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

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

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)

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

Bourne and Marie (Franka Potente) are living quietly on Goa and trying to put his past behind them or at least what he remembers of it. However, they are roughly brought back to reality when a Russian assassin (Karl Urban) frames Bourne for a double killing in Berlin, one of them a CIA operative, and then tracks him to Goa and tries to kill him in an attempt to cover his tracks.

Jason still can’t remember all the details of his past but suspects his former Treadstone pals are behind the attempt on his life so he’s intent on living up to the promise he made them two years ago if they didn’t leave him alone. Meanwhile, the CIA have taken the bait set up by the Russian killer and, out for revenge for the killing of their man, are now out to get Bourne for once and all.

Both are headed for a showdown but neither knows that the real truth goes far deeper and further back than either could have suspected…

Review

Matt Damon returns as Jason Bourne in this realistic and gritty spy thriller where, unlike most sequels, this successfully continues the story left at the end of The Bourne Identity. A lot of the original characters and cast return with a plot that is nicely woven through the events and characters of the original and it runs at a reasonable and occasionally furious pace throughout.

Director Paul Greengrass also successfully picks up where Doug Liman left off and gives us the same solid and realistic feel with no gimmicks that made the original a success. More of Bourne’s no frills fighting talents and a couple of good car chases mean that there’s plenty of action for the adrenalin junkies and the action runs consistently as Jason moves from Goa to Naples, Munich, Berlin and ending in Moscow. Another thing to note is that there are no “Q” division type gadgets or suave dinner-suit locations used, everything is true to life and as realistic as they could make it.

The only complaint I have is that some of the edits in the faster scenes are cut a bit too sharply and I sometimes felt tempted to rewind and watch it again to see what actually happened. I’m sure it’s deliberately done to give the film it’s sometimes furious pace and you don’t really miss anything important but you’re left going “What was that?” or “What happened there?” a few times.

As for the acting, Matt Damon is again excellent as Bourne, now haunted by dreams of a past he can’t remember but determined to find out the truth. Franka Potente returns briefly as Marie, the girl who gave him a lift that changed her life forever and Brian Cox is as nasty and duplicitous as ever as Ward Abbott, Treadstone’s CIA overseer. Julia Stiles and Gabriel Mann return in slightly more involved roles this time as ex-Treadstone staff Nicky and Danny Zorn.

New faces in this instalment are Joan Allen and Karl Urban. Allen is particularly impressive as CIA depute director Pamela Landy, who’s in charge of the hunt for Bourne and really shows that she can fully play the game in the predominantly male oriented secret service. Urban, whom you might not recognise as Eomer from The Lord Of The Rings, plays the Russian assassin Kirill and really looks the part, no archetypal bad guy dialogue, he just gets on with the job and is totally convincing as a ruthless killer.

The picture is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and is pretty good throughout with an excellent transfer, although the predominant use of hand-held camerawork and the somewhat muted colours give the film a more down-to-earth and gritty look. All of this is quite deliberate and follows on from the look of the first film and it all works quite well. Also worthy of note was Greengrass’s decision to do all of the stunts as realistically as possible and with no CGI involvement and the combination of all of the above mean that the results worked very well.

The soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is a reasonable, if nothing special, mix. Dialogue is front based and clear throughout along with John Powell’s score but the surround effects are fairly low key and ambient except during the car chases and action sequences, where they kick in very well indeed. Could have been better given the material though. There’s a fair amount of subtitle use as most of the action takes place in non-English speaking locations but it works okay and is never too long as to detract the viewer. Of course that meant that some of the cast had to learn a fair bit of Italian, German and Russian but they carry it off very well and sound convincing.

I watched The Bourne Identity the night before I watched this, just to get into the mood like, and thoroughly enjoyed both films. All in all, The Bourne Supremacy is a very successful instalment in the Bourne saga – bring on The Bourne Ultimatum.

Extras

Explosive Deleted Scenes – Five deleted scenes lasting just over seven minutes in all. There’s no explanations as to why these were cut and none of them are “explosive” so I’m assuming they were cut for timing or pacing reasons but a few of them are worth watching.

Matching Identities: Casting – Director Paul Greengrass talks about casting the movie with some interview snippets from producers Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley along with the main cast members. A bit of a mutual praise session and nothing special., lasting for just under five and a half minutes.

Keeping it Real – A five-minute piece on how the production team kept the film as realistic as possible, giving it a documentary style and looking spontaneous and unrehearsed. Focuses a lot on the choice of Paul Greengrass, due to his work on Bloody Sunday, and how his directorial style was perfect for this film. More interview material with the producers, director and cast.

Blowing Things Up – 2nd unit director and stunt coordinator Dan Bradley talks about the gas explosion scene in Munich, where a number of the stunt team are blown a fair distance by the blast. Again, the emphasis was on avoiding the use of CGI effects and it was all achieved using more traditional visual effects. There’s also some input from the special effects foreman, the producers and Matt Damon. Quite interesting but it only lasts for four minutes.

On the Move With Jason Bourne – A little five-minute piece on some of the locations used in the film and the conditions of shooting in these places, which were actually as stated in the storyline. Focuses on Berlin, Moscow and Goa.

Bourne To Be Wild: Fight Training – A short but interesting four and a half minute look at the movie’s big fight scene between Bourne and Treadstone agent Jarda (Marton Csokas) in Munich. The producers and Paul Greengrass talks about the setting and how scrappy it should look while well respected fight coordinator Jeff Imada talks about the moves, using the same Philippino fighting style that Matt Damon was trained in for The Bourne Identity.

Crash-Cam: Racing Through The Streets of Moscow – An interesting look at how the team tried to better the car chase in The Bourne Identity and how they planned to film it in such a way as to let the viewer feel like they are in the car. Good stuff and again, all real stunts and cars. Lasts six minutes.

The Go-Mobile Revs Up The Action – A look at the impressive and amazingly flexible Go-Mobile high-speed stunt car rig. It allows a car being used in an action scene to be driven at high speed by an experienced stunt driver, while still having the actors sitting behind the wheel. It also allows for camera shots to be taken from just about any angle into the car during the action. Looked like real fun for Matt Damon! Lasts seven minutes.

Anatomy of a Scene: The Explosive Bridge Chase Scene – This is a behind the scenes look at shooting the scene in Berlin, where Bourne evades his pursuers by vaulting off a rail station bridge and landing on a passing barge on the river. There’s not a great deal of “anatomy” or “explosive” detail here but there are a few funny moments. Lasts just under five minutes.

Scoring With John Powell – Yet again another almost five-minute long piece, this one concentrating on the film score. Composer John Powell talks about how he and his team went about scoring the movie – using some of the existing themes from the previous film, inventing new ones and avoiding doing it the traditional way of patching together lots of well-known songs and tunes. He also discussed his intent in tricking the audience by changing the cues we’d normally expect to hear in the lead up to certain events.

Feature Commentary With Director Paul Greengrass – A fairly entertaining commentary from Paul Greengrass with all the usual elements of plot development, production anecdotes and trivia. I have to admit that I’m getting a bit jaded listening to commentary tracks, life’s too short. Still, Greengrass does a reasonable job here and if commentaries are your thing, it’ll not disappoint.

DVD-ROM Content – Again Universal have chosen the Windows only InterActual Player to deliver the DVD-ROM content so here’s one unimpressed Mac user. Seriously though, if it’s on the DVD, you should be able to find it yourself and avoid this problematic piece of software. Can’t think why they’d want to alienate us minority groups like this but it gets them a negative score from me.

Trailers – Promotional trailers for Van Helsing, The Chronicles Of Riddick, The Chronicles Of Riddick: Pitch Black Special Edition, The Bourne Identity Special Edition and Billy Elliot The Musical.

Overall

With a sound story basis coming from a writer like Ludlum, The Bourne Supremacy is a solid action thriller and an excellent sequel to The Bourne Identity. If you like spy movies, you’ll almost certainly enjoy this and if you liked The Bourne Identity, then it’s a must see as you won’t be disappointed.

The picture and sound are pretty good throughout but the extras package have a bit of a “Never mind the quality, feel the width!” feel to them and I feel that they could have taken eight of the nine mini-featurettes, lasting about 42 minutes in total, and put them into a much better and more added-value “Making Of” documentary. Still, it makes for a reasonable evening’s entertainment!

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The Bourne Supremacy, DVD Review

Seven Pounds reunites Will Smith with both the director (Gabriele Muccino) and producers of The Pursuit of Happiness, to create another personally focused melodrama.

Smith is introduced as IRS agent Ben Thomas, an emotionally troubled man that is on a quest to make a difference to the world and help some truly deserving people. From the films outset he is dolling out all kinds of help to people that have fallen on hard times and can’t afford to pay the tax man (a welcome prospect in today’s financial climate), but not everyone receives his uniquely generous help, as he goes above and beyond the requirements of an IRS agent in researching the clients backgrounds, and gets fairly angry with anyone he deems less than deserving; including a doctor that runs an old folks home but is less than caring to his residents.

The main focus of the film rests on the relationship between Smith and a woman who is not only is large amounts of debt, but also has a severe heart condition; making her doubly in need of Smith’s help. Their relationship begins when Smith approaches her regarding her tax debts, he then decides that she is a good person and doesn’t deserve to be worrying about debts with her illness, she becomes intrigued with him, and despite his efforts to keep a distance the two grow immeasurably close, as she grows more and more ill.

Without giving too much away, the films climax comes after realizing why Smith’s character is so emotionally damaged, and watching him go above and beyond, what even Bob Hope would do, in an effort to both redeem himself from previous actions and truly help a select group of people he feels are deserving.

The incident that emotionally damaged Mr. Thomas and led to the events of the film are hinted at throughout by a number of short flashbacks that provide brief snippets and clues into his world prior to the beginning of the film. The flashbacks, are supposed to provide seemingly confusing shreds of information, that when pieced together towards the end provide a full account of his traumatic past, however this isn’t the case; it’s glaringly obvious to just about anyone watching why Smith is doing what he’s doing (the title is a bit of a giveaway as well, if you can work it out) and by the time the mystery unfolds and the so-called ‘twist’ is revealed, you will have seen it coming for so long that it simply leaves you thinking “so what.” 

The over reliance on the twist is one of the major things that lets Seven Pounds down, the romantic element, which appears to be the main focus of the story, never really gels with the other side where the viewer needs to ‘work out’ why Smith is doing what he’s doing. It may have worked better if one or the other was focused on more heavily, or better still if it was mainly about Smith’s attempts to redeem himself, how he arrived at the making the decision he has made (something that’s never satisfactorily explained) and the ethical questions that it raises.

Despite the holes in the story the acting remains solid throughout, Will Smith gives a good yet not groundbreaking performance, constantly appearing troubled and tormented by his past, it’s not a very subtle or unique showing, but one that does the job very well. Smith’s love interest is played by Rosario Dawson (Sin City, Death Proof), and while she shines while playing the romantic side of her character, she never comes across as overly sick, which is strange for someone who, as we are constantly reminded, is only one mild sneeze away from burning out her heart and keeling over. Barry Pepper (We Were Soldiers, Saving Private Ryan) plays Smith’s best friend, and pulls off the tragically loyal yet morally confused man who’s just trying to do right by his friend, it’s also nice to see him in another non-army role. Arguably the best acting in the film comes from Woody Harrelson, in a brilliant yet surprisingly brief role as the overly nice blind man that for some unknown reason is berated and stalked by Smith’s character. Woody plays his part excellently, being extremely nice and yet clearly showing that underneath it all he is brimming with hatred and resentment to those who treat him badly, this is a true testament to his acting ability and one that provides a clear case for placing him in more starring roles in the future.

In brief, Seven Pounds is a film that’s likely to maintain interest all the way through, as it never becomes boring, however it suffers from an over-reliance on ‘mystery’ elements and it blatantly obvious twists. Too much is given away too soon, and whilst having only one extremely flat melancholy tone throughout adequately reflects the experiences of the main character, it’s not the best way to tell a story. Cinematography is more than adequate although not outstanding, there’s a decent cast and the acting is solid, but all in all this is one fairly unremarkable film.

Picture:

As you’d expect from any of Sony’s newer major releases, Seven Pounds is presented in full 1080p glory, and it’s a transfer that won’t disappoint. The picture is extremely detailed, and there are several shots (particularly one outdoors scene in a field) that look truly amazing. Blacks levels are superb, being both rich and deep, and whilst the colour does veer slightly to the yellow side of the spectrum (and it is very slight), slightly distorting flesh tones, the contrast remains incredibly good. Seven Pounds is one Blu-ray that, at least in picture terms, most owners will be impressed by.

Audio:

Another thing viewers expect when buying a new Blu-ray release is a quality soundtrack, and once again Seven Pounds delivers, with a Dolby True HD 5.1 track which, like the picture, it’is a fairly impressive one. As this is more of a drama, and focuses on the romance between Smith’s and Dawson’s characters, obviously there isn’t much action; which means that this isn’t really a movie that should be used to test your systems setup. However, the volume, unlike many releases, is perfectly leveled throughout; meaning that not once does sound become overbearing or too quiet to listen to; this is best heard through the dialogue, which is perfectly aligned in the front and center channels, and never even slightly difficult to understand. The score, which fits the tone and individual scenes of the movie exceedingly well, is well worked into the film and spread through each of the channels very effectively, as are the ambient sounds present most notably in the exterior scenes. Overall this is a brilliant soundtrack, not one that’s going to show off your system, but one that’s perfect for the film.

Extras:

The list of extras is fairly standard when compared to most discs, there’s the usual audio commentary (a fairly boring solo effort by director Gabriele Muccino), a standard making of (called Seven Views on Seven Pounds, and consisting of talks from the director, writer, producer, editor, composer, and other crew), around four minutes worth of deleted scenes (all boring and add nothing to the film) and interviews with the cast (called Creating the Perfect Ensemble). There’s also about half a dozen trailers for other films, which is always a welcome addition, and two short features which are pure filler, but interesting nonetheless; one based on the life of the box jellyfish, and another about the art of the printing press. All in all the features are a fairly standard mix, but they’re pretty informative and mostly interesting; the jellyfish feature being of particular note.

The Bottom Line:

Seven Pounds definitely isn’t a film to write home about, rather than action, story or special effects, its main selling point is simply having Will Smith as the main star. The story doesn’t play out as happy, sad or uplifting; it attempts to be a mystery but gives away too much, and every twist, small or large, fails to shock or surprise. Smith’s character says that being unremarkable would be a step up for him, but being unremarkable is exactly the level this film achieves. Avid Will Smith fans may want to rent Seven Pounds, as there’s enough going on to maintain interest for one viewing, but it really isn’t worth a second watch. Sure the extras aren’t bad, sound and picture are both great, but that doesn’t make up for the colossal problems with the plot. It is a good disc, but it’s an ultimately forgettable film.

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Seven Pounds, Blu Ray 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

It seems that Hollywood is running out of original ideas. We’ve had a plethora of remakes over the last couple of years, some of them have been remakes of films that weren’t really that old! One genre that may benefit from a remake you’d think would be the old sci-fi films of the 50s and 60s. With modern day special effects, these films could be brought to life in a way never imagined by their original makers. The big question is can Hollywood update these films with fancy SFX, but still retain the excellent storytelling of these pioneering films.

The original The Day the Earth Stood Still is a classic sci-fi masterpiece. The concepts it addressed are as relevant today as they were then, although they’ve been tweaked somewhat for a modern world. The plot here revolves around the earths first contact with an alien. Scientists are tracking what they think is a meteor, that is on a collision course with Earth. A group of top scientists are quickly gathered to come up with a survival plan for after the impact, an impact that’s due in 78 minutes!

Unlike most meteors, this one has brakes. It slows to a hover in central park. This raises a whole other set of possibilities. From the glowing sphere a humanoid figure (without any features) emerges along with a huge robot. In the confusion the humanoid is shot, but not killed. The large robot activates and start to go on the rampage in response to the hostile action, but is deactivated by the wounded alien. On rushing him to a medical facility doctors find that his body is in fact a cocoon. It’s a jelly like substance that falls away and reveals a human male called Klaatu (Keanu Reeves).

Upon interrogation Klaatu reveals that he has to speak with the worlds leaders at the United Nations. The secretary of defense Regina Jackson (Kathy Bates) denies him and instead questions him about an impending attack on earth. Unfortunately Jackson is only confirming Klaatu’s impressions of earthlings as destructive and paranoid. It seems that Klaatu is here to make a decision, whether to kill the human race or let it survive!

Still intent on contacting our leaders, Klaatu escapes from captivation and runs into one of the scientists rounded up earlier (Jennifer Connelly as Helen Benson). Sympathetic to his cause Helen aides Klaatu in evading the authorities and meeting with one of Earth’s most prominent scientists. On the run with them is Helen’s stepson, Jacob (Jaden Smith). Jacob’s father died leaving Helen as his only family. Their relationship can be a bit strained from time to time as Jacob comes to terms with his fathers death and the fact that his stepmother, who actually loves him and wants to care for him, is all he has left. This dysfunctional relationship does nothing to convince Klaatu that humankind is worth saving, but as things become more stressed he sees how they come together in times of stress and a glimmer of hope emerges.

In the original film the central premise similar to the one presented here, however the alien races were afraid that humans, embarking on space travel and having perfected atomic bombs, would be a destructive force in the universe and had come to reign us in with robot overseers. In this re-imagining it’s slightly different. The other alien races have stood by and watched us pollute the earth to such a degree that it shortly may not be able to support life. With only a handful of planets in the universe capable of life each is very precious and must be protected. Protected from us. To this end Klaatu has been sent to see if we have the capacity to change or whether we’re beyond help and must be eradicated. The glowing sphere is in fact an ark designed to collect samples of all the wildlife on the earth so it can be re-seeded after our destruction. Can Klaatu see the good in humankind and stop the destruction to be caused by GORT (here standing for Genetically Organized Robotic Technology).

Aliens coming to Earth, a huge robot causing untold destruction, you’d be forgiven for expecting a sci-fi action extravaganza. It all starts along those kind of lines in the first part of the film only for it to tail off in the middle. From there on in we have a film that is more about relationships and how they reflect on us as a species rather than big action set pieces. The relationship between Helen and Jacob is supposed to reflect mankind. Strained and sometimes hurtful it seems that there’s no hope for them. When stress and trauma come they forget their differences and their relationship is distilled to its most basic form, they both actually love and need each other.

The film makers could have kept the central premise around mans ability to destroy through war given the current climate. Instead they decided to shift focus to that other chestnut, man poisoning the planet and ruining the environment. Either would’ve done the job as it’s not really the focus of the film, they just needed a reason for the aliens to be wary of us. Whether the film comes off overall is up for debate. The threat is clear, the possible solution and the consequences to us are also clear, but what changes Klaatu’s mind is less clear. He sees the possibility for us to change in the relationship between two people. That doesn’t mean that the whole human race WILL actually change however.

Keanu Reeves plays it pretty straight. Klaatu is essentially emotionless and monotone, so not much acting required! Jennifer Connelly and Jaden Smith do a good job of portraying a relationship forged from difficult circumstances. We see it change and evolve as circumstances change further and it’s this relationship that is key in changing Klaatu’s mind.

Picture and sound on this Blu Ray edition are both top notch. Having said it’s not an major action flick, there are a few sequences that will use a surround sound setup to the max and the picture is definitely five star quality throughout (there are quite a few dark and murky scenes but detail and contrast remain strong).

From the trailer you may be expecting a sci-fi action blockbuster, in which case you’ll be disappointed. If you’ve seen the original and know a little something about its plot then you’ll know to expect more of a character drama that focuses on relationships and how they reflect on us as a species. The film pacing varies, with a slow middle section and personally, if I were Klaatu, I wouldn’t have been convinced that we’d change and would’ve let GORT do his thing. Overall an interesting watch, it doesn’t live up to the original, but then very few remakes do.

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The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), Blu Ray Review

The Day Earth Stood Still

My first blu-ray review is a classic science fiction film that I already own as a SD release. The Day the Earth Stood Still is based on a short story by a guy called Harry Bates, I’ll be honest and say that I have never heard of him before but if the movie is a true representation of his novel then I would imagine that his books are pretty good.

When the film was made in the early 1950’s the cold war was getting rather chilly, the USA and USSR were facing each other, each with a massive arsenal of nuclear weapons. Mistrust was everywhere with the American propaganda machine running full pelt and warning every American citizen about the dangers and expansion of communism. In the film making world there was actually a black list which affected a number of actors because of their political beliefs, indeed Sam Jaffe who plays Prof. Jacob Barnhardt was very nearly not in this film due to this. On top of this fear of communism America had just got itself involved in another war, this time in Korea and there were some people, film makers included that, felt that the various governments needed to calm down a bit otherwise we would be looking at World War 3 and Armageddon, and this is really the whole basis behind the story of the film.

Klaatu (Michael Rennie) has travelled 250,000.000 miles with his 8ft robotic policeman Gort (Lock Martin) to warn all the world leaders that if they continue on the track of developing atomic energy that the planet will be destroyed, and that the human race basically need to live in peace and be a little more tolerant of each other. He Lands in America (as that is the only place where UFOs land) and comes out of his craft to address the people and the military units that have surrounded his spaceship. Of course the Americans being as they are shoot him when he tries to give a gift to a soldier and he is taken to hospital.

images not taken from the blu-ray release

Once there it is apparent that the squabbling among the world leaders will prevent him from addressing all nations and so he goes out among the people of Washington to find out exactly what the human species is all about, he lodges at a family home where he meets Helen Benson (Patricia Neal) and her son Bobby (Billy Gray) and gets to learn firsthand about 1950’s America whilst the military are frantically searching for him.

For those that like tons of action in their films, this is not for you. The Day the Earth Stood Still is a story told very much in a documentary style with the main part of the film showing Klaatu integrating himself into the general populace to find out how the ordinary people act, and what makes them tick. Here he finds out about their prejudiced ways, their fears and what drives them, and I think that it is this storyline that makes the film so good, it is as relevant today as it was then only Terrorists rather than Russia will be the ones to detonate a bomb, indeed this film has been remade recently with Keanu Reeves taking the role of Klaatu although the danger being global warming and the governments of the world seemingly doing little to prevent anything from occurring. Although from everything I’ve read that remake is not that good.

Another reason that I think that there was little action in the film was the fact that Robert Wise was the director, and the other films that I’ve seen of his (Star Trek – The Motion Picture and Run Silent, Run Deep) have been big on story and whilst not devoid of action I felt that the action always comes second place to the story itself, which is a good thing.

images not taken from the blu-ray release

One thing that I have found with movies from this era is that some of the acting can be a bit heavy on the dramatics especially from the actresses who seem to squeal and hold their hands to their faces at the first sign of danger, with the men telling them to pull it together with a still upper lip, but I suppose it is a reflection of those times and everyone seems very stoic, and repressed with nobody really letting their hair down, I mean they even eat breakfast in a suit and tie.

Special mention has to be given to Michael Rennie who plays Klaatu. He is absolutely perfect for the role being very tall and thin, his features lend themselves well for the part and he imparts his lines in such a indifferent way that you could well imagine him being a visitor from another planet. Another person worthy of mention is Billy Gray as the young boy Bobby. Kids, especially in film from this era, can seem wooden when they act or say anything and yet he seems to take to his role like a duck to water for the most part, it was quite refreshing to see.

Gort who I imagine was pretty scary at the time is obviously a guy in a rubber suit and pretty laughable for that, but he looks sufficiently scary for 1950’s cinema goers and I know that I would be pretty worried if he stepped out of any spaceship I happened to be standing in front of.

Other characters play their roles sufficiently even if they are a little one dimensional in place but that doesn’t take away from the fact that the film has a good, if simple, story that is told well and will leave people thinking well after the credits have gone.

images not taken from the blu-ray release

Picture:
I compared this blu-ray image to the SD image that I have and it is a night and day difference, blacks are dark and deep and whites are fresh with all the greys in-between looking very good indeed, there is a little bit of grain noticeable but nothing that ruined the viewing for me. One thing that surprised me thought was that the image was in 4:3 format and I couldn’t find a widescreen version (my SD release is widescreen), it may have been there but I couldn’t find it.

Sound:
I used a DTS sound track which makes remarkably good use of the surrounds, the sound of traffic and fire engines coming through well, when the spaceship landed the bass was nice and rich, filling the room. It was a real joy to behold. The main theme tune too that’s is played on the Theremin (examples of which are in the extras) was superb, with that creepy sound giving real atmosphere and menace whenever played. There is nothing really taxing for the speakers and most of the dialogue in centre speaker based but the balance of the soundtrack was spot on for my setup.

Other Notes:
I wrote an article recently called “beware the BD” where I stated that I was not convinced about the quality of blu-ray based on a demo disc I saw, whilst I still think that the SD image was degraded in that example, I have to say that the image on this BD was much superior to that on my SD.

images not taken from the blu-ray release

Extras:
Commentary by Robert Wise & Nicholas Meyer:
A fairly quiet, an interview based commentary where Meyer has sat down with Wise to talk generally about the film. I am sure that if I was really patient then I could sit down and listen to it all the way through, although I do think it would be an effort.

Commentary by film and music historians John Morgan, Steven Smith, William Stromberg and Nick Redman:
A louder, livelier discussion on the movie with additional snippets that look into the politics of the time too, again I would need to be very patient to sit through this for its entire length. They seem to concentrate a lot on the score of the film

Isolated score track 5.1 DTS:
This removes all dialogue from the film so that you can see it whilst listening to the audio track, I didn’t watch the whole film this way but did listen to a few extended scenes with it, quite a novel way to view a film and actually a good way to really concentrate on the movie to review it.

The world of Theremin:
There are three separate extras in this section. The Mysterious, Melodious Theremin (6 mins): This is a documentary about the instrument that plays the weird pulsating tune that is present throughout the film. I love these old Sci-Fi movies with the spooky soundtracks that is so familiar to Sci-Fi movies of this era and more recently Mars Attacks.

The Day the Earth Stood Still main title live performance by Peter Pringle (2 mins):
This is actually quite interesting; Peter plays the actual opening sequence on the very theremin instrument that was used in the original film. I love it I think it is an awesome sound.

Interactive Theremin: Create your own score:
As it says really, although I couldn’t get it to work properly.

Gort command interactive game:
A basic game where you have to use Gort to destroy aggressors, limited appeal.

Making of day the earth stood still: (25 mins)
Film historians and archival interviews with people like Robert Wise (Director) talk about the social influences of the film, its style and the general coming together of the movie.

Decoding Klaatu Barada Nikto: Science Fiction Metaphor: (16 mins)
This documentary looks into the world at the time of the films making in 1950, about mistrust and the possibility of World War 3.

A brief history of flying saucers: (34 mins)
Complete with a few clips of The Day the Earth Stood Still, this documentary is about various UFO experiences from Roswell onwards, it is an interesting watch and a nice addition to the extras.

The astounding harry bates: (11 mins)
A short tribute for the author whose book The Day the Earth Stood Still was based on.

Edmund North: The man who made The Day the Earth Stood Still: (14 mins)
Another tribute, this time concentrating on Edmund North, the films screenwriter.

Race to Oblivion: A Documentary short written by Edmund North: (26 mins)
A look into the arms race and the cold war which was building up to breakneck speed around this period in time.

Farewell to the master: a reading by Jamieson K. Price of the original Harry Bates short story: (97 mins)
Essentially an audio book split up into 3 chapters, wasn’t not something I had time to listen to when reviewing but would be of interest to some.

Fox Movietonews (1951): (6 mins)
Essentially an American propaganda short.

Teaser Trailer & Theatrical Trailer:
Trailers for the film

Galleries:
A whole bunch of still images set behind a number of different headings

Websites:
A list of 2 websites, pointless extra

Overall:
A very good, classic Sci-Fi film that should be in every genre fans collection, I’ve read that on the original SD release there is a 80 min making of that has not been but on this Blu-ray release so I would recommend this BD as an addition to the collection rather than a replacement.

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The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) – Blu-Ray Review