The last couple weeks had a bit of a slowdown on the Blu-ray front. This week comes roaring back with a major blockbuster, a very respected Oscar nominee, and at least one double-dip reissue worth considering.
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‘Interstellar‘ – Christopher Nolan shoots for the stars with a massive sci-fi epic about humanity’s quest to find another habitable planet. I’m a little wary of this, to be honest. I didn’t have a chance to see it in theaters. Reactions to it seem to be all over the map, from “Greatest masterpiece in the history of everything!” to “Only a moron could possibly like this steaming pile of horse manure!” I have been decreasingly impressed by Nolan’s movies the more of them he makes, and after ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, I don’t know how much lower my estimation of him can fall. With that said, I’m sure the Blu-ray will make stunning home theater eye candy – though I’m personally irritated by the director’s decisions to shoot the movie in alternating aspect-ratio format and to drown out much of the dialogue with deafening bass. I’ve read at least one report where a viewer claims that the movie’s soundtrack destroyed his expensive subwoofer.
‘The Imitation Game‘ – Benedict Cumberbatch stars in a bio-pic about Alan Turing, the famed scientist who was instrumental in winning World War II by cracking the Nazis’ supposedly-impregnable Enigma encryption code. He later set the foundation for much of modern computer science, only to be rewarded for all his troubles by being chemically castrated for the crime of being gay. For a good portion of 2014, the movie was an Oscar front-runner for Best Picture and Best Actor, though it eventually lost both and only walked away with Best Adapted Screenplay.
‘Wild‘ – One Oscar is apparently not enough for Reese Witherspoon. The actress made two blatant plays for Academy attention in 2014 (this movie and ‘The Good Lie‘). This one actually scored her the nomination, but she ultimately couldn’t overcome Julianne Moore. Based on a memoir from internet advice columnist Cheryl Strayed and directed by Jean-Marc Vallée (‘Dallas Buyers Club’), the movie sounds like a female version of ‘Into the Wild’, minus the fatal starvation.
‘Wild Card‘ – The trailers for the latest Jason Statham vehicle made it look exactly like every other Jason Statham vehicle, which is a shame because the origins of this project are actually kind of fascinating. It started as a script that William Goldman wrote for Robert Altman to direct in the mid-1980s. Altman stormed away from the production after feuding with star Burt Reynolds, upon which the studio brought in a couple of no-name ringers to rework it and cobble something useful together. The eventual film, 1986’s ‘Heat’, was a sloppy mess and a notorious flop. For the remake, new director Simon West (hardly an auteur on Altman’s level) went back to the original William Goldman screenplay. That’s not to say that it’s a good movie now, but it sounds more interesting than the usual Statham fare.
‘Outcast‘ – Nicolas Cage and Hayden Christensen play Andrew 3000 and Big Baybi in a musical drama about a white hip-hop group catapulted to stardom after their single “Hey There” hits the charts. Shockingly, this did not receive very good reviews from critics.
‘Meet the Mormons‘ – The latest entry in the increasingly inane ‘Meet the Parents’/’Meet the Fockers’ franchise sees Ben Stiller swapping religions under the mistaken belief that he’ll be able to add new sister-wives (Stiller’s former co-stars Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Aniston, one slumming more than the other, though I’ll let you decide which is which) to his family. You probably missed this in theaters. That’s because it was pulled from release after just one day due to the offensive nature of the scene where Stiller and Robert De Niro do a drunken strip-tease down to their Mormon underwear while singing “Anaconda.” The Blu-ray omits that scene as required by the terms of a lawsuit from Nicki Minaj, who had not authorized use of the song and described the sequence as “reprehensible and demeaning to my personal integrity as an artist as well as a human being.”
Catalog Titles
Alfonso Cuaron’s blockbuster hit ‘Gravity‘ debuted on Blu-ray just over a year ago. This may seem far too early for a double-dip, but Warner’s new Diamond Luxe Edition tempts fans with a swanky NEO Pack case, some new supplements, and a Dolby Atmos soundtrack that many are calling the best use of that sound format to date. Unfortunately, this cannot be considered a definitive release because it’s missing the 3D version of the movie, and 3D was a pretty crucial element to this film. While I’m sure that some intrepid fans will figure out how to rip the contents of both the old Blu-ray and the new one to merge the 3D video with the Atmos audio, the studio has neglected to provide such a thing in official form. This is a big missed opportunity. (And no, there are no technical reasons why a Blu-ray couldn’t have both 3D and Atmos simultaneously. The discs for ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction‘ and ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles‘ already do that, and those are both longer movies than ‘Gravity’.)
‘Hoop Dreams‘ is widely regarded as one of the greatest documentaries ever made – except of course by the 1995 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences documentary branch, who notoriously turned it off after just 15 minutes and refused to give a movie about black kids playing basketball any further consideration. For the purposes of the Blu-ray edition, be aware that the movie was originally shot on standard-definition Betacam video, so there’s a limit to how good it can look. However, the Criterion Collection claims to have put in some work to make it more presentable than the former DVD version.
If there’s some thematic link to Criterion’s other big release this week, I can’t suss it out. The label returns to the Ingmar Bergman well with the Swedish master of despair’s ‘Cries and Whispers‘. The title alone is enough to make a person suicidal.
Blue Underground is all about classic Italian horror this week. ‘The Dario Argento Collection‘ bundles ‘The Cat o’ Nine Tales’, ‘Deep Red’ and ‘Inferno’, while ‘The Lucio Fulci Collection‘ compiles ‘City of the Living Dead’, ‘The House by the Cemetery’ and ‘The New York Ripper’ into one handy package.
Meanwhile, Arrow Video gives us Lee van Cleef in the Spaghetti Western ‘Day of Anger‘.
Among the latest eclectic assortment of titles that Olive Films has licensed can be found Arlo Guthrie’s 1960s counter-culture comedy ‘Alice’s Restaurant‘, the cheesefest Indiana Jones knock-off ‘Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold‘ (featuring a Razzie-nominated performance by a young starlet named Sharon Stone), and the Sherlock Holmes spoof ‘Without a Clue‘.
Television
HBO dominates TV offerings this week with the third season of the hilarious political satire ‘Veep‘ and the first season of Mike Judge’s ‘Silicon Valley‘. I probably need to give the latter another shot, but I couldn’t get into what little I’ve seen of it.
My $.02
Despite my hesitation, I will probably break down and buy ‘Interstellar’. (The Walmart-exclusive NEO Pack edition looks mighty fancy.) ‘Hoop Dreams’ is certainly also worth a purchase, and I will put ‘Cries and Whispers’ on my wish list for later. I would be all over the Diamond Luxe version of ‘Gravity’ if only it had 3D.
How much money will you spend this week?
Lord Bowler
‘Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold’
I loved this series. I have the first one on DVD, which is out of print. This sequel is weaker than the first but was still good if memory serves.
‘The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission and The Fatal Mission’
These are ok TV-Movies follow-ups starring the great Ernest Borgnine.
And, of course ‘Interstellar’, a Must Buy!
Julian
‘Meet the Mormons’? April Fool’s? 😀
William Henley
What’s sad is that the description of the real movie sounds better than Josh’s zinger. The documentary sounds like it might actually be interesting, so i may look into getting it
Csm101
I think I’ll rent Interstellar tonight. Maybe. The trailers didnt do much for me, but I’m sure there’s something good I can get out of it, I hope. Night Game seems kind of cool and so does Allan Quartermain, but I won’t be purchasing this week.
Shannon Nutt
I’m picking up INTERSTELLAR (and already have WITHOUT A CLUE and THE IMITATION GAME, thanks to review assignments) from Wal-Mart. I like, but don’t love the movie – it suffers from the same symptom as most of Nolan’s recent films – it’s over-long for unnecessary reasons. I’ve said this before in other threads, but I really wish Nolan wouldn’t get final cut of his movies. INTERSTELLAR could be half as long and not lose a thing…Nolan has a habit of beating you over the head again and again with the same ideas – you only need to mention them ONCE, Chris. Audiences are smarter than you think.
William Henley
I think that many of us are going to have to agree to disagree with you. I would have been fine if this movie was 30-45 minutes longer, or even split into a second movie.
Luke Hickman
Agreed! I could’ve use more too.
Shannon Nutt
You guys are Nolan sadists. 🙂
Barsoom Bob
Interstellar and Imitation Game for me this week.
I know this one is from last week, but if you are a Ray Harryhausen and/or early, pre CGI, Sci-Fi fan, the Twilight transfer of “First Men in the Moon” is just sublime. AND there is a audio commentary by Ray which was recorded for this movie shortly before his death.
Back in the day, I had originally considered this the beginning of his lesser later films because he had to resort to “men in suits” for the general Selinites population, the moon denizens. Other than a few odd animated Selinite animations there is only one, real full on creature in it, the Moon Cow, but the sequence is a pretty good one. This viewing I realized this is more about world building and a good story which unfortunately still has relevance. I elevated this film in my personal Harryhausen pantheon to among one his best after this viewing. They did a very nice job on this one.
Chris B
Although I’m trying to save money, I’m really tempted to blind-buy the wally world exclusive of Interstellar. Going to rent the Imitation Game and Hoop Dreams will go on my wishlist.
As Bill mentioned in another thread, the big news in Canadian HT this weekend was Future Shop shutting down permanetly. This makes me pretty bummed because it means no more Future Shop exclusive steelbooks anymore. Between this and Target pulling out of Canada, Blu-Ray collecting has gotten a lot less fun over the past few weeks 🙁
Deaditelord
Even though watching Deep Red and Inferno in hi-def is going to make me lament the fact that Suspiria STILL isn’t available on blu-ray in the US, I’m going to pick up the Dario Argento Collection this week. Also going to buy Interstellar, but will probably wait on Without A Clue until it goes on sale.
William Henley
Interstellar and The Imitation Game for me.
Nice April Fools joke on Meet The Mormons. You almost had me.
cardpetree
Hey Josh, I was just wondering what your thoughts were on Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises? I’ve never heard you mention how much you hated that movie.
Josh Zyber
AuthorMaybe he shouldn’t have made such a crappy movie.
William Henley
Nolan seems to do great when he does his own stuff, but turns out crap when he does other people’s stuff.
Timcharger
This must an April Fool’s Joke, too:
Josh: “‘Outcast‘ – Nicolas Cage and Hayden Christensen play Andrew 3000 and Big Baybi in a musical drama about a white hip-hop group catapulted to stardom after their single “Hey There” hits the charts. Shockingly, this did not receive very good reviews from critics.”
(This would be hilarious if this is real; going to google it. I want this to be real…)
Timcharger
Josh’s Ben Stiller joke gets noticed.
Nic Cage is ignored.
(sad…)
Julian
‘Outcast’ is a real movie, that’s why we ignored it!
Timcharger
https://youtu.be/PWgvGjAhvIw
Julian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outcast_%282014_film%29
Julian
Although, indeed, Josh’s description of the movie is a joke, too. Still: would you have thought the movie actually existed? 🙂
Timcharger
Julian, based on your logic, Meet the Mormons is a real movie too.
In both cases, it was Josh’s description of them that was the joke.
Hence there would be no difference to why ignore one over the other.
(Except for my point that Nic Cage has fallen very far.)
Julian, let’s just say this one of those times of a failure to communicate over the internet.
🙂
Julian
Yup, I failed to catch Josh’s second April Fool’s Joke. Good one, Tim!
William Henley
Uh, Meet The Mormons IS a real movie
http://www.amazon.com/Meet-Mormons-Blu-ray-Jermaine-Sullivan/dp/B00TFOKHXW/ref=sr_1_2_twi_2_vid_twi_2_blu?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1427886652&sr=1-2&keywords=meet+the+mormons
Timcharger
My “sad” point isn’t a zinger at Josh.
Nic Cage has fallen so far, we actually believe his career choices might actually take such a role.
William Henley
Starting to think there is a joke in every review. From his Interstellar spill:
“and to drown out much of the dialogue with deafening bass. I’ve read at least one report where a viewer claims that the movie’s soundtrack destroyed his expensive subwoofer.”
Yeah, right.
Josh Zyber
AuthorPosted by KurianOfBorg:
“Interstellar blew my sub (a Wharfedale SPC-12 rated at 400W RMS / 850W peak). To just have the dialog intelligible you need to crank it up to -3 dB or so. It has continuous content recorded at 20 Hz for 30+ seconds during some of the scenes. The sandstorm actually blows physical wind through your room.
My sub blew during the black hole scene. There was no audible noise that the sub was straining. It just suddenly burped and died. Voice coil & former frozen at the bottom of the shaft. Former completely ripped off from spider. Cone completely ripped of from spider. Tinsel leads completely ripped off from cone. It’s now literally three separate non-touching pieces attached to a common frame.”
http://www.avsforum.com/forum/150-blu-ray-software/1861098-interstellar-blu-ray-march-31-a-2.html#post32728841
William Henley
Hmmm, Kurian says that he had his sub at -3db during the first viewing, and -24db during the second, and no one with their sub set at 0db would be able to watch it, if I understood what he was saying.
Aaron seemed to really like the audio mix, depsite the heavy bass:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/17402/interstellar.html#the-audio
The other blu-ray review site also says that the mix is fantastic. I am willing to bet that Kurian’s subwoofer was going out, and the heavy bass in Interstellar pushed it over the edge. I don’t see anyone else complaining
Josh Zyber
AuthorI doubt anyone else has tried to watch the disc at, or so close to, reference volume. That’s uncomfortably loud, even on normal soundtracks. Regardless, if that’s his preference to watch movies that way and his sub has always been able to take it before, the point is that the bass on this disc can be dangerously exaggerated.
Chris B
The music on this disc IS way too fucking loud in some parts it DOES drown out the dialog, if there ever was a disc to watch with subtitles (aside from foreign films obviously) this is it.
William Henley
It would be great if the subtitles say “inaudible”
William Henley
I am not sure my system even has a way to tell what 0db is. I like my stuff loud, but I don’t think I would want 0db in an apartment – maybe a large auditorium. Aren’t most discs mixed differently for home use anyways – ie they are mixed for home theaters, not the same mix they use at theaters. I am pretty sure Disney does that (they even advertise it on the package), not sure about other companies
Josh Zyber
AuthorAlmost all modern movies are remixed for near-field listening before they’re released on video. The original sound mixers will do this at the time they prepare the theatrical mix. Catalog titles are hit-and-miss as to whether the studio will make the time and effort to do a new mix.
The concept of “reference volume” is kind of arbitrary anyway, given that all DTS soundtracks are encoded 4 dB louder than Dolby soundtracks.
Timcharger
Just put in my Amazon preorders for:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/19560/meetthemormons.html
and
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/15919/outcast.html
I think I’ll have more fun watching these with the expectation of anticipating Josh’s plot summary
to show up in Act 2…? Act 3…?!
🙂
Krawk
Hey Ya was most certainly a catchy tune, but Outkast (with a “k”) was not a new group when this song came out. Remember the song “Miss Jackson” ??
Josh Zyber
AuthorHollywood gets it wrong again. 🙁
Krawk
Realistically will just pick up Interstellar, most likely at Walmart.
On the wishlist, which simply means interested but will not get unless I find a deal on or if I win the lottery… Island of Lemurs 3D, Lucio Collection, Dario Collection, Nature: owl Power, Night Game, Outcast, Wild Card.
Chris B
Just picked up my copy of Interstellar from Wal-mart. The film cell it came with isn’t the most exciting…it appears to be a shot of two people seated at a table speaking to Matthew Mconaghey. I was hoping I’d get s shot of deep space or something. *Shrugs* What did everyone else get?! Anything cool?!
William Henley
I actually did not preorder this movie. I kept expecting Zavvi to announce an exclusive Steelbook. Now I got to see if I can find the Walmart exclusive – it was sold out online on Monday
Chris B
Hopefully you won’t have a problem, I’m guessing Walmart pressed a shit-ton of copies. I really dig the case and the art book it came with. Gorgeous.
As for the film, I watched it for the first time last night. It’s pretty typical Nolan: Super ambitious with awe-inspiring moments, and the usual head-scratching plot details. I’m not sorry I bought it because I plan in repeat viewings, but as of right now theres a bunch of stuff that just doesn’t “click” with me. Hopefully seeing it a few more times will help rectify this.
William Henley
I think the reason I was waiting is that I liked the futureshop exclusive, but I don’t live in Canada, and I was expecting a UK exclusive steelbook with the same cover art (whether Zavvi or Amazon.co.uk). That didn’t happen. So now I am stuck with no steelbook.
Luckily, Wal-Mart’s website does say that my local WalMart has the Collectors Edition in stock, so I guess I will have to go down there and pick it up.
Csm101
Anne Hathaway’s cringe inducing speech about love, I wanted to drop kick her, other than that, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
Chris B
I enjoyed it somewhat but the gaps in science became tough to take near the end. My prediction is Josh will end up hating this movie for that reason alone. Please weigh in when you get a chance to watch it Josh.