watch it till the end.

Brandon Lee’s Final Interview:
Watching this interview you can’t help but be amazed that he didn’t live to see the end of the movie. It is only a short interview but he obviously has a passion for the role, I think he would have gone on to great things.

Extended Scenes:
We are presented with 3 extended scenes that were shortened for the theatrical release. I enjoyed watching the scenes but I think that the idea to shorten them was ultimately a good one.

Deleted Footage Montage:
A collection of deleted scenes to music, not much in the way of dialogue accompanying it. I like the haunting music to the film so I found it a decent watch.

Original Poster Concepts:
A few still pictures on potential posters for the film, some better than others.

Production Design:
Another set of still on drawn production ideas.

Storyboards:
Another set of drawings depicting certain areas of the film.

Overall:
I think that this is a superb release, the steel-book itself feels like very good quality, the film is a superb gothic tale which was a great transfer and punchy audio. It is a well acted film with high production values and was of course the last film Brandon Lee made, a superb example of the genre.

Reviewers set up:
32” Sony Bravia
Harman Kardon AVR7300 through KEF Q Series Speakers
PS3 via HDMI Connection (Video) and Optical connection via the AMP (Audio)

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The Crow – DVD Review

Dr Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Dr Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Dr Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) are parapsychologists at New York University. It is quickly established that Stantz and Spengler are at least semi serious about their work whereas Venkman is just using it to hit on women. Everything however is about to change as they get kicked out of the University. Venkman explains that it was their destiny so that they can go into business together, and so Ghostbusters was born; a company created to rid normal people of the ghosts and spectres that haunt their daily lives.

Business is initially very slow but after a couple of high profile jobs they find that they are being inundated with calls about spooky spectres, in fact business is so good that they have to take on a fourth person and employ Winston Zeddmore (Ernie Hudson). Across town Dana Barrett notices that her eggs are cooking themselves on kitchen worktop and she has an entity lurking in her fridge. Louis Tulley (Rick Moranis) is her health conscious, geeky neighbour discovers large devil dogs in his apartment.

It would seem that Barrett and Tulley live in a building which is a conduit to another world and the team must rush over there to protect Dana and the stop the mighty Zuul from taking over the city. Will they get there in time? Will they save Dana and Louis? Will they have funny one liners to drop? You will have to watch it to find out.

I think Ghostbusters is one of those films that just ingrains itself into your brain, A true icon of 80s movie making it has pretty much everything that a good family film should have and what’s even better is that it doesn’t ever get dull even all these years later as my teenage son is a fan.

The script is fun too; written by Aykroyd and Ramis it is a great selection of witty comments, one liners and quips. Bill Murray does seem to get the lion’s share of these and so it could be argued that this is a Bill Murray film, but I disagree with that, sure he is prominent in the film but not to the detriment of the other actors although I would say this film is probably one of Murrays best outdone only by Groundhog Day.

In fact that is one of the big plus points of the film in that a little time is taken to build the characters, we like and we care about them all but each has their own way, their own personality which provides us with different types of comedy; from Moranis’ geeky accountant, to Murrays dead pan they all will make us laugh.

Another thing which I think is appealing is that even though it is a family comedy movie they haven’t dumbed it down, they all come out with these large complicated scientific explanations and the great thing is that we as the audience all get it, to a certain degree we do anyway and that is half the charm of the film as well as the special effects which although some look a bit dated these days were top class in 1984.

Overall I think Ramis and and Aykroyd did a wonderful job with the script and Ivan Reitman did a wonderful job of directing the proceedings. This is a great classic movie and one that every movie lover should own.

9/10

Audio:

Mine played out in Dolby Digital 5.1 and it is a pretty decent track. Dialogue and soundtrack are mainly front based and are well balanced. The surrounds are used on occasion but I would have liked to see them utilised more, the few times that I noticed them I thought that my rear speakers had blown and were producing a rasping sound

6/10

Visual:

The picture on this blu-ray release has been cleaned up and it is a pretty good transfer. I didn’t noticed any damage or serious flaws although the colours sometimes seemed a bit muted on occasion.

For the most part the Special effects stand up well to a High Def release, the only real let down was whenever the “devil dogs” were involved, especially in the apartments, but then this movie is very old and all the other special effects seem to have stood up a little better.

7/10

Special Features:

There is a wealth of extras on this blu-ray disc

Cinechat: This is like MSN but for use when watching a film, you will of course need an internet connection for this feature, personally I don’t know if I want to chat to people whilst watching a film, and if I did I would want an external keyboard rather than the PS3 remote in order to input text.

Commentary with Ivan Reitman (Director), Harold Ramis (Egon Spengler) and Joe Medjuck (Associate Producer): The three guys sit down to talk about the film.

Blu-wizard: According to the blurb this feature allows you to customise the way you view the special features, it allows you to create a playlist of extras that you want to see.

Slimer mode: This is a picture in picture commentary with some graphics running the top and bottom of the screen which would normally be the black lines of a widescreen picture. The volume of this feature seems quite low.

Ecto-1: Resurrecting the classic car (15.37): as the titles hints at, this is all about the Ghostbusters car, how they chose it and its restoration of it when they wanted to release the game. An enjoyable little extra and I think everyone would agree that the restoration work was top drawer.

Making of Ghostbusters video game (11.18): Another self explanatory special feature.

Ghostbusters Garage, ECTO-1 Gallery (5.27): A bunch of still photographs showing the famous car before and after restoration. There is a little moving footage to and it is displayed to us as a rolling gallery.

Ghostbusters the video game preview (1.43): This is basically the trailer for the video game. I’ve never played the game but it doesn’t look to bad.

Scene cemetery: Scenes that were killed off or shortened in the released film, the quality of the clips is quite poor.

1984 Featurette (9.45): This is a making of feature made a the time of the movie, the audio is quite low, the presenter seems to be lacking a little personality too, but an interesting document from the period, this is all un-restored footage.

Cast and Crew Featurette (10.53): A good 10 minute chat with most of the guys about the film and their feelings about it, Bill Murray isn’t in any of the modern extras though. Although I have to say that I watched all of these extras in order and I have to say the Dan Aykroyd seems to go off on one dropping scientific explanations wherever he can, he is obviously really interested in the entire paranormal thing.

SFX Featurette (15.22): The setup for this feature was quite bland. They had a bunch of people that has worked on the film all sitting in the same room and they each spoke about the SFX and how the bits and pieces were filmed, with the occasional movie clip thrown in.

Multi Angle Featurette: there are three multi angle features here; Spook central exploding, she’s a dog and crossing the streams. I must say that I don’t get the feature, 1st you get a bad quality version then a better quality version that plays.

Storyboard comparisons: compare the story board to the actual movie.

10/10

Overall:

A great family movie that I never tire of seeing.

Film:	★★★★★★★★★☆
Video:	★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Audio:	★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
Extras:	★★★★★★★★★★
Overall:	★★★★★★★★★☆

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Ghostbusters – Blu-Ray Review

I have not seen a good, newly released horror film in sometime, so when I was asked if I wanted to review B.T.K I jumped at the chance, although I made that choice simply by looking at the cover on Amazon, even though I should know that you shouldn’t judge a book (nor a film) by its cover.

The film is based upon the real life murderer Dennis L. Rader who was captured in 2005 and sentenced for the murders of 7 women, 1 man and 2 children. B T K stands for Bind, Torture, Kill, for the style he used to killhis victims. This film is a fictional piece and does not represent the crimes that he is actually convicted of.

Writer/Director Michael Feifer has directed 11 movies so far, none of them I have heard or and none of them scoring over 4.3 on IMDB so I prepared myself for a major disappointment as I put the disk in the player; but ratings have been wrong before, will they be wrong now?

Kane Hodder plays the part of Dennis Rader and he has the thickest neck in the entire world. He is a family man, a man with a decent job as a compliance officer although he does come across as over zealous and a complete jobs-worth in this and a man with a passion for binding, torturing and killing innocent people.

As I said earlier because of looking at the directors previous movie outings I was preparing to be disappointed with the film however, I have to say it was not as bad as I had first feared, although by no means perfect I felt that there were elements that came across very well; the gory bits were convincing, and there were scenes that had some genuine tension and I suppose that these surprised me as I was expecting the film to be terrible. The problem for me was the story or lack of one. The entire film for the most part seemed to be a series of set pieces for the crimes that are committed with little to no story in-between and that is where, for me, it falls down, although saying that it is suggested that the film could be a dream sequence which would explain the set piece type of story.

Acting wise Kane Hodder is actually pretty good, he is a big guy and can look menacing and yet harmless at the same time. He actually has a lot of experience within the movie world mainly as a stunt man working on films such as se7en and enemy of the state but also as an actor where he has played Jason Voorhees in various Friday the 13th movies; however he is let down by some of the supporting actors, the worst of which were the actresses who played his daughters they could not convince me that they had any range of emotion and this stood out like a sore thumb, Dru Ashcroft who played Sharon being the worst culprit, so much so that in a few emotions scenes towards the end of the film, when you look at her she is showing just zero emotion to the situation that is unfolding, and when she does do something like cuddle her mother she turns her face away from the camera and you know its because she would just not be convincing any other way.

There isn’t really much else to say about the film, it is not mind numbingly terrible and from what I’ve read about the other B.T.K movies that are out there then this one may well be the best of them yet, but at the same time there are enough poor points to keep the movie in the category of an average B-Movie which is mildly entertaining.

Picture:

The picture is surprisingly good for a low budget film. The image is sharp and clear. Even on some of the brighter scenes there was no real blooming of any kind, blacks were nice with little detail lost, The dream sequences where everything is tinged with yellow looks particularly clean too, overall I was very happy with the picture quality.

Sound:

The score consists of a creepy musical undertone that permeates throughout its running length, at the beginning it comes across as quite creepy but soon fades into the background and is quite unmemorable. I couldn’t really hear much going on in the surrounds on this Dolby Digital 5.1 track. The dialogue was sometime quite low, but generally was sufficient even though it only came from the front array, there are no real loud noises and certainly nothing to test any speakers really, overall the sound was sufficient.

Special Features:

Audio commentary with Director Michael Feifer and Actor Kane Hodder:
This was quite an interesting commentary, it is pretty lively from the directors side of things, Kane is more subdued but we are treated to a decent analysis of each scene and the ideas of the director.

Behind the Scenes:
The director talks us mainly through the crimes that take place within the film, certainly not something to watch before watching the main feature as it would like spoil those scenes in the film, we do find out that the entire shooting period of the film was 10 days, which concerned me somewhat as I did indeed watch this feature before watching the main feature. This feature is around 19 minutes long

Overall:

It is a mildly interesting film although does have problems with the story and some of the actors performances but from what I’ve heard this seems to be one of the better B.T.K movies out there. If B-Movies about serial killers is your thing then this maybe worth a rental but you would need to be a die-hard fan in order to purchase.

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B.T.K (Bind, Torture, Kill): DVD Review

Mirrors (Region 2)
A man whom we don’t know is running through a subway, we have no idea why he is running, but he looks scared. He finds his way to a locker room and tries to get out by way of a window, only he can’t. Suddenly the locker doors start to open and on the inside of each is a mirror, the mirrors start to crack and splinter, the man looks horrified, he repeats that he doesn’t want to die over and over before slitting his own throat with a shard of glass… so begins Mirrors.

Ben Carson (Kiefer Sutherland) is a suspended NYPD detective with a recently disowned drink problem who has taken a job as a night security guard in a burnt out department store called The Mayflower. He has taken the job to get back on his feet to provide for himself and his ex-wife Amy (Paula Patton) and Children Daisy (Erica Gluck) and Michael (Cameron Boyce).

He is shown around the place by the day watchman Lorenzo Sapelli (John Shrapnel) however before the end of his first night Ben realises that all is not as it should be. The mirrors show things that are not happening around him. The mirrors become menacing and he realises that there is something malevolent behind the glass. Something that if given the chance will destroy him and his family.

Frenchman Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes) helms this horror/mystery release and does a pretty good job too… at least in the first half which I found to be excellent in terms of both the tension that is portrayed to the viewer through the fast paced start with the guy running through the subway through to the brilliant set that they used for the actual department store. I found this particularly eerie and was interested to read in the extras that rather than a sound stage a lot of the interior shots were in an old, mostly abandoned building in Romania. This location is excellent in portraying how I would imagine a burnt out department store to look, with ruined counter tops, half burnt and melted mannequins casting a ghostly eye over the charred walls and floors, ash and debris everywhere but with perfectly clean mirrors sitting as a contrast between all the chaos.

It is also worth mentioning that the lighting in these initial shots around the stores are very well executed and really gives us a feel for what this place is. I felt that they really set the tone well. The second half of the film lost a little of what they had built in the first half as the film centred on his estranged family for extended periods of time and the film turns into a chase to solve the clues kinda movie. Whilst not terrible this did cause some of the tension and what I felt was fairly unique about the film to fizzle out a little during the final phases.

Acting wise the film stood up too, I’ve always enjoyed watching Keifer Sutherland and he delivers a convincing performance as an ex alcoholic detective who is suspended for accidently shooting a policeman, quite how he come to shoot a uniformed Police Officer is never explained but as Sutherlands character is portrayed as a good guy then I have to assume it was an accident of some description. But the little bit of back story on this is there to explain why him and his wife are apart at the moment and also explains some of the clue solving later in the movie.

Paula Patton plays his wife Amy, she doesn’t have much to do at the beginning of the film but her role comes more to the fore in the last two thirds, she is a strong, beautiful woman and holds her own against the very good Sutherland also has one of the worst lines in the film when finally realising her husband isn’t a fruitcake and some weird stuff is definitely happening within the mirrors by saying “I should have believed you” and she felt guilty about doubting him. That’s not her fault though, just a dodgy line that should have been removed from the script.

The kids are pretty good in it too, I generally find that kids can be a little wooden in films but these seemed fairly natural and comfortable in their roles, which of course didn’t hurt the movie one bit.

Overall I found Mirrors to be an enjoyable movie, the first half is definitely better than the second, but even falling into a fairly generic movie towards the end doesn’t make it a bad movie. But you won’t be keeping a wary eye on your reflective surfaces afterwards.

The Disc
On inserting the disc you get the option between theatrical and unrated version, nothing else. I went for the unrated version. After you have chosen this you go through to the more familiar menus such as special features, scene selection etc.

Once the disc is in we get play, language, scene selection and special features, language has English 5.1m English audio descriptive audio 5.1 dolby, Italian, castellano. There are also subtitles in various languages.

Extras
Play Theatrical/Unrated Version depending on which option you chose at the beginning.

Deleted and Alternate Scenes:
Here you can play them all or individually either with or without commentary there are 7 deleted scenes and an alternate ending to view. The usual reasons are there for deleted the scenes although they are mainly because they didn’t really add anything to the story.

The sound quality on the alternate ending is a bit naff, obviously not being polished up to release standard something they admit to in the commentary. They had added a few shots and taken a few away, it didn’t really alter the ending, in fact it gave less away about the end so I think the one they went with was the better of the two.

Reflections: The Making of Mirrors:
A decent making of documentary that covers all aspects of production of the film, covering the story, cast, production etc so we get a good idea of what went into the making of the film. An annoying thing here is when the editor speaks as he only speaks French, whereas everyone else does manage English so you will need the subtitles on, but only for a few minutes dotted around the film.

Behind the Mirror:
This extra has some of the actors and crew talking about the general mythology surrounding mirrors.

Weblinks to three fox websites

Ratings for disc overall

Film:	★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Video:	★★★★★★★★☆☆
Audio:	★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Extras:	★★★★★★★★☆☆
Overall:	★★★★★★★★☆☆

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Mirrors – DVD Review