Horror (2005 - 2011)

Movies: 2.5/5
Video: 3/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: .5/5
Overall: 2.5/5

Movies:

2:13 (2008): 4/5

2:13 tells the story of a cop (writer and co-producer of the film, Mark Thompson), who is going after a serial killer who leaves a particular type of evidence to the crime scenes. At the same time, the detective is dealing with his own problems after his ex (Teri Polo, The Arrival and Meet the Parents) tries to re-connect with him. As the group gets closer to discovering the identity of the killer, they might have all ready know who it is...

If you have watched this film. does it play kind of like a Saw film? Does it also seem to have that same style of color saturation to a Saw film? Well, the film was co-produced and shot by David A. Armstrong who has worked on the first six Saw films. It appeared fairly evident as soon as the film starts. I really liked that they were able to capture that look and feel, especially since it's been a good three years since we've had a Saw film. I give the film a 4/5.

Gingerdead Man 3 (2011): 2.5/5

For what it was, a parody of numerous films ranging from Saturday Night Live, Carrie, and Silence of the Lambs; Gingerdead Man 3 is a slow paced horror film with a few laughs. Gingerdead Man 3 starts with a Silence of the Lambs parody with Gingerdead Man basically being like Hannibal Lector. Animal rights activists break in and think that all of the captive killer foods are animals. One thing leads to another and Gingerdead Man is now freed and is on the lamb. As he runs through the prison, he hears two scientists talking about a time machine that can send food back through time. He escapes and finds himself in 1976. Gingerdead Man then finds himself in between a parody of Saturday Night Live and Carrie.

The movie has a few laughs but the pacing is slow. When there is laughs, it is funny. One of the biggest flaws in the film, and slight spoilers, is that people are able to use this food time machine. Two kids finds the remote as soon as the Gingerdead Man drops it and are then sucked through time. The women were nice to look at it. I have a strong suspicion that there was a porn star present on set. She's in the background and her face is barely visible and whenever it cuts to a dance scene, whenever she's about to come into the shot, it cuts to another shot. And to point her out, she's wearing like a green jump/bodysuit; not the girl in the green dress, but suit. I give the movie a 2.5/5.

Hoboken Hollow (2005) : 2.5/5

Based on the true story of the so-called "Texas Slave Ranch" which went down in the 80's, the story deals with a group of people wrangling up hitchhikers across Texas and turning them into slaves. If you try to leave, you will be executed. In this modern day telling, Travis (Jason Connery, Alone in the Dark II) is a soldier who's lost everything after being deployed to Afghanistan. While out fighting the war, one of his best friends is killed by insurgents and returns home and soon heads out across the country after his wife leaves him. At the same time he is out, three other poor souls are taken into the ranch where they might never get out.

For what this film was, I thought it was average. If you want to watch something around the lines of this and enjoy it, go for House of 1,000 Corpses or it's sequel, The Devil's Rejects. This movie was also made around the same time C. Thomas Howell made his come back after being hospitalized and coming close to dying because of his appendix. I think for this being one of his comeback films, I think he really did good as a neutral character in the film. Michael Madsen also pops up in this for a good five minutes and his this horribly taped on mustache, but just disappears halfway through the film. And Dennis Hopper shows up for a good five minutes throughout the film as the local deputy. Hoboken Hollow tries, but at the end of the day, I give the film a 2.5/5.

Keepsake (2008): 1/5

Janine's car breaks down. She calls for a tow truck to come and get her. The man, named Earl, arrives but cannot speak because his tongue is gone. While searching for a pen in his truck, she comes across the driver's license for the real Earl and tries to make a run for it. Earl captures her and handcuffs her to a bathroom stall while a police officer comes across the empty tow truck. Earl kills the officer and takes her to a barn and keeps Janine there as his prisoner.

In my honest opinion, if I could sum this film up in one word; awful. The pacing is slow as hell and the film has these dream sequences like it's an episode of the television show Lost. And these dream sequences are pointless to the plot because of this plot twist that takes the film on a sharp left turn. I hated it. This movie was 105 minutes too long. If this would have been about 80 minutes, I would have probably liked it more. 1/5.

Killjoy 3 (2010): 3.5/5

In this third installment of the Killjoy franchise by Full Moon; Killjoy is brought back to life by a professor who bails on the ritual process. A group of college kids are house sitting for the professor when a magical mirror to Killjoy's world is brought to his household. The kids place the mirror on his wall and are soon sucked into his world of hell.

For a 76 minute horror-comedy, it works. The comedic aspects of the film worked really well for me. It's a horror film that doesn't play for the safe gags. There's blood and guts and nudity, especially with one of Killjoy's minions being just an actress, naked, and covered in paint. For a movie with a shorter time length, I give Killjoy 3 a 3.5/5.

Roman (2006): .5/5

Roman tells the story of man who is mentally unstable who falls for a girl (Kristen Bell). Once Roman (writer of the film, Lucky McKee) gets her attention, he takes her back to his place and ultimately ends up killing her. While keeping her body in his bathroom, Roman falls for another tenant in his apartment building named Eva (Nectar Rose). Eva's obsession is talking about death. Is Roman able to keep his love for Eva going with her obsession or let her go?

This film is GOD AWFUL! I do not think that I have ever sat through something that I really wanted to truly turn off. But, for reviewing this release, I had to sit through it. This and Tree of Life and Crazy/Beautiful are the worst damn movies that I have ever sat through. Lucky McKee as Roman is an uninteresting sad piece of crap that I couldn't care for. Kristen Bell must have done this movie as a favor for someone because I don't think that she would have really done something like this. Angela Bettis should stick to acting instead of directing.

Just everything about this film, I downright loathe. This film is filled with examples of filmmaking  dos and don'ts. If your film has shots that go on for far too long, that's a no-no. If your shot composition has your actress with tons of dead space above their heads, that's a big no-no. When Roman is strangling Kristen Bell's character, there's so much dead space as he's killing her at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. It's just atrocious. .5/5

Video:

2:13 (2008): 4/5

Shot on 35mm and presented in 1.78:1, 2:13 has a very beautiful HD presentation. Grain is present throughout with an instance or two of print damage that you will not really catch unless you have your eyes glued to the screen. There was some weird macro with the black levels present whenever the group of detectives go to Dwight Yoakam's sex shop in the film. Other than that, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the same transfer on the German Blu-ray release. 4/5.

Gingerdead Man 3 (2011): 2.5/5

Considering this was shot in High Definition, Gingerdead Man 3 has an average looking transfer. Whenever looking at the bitrates, the video stays in the mid-10's in the Mbps; which means that the datarate is slightly higher than a DVD. I don't know if that's just how the transfer was handled by Full Moon whenever they handed the transfer off to Echo Bridge. Towards the end of the film in the final fifteen minutes whenever the massacre happens, there's some interlacing which occurs in a few shots that's makes the video look a little rough. I give the transfer a 2.5/5.

Hoboken Hollow (2005): 3/5

Shot in the early days of High Definition, this film must have had a nice budget. Picture is nice and clear pretty much throughout. There is an exception to this as I spotted a few shots in the film, possibly re-shoots, that looked like standard definition footage blown up to HD. This was mainly in the opening chase sequence in the film where two men escaping. You'll be able to notice the shots when it switches from HD to SD. And then there's a shot where someone is looking through a hole in wood shed where you can tell that as well looked like SD footage. Also, throughout the last half hour or so when Travis is freed and it takes place at night, there's this nice sized white vertical line on the right side of the image. It is pretty distracting and it is present until the last five minutes of the film. But, the image is nice to look at, I give the visual presentation a 3/5.

Keepsake (2008): 3.5/5

Keepsake sports a very nice high definition transfer. I wonder if Echo Bridge compressed this video transfer down any as the bitrate kept around 21 kbps throughout the film. Only problems I have is that the dream sequences have a very drab and a little too much grain to the image. There was an outdoor sequence towards the end when Janine is outside and the image looked like it could have used some sort of color correction to it. Other than that, I give the transfer a 3.5/5.

Killjoy 3 (2010): 4/5

You would think by the opening studio logo shot of Full Moon Pictures that this would have a horrible transfer, but, Full Moon proved me wrong. The transfer is pretty flawless for an HD transfer. There is a few slight things here and there with the effects shots not being completely cleaned up which brings the video transfer down. A character gets decapitated, as he stands there and falls, there's a white box that falls with the body. Other than that, I give the visual performance 4/5.

Roman (2006): .5/5

Roman is a film that will never look beautiful in Hi-Def. The film was shot with a basic DV camera and it shows. When we have the first shots of Roman who is sitting in his apartment, you see how God awful the video presentation is in HD. The flaws of blowing up a Standard Definition source to High Definition show throughout the whole entire film. When Roman is out burying parts of Kristen Bell's character in a swamp like environment, the color is vibrant, but the definition is horrid! .5/5.

Audio: 4/5

Echo Bridge has given all six of the films a nice DTS-HD MA 2.0 audio track. Couldn't really find a problem with these audio presentations. I had no problems regarding turning up my sound on my television. They all sounded great. 4/5.

Extras: .5/5

Only extras included is a digital copy of all six films via Vudu. I love how Echo Bridge is pandering to Wal-Mart with all of their recent Blu-ray releases because it's printed on the artwork itself that these are "Blu-ray + Vudu Combo Pack". Maybe Wal-Mart can license out their films to Echo Bridge and we can have all of those crappy "FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT IS BACK" crap shoved onto one disc. Despicable. I give the extras a .5/5.

Overall: 2.5/5

You can pick this up for $8 at Wal-Mart. Considering that I am giving this set a 2.5/5, I can recommend it if you love indie horror films. 2:13 and Killjoy 3 are probably the best films in this set. If you're a Kristen Bell fan, go else where, these are not the droids that you are looking for. 2.5/5.

The Hanged Man (2008) / A Lure: Teen Fight Club (2009) / All God's Creatures (2011) / Visible Scars (2012)

Movies: 3/5
Video: 2.5/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: .5/5
Overall: 2.5/5

Movies:

Visible Scars (2012): 3/5

Visible Scars tells the story of a woman (Jillian Murray) who wants to escape her abusive boyfriend in the mountains. While staying at her uncle's cabin, the woman hears strange noises which sounds like little girls calling for their mother. Things start to spiral out of control while an undercover cop is investigating a twenty year old cold case file in which a junkie and her twin daughters went missing.

I had first hear about the film around the time that it was hitting festivals in November 2012, mainly because Tom Sizemore was involved with the film. It's a typical slasher, horror film but with a twist. This twist was something that I was not expecting. With the overall scheme of how the film plays out and how the film just kind of ends, I felt left wanting more. Maybe if they shot another twenty minutes or so to the film. I give the movie a 3/5.

A Lure: Teen Fight Club (2009): 2/5

What a title, "A Lure: Teen Fight Club". Sounds like we're getting into some real classy horror here. Film starts out with a detective, played by the writer and co-producer Jessica Sonneborn, who goes undercover into a high school in which three cheerleaders went missing. While there, the detective gets in with a clique and soon goes out to a party where sinister things are going down.

I felt that this film was pretty bad. The writing almost felt that it was a wannabe tomboy writing a film from the mind of a male perspective. Nudity left and right, which isn't a bad thing; and stereotypical high school language that most of us have heard. Acting was ok, but, the acting couldn't save the story and plot, which was a rip off of Eli Roth's Hostel. Probably the worst film in this set. 2/5.

All God's Creatures (2011): 4/5

Jon is a serial killer, taking prostitutes into his apartment and having them meet their maker. He does it almost every night. He talks about how he praises serial killer Ted Bundy while doing his ritual murders. While working his day job as a barista, Delia comes into his life and everything changes and Jon grows a heart. But when the truth comes out about both of them, will Jon make her another victim in his long list of killings or will he and Delia have a happily ever after?

For what it was, I really enjoyed it. At first, it felt like a cheap knock off of American Psycho. Jon, played by writer and co-producer Josh Folan, does give a good performance. I felt Jessica Kaye did a great job with her performance as the disturbingly broken Delia. I think this film will get replay value here and there, especially around Halloween time. I give the film a 4/5.

The Hanged Man (2008): 2.5/5

Six strangers on the internet talk about gathering for a mass suicide; only five show up to a barn on one of the stranger's property. While the group waits for the lead internet user who promised to bring the poison that would end their lives, a cop shows up and ruins their plans. The five have their sanity tested throughout the night and hope to make it until sunrise.

The film was decent; I don't know what the point of the film was? We see that these five people are somewhat not sane. When we get to the final twist at the end of the film, how does it make sense? I felt that more could have been done to make this entertaining, but, it wasn't a complete wreck. 2.5/5.

Video: 2.5/5

Visible Scars (2012): 3.5/5

Visible Scars has a decent high definition transfer. Looking up close, there is some compression and there's a shot towards the end where the image has some rough compression that is strongly visible. Considering this was shot last year, it's completely what I expect it to be. I have read that the presentation on the individual release was almost flawless, not here. I give the visual presentation on Visible Scars a 3.5/5.

A Lure: Teen Fight Club (2009): 2/5

The visual presentation for A Lure is a tough one. When the film takes place in the daylight, which is just during the first fifteen minutes, the visual presentation looks good. However, the last hour of the film which takes place at night looks atrocious. There's a shot of the antagonist and he's backlit and you can see the black being macro and it's really strong. Even when there's strong light in the fight scenes, it feels subdued. I am not entirely sure if that was a creative choice during the color correction, but, it doesn't help the film at all. 2/5.

All God's Creatures (2011): 4/5

While the presentation was not perfect. I felt that the visual presentation for All God's Creatures was the best out of this set. With the exception of a few interlacing in some shots, it's pretty good. Whenever the scenes are in the middle of the night and it's pitch black, it's still strong, at least to my eyes anyway. Color and balance is pretty strong for this film. I give it a 4/5.

The Hanged Man (2008): 1/5

For the oldest film in the group, I honestly do not believe that this was shot in high definition. Even if you're not looking closely at the image, you can tell is has this blurry look to it. Looking up closely, even at characters' facial features, it's all jagged and blocky which screams that it's a standard definition master blown up to HD. Considering that this was shot in 2007 and it's a very low budget horror film, it's possible that they didn't have access to an HD camera. I give The Hanged Man a 1/5 for it's visual presentation.

Audio: 4/5

Like the previous newer double/triple/quad Blu-ray releases by Echo Bridge that have basic Dolby Digital 2.0, we only have English DTS-HD MA 2.0 for all four films. For Visible Scars, it's individual release had both English Dolby Digital 2.0 and a DTS-HD MA 5.1 track. That DTS-HD MA 5.1 is not present on this disc. Echo Bridge is obviously focusing more on the video aspect of their Blu-rays. For what these audio presentations are, I feel that it's ok. I couldn't find no real complaints with it, all though it would have been nice if the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track would have been present on Visible Scars. I give the audio presentation a 4/5.

Extras: .5/5

Again, like all of these newer Echo Bridge titles, pandering to Wal-Mart. Vudu digital copies for all four films. What a waste of my time. Visible Scars does not contain any of the bonus material which was present on it's individual release. Considering how I felt about the film, I don't think I will honestly seek out the individual Blu-ray release. .5/5.

Overall: 2.5/5

Considering that you can get this for under eight dollars at Wal-Mart; I feel that this is worth picking up, despite the score that I am giving it. All God's Creatures and Visible Scars are worth it in this set while The Hanged Man and A Lure could have been so much more. I award this release a 2.5/5. Get it if you like indie horror films.

A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)

Movie: 4/5
Video: 2/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 1.5/5
Overall: 3/5

"Is it Supernatural or All in Your Head?"

A Tale of Two Sisters is a South Korean horror film made by Kim Ji-Woon (The Good, the Bad, and the Weird). While most are probably not aware of this film, they might by aware of it's 2009 remake The Uninvited starring Emily Browning. If you've seen the American remake, almost everything is the same, with the exception of a real sinister supernatural element to the film. Su-Mi (Lim Soo-Jung) and Su-Yeon (Moon Geun-Young) come home from a mental institute and return to their father and his new wife, Eun Joo (Yum Jung-Ah).

The two girls do not take too kindly to their step-mother. At the same time, the step mother begins to see some sort of apparition while having a dinner party when one of her guests has a seizure. After that, the step-mother and Su-Mi become hostile to one another until it hits the breaking point.

I felt that the Yum Jung-Ah did a much better job as the wicked step mother in this version than Elizabeth Banks did in the remake. That real feeling of hatred towards Su-Mi felt more convincing. The odd thing is that when the inevitable twist comes in the plot, there's still a good half hour left in the film where the supernatural element comes into play again. This felt jumbled and ultimately not needed, even if it's justified in the final moments in the film before the end credits start to roll. Other than that; I give the film a 4/5.

Video: 2/5

I have some bad news and I got some even worse news. Bad news is that the film was shot on 35mm in a format called VistaVision which is a very out-dated method of filming that was dropped in the late 1970's. The worse news is that this video quality is pretty bad. I believe this might have been an SD master, not a DVD master mind you, blown up to HD for this Blu-ray. It is a 1080i transfer and it more or less shows throughout the film and even at the end. The interlacing gets bad pretty much during the last half hour of the film. Also, the image is jagged pretty much in every shot.

Also, from what I guess is the problem with VistaVision filming is that the film has this horizontal wobble in a lot of the shots. This wobble oddly reminds me of how the video looked on my own film that I shot with a cheap 720p camera. It looks like this throughout. That's nothing to blame Palisades Tartan for, as a matter of fact, I don't think PT had anything to do with this master.

From what I've seen with films made in Asia, the preservation has not been kind. Look at the masters on the Jackie Chan films from Fortune Star. The review I wrote on the South Korean film Into the Mirror, which was made the same year as A Tale of Two Sisters. Even though Into the Mirror was just on DVD in my Mirrors 2 review, it's visual presentation was atrocious as well. I do not believe that a lot of Asian countries had the means to preserve films in high definition at that time in the early 2000's. And it would also cost a lot of money to go back and rescan these films in HD. For that, this might turn people away from buying this release for this fact alone, 2/5.

Audio: 5/5

Palisades Tartan has given A Tale of Two Sisters two different Korean audio tracks; DTS-HD MA 5.1 and Dolby TrueHD 5.1. The audio, unlike the video, is fantastic. I couldn't find no real complaints with it. Sound effects sound nice and clear. Dialogue sounds crisp and not muted or subdued. I really enjoyed the audio. 5/5.

Extras: 1.5/5

Creating a Tale of Two Sisters is a twenty-four minute behind the scenes making of the film. From the first impressesions of viewing this extra, the quality looked as if it were something ripped off of Youtube. The video 4:3 with black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. Technical specs aside, for what it was, it was informative of the behind the scenes process of how shots are put together and how the crew are basically moving around as the shots are being done. I like it, but, the original U.S. DVD by Palisades Tartan was two discs with lots of bonus material. None of that is present here. I give the extras portions of the film 1.5/5.

Overall: 3/5

Despite the video quality and extras aside, did anyone also notice the spelling error on the "Copytight" warning on the first screen? Even though I am giving this release a 3/5, I do not know if I can honestly recommend this U.K. Blu-ray. I think if you have all ready gotten rid of your DVD copy and you do have a region free player, I'd go for it. This title in particular went for a very high price around $30 U.S. dollars. I managed to pick this up from my favorite Swiss store Grooves Inc for $11 U.S. dollars. For that price or any lower price, go for it. 3/5.

My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

Movie: 4/5
Video: 5/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 5/5
Overall: 5/5

"Totoro ... is a Troll!"

My Neighbor Totoro debuted in Japan as a double feature with the ever-so-dismal Grave of the Fireflies. My Neighbor Totoro is the story of two girls who move out to the Japanese countryside with their father while the girls' mother is sick in the hospital. This move away from the city is to somehow make life easier for their mother. While the girls love the country, the youngest girl name Mei, discovers Totoro. A mythical being who watches over the forest. Soon the girls embark on a journey as Totoro makes the forest come to life.

One of the problems that I have with the film, is the end. To give spoilers on a twenty-five year old film, it feels as if Hayao Miyazaki and the other heads over at Studio Ghibli couldn't give the film a real solid ending. There was no real solution to the problem regarding their mother and the two girls exit this fantasy where they get off the Cat Bus and everyone in the village is relieved that Mei is safe and sound. Did the mother finally get out or did she suffer and die like the mother in Grave of the Fireflies, because there is that sort of paralell?

But, other than that, I enjoyed it. I think that if I ever do have kids, this will probably be one of the first movies that I sit down and show them. I feel that the films made by Studio Ghibli are quality products that are for the whole family. And Disney has recognized that, mostly. I feel as if this bond between Disney and Ghibli in the United States has come to an end as they passed on From Up on Poppy Hill. Will this mean that Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke are doomed from getting a U.S. Blu-ray release? Time will tell; I give this film a 4/5.

Video: 5/5

Disney has given Studio Ghibli's a solid 1.85:1 video presentation in MPEG4. Considering that a lot of the older Ghibli films are sourced from master film prints as opposed from a digital source, this remastering process by Ghibli and Disney in Japan which we're getting now is breathtaking. There's a nice strong level of grain which preserves the original film look, which is something you don't get from a majority of anime these days. And the colors are nice and strong and preserved. It is truely a sight to behold. I give the presentation a 5/5.

Audio: 5/5

We have three different audio presentations of the film; Japanese, English, and French DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo. The stereo tracks have been preserved to the highest quality as possible. Playing through all three tracks, it all sounds even. One problem I do kind of have, but cannot fully blame Studio Ghibli, is the loss of the original FOX/Troma dub of My Neighbor Totoro which was done at the end of the 1980's. I had managed to get my hands on the old FOX DVD of the film that only has that English dub only. Other than that, I give the film's audio presentation a 5/5.

Extras: 5/5

Disney has given a wide variety of bonus material; a storyboard version of the film as we see how it went from storyboards to the final product which we got. Several different making of segments of the film. We learn that the film had been in Miyazaki's mind since the early 1970's and took time to develope over the years until after he did his first handful of movies. One of the segments is a small, yet, indepth look at how Joe Hisashi does his composings for the Ghibli films. Finally, the Japanese trailers for the film.

While the bonus material on this Blu-ray is great, Disney gave us an extra which makes me see red... a DVD copy of the film. I love that material provided, but for the love of God, get rid of these damn DVD copies of the film. I do not want them and I phased out DVDs from my library in 2008! Here we are five years later and I now still have to look at DVD copies in my Blu-ray releases. 5/5, despite my hate towards DVD.

Overall: 5/5

Disney bent over fans on this release as we had to hand over $30 for this. Disney knows that we'll pay and they guess what, they've gotten my money on all of their Ghibli Blu-ray releases so far. It's a shame that Grave of the Fireflies is by a different studio here in the States as it would be nice to have it as a double bill like how they've released it in Japan on Blu-ray. I can recommend it, and grab it if the price ever drops. Knowing Disney, that'll never happen. 5/5.

The Descendants (2011)

Movie: 4/5
Video: 5/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 5/5
Overall: 5/5

"Hawaii, I Miss You."

After my accident in March 2012, one of the first movies I watched was The Descendants. Seeing all of the beautiful shots of O'ahu, Kauai, and the Big Island alone basically made me feel that I wanted to go back to the islands. One of my goals as a filmmaker is set my roots back down in Hawaii after living there for a little over half a decade. Hawaii is a very beautiful place to live, if you have the money.

George Clooney plays a half-Hawaiian man who's overall family is in the middle of a struggle as their trust of a large plot of land is being dissolved by the island officials. With their time running out, they have to decide on who gets to buy the land. At the same time this is going on, he discovers that his wife was in a horrible accident and is now brain dead.

The movie is pretty moving; I've enjoyed Alexander Payne's previous work and I thought this one was depressing and at the same time, a breath of fresh air. We don't have one of these family movies set in like New York or L.A; we have it in Hawaii. And I think the fact that this takes place in Hawaii makes me enjoy it more. Hawaii is my home and will always be home and to see the scenery of Honolulu made me miss it even more. Clooney and everyone else gives a great performance in the film. While the depressing theme of the film might turn others away from it, I give the film a 4/5.

Video: 5/5

Fox has given the film a nice 2.35:1 and a MPEG4 transfer. Considering that this was shot on 35mm film, it's been preserved pretty good. Colors pallet was solid. To see the colors of the ocean and shots of the islands, it's amazing. The grain is kept intact too and to see it up close is pretty nice. In an age where movies being shot on film is dying, Payne gave us a nice look at life through celluloid. I give the video presentation a 5/5.

Audio: 5/5

Fox has presented The Descendants with an English DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio track. Considering that this is a drama with no real action sequences, the audio presentation does it's job and doesn't feel under or overwhelming. Fox has also given the film an English audio descriptive track which is a common these days; along with French and Spanish audio dub tracks in plain Dolby Digital 5.1. With no real complaints with the audio, I give the audio presentation 5/5.

Extras: 5/5

Trailers; We Bought a Zoo and Snow Flower. Three music videos made with random footage of Hawaii. An old public domain film on the World Parade in Hawaii. And a large chunk of segments dedicated to the making of the film. A sit down interview with George Clooney and Alexander Payne talking about movies and life. And deleted scenes. Finally, a DVD and Digital Copy which I have no use for. I felt that these bonus materials are pretty interesting and are worth the time checking out, especially if you're me and you miss Hawaii. Seeing stuff like the airports being filmed and if you've never been there, the airports are shacks, except the Honolulu Int. Airport. I give the extras a 5/5.

Overall: 5/5

This is one of the best films and one of the Blu-ray releases that I have ever seen. I can recommend it to you if you want to see something different. I liked this movie so much that I have a poster of it framed in my house. Whenever I pop this movie in, it makes me miss Hawaii even more. 5/5.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits 2D (2012)

Movie: 3.5/5
Video: 5/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 5/5
Overall: 4.5/5

"We're Not Really Scientists. It's Us, the Pirates. See?"

A few months ago; while searching through the used Blu-ray copies at Drug Mart, I managed to score a used copy of The Pirates! Band of Misfits while another coupon deal was going on and managed to score it for $6. I had been trying to score a copy of the film during Black Friday 2012 with no luck. I believe back then, it was going for like $10 for a brand new copy, but for $6 + tax, I felt this was just right.

The film revolves around the Pirate Captain, voiced by Hugh Grant, as he tries to win the "Pirate of the Year" awards. While he is out done by three higher up pirates, the Captain gives up hope on ever winning the prize. He begins to raid every ship with no success and finally hits a ship that has Charles Darwin on it. Darwin realizes that the Pirate Captain's faithful parrot is indeed to be a dodo bird, which has been extinct for about 200 years. Darwin takes the Captain and his crew back to London where hilarity ensues and the Pirate Captain must make the choice on keeping his beloved bird or giving her up to the Queen of England.

I thought the film was pretty funny. I really liked how the pirates kept ruining Darwin's plans on taking the dodo away as they disguise themselves from girl scouts to scientists. It did feel like it dragged a bit in some spots, especially during the first half hour before the pirates land in England. After that, it felt to flow evenly and I enjoyed the humor. I give the film a 3.5/5.

Video: 5/5

Sony has presented the film in it's original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and in 1080p with MPEG4 encode. It's nice to see an animated film in scope, seeing that most are in 1.78/85:1 is a bit boring if you ask me. The film has a bitrate that stays in the mid-20's for Mbps. It's pretty flawless, in terms of quality since it's been all done digitally. It's as close as perfection as possible. 5/5.

Audio: 5/5

Sony has given the film a very nice English DTS-HD MA 5.1; along with a French dub track in DTS-HD MA 5.1 and a Spanish dub in basic Dolby Digital 5.1. For those who have hearing problems, we have an English descriptive audio track. The main English audio track is all around amazing. Like the video presentation, Sony gives the film's audio presentation something as close to perfect as possible. 5/5.

Extras: 5/5

We some pretty interesting and entertaining bonus materials; a commentary by Pete Lord; three short films; two making of segments; some games; and trailers. There's also a DVD and Ultraviolet copies provided in this release which I don't honestly care for at all. The three short films, two of which are prior stop motion works by Pete Lord are pretty entertaining. The third short is "So You Want to Be a Pirate?" which is more like a parody of a late night talk show and runs for a good twenty minutes long. Even though I thought it was good, what was the point of it?

The two making of segments run for a total of a half hour, shows a good in depth look at how this film was put together and shows how much vast detail goes into getting a stop motion film made on a studio level. And it also shows how much care went into getting us the final product. I give all these bonus materials a 5/5.

Overall: 4.5/5

Sony has given this film the release it deserves. The audio and video presentation is flawless and is quite demo worthy for those who would like to show off how good an animated film looks in high definition. Considering I picked this release up for a very low price, I'd say it's worth picking up for anywhere up to $15 to $20. I give The Pirates! Band of Misfits a 4.5/5.

The Pebble and the Penguin (1995)

Movie: 1/5
Video: 3/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 2.5/5
Overall: 2.5/5

"Did They Realize That This Wasn't For Kids?"

I used to watch a lot of kids movies back in the day, but, I never came across the film until last year while searching the stack of movies on VHS and DVD at the local Goodwill. And low and behold, I find an unopened Blu-ray copy of this film with a $5 price tag on it. I decided why not? I liked a lot of the Don Bluth films as a small child.

This film deals with a real adult/mature situation. We deal with a penguin named Hubie who is head-over-heels and stalker-ish-in-love with Marina and proceeds to look for the best pebble to present to her so that they can be married and live happily ever after; blah, blah, blah! Hubie is then beaten by the evil penguin/monster named Drake; and is then floating out to see and is captured by a fishing boat. Hubie and another penguin named Rocko escape and help Hubie get back to his love and to save her from Drake.

I feel that this movie isn't honestly for children at all. If I ever had children, I don't think I would expose them to this film as opposed to say something like Happy Feet or Finding Nemo. Plus, I found this to be the weakest Don Bluth production that I've seen. Such a shame. I give this film a 1/5. Not for children and not for adults either.

Video: 3/5

The print that MGM/FOX used for the transfer is in rough shape. Presented in MPEG4 and in 1.85:1, the colors can get pretty subdued at times. In the opening of the film where Hubie tells about how much he's in love with Marina; one of the birds is a nice strong yellow-ish color in one shot and when it cuts, it's a drab and almost orange color. Print damage and dirt and scratches are pretty much riddled throughout the film. No real effort for a remastering process will probably be given to this film and should we be surprised? No; 3/5.

Audio: 4/5

FOX has given the film three different audio tracks for the film on this Blu-ray; English DTS-HD MA 5.1 and French 5.1 Dolby Digital and Spanish 2.0 Dolby Digital. The dub tracks get flat and flatter after audio switch. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is decent and probably could do with some remastering along with the video. I give the audio presentation a 4/5.

Extras: 2.5/5

Extra features is about twenty minutes in length. We have two behind the scenes featurettes; with one regarding the voice acting and the other regarding the music as Barry Manilow did some of the songs for the film. And finally, the trailer. The extras are somewhat interesting, but, I wasn't completely satisfied with it. 2.5/5.

Overall: 2.5/5

If you a fan of Don Bluth animation, I don't even know if I can recommend this film to you. I would not know what to say if a child asked me why they are doing what they are doing. Because then you have to go into what the whole; "Where do babies come from" aspect of life. I only paid $5 for this. I don't know if it's worth it at that price. 2.5/5.