Immortal (2004)

Movie: 3/5
Video: 2.5/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 2.5/5
Overall: 3.5/5

"I've Seen Better."

Movie: 3/5

In Immortal, Jill (Linda Hardy) is half human, half alien who is rescued by Elma (Charlotte Rampling; Babylon A.D, Cleanskin). Elma is a scientist who is interested in her for science. Nikopool (Thomas Kretschmann; Blade II, King Kong) is awaken from a cyrogenic sleep. At the same time this happens, there's a flying pyramid in the sky with the Egyptian Gods living in it. At the same time, Horus leaves in order to take human form and takes over Nikopool's body. At the same time, the head of New York is on high alert as he learns that Nikopool has escaped from his sleep and wants him dead.

Immortal leaves more to be desired. While the visuals look great; what disappoints me is the fact that most people are CGI whereas there's about five or six people in the film are real. It kept taking me out of the film. Also, the plot was confusing as to why the head of New York wanted Nikopool dead. I was confused on that. Sin City and Casshern did it much better in terms of films that are shot on green screens. I find it funny how they caked on make up on Charlotte Rampling and made her look about twenty to thirty years younger.

I think all of the real people who are in this film and not the CGI creations did a great job in this film. I can understand CGI'ing the Egyptian Gods, but, they should have had all of the people and aliens to be either real or CGI and not both. Thomas Kretschmann, Linda Hardy, and Charlotte Rampling did a fantastic job. Kretschmann's rants and struggles against Horus are amusing. And Linda Hardy is very nice to look at. I give this movie a 3/5.

Video: 2.5/5

Considering the live action footage was all shot on 35mm, is the video quality supposed to be this bad? I think that TF1 did all the mastering in either 720 or 576 and blew it up to 1080 for their HD Master. When the opening screen came on, there's this halo around the borders of the image. Most of the image is decent, but not that strong. Close up shots of faces are detailed, but, not that strong. Transfer wise, this left me for more, shame. 2.5/5.

Audio: 5/5

First Look Pictures (Millennium Media) gives us two audio presentations on the disc; English DTS-HD MA 5.1 and English Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks. Why on Earth do studios add multiple audio tracks along with the DTS-HD MA track? However, both sounded good. I give the audio a 5/5.

Extras: 2.5/5

We have a "Special Effects Featurette" that is almost eleven minutes long. Then a "Making Of" that is a half hour long. Some of the "Special Effects Featurette" stuff that is discussed is brought up again in the "Making Of" segment. The back cover states "Immortal Theatrical Trailers", well, there's one. That's singular, not plural. Then we have trailers for; "Sukiyaki Western Django", "War Inc.", "Blood Brothers", and "Cyborg Soldier". Video quality on all of these bonus features is horrible. Especially the trailer for "Sukiyaki Western Django", it looked as if it was sourced from a VHS tape. 2.5/5.

Overall: 3.5/5

I think this film needs a remaster. For a film that's shot on 35mm and is not even ten years old yet should not look this rough. I think it has some great performances despite the jumbled plot. I got this for free and I can recommend it since you can get it for $5. I wouldn't pay more for it than that. 3.5/5.

Cleanskin (2012)

Movie: 3.5/5
Video: 3.5/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 3/5
Overall: 4/5

The War On Terror ... in England.

I was quite surprised to see how fast Cleanskin got it's release here in the United States. The British Blu-ray by the UK branch of Warner Bros. made it's release in July 2012 and we got it two months later. This was one where I had honestly thought I would have to import if I wanted to see it. Luckily, this is not the case and after doing some online searching, I scored my copy for $9.75. Cleanskin is about the war on terror in England as it deals with a young man named Ash, played by Abhin Galeya, who becomes a terrorist after being recruited one day while leaving class at the university he was attending. Sean Bean plays Ewan who was guarding a man who had a certain amount of explosives in his possession and gets killed while transporting it. Said explosives ends up in the terrorists hands and Ewan is given orders by his boss, played by the great Charlotte Rampling, to eliminate the threat.

For what it is, I enjoyed it. There is one major flaw that puzzles me. Without trying to spoil it to an extant, Ash witnesses a death and his reaction to it honestly made it seem that he was not going to take the route that he takes in the film. I think Abhin Galeya gives a great performance in this film, especially with the range that he shows in this. Sean Bean does a great job playing the disgruntled hero of the film. I wish he had more screen time; however,  I will not disclose if he lives or dies, I think you should give this film a watch in order to find out. Despite the flaws, it's a good action film for a small independent British production. 3.5/5.

Video: 3.5/5
Ok, the movie is shot on 35mm film. At one scene in the first twenty minutes or so, there's some excessive print damage going on in a shot. Also, there seems to be something a little off in the video; and upon watching the bonus material, I realized what it was. In the making of, they said that the 35mm was then transferred over to HD tape. HD tape only has a limited range in what it can offer. Certainly not full 1080p, but you can get 1080i out of it. It sounds rather barbaric in a way that they didn't have this transferred over by a datacine to a digital file to edit it on, especially since this film was shot in 2011 and released in 2012. But, if you sit back a distance from it, it does look nice and clean, but up close, something looks off on it. It's not as bad as I make it out to be, but still. Video scores a 3.5/5.

Audio: 5/5
Entertainment One has given us two audio options for Cleanskin; 5.1 Dolby Digital and 5.1 DTS-HD MA audio. For what it is, the 5.1 DD track is average. Why they decided to put this audio track on the disc, I don't know why. It could have saved them a few hundred MBs in data. The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track sounds great. Fight scenes sound exceptional. Sean Bean as Ewan growling his lines in a pub scene sound like you are right there. Audio scores a 5/5.

Extras: 3/5
We only have two main extras included on the disc. We have a trailer and the Making of. If you have seen the British trailer, it's essentially that. But, the logos have been switched out on it as Warner Bros does not have U.S. rights to this film, it was changed to the name of the British production company's name in those few seconds of screen time. But, it is the British none the less. Then we have a 20 minute Making Of; and it's pretty informative on the whole production process. Sean Bean has a lot of input during this and it's great to hear his thoughts on the film. Several of the other actors involved give their take on the film. Other than that, there's a few trailers that play before we get to the menu; off the top of my head we have Iron Sky and Cosmopolis. Extras score a 3/5.

Overall: 4/5
Entertainment One has given us a quality release of the film. They also seem to be picking up some of the obscure Sean Bean stuff like The Lost Future and Age of Heroes. I do look forward to getting the Blu-rays of those titles, however, Lost Future is only out in like France on Blu-ray. So, I'll probably have to import that one. I can recommend Cleanskin if you can get it around $10 to $15; it is a good action flick despite some flaws. 4/5.

Babylon A.D. (2008)

Movie: 3.5/5
Video: 4.5/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 4/5
Overall: 4.5/5

"We're All Going to Die in New York!"

In the Summer of 2008, after I had gotten to the Big Island of Hawaii for college and on my off time, I would go to movies and kill time since I was all alone on an Hawaiian island I had no experience in. The film came out in the end of August and I had seen that it was directed by one of my favorite current French directors Mathieu Kassovitz who directed the 2000 film "Crimson Rivers". Upon watching the film, I was confused, not about the plot but whether or not that I liked the film or just downright loathed it. On one hand, I felt it was trying to be the next great sci-fi movie; on the other hand, the dialog is atrocious. You hear someone just blatantly say; "We're all going to die in New York!"

When hearing something like that, it makes me ask the question; "Really?" I feel that it is poor writing to finish up a scene. She couldn't have said something around the lines of; "I feel something bad might happen to us in New York". I know that's not really a great line, but still, it's something better. I have two ideas on what happened, especially with dialog like this, they either were just trying to have fun with it and screwing around or that they were on a fast paced shoot and they had no time for screw ups.

I do feel that the action scenes were enjoyable, especially towards the end when it becomes an all out war in NY. After viewing the "International Cut" which is what version is on this Blu-ray, I felt that the international cut added more intensity to that fight scene. With the international cut being the version I am reviewing, I give the movie a 3.5/5. If this was the U.S. Cut, jeez, this movie might have gotten a 2/5.

The video is almost flawless, but there is a problem with it at one or two scenes towards the end of the film. At 1hr 19min into the film, there's specs and dirt and the film starts to wobble as if the negative was in distress. The film has a nice layer of grain and very rich in color and saturation. I find this Blu-ray to be almost 100% reference quality. The film has switchable/removable French and Dutch subtitles. And finally, all the credits in the film are in French. Video scores a 4.5/5.

The two audio tracks on the disc are amazing. The English and French DTS-HD MA 5.1 tracks are sweet. Studio Canal did a great job with this release. Audio gets a 5/5. And there is a nice amount of extras including an interactive version of the film which shows behind the scenes. There's an English language French trailer. Storyboard comparisons. And various other bonus features. However, the extras could be a little overwhelming to watch, extras get a 4/5.

Overall, Studio Canal has made an excellent release with Babylon A.D. I managed to score my copy off of a Blu-ray.com member who sold me the disc from the steelbook release for $5. Considering this was a few months after it's US release and that I have Region Free capabilities, this disc is Region B locked, I am glad I got this release. Studio Canal's Babylon A.D. scores a 4.5/5.