Topic: Dave's DVD/Blu-ray Reviews

[northbloke]

I can heartily recommend the R1 5-disc limited edition of Dust Devil that Subversive released back in 2006. That's if you can find a copy!



I understand Optimum released the director's cut over here but I would suggest you only pick it up if it's dirt cheap because I've heard the transfer quality is awful.

[dfmorgan]

I can heartily recommend the R1 5-disc limited edition of Dust Devil that Subversive released back in 2006. That's if you can find a copy!

I understand Optimum released the director's cut over here but I would suggest you only pick it up if it's dirt cheap because I've heard the transfer quality is awful.

  thanks for this. Something to keep my eye out for now.

Dave

[dfmorgan]

I can heartily recommend the R1 5-disc limited edition of Dust Devil that Subversive released back in 2006. That's if you can find a copy!

  thanks for this. Something to keep my eye out for now.

Dave

Now ordered from amazon marketplace for 25 smackers

Dave

[dfmorgan]

Evangelion: 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone

Year: 2007
Director: Hideaki Anno
Cast:
Overview: THE REBUILD OF THE GROUNDBREAKING GIANT ROBOT ANIME!

The year is 2015, and half of the Earth's population is dead, victims of the disaster called Second Impact! Answering a summons from his enigmatic father, 14-year-old Shinji Ikari arrives in the rebuilt city of Tokyo-3 just as a gigantic creature known as an Angel attacks! Forced into the cockpit of a giant bio-mechanical construct known as an Evangelion, Shinji must defend the city from the rampaging Angel or die trying!

Rebuilt from the ground up by creator Hideaki Anno, this is the definitive Evangelion for a new generation! Featuring a radically new storyline, completely new animation, additional CG plus never-before seen extended footage

Watched: 30th Apr 2010
My Thoughts: The first of four films that rebuild the 1995/6 Evangelion TV series. I have watched the series and the two supplemental films, Death & Rebirth and The End of Evangelion, and generally enjoyed them. This rebuild is of the first six episodes of the original series. The six episodes would have been 150mins running time and this has been condensed into 100mins and to some degrees this is apparent:-
a) The Angel attacks come thick and fast.
b) The depth of character that the series could build has had to be lost.

The new imagery does look good on the blu-ray and the sound, although I only have a downmixed DD5.1 rather than TrueHD 6.1, is excellent with plenty of effects being positioned all over the place, especially in the battle and NERV Control Room sequences.

My Rating: An enjoyable 3

Dave

[dfmorgan]

Avatar

Year: 2009
Director: James Cameron
Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington, Zoë Saldana, Stephen Lang
Overview: Return to Pandora
A reluctant hero. An epic journey. A choice between the life left behind and the incredible new world he's learned to call home. Return to James Cameron's AVATAR — the greatest adventure of all time. This edition of Avatar contains a Blu-ray and a DVD

Watched: 1st May 2010
My Thoughts: I hadn't seen this in the cinema and to be brutally honest I was disappointed, probably my expectations were too high after hearing all the bruhaha about it. Not to say that I didn't enjoy it just that it wasn't possibly quite what I expected, maybe because this was flat 2-D. Visually and sonically spectacular with an excellent cast (does Michelle Rodriguez play any roles other than fiesty kick-butt females?). A friend who went to see this in the cinema said that he thought that it was an action remake of Ferngully and I could see that, but it was more with Cowboys vs. Indians, boy meets girl/loses girl/gets girl back again, plus a large dose of Braveheart and Independence Day thrown into the mix with the rallying speech. Overall though I did enjoy it and will probably buy again when the super-duper improved extended edition rears its head.

My Rating: An enjoyable 3

Dave

Addendum: 2nd May 2010
I have given some more thought to this and decided that the disappointment sprang from the friend mentioning action Ferngully. I now realise that I watched the film and was looking for other films within it rather than just sitting back and enjoying it as a good action thud and blunder film.

Dave

[Najemikon]

Not to say that I didn't enjoy it just that it wasn't possibly quite what I expected, maybe because this was flat 2-D.

Not to pick on you Dave, but it's this sort of thing that worries me more than anything about the 3D gimmick. You didn't see it at the cinema, you haven't been blown away by it, and you think the fact you didn't see it in 3D may be the problem. It really won't be. It's more that the story is crap and now it hasn't got a flashy gimmick to hide behind.

The thing is, it's always nice to see a film at the cinema because that's where it was designed to be seen, and there will always be a loss in spectacle for a film like this when transferred to your front room, but it should never, ever, make it a lesser film.

In other words, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it's probably a duck.

[dfmorgan]

Not to say that I didn't enjoy it just that it wasn't possibly quite what I expected, maybe because this was flat 2-D.

Not to pick on you Dave, but it's this sort of thing that worries me more than anything about the 3D gimmick. You didn't see it at the cinema, you haven't been blown away by it, and you think the fact you didn't see it in 3D may be the problem. It really won't be. It's more that the story is crap and now it hasn't got a flashy gimmick to hide behind.

The thing is, it's always nice to see a film at the cinema because that's where it was designed to be seen, and there will always be a loss in spectacle for a film like this when transferred to your front room, but it should never, ever, make it a lesser film.

In other words, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it's probably a duck.

Thanks Jon. I think the disappointment set in as some friends had seen it, both in 3-D and 2-D, and they said what great film it was. The trailers made it look interesting, which of course is what they are supposed to do. Then, when I sat down and watched it, the film came over as Cowboys vs. Indians fighting over Ferngully with Braveheart rallying the troops. Maybe I was over thinking my friends comments and looking for Ferngully rather than just sitting there and watching, 'tis easy to over think at times. Though as I said in my review I did enjoy the film.

Dave

[snowcat]

...To be honest Avatar is a terrible movie :/ it completely relied on its 3D to get justify its expense, and then to make it worse those lovely people over at Oscar headquarters had to justify the ridiculous budget by nominating it for bloody everything... Now does that sound familiar? Oh wait! Titanic! another extortionate movie that got nominated to justify its budget.

Anyway, I digress...

3D is a gimmick and unfortunately.... a bad one, even when 3D TV Sets rear there ugly over priced head... its still gonna look crap compared to a cinema, Shame on Avatar for making it ok to release every other film in 3D.

3D a good film does not make.

 


Dave, I also think that's a problem with hearing peoples views on a film before you have seen it, high expectations can ruin your experience. ;P Always go in with low expecs!

[Najemikon]

I wouldn't call it terrible. Like Dave, I did enjoy it! But very much as just flimsy entertainment that looked pretty and was loud enough to keep me awake... It's far better than Transformers 2, for instance.

[snowcat]

Jon, the blister on my left foot is better then Transformers 2  Transformers 2 or as I call it "Giant Transformers advertisement 2" That's not a good comparison... Even the Halloween 2 remake was better then Transformers 2.

[Najemikon]

Well, Transformers 2 made a lot of money. Have you thought about filming your blister? 

[snowcat]

I think that is possibly a good idea... maybe I could get a film crew to follow it around for the next few days... watch it dry out etc, speed it up... slow it down to get those last emotional moments as it starts to fall off.

Id probably get an Oscar for my breathtaking visuals and deep storytelling and awesome new camera angles (in the shoe angle etc).

Of course for coming up with the idea Jon you could have 10% of profits, your name in the credits and a thank you when I accept my award.

[dfmorgan]

Of course for coming up with the idea Jon you could have 10% of profits, your name in the credits and a thank you when I accept my award.

Hey, don't forget me. It was my review that started all this 

Dave, I also think that's a problem with hearing peoples views on a film before you have seen it, high expectations can ruin your experience. ;P Always go in with low expecs!

Thanks Emma, I try not to let other peoples views sway me but it can and does happen occasionally. I tend to glance through the reviews in newspapers/magazines just to get a feel for the film, I explicitly trust the reviews from Chris Tookey in the Daily Male though   

Dave

[Najemikon]

Karsten posted a great video review he found on YouTube after I posted mine. The guy is nuts, but he's worth persevering with! http://www.dvdcollectorsonline.com/index.php/topic,5951.msg104666.html#msg104666

[dfmorgan]

Karsten posted a great video review he found on YouTube after I posted mine. The guy is nuts, but he's worth persevering with! http://www.dvdcollectorsonline.com/index.php/topic,5951.msg104666.html#msg104666

  That was wonderful. I'm glad he mentioned Dances With Wolves as that was one I was also thinking of but the title wouldn't come to mind.

Dave