Faster BD Review

Faster is the latest starring vehicle for wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson...apologies but I gotta say it. Finally The Rock has come back to the genre that made him a star...and it's a good thing. I will never understand the action stars need to delve into family comedy drivel, but that's beside the point. Despite his quick charm and easy smile, which doesn't make a single appearance in this flick, Johnson's wheelhouse is most definitely action. Yes Faster is an action movie, but it's a surprisingly deep action movie. It differs from a lot of it's peers in that it tries to be a little more grown up and serious. With deeper character development than most of us are used to.

All-Star Superman BD Review

The original incarnation of All-Star Superman was a 12 issue comic book series written by seminal comic book author Grant Morrison and drawn by Frank Quitely. It was an attempt by DC Comics to have one of their most iconic hero's stripped down and retooled by one of the best writers in the biz. Morrison made it look easy and the result is one of the finest comic book runs of the past decade. To say it's beloved by the legions of comic book fans around the world is an understatement, now DC and Warner Animation are bringing this tale of the Man of Steels final months to Blu-Ray and DVD. Expectations are obviously pretty high. 

All-Star Superman begins with Superman (James Denton) attempting to save the first manned mission to the sun which has been sabotaged by Lex Luthor (Anthony LaPaglia). In an ingenious and diabolical plan Luthor uses Superman's greatest asset, his invulnerability, against him. Knowing that Supes is the only person who would be able to get close enough to the sun to save the shuttle he mutates one of the crew and controls him remotely from earth, Superman manages to throw the kryptonite charged mutant into the sun and the resulting solar flare over-saturates his cells with power. What has always been the source of his power, earth's yellow sun, becomes his death sentence. His cells are now supercharged and destroying themselves from within, solar-cancer if you will. Once this information sinks in Superman sets out to make his final months on earth meaningful.

The first step for him is to reveal his true identity to Lois Lane (Christina Hendricks), Lois has a hard time believing that the clumsy Clark Kent is the man of steel but goes with it. He designs a super-serum based on her genetic code that will give her his powers but none of his vulnerabilities for 24 hours. What follows are almost episodic adventures some featuring Lois some not, it is based on a comic book after all and they have tried to be as faithful to the source material as possible. Competing with arrogant deities for Lois' affections, answering the unanswerable question posed by the mighty Sphinx, interviewing his murderer Lex Luthor as Clark Kent in an attempt to understand the power mad megalomaniac, escaping from a power obsorbing monster at the prison, encountering 2 fellow kryptonians who intend to rule earth rather than protect it and the inevitable showdown with  Lex (who manages to get his hands on the super serum for himself giving him powers equal to Supes). All this before his final humanity saving effort to stop the sun from turning blue at the hands of an almost unstoppable entity, the mission that finally leads to his apparent 'death'.

If it sounds like a busy 77 minutes, that's because it is, fortunately it never feels overly complicated or messy. Each story element is handled well and all the major players are given the opportunity to flesh themselves out a little. Thanks in no part to director Sam Liu and Producer Bruce Timm sticking so closely to the source material, so much so that the dialogue is literally lifted from the page ver batim in as many places as possible. Even the art is pretty faithful to Quitely's original work. While this allows them to develop the story well it also hurts them a little in as much as the original material is so rich in detail and they are obviously limited by time and other factors. Unfortunately for fans of the source material, like myself, this gives the adaptation a slight feel of paling in comparison. Not so much that it can not be enjoyed thoroughly though. Morrison himself declares his delight with this adaption giddily and often during the commentary because it is so faithful to the tone and heart of his book.

Despite this little hiccup, which won't even be a blip on the radar to anyone who hasn't read a single issue of the comic, this is probably the best DCU animated production to date. Relying on it's main character, rather than throwing a deluge of hero's at you, to carry the story definitely worked in their favor here. The voice work by all the cast is top quality, LaPaglia in particular nails the superior, crazy Luthor. If your even a casual Superman fan you owe it to yourself to check out this flick, it's perhaps one of the best man of steel stories to be put on film yet. 

Special Features:  

The special features package is particularly tight for an animated presentation, with a few exclusives including a peek at the next DCU animated feature, an audio commentary, a digital copy of All Star Superman #1 and more.

• Audio Commentary: Producer Bruce Timm and original story writer Grant Morrison deliver an informative and engaging commentary that looks at the original comic, its story, characters and Morrison's opinion of the film.
• Superman Now: Morrison, DC Comics co-publisher Dan Didio, discuss the genesis of "All-Star Superman and the many, many twists and turns Morrison applied to iconic elements of the Superman mythos
• The Creative Flow: Incubating the Idea with Grant Morrison: This featurette shows Morrison's development process on the original book.
• Virtual Comic: All-Star Superman #1: The complete first issue of the comic, definitely worth a look even to just see how faithful the feature is to the source.
• Green Lantern: Emerald Knights Sneak Peek: An extended look at the next DCU animated feature: Green Lantern: Emerald Knights featuring Nathan Fillion as the man himself Hal Jordan
• Bruce Timm's Picks: Produce Bruce Timm selects a pair of Superman: The Animated Series episodes, "Blast from the Past" parts one and two.
• Trailers and Sneak Peeks: A Superman/Batman: Apocalypse Sneak Peek, Batman: Under the Red Hood preview, theatrical trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and a videogame trailer for DC Universe Online.

Directed by: Sam Liu
Written by: Dwayne McDuffie (screenplay), Grant Morrison (story)
Starring: James Denton, Christine Hendricks and Anthony LaPaglia
Distributed by: Warner Home Video
Website: http://warnervideo.com/allstarsuperman/

Let Me In BD Review

"Would you still like me...even if I wasn't a girl?"

Let Me In is one of those movies that you struggle to define. Many people have called it a horror movie, in fact the cover blurb from Steven King says it's the best American horror movie made in the last 20 years. My problem is that horror for me means scary, there is nothing particularly scary about this flick. There is a psychological undertone of fear but you always feel kind of insulated from it if your're rooting for the two kid leads, as you should be. They are at the core of the story and their story is one of friendship, endurance and acceptance. Of course it's served with a side of grisly murder, vampirism and abandonment but every cloud has a silver lining right? What this flick is, against all odds, is highly original. Despite being based on Swedish novel Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist and following an original Swedish adaptation of the same name it still manages to stand out. Lindqvist himself said  "Let Me In puts the emotional pressure in different places and stands firmly on its own legs. Like the Swedish movie it made me cry, but not at the same points. Let Me In is a dark and violent love story, a beautiful piece of cinema" I don't think I could say it any better than that.

Owen (Kodi Smit-Mcphee) is a lonely, somewhat disturbed, young man. A product of divorce, the oppressive hand of his overly religious mother and being on the receiving end of the school bullies. He takes his licks and refuses to fight back instead withdrawing into himself and the dark side of his adolescent mind. That is until he meet's Abby (Chloe Grace Moretz) the new girl who moves in next door with her father (Richard Jenkins). Abby is a little bit strange in her own right, she walks barefoot in 3 inches of snow and claims to not feel the cold, her first words to Owen are "we can't be friends". Undeterred by her bizarre statement Owen pursues her and begins to form the beginnings of what will become an unbreakable bond. As Abby's secrets begin to unravel, Owen learns to stand up for himself at her behest and her 'father' becomes embroiled in a murder investigation. The more Owen learns about Abby's dark side and her condition the closer they become until each has to make a choice that will change their paths forever. 

Let Me In  is nothing short of a cinematic masterpiece. While some may find the pace to be somewhat slow I would say that it's just right, where the story sits back and let's the leads take their time and develop the story it is done with a deliberate effort on Matt Reeves part. He uses all the tools of modern cinema that are at his disposal, cinematography, music, acting, to craft a beautiful movie that is not only dark and brooding but very sweet with almost a feel good vibe. This genre-bending approach is what makes Let Me In so intriguing. The acting from Moretz and Smit-Mcphee is off the charts. You feel every ounce of their pain, loneliness and despair. As well as being uplifted by their friendship and blossoming relationship. The overbearing darkness created just grabs you and never lets you go, taking you for the ride right along with the kids. 

Audio/Video 

Right up front the video presentation of Let Me In is intentionally dark in tone. The few brighter scenes are well defined and bring out some great detail and add a little visual flair. There is some slight grain here and there but it fits with the mood and visual style rather than taking away from it, creating a film-esque look out of a digital transfer. With the darker tone here the blacks are rarely perfect but they are never plain bad, they tend to skirt the edges of being a touch murky or an ink like solid. This is a solid transfer, it's not perfect, but it has a certain amount of flair and charm that makes it very easy to overlook the slight flaws. The audio track on the other hand is very good, it's moody and soft but pops in all the right places. Almost in perfect unison with the movie it accompanies, it rumbles along and hits you with just the right amount of emotional dissonance at the right time. A stand out scene from the audio side of things is the pool scene towards the end, hearing the terror and violence from the underwater vantage point of Owen is a great audio effect. Overall this loss-less audio track is of the highest quality 

Special Feature: 

There is an excellent variety of material to be found in this package. Including a commentary track with Matt Reeves, a picture-in-picture feature, a couple of featurettes and then the standard fare of gallery's, deleted scenes and trailers. The stand out for me is definitely the step by step dissection of the highly unique car crash sequence. It features full voice over, production stills and animatic explanations. Definitely a must see for anyone who found the crash scene as visually pleasing as I did. Another neat little extra including with the blu-ray package is a Dark Horse comic book, featuring a prelude to their four part mini series Let Me In: Crossroads.

Let Me In is simply a phenomenal motion picture experience. Getting too caught up on labels for a genre defying movie like this will alienate some viewers who would be definitely missing out on a treat. It's a movie about friendship and how real friendship can transcend physical and emotional boundaries to find the good in all things, even the monsters that only come out at night. I would recommend this flick to everyone, I don't think many people would come away from it disappointed. 

Directed by: Matt Reeves
Written by: John Ajvide Lindqvist (Novel) Matt Reeves (screenplay)
Starring: Kodi Smit-Mcphee, Chloe Grace Moretz, Richard Jenkins and Elias Koteas  
Distributed by: Relativity Media
Website: http://www.letmein-movie.com/

The Social Network BD Review

Directed by: David Fincher
Screenplay by: Aaron Sorkin
Based on: The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake and Rooney Mara
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Website: http://www.thesocialnetwork-movie.com/

David Fincher is an outstanding filmmaker and The Social Network may just be the second best movie he has ever made. It's a very, very close second pretty much because no one says "I want you to hit me as hard as you can" but considering it's in the company of movies like Fight Club, Se7en, The Game and Zodiac it's not a statement I make lightly. I think it's the fact that Fincher made such a bold, provocative and emotional movie on such seemingly superficial subject matter that shows how truly gifted a storyteller he is. Turning the relatively simple story of one man and his obsession into a contemporary allegory and a soul searching look into how we interact in the 21st century.

Star Wars: The Complete Saga announced at CES11...Finally.

The President of Fox Home Entertainment, Mike Dunn, took to the stage today at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas accompanied by non other than Darth Vader and his Imperial Stormtroopers to make the official announcement. Dunn said "The Star Wars Saga is the most anticipated Blu-Ray collection since the launch of the Hi-Def format" I for one am not gonna argue, with or without the grumpiest asthmatic Sith Lord in the galaxy by his side.

Inception BD Review

 

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

Written by: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanbe

Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures

Website: http://inceptionmovie.warnerbros.com 

There are two kinds of movie fans out there, those who love Christopher Nolan's work and those who loathe it. For every person who thinks Memento was a storytelling masterclass there is another who thinks it's artsy, overcomplicated drivel. For every person who thinks The Dark Knight is the greatest comic book movie to date, there's another who thinks its an over-hyped, underwhelming pretender to the crown. So do I think Inception is the jewel in an already gem encrusted crown or a mind boggling, insipid turd in a tiara? Sorry to disappoint some of you but it's the former, I am well and truly on board the Nolan band wagon and have been since Memento. Inception stands as his finest effort to date and easily my favorite movie of 2010