It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, if the increasing shower of big new Blu-ray titles on store shelves is any indicator.
After a fairly quiet autumn, the studios have pulled out all the stops with releases timed to coincide with, if not actually to reflect, the Christmas giving and/or receiving season.
One of the first titles to cross my desk was Universal's "Back to the Future" trilogy, a boxed set that gives you all three films in high definition glory and, as usual with such packages, with enough supplementary material to fill a DeLorean. The 1080p picture quality is terrific, as is the dts HD Master Audio sound, and the extras include a six part documentary, in HD, that offers you looks at the films' development through eventual release.
There are even some great titles for fans of classic movies. Warner Brothers, for example, has released new high definition versions of "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", both legitimate Humphrey Bogart/John Huston classics that have never looked as good as they do now in 1080p. And the original "Ocean's 11", starring Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, looks as if it were shot yesterday.
"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," the flawed family musical starring Dick Van Dyke and Sally Ann Howes in a truly scrumptious fantasy about an inventor and his kids, looks even better. In fact, the Blu-ray presentation is better than the movie. It's incredibly sharp and bright and colorful, with excellent depth, and with dts HD Master Audio that sounds as if it were recorded in a modern digital studio.
It's so good it made me salivate in anticipation of Fox's other big classic musical presentation new to Blu-ray: "The Sound of Music."
One of the most honored films of all time, when I finally saw it some 30 years after its initial release, I was hooked immediately. Sure, it's a story that could have been nothing but schmaltz, but everything about it works beautifully.
Except for the Blu-ray. I watched it about a day after watching "Chitty Chitty" and was all set for as marvelous a home theater experience as it offered – better, in fact, because as a movie musical "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" isn't fit to feed "The Sound of Music's" Lonely Goatherd.
Alas, the picture quality isn't as good. Oh, it's still the best video version of the musical to date, but it lacks that "pop off the screen" realism you can get from some Blu-rays including "Chitty." And while the dts HD Master Audio soundtrack is good, I had to really crank it before it really came alive.
Both Fox musicals, of course, come with plenty of extras.
So does Sony's "The Bridge on the River Kwai," the David Lean masterpiece starring the great Alec Guinness as a tough as nails British colonel whose prisoner of war compatriots are forced by their Japanese Captors to build a railroad bridge.
"Bridge" is another film that has never looked or sounded as good on video, though it doesn't reach the heights of some BD's. It's easily the best way to watch this widescreen classic, however, with plenty of background material for collectors. It makes me wonder when Sony's going to finally release David Lean's other Columbia Pictures masterpiece, "Lawrence of Arabia," on high definition disc.
Probably just in time for another Christmas…
Speaking of Christmas, Paramount has let loose the wonderful holiday musical "White Christmas," just in time for Christmas, Hanukah, the Hajj, Kwanzaa and Festivus.
I love this movie and have been waiting with baited breath for its high definition debut. And I'm not disappointed in the high def picture. It's not as good as "Chitty", but as with "Music" and "Kwai," it's easily the best version of the Michael Curtiz classic yet, with gorgeous, rich colors and an image sharp enough that you can marvel at the materials in the costumes and sets. And, finally, the reds don't run!
The audio isn't nearly up to this standard, unfortunately. It's quite thin and not particularly dynamic, undoubtedly due to its relatively ancient 1954 origin. Cranking it doesn't help much, either. Perhaps we'll have to wait for another generation of digital audio remastering and/or restoration technology for it to be done justice.
Disney kicked off the holiday season with Pixar's "Toy Story 3," the weakest of Woody and the gang's three adventures, but still highly watchable. And as with all of Pixar releases I've seen, it's an outstanding home theater experience that practically leaps off the screen and envelopes you with incredibly dynamic and immersive sound.
I can't wait for "The Incredibles!"
Coming before Christmas are the two "Fantasias," which should be interesting. I haven't seen "Fantasia 2000" yet, and I thought the first "Fantasia" was a little heavy, but I'm dying to get both titles on my big screen/big sound home theater. Hopefully Disney has done a good a job at restoring the first movie's soundtrack.
20th Century Fox has some interesting sci-fi titles for this season as well. James Cameron's "Avatar' has just hit the shelves again, this time in the extended special edition I was hoping they'd have released last spring when the movie first exploded onto Blu-ray.
I like some of Cameron's extended editions better than the originals – "Aliens" and "The Abyss" in particular – and found the extra scenes included with the new "Avatar" Blu-ray interesting but not enough to make this the "definitive" version.
What I really like about the new version (besides the spectacular audio and video that was also featured on the original BD version) is the behind the scenes stuff. "Avatar" raised the technical bar for movies and there are two discs of stuff here that show you how they pulled it off. There's also some more enviro-zealotry, but you can skip it if you choose.
Fox's other big sci-fi release is the "Alien Anthology," an excellent boxed set that includes all four films (in various editions, where possible), with enough extra material to keep you clicking through discs until the monster finally stays dead.
Better still, the films look spectacular. The original "Alien," especially, has benefited from the high definition treatment and that, considering all the very dark scenes in the movie, is extremely welcome: you can make out fine details everywhere – even where you're afraid to look.
That doesn't mean the other films don't look great. They do, but the first film simply looks fabulous.
And the audio quality has been mixed into excellent dts HD Master Audio tracks I'd rate as ranging from very good to excellent across the films.
Eagle Vision continues its entertaining stream of concerts and documentaries. I recently got to watch Emerson, Lake and Palmer at Montreux and The Moody Blues at the Isle of Wight and loved them both. The Moodies title is as much a documentary as a concert, due undoubtedly to missing footage from the actual show, but both are very watchable if you're a fan of the bands.
Eagle Vision has also released "Ladies and Gentlemen: the Rolling Stones," a concert film from the 1972 "Exile on Main Street" tour. Also new are "Bee Gees In Our Own Time," a documentary, and new concerts including Phil Collins "Going Back, Live at Roseland Ballroom, NYC" and Katherine Jenkins "Believe, Live from the O2".
Eagle Vision, a.k.a Eagle Rock Entertainment, is making a name for itself with a steady stream of such concerts and documentaries – including a selection of "Classic Album" TV shows – and if you're a fan of the artists presented, these discs can be wonderful experiences.
It's too bad studios feel obliged to flood the market with so many great titles all at once, but if you've blown your Christmas budget already you can catch up on the titles that interest you later.
And these titles merely scratch the surface of the holiday fare, so if they aren't your cup of tea there'll still be plenty of great new stuff available to enjoy during the winter months.
Copyright 2010 Jim Bray
TechnoFile.com
