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

Paul Blart: Mall Cop brings Kevin James to the silver screen in a leading role for the first time. Sure he shared the credits with Adam Sandler in I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, but this is his first time out there on his own. Not satisfied with the leading male role, he’s also gone for producer and writer as well!

For those that aren’t that aware of Kevin James, he started out his career as a stand up comedian and moved to TV sit coms from a few appearances in Everybody Loves Raymond to his own vehicle King of Queens. It was only a matter of time before he took a swing at Hollywood. His first role was quite a successful turn in Hitch as the hapless Albert Brennaman and the role of a chunky guy, hopeless with affairs of the heart is essentially the role that he’s repeating here.

Paul Blart is a chunky middle aged single father. He’s a security guard at a local mall, but has ambitions of becoming a state trooper. For the last eight years he’s taken the entrance exam and for the last eight years he’s failed the physical. Will this year be lucky number 9? Weeelllll……..No. Paul suffers from hypoglycemia and literally stumbles a few inches short of the finishing line after a stellar performance. It seems that Paul is destined to shepherd people around shops in a dead end job.

Dead end it may be, but Paul approaches his job with diligence and a seriousness that his fellow colleagues don’t share, they’re essentially clock punchers, while Paul genuinely feels he has a duty to maintain order within the mall.

On a day like any other in the mall Paul comes across Amy (Jayma Mays) for the first time. She’s just opened a hair extension stand in the mall and it’s love at first site (for Paul that is). Reasonably successful initial flirting is followed by a disastrous bar incident that leaves Paul thinking he stands no chance with Amy at all. What he doesn’t reckon on, is the mall being taken over by an armed bunch of X-gamer bandits and Amy being taken hostage. Paul is the only other person left free in the mall. He’s the only man who can foil the crime and rescue the girl. Is he man enough for the task? Will his sugar levels hold out? Watch and find out.

Financially Paul Blart was a cinematic success with a worldwide gross of nearly $183 million from a $26 million budget. Critically it was pretty universally panned and I really can’t see why. No, there’s not too much depth here and as a comedy it won’t have you rolling in the aisles, but I thought it was pretty entertaining and definitely had enough funny moments to make it a decent comedy. Kevin James made the character of Paul Blart slightly too much of a sad case for me (I think he could’ve still generated the sympathy for the character without making him quite as pathetic as he is), but this is a small issue and easily forgotten. The rest of the cast are pretty good Jayma Mays seems to have ‘extremely cute girl’ roles pretty much nailed. If there’s a role that requires a girl to be extremely cute it’s pretty much a straight fight between her and Amy Adams. There are a few other faces in there that you’ll recognize (a happy Madison regular in Erick Avari amongst others) and the X-gamer bandits (BMX riders, skateboarders and free runners) are all real sportsmen and women, not actors at all, which I only found out during the extras, so they can’t have done that bad a job (they did have very limited lines though, most of the time they were doing what they do best chasing Paul around the mall).

The picture quality of this Blu Ray version was pretty damn good. Presented in 1.85:1 MPRG-4 1080p that is clear with good whites, blacks and colours, very little grain and no real digital artifacts to mention it’s pretty much as good as you could hope for for a comedy. We’re also treated to a full Dolby True HD soundtrack which holds its own as well. In a pretty empty mall there isn’t really that much call for a booming soundtrack so I can’t really say that it’ll rock your house or push an HD surround setup to its fullest but it does its job well and the audio is always crisp and clear (always vital in comedies lest you miss the jokes).

The extras on this disc are pretty much the usual fare. There’re the now obligatory deleted scenes (and you can generally see why they hit the cutting room floor), the commentary with Kevin James and Todd Garner and a whole load of featurettes that cover the stuntwork done by the X-gamers.

If you’re in the mood for some light hearted, easy to follow, won’t tax your brain too much, feel good comedy then look no further. Worth a watch in my opinion.

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Paul Blart: Mall Cop Blu Ray Review

It’s difficult to put a genre to Alex Proyas latest film ‘Knowing’. Disaster movie, drams, thriller, science fiction, they’re all in there somewhere, what it certainly is, is different.

In 1959 a class of young children are asked to come up with an idea to mark the opening of their new school. One girl, Lucinda, a bit of a loner, comes up with the winning idea, to bury a time capsule containing pictures drawn by them of what they think the world will look like in 50 years time. The children paint the expected pictures of rockets and robots. All except for Lucinda. Lucinda hears whispering voices in her head and they tell her to write down a massive sequence of numbers. She frantically writes but runs out of time just short of the final few numbers. The teacher is surprised by Lucinda’s contribution but includes it in the capsule anyway. Later that day, after the capsule has been buried, Lucinda goes missing. A search party is raised and the grounds of the school are thoroughly searched. The teacher finds Lucinda in a cupboard under the stairs having frantically scratched the final numbers into the door with her fingers until they bled.

Shoot forwards 50 years and John Koestler (Nicolas Cage) is a professor of astrophysics at MIT. He’s a widower, with a young son, who lost his wife recently in a hotel fire. His son, Caleb, attends the same school where the time capsule was buried and the 50 year ceremony is about to take place. When the enveloped from inside the capsule are distributed amongst the present day children, Caleb gets Lucinda’s envelope. That night John absent-mindedly puts his glass of scotch (he drinks a bit too much in the evenings these days) down on the page of numbers. Glancing at the numbers contained within the glass ring he notices a sequence that piques his interest (91120012996). Being an astrophysicist he sees the numbers as a puzzle to be solved. Pretty quickly he manages to break the numbers down into a date, 09/11/01, the date of the 9/11 terror strike in New York. After googling 9/11 he also finds out that there were 2996 deaths that day.

In a rather intense night for John he manages to find dates and numbers of deaths for pretty much every major disaster for the last 50 years, all predicted in this sheet of numbers. Not all of the numbers form the date and number of dead though, some don’t seem to mean anything at all. John tries to convince a colleague of what he’s found and while he thinks it’s a bit creepy he’s not totally convinced. John then tells him that not all of the events are in the past. One string of numbers says that 81 deaths will occur somewhere the following day. Come the next day and John is stuck in a traffic jam, in a storm, going to pick his son up from school. Glancing at his sat nav he notices a sequence of numbers that describe his longitude and latitude. He then realises that the unexplained numbers on the sheet are in fact the location of the disaster. Looking at the location for today’s predicted event he notices that it’s at the exact same location that he’s currently at! While up ahead there’s been an accident  up ahead it isn’t bad enough for 81 deaths. Just then a passenger plane comes hurtling out of the sky having been struck by lightening, narrowly missing John and crashing in the next field. Sure enough, 81 people died in the crash.

Scientist that he is John has to try and find an explanation for these numbers and why they came to be in his possession. He tries to track down Lucinda, only to find she died of a drugs overdose a few years before. The next best thing is her daughter, Diana. Initially Diana wants nothing to do with John, telling him that her mother told her that she heard voices and that they told her terrible things. It’s not something that Diana remembers fondly and wants to put behind her, and not expose her own daughter, Abby to either. In desperation John makes another prediction to Diana from her mothers numbers, that the following day 191 people would die in New York, but Diana refuses to listen.

John seems compelled to try and stop the upcoming event and so phones through a warning to the authorities. On the news was a threat of a bomb in New York, so John assumes that’s the event and that it’ll happen at the location predicted. Just in case the authorities don’t act he heads to New York anyway, only to find that his tip off wasn’t acted upon and the local police think he’s a suspect and chase him into the subway, where the real event, a train crash happens with John too close for comfort.

When he returns home he finds Diana and Abby at his house waiting for him. They’d seen the news of the accident in New York and she’d realised that her Mother was telling the truth and wasn’t crazy. John then explains that the last sequence of numbers is incomplete, the location isn’t present. Diana also notices that what seem like the last numbers, 33, are in fact EE written backwards.

Things aren’t quite as straight forward as they seem however. This isn’t just a disaster movie, there’s something more sinister at work here. Strange men pull up to the house in a car and, without saying a word, give his son a black stone. It turns out that Caleb and Abby can both, from time to time, hear the whispering voices that Lucinda could. John needs to find out what’s behind all of this, why did he get the numbers if he can’t stop the events from happening? How is his son linked to all of this? John and Diana head to the remote portable trailer that was the last home of her mother. There, scratched into the bottom of her bed they find that EE actually stands for Everyone Else. The last sequence of numbers is actually predicting the end of the world! Is this the one that John is supposed to stop? What do the sinister silent men want with the children? I’m afraid I can’t say any more ‘cause that’d just give it all away.

I have to admit that from the trailers I’d seen for the film, I thought it was a pretty standard disaster flick with a bit of weirdness thrown in with the list of numbers. In actual fact there’s a lot more weirdness here than you at first think. At first it’s subtle, but throughout the film it gains pace until there’s a dark and sinister thread to the film that takes it into a different genre. Personally I found this quite refreshing, this isn’t the usual Hollywood fare offered up to us 9.9 times out of 10, this film dares to be different and while the ending has to be seen to be believed (and has been highly criticised) again, I admired it for its bravery.

There is a sombre tone to the film throughout. Nicolas Cage doesn’t play a happy man. A man that’s just become a single father through the death of his wife, it’s lead him to question everything he believed about how the universe works. The cast throughout are very good, I’m a bit of a fan of Mr Cage and while I can’t quite see him as an MIT astrophysicist, he pulls of the rest of the character rather well. Rose Byrne is also excellent as Diana, there’s quite a realistic interaction between her character and Cage’s, thankfully Alex Proyas kept it straight and didn’t try and introduce a romantic angle to their relationship, that wouldn’t have been right at all.

The cinematography is also quite dark throughout the film, there’s a real sense of foreboding that increases throughout the film as things start to become more sinister. The picture quality of the DVD is excellent upscaled on my 37” LCD and while for long stretches of the film the Dolby Digital 5.1 track has little to do but dialogue (which it does very well though), when it is called into action during the more intense scenes it does so with aplomb. There are a few nice surround effects in there as well, but again, they’re only during the action sequences which are few and far between.

Overall I thought it was well worth a watch. I can’t say that I came away from it with the usual Hollywood feel good feeling, but that’s part of it’s charm, it doesn’t take the usual Hollywood formula but instead decides to tread some new ground and good on it for trying. It’s flawed in a couple of areas, the significance of certain things doesn’t come across well and other things aren’t really explained, but I guess it just leaves you to use your own imagination and come up with those explanations yourself.

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Knowing, DVD Review

Mumbai Calling is the latest in a long line of British sitcoms, but one that is fairly modern, almost completely original, and utterly different from anything that as come before. The shows premise revolves around British-Indian Kenny Gupta (Sanjeev Bhaskar), who is unwillingly sent to India to improve the profitability of his companies call centre, Teknobable. Also appearing is Terri Johnson (Daisy Beaumont), who was sent in to assess the job being carried out by Kenny, and Dev Raja (Nitin Ganatra), the extremely laid back call centre manager who works solely for the money and doesn’t really care how the call centre is run as long as he can have a laugh and catch a glimpse of the odd belly dancer.

Throughout the series the call centre attempts to address the various problems that the Indian workers have in communicating with their British customers; from not being able to understand regional accents, to lacking assertiveness and occasionally losing their temper. All of these issues are tackled with some truly absurd plot lines that involve everything from Bollywood heroes, the Indian mafia and a drink driving cabbie, all the way up to a photocopied rear-end. Yet despite how clearly ridiculous the plots are, they gel perfectly with the sitcom format and series as a whole, making it easy to watch, without the need to pick holes in the plot.
 
Characterization fits exactly the same pattern, as almost every character (bar Kenny Gupta) is played in such an over the top fashion, and as a complete stereotype, that they become almost pantomime like; Dev Raja possibly being the main culprit, as he is every bit the Indian counterpart of The Office’s David Brent (doesn’t enjoy work, sex mad, constantly messing around and often making a fool of himself, although Dev is liked by his peers, and is actually a good friend to them), Terri Johnson is the 30 something single business woman that we have seen so many times (workaholic that holds a deep sadness within and is just itching for Mr. Right to come along and whisk her away) and even some of the call centre employees are stereotypes, such as the cowardly young man that’s being forced into an arranged marriage because he is too scared to stand up to his parents and the and the cynical woman who is trying to do her job correctly and help the customers but can’t because she is surrounded by idiots that just won’t listen to her. Yet again, despite the characterization being heightened beyond the point of reality, it works in this situation, and many of the characters funniest moments come from their absurdly heightened stereotypical natures.
 
The idea of setting the show in an Indian call centre was an extremely clever one, as practically every British viewer will be able to relate to being put through one to of those terribly annoying call centres where  it is difficult to understand the unhelpful foreigner speaking on the other end. This series is clever because it approaches that subject matter from the other side of the coin completely, expressing just what a difficult job the Indian call centre operatives really have in dealing with nuisance callers, terrible computer software and a great deal of the seemingly retarded British public.
 
Direction and the style of the show are also interesting as it is very fast paced and something that appears pretty new to British comedy, featuring many seemingly random and irrelevant (although very funny) sequences that are reminiscent of a ‘Family Guy’ style “Just like that time I… (Insert random joke)”. Like most other sitcoms the plots are very episodic, so it wouldn’t have mattered if you missed one or two during it’s TV run, and the only real lasting plot element is the will they/won’t they relationship between Kenny and Terri; a relationship that is nowhere near as intriguing as the Ross and Rachel dynamic, or even entirely believable, but it does have its moments, both funny and sweet.
 
All in all this is a fresh new comedy show that despite being overly Asian is quintessentially British; featuring every type of famed British humour, including toilet jokes, endless innuendos, a good deal of slapstick and downright silliness, and even the odd clever lengthy set-up. In truth it’s surprisingly good, and despite a possibly off putting setting, it’s a barrel of laughs from start to finish; granted characters are all heightened beyond realistic levels, the situations are ridiculous and the humour is daft, but aren’t those all the things that make a good British comedy funny?

Picture:

The picture quality of Mumbai Calling can be summed up in two words, consistently average. That is not to suggest that this is in anyway a bad transfer, although it is somewhat under whelming; the series uses a wide range of vibrant and bright colours, as well as the mucky mid tones of the Indian streets, and the contrast stands up rather well to these extremes, as does the picture quality itself, with little if any noticeable difference between the indoor studio shots and the scenes set outdoors in the Indian sun. There’s no real grain to speak of, for a DVD transfer, but the detail levels aren’t especially high either, and as almost all of the series was shot indoors the overall impression is that they could have done better. Anyone not looking for superior quality, or content with mid range quality, will be more than impressed, because there are no problems, but this transfer certainly won’t hold water against other TV series such as the BBC’s impressive transfer of their Robin Hood series (Blu-ray picture on that release is superb).

Audio:

Audio, as with the picture, is nothing spectacular. Being a sitcom Mumbai Calling doesn’t need the most diverse and expansive soundfield, however it could have greatly benefited from some bustling street noise emulating from the rear speakers (during the outdoor shots), however being released with only two channel stereo that was not possible. However, sound levels are extremely clear with dialogue clearly audible over the hustle and bustle of the Indian call centre, and once the volume level is set it will never need to be altered. A big drawback on the audio front though is the Mumbai Calling theme tune, which is possibly on of the most annoying themes ever created, and played repeatedly over the DVD menu, and several times during each episode.

Extras:

Mumbai Calling has three extra features, a making of, a series Promo and an interview with Sanjeev Bhaskar and Nitin Ganatra. The making of featurette is extremely long (lasting just over an hour), and unnecessarily so; there’s the usual behind the scenes look, interviews, outtakes and other assorted extras, but each feels stretched. There are some interesting moments and anecdotes in it, such as the discussion of how Indian culture affected the shoot (needing to have everything blessed every morning and refusing to remove pigeons from the set) and how Nitin was mistaken for a terrorist while running through an airport to attend his child’s birth, and it is clear that everyone who worked on the show loved the experience, however this feature is only for hardcore fans, as it becomes tremendously tedious very quickly.
 
The promo, as you may have guessed, is just a long advert, and one that actually manages to make the series look less funny than it actually is; one to avoid. The interview with Sanjeev Bhaskar and Nitin Ganatra is similarly pointless as it has a rather bland tone and neither one really expands on the series or provides any interesting info or anecdotes.

The Bottom Line:

Mumbai Calling is a very good comedy series for one simple reason, it’s funny. It’s no Fawlty Towers, it’s no Blackadder and it’s certainly no Only Fools and Horses, but it has all the elements of a classic British comedy; toilet humour, innuendo and slapstick all tied in with suitably ridiculous plots. The acting is somewhat over the top, but that suits the characters and situations perfectly, there are some interesting guest stars (such as Richard E. Grant) and a new and suitably modern setting. The extras on the DVD are largely a waste of time and the picture and audio quality is far from astounding, however, that shouldn’t deter anyone from watching this laugh out loud comedy. Obviously anyone who isn’t usually into comedy should stay away, but viewers that like a good laugh are such to enjoy the series and at around £12 it’s a bargain price for a series that comes highly recommended.

The Series: 7/10
Video: 6/10
Audio: 6/10
Extras: 3/10
Overall: 6/10

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Mumbai Calling Series 1 DVD Review

The wife really wanted to go see this when it had it’s cinema run but we just couldn’t get away (must start to complile list of babysitters!). Come to think of it, it doesn’t seem that long ago, but here we are at DVD release time already. Here’s the official press release:

DUPLICITY
STEALING $40 MILLION IS EASY.
TRUSTING EACH OTHER IS THE HARD PART.

Julia Roberts (Erin Brockovich, Pretty Woman) is reunited with Clive Owen (Closer, Sin Ciy) in Duplicity, director Tony Gilroy’s (Michael Clayton, Bourne Identity) smart and sexy comedy, out to own on DVD and Blu-ray from 27th July 2009.

Set in the murky world of industrial espionage, Duplicity demonstrates that where money is everything and morality takes a backseat, it’s hard to determine who is playing who.

Former government spies-turned-corporate operatives and clandestine lovers, Ray Koval (Owen) and Claire Stenwick (Roberts), are working on opposing sides of an all out commercial war between corporate giants Equikrom and Burkett & Randle.

B&R boss Howard Tully (Tom Wilkinson) is rumoured to be about to announce the discovery of the latest innovation in the beauty industry; a drug so in demand that it would bring fortune to the company who patents it. On hearing this, ambitious Equikrom CEO Richard Garsik (Paul Giamatti) is determined to crush his bitter rival by getting his hands on this formula first – by any means possible.

Embroiled in this corporate death match, Ray and Claire spot their chance to make a fortune and plot to secure the top secret formula themselves.

But the further they become entangled in their bosses’ Machiavellian plotting it becomes less and less clear exactly who is being played. As their mutual attraction threatens to interfere with their carefully laid plan, the trickiest part of the operation for Ray and Claire is to decide if they can trust each other.

As the plot twists and turns through the flashbacks in time and myriad of double and triple crossings, the one thing that becomes apparent is that in the high stake world of industrial espionage, nothing is what it seems.

Cast and Crew
- Claire Stenwick… Julia Roberts
- Ray Koval… Clive Owen
- Howard Tully…. Tom Wilkinson
- Richard Garsik… Paul Giamatti
- Director… Tony Gilroy
- Writer… Tony Gilroy

DVD Extras include
- Feature Commentary with
- Writer/Director Tony Gilroy and
- Editor/Co-Producer John Gilroy

Technical details
UK Certificate: 12
Ireland Certificate: 12
DVD RRP: £19.99
Blu-ray RRP: £24.99
Feature Run Time: 119mins
Subtitles: English, Arabic, Danish, Finnish,
Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish
DVD Sound mix: Dolby Digital 5.1
Blu-Ray Sound mix: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Colour: Colour
DVD Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Blu-ray Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

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Duplicity News

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Transformers Optimus Prime on David Letterman

Director Of CTU (Counter-Terrorism Unit), Los Angeles, Jack Bauer (Sutherland) sees his daughter to bed and is called in to the office when the CIA becomes aware of a threat to Presidential Candidate David Palmer (Haysbert). As Bauer investigates the threat against Palmer, he realises that there is probably someone on the inside, and that there is no one he can trust, leaving himself and his family in danger. Filmed in real time, we live with Bauer, Palmer, their families and the CTU team over 24 hours, the longest day of their lives…

I didn’t see this on TV, so I’ve watched all 24 episodes without missing one (which usually happens when I try to watch a TV series). I very nearly didn’t sleep in the two weeks it’s taken to find the time to watch and entire TV series. After the first few episodes, which introduce the characters, it becomes very hard to switch off – brilliantly acted, incredibly well directed and ending each episode with a cliffhanger, it becomes an obsession. The real-time aspect means that you find yourself wondering what is going on at that time on another sub-plot. Often you see two or three stories on-screen, and as it takes many episodes to resolve even the smallest story, you keep coming back for more, and just when you think you’ve figured it out, there’s a twist you didn’t see coming and another story starts up.

There’s so much to the story I would like to talk about but can’t simply because to say anymore will be to ruin the surprise (and excitement) of watching this without prior knowledge. But believe me when I say that this is the best TV show I have ever seen, and nothing has come close to entertaining me much as this series has. Obviously it’s tough to keep up such momentum for 24 episodes, and it does lull after the first dozen episodes, and some of the events do beggar belief, but it is still engaging throughout, supported by great performances – particularly from Sutherland and Haysbert.

The Series is presented on 6 disks, 4 episodes on each. Image is widescreen and clear, but ultimately it’s a TV presentation and so quite grainy at times. The 2.0 soundtrack is clear, but only uses the surround channel for the haunting music. You also get an alternate (and quite different ending), which is good, and a teaser for series 2, which I will be watching! I would have liked to see commentaries or a making of documentary – explaining the logistics behind making a real-time TV show, but perhaps we will see that on Season 2.

Many of you out there will have heard a lot about this but baulked at the price tag. All I can say to persuade you is that this is probably the best TV show ever to come out on DVD and worth every penny – if you only watch the series once you will get value for money.

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

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24 Season 1, DVD Review (Archive)