New to Blu Ray - December 2009

Grindhouse

I still refuse to accept Death Proof and Planet Terror as separate movies. They are only Grindhouse. Still, I'll take them on Blu Ray however I can get them, and that means these separate releases.

Watching the artificially beaten up films in hi-def is surreal and amazing. They have the total clarity of HD, like a '70s movie never would look. Even the grain they added only seems to clarify the details within the details. Even the scratches and scuffs are in perfect clarity so it's the most surreally clear messed up film print you've ever seen. That must be the selling point of those digital cameras Robert Rodriguez is obsessed with. You can make the footage look like anything.

The scratch-free version of Planet Terror looks just like a modern movie. If the Grindhouse thing didn't work for you, you can watch Planet Terror as a modern movie with no grain at all, outrageous colors and gory details. There are still a few scuffs and the missing reel is still missing, so it's not a totally perfect print, as well it shouldn't be. The Machete trailer has not been restored, so there is only the Grindhouse version of that.

There's no scratch free Death Proof, although they hardly screwed with that one anyway. Its open road and dive bar scenes are full of enough detail on their own, though you'll always see that' 70s grain that Tarantino must love. As with Planet Terror, it just pinpoints the details rather than diluting them.

Lost: The Complete Fourth Season

Yeah, Lost looks good in hi-def. There’s lots of gorgeous scenery on the island and then plenty of detail in the flashbacks/flashforwards.

The island scenes kind of look like they already do on TV. Where Heroes improved vastly from broadcast to Blu Ray, Lost looks about like it does on broadcast. The trees and grass lining those mountains are all distinct and green. Matthew Fox’s stubble still lets every hair poke through and sweaty islanders glisten and shine.

When they have more mechanical settings, like the freighter or the Dharma facilities, there is a bit more industrial crispness and detail. There’s plenty of aging rust and crust buried within each wall. And the open ocean ripples a lot more. Yeah, I’m seeing the extra detail.

The scenes back home are where the Blu Ray really stands out. All the landbound sets feature crisp lines. Maybe this is an aesthetic decision, or maybe city is naturally more detailed and ordered than nature. It looks more like a film than a TV show, which is what the rising standards of TV are striving for anyway.

Austin Powers Collection

It’s no surprise that these colorful parties look great on Blu Ray, but what’s cool about this collection is that each film has its own look.

The first film is rooted in the ‘60s, even the parts set in the present. Those pastel colors pop in Hi-Def, and since the film is over 10 years old, it looks like film of the ‘60s, not quite a reality. All the details of the costumes, the makeup and even Mr. Bigglesworth’s wrinkles are preserved. The lavish sets, particularly the evil hideout, are fantastic with crisp gray lines and surprising detours like the Fembot lair and mechanical bases.

Coming only two years later, The Spy Who Shagged Me already enters full on Blu Ray territory, maybe because they were starting to spend money on it. The opening shots of space look like Star Wars. There may be a little grain in some of the scenes but it’s hi-def grain. Now it looks like the characters are interacting with the real world, which is surreal considering the costumes and sets. It’s still a ‘60s motif, especially with the time travel, and if they weren’t gorgeous enough, now the ladies look ridiculously perfect.

Goldmember takes things to the ‘70s. While the mix of ‘60s and ‘70s provides an overwhelming array of colors, there are also a good number of stark, crisp sets. The quality approaches super-reality. Only a few shots betraying film grain force you to remember this was in fact a movie and not a portal into some bizarre live performance. The action movie spoof opening does look like a Jerry Bruckheimer epic, even though it’s supposedly a Spielberg production.

Firefly

Well, Fox sure knows where its techie bread is buttered, so despite the continued failure of Serenity on television and in theaters, they make sure to put out the original series in every format so that obsessive fans will keep buying it. Count us in.

Having seen Serenity on HD-DVD, I’m still waiting for it to come to Blu Ray. Until then, Firefly doesn’t quite look as Star Warsy as the feature film. Perhaps it is that the show was produced in the early days of HDTV. You still see some grain in the planet scenes and interiors, though deep space is still crisp. It still looks more like film than television, but it’s ‘90s film versus new film.

Maybe the budget of the show didn’t allow as many details in the sets, but you do see ripples in the space helmets and scuffs on the cargo hold floor. You don’t quite see grains of sand or the fabric of costumes, but it’s all clear, distinctly lit and colorful.

Day of the Dead

Well, this remake didn’t fare as well as Zack Snyder’s Dawn. Even though it didn’t get a theatrical release, at least you can watch the Day of the Dead remake on Blu Ray, which is actually better. It looks like a video anyway, a decent video compared with others, but definitely not a film with those jerky tweaks. But we’re not here to judge. We’re just here to watch Blu Ray.

It’s clearly a more modest film than Dawn and they try to make up for it with “style.” The shaky cameras betray them but the still shots let the colors shine and the grit of traffic jams and cracked gravel and Ving Rhames sweaty, bumpy head linger. Closeups of the ladies show all their beautiful trademarks in detail, so they’re not just pretty scream queen faces.

The ridiculous zombies and CGI blood only show their true colors on Blu Ray. I mean, that’s not the Blu Ray’s fault. Gravity-defying zombies is a cool idea. They just didn’t make it look right. The filmmakers did lame makeup and second rate digital work. The Blu Ray is just honest.

Perhaps because it is low budget, or just because it’s a zombie film set in a forest town, radio station and hospital, it seems kind of dim and dingy. It’s an aesthetic and perhaps you could say that makes it seem more grounded in reality instead of a stylized or surreal film. There is a lot of muted fluorescent lighting. It’s still perfectly clear, even in dark scenes. It’s not much to look at but it’s the best way to look at it. It’s the difference between the artistically low budget Diary of the Dead and making the best of a dumped knock-off.


UFC Ultimate Comebacks

For those who need to see every detail of face pounding, here it is. This complication of UFC fights is so clear, it’s like you’re there in the ring. You may already know who wins each archived fight, but the presentation shows it in a new light.

For the documentary, they touch up some of the clips differently. The opening setup has a sepia tint but it’s still HD clear. They do some black and white and saturation. There’s some standard definition footage mixed in, but the actual fights are perfectly clear and natural. You can define every ripple of man muscle on their impressive physiques. Don’t feel conflicted about admiring them. That’s what HD is for.

Sports always seems to look better than movies in HD anyway, as if the athletes called the best and the rest of the industry had to take seconds. Even though the set is just an empty octagon, everything is clear from the cage to the sponsor logos to even the lines between floor panels. All this to say it’s perfectly clear when you see guys wail on each other and draw blood.

Wanted

Obviously more concerned with visual flair than with dialogue or storytelling, Wanted makes a fine Blu Ray. The sets are lit with vibrant colors so rooftops are golden. Wesley’s early life is oversaturated and fluorescent. International locations keep the look of the film diverse.

It’s the individual flairs of each action scene that really shine though. The glass shattering in the opener reproduces every shard crisply. Every ripple in the physics defying bullet bending shows clearer than Matrix bullet time. The blood spraying in that circular bullet trick, wow! Any of the CGI cars (which must be CGI for some of those stunts) look dead real as they flip over each other and stick to the sides.

Close ups of the loom show amazing frays of threads and parchment. All the fast paced car chases maintain every detail of the city streets or the mountains a train may by collapsing in between. There’s so much to look at and the Blu Ray keeps everything in focus. Better even with colors popping all over the screen.


Fearless

The recent martial arts epics can easily claim to be the best looking in the long tradition of Hong Kong cinema. They’ve only just started using high quality film. It’s been a big deal to restore classic Shaw Brothers movies, but the new ones can go straight to Blu Ray with no problem.

Jet Li’s Fearless (so named to distinguish it from Jeff Bridges’ Fearless), has an aesthetic that looks like a realistic period piece. It’s not the caricature of ‘70s movies, nor the glossy fantasy of a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Sets are crisp and clear, sowing off detail in fabrics, brick streets and stages or bamboo rods. Green meadows are not otherworldly green, and the circus tent of the fight in a wrestling ring looks like a cheap sideshow.

This means that when they do the wild wirework moves it looks like they’re really doing it. Not that it just looks believable, it looks real. Of course they also have the benefit of digital wire removal, but between that and the gritty hi-def reality, Fearless may be the first time I saw old school martial arts and didn’t view it as a total fantasy.

There are still some lavish colors and ornate structures and costumes. It’s still an epic period piece of course. The restaurant of that extended fight scene is vibrant and shiny. Colored lights tint the night and blades glint throughout combat. Very importantly though, the dark scenes are crisp and clear, not an absence of richness Yeah, Fearless looks all right.


The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

The second Narnia film had a different look than the first. It wasn’t the joy of discovery anymore. It was Narnia 1000 years later, wrecked and battered. The look was grittier, so the Blu Ray reflects that. Everything is insanely clear, like they just hooked your TV up to the locations.

Early scenes of London look like the drab reality the kids are confined to with overcast skies and gritty urban bricks and gravel. Narnian castles are full of stony detail, even in the CGI long shots. It’s lavish but not as an ornate structure, rather a practical one. Great halls are starkly gray, showing detail in the construction but not fantastic color.

The land itself no longer looks lush. It’s just outside. They may add touches to distinguish it from the actual hillside they shot in, but it looks like an ordinary meadow in Narnia. Same with the beach. It’s all rocks, all distinct in Blu Ray detail, but like a nature survival film, not a magical fantasy.

The creatures look like weathered old souls. No longer is it, “Wow, a minotaur!” It’s like a sigh and they’re struggling to drag their four hooves behind them. Animals still talk but not like, “Aw, the beavers have something to say.” They’re like, “Yeah, I can talk, now how do we take care of business?”

This is the kind of Narnia I’m more into. It may be one time only, but this Blu Ray with all its gritty nature, magic-less structure and heaviness is more likely to remain in my collection.