Casshern (2004)

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

If Casshern Won't Do It Then Who Will?

Ok, after trying to find a webstore that was selling this cheap, which I picked up for $19 from the Swiss site Grooves Inc. I can recommend this release to die hard fans and those who speak either Japanese or German because this Blu-ray is not English friendly and luckily for me, German is my second language, so no problem for me.

Lets get to the bad news first; this major for a lot of Blu-ray owners, this release is 1080i/50 and it clearly suffers from speed up. I believe the speed up is due to having the film sync up to the German audio. I don't know if the German studio at the time made their dub straight from a PAL sourced copy of the film or not, but that seems to be the case. However, after several viewings of the film, the speed up is not that bothersome. The film clocks in at 2hrs 16min when it's 2hrs 22 min which it even states on the back of the cover that it's the latter.

Another problem, not major, but really noticeable; the video source. The German release ported the Italian video source. And the film has opening credits completely in Italian and even blurring out the original title Casshern and placing in with plain white text "KYASHAN - LA RINASCITA". And supposedly the Italian release clocks in at the original run time. Also, the end credits of the film are in Italian and then cut over to the Japanese end credits.

Now, for all of those who love the film, this is the worst of it. The film's Japanese audio has been completely redone. Music plays when in the original cut there would be silence. Some sound effects have been completely removed from the new mix; like the zapping noise that the "Neo-Cells" would make are gone. Dialog has been changed in some spots or in others completely removed. For a brief list of changes, please visit the German thread for the film.

Now, let's talk pros to this release; the video is hands down reference quality even for a 1080i video. It is beauitful. I am not giving it a 5/5 because of the 1080i and the fact that even though it's the director's intention for the Zone 7 scenes to look all grainy, it might cause some people to think that it's bad even though it's digitally done. The colors are magnificent. I closely looked over the scene where Tetsuya aka Casshern fights all of the robots and the colors are vivid and amazing.

The audio is loud and amazing. The 5.1 DTS-HD audio for both the original Japanese language and the German dubbing are essentially equal. I listened to both and really enjoyed both options. The sound effects of Tetsuya flying around with his rockets are nice and crisp during the battle with the robots. Music is good and clear and the dialog sounds like you are right there in it all. The only reason why this gets a 4/5 is due to the speed up but after a couple of viewings you won't notice it.

The extras contain German dubbed trailers for other films like Shinobi: Heart Under Blade and Goemon to name a few. There's two original Japanese trailers for Casshern; deleted scenes with forced commentary by Kazuaki Kiriya; and interviews. It did leave me wanting more out of this release. On the 2 disc Thai DVD that I own theres like a 50 minute making of that shows how the animated the film and how it was shot on green screens, etc.

I give it 4/5 overall. It's a good release despite it's flaws. I'm a die hard fan of the film, but was bothered by the changes done in the Japanese audio. But, I recommend this to die hard fans and those who know German and Japanese.

Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995) / Attack of the Legion (1996)

Movie: 5/5
Video: 4/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 0/5
Overall: 3.5/5

Two Great Kaiju Flicks, ONE LOW PRICE!!!

Picked it up for around $9 after shipping from Amazon. Really pleased with how the quality turned out on this. Plus, it's great that I don't have to shell out a ton of money to import these from Japan. I will probably be picking up the Japanese release of Gamera 3 if a U.S. release doesn't come out within the next six months or so. Even though there is no extras, the overall comes to 3.25 and I'll round that up to 3.5.

Total Terror: A Brush with Death (2007) / Harvest of Fear (2005)

Movie: 0.5/5
Video: 2.5/5
Audio: 2.5/5
Extras: 0/5
Overall: 1/5

It Only Got Worse!

Ok... where should I start? Should I even call A Brush With Death a movie? I know in the thread for Total Terror Vol 1 that I bashed the hell out of Demonic, but I admit, I was wrong. Uninvited had my hopes up for Total Terror Vol 2. I am going to give A Brush With Death 0 out of 5. This film was an insult to my intelligence and I've never really been the one to call a movie THE WORST FILM EVER, but for me, this is it. Now, Harvest of Fear is just dull as hell and not really that interesting. I give it a 1 out of 5.

Let's break it down:

Movies - 0 + 1 = 1/2 = 0.5 total.

Video - 2 + 2 = 4/2 = 2.0 total.

Audio - 2 + 2 = 4/2 = 2.0 total.

Extras - 0 + 0 = 0/2 = 0.0 total.

Overall - 4.5/4 = 1.125 and let's round that down to 1.0 for the total.

If you want to see a film with ZERO PLOT AND ZERO ACTING SKILLS, see A BRUSH WITH DEATH!!! Don't pay more than $5 for this junk.

Total Terror: Demonic (2005) / Uninvited (1993)

Movie: 1.5/5
Video: 2/5
Audio: 2.5/5
Extras: 0/5
Overall: 0.5/5

You Get What You Pay For.

Ok, let's break the films down: Demonic - 0.5/5. Uninvited - 2/5. Demonic has no real plot and is just pointless T&A for 84 minutes. Uninvited fares a bit better, but not that much. It's structured but is just not that interesting to boot.

Video: Demonic - 1.5/5. It honestly looks like a PAL DVD at 576i up-converted to 1080p. It looks rough. And there's these weird vertical lines that pop up constantly in shots. Uninvited - 2.5/5. It is a bit stronger but it is also really dull too.

Audio: Demonic - 2.5/5. Audio isn't my strong suit. If I can hear it, then I hear it. I'll just come out and say this; "If you think my reviews on the audio are really wrong, I'll gladly agree. I could hear the audio find on both movies. Sure, the audio was bit low on Demonic and then the music would be loud, but I think it's because they didn't do any ADR in post. Uninvited - 3/5. It's better than Demonic, but not by that much.

EXTRAS: NADA!

Overall - 0.5/5. You really do get what you pay for with this release. If you can get it for $6 total like I did and you love watching really crappy horror films, then go for it.

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Movie: 4/5
Video: 5/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 5/5
Overall: 4.5/5

An Over All Great Release.

I got number 09920/30000 and this is a great Blu-ray release. The video and sound are great. This metalpak has a great cover design. Disc 1 is the movie on Blu-ray with a few bonus features. Disc 2 is special features on Blu-ray. Disc 3 is the DVD of the movie along with the digital copy. First thing I did when I got home was load up that digital copy onto my iPod. I give the movie a 4/5, video gets 5/5, audio gets a 5/5, and finally the extras get 5/5. Over all total is 4.5/5. Also worth the $34 I spent on it.

Silent Hill (2006)

Movie: 5/5
Video: 3/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 0/5
Overall: 3.5/5

Silent Hill - Needs New Transfer!

I luckily picked this up after Christmas for $15. This film, for me, was one of the reasons why I wanted a Blu-ray player. I love this movie; Silent Hill is my number 1 of all time for me. I've been a big fan of the video game since it's release in 1999 for the Playstation and I was hooked. I do feel that the changes in the film were not needed, like turning our protagonist into the opposite gender. The film really only seems to follow the first half of the video game but I do feel it is probably one of the best videogame to film adaptions of all time.

The Video, I give it a 3 out of 5. Given this title was released a few months after Blu-ray's release into society, I'm sure back in 2006, it was top notch, not so much now when I had purchased it back in 2009. It's just not that sharp if you ask me. But, oddly, when I watched the movie that night I had got it, it almost gave me that feeling like I was back in the movie theater watching it.

The audio, two English tracks, the Dolby and LCPM. The LCPM sounded amazing. My audio set up is a 2 ch. set up and I played it back with headphones and it sounds nice and clear in the LCPM. The Dolby sounds weak in comparison to it. I give it a 5 out of 5 for the audio, LCPM kills it.

The EXTRA'S? Nowhere to be found. There's a 1 hour documentary on the DVD release which I still have two copies of it. That brings it down significantly in the overall rating of this release. I remember back in Summer of 2008 when I got my player and I remember hunting down a copy of this and as soon as I found it, it went back on the shelf. The places near me that was selling it was charging $40 a copy; NO WAY IN HELL! I wait a year and a half later and I get it for $15.

Overall rating is 3.5 out of 5. If this was 2006, I'd probably would have given it a 5 out of 5, but I've been into the format for some time now and this release is not like something like The Fifth Element in terms of PQ. For the fact it is missing the making of documentary is another thing that brings this release down. 5 out of 5 for the film; 3 out of 5 for the video; 5 out of 5 for the audio; 0 out of 5 for Extras; 3.5 out of 5 total.

Ponyo (2008)

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

Ponyo, One of Miyazaki's Best!

I saw the film almost a year ago before it's U.S. theatrical by importing the DVD. Needless to say, it's a great movie. I picked up the Blu-ray for about $17 and it is stunning. The colors are very vibrant. Video gets a solid 5. Now, a lot of people are bashing this release because of the Japanese audio only being Dolby Digital 5.1. I have an old 2 channel sound system and it sounds great to listen too. The extras aren't much, but also adding in the fact there's a DVD copy of the film added with it, good for iPod converting.

I give this a solid 5/5 for everything. It is an amazing Blu-ray. I should note though, that I have an Insignia NS-BRDVD3 player and it needs a firmware upgrade for this Blu-ray. When you press "Play Movie" on the main menu, you get the Disney Blu-ray screen and then it just goes to a black screen. I ejected the disc and decided to play the film through the Scene Selection at Chapter 2 and it works fine.