Category: Reviews

Review: ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ on DVD

A series of films based on a wildly popular series of books walks the tricky line between total fidelity to appease the fans and making the hard choices to create a successful movie-going experience. The vast majority of your audience, the filmmakers presume, have read the source material and/or seen the previous films in the series, so can take for granted that much of the backstory is understood, negating the need for extensive crawls, flashbacks, or expository scenes.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released to its eager audience in 2005, but moviegoers had to wait four years before the film version was released. This film opened two years after the last film so the trick for director David Yates was in knowing how much needed refreshing for the audience. After all, some of us read the book only once; others may only know the film version. The movie, now available on DVD from Warner Home Video, makes a large number of alterations from the book and also fails to properly place the film in context; Yates expects too much recall from his audience. As a result, the brewing war between the forces of good and Lord Voldemort isn’t as front and center as it should be and his agents of darkness are barely named let alone given anything to do.

Similarly, Yates short-changes the supporting cast as Maggie Smith’s McGonagall and Robbie Coltrane’s Hagrid, for example, are little better than window dressing. He chose, instead, to focus on the teen heartthrob storyline showing the raging hormones now coursing through our heroes’ veins. The relationship between Harry and the poor, doomed Dumbledore, is the second storyline and intertwined they’re good stories, but lacks the full scale and spectacle of the book or previous films. An underdeveloped third thread is the evolution of Draco Malfoy, now a Death-Eater and he fumes his way through the film, feeling too important to remain at Hogwarts but assigned there and when called to deliver the killing blow to the wizard, finds himself conflicted. In many ways the relationship between Draco and Snape and that of Harry and Prof. Slughorn should have been the counterpoints to the film but its an opportunity missed.

The one thing he does get right is the look and feel of impending doom. Each book got more sophisticated in its plotting and characterization, reflecting the maturation of the Hogwarts students, while also growing more malevolent in tone. This film is bleaker looking than the previous quintet, the colors muted and washed out – even joyous scenes such as the Quidditch match, are somber in appearance. You just know things are not right.

Since the move opened this summer, there has been much complaining about liberties taken and favorite scenes removed. It’s been the most grumbling since the series began and as each book has grown in size, adapting the tale for the screen has proven troubling.  While the final book is being split into two films and released relatively close together, one wonders if the same should not have been done here, and treat the films as more of a linked miniseries, which seemed to work, after all for [[[Lord of the Rings]]].

The film can be purchased for home viewing in a variety of formats from a standard single-disc DVD with no extras, to a 2-Disc Digital Copy Special Edition which offers up a bunch of extras made largely for its younger audience and not fans of filmmaking. There are six and a half minutes of additional scenes, none of which would have changed the comments above. You can then enjoy the nearly thirty minute Close-Up with the Cast and Crew of Harry Potter special, which is a light look at a day on the set. Better is the 50 minute-long J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life, which gives the series creator her due. Other extras are playful ones with the cast and an unnecessarily long look at Universal’s “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter”.

Review: ‘Robot Chicken Season 4’ on DVD

robot-chicken-s41-9662355I don’t know how I missed [[[Robot Chicken]]] when it debuted several years back. I heard the buzz, I saw the ads in the comics and still, I somehow never got around to watching. When the Cartoon Network sent over their second [[[Star Wars Special]]] for review, I finally indulged and was delighted.

Now, they sent over the two-disc set collecting the complete fourth season, which goes on sale Tuesday, and watched with great delight. The season, which ran from December 7, 2008 through December 6 (last week!), has 20 episodes and the set also includes [[[The Robot Chicken Full-Assed Christmas Special]]].

The show is a riotous tour through the pop culture zeitgeist, presuming the viewers know the players from Tila Tequila to the torturous relationship between Thor and Loki. Many of the episodes are loosely connected vignettes while others feel entirely like a collection of whatever was finished in time got included. When handling a single theme, such as Christmas or [[[[Star Wars]]], they manage to make that work as well, with a broad array of talents coming together to keep things loose and very, very funny.

To me, many of the funniest bits shows the before or after events from favorite scenes such as the natives building the temple deathtraps we saw Indiana Jones avoid in [[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]] or the day in the life of Jason Voorhees.

Seth Green and Matthew Senreich have certainly developed an eclectic following which has allowed them to bring onboard writers and performers to work with them. In fact, one of the best Video Blogs included in the Extras shows the range of actors who come in and let loose. I can’t decide who was having more fun, Billy Dee Williams or Katee Sackhoff. Among the writers to contribute, beyond the usual suspects from previous seasons is comic book darling Geoff Johns.

Back during [[[Star Trek]]]’s 20th Anniversary, there was talk of an Opera which was partially written before wiser heads canceled the project. But, thanks to one bit, we have a good idea of what it would have sounded like. The hysterical [[[Star Trek II: The Opera]]] is one of the highlights.

No, not every bit works and some episodes feel wildly uneven, but in
each episode I find myself laughing out loud at the absurd
juxtaposition of elements or seeing revered icons poke fun at
themselves.

No one and nothing is sacred to these creators so[[[ Babar]]], [[[Hannah Montana]]], [[[James Bond]]] and just about everyone else you’ve grown up with is fair game. The DVD presents the episodes without censorship so there’s additional graphic violence, nudity and many instances of foul language.

In addition to the 21 episodes, there are Chicken Nuggets (the creators offer commentary), appearances at 2008’s Comic-Con International and 2009’s New York Comic-Con plus when the team promoted the show across Australia. There are way-too-brief Day in the Life glimpses at the many talented technicians who take the wacky scripts and bring them to life. There are a handful of deleted scenes with introductory material to explain how anything manages to get cut plus deleted animatics, early tests showing how a script might look. If you like, the show, these Extras continue the entertainment and are commended to your attention.

Review: ‘Left 4 Dead 2’

What is it about zombies that everybody loves?  Whether in movies, TV shows, comics, or even music, zombies are a part of our lives (or for some…after lives).  From the slow walking, shambling undead to the fast running, hungry aggressive “infected”, zombies are the go-to villain for horror stories and games…but none have done it so well as Left 4 Dead.  Last year’s multiplayer epic has returned (just like a zombie) for more in this sequel, and it has brought along more than enough friends.

While most gamers will be getting their shooter kicks from [[[Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2]]] this holiday, I’ll be spending all of my time doing what I love…bashing zombies in the face, or blowing their heads off with high powered weaponry. Find out how to surive the apocalypse below…

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Review: ‘Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian’ on Blu-ray

4660183dd01761a44f15a7ba527a76281-8686146I admit to having missed [[[Night at the Museum]]] despite the recommendations of friends. As a result, sitting down to watch Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian
was a test to see if the sequel could be entertaining without knowing the ins and outs of the predecessor.

Thankfully, 20th Century-Fox sent over the Blu-ray disc, on sale this week, for review. The special edition has three discs: the film on Blu-ray with the usual assortment of extras, a disc with the film in Standard DVD and the now ubiquitous digital copy.

Overly, this is a mildly amusing film and does not make me miss the original in the slightest. The film tosses any sense of reality out the window from the get-go and expects you to be pulled along, not questioning the absurdities.

I did like how they recapped the first film via a conversation between “As Seen on TV” master Larry Daley and Mr. Pimp George Foreman. It was a lovely send up of those horrid infomercials. However, there’s no real connection between Larry giving up being a night watchman to becoming this successful-but-unfulfilled mogul so his dissatisfaction doesn’t ring true. Also, it was nice to see some semblance of a relationship between Larry and his son but then when he rushes to Washington, he seems to abandon the kid without a second thought despite no evidence of adult supervision. The kid seems there to help with the info dump and is then discarded, not even seen for the ending.

Instead, have to hurry to Washington since a chimp stole the magic Egyptian tablet that can bring the inanimate to life once the sun goes down. And somehow Kahmunrah, brother to last film’s Ahkmenrah turns up knowing all about the events that transpired. Hank Azaria gamely channels Boris Karloff to portray the power mad but not terribly bright Egyptian. He wants to open a portal to a nether-realm and take over a world he doesn’t understand.

The rest of the film is devoted to CGI-powered antics as Larry attempts to stop Kahmunrah as both call upon historic figures for help. By setting this in the Smithsonian, there’s a heavy American accent on the figures so we have Al Capone on one side and a plucky Amelia Earhart on the other. Interestingly, Amy Adams gives her Earhart a sense of verve that Hilary Swank never manages in the recently biopic bomb.

Amazingly, as the night progresses and we run from building to building and throughout the monuments, there are no other people. No homeless, college students, tourists, policemen…anyone. As a result, Abe Lincoln goes wandering from his monument to the museum and there’s not a single sighting or sense of panic.

The humor veers more to slapstick than the clever and the performances are uniform – everyone’s chewing the scenery as quickly as possible. The writing from Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon should have been far sharper so the characters don’t spout anachronistic comments or play to the stereotypical information we know about the figures.

Everything that transpires is telegraphed and predictable right up to the ending that brings a sense of closure to Larry’s life.

Extras on the disc include commentaries from director Shawn Levy and one from the screenwriters and sometimes you think they made very different films. Then you have the 20 minute The Curators of Comedy: Behind-the-Scenes of Night at the Museum 2, a pretty funny Gag Reel, a dozen deleted scenes,Curators of Comedy: Behind The Scenes With Ben Stiller,Museum Scavenger Hunt Game, Cherub Bootcamp, Phinding Pharaoh With Hank Azaria, Monkey Mischief Featurettes, Historical Confessions: Famous Last Words, Secret Doors and Scientists,Cavemen Conversations: Survival of the Wittiest,Museum Magic: Entering The World of the Photograph, Director 201 With Shawn Levy, Gangster Levy, and finally the FOX Movie Channel Presents Featurettes.

In some ways, the plethora of extras inflates the importance of what is essentially a family comedy that makes no demands on any demographic. Still, the extras are the reason to have the film if you like any of the performers. Families can enjoy the film itself in any of the available formats.

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Review: ‘Terminator Salvation’ on Blu-ray

1000045439brdlefo-5809382There’s no doubt that when James Cameron made the first [[[Terminator]]]movie in 1984 he figured on telling his story and moving on. Little did he know that 25 years later, it would remain a cultural touchstone spawning sequels, a television series, books, comics, and stuff.

Wisely, Cameron also knew when it was time to move on. Coaxed back for the sequel, he delivered a high-octane action thriller that also pushed the limits of movie technology as we marveled at some of the earliest CGI that had our collective jaws drop.

After the ownership got passed around like a bowl of potato chips, The Halcyon Company now controls the destiny of SkyNet and their progeny. Earlier this year, they offered up [[[Terminator Salvation]]], moving the story to right after Judgment Day in 2018, but before someone thought to send Kyle Reese back in time. The fourth feature, therefore, is both a sequel to the trio of films and a prequel to the first film. In short, the resistance thinks they have a frequency that will stop the Terminators dead in their tracks and they prepare to unleash it, failing to understand that they’ve effectively brought the Trojan horse into their camp. That’s pretty much the story.

Directed by McG, it blows things up real good and real often but it doesn’t work terribly well as a story. The movie, out tomorrow on home video, is offered up in a number of ways. Blu-ray fans can have the three-disc special edition which offers up the Director’s Cut, the theatrical release, extras, and a digital copy. DVD fans can have the two-disc special edition. A single disc version of the theatrical release is also available.

The reason the story doesn’t work is that McG visualizes a world after the Terminators have laid waste to the world but he never digs deep to show us what society is like now that food is scarce and technological development has ground to a halt. There’s no sense that these are dwindling resources nor is there a clear understanding of who’s running the American resistance. Is there still a United States of America or a Commander in Chief? We’re shown the resistance leaders wandering the seas in a submarine to avoid detection but who are they, what are their ranks and why is Michael Ironside wasted as the clueless leader?

And then there’s John Connor, played this time by Christian Bale. Said a prophet of the future and a charismatic leader of the resistance, he seems to be occasionally a soldier following orders and other times he comes off as a regular messiah, the one man capable of rallying the troops and kicking metallic ass. We know little about him or his relationship with Kate (Bryce Dallas Howard), wandering pregnant with his child – a symbol of an optimistic future.

The movie has running and jumping, fighting, and yelling but we feel nothing for these characters because screenwriters John D. Brancato & Michael Ferris never slow down to let people explain themselves. When Marcus (Sam Worthington) joins the resistance and is revealed to be a unique cyborg, there’s a quick jump to conclude he’s a Terminator despite everything he’s done up to that terrifying moment. The one person to believe him is Blair (Moon Bloodgood) and no one pays her any attention.

Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) is sought by SkyNet but we’re never told why, we’re given no explanation why he’s been separated from the others humans who have been inexplicably rounded up by mammoth Terminators. Kyle, who believes himself one half of the complete Los Angeles resistance cell, is all about survival, but the qualities we saw Michael Biehn display in the first film is missing from his character here.

tsd-11339-3737246The talented cast is given little to do although Worthington is a revelation as the next great action star. Yelchin, seen weeks previously as the caricatured Pavel Chekov, displays some real talent as Reese. Similarly, Bloodgood both here, and in Wolverine, shows some real potential. Bale, Howard, Ironside, Jane Alexander and Helena Bonham Carter are merely wasted.

The movie ends and we’re not entertained, just disappointed. The three extra minutes in the director’s cut (far from the promised 40 minutes during the ramp-up to release) help smooth some things out but is too little to make much of a difference.

Having said all that, if you buy this, know that the Blu-ray looks and sounds spectacular.

Like The Watchmen, this offers up the Maximum Movie Mode which has McG pop up every now and then. He stands between two miniature screens, one showing the film and one showing concept drawings, animatics, costume design, and other tidbits to explain how they achieved the finished product. He’s enthusiastic and is accompanied by text information including a timeline of the Terminator universe to help put people and events into perspective (would have been nice to have that in the actual movie).

The other extras are the traditional assortment of behind-the-scenes featurettes starting with the 19-minute Reforging the Future which is an overview to the fourth film. There’s an eight-minute look at The Moto-Terminator the motorcycles in the film. We’re then given about nine other three-to-four minute clips dedicated to different elements of making the film, most involving blowing things up (30,000 gallons of kerosene was used for just one scene). The best of the lot was recreating Arnold Schwarzenegger’s look from 1984 for a T-600.

And that’s about it so you really need to have loved this film or the series to want to add this to your video library.

Review: ‘The Year of Loving Dangerously’

The Year of Loving Dangerously

By Ted Rall and Pablo G. Callejo
ComicsLit, 128 pages, $18.95

Ted Rall is a talented, controversial opinion-maker through his columns and his cartoonists. His somewhat jaundiced look at life has been shaped by many factors, chief among them, 1984, the year referred to in the title of this courageous memoir recently released under NBM’s ComicsLit imprint.

A junior, Ted developed a medical condition that shoved his life off course and in rapid succession; he was failed by his family, Columbia University, his friends, and strangers in Manhattan. As a result, Ted found himself expelled, homeless, and practically penniless, struggling to survive.

He found an unusual solution, picking up or letting himself be picked up by women essentially exchanging sexual favors for a warm place to sleep. For the better part of a year, Ted, still smarting from the breakup with Philippa, the girl of his dreams, has a steady stream of sexual relationships and in frank terms, tells his reader that he didn’t necessary revel in the activity. It was survival mechanism, much as he broke into a Barnard dorm to crash or later stole supplies from the University that jerked him around in order to raise cash.

Rall is 21, handsome, and clearly desirable but despite the variety of sexual partners at a time when AIDS was just hitting the headlines, he hates his life and his self-esteem remains fairly low. Chris, his best pal, has his own issues, walking a fine line between recreational drug use and becoming a junkie, threatening to drag Ted with him.

The writing is clear-eyed and unsparing in his appraisal of his own behavior and that of those around him. When things finally begin to turn around and he finds a job but doesn’t yet have the cash to afford first and last month rent, Ted continues to indulge in questionable behavior. Still, he tried to follow a moral path, writing, “Unlike faceless corporate entities, built on institutionalized theft, individual people were strictly off-limits.”

He gets the job, settles into three stable relationships with women (keeping each ignorant of the others), and survives a fresh encounter with Philippa. You’re rooting for him along the way, wondering if you would have made the same choices in the name of basic survival.

Much of the strength in this remarkable account comes from Pablo G Callejo’s artwork. The Spanish artist keenly captures the look and feel of New York City during the go-go Reagan years. His people are wonderfully varied and his attention to detail is excellent, from clothing to color. His artwork is ideally suited for this cautionary tale and made reading it a lot easier.

This is an important work in that it lays bare a man’s life and shows how easily things can go awry and why society needs safety nets.

Review: ‘Logan’s Run’ on Blu-ray

What a difference a year makes. In 1976, MGM released a film based on William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson’s 1967 novel [[[Logan’s Run]]]. Generally lambasted by the press, it may have been a nadir in science fiction films putting studios off the genre until the following May, when 20th Century Fox looked forward with [[[Star Wars]]].

Warner Home Video has just released Logan’s Run
on Blu-ray and it finally gave me a chance to see the movie, something that somehow eluded me back in High School. It has most certainly not aged well and I can see why Roger Ebert called it a “vast, silly extravaganza”, which changed the novel in some ways for the better but failed to visually interest us in the society.

In the film, directed by Michael Anderson, the biggest change was in the location of society: domed and hermetically sealed as compared with the book’s newly formed surface cities. The book also has people voluntarily ending their lives at age 21 which probably meant the culture could not be sustained because no sooner did people learn a trade, they had to die. Instead, the film changed the age to 30 at a time when people still spouted “Never trust anyone over 30” (while forgetting the second half: “Or under, either”).

The hedonistic society is said to be devoted to pleasure until the glowing crystal in palm denoted your time to enter an arena and become the night’s entertainment. Everyone else gathers in a stadium to watch you and others born on that date, float upwards towards an energy field that kills them. There’s a rumor that selected people can be “renewed” so people come back night after night to see if someone will be lucky enough.

Those who eschew this lifestyle, those who question the unseen authority that governs the domed world, are known as runners who flee in search of a place known only as Sanctuary. Law enforcement officers, known as Sandmen, are charged with stopping the runners, usually by killing them. And the film follows one such Sandman, Logan 5 (Michael York), as the Artificial Intelligence in charge asks him to go undercover as a runner and find Sanctuary.

Fortunately, he’s found a potential runner to follow in Jessica 6 (Jenny Agutter), whom he met only a night or two earlier. Her very questioning society got Logan to thinking so when the opportunity presented itself; he joined her in the escape. What complicates the assignment and spoils the film is Logan not confiding in his best friend, fellow Sandman Francis 7 (Richard Jordan), so Francis chases them, thinking he’s doing the right thing.

Along the way, our heroes are told by a recording to keep following the trail down but at one point they wind up on a platform taking them up. As a result, the movie starts going off the rails when no one ever questions what was “down there”. When they reach the surface, they find an ice cave (prompting them to strip down and wrap themselves in convenient bearskins) and a berserk robot, Box, who has decided freezing runners for eventual consumption made sense.

Escaping Box leads Logan and Jessica to a surface world they never knew existed and there they find the Old Man (Peter Ustinov), who shows them that aging isn’t all that bad. Unfortunately, setting this sequence in a vine-covered Washington, D.C. adds an unnecessary layer of subtext at a time when the country was already question the Federal Government.

Anderson, who did a far better job with George Orwell’s 1984, and screenwriter David Zelag Goodman completely failed to present a comprehensible society or characterization beyond two-dimensional surface traits for the three stars. York and Agutter are easy to watch but have little emotional range in this whereas Jordan’s pop-eyed style seems to come from some other film. Ustinov’s character is about the only one you care about.

A year later, the nature of science fiction film was turned on its head George Lucas’ Star Wars arrived, washing out the distaste left by this mess. Interestingly, Anderson’s earlier film, [[[The Dam Busters]]], has been credited as inspiration for the Death Star battle at the end of Lucas’ film.

The Blu-ray edition looks like a basic transfer without digital enhancements or attempt to clean it up. The extras contain commentary from the DVD edition and a featurette produced back in the 1970s. There’s little to recommend adding this your growing Blu-ray library.

Review: ‘Gone with the Wind’ 70th Anniversary DVD

Since Gone With The Wind’s release in 1939, David O. Selznick’s adaptation has become one of the most hailed and loved feature films of all time. Adjusted for inflation, it remains today the number one box office champion with a total gross of $1,450,680,400. It deservedly won 10 Academy Awards and continues to be included in Top 10 lists with many catch phrases entering the public lexicon followed plus a score that is instantly recognizable.

On Tuesday, in time for your holiday shopping needs, Warner Home Video is releasing the 70th Anniversary edition of the film in a variety of formats. What was provided to ComicMix was the standard two-disc “plain vanilla” edition. We can tell you that it looks and sounds great and we suspect looks even more spectacular in its Blu-ray format.

Is there anything left to say about this beloved film? I had heard of it growing up but until HBO first broadcast it for the first time, I had no clue what the fuss was about. I still recall a bunch of us gathering at Beth Zemsky’s house to watch this spectacular without interruption and we were all caught up in different ways. For me, I enjoyed the sweep and spectacle, some of the performances and the nostalgic look back at a bygone era. The girls loved the romance.

In rewatching the film now, I find zero chemistry between Trevor Howard and Vivien Leigh, still befuddled over why she loved him. I also find it confusing to see how both Ashley and Melanie were so blind, in their own way, towards Scarlett’s spoiled rich girl ways. Only Rhett saw her for what she was and loved her for it. Rhett Butler is also the only one to see the South as an unsustainable culture and apparently the only man in the whole of the Confederacy to understand they couldn’t compete with northern factories. As a result, his decision to enlist towards the middle therefore makes no sense.

Honestly, the best character arc is Scarlett’s and there’s little more stirring than her return to Tara, seeing what had become of the lifestyle she understood and then declaring, set against a beautiful backdrop, she would never go hungry again. As the music swells and the intermission sign appears, you could have sent everyone home and they would have been thrilled. Instead, we get the second half which is far too melodramatic leading up to the immortal final scene.

Selznick spared no expense and the film is sumptuous, well cast and filled with enough extras to give it the sense of scale required for the needed emotional impact. From a technical standpoint, there’s not a single false note and the movie holds up during repeated viewings. SO, the bottom line comes down to the Margaret Mitchell novel and the characters adapted to the screen. If this is your sort of story then you can’t miss seeing the film. As for owning the new edition, that’s a subjective call. The new digital master seems superior to the last version but it’s the extras that will decide it for you.

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Review: ‘Up’ on Blu-ray

Pixar’s command of digital animation has captivated an entire generation of viewers and with Up
, its tenth film, it has actually taken some interesting chances. First, they focused on a senior citizen, the very demographic totally abandoned by Hollywood despite the longevity now being enjoyed by many.

It also decided to take storytelling chances by stretching how many absurdities we can accept in a single film. Previously, we were asked to accept one major concept per film: toys that can talk, a world powered by children’s screams, and so on. Here, we’re being asked to accept an awful lot and frankly, sitting through the film, I think it asked for too much.

Up arrives on DVD tomorrow and comes in Walt Disney Home Video’s controversial multi-package format. The Blu-ray edition contains four discs: the film and extras, a second disc of extras, the film and some extras on standard DVD and a disc with a digital copy. On the one hand, it’s nice to have this package because eventually we’ll all be using Blu-ray so we avoid buying the movie twice. On the other, it’s pricey for people not willing to make the leap for years to come.

The film’s best sequence is the opening ten minutes known as “Married Life”, which details the meeting and evolving relationship between Carl and Ellie. It’s incredibly poignant and moving, aided tremendously by Michael Giacchino’s score. From there, we meet 78-year old, arthritic Carl, every bit the curmudgeon he appears. Wonderfully voiced by Ed Asner, he’s done with life and just wants the world to leave him alone. Sadly, the world wants to move ahead and is busily construction mammoth commercial buildings around his home.

Finally forced to move to an assisted living facility, Carl decides to escape to Paradise Falls, the one place he and Ellie wanted to visit and never found the time and/or money. Here’s where we’re asked for the big leap of faith: overnight, be fills 10,000 balloons with helium, rigs steering gear, and in the morning, launches his home into the air for the trip to South America.

OK, let’s accept that. Let’s also add in the Russell, the young Asian Wilderness Explorer trapped on the porch when the house broke free of its foundation. Their odd couple relationship will form the spine of film and that’s fine.  Now, the house miraculously makes it to Paradise Falls and there’s when things go off the rails. First, we have a pack of dogs each equipped with a collar that translates their growls to human speech, allowing communication. A wondrous piece of technology that would make its inventor world famous and fabulously wealthy. Instead, the inventor, 90 year old Charles Muntz, remains in self-imposed exile, seeking the rare bird whose capture will repair his reputation, spoiled decades earlier when scientists questioned the validity of the bones he brought back from one of his celebrated expeditions.

Once Carl and Russell meet Muntz, the film no longer feels like a Pixar classic, but instead a pale imitator as your credulity is stretched beyond belief time and again. The climax, a battle between geriatrics, is impossible to accept given the athleticism each displays despite their previously established infirmities.  Fortunately, the final scenes come back to familiar Pixar territory and ends on a satisfying note. As a result, Up the movie is a mixed bag and far from its best work.

The extras on the discs, though, show the level of attention that went into each and every aspect of the film from studying the way seniors moved to house architecture. There are several mini-documentaries adding up to over 40 minutes of nifty behind the scenes information. Best of the eight may well be the piece on Giacchino and the scoring for the movie. There’s also the film in Cine-Explore track as the directors, Bob Peterson and Pete Docter, discuss the making of the film, complete with designs, sculptures and other visual details popping up on screen. The main disc also offers up two shorts: Dug’s Special Mission and Partly Cloudy. Another short bit is a look at various ways Muntz’s story came to an end.

The second disc, in addition to the documentaries, offers up a nice piece on the development of “Married Life” and them shows a storyboarded alternative approach, equally effective. Finally, there’s the Global Guardian Badge Game, an interactive trivia game that earns you badges of increasing complexity. It uses the BD Live feature which is nice for those so inclined.

A somewhat good, somewhat flawed film is well packaged and offers up much for families and film enthusiasts to enjoy.

Review: ‘Monsters, Inc.’ on Blu-ray

Pixar burst onto the scene with [[[Toy Story]]] and proved that they were the successor to Walt Disney Studios by providing heart-warming, funny family-friendly animation, using pixels instead of paintbrushes. They followed up with [[[A Bug’s Life]]], which was another success, and they came right back with [[[Toy Story 2]]] which was an expected smash.  The question was back then, how long could they sustain the hits and the level of quality. A lot was riding on their fourth release, Monsters, Inc.
, since it was to be their third original creation and a gauge of their long-term viability.

Well, we all know what happened. It and every subsequent film has been one hit after enough, proving Pixar was not only the real deal, but a successful font of new ideas. Disney clear had no choice but to advance their partnership by owning the company, which reinvigorated their own franchise characters.

Monsters, Inc.
is being released on Blu-ray this Tuesday clearly intended for holiday shopping, and comes in an assortment of flavors. The 4-disc set, sent for review, has the following elements: the film and extras on Blu-ray, a Blu-ray disc of even more extras, the movie on standard DVD and a digital copy. That’s a really impressive deal, if you own a Blu-ray player.

The fabulous movie looks and sounds even better on Blu-ray, the digital creations just as inventive and fun as always. The 91 minute story remains amusing with a lovable set of characters and full realized world of monsters, which required energy derived from children’s’ screams. Boo, the little girl accidentally in their world, could be a sickly-sweet character but instead looks and acts like a real 2-year-old, charming and frustrating all the way. The voice cast, headed by John Goodman and Billy Crystal, is top-notch and well picked for their parts.

But you know all that.

The movie disc comes with the previous DVD bonus material. The shorts For the Birds and Mike’s New Car; but new is a lengthy Filmmakers’ Round Table where four of the geniuses behind the movie, talk through their challenges and favorite parts. There’s also a preview of the Monstropolis exhibit at Tokyo Disneyland, the closest most of us will ever get to see the impressive looking ride.

The second Blu-ray has a few hours’ more fun starting with the interactive game, Roz’s 100-Door Challenge. By answering questions based on the film, it determines which job you are suited for. Don’t like the job, you try again.  There’s a nice tour of Pixar’s compound, dubbed the Fun Factory. Clearly, the imagery emphasizes the creative, goofy, and downright fun involved in the making any one film. On the other hand, the hard work and long hours brining the story and characters to life, is sadly underplayed. Everything on this disc is geared to demonstrating how Pixar works related to Monsters, Inc.  It’s a rich assortment of features for the fan.

The movie endures, a classic for families for generations to come and there’s no better way to preserve this than having this rich package of video material.

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